COKALS. 
53 
CORALS AND THEIR PARASITES. 
Jan. ^Srd. — Observing that what appeared to he 
rocks under water were really growing corals, I 
stripped and got in among them. They are of many 
kinds and of various colours ; being covered with the 
round disks of the soft gelatinous animals aggregated 
so closely as to touch each other, giving a very slimy 
unpleasant feeling to the foot that treads on them, 
though with a shoe on ; for I dared not trust myself 
with naked feet among the Echini, and other for- 
midable creatures, not to mention the sharp points 
of the honeycombed rock. It was at the ebb of a 
spring-tide, the moon setting as I began my examin- 
ation^ ; yet I found little variation in the height of 
the water, tide here being very small. Some of the 
corals {Millepora complanata ?) grow in thin irregu- 
lar perpendicular plates, joining each other at various 
angles, so as to form large honeycomb work, some- 
what resembling the second stomach of an ox ; 
others present thick flattened branches, covered with 
minute projecting mouths : these are of a bright fawn- 
Lateral line arched at its comiriencement, and then curved slightly 
downward, rising again to the tail. Fin-rays, D. 46; A. 40; C. 12. 
Ground colour pale bluish-grey, covered with an irregular network of 
rich, deep brown, confluent lines ; these marks, on the dorsal and anal, 
assume a longitudinal direction, but still irregular and confluent. 
Caudal pale brown, with indistinct dusky bands. Left side white. 
Length of specimen to extremity of tail, 2^ inches. 
I scarcely know whether to call this a Monochirus or an Achirus ; 
the under pectoral is certainly present, but only as a rudiment, while 
the upper is so minute as hardly to be anything more. 
♦ High water at Bluefields is exactly at the southing ot the moon. 
