Page:Twenty Thousand Verne Frith 1876.pdf/142

 balistas, with their flattened bodies and “grained” skin, armed with a prickly fin on the back, were playing around the Nautilus, moving the four ranges of spines, which bristled on each side of their tails. Nothing could be more beautiful than their skins, grey above and white underneath, the golden spots shining in the darkness of the waves. Amongst them rays were swimming, like a cloth undulated by the wind; and amongst them I could perceive, to my delight, the Chinese ray, yellow on the upper surface, light rose-colour underneath, and furnished with three spikes behind the eye; a very rare species this, and even doubtful in the time of Lacépède, who had never seen one, except in a collection of Japanese drawings.

For the space of two hours a regular aquatic army surrounded the Nautilus. In the midst of their gambols, in which they rivalled each other in beauty, speed, and agility, I distinguished the green wrass; the goby, with its rounded tail, white and violet tinted; the Japanese scomber, the beautiful mackerel of these seas, blue and white, the brilliant azure exceeding all description. The streaked sparus, with varied blue and yellow fins; the “fessy” sparus, relieved by a black band across the tail; the zonephorus sparus, elegantly streaked across the body; auloxtones—the sea woodcocks, with regular beaks, some specimens attaining the length of nearly a yard; Japanese salamanders; eels six feet long, like serpents, with quick small eyes and large mouths bristling with teeth, &c.

Our wonder continued unabated. Exclamations of delight were frequent. Ned named the fish, Conseil classed, while I went into ecstacies before the vivacity of