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called because he is prone to conceal himself in the muddy bottoms of the fresh brooks in which he lives. Is about six inches long; rather large in the girth and toward the head, though tapering at the tail.

The lateral line is curved downward. A dark or blackish stripe horizontally from the middle of the tail through the eye to the nose; back, sides, belly, and fins irregularly marked by black dots, consisting of a soft or viscous matter, capable of being detached by the point of a knife without lacerating the skin; back furcated into a groove between the head and dorsal fin; colour of the back brown; of the sides, except the before meutioned stripe, yellowish or brassy; belly white; fins carnation or ruddy; mouth of a middling gape; lips distinct; jaws toothless; tongue plain; nostrils large. Found in the Wall-kill.

Rays br. 3, p. 13, d. 7. v. 7, a. 7, c. 21.
V. CARTILAGINOUS.

LOPHIUS.

MOUSE-FISH.-Lophius gibbus,with project ing sternum, horizontal ventral fins, a foliated cirrhus between the eyes, a membranous triangular cirrhus resembling a first dorsal fin, and with pectoral fins resembling elbows and hands..

This is a fish scarcely two inches long, and was taken by Dr. John D. Jaques, on a voyage from the island of St. Croix to New-York, June, 1815, in Lat. 22, and Long. 64. He was brought on board clinging with his fingered pectorals to some gulf weed that was raised from the surface of the ocean by the boat-hook. Was exceedingly nimble when first exposed on the deck.

He possesses several peculiarities which render him worthy of a description. The head rises rapidly into a very gibbous back: and descends almost as remarkably to a sternum of uncommon projection. Though the creature is so small, the distance through is about an inch and a quarter. The mouth is midway between, with the corners drawn down. The proper dorsal fin is broad, and consists of twelve soft rays; the anal is also broad and composed of seven rays; the caudal has nine rays. The two latter are remarkable for their rounded figure; and all three of them for retaining their expansion after death in distilled spirits.

The pectorals project from the sides like arms, forming an articulation resembling elbows. From this joint proceeds forward almost at a right angle, a palmated fin, consisting of ten or eleven rays. These seem to be formed to seize and hold fast like a hand and fingers, and it is said they are actually employed for that purpose; the animal living among marine plants, and clinging to them.

From the extreme projection of the sternum proceed the two ventral fins, each consisting of five rays, and separating from each other in a horizontal direction. The distance across from the extremity of one, to the tip of the other, is three quarters of an inch.

The skin is smooth, loose, and scaleless. Under the chin and along the belly are numerous small cirrhi. Between the eyes is an excrescence, which at first sight might be taken for a horn or a fin; but on examina. tion is found to be of a skinny and cartilagi. nous constitution, covered with a sort of moss or down. Connected with it in front is a single hair-like excrescence tufted at the summit. Behind it, at a short distance is another excrescence having the form and appearance of a first dorsal fin. It is of a triangular figure. It has one cartilaginous ray before; the other parts are skinny, and the semblance of unreal rays may be traced along it by the eye.

The colour of the skin is a pale brown; variegated along the sides with dark yellowish and ruddy, so as to resemble some sorts of iron stones, or fractures of ferruginous earths. The deeper dark, crosses the dorsal rays obliquely, and transversely; and the caudal in concentric curves.

PRICKLY ANGLER.

PRICKLY ANGLER.--Lophius aculeatus, with prickly back, and margin aculeated forward and backwards; the prickles single, and a slight fringe around the circumference of the body. Taken in the Straits of Bahama with a drag-net, in water of forty fathoms deep. Length three inches and a half; breadth two; thickness half an inch. Is flat after the manner of a skate; or is one of frog-shaped division.

The back is of a callico, or marbled colour. The circumference larger than a dollar, and rough with fringe and prickles. The pectoral fins far back, and furnished with fifteen or sixteen rays. There is a small dorsal fin of four rays, situated toward the tail. The cau dal fin has eight coarse rays placed vertically. Belly whitish, the ventral fins about midway, consisting of four soft rays; anal fin nearly opposite the dorsal, and formed of three soft rays. Eyes large and approximated in their thorn rimmed orbits. The gill-openings small, a little forward of the pectoral fins, and surrounded with a sort of coloured border Mouth oblong and rather small; lips rough with very minute teeth; tongue distinct and scabrous.

Fraser's Collection.
PROSTRATED ANGLER.

PROSTRATED ANGLER.-Lophius nostratus ; depressed subferrugineous angler, tuberculated above and with a beaked head. Taken in the Straits of Bahama, with a drag-net, in deep water. About six inches long and two broad. Is probably the rana piscatrix Americana of Seba, and the Guacucuja of Maecgrave. Belongs to the frog-shaped division.

The snout somewhat resembles that of a lobster; and the mouth of soft and thin lips, is quite distinct from it, and situated low, near the belly. The dorsal fin is very small; the anal not much larger but longer. The caudal has eight coarse and branching rays, which are vertical. The pectoral fins have seven or eight rays. The gill openings are situated, one on each side near their origin.

But the fish is figured and described by Shaw, so as to render a more minute description unnecessary. (Fraser's Col.)

CALICO ANGLER-Lophius calico with a cartilaginous upright projection between the eyes, a curved projection from the back of the neck, a projecting lower jaw with a cirrhus at the chin, and a turn-up mouth. Length about two inches; depth three quarters thickness not much more than one quarter. Swims vertically (cathelo-plateus) or belongs to the fish-shaped division.

Colour, a mottled calico, somewhat between spotted and striped. Skin smooth and scaleless, a bristle or cartillage three quarters of an inch long, growing between the eyes. A curved one a short distance behind it, which may be indeed called a first dorsal fin. Further back another, broader and longer dorsal fin. Candal, anal, pectoral, and ventral fins, all distinct; and coloured with dark, the pectoral and caudal traversely, the second dorsal and anal obliquely; and the ventral longitudinally. The mouth is wide; the lower jaw projects and has a small cirrhus; the tongue distinct; and to close the jaw, the victus slants very much upwards. (Fraser's Col.)

RADIATED ANGLER.--Lophius radiatus; with radiated spines proceeding from tubercles on the upper parts of the body; with a snout terminating in such a little cluster of radii diverging from a base like crystals; with a mouth below emerging from the prickly skin; and with a cavity between the snout and mouth containing a soft organized substance like olfactory nerves. From the depths of the Strait of Bahama; raised by a drag-net.

Length three inches; breadth less than one inch and a half. Belongs to the frog-shaped division. Is covered over the head, back, sides and tail with hard spots, whence proceed stiff spines in a radiating form. The whole upper skin is hard,rough and semi-crustaceous. The spines resemble crystals. Their radiations are very regular and beautiful, one in particular distinguishes the extremity of the rostrum or snout; several more invest the upper part of the eye-orbits; and many more beset the back, tail, and sides. The mouth is distinct from the snout, and so low that the under jaw is even with the belly; seeming to emerge from its crustaceous case. Between the mouth and snout is a cavity, or recess, containing a soft, pulpy or plumage substance, which in all probability is the organ of smell. Mouth rather small, teeth on the margin of the jaws very minute, tongue distinct.

Pectoral fins have nine or ten rays; ventral five; dorsal just behind two stellar processes, four: anal two thirds of the distance from the vent to the tail four; caudal eight rays vertically arranged, (Fraser's col.)

BALISTES File-fish.

FRINGED FILE-FISH.-Balistes Ciliatus; with a fringe or border under the belly, with

an external uniform cartilage, armed with a straight spine at the end, and with hooked spines on the sides; and with four bony spines on each side of the tail, hooked forward. Taken in the Straits of Bahama, in 40 fathom water.

Length five inches and a half, depth from the back of the head to the lowest extremity of the belly-fringe, three inches and a half; thickness half an inch, skin scaleless, and with a surface very much like plush or stiff velvet.

From the throat descends a cartilage two inches and a half long, ending in a moveabie extremity, armed with seven or eight spines or prickles; of these the extreme one is straight; those on the sides being so incur vated or hooked that the fish may be suspended by them on the finger, or a piece of cloth. From this prickly cartilage, a fringe, or cili ated margin three quarters of an inch broad, reaches with a bold circular sweep to the vent; the sides of the belly and fringe have a roughness partaking of the variegation of oblong spots.

There is a horn on the head approaching an inch in length, with reversed spines on the posterior side.

On each side of the tail there are four spines incurved forward, after the manner of hooks, enabling the fish to be suspended by the tail.

The tail is rounded. The dorsal and anal fins run from their respective places of beginning, almost to the tail, with very numerous and delicate rays. The pectoral fins small and slender; and upwards in front of them, is an oblique gill opening.

The mouth is very small, rostrated and armed with sharp teeth; eyes lateral and large, no distinguishable latteral line.—Fraser's Col.

SHARP-TAILED FILE-FISH.-Balistes Cuspicauda; with cloud striped sides, long cardal rays formed to a point, and a single ray on the back of the head serrated downward slightly in front, and more slightly behind.

The specimen now alive before me was ta ken on the 20th Sept. 1815, at the city of New-York. The length is about six inches; the depth one inch and an half, and the thickness scarcely half an inch. The belly has somewhat of a pendulous appearance.

The mouth is very small, orbicular and sharply toothed. The lower jaw projects, and the orifice turns up like the tutmouthed file-fish or balistes Crochus, before described.

The skin is slightly rough and scaleless. Its colour is a whitish tinged with light brown and orange, in a diversified way. From and comprehending the mouth, proceeds an irregular sort of dark-brown stripe including the eye, and reaching near and along the ridge of the back to the tail. From the forepart of the belly, an imperfectly defined and mottled stripe reaches obliquely almost to the first stripe, under the dorsal fin. From the middle, or thereabout, of this oblique stripe, a narrower and more regular one extends di

rectly to the tail near its middle. From the belly a stripe of nearly the same hue extends along the lower margin by the vent quite to the tail. Both above and below the oblique stripe dark spots or clouds in rows checker the orange-white.

There is a single ray or horn situated on the back, a very little behind the point, which a line drawn perpendicularly from the eye would touch. It is somewhat curved backward, and is slightly jagged downward both before and behind.

The eye is large and placed far back on the head. The distance from it is more than an inch to the extremity of the lower jaw. Its colour is yellowish.

The tail is composed of thirteen long rays. Of these the middle ones are the longest; and they give the tail an acuminated or cuspidated form. This is darker than the other fins. The dorsal and anal fins are remarkably pale, delicate, and fine; the former consisting of thirty-seven, and the latter of forty-one rays. The pectorals are small and rounded, and are composed of thirteen delicate rays. No branchial rays nor ventral fins.

NARROW-TAILED FILE-FISH-Balistes Angusticauda; with a considerable gibbosity above the eyes; a single horn curved for ward and bending backward at the point; with a very prominent flabby belly; with an isthmus-shaped tail, narrow inmediately behind the anal and dorsal fins, and wider towards the origin of the caudal fin; with a very projecting snout and small mouth; with a white iris, and a skin marked by shades of dark brown over the whole surface.

This character is derived from a drawing of a fish taken at New-York. The figure done from the life, by John L. Morton, Esq. is now before me. And I consider the animal worthy of being mentioned here.

SMOOTH-BACKED SKATE.— Raja Lavis; with a smooth back, except a row of direct spines along the middle of the tail, and an oblong patch of oblique prickles near the extremity of each wing.

The individual now before me was taken at the city of New-York, beside a wharf in the East-River, on the 5th Nov. 1815. The length was four feet and one inch; and the breadth two feet and ten inches; being a large fish.

The snout was pointed, and elongated toward the extremity. Its upper side was dark coloured, clouded and smutty. The tail was thick and stout, having three rows of short stiff spines, one along the middle or ridge, and one along the lower margin on each side. They resembled incipient knobs rather than thorns. Toward the end there were two dorsal fins of nearly the same figure and size; the extremity of the tail itself was soft and flexible; yet it was triangular, like the form of a bayonet. The broad back was of a rather pale ash-colour, overspread irregularly with darkish clouds. About the middle of each wing was a spot of a circular form, surrounded as a centre by eight or nine smaller spots; and the central spot itself contained something of lighter and darker shades. There was

a roughness, scarcely amounting to prickles, along the margin extending from the tip of the snout to the extremities of the wings.

Toward these extremities there was an oblong patch of about three inches long and one inch broad, whose surface was beset with rows of prickles placed obliquely and concealing themselves in channels. They seemed to have a retractile quality.

The teeth are distinct, and moveable sepa rately.

The curtain of the eye is elegantly fimbriated. The anal fins are large and sinuated, and the appendages between them and the tail are very stout, and of about half the leugth of the tail.

AN EXTRAORDINARY FISH, SEEN AT SEA.

From the Alexandria Gazette of Dec. 12, 1815.

The brig Trim, Capt. Cleveland, on her passage from Gibraltar to this port, on the 25th of October, in lat. 31. long. 20, passed a substance in the water about 25 or 30 feet from the vessel, which, frem its extraordina ry appearance, induced the captain to tack ship with a view to examine what it wasthe wind being light from the W. S. W. caused the boat to be lowered down, and sent the mate with two men to make discovery. On their return they gave the following description:-When we came in sight of the before mentioned substance, turned the boat and backed her stern nearly over him, then about four feet under water lying coiled up with his head on the top of the coil-the head being pointed and about 12 or 14 inches in length, with upper and lower tushes or teeth, appeared from 3 to 4 inches outside the jaw shut within each other, appeared curvely like the tush of a hog, and extremely white. His body had the appearance in size of about 3 to 3 and a half feet in circumference, tapering towards the tail-his colour was of the deepest crimson, and reflected the water some yards round. The boat being to leeward of the reptile, the little wind and sea, while they stood viewing him, drifted it off about 30 to 40 feet, the mate then concluded to hook him; the noise of the oars at the first stroke started him; he threw himself out his length with his head towards the boat, and came very near, raising himself nearly to the surface of the water in an attitude of attack, it was judged best to make for the vessel. His length could not have been less than 30 to 40 feet, and we judge him to be in form and appearance like to a sea serpent.

The creature herein described is probably a fish, of the eel kind. I record the account, because it may lead some future observer to an important discovery in natural history. I mention also that a scarlet fish of enormous size, and resembling the preceding, was ob served in the Atlantic ocean, by a most respectable gentleman of this city, about the latitude of Madeira, in 1804; and that a huge creature of the same snaky form and crimson complexion, was seen by another intelligent citizen of New-York eyoud the Cape of Good Hope. The testimony of these two witnesses corroborates that of Capt. C. and

excites a strong desire to be more particularly acquainted with an animal that has hitherto remained unnoticed by naturalists.

GROUND SHARK.-Squalus Littoralis; with long teeth, whitish or gray skin, and body free from spines or prickles.

The individual of this species which I examined on the 15th of October, 1816, was catched near the city of New-York, in a setnet. He is sometimes taken by the hook. The present specimen was about five feet long. The largest one that I have heard of, exhibited about a year ago. was eight feet and nine inches in length, and weighed upwards of one hundred and fifty pounds.

He had three rows of elongated teeth shaped almost like horse-shoe nails. The mouth was enormously wide, and not very remote from the extremity of the snout. Tongue broad and smooth. There were five spiracles, the hindmost of which was measurably in advance of the pectoral fin. The opening behind the eyes. Nostrils under the margin of the snout. Colour whitish or gray. Skin very sleek when stroked from head to tail; and moderately rough when felt by the hand moved from the tail toward the head.

Is said to be not prone to attack the human species; and therefore not so much an object of dread as some other species of shark. He is therefore not so terrible to fishermen, mariners, and swimmers, as several of the other sorts of shark, which devour every sort of animal, while the species now under consideration preys chiefly upon the inhabitants of the sea.

My intelligent and scientific friend Le Sueur, he who lately, under the auspices of the French government, visited on a voyage of discovery, Timor, New-Holland, Van Diemen's Land, and other parts of Australasia; the same who has, among other things, elucidated numberless points of marine zoology, delineated this fish from nature in his recent state and I am happy in making this record of my acquaintance with him and of his friendship to me.

The reason given by the fishermen for calling him ground shark-that he is usually found along shores, or within soundings.

THE LONG-TOOTHED SHARK.

In my memoir published in the first volume of the New-York transactions, I described the long-toothed shark of our waters, as the squalus Americanus of Shaw. I have doubts, however, whether the animal ought to be so considered. He is most probably a distinct species. He belongs to the section of squalus,

that has nasal orifices and an anal fin: and from the remarkable length of his teeth, and the great size of his body, there is reason to suppose he has not been heretofore described as clearly and fully as he ought to have been. It would be proper, therefore, to distinguish him as the squalus macrodous, or Jong-toothed shark.

SEX-HORNED TRUNK-FISH.

OSTRACION SEX-CORNUTUS ;-Six-horned Trunk-Fish; with six horns, two in front, one beneath the abdomen on each side, one above

and one below the corselet, at the tail; and with quinquangular and hexangular figures over the sides, having six rays in each, proceeding from a central point to the angles of the hexagon.

This fish is about seven inches long, and of a triangular shape, widening from a flat belly of an inch and a half broad, to a sharp edge on the back The body is incased in a crustaceous shell or box, allowing motion only for the jaws, eyes, fins, and tail. There are two sharp processes, like horns, in front of the eyes, two more of almost the same length near the hinder part of the belly, and two more at the extremity of the corselet, one above and the other below the tail.

The surface is divided into spaces of six sides and six angles, alternated with pentagons here and there. From the centre of each diverge five or six rays, proceeding regularly to the angles of each hexagonal or five-sided figure. The nostrils are a single pair of orifices a little in front of the eyes. The skin is somewhat clouded or streaked lengthwise, without regard to the compartments of the skin. The belly flattish and white. The eyes are vertical, and surmounted with a prominent brow, from which the pair of large spinous processes project. The mouth is small and furnished with a single row of little teeth. The dorsal and anal fins far back on the body, and moving through openings in the bony case.

The specimen now described was brought from the Gulf, near the mouth of the Missis sippi, and presented to me by Dr. S. G. Mott.

Sketches of the History of Greece, subsequent to its subjugation by the Romans.

We now behold Greece in a state of more absolute subjection than any to which she had been reduced since the battle of Choronia. Her history-her name is lost or confounded in those of her new masters; and it is from Latin historians that we collect the slender and scattered notices of a people whose legislators laid the foundations of Roman jurisprudence, and whose arts and civilzation first inspired the mistress of the world with a passion for literary glory.

Athens and Sparta appear to have retained their domestic jurisdiction, and to have been governed by their own laws for some time after the establishment of the Roman power in Greece. The love of liberty still continued to throw out some brilliant flashes among the Athenians; but the tyrannic temperament of the Spartans manifested itself whenever an opportunity was presented. In the contest between Cæsar and Pompey, the laws, unquestionably, were on the side of the latter. Cæsar was notoriously in arms against the freedom of his country, whose defence and preservation were entrusted to the conqueror of Mithridates.

Thus of two characters equally obnoxious to a republican government, Pompey appeared as the champion of the state, while his more illustrious opponent was branded as the enemy of liberty and Rome. Such, undoubtedly, was the light in which those rivals in empire were beheld by their contemporaries. The people and senate joined the senate and people of Rome. Throughout the war they adhered steadfastly to the banner of the republic: and it was not till the catastrophe of Pharsalia rendered Cæsar the master of his country, that Athens yielded to a yoke which the world consented to endure. From the commencement to the conclusion of the war, Sparta had embraced the cause of the Dictator. Similar dispositions will co-operate in the same designs. That of Cæsar was to establish tyranny in Rome; and Sparta, in her prosperity, had evinced the same eagerness to bind Greece in her chains. Thus her alliance with Cæsar was in perfect harmony with the character she had displayed since the time of Lycurgus. Pride and cruelty, ambition and insolence constituted its chief ingredients, and if for Sparta Spartans were willing to expend the last drop of their blood, their surly and selfish patriotism was rarely animated by that glowing liberality towards the nation of Greece, so frequently shown in the history of their polished and generous rivals. Hatred to Athens, we may suppose, bad also some share in inducing Sparta to join the arms of Cæsar; while it is by no means improbable that she might have been deluded by the prospect held out to her, by that artful chief, of being invested with the sovereignty of Greece if she consented to assist him in imposing fetters upon Rome.

Such was the policy pursued by the two states at this juncture, and its principles may fairly be presumed to have been the same that had actuated them since the battles of Marathon and Mycale-victories, which, rescuing Greece from the grasp of Asiatic oppression, may justly be considered as having saved Europe from barbarism. When the legions of the republic perished in the plains of Thessaly, a merciless conqueror would have rejoiced in the reflection that the fate of his enemies depended upon his will, and that triumph secured the indulgence of revenge. But the temper of Cæsar was mild and beneficent; the assertors of the liberty he had overthrown deserved and possessed the respect of a generous victor; and the magnanimity of the dictator disdained to imitate the VOL. II.-No. v.

ferocious example of Sylla. During the life of Cæsar, Athens confined her attention to the cultivation of philosophy, literature, and the arts-pursuits in which the city of Minerva had expended a larger capital of genius than the rest of Greece united. But when the dagger of Brutus restored the freedom of Rome, the blow that stretched Cæsar in the dust was answered by the applause of Athens. The hopes of freedom finally perished in the field of Philippi, and three of the basest of mankind found themselves in the possession of sovereign power. Statues in honour of Brutus, bearing inscriptions ranking him with the celebrated patriots Harmodius and Aristogiton, testified the admiration of Athens for that illustrious Roman; and the infamy of Sparta in coalescing with the triumvirs is rendered more glaring by this fresh instance of Athenian virtue and sensibility.

42

The victory of Philippi, and the death of Brutus, placed the dominion of Rome in the hands of Octavius, (the adopted son of Cæsar,) Marcus, Antonius, and Æmilianus Lepidus. The whole triumvirate are infamous for their cruelty and ambition, but the viler character of Lepidus was deficient in every quality required by the station to which he had been elevated by his wealth. Having served the purposes of his colleagues, they determined to dismiss him. At the command of Octavius, Lepidus resigned his authority, and left the whole power of the state in the possession of his coadjutors.

The characters of Octavius and Antony were not so much contrasts of each other, as compounds of different vices. Yet the moral deformities of Antony were less revoluing than those of his wily colleague. Devoted to the pleasures of the table, and the charms of meretricious beauty, he added to the uncontrolled indulgence of a sensual disposition, the gratification of a fierce and sanguinary temper. But the tyrant was not deficient in personal courage, a quality which will always command the reverence of the brave, and which only the coward will affect to depreciate. If he was licentious, he was liberal; and the reputation of the orator is some relief to the character of the proscriber and voluptuary. Hypocrisy does not appear to have aggravated the crimes of Antony. His enormities were not performed in secret. He was, at least, an open violator of humanity and decorum, and the world that abhorred his excesses, was not disgusted by his simulation.

The constitution of Octavius was cold. He was unsusceptible of friendship: he

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