animals are supplied with or deficient of little scales according to the sub-genus to which they belong. The second sub-genus gives us specimens of didactyles, thirteen or fourteen inches in length, striped with yellow, with very odd-looking heads. The first sub-genus furnishes many specimens of a curious fish justly named the “sea-frog.” It is a large-headed fish, sometimes shrunken, sometimes puffed out, bristling with spines, and sprinkled with tubercles; it has irregular and ugly horns, its tail and body are furnished with a hard skin, its prickles inflict dangerous wounds, and it is altogether horrible and repugnant.
From the 21st to the 23rd of January, the Nautilus steamed at the rate of 250 leagues in twenty-four hours; that is to say, 540 miles, or twenty-two miles an hour.
Any fish we recognised on the passage were those which were attracted by our electric light; the greater number were speedily distanced, but some managed to keep up with the Nautilus for a time.
On the morning of the 24th, in S. lat. 12° 5′, long. 94° 33′, we sighted the isle of Keeling, planted with magnificent cocoa-nut trees. It was formed by the madrepores, and was visited by Mr. Darwin and Captain Fitzroy. The Nautilus gave the shores of this desert island a wide berth. We brought up in the drags numerous specimens of polypi and echinodermes, and some curious shells of molluscs. Some beautiful specimens of the delphinale species were added to Captain Nemo’s treasures, to which I contributed an Astræa punctifera, a sort of polype parasite often fixed upon a shell.
Keeling Island soon disappeared, and we steered N.W. towards the southern point of Hindostan.
“Some civilised territory,” said Ned, “would be better than these islands, where there are more savages than goats.
