KINGSTON HAEBOUK. 
21 
which, however, was a young shark, some three or 
four feet long, and not yet dead. Three brawny 
negroes were on hoard, whose dark brown skins, 
plump and glossy, were only partially concealed by 
their ragged garments ; yet one of these was the pilot, 
to whose skill and local knowledge we were to be 
indebted for a safe guidance among the kays, and 
through the coral channels, that guard the magnificent 
harbour of Kingston. 
Not a breath yet stirred the sea ; and though long 
gentle undulations rolled slowly in from the ocean, 
their surface was glassy and unbroken ; and the re- 
flections from the dark land were thrown up in broad 
masses, caught by one rounded swell after another, as 
the smooth side of each successively presented itself 
to the eye. It was a trial to patience to lie idly 
there, beautiful as was the scene; the heat was in- 
tense, though the season was December, almost too 
great, indeed, to allow of an emergence from the 
shadow of the awning into the unclouded beams, to 
examine the towing-net, which lay overboard. It 
had gathered little ; masses of tangled gulf-weed and 
other Alg(2 had from time to time accumulated in it, 
some of the stems of which were covered with the 
pretty netted Flustra^ so commonly found investing 
these marine plants. A few minute fishes, of the 
genera Hemiramphus and Antennarius , were entangled 
in the weed, and many little Swimming-crabs 
with the hindmost pair of feet dilated into flat 
rounded plates, and the shell produced on each side 
into a sharp spine, ran swiftly among their yellow 
mazes. Two specimens of a Nereis also occurred ; 
