460 PEOSE HALIEUTICS. 



scabbards of another; and there is one familiar to all 

 eyes — that which^ painted blue or green^ yet enshrines 

 our graudsire's miniature in its oval frame, or encases 

 in their heavy silver mountings grandmamma's spec- 

 tacles. This is what that arch-rogue, Mr. Jenkioson, 

 palmed off upon Moses Primrose's inexperience as the 

 true, whereas it is only the false, shagreen ; and as the 

 lively green of the article is still in commerce to impose 

 upon the greenness of youth, and as Mr. Jenkinson has 

 left plenty of successors, and spectacles must continue to 

 be worn and encased to the end of time ; the following 

 extract from M. Lacepede may be of service to the igno- 

 rant, and can do the better-informed no harm : — 



There are two sorts of shagreen in commerce (says that gentle- 

 man) ; one very valuable, and seldom offered for sale ; the other 

 (Mr. Jenkinson's variety) of little value, and common in the 

 market. The first is furnished by a skate, the other by a shark. 

 Any one who knows the skin of the ' squale roussfette' must be 

 aware that true shagreen, which sometimes passes under this 

 name, could not in fact be made from that fish's hide, inasmuch 

 as it presents much larger and rounder tubercles on its sur- 

 face than those on that of the roussette. It was therefore cer- 

 tain, continues Mr. L., whatever this might be, that veritable 

 shagreen was not derived from this fish. As there was, then, a 

 mystery purposely made by our neighbours in England, from 

 whence we obtained our supplies, respecting the fish that furnish- 

 ed a production in such esteem and of such commercial import- 

 ance, I set myself carefully to examine the various imports of un- 

 prepared hides as they were brought over from England ; and 

 though I never yet was able to get a complete integument, 

 yet after some trouble I assured myself that these skins were the 

 spoils of some enormous skate, and I ascertained afterwards that 

 the individual to which they belonged was the Eaie Sephin, an 

 inhabitant of the Eed Sea ;* but as it is fair to presume that this 



* The Eed Sea swarms with divers kinds of huge sharks and 

 skate. Of the latter it possesses several species peculiar to itself. 

 The sephin is one of its own children: this fiish possesses a 

 weapon at the base of the tail, similar to and as formidable as that 

 of the sea-eagle itself. 



