FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39  
40   41   42   >>  
m of the estuary is changed for white sandstone, with occasionally black oxide of manganese, the fish are of delicious flavour; among others, the pacoo, near the Falls or Rapids, which is flat, twenty inches long, and weighs four pounds; it feeds on the seed of the _arum arborescens_, in devouring which the Indians shoot it with their arrows: of similar genus are the cartuback, waboory, and amah. The most remarkable fish of these rivers are, the _peri_ or _omah_, two feet long; its teeth and jaws are so strong, that it cracks the shells of most nuts to feed on their kernels, and is most voracious; the Indians say that it snaps off the breasts of women, and emasculates men. Also the genus _silurus_, the young of which swim in a shoal of one hundred and fifty over the head of the mother, who, on the approach of danger, opens her mouth, and thus saves her progeny; with the _loricaria calicthys_, or _assa_, which constructs a nest on the surface of pools from the blades of grass floating about, and in this deposits its spawn which is hatched by the sun. In the dry season this remarkable fish has been dug out of the ground, for it burrows in the rains owing to the strength and power of the spine; in the gill-fin and body it is covered with strong plates, and far below the surface finds moisture to keep it alive. The _electric eel_ is also an inhabitant of these waters, and has sometimes nearly proved fatal to the strongest swimmer. If sent to England in tubs, the wood and iron act as conductors, and keep the fish in a continued state of exhaustion, causing, eventually, death: an earthenware jar is the vessel in which to keep it in health. (_To be concluded in our next._) * * * * * FINE ARTS. * * * * * CROSSES.[6] [Illustration: Neville's Cross.] We resume the illustration of these curious structures with two specimens of interesting architectural character, and memorable association with our early history. The first is Neville's Cross, at Beaurepaire (or Bear Park, as it is now called), about two miles north-west from Durham. Here David II., King of Scots, encamped with his army before the celebrated battle of Red Hills, or Neville's Cross, as it was afterwards termed, from the above elegant stone cross, erected to record the victory by Lord Ralph Neville. The English sovereign, Edward III., had just achieved the glorious conquest of Cre
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39  
40   41   42   >>  



Top keywords:

Neville

 

remarkable

 

Indians

 
surface
 

strong

 

concluded

 

earthenware

 
vessel
 

health

 

CROSSES


curious

 

illustration

 
structures
 

specimens

 

interesting

 
resume
 

Illustration

 

changed

 

estuary

 

eventually


causing
 

proved

 
strongest
 

waters

 

inhabitant

 

electric

 

sandstone

 

swimmer

 
conductors
 

continued


exhaustion
 

England

 

architectural

 

character

 
elegant
 

erected

 

record

 

termed

 
victory
 

achieved


glorious

 

conquest

 

English

 

sovereign

 
Edward
 

battle

 

celebrated

 

Beaurepaire

 
called
 

memorable