66 A NATURALIST ON DESERT ISLANDS. 



spreading branches of the coral, or swam in and out of the 

 mysterious caverns at their "roots," there was one species, 

 among those we caught,which proved decidedly interesting. 

 This was a blenny (Enneanectes carminalis), and Mr. Regan, 

 of the Natural History Museum, informs me that it has 

 never previously been found anywhere but on the Pacific 

 coast of the American Continent. The interest of this 

 find lies in the fact that it might be regarded as yet another 

 link in the already long chain of evidence which goes to 

 prove that in past geological ages* Central America was 

 sunk beneath the sea ; or at most formed a chain of isolated 

 islands, allowing the Pacific to join hands with this 

 western area of the Atlantic; or to flow eastwards over 

 these regions as a mere gulf, whose eastern limits were 

 controlled and shut off from the Atlantic by the Lesser 

 Antilles, then a very much elevated and continuous 

 chain of mountainous country, now but mere sunken 

 relics of it. In other words, at these periods, there 

 was a free communication between the blennies of the 

 Swan Island region and their Pacific colleagues, which 

 since the final emergence of Central America has been 

 interrupted. 



These blennies are as a rule quite small fish, which live 

 in nooks and crannies of the coral rocks or among masses 

 of sea-weed. The examples of the species we have referred 

 to were from one and a half to two inches long. Another 

 species (Clinus nuchipennis) we procured from the same 

 reef ranged from six to eight inches. Blennies, however, 

 are not all so smaU as this, for in more northern seas, 

 where there is a far greater amount of food to support 

 them, there is a gigantic blenny called the " sea-wolf," 

 which grows to a length of six feet. Be^des these 

 blennies, there were innumerable other small perch- 

 hke fish which lived and swam in small shoals in these 

 fairy grottoes. It would be tedious to give them their 

 scientific names, which Mr. Regan has kindly done for 

 our private edification : all we need say is, that the effect 



* Eocene, Cretaceous, and possibly before. 



