F ish e s .
T h e AnguisPictures, Gtnel. Lin. 1122; Vofmaer, 6. tab. a; with
a brown back and white belly, and fpotted near the tail with
black and white, was found by Dodior Forjler near the ifle o f
Pines in the fo.uth feas, Mr. Vofmaer has engraven, on the fame
plate, another fafeiated with brown and tawny ; poflibly the
fame with that defcribed by Dampier, iii. 93.
F ishes are very numerous; whales are common, and the
PorpeJJi, Br. Zool. iii. N* 25, is univerfal in the South Sea, and
very numerous. I may mention our Dolphin, Br. Zool. iii. N° 24.,
which appears in the diftant feas. Here are two Very curious
fmall fharks, figured by Mr. Phillip, tab. 51, 52. The firft with a
ftrong lharp fpine before each dorfal fin; the other fpotted, and
with its mouth befet with ragged appendages.
His bag-throated Balijles, tab. 49, has the appearance o f a
monfter. Mr. White, in tab. 39, reprefents Foe granulated.
Mb.. Phillip gives befides the figure o f a fifh with'a dorfal fin
extending the length o f the back, and no others except the pectoral
and caudal; he fays it is faithfully done; it is fpotted with
round blue and white fpots. The Cyprinaceous Labrus o f Mr,
White, tab. 5 0 ; the doubtful Lophius, tab. 5 1 ; the pungent
Chatodon, tab. 39; the fouthern Coitus, and the flyingflfh, tab. 5.2;
the fafcinated Mullet, and doubtful Sparus, tab. 33.
T he F-iflularia Tabacaria,Ecbineis remora, and the Atberina
hepfet.us, Br. Zool. iii. N° 157.64, conclude Mr. White's lift.
Rays are very numerous, and of feveral kinds, in all the ihal-
lows o f this coaft; fome weigh near three hundred pounds. A
fpecies o f fting-ray is very common, and furnifhes, with its fpines,
the head o f one of the moft dreaded weapons o f the natives.
Dampier, vol. iii. tab. 3, adds the large fpecies o f Tunny, and
3 the
the Chatodon, commonly called the Did Wife, and another long
fifh in tab.i.
I s h a l l conclude this account o f the fifhes with the defcrip- A m p h i b io u s
tion o f a moft Angular amphibious fpecies: “ It was,” fays the
hiftorian (Hawkfworth, iii. 529) “ of the moft remarkable kind,
“ about the fize of a minnow, and had two. very ftrong breaftr
“ fins; we found it in places that were quite dry,-where we fup-
“ pofed it might have been left by the tide, but it did not feem to
“ become languid by the wan t of water, for upon our approach
“ it leaped away, by the help o f the breaft fins, as nimbly as a
H frog ; neither did it feem to prefer water to land, for when we
“ found it in the water, it frequently leaped out and purfued
“ its way upon dry ground; we alfo obferved, that when it was
P in places where fmall ftones were ftanding above thefurface
“ o f the water, at a little diftance from each other, it chofe rather
“ to leap from ftone to ftone, than to pafs through the water, and
■ we faw feveral o f them pafs entirely over puddles in this man-
“ ner, till they came to dry ground, and then leap away.”
Tw o crabs are defcribed, of a new fpecies, and one o f moft Crabs.
exquifite beauty ;, it had all its claws and joints of the moft lovely
ultramarine color, and the under fide of fo pure a white, and
of fo delicate a polifh as to referable the white of the fineft por-
cellane; the- other was marked with blue, but more fparingly,
and the back with three brown fpots: perhaps thefe differed
only in fex.
W h o s o e v e r reads the following meagre Florula o f New Hoi- P l a n t s .
land, will be amazed at the few plants which I have been able to
afcertain,