OF THE CARRIBBEE ISLANDS. 7*7 



these voracious animals. How else are we to account for the 

 fact so often witnessed by ships crews, or in fleets, of two dol- 

 phins caught on the same line, the one proving wholesome, 

 the other poisonous ; or, amongst other species, for one or two 

 only of a shoal, caught in the same net, proving dangerous to 

 eat ; or for the chances being so much greater, of falling in 

 with the larger poisonous fishes, where poisonous prey 

 abounds, yet the poisonous quality of the former never being 

 sure or permanent ? I have laid so much to the account of the 

 yellow-billed sprat, that I was long much puzzled to account 

 for well authenticated instances of the larger fishes having 

 more than once, though certainly very rarely, been found poi- 

 sonous at Barbadoes, on the coasts of which I believe that the 

 yellow-billed sprat is never seen ; and it was not till after I 

 had been a long time in the island, I ascertained beyond all 

 doubt, that the smaller Jack fish, a species of the Perca ma- 

 rina, well fitted from their size to serve the same purpose of 

 prey to the larger fish as the sprats, were occasionally poison- 

 ous in some of the bays at the north-east end of the island. 



Could we ascertain what it is that communicates the poi- 

 sonous quality to the smaller fishes mentioned in this paper, 

 the question, in respect to discovery of cause, might be consi- 

 dered as at rest. The existence of a local marine poison, when 

 eaten by the fish, communicating noxious impregnation, or in- 

 herent poisonous quality, in these little animals, may both be 

 inferred and disproved on nearly equal grounds. The first 

 would seem very probable, from the local and temporary na- 

 ture of the quality in regard to place and season, were it not 

 that the dreadful potency of the impregnation renders it most 

 unlikely that it could be derived from any species of food 

 whatever, or be otherwise than inherent in the fish, to say no- 

 thing of its incommunicability, in the case of the yellow-billed 



sprat, 



