THE GURNABD aEOUP. 163 



on the surface of the mimic sea, nor the sombre charac- 

 ter of the scene itself, were by any means all, or even 

 the chief objects of interest in this rocky pantheon of a 

 cave : one must look through the clear speculum, delve 

 far down into the deep hyaloid, and glance from the 

 chained birds above to the unshackled offspring of the 

 waters beneath, for the most striking and pleasing part 

 of the exhibition. There might be seen a goodly reunion 

 of aU the rare and more elegant members of the Medi- 

 terranean fish community, met together for the purpose 

 of enjoying life, and of making themselves mutually 

 agreeable. No concealed monster of cruelty disturbed 

 these blissful retreats ; for no wolf' in sheep's clothing 

 could possibly gain access, since none were admitted here 

 without a previous good character and a close inspection 

 of teeth. The waters glittered and glowed with the 

 passing forms of ribbon-fish, colias, donzelli and other la- 

 bridse, all ia prime condition, and with scales fresh bur- 

 nished, moving up and down in conscious security, flout- 

 ing each other with their tails, or in fuU chase round the 

 basin, playing bo-peep among the angles of the jutting 

 rocks J now rising leisurely to the surface, now dartiag 

 down suddenly to the bottom. Here, pre-eminent among 

 the rest in singularity of structure and endowment, if 

 not in personal beauty, glided the main objects of our 

 attraction to the cave, the flying-fish, for whose sake we 

 have brought the reader within its precincts. As we 

 looked down from a commanding point of rock upon 

 their wide-spread front fins, and could count, as they 

 swam slowly by, the number of azure dots that embel- 

 lished the surface, and met those large, bright orbs, 

 which have procured this dactyloptenis the name of ' ci- 

 vetta,' or sea-owl, and saw into that lucent* cinnabar-red 

 mouth and fauces which, opening in the dusk, seemed to 



* Rondolet and Salviani. 



