OF CORNWALL, 269 
two are feldom taken on our coafts, and therefore Mr. Jago reckoned 
them among the non-defcript. 
Of fifh of the tunny kind, we have have the tunny, alias Spanifh 
mackrel, the Tkynnus et Orcynus Autorum : Mr. Ray law one at 
Penzance feven feet long : It weighs fometimes one hundred pounds 
weight : It differs in nothing from the common mackrel, but that 
it is much larger, and has no fpots. Ray, page 57. 
The mackrel (/comber) is taken in great plenty on the fouthern 
coaft of Cornwall, and not only of ufe when frefh, but is falted 
and pickled, and kept all the winter to the great relief of the poor. 
The coloured ftreaks of this fifh are juftly admired when it is dead, 
but greatly fuperior in beauty when it is living. When it is fir ft 
caught, its colours are ftrong and lively ; the ftreaks on the back 
of a full, dark, blue green, the general ground of a bright willow 
green ; but as the fifh grows fainter, and nearer its exit, the ftreaks 
lofe their ftrength, grow paler, and the blue goes oft : put the fifh 
into a pail of fea-water it will begin to move, and, as the fifh re- 
vives, the colours recover their luftre ; take it out of the water, and 
the colours fade, and faint away as before. However inexplicable 
therefore that configuration of parts is to which colours are to be 
attributed, it is plain, in this cafe, that the height of the colouring is ow- 
ing to the circulation of the juices in thofe fine capillary duds and mem- 
branes of which the outward covering is compofed; as the blood ftag- 
nates, the mafs fettles into a ftate of reft, incapable of refleding the 
rays of light with equal vivacity : But whatever may be the caufe, the 
varied, rich, and finifhed colourings of fifti are ftrong inftances how 
intent Providence has always been of diverfifying her works, that 
they may make their way into our admiration through the eye, as 
well as gratify our tafte. It was perhaps from the beauty Oi thele 
colours that Ovid took the hint of reprefenting the goddefs of beauty, 
Venus, (during the general panick into which Typhseus had thrown 
the gods) as chufing to conceal herfelf under the form of a fifh. 
Among the fiippery anguilli-form, we have the whiftle-fifh, the sect, vil 
rock-ling of Jago (Ray, page 164); in Chefhire, called aSea-loche; 
Muftela marina vulgaris. Its icon is publifhed from Mr. Jago by 
Ray, page J ^ 2 ’ an d befides others mentioned by Mr. Ray (page 
73), I found on Careg-killas, in Mount’s Bay, a particular kind of 
fuck-fifh, of which, as very different from the common Remora of 
authors, two icons may be feen of the natural fize, Plate xxv. Fig. 
xxviii, xxix j the former fhews the back, the latter the under and 
fucking part : the fifh is fmooth, and purple coloured. 
Mr. Jago has added to Mr. Ray’s Catalogue the fmooth fhan, 
Cataphra&us Icevis Cornubknfis , Ray, page 164. “ Mulgranoco feu 
Z z z Bulchardo 
