Page:Twenty Thousand Verne Frith 1876.pdf/457

 triangle, half a yard long, which look like bats, owing to the prolongation of their pectoral fins, but the horny appendage placed near the nostrils has caused them to be, denominated sea-unicorns; finally some specimens of baliste, the curassavian, spotted with brilliant gold dots, the capriscus, of pure violet, with varying colours of the pigeon’s throat.

I will end this somewhat dry (but exact) catalogue, with a series of osseous fishes that I observed; the passans, belonging to the apternotes, with blunt snow-white noses, the body is of a beautiful black, furnished with a long, slender, fleshy stripe; odontagnathes, with spikes; immense sardines, glittering with silver scales ; mackerel, provided with two anal fins; black centronotes, for which they fish with torches—these fish are about two yards in length, fat, with white firm flesh, when fresh they taste like eels, when dried, like smoked salmon; and labres, covered with scales at the bases of the anal and dorsal fins; chrysoptera, in which gold and silver scales blend in brightness; anableps, of Surinam, &c. But this “et cetera” must not prevent me from mentioning another fish, which Conseil for a long time kept in remembrance, and with good reason.

One of our nets had hauled up a kind of ray-fish, very flat, which with its tail cut off would have formed a perfect disc, and which weighed nearly forty pounds. It was white underneath, red above, with large round spots of blue, surrounded with black and very smooth skin. It struggled as it lay upon the platform, and endeavouring to turn itself, making so many efforts, that it nearly fell back into the sea. But Conseil, wishing to keep it, threw himself upon it, and before I could prevent him, had seized it with both hands. He was immediately knocked down, his legs high in the air, with half his body paralysed—and he cried out:

“Oh, master, master, come to me!”