FisHiis. 525 



impossible to lay hold of it on any purt. For this reason it is 

 dragged 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 manner already mentioned. 



In describing the deformed animals of this class, one is some- 

 limes 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 account 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 spe- 

 cies 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 de- 

 grades into the insect tribe, under the title of the Medusa, but 

 which I choose to place in this tribe, from its habits, that 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 predominate, as variously op- 

 posed to the beams of the sun. It is, however, an actual fish ; 

 the body of which is composed of cartilages, and a very thin skin 

 filled with air, which thus keeps the animal floating on the sur- 

 face, as the waves and the winds happen to drive. Sometimes 

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

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

 ing along the shore often happen to tread upon these ani- 

 mals ; 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 quality. Whether they move 

 when on shore, Labat could never perceive, though he did eviMy 

 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 somewhat 



