177?' with it. Out of feveral that touched it, every one had felt fas it were) a ftong ele&ric ihock, the refident only excepted, Who could handle this fiih without the leaft inconvenience. Whether he was in like manner infenfible to ordinary eledfti- eity, he had never tried; but it was very likely that this was the cafe, particularly as we find an inftance in M u s s c h e n - b r o e k ’s Introduci. to Nat. Phil. §. 83 a, No. 3, of three perfons, who were found to be exempt from the. operation of electricity, though the experiment was made on them more than once. I am befides acquainted with a certain man, who feems to poifefs a great antieleCtric power. From the refult of many experiments made with the torpedo, and related in the Philofophical TranfaCtions for the years 1773, 74, 75, and 76, there appears to exift an incontrovertible analogy between electricity and the above- mentioned fiih. The cancer norvegicus, a kind of lobfter, is often eaten in the Bay. A fort o f fnail or cockle, klipkaus (Haliotis, L i n n .) from half a foot to a foot and a half diameter, is ufually ftewed, but makes in my opinion a very unfayoury diih. The fame may be faid of the fepia loligo, and the fepia ociopodia, which are made into foup, and are known to our failors by the name of black-fijh, and fea-cats, and to the Engliih by the name of cuttle-fijh. A fmall kind of oyfter is likewife found in a particular fpot in the Bay, and is kept by the governor for his own table. As to mufcles I faw but few of them; but in Pable-bay, below the Lion-Mountain, they are found in great abundance, and have a delicious tafte. The myxine glutinofa, was not eafy to be difcovered among the vermes; it is like an eel or a x fnake fnake with a flat tail. Its mouth was formed by an oblong opening under its nofe, not tranfverfe, but longitudinal in the direction of its body, with double and move- able jaws well furniihed with teeth. The bite o f it is reported to occafion a difagreeable tumour, but not to be mortal. Among the vegetables that I found in Bay-Falfo, the cunonia capenjis was almoft the largeft tree there, though barely twice or three times the height o f a man. It grows near the water, and contains in its peculiar Jlipal. bivah. fagittat. a cream-like matter to appearance, but in fa d a vifcid or gummy fubftanee. Various fophora bloomed here towards the fpring, and required a good fo il: but on the fophora capenfis, there was found in particular a new fort of vijcum in great abundance. The antholyza eethiopica grew from three to fix feet in height, with beautiful red flowers, being always found at no great diftanee from the fhore, and chiefly in the fhade o f other plants. I met with it afterwards in the woods near the Cape, particularly in the Houtniquas. The antholyza maura*, remarkable for its flowers, half white and half black, I found on one fpot only of the mountain near one of the rivulets, that trickle down jiuft before the fiaughter-houfe. A very fmall triandrous plant (Jlaminibus monadelpbis) with comparatively large but beautiful yellow flowers, in the fine part of the day adorned a large plat o f ground with its ©pen bloflbnas* which however at. other times were fo entirely elofed, as almoft to difappear. . The calla athiopica * This ccanpoies now a new genus, and is called by Dr. Thunberg the wittenla mawa. . • • E % delighted «77*. April.
27f 72-1
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