JAMAICA. 183 



"Great bushes of prickly pear and other cacti were 

 "crrowincr on the low summit of the bank, covering large 

 "spaces of ground with their impenetrable masses, 

 "presenting a formidable array of spines ; as did also a 

 "species of acacia that grew in thickets and single trees. 

 " All along the line of high water lay heaps of seaweeds, 

 "drying in the sun, among which was particularly 

 "abundant a species of Padiua, closely resembling the 

 " pretty ' peacock's-tail ' of our own shore, though less 

 "regularly beautiful. Sponges of various forms, and 

 " large fan corals, with the gelatinous flesh dried on the 

 "horny skeleton, were also thrown up on the higher 

 "beach ; and I found in some abundance a coralline of 

 "a soft consistence, and of a bright grass-green hue. . . . 

 " Shells were very scarce on the sea-beach. Several 

 "specimens of a brilliant little fish, the chcetoden, were 

 "swimming and darting about the narrow but deep 

 " pools ; they were not more than an inch in length, 

 " marked with alternate bands of black and golden-yellow. 

 " In the vertical position in which they swim, with the 

 "eye of the observer looking down upon them, they 

 " appear to bear the slender proportions of ordinary fishes ; 

 " and it is only by accident, as in turning, or on capturing 

 " one, that we detect the peculiar form, high and vertically 

 " flattened, of this curious genus." 



Next day (December 7), they got under way at daybreak, 

 and, avoiding Kingston altogether, sailed for Alligator 

 Pond, a dreary little settlement surrounded by heavy 

 drifts of sand, where Gosse became first personally intro- 

 duced to the exquisite //^/zV^;^/^ butterflies, and to a mango 

 humming-bird {Lampornis porpliyrtmis), flashing his ruby 

 gorget in the sun while probing the sulphur-coloured 

 blossoms of the prickly pear. The vessel stayed several 

 days in the neighbourhood of Alligator Pond, and the 



