JAMAICA. 183 



"Great bushes of prickly pear and other cacti were 

 " growing 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 Padina, 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 chcztoden, 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 Heliconia butterflies, and to a mango 

 humming-bird {Lampomis porphyrurus), fashing 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 



