SHORE-GOING FISHES 81 



Though they are typical fish and breathe by gills, 

 they have a passion for the land, and during the 

 daytime may always be seen ashore, especially where 

 the coast is muddy, basking in the sun, or hunting 

 *for food, raising themselves on their fleshy pectoral 

 fins, as a man, whose legs are paralysed, might use 

 his arms. When pursued, they take great springs, 

 using their tails and ventral fins for the purpose ; 

 and if they cannot escape into the sea, they will dive 

 down a crab's burrow, or dash into a bunch of man- 

 grove-roots. They, too, are excessively wary, having 

 eyes like swivels, which they never seem to close. 



Among other interesting inhabitants of these islets 

 are species of edible-nest-building swifts, whose nests, 

 with eggs and young in them, were abundant in the 

 sea-caves at the time of our visit. 



Having taken on board our boat-party, which 

 consisted of Lieutenant M. H. Smyth, R.N., and 

 Lieutenants St L. S. Warden and W. G. Beauchamp, 

 R.I.M., we left Port Blair on the 23rd April, en route 

 for headquarters at Bombay. 



We passed through Macpherson's Straits, where 

 wooded heights, rising abruptly to 1400 feet, bound 

 a narrow strip of sea of heavenly blue, and then at a 

 station midway between North and South Sentinel 

 Islands, in 240-220 fathoms, we sounded and dredged. 

 The haul was entirely successful, and yielded many 

 kinds of sponges, corals, starfishes and sea-urchins, 



F 



