528 



Miscellaneous. 



little exception, under careful sugar cultivation, But it is on the 

 sea-shores of Santa Cruz that the American or English visitor will 

 probably find his greatest amusement. The large blushing conks 

 and other shells which strew the beach ; the corals, madrepores, 

 sea-fans, and sponges of many definite and curious shapes, not to 

 mention the ' soldier-crabs,' dressed in regimentals of purple and 

 scarlet, and inhabiting every empty shell they can find, cannot fail 

 to attract the attention of the lovers of nature, even when, like my- 

 self, they have little pretensions to science. Yet it must be con- 

 fessed that all these rarities are nothing in comparison with the 

 fishes. 



" The fish-market at West End is held under some cocoa-nut trees, 

 on the shore, a little before noon, every day. To watch the arrival 

 of the boats on these occasions, and to examine the live fish, before 

 they are taken out, or after they are laid on the grass, under the 

 shade, is a source of almost endless amusement. The variety of the 

 kinds, and the brightness of their colours, are truly surprising. I 

 know only their vulgar names, and vulgar indeed they are ; but I 

 cannot do justice to my theme without specifying the grunt, striped 

 with alternate lines of yellow and purple ; the goat, pink and silver ; 

 the doctor, of burnished copper ; the Welshman, pink with yellow 

 stripes ; the hind, white with red and brown spots ; the rock-hind, 

 green with brown spots ; the parrot, dark brown, blue, and yellow ; 

 the silk-fish, of a bright pink ; the blare-eye, pink with a prodigious 

 white eye ; the Spanish hog, bright yellow and brown ; the angel, 

 of the finest gold and purple ; to which list might be added a multi- 

 tude of others. These fishes are generally from one to two pounds in 

 weight, and with others of a larger dimension, but not so splendid, 

 are generally good for the table — no small resource even for the 

 poorer inhabitants of Santa Cruz. Our friend, Dr. Griffith, an able 

 naturalist from the United States, who was with us on the island, 

 was very successful in preserving these gaudy creatures, without 

 destroying their colour. I understand that he has since presented 

 his collection to one of the scientific institutions in Philadelphia." — 

 A Winter in the West Indies, by Joseph John Gurney, pp. 14 — 16. 



St. Thomas. — " Perhaps the greatest object of curiosity in this 

 island is a prodigious specimen of the Bombax Seva [Ceiba ?], or silk 

 cotton-tree, which grows about two miles to the westward of the town. 

 This tree, which bears a light foliage and pods full of silky cotton 

 (suitable, we are told, for the manufacture of hats), loses its leaves 

 once in the year. In the present instance it was quite bare — its 

 trunk about fifty feet in circumference, of a contorted shape, with 

 high thin battlements or projections, — its vast branches, spreading 

 to a great distance, at right angles with the trunk, and shooting out 

 others nearly at right angles with themselves, some parts of it en- 

 cumbered with enormous knots. This tree is of African descent ; 

 the specimen now described may fairly be called a vegetable mon- 

 ster. We were amused by observing upon it the works of a species 

 of ant, called the wood-louse. The central city of these little crea- 

 tures occupied a fork formed by two of the branches ; and from this 



