88 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



the Mexican lake. Its figure and appearance are ridi- 

 culous and difagreeable. It is commonly about eight 

 inches long, but is fometimes to be found of twice that 

 length. The il<:in is foft and black, the head and tail 

 long, the mouth large, and the tongue broad, thin, and 

 cartilaginous. The body gradually diminiflies in fize, 

 from the middle to the extremity of the tail. It fwims 

 with its four feet which refemble thofe of a frog. But 

 the mofl: remarkable circumftance with refpe(5i: to this 

 animal, which has been eflablifhed by many obfervations, 

 and confirmed by the opinion of Hernandez, is the ute- 

 rus, and a periodical evacuation of blood to which it is 

 fubje£i: ; in both which it is faid to refemble the human 

 fpecies (z). The Axolotl is wholefome to eat, and is of 

 much the fame tafte with an eel. It is thought to be 

 particularly ufeful in cafes of confumption. 



There are many other kinds of fmall fifti, in the lake 

 of Mexico, but they fcarcely deferve our notice. 



As to fliells, they are found in prodigious numbers, 

 and of great variety ; and fome of them of extraordina- 

 ry beauty, efpecially thofe of the Pacific Ocean. Pearls 

 alfo have been fiftied, at different times, along all the 

 coafts of that fea. The Mexicans got them upon the 

 coafts of Tototepcc, and of the Cuitlatecans, where we 

 now get the tortoife-fhell. Among the Sea-fiars is one 

 which has five rays, and one eye in each. Of Spunges, 



and 



(z) Bomare has fome hefitation in believing what is faid of the Axolote ; but 

 while we may reft fecure upon the teftimony of thofe perfons, who have had 

 thefe animals a6lually under their own infpedlion, we need not pay much re- 

 gard to the doubts of a Frenchman, who, however verfed in Natural Hiftory, 

 never faw the Axolotis, and is even ignorant of their name : more efpecially, 

 when we refle6l that the periodical evacuation of blood is not confined to wo- 

 men alone, but has been obferved, likewife, in apes ; for, as Mr. Bomare fays^^ 

 Les femelles des ftnges ont pour la pliipari des mcnjlrues comme les femmes. 



