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ICHTHYOL GICA L MARVELS. 



them down close to shore. It is, in fact, the 

 'piuvre,' so famed of late; and since I left Zanzi- 

 bar a French illustrated newspaper showed one 

 of these horrors grappling with a man of war's 

 gig. Thus Oppian described a fish that smothered 

 mariners with its monstrous wings, and drew 

 them under water wrapped in a lethal embrace. 

 Meuhoff (Brazil, 1640) mentions a 6 lamprey ' at 

 Pernambuco that £ snatched all that fell in this 

 way (both men and dogs that swam sometimes 

 after the boat) into the water.' Finally, Carsten 

 Niebuhr (Arabia, chap. i. p. 140. 1762) declares 

 that ' the cuttle-fish is dangerous to swimmers 

 and divers, of whom it lays hold with its long 

 claws ; these do not wound, but produce swelling, 

 internal pains, and often an incipient paralysis.' 



Sponge is found in abundance, but when dry 

 it decays. Pine conchological collections were 

 chiefly made in former years. The merchants 

 spoiled the market by supplying whole cargos for 

 watch-dials and for polishing porcelain. Slaves 

 still fasten their canoes to the several banks in 

 the roadstead, and find in the transparent waters 

 the murex and other prized specimens. The 

 harp-shell and ' double-harp ' are found upon the 

 softer sands enveloped in the folds of their own- 

 ers; thus parasites cannot ruin their beautiful and 



