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HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
who accidentally eat of them are seized with convulsions, which sometimes end in 
death. In such circumstances their skin falls off in scales. In the island of Rodriguez, 
which is not more than an hundred leagues distant from hence, the fleet under Admiral 
Boscawen lost, by the eating this fish, upwards of fifteen hundred men, which occa¬ 
sioned the expedition to fail against the Isle of France. It is supposed that these fish 
acquire their poisonous quality by eating the branches of the madrepore. The poison¬ 
ous fish, however, may be known by the blackness of their teeth, or by throwing a 
piece of silver in the kettle in which they are boiling, which becomes black if they are 
impregnated with deleterious juices. It is, however, a very singular circumstance, 
that this fish is never unwholesome to the windward of the island. It is therefore 
an ill-founded opinion that the madrepores communicate this poison; because the 
island is surrounded with banks of coral. Others attribute it to the fruit of some 
poisonous tree which falls into the sea; but this opinion is no better founded than 
the former; since, among other reasons, the island does not produce any fruit that 
could produce such a pernicious effect. There is also one kind of wood-pigeon, 
whose flesh taken as food occasions convulsions: but, as it is a bird of passage, and 
as this fish is found in every part of these seas, this fatal quality may be acquired 
on the neighbouring coasts of Madagascar or Africa. 
In the number of these suspected fish are several of a whitish appearance, with a 
wide mouth, and a large head; such as the Captain, and the Carranque. The flesh 
of these fish is not remarkably good; and those which have a rough bone on the 
palate, are supposed not to be dangerous. 
There are sharks, but they are never eaten. 
In general, the smaller the fish are, the less danger there is in eating them. The 
roach is much larger than, but very inferior to that of Europe: it is considered as 
wholesome, as well as the mullet, which is very common. 
There are pilchards and mackerel, which differ little in appearance from those 
known to Europeans. 
The Poule d’eau, a kind of turbot, is the best fish of these seas: its fat is 
green. . 
There are white rays, whose long tails are covered with sharp-pointed bones; 
and otters, whose skin and flesh are black; the sabre fish, so called from their shape; 
the moon fish, speckled with different colours; and the purse fish, whose skin is 
marked with the meshes of a net. There are other fish like our whiting, of red. 
