260 SURVEY OF THE INTERTROPICAL ham landed, and collect? a variety of interesting plants. The open banks of' the river were co- ?; and, in the midst of the usual as?mbla? of r?op?'?, the ?? ??, Linn. was observed of remarkable growth, being in many parts from fifty to sixty feet high, three feet in d?meter at the base, and of a straight tapering Fish was plentiful, and, on the muddy banks, as the water fell, we saw myriads of small am-' phibious fishes skipping about: .they are probably. of the same kind as those seen by Captain Cook at Thirsty Sound, and by Captain 'Flinders, at Keppel Bay ?, on the east coast. Captain Cook describes the species he saw to be a small fish, about the size of a minnow, furnished with two very strong breast fins, by the assistance 'of which it leaped away upon being approached, as nimbly as a frog. The fish I have just noticed appeared to be of ave. ry similar description, ex- cepting that it did not seem to avoid the water, as that of Thirsty Sound; for Captain Cook says, in a subsequent paragraph, that it preferr.ed the water to land; for it frequently leaped out of the sea, and pursued its way upon dry ground, and chose rather to leap from stone to stone
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