we rowed, looking out sharply right and left for an alligator
basking on the mud among the mangrove roots. But none appeared,
though more than one, probably, was watching us, with nothing of him
above water but his horny eyes. The heron flapped on ahead, and
settled once more, as if leading us on up the ugly creek, which grew
narrower and fouler, till the oars touched the bank on each side,
and drove out of the water shoals of four-eyed fish, ridiculous
little things about as long as your hand, who, instead of diving to
the bottom like reasonable fish, seemed possessed with the fancy
that they could succeed better in the air, or on land; and
accordingly jumped over each other's backs, scrambled out upon the
mud, swam about with their goggle-eyes projecting above the surface
of the water, and, in fact, did anything but behave like fish.

This little creature (Star-gazer, {122b} as some call him) is, you
must understand, one of the curiosities of Trinidad and of the
Guiana Coast. He looks, on the whole, like a gray mullet, with a
large blunt head, out of which stand, almost like horns, the eyes,
from which he takes his name. You may see, in Wood's Illustrated
Natural History, a drawing of him, which is--I am sorry to say--one
of the very few bad ones in the book; and read how, 'at a first
glance, the fish appears to possess four distinct eyes, each of
these organs being divided across the middle, and apparently
separated into two distinct portions. In fact an opaque band runs
transversely across the corner of the eye, and the iris, or coloured
portion, sends out two processes, which meet each other under the
transverse band of the cornea, so that the fish appears to possess
even a double pupil. Still, on closer investigation, the
connection, between the divisions of the pupil are apparent, and can
readily be seen in the young fish. The lens is shaped something
like a jargonelle pear, and so arranged that its broad extremity is
placed under the large segment of the cornea.'

These strangely specialised eyes--so folks believe here--the fish
uses by halves. With the lower halves he sees through the water,
with the upper halves through the air; and, elevated by this quaint
privilege, he aspires to be a terrestrial animal, emulating, I
presume, the alligators around, and tries to take his walks upon the
mud. You may see, as you go down to bathe on the east coast, a
group of black d