24 
INCIDENTS OF THE VOYAGE. 
and large Fan-corals, with the gelatinous flesh dried 
on the horny skeleton, were also thrown up on the 
higher beach ; and I found in some abundance, a 
Coralline, of a soft consistence, and of a bright grass- 
green hue, each branch of which was terminated by a 
radiating tuft of slender filaments. 
Shells were very scarce on the sea-beach ; but on 
the harbour side many species were found in the 
crevices and pools of the low rocks, and just within 
the margin of the water. All were small, and few 
presented any facts worthy of being noticed ; they 
were chiefly of the genera Turho^ Phasianella^ Pla- 
naxis, Buccinum^ Vermetus and Fusus ; the bivalves 
Ostrea^ Anomia, Spondylus, Avicula, Area, Cardium, 
Venus and Pliolas. Several specimens of a brilliant 
little ChcBtodon were swimming and darting about 
the narrow, but deep pools ; they were not more than 
an inch in length, marked with alternate bands of 
black and golden yellow. In the vertical position in 
which they swim, with the eye of the observer look- 
ing down upon them, they appear to bear the slender 
proportions of ordinary fishes ; and it is only by 
accident, as in turning, or on capturing one, that we 
detect the peculiar form, high and vertically flattened, 
of this curious genus. 
THE HEMIRAMPHUS. 
While lying off Port Royal, just within the mouth 
of Kingston Harbour, I had the pleasure of seeing 
a shoal of that curious and interesting fish, the Half- 
beak Garfish {Hemiramphus), A few single sped- 
