CARTILAGINOUS FISHES. 281 



to some distance from the water, and there it quickly expires. In the 

 middle of the belly of all these there is a sort of bag or bladder filled 

 with air, and by the inflation of which the animal swells itself in the 

 oianner already mentioned. 



In describing the deformed animals of this class, one is sometimes 

 at a loss whether it be a fish or an insect that lies before him. Thus 

 the hippocampus and the pipe-fish bear a strong resemblance to the 

 caterpillar and the worm ; while the lesser orb bears some likeness to 

 the class of sea-eggs to be described after. I will conclude this ac- 

 count of cartilaginous fishes with the description of an animal which 

 I would scarcely call a fish, but that Father Labat dignifies it with the 

 name. Indeed, this class teems with such a number of odd-shaped 

 animals, that one is prompted to rank every thing extraordinary of the 

 finny species among the number ; but besides, Labat says, its bones 

 are cartilaginous, and that may entitle it to a place here. 



The animal I mean is the Galley Fish, which Linnaeus degrades 

 into the insect tribe, under the title of the Medusa, but which I choose 

 to place in this tribe, from its habits, which are somewhat similar. 

 To the eye of an unmindful spectator, this fish seems a transparent 

 bubble swimming on the surface of the sea, or like a bladder variously 

 and beautifully painted with vivid colours, where red and violet pre- 

 dominate, as variously opposed to the beams of the sun. It is, how- 

 ever, an actual fish ; the body of which is composed of cartilages, 

 and a very thin skin filled with air, which thus keeps the animal float- 

 ing on the surface as the waves and the winds happen to drive. Some 

 times it is seen thrown on the shore by one wave, and again washed 

 back into the sea by another. Persons who happen to be walking 

 along the shore often happen to tread upon these animals ; and the 

 bursting of their body yields a report like that when one treads upon 

 the swim of a fish. It has eight broad feet with which it swims, or 

 which it expands to catch the air as with a sail. It fastens itself to 

 whatever it meets by means of its legs, which have an adhesive qua- 

 lity. Whether they move when on shore, Labat could never perceive, 

 though he did every thing to make them stir ; he only saw that it 

 strongly adhered to whatever substances he applied it. It is very 

 Common in America, and grows to the size of a goose-egg, or some- 

 what more. It is perpetually seen floating ; and no efforts that are 

 used to hurt it can sink it to the bottom. All that appears above water 

 is a bladder clear and transparent as glass, and shining with the most 

 beautiful colours of the rainbow. Beneath, in the water, are four of 

 the feet already mentioned that serve as oars, while the other four are 

 expanded above to sail with. But what is most remarkable in this 

 extraordinary creature is, the violent pungency of the slimy substance 

 with which its legs are smeared. If the smallest quantity but*touch 

 the skin, so caustic is its quality, that it burns it like hot oil dropped 

 on the part affected. The pain is worst in the heat of the day, but 

 ceases in the cool of the evening. It is from feeding on. these that 

 he thinks the poisonous qual jy contracted by some West Indian fish 

 may be accounted for. It is certain these animals are extremely com- 

 mon along all the coasts in the Gulf of Mexico; and whenever the 

 snore is covered with them in an unusual manner, it is considered as 

 a certain forerunner of a storm. 



