wards, for it grew dark before I had finished the present imperfect,
and limited examination of ite.
Not daring to venture as far as the granite rocks of Cintra,
(which are about 1600 feet above the level of the sea) from the
hourly expectation of the departure of the vessel to Madeira, I
contented myself, the following day, with crossing the river to
Almada. As I passed through the fish-market, I looked anxiously
for the peite espada, a species of lepidopus, which has been de-
scribed several times, and each time as new. The exterior character
which struck me most, in addition to those of Cuvier’s
generic description, was a cartilaginous plate beneath the termination
of the mouth, on each side, like an undulating commissure
in a bird. I sent it to my lodgings, but it was too far gone for
dissection when I returned; I was, therefore, compelled to content
myself with a full length drawing, fig. l f. In searching for this
fish, I found a species of gadus, belonging to the division merluches
of Cuvier. The Portuguese called it pescada% and salted it like
the stock-fish, g. merluccius.
e Throughout the neighbourhood of the aqueduct and the ascent to the summits of
the neighbouring heights, a profusion of helices were scattered ; and the same abundance
existed on the other side of the Tagus. I found them to belong to three
separate divisions of De Eerussac; but with the exception uf the helix aspersa
{,helicogena, groupe acavoe,) and h.lactea, I had no means of determining the species:
.another belonged to the helicettæ, (gr. aplostomæ) and had a shining, delicate, transparent
operculum. Numbers of the bvlimus decollatus were to be met with at the
commencement of the ascent ; the upper whorls of the spires were always broken,
they were deserted by the animals, and laid just under the surface of the soil, particularly
near ant's nests.
It was four fept four inches long, without scalps, and. of a silvery lead colour.
The anal fin bad fourteen spiny rays, the dorsal forty-one, and the pectoral eleven
rays.
« It was of a silvery grey, the lower jaw longer than the upper, thé body flattened,
and the scales rather large ; the first dorsal fin had nine rays, the second thirty-nine,
the pectoral thirteen, the ventral seven, and the anal thirty-seven.
Nearly the same vegetation presented itself (the daphne gnidium
and euphorbia dendroides appearing to be the most plentiful), with
the addition of some beautiful little tufts of the anagallis cerulcea,
some large patches of the antirrhinum majus, and a yellow variety
of the achillea nobilis. The formation, however, was totally different
to the three which were in view on the northern side of the
river, viz., the granite at Cintra, the transition limestone above
Ajuda, and the basalt, capping the hills between the aqueduct
and the city. It was a range of calcaire grossier, or coarse shelly
limestone, about 300 feet high, and extending northwards some
miles along the river. It was soft but firm, frequently very sandy,
sometimes of an orange yellow (especially within), but generally
of a greenish and yellowish grey. Pebbles of silex were occasionally
imbedded, and more frequently in masses resembling clay:
it soiled the fingers, effervesced moderately, and seemed deposited
in deep, horizontal, beds more compact upwards. The shells
were so thickly imbedded, that whole masses appeared to be
exclusively composed of them. They were all marine (with the
exception of the bulimus decollatus), and comprehended three
species of ostrea ( O. plicatula, O. edulis, and O. canalis), the
panoptea faujasii, the cyprina islandica, the pecten vulgare, and
p. saxatileb, with four species of terebratula, three of turritella, see
fig. 7 and 8, a cardita, a balanus, a nassa, a murex, a conns, with
one valve of a shell of considerable size, and of a bright orange
colour, fig. 2, which I do not recognise, and a smaller one of a
white colour, fig. 6, which cannot be referred either to tellina,
venus, or cytherea, but which resembles all of them1. The fucus
h Rumphius, Cabinet d'Amboine, pi. xliv.
* The recent shells found among the rocks washed by the river, were the ostrea
plicatula, chama albida? anomila sqUamula, nassa communis, mytilus incurvatus,
cardium costatum, a venus, cytherea, meleagrina, several species of trochus, a murex,
patella, and immense masses of the balanus imperforatus.