76 FllESII AND SEA- WATER EELS. [169I. 



Exile, and that Passage of the Prophet Jeremy, in his Lamenta- 

 tions, where he there Complains thus. Even the Sea-Monsters^ 

 draw out the Breast, they give such to their yoking ones ; (hut) the 

 Daughter of my People is heeome eriicl like the Ostriehes in the 

 Wilderness. (Lamentations, iv, 3.) 



This Fish is very easily taken, it feeds in Herds like 

 Sheep, about three or four foot under Water ; and when we 

 came among them did not fly, so that we might take which 

 we wou'd of them, by either Shooting them,^ or falling upon 

 them two or three at a time upon one without Arms, and 

 pulling it a-shoar by main force. We sometimes found 

 three or four hundred together feeding on the Weeds at the 

 bottom of the Water, and they are so far from being Wild, 

 that they wou'd often let us handle them to feel which was 

 fattest. We put a Eope about its Tail, and so hale it a- 

 shoar. We never took the greatest of them, because we 

 cou'd not master them so easily, and they might perhaps 

 have mastered us : Pesides, their Flesh is not so Delicate as 

 that of the little ones. 



Their Lard is firm and excellent, no body that ever saw 

 and tasted the Flesh, took it for any thing but Putchers 

 Meat. This poor Animal dies as soon as it has lost a little 

 Plood. We disco ver'd that they were^ to be met with in 

 these Seas, by finding one dead on the Shear some Months 

 after our Arrival on the Island. We did not observe that 

 this Creature ever came to Land : We imagin'd it might be 

 thrown there, for I do not take it to be Amphibious. 



We found several other sorts of Fish, and all different 

 from those of Eurojjc, except Oysters and Eels. 



We easily caught Sea-Eels with a line, as well as Fresh- 

 Water. Petween the Shelves,^ and the dry Land, there 



1 The Halicore tabernacnli was well known to the Jews, as its hahltal 

 was in the Red Sea, on the coral reefs, described by EUppell. See 

 Tristram's Natural Hist, of the Bible, pp. 4-1, 152. 



^ In orig. : " le tirer a bout touchant avec un fusil." 



3 In orig. : '' brisans," reefs. 



