THE EUROPEAN SEAS. 



197 



close to the shore. The Julis Mediterranea is the 

 brightest of these painted beauties, exceeding all 

 fishes of the Mediterranean for splendour of colour. 

 Some of the species of Sphyrama glow with the 

 brightest vermilion. These usually replace the 

 Wrasses, being found in deeper water." 



Immense flocks of the little Atherina presbyter 

 may be seen on fine days skipping on the surface of 

 the water, endeavouring to escape from the needle- 

 like Gar-pike. There is a great Grey-Mullet fishery 

 carried on in Caria. The Red Mullet (Mullus bar- 

 batus) is everywhere abundant. In sandy creeks 

 the Uranoscopus is frequent. Species of Sole and 

 other flat-fish, the Torpedo, of which Torpedo narke 

 is the most frequent, also occur in similar situations. 

 In rocky nooks, besides the beautiful Wrasses, 

 Blennies and Gobies abound, some of them bril- 

 liantly coloured. Under great masses of rock close 

 to shore lives the Murcena, its long, slimy body 

 beautifully clouded with purplish-brown and salmon- 

 colour. The fish which was found to live deepest 

 in the iEgean was a little Goby, which was fre- 

 quently taken in the dredge at a depth of forty or 

 fifty fathoms. 



Sea-Turtles are . such exceedingly rare visitors to 

 our Celtic latitudes, or indeed into the northern 

 Lusitanian, that their occurrence in the Mediter- 

 ranean becomes one of the characteristic features 

 of the fauna of that sea. If to these forms are 

 added the fresh-water Tortoises, which abound in 

 the low circumlittoral lakes and marshes of this 



