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Show 66 H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. BOOK J. inches long, and one inch and a half broad. All thefe kinds have """--v---' fcalcs, are a very delicate and wholefomc food, and are to be found .in great plenty in the lakes of Chalco, Pazcuaro, and Chapalla: The fourth kind is the Xab?1ichin of ~auhnahuac, which has no fcales, but is covered with a tender white ikin. The Axolotl or Axolote (y), is a great water-lizard of the Mexican lake. Its figure and appearance at'e ridiculous and difagreeable. It is commonly about eight inches long, but is fometimes to be found of twice that length. The fkin i.s [oft and black, the head and tail long, the mouth large, and the tongue broad, thin, and cartilaginous. ·The body gradually dimini!hes in fize, from the middle to· tlie extremity of the tail. It fwims with its four feet which refemblc thofe 'of a fn>g. But the moft remarkable circumftance with refpeB: to this animal, which has been e!bblifhed by many obfervations, and confirmed by the opinion of Hernandez, is the uterus, and a periodical evacuation of blood to which it is fubject; in both which it is faid to refernble the human fpecies '( z). The Axolotl is who1c! Ome to eat,. a·nd is of much the. fame tafte with an eel. It is thought. to be particularly ufeful in cafes of confumption. There are many other kinds of fmall fi.!b, in the lake of Mexico, but t11cy fcarcely deferve our notice. As to fuells, they are found in prodigious numhers, and of great variety; and fome of them of extraordinary beauty, efpecially thofe of the Pacific Ocean. Pearls alfo have been fiihed,. at different times,. along all the coafts of that fea. The Mexicans got them upon the coafis of Tototepec, and of the Cuitlatecans, where we now get the· tortoife-fhell. Among ~he Sea-fulrs is one which has five rays, a»d· .(J) Mr. Botnarc could not llght upon the name ·Jf this fi{h, He calls it A znlotl A;;o/otl . Azol~ti, and AJ.·oloti ; and fays that the Spaniards call it JNguele del' ngua: yet the Mexican: call 1t A:folotl, and the Spania.rds give it no other name but the A xo/otc. (z) Bomare has fome hcfitatio"n in believing what is faid of the A "'·olotc · but while we may rell: ~ecurc u~OI\ th~ tefiimony of thofe perfons, who have had th cfe a~imals aCl:ually under the1r own mfp~chon, we need not' pay much regard to the doubts of a Fre'nchm:m, wh?, however vcrfcd m_Natural Hillory, never faw the Axolotis, and is even ignorant of the1r mmc: more efpcctally, whert we reficCl: that the periodical evacuation of blood is no~ confined to women alone, but has been obfervcd, likcwife, in apes ; for, as Mr. Bomare fays, Les femelles do Jillgcs ont po11r Ia plup4rl ties menjlrtiCS com me les femmes. one • ., I· ,. ,. I'I.JV /lui J . Pt1,51" oil. |