As to the molluscs,
they consisted of some I had already observed--turritellas, olive
porphyras, with regular lines intercrossed, with red spots standing out
plainly against the flesh; odd pteroceras, like petrified scorpions;
translucid hyaleas, argonauts, cuttle-fish (excellent eating), and
certain species of calmars that naturalists of antiquity have classed
amongst the flying-fish, and that serve principally for bait for
cod-fishing. I had now an opportunity of studying several species of
fish on these shores. Amongst the cartilaginous ones,
petromyzons-pricka, a sort of eel, fifteen inches long, with a greenish
head, violet fins, grey-blue back, brown belly, silvered and sown with
bright spots, the pupil of the eye encircled with gold--a curious
animal, that the current of the Amazon had drawn to the sea, for they
inhabit fresh waters--tuberculated streaks, with pointed snouts, and a
long loose tail, armed with a long jagged sting; little sharks, a yard
long, grey and whitish skin, and several rows of teeth, bent back, that
are generally known by the name of pantouffles; vespertilios, a kind of
red isosceles triangle, half a yard long, to which pectorals are
attached by fleshy prolongations that make them look like bats, but that
their horny appendage, situated near the nostrils, has given them the
name of sea-unicorns; lastly, some species of balistae, the curassavian,
whose spots were of a brilliant gold colour, and the capriscus of clear
violet, and with varying shades like a pigeon's throat.
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