302 
Memoranda of an Excursion 
rocks below low-water mark. Its flesh is eaten by the 
natives, who call it, Rori. On these rocks I noticed 
several fine species of the genus Chiton , some mea¬ 
suring more than two inches in length. 
The natives of this village, who had been lately 
fishing, had taken several very fine Kokiri ( Batistes r 
sp ., Linn.); some being a foot in length. This fish 
they greatly prize; its large liver especially being a 
dainty. This species has a very large moveable spine 
between its head and its back, a little before its dorsal, 
which it can erect at pleasure, and (reasoning from ap¬ 
pearance) use as a weapon of defence. Its skin is of a 
dirty-olive colour, and rough, resembling shagreen. 
From these natives I obtained a large and peculiar 
species of Asterias, smooth and of a red-colour, with a 
pentagonal-circular body of inch diameter, and five 
cylindrical and tapering rays, each ray 10 inches long, 
compactly covered with imbricated scales; the scales 
on the upper part of the rays being broadly lateral, 
each scale being minutely dotted with dark red in two 
rows; while those on the sides of the rays consisted 
of alternate rows laterally and longitudinally placed, 
one long narrow scale (lat.) being between 9-12 short 
(long.) ones; the scales in the undermost row were 
almost square and notched at the apices. The natives 
themselves had looked on the animal as being a cu¬ 
riosity; they give the different species of the Asterias 
genus (of which there are several here), the appellation 
of Korotupa. 
Along the shore lay several Zoophyta , common to 
these seas in the summer season. Among them were 
species of Medusa , and Physalia (P. pelagica ?); the 
last still retaining their lovely ultra-marine colour. 
