237

To the prefumptive evidence of forgery, with regard to this copy, Mr Whitaker fuperadds the pofitive evidence of an erroneous date.

Upon this, your Correfpondent obferves," Does Mr Whitaker "mean that the figure 18, could "not have been mistaken for the "figure 16 in the original?"

No doubt, it could. But many things can be, which neither your Correfpondent nor I either do, or probably ever will believe.

Were your Correspondent a law yer, he might likewise be defirous to ask the question, Whether figures were commonly used in public or legal deeds?

If they were not,-his own good fenfe would tell him, that the word eighteenth, could never be mistaken for the word fixteenth.

A lefs variation than this would damn a man's caufe in the Court of Seffion, or in any court in this king

dom.

But let thefe obfervations reft; for it is not here that the jet of the argument is placed.

If this copy was forged, it was forged when Murray and his affociates had need for it. It was forged after they had commenced their rebellion. It was forged without any original. It was forged on the Spur of the occafion. Conceffions were in the view of the forgers, not dates; conceffions which ferved their purposes, and abforbed their whole attention. Hence this copy is full and fatisfactory, with regard to the one, inaccurate and miftaken with regard to the other. It was

1

Your Correfpondent mentions, from Mr Ruddiman, "That most "of the charters granted by David "the Ild. are mifdated, as to the year of that King's reign."

If any fuch charters there be, I hope they are fo miferably mifdated as to prove them forgeries.

But the charters of David the IId, are mifdated. Well! Does any perfon ftand forward to accuse and to convict them of prefumptive forgery? Not a foul. But if any one did, Would not the error in the date be a strong corroborating circumftance?

I look upon your Correfpondent to be a man of penetration; and (except the little fneer at Mr Whita ker's Proteftantifm) a man of candour, eager in the fearch of truth, and who has only miffed it upon the prefent oceafion, by his too great eagerness; I hope, therefore, he will think himself obliged to me for having pointed out his mistake.

The error at the fame time is of no great confequence. This forgery is produced by Mr Whitaker only as a proof ex abundanti, among many others of the fame kind. It might fall, and they might fall, without any injury to the principal ftructure What must be the strength of that fortrefs of which the flighteft redoubts are fo difficult to be seized!

It is, indeed, aftonishing that the fame and reputation of Mary fhould not have found an advocate till paft the middle of this prefent century,

nor

nor been placed in its clearest day till near the end of it. The only poffible way of accounting for it is, that, to defend her name, was by án unfortunate prejudice, conjoined with the idea of Jacobitifm, or at leaft with the notion of embracing high prerogative principles. The abilities of the nation were thus a lienated from her caufe. Fortunately for her character, fhe has of late years found patrons among the Whigs, true old Whigs, men who, as the Rockingliam Whigs of the prefent times, the true reprefentátives of their progenitors, can re

verence a monarch, and die for thể rights of the people. If Mary has been vindicated by Goodall, fhe has been alfo vindicated by Stuart.

In bidding adieu to your intelligent Correfpondent, he will allow me, after this firft chimerical adventure, to remind him of the Lycian' hero. He will agree with me, that

"exemplum grave præbat ales "Pegafus, terrenum equitem gravatus "Bellerophontem."

I am, Sir,

Your conftant Reader,

WE

E know only a few fishes that are entirely deprived of fcales; perhaps, indeed, these parts exift in all, and are unknown to Ichthyologifts merely for want of obfervation. The intention of this Effay is to fhew, that fome fpecies which we are told want thefe parts, are in reality provided with them.

The pofition of fcales varies according to the different way of life and particular form of each fpecies of fines in fome they are entirely exterior; in others, they are partly covered with the fkin, and fometimes concealed under the epidermis. Their infertion also presents differences relative to the diverfity of the fpecies: the scales of fome are fo united to the skin, as to appear only a prolongation of it; fometimes they are but flightly attached to the body by very delicate veffels that proceed from the centre or edges of the fcale, which likewife varies in form according to the different fpecies; fome fcales are cylin

drical, fome round, fquare, fmooth, indented, &c. and fome boney, or flexible.

Fishes that have naked scales, and which are only retained by yeffels, are fuch as fwim at great depths; that never approach the fhores; and that, confequently, are lefs expofed to have thofe parts injured which the leaft friction against a rock or marine plant would easily detach. Many fpecies of clupea, argentina,&c. are of this kind. The only ufe of fcales in these seems to be to make their bodies fo fmooth as to cut the water eafily; and this is the more probable, as these fishes make long journies thro' the ocean, and the ftructure of their other organs confpires to augment the celerity of their motions.

In proportion as others are deftined to live fomewhat nearer the fhores, their fcales are partly covered by the fkin: their thickness becomes alfo more confiderable, and their adherence is firmer than in

thofe

thofe we have juft mentioned. This conformation is the more neceffary to them, as it preserves them from the injuries they would receive by the rude shocks they are expofed to among the madrepores, corals, or crabs, in the midst of which they are continually fwimming. The form of their scales varies according to their manner of life; fometimes they are very large, as in many fpecies of the perch, of the fparus, but especially of the fcarus, which have fcales very great in proportion to the fize of their body. I have feen fcales that belonged to a fish, of this last genus, taken in the Indian ocean three inches in diameter. In fuch fifhes as have their fcales partly covered with the skin, thofe parts are fmall, and the membrane that fixes them is thick, if they are deftined to live near the fhore, or in the mud, which may be seen by comparing a pike with a tench. I fhall, on this fubject, only refer to the work of Bafter, who has figured many of fuch fcales, and proceed to defcribe thefe organs on fome fpecies where they have not hitherto been obferved.

The cepola tania is found in the Mediterranean; it is a very flender fish, and its tail terminates in a point: it was known to the ancients by the name of Tænia, as if they meant to compare it to a ribbon. It has never been well defcribed, and no author has mentioned its fcales; Gouan fays, it has none. It is, however, easy to see them; they are attached to the body of the anima by a very fine and delicate membrane. They are arranged in oblique lines that cross one another, like thofe on a chefs board.. The trace they leave on the fkin when they fall off is nearly fquare; and though they are small, they may be feen very diftinctly with the naked eye in the microscope they appear

239

oval; at the more obtufe end there' appear certain divergent rays, which are formed by a feries of fmall fcales laid, over one another like tiles. On the other fide of the fcale we fee arches at equal diftances forming a curve fimilar to that of the outline of the fcale. These arches are likewise formed by fmall fcales, the principal ones bulge out in the middle, and are attached to the body by many very delicate veffels that are inferted into the cavity of their under fides. There are none on the head. Far from conftraining the motions of this animal, they ferve rather to facilitate them; for it is exceedingly agile, and fwims with great velocity in the midst of the fea-plants, which grow where it commonly lives.

I have obferved fcales arranged in the quincunx order on two fishes belonging to the genus called by Gronovius maftacembelus; one of these I have defcribed in the Bri tifh Museum, whither it was sent by Ruffel, who first mentioned it in his Hiftory of Aleppo; the other, which has not been defcribed by any author, has scales fomewhat lefs than the preceding fpecies, and was communicated to me by Sir Jofeph Banks, who brought it from the South Seas.

Many authors, fuch as Linnæus and Gouan, maintain, that the remora has no fcales; and yet these parts are exceedingly apparent on that fpecies.

The ammodytes (the fand-eel) is common on the coafts of the ocean in Holland and in England; it is found alfo in America, at Newfoundland, &c. We fhall remark in paffing, that almost all authors who have given a figure of this fifth, have copied that of Salviani, and have reprefented it with two dorfal fins, though in reality it has on,

ly

ly one. Its fnout is attenuated, its flesh firm, it hides itself in the fand, and in Holland is taken with a machine made for the purpose, and drawn by oxen, As it lives almost always in the fand, its fcales muft be of a fingular conformation. Accordingly, they are very finall, and thus have escaped the obfervation of Ichthyologifts, even of Willoughby, fo famous for his accuracy, who fays exprefsly, that this fish is deprived of fcales. They are very imilar to those of the cepola, only the oblique lines they form are diffinct from one another. Fabricius, in his Fauna Greenlandica, p. 141. fpeaks of thefe lines, but does not fay that they are formed by fcales. I believe Artedi is the only author who has mentioned them, but he has not defcribed them. Though this is the only fpecies of the genus, Gouan makes the want of fcales one of its generic characters.

We have spoken of the scales of fome fishes that are deftined to live in the mud; they are very fmall, and are laid over one another like tiles. We come now to other fpecies that lead the fame kind of life, but exercife much more of an undulatory motion; their bodies are long, and their fcales feparated by fmall intervals, that the motions of the body may not be impeded; thefe are the anguilliform fishes: I hall firit defcribe the fcales of the eel, because it is the most common fifh of this kind, and because its icales are already known to several authors.

The body, head, and even eyes of the eel, are covered with a fkin of a close texture, whitish, and feattered over with an infinity of small blackifh points; this, feen through a glafs, appears fpotted; it is again covered with a very fine blackish epidermis, and between these there are little oblong veficles, fometimes

round, and generally one or two lines in length formed by the adherence of the epidermis to the skin all around these veficles, which are partly filled with a humour that lubricates the furface of the body by means of a great quantity of little tubes; the fcales are lodged in the veficles I have mentioned, one in each, which it exactly fills; the convex part is turned outwards, and they are fixed to the body by veffels inferted in the concavity. Leudenhoeck has well defcribed and figured them, as has Bafter in his Opufcula Subcefiva. In the microfcope thefe parts feem formed of feveral divergent rays, themselves compofed of an imbricated row of fmall fcales. The principal fcales are difperfed over the whole body without touching one another. They are eafily feen with the naked eye, especially on a dry fkin, as Artedi

has obferved.

We may notice in paffing, that the modern Jews, who often inhabit countries where the eel is common, but who confider it as com prehended in the law that forbids the eating of fishes without fcales, would not abftain from fo whole'fome a food, if they cultivated natural hiftory.

Many fpecies of the fame genus of murana, found in the Indian feas, have fcales of the fame form with those of the common eel. The fea wolf has round fcales greater than thofe of the cel, and covered in the fame manner with the epi dermis. All the authors who men❤ tion this animal, even Willoughby and Gronovius, affure us that it wants fcales.

A fifh of the genus of Blennius, which is nearly allied to the fea wolf, and which is called the Viviparous Blenny, because it brings forth its young alive, is covered with scales of the fame figure, only lefs. This

fifh afcends the rivers; I have seen it often in the markets of London and Paris. Its fkeleton is green, a fingularity known only in two other fishes, the efox belone, and another fpecies of pike.

The ophidium barbatum, defcribed by main the Phil. Tranf. for the year 1781, has fimilar fcales.

The fcales we have juft examined, are hidden under the epidermis; they are at a diftance from one another, and the fishes that are furnished with them are deprived of the ventral fins; or at leaft in fome of them these are so small as to be incapable of sustaining the animal. All the fpecies of this kind have a long attenuated figure calculated to affift their undulatory motion, and to fupport them at a certain height. They never quit the fhores, but live almoft conftantly in the mud. The aperture of the gills is finall, and the fkin that covers the whole head is tranfparent on the eyes. If the aper ture of the gills had been large, or if their scales had been contiguous and uncovered, the flime would have entered with the water into the organs of refpiration, and would have infinuated itself between the fcales.

Of the fishes that have fcales nearly hid, we have ftill to examine two fingular fpecies: the one is a Scomber, defcribed by Brown in his Natural Hiftory of Jamaica; its body is smooth, filvery, and attenuated; the fkin is of a clofe, firm texture, almost of the confiftence of leather; the whole furface of the body is marked with elevated interrupted lines, running from the head to the tail, and touching one another at the fides. These lines are formed by long narrow pointed fcales fixed to the fkin, and covered with a filvery epidermis: their length is generally from three to four lines; they are retained on VOL. VI. N° 34.

241

the body by a small veffel inferted into the narroweft extremity, which is that next the head; it is difficult to detach them. This fish is taken in the American feas.

The other is figured by Margrave under the name of Guebum. It conflitutes a new genus nearlyallied to the Scomber. In a fpecimen belonging to Sir Jofeph Banks, the fcales are eight or nine lines in length, lanceolated, flat, fixed in the fkin, almoft entirely covered with the epidermis, not to close together as in the former fpecies, and retained by a veffel attached to their bafe. It would appear that thefe fcales give a good deal of firmnels to the body of the fif; and, by making its furface fimooth, they facilitate its motion. These two fpecies fwim with great rapidity, efpecially the latter; it is armed, like the fword-filh, with a long hard roftrum, which it fometimes ftrikes into fhips the length of feveral inches. It is found at Brafil, and in the Indian feas.

Thefe boney longitudinal fcales, which we have just described, fomewhat refemble thofe on the dog-fish, only thefe laft are entirely external. They are arranged in the quincunx order, and ftrongly attached to the fkin. Thofe of the pike, that Pafter has figured, are very fmall; but, viewed with a microfcope, they appear fattened, contracted at the bafe, and nearly lanceolated with two or three elevated longitudinal lines on their furface. Some of the animals of this genus of fqualus have fmooth, flat, round fcales clofe together; the fkins of thefe make what is called nourfe fkin, (engalluchat) thofe of the latter furnish chagrin.

All thefe fcales are firmly fixed to the fkin: this adberence was neceffary to prevent their being detached by the complicated motions of the animal; and it is also useful

by