"
For two whole hours an aquatic army escorted the Nautilus.
During their games, their bounds, while rivalling each other
in beauty, brightness, and velocity, I distinguished the green labre;
the banded mullet, marked by a double line of black; the round-tailed goby,
of a white colour, with violet spots on the back; the Japanese scombrus,
a beautiful mackerel of these seas, with a blue body and silvery head;
the brilliant azurors, whose name alone defies description;
some banded spares, with variegated fins of blue and yellow;
the woodcocks of the seas, some specimens of which attain a yard in length;
Japanese salamanders, spider lampreys, serpents six feet long,
with eyes small and lively, and a huge mouth bristling with teeth;
with many other species.
Our imagination was kept at its height, interjections followed quickly
on each other. Ned named the fish, and Conseil classed them.
I was in ecstasies with the vivacity of their movements and the
beauty of their forms. Never had it been given to me to surprise
these animals, alive and at liberty, in their natural element.
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