driving fish in millions before him, many of which were quite different
from any I had yet seen, carrying their heads at the extremity of their
tails. I crossed," continued he, "one prodigious range of rocks,
equal in height to the Alps (the tops or highest parts of these marine
mountains are said to be upwards of one hundred fathoms below the
surface of the sea), on the sides of which there was a great variety of
tall, noble trees, loaded with marine fruit, such as lobsters, crabs,
oysters, scollops, mussels, cockles, &c. &c.; some of which were a
cart-load singly! and none less than a porter's! All those which are
brought on shore and sold in our markets are of an inferior dwarf kind,
or, properly, waterfalls, _i.e._, fruit shook off the branches of the
tree it grows upon by the motion of the water, as those in our gardens
are by that of the wind! The lobster-trees appeared the richest, but the
crab and oysters were the tallest. The periwinkle is a kind of shrub;
it grows at the foot of the oyster-tree, and twines round it as the ivy
does the oak. I observed the effect of several accidents by shipwreck,
&c., particularly a ship that had been wrecked by striking against
a mountain or rock, the top of which lay within three fathoms of the
surface. As she sank she fell upon her side, and forced a very large
lobster-tree out of its place. It was in the spring, when the lobsters
were very young, and many of them being separated by the violence of
the shock, they fell upon a crab-tree which was growing below them; they
have, like the farina of plants, united, and produced a fish resembling
both. I endeavoured to bring one with me, but it was too cumbersome, and
my salt-water Pegasus seemed much displeased at every attempt to stop
his career whilst I continued upon his back; besides, I was then, though
galloping over a mountain of rocks that lay about midway the passage,
at least five hundred fathom below the surface of the sea, and began
to find the want of air inconvenient, therefore I had no inclination to
prolong the time. Add to this, my situation was in other respects very