where both Rows (viz. upper and under) met, they resembled a Hair Brush, so that he can be no Fish of Prey, as not being able to masticate any thing tougher than Sea Weeds, and indeed nothing was found in his Maw, but a little SeaWeed. To finish my Description, his throat was fo narrow, that fuch kinds of Food only, were capacitated to pass down thorough it. His Fins were too young to be good Whale-Bone.

21. The glorious Colours of the Dolphin, (mentioned in Letter 1. paragraph 19.) occafioned my looking lately, into Salmon's Modern Hiftory of all Nations, in order to fee how his account of the Golden-fish of China, tallys with the real Fishes, fome whereof, the curious Mr. Margas, of London, keeps now alive in a China Bason, that has a hollow piece of Rock-work in its middle, with several Holes in it, thorough which they delight to pafs and repafs. But I find Mr. Salmon's Account to be imperfect; that of the real Fishes being as follows, viz. They are from two to fourteen inches long, and no one could ever diftinguish the Male from the Female: They are of almost all Colours, interfperfed in small spots, viz. fome Red, fome Red and Gold, fome White and Purple, fome Silver and Red, fome Yellow and Red, and fome gilded all over: There are never two of the fame fort: Their Tails are either quite flat or else triangular: Some are of various Co

lours

lours on the Back and a clear filver white on the Belly. Their heads are of different Colours, fome being all over filver. Their Fins are generally red, and fometimes the Colour of their Heads. In short they are extreamly beautiful. Mr. Margas fent for a dozen of them by an East-India Captain. In China they were all red, except two; But when they came hither they changed into all manner of Colours. They live in Thames Water; and if the Bafon be filled with muddy Water, they will purify and render it full as clear as the finest Pump Water in a quarter of an hour or lefs. Sometimes he gives them a little piece of Bread; but he thinks they are better without it, as having several die when he fed them, and none when he did not. I am apt to imagine, that they may easily enough preferve Life, by fwallowing the Mud, and fuch Animacula as are found in all Waters, even in the very purest.

22. The word Tornado (or Turnado) in the Marine Dialect, fignifies a fudden and most violent Storm of Wind (accompanied with dreadful Lightnings) which usually lafts for an hour, and is fucceeded by as fudden and still a Calm: Thefe Storms are very common in hot fultry Climates as far as the seventeenth Degree of Latitude on both fides of the Equinoctial; efpecially when the Sun is at or near their Zenith,

23. We have at Nevis Jeffamine bushes (not nailed to the walls as here in England) that yeild us Flowers full as large as Primroses; Thefe Flowers are as white as Snow, and indeed fo thick fet together, that the whole Bush (at a very fmall distance) looks as if it was covered with a large white Holland Sheet; Their scent is proportionably rich and high.

24. The white Cedar there, is a tall Tree which bears a white Flower in fhape like a Bell, it's Leaves resembling those of an English Pear-Tree. We have also an odd fort of Vegetable (the Name of which I cannot recollect) which I confefs to be fingular enough: It has neither Leaves, Branches, nor Flowers, nor Roots, and is about as thick and round as a common Whip-cord, ufually running along through the tops of Bushes all manner of ways, till it exceeds an hundred yards in length: It is furely one of the most beautiful of all yellow Colours; and what is reckoned yet ftranger there, no part of it approaches within three foot of the ground, and it is moreover entirely different from the Bufh which breeds and cherishes it. Quare, whether this Vegetable is not of the Mifsletoe kind, though I never faw it growing upon bulky Trees.

25. Woods Rogers, page 32, fays, that at Saint Vincent's (one of the Cape de Verd Islands) there are large Spiders that weave their Webs so strongly

be

ly between the Trees, that it is difficult to get through them; which puts me in mind, that in paffing fome short Bushes that were feldom frequented on the eaft fide of the Salt Ponds at Saint Chriftopher's, I observed monstrous great Spiders, and as strong Webs that reached from Bush to Bush, though not fo ftrong as those which Woods Rogers faw at Saint Vincent's: However it was somewhat troublesom walking among them. But indeed the common Spiders in our Houses there, have exceeding big Bodies, and thick, as well as long Legs; Underneath their belly doth breed and hang a white flat and round Bag, which when at maturity comes off, and sticks to any part of our House the Spider pleases. And the young Brood of Spiders are enclosed in this Bag, which when ripe enough for that purpose, bursts (or perhaps is eaten open) to let out confiderable numbers of them. We have fome Fleas; but no Bugs that ever I heard of, though the Ships in our Bay are often pretty well stocked with them. Our common Ants are troublesome, as well as very numerous; for they oblige us to keep our refined Sugar in large Glass Bottles, that have wide mouths; and after all, these little Animals will eat their way thorough by the fide of the Cork: So that inftead of Corks, I have known Wooden Stopples made use of for that purpose.

26. In paragraph 37th of my feventh Letter, I ought to have informed you, That a Shark Fish never spawns, but breeds its Young in a regular Matrix, fituate in the lower part of its Belly. For instance, A Surgeon of my acquaintance saw in the Weft Indies a Female one cut open; She had eleven Young ones of about fourteen Inches apiece long in her, and each of them had a fair Navel-string, (at least of the thickness of his little Finger) that was fastened to the Matrix, which he cut in two with a Knife, and then immediately put the Young ones which were alive into a Bucket of Water, where they swam about a little. Sir Hans Sloan in his Voyage to Jamaica, Page 23, says: I once on opening one of the Female Sharks found the Eggs in the Ovary perfectly round, as big as the top of one's Thumb; and at another time the Fætus or Young ones in their Coats, lodged in the Uterus, after the manner of our Viviparous Creatures; for upon cutting the Coats the small live Fishes came out, being able to frisk and fwim up and down the Salt Water. I fancy that Whales, Grampuffes, and indeed all other Leviathans of the Ocean, propagate in the self same manner. And if you object against the young Sharks going into the old one's Maw for Food, (as afferted in that Paragraph) I only beg you to remember, that common Vipers here in England do the fame; especially when they are under a

fright;