Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 02Champlain, Samuel de
History
Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 02
Champlain, Samuel de
America -- Discovery and exploration -- French; Indians of North America -- Canada; New France -- Discovery and exploration
In this place and along the whole coast from Quinibequy, there are a great
many _siguenocs_, [171] which is a fish with a shell on its back like the
tortoise, yet different, there being in the middle a row of little
prickles, of the color of a dead leaf, like the rest of the fish. At the
end of this shell, there is another still smaller, bordered by very sharp
points. The length of the tail-varies according to their size. With the end
of it, these people point their arrows, and it contains also a row of
prickles like the large shell in which are the eyes. There are eight small
feet like those of the crab, and two behind longer and flatter, which they
use in swimming. There are also in front two other very small ones with
which they eat. When walking, all the feet are concealed excepting the two
hindermost which are slightly visible. Under the small shell there are
membranes which swell up, and beat like the throat of a frog, and rest upon
each other like the folds of a waistcoat. The largest specimen of this fish
that I saw was a foot broad, and a foot and a half long.
We saw also a sea-bird [172] with a black beak, the upper part slightly
aquiline, four inches long and in the form of a lancet; namely, the lower
part representing the handle and the upper the blade, which is thin, sharp
on both sides, and shorter by a third than the other, which circumference
is a matter of astonishment to many persons, who cannot comprehend how it
is possible for this bird to eat with such a beak. It is of the size of a
pigeon, the wings being very long in proportion to the body, the tail
short, as also the legs, which are red; the feet being small and flat. The
plumage on the upper part is gray-brown, and on the under part pure white.
They go always in flocks along the sea-shore, like the pigeons with us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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