234 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
that feed upon them. As some kinds of Bahama fish are always 
poisonous, these may infect other fish when they happen occa- | 
sionally to dine upon them. The toad fish is so poisonous that 
in one case the exhalation from it severely affected a gentleman 
who was mounting it. 
Flying Fish are very plentiful in the Bahama waters. While 
yachting outside of Nassau harbor, and during our steamship 
voyages between Florida and the islands, it was an agreeable 
pastime to observe them. They looked like small birds, and 
skimmed along above the water like flocks of ducks, maintaining 
themselves in the air for so long a period of time that those not 
familiar with them would naturally suppose them to be a species 
of waterfowl. Catesby says that this singular fish has a somewhat 
long and round body, and a small mouth, without teeth; that 
the two fins behind the gills are extraordinarily large, and spread 
very wide; that upon the hind part of its back there is another 
small fin; that under it there is a fourth one, thin, large and 
forked; that its scales are like those of the herring, but of a darker 
color; that, as they are a prey to both fish and fowls, nature has 
given them large fins which serve them not only for swimming, 
but for flight, and that it is a good table fish. 
The Rudder Fish is described by the same author as being 
quite small, but able, notwithstanding, to keep pace with ships 
of the largest class. The upper part of its body is brown, with 
large specks of dusky yellow. The under part of its body is 
alternately streaked with white and yellow. He adds that in 
crossing the ocean, ships are seldom free from them. 
The Murray, says Mr. Catesby, in its structure resembles the 
common eel; the iris of the eye is white; two fleshy barbels hang 
from the nostrils; a fin with an even white ridge begins behind 
the head, and extends the whole length of the back. The whole 
body is covered with a light gray skin, sprinkled with innumer- 
