KINGSTON HAEBOUE. 21 



which, however, was a young shark, some three or 

 four feet long, and not yet dead. Three brawny 

 negroes were on board, whose dark brown skins, 

 plump and glossy, were only partially concealed by 

 their ragged garments ; yet one of these was the pilot, 

 to whose skill and local knowledge we were to be 

 indebted for a safe guidance among the kays, and 

 through the coral channels, that guard the magnificent 

 harbour of Kingston, 



Not a breath yet stirred the sea ; and though long 

 gentle undulations rolled slowly in from the ocean, 

 their surface was glassy and unbroken ; and the re- 

 flections from the dark land were thrown up in broad 

 masses, caught by one rounded swell after another, as 

 the smooth side of each successively presented itself 

 to the eye. It was a trial to patience to lie idly 

 there, beautiful as was the scene; the heat w^as in- 

 tense, though the season was December, almost too 

 great, indeed, to allow of an emergence from the 

 shadow of the awning into the unclouded beams, to 

 exr.mine the towing-net, which lay overboard. It 

 had gathered little ; masses of tangled gulf-weed and 

 other AlgcB had from time to time accumulated in it, 

 some of the stems of which were covered with the 

 pretty netted Flustra, so commonly found investing 

 these marine plants. A few minute fishes, of the 

 genera Hemiramphus and Antennarius, were entangled 

 in the weed, and many little Swimming-crabs (Z?/pa), 

 with the hindmost pair of feet dilated into flat 

 rounded plates, and the shell produced on each side 

 into a sharp spine, ran swiftly among their yellow 

 mazes. Two specimens of a Nereis also occurred ; 



