DISCOVERIES BY THE ECLIPSE EXPEDITION.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1114, 22 February 1872, Page 3

DISCOVERIES BY THE ECLIPSE EXPEDITION.

The members of the Eclipse Expeditdoi taw some remarkable things along th< shores to the northward of our continent Mr Foord has a wonderful story, amply attested by witnesses, of a fish with four hand!-— a discovery which Darwinians must impound straight. This curiosity was found crawling on a piece of coral, fished up from the bottom of the sea. "The body was that of a fish," said Mi Foord before the Royal Society last evening, "but, wonderful to relate, it had in place of fins four legs, terminated by what you might call hands, by which it made its way rapidly over the coral reef. When placed on a skylight of the steamer, fhe fijn stoqd up on |ts four lega, a sight to behold indeed. It was small, and something like a lizard, but with the body of a fish," Then Mr White, of the Observatory, had wonders to relate about the tats, "The little island," he said, ftnpon wh|ch we pitched bur tent, was overran with them j and, wh.at was most exiraoipdlnary, they were ef every color, from black to yellow, and some tortoiseshell,' 1 Mr White further went on, talking like some Robinson Crusoe or Gulliver :-— "These strange animals swarmed about our tent, We threw biscuit to them, which they devoured eagerly 1 but when we laid down a pan of water, they all crowded about it, displaying the greatest excitement in the struggle to quench their thirst, Having eaten and drunk thcfr fill, they commenced to play, jumping ope over the other, and gambolling about in the most ridiculous manner. After -tiiis feast the rats were we! '. behaved for a little time, but they soon began to get too audacious and familiar to be pleasant. , They would bite our fingers, or other exposed paits of the body, and scramble up the inside of the tent, from whence they drop down upon you at nk-ht." After that, Mr Foord and Mr White joined in y marvellous, peligan Bfpry.. Mr, Foord happened to be looking oyer the side of the vessel at the shore, and saw a sight which fairly startled him. ppon the distant beach there was a long row of pelicans, standing erect, and to all appearance seven or eight feet high, Mr White witnessed the same phenomenon ; but, in a tru^acientific spirit, both savaiu agree in attributing the illusion to a mirage from the sea. Of course, the gigantic pelicans could not have been brought to Victoria in their magical proportions ; but we confess that we would like to have seen a box of the yellow and tortoise-hell rats.