236
FISH.
name. When gently rubbed with the finger, it inflates itself into the form of a ball ; and if pressed while in this state, bursts with a sharp report. It is eaten by many of the negroes, who are not famed for the delicacy of their palates, although the flesh is very rank. The sea-blubber and galley-fish are other varieties of the mollusca class. They float like a jelly upon the surface of the sea, near its margin ; and are dangerous to fishermen, and those persons who are in the habit of going into shallow water without shoes, wounding the feet sorely. If trodden upon, they explode with a loud noise, like an inflated bladder. These sea-nettles, (so called from the stinging pain they occasion if touched,) like the rest of their tribe, feed upon minute shell-fish and sea-insects. They are viviparous. The sea-polypus also inhabit these seas. These wondrous phenomena of nature belong to the genus hydra, class vermes, order zoophyte ; the distinguishing character of which is, that if any part of the body be severed, it instantly becomes a perfect animal. For example, if a polypus be cut transversely into two or three pieces, each portion becomes a regular animal, and a new polypus will also be produced from the skin of the old one. If any of the young polypi be mutilated while growing upon the body of the parent, the parts cut off will immediately grow again ; and even if the polypus be dispossessed of its extremities, it will produce young ones before it has attained head or tail. The sea-anemone is very beautiful when alive. It is of a most lovely purple, and throws out its numerous feelers like radii from the centre ; these feelers it can contract or expand at pleasure. They feed, like the rest of their species, upon small marine worms, insects, and shell-fish, which they have the power of rendering motionless, (after being entrapped in their long fibrous arms,) by means of a gluey liquid which oozes out of their bodies. The chĂŚtodon, or cat-fish, is another inhabitant of the Caribbean. It is one of the most voracious of its tribe, preying indiscriminately upon all who approach it, and who