This fish has two fins upon its back; the first has a sharp short thorn before it, and is composed of seven longer ones, sharp pointed, but much weaker in shape, resembling the latine sail of a boat. The one behind it is composed of eleven small pliable bones, but not armed with any defence. The belly has two fins, made of pliable, unarmed bones likewise, and on its side near the gills it has two others of the same kind. The tail is forked into two sharp thin narrow divisions, that below are considerably shorter than above. Below its throat is a parcel of long bones hanging down like a beard, which grow longer as they approach the tail, the last being the largest of all. [Illustration: _Tortoise_ _London Publish’d Dec.^r 1.^{st} 1789 by G. Robinson & Co._ _Heath. Sc._] The whole body of this fish is covered with silver scales much resembling silver spangles, they lie close together. There is no variety of colour upon the whole fish excepting a shade of red upon the end of the nose, which is fat and fleshy. His eye is large and black, with a broad iris of white stained with yellow. It has a number of small teeth very sharp and closely set, nature has probably given him this quantity of fins to save him from the crocodile, whom by his size he seems destined to feed. CARETTA, OR SEA-TORTOISE. Among the natural productions of the Red Sea, which either have been or are at present articles of commerce, I shall just speak a little of that species of the Testudo or Tortoise, called the Caretta or Hawk’s-bill. It is greatly inferior in size to the West Indian or American sea-tortoise. The extreme length of the shell of this was 3 feet 7 inches, and which was esteemed a large one. Simple as it is, I do not know one good figure of it. This which I have submitted to the reader may be depended upon for its exactness, otherwise the animal is well known, and has often been described. Its back is covered like the rest of other turtles, with a bony substance, and this again is covered by lamina, or scales of a thin transparent texture, variegated with dark brown streaks, disposed in each scale as radii proceeding from a centre. The outer rows of the great scales are irregular pentagons. The row that runs down the middle between these are regular hexagons, and round the whole circumference the large scales are inclosed by a kind of quadrangular frame firmly united; the broadest and largest of these scales being nearest the tail. The lowest of all, as it were in the centre of the lowest part of the figure, is notched, the centre of this division answering to a line drawn through the middle of the oval, and the head or occiput.