24 INCIDENTS OF THE VOYAGE. 



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, each branch of which was terminated by a 

 radiating tuft of slender filaments. 



Shells were very scarce on the sea-beach ; but on 

 the harbour side many species were found in the 

 crevices and pools of the low rocks, and just within 

 the margin of the water. All were small, and few 

 presented any facts worthy of being noticed ; they 

 were chiefly of the genera Turbo, PhasianeUa, Pla- 

 naxis, Buccinum, Vermetus and Fusus ; the bivalves 

 Ostrea, Anomia, Spondylus, Avicula, Area, Cardium, 

 Venus and Pholas. Several specimens of a brilhant 

 little Chcetodon 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 look- 

 ing 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 wc 

 detect the peculiar form, high and vertically flattened, 

 of this curious genus. 



THE HEMIRAMPHUS. 



While lying ofl" Port Royal, just within the mouth 

 of Kingston Harbour, I had the pleasure of seeing 

 a shoal of that curious and interesting fish, the Half- 

 beak Garfish {Ilemiramphus). A few single speci- 



