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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
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+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #62011 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62011)
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-Project Gutenberg's The Sea and its Living Wonders, by George Hartwig
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll
-have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using
-this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: The Sea and its Living Wonders
-       A Popular Account of the Marvels of the Deep and of the
-       Progress of Martime Discovery from the Earliest Ages to
-       the Present Time
-
-Author: George Hartwig
-
-Release Date: May 3, 2020 [EBook #62011]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEA AND ITS LIVING WONDERS ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Chris Curnow, Sharon Joiner, Tom Cosmas and
-the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
-https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
-generously made available by The Internet Archive)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: ARCTIC SLEDGE-JOURNEY.]
-
-
-
-
-  THE SEA
-
-  AND
-
-  ITS LIVING WONDERS
-
-  A POPULAR ACCOUNT OF
-
-  THE MARVELS OF THE DEEP
-
-  AND OF THE
-
-  PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY FROM THE
-  EARLIEST AGES TO THE PRESENT TIME
-
-  BY
-
-  DR. G. HARTWIG
-
-  AUTHOR OF "THE TROPICAL WORLD" "THE HARMONIES OF NATURE"
-  "THE POLAR WORLD" AND "THE SUBTERRANEAN WORLD"
-
-  SEVENTH EDITION
-
-  _WITH NUMEROUS WOODCUTS AND PLATES_
-
-  LONDON
-  LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
-  AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST 16^{th} STREET
-  1892
-
-
-
-
-NOTICE
-
-
-_The right of translation into French is reserved by the Author. All
-necessary steps for securing the Copyright have been taken._
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE
-
-TO
-
-THE THIRD AND FOURTH EDITIONS.
-
-
-Nothing can be more agreeable to an author anxious to merit the suffrages
-of the public, than the opportunity afforded him, by a new edition, of
-correcting past errors or adding improvements to his work. Should any
-one of my readers think it worth his while to compare 'The Sea,' such
-as it now is, with what it formerly was, I have no doubt he will do me
-the justice to say that I have conscientiously striven to deserve his
-approbation.
-
-Two new chapters--one on Marine Constructions, the other on Marine
-Caves--have been added; those on the Molluscs and Cœlenterata
-(Jelly-fishes, Polyps) almost entirely re-written; and those on Fishes,
-Crustaceans, Microscopic Animals, the Geographical Distribution of Marine
-Life, and the Phosphorescence of the Sea, considerably enlarged; not to
-mention a number of minor improvements dispersed throughout the volume.
-
-Great attention has also been paid to the Illustrations, many of
-questionable value having been omitted in the present edition, to make
-room for a number of others, which will be found of great use for the
-better understanding of the text.
-
-In one word, I have done my best to raise my work to the standard of the
-actual state of science, and to render it, as far as my humble abilities
-go, a complete epitome of all that the _general_ reader _cares_ to know
-about the marvels of the deep.
-
-  G. Hartwig.
-
-  Salon Villas, Ludwigsburg:
-  _June 30, 1873_.
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE
-
-TO
-
-THE FIRST TWO EDITIONS.
-
-
-For years my daily walks have been upon the beach, and I have learnt to
-love the ocean as the Swiss mountaineer loves his native Alps, or the
-Highlander the heath-covered hills of Caledonia. May these feelings have
-imparted some warmth to the following pages, and serve to render the
-reader more indulgent to their faults!
-
-  G. Hartwig.
-
-  Göttingen: _July 17, 1860_.
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS.
-
-
-    PART I.
-
-    THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
-
-
-    CHAPTER I.
-
-    THE MAGNITUDE OF THE SEA.
-
-    Extent of the Ocean.--Length of its Coast-Line.--Mural, Rocky,
-    and Flat Coasts.--How deep is the Sea?--Average Depth of the
-    Atlantic Ocean.--The Telegraphic Plateau between Newfoundland and
-    Ireland.--Measurement of Depth by the Rapidity of the Tide-Wave.
-    --Progressive Changes in the Limits of the Ocean.--Alluvial
-    Deposits.--Upheaving.--Subsidence.--Does the Level of the Sea
-    remain unchanged, and is it everywhere the same?--Composition and
-    Temperature of Sea-Water.--Its intrinsic Colour.--The Azure Grotto
-    at Capri.--Modification of Colour owing to Animals and Plants.
-    --Submarine Landscapes viewed through the Clear Waters          Page 3
-
-
-  CHAPTER II.
-
-  THE WAVES OF THE OCEAN.
-
-  Waves and the Mode of their Formation.--Height and Velocity of
-  Storm-Waves, on the High Seas, according to the Calculations of
-  Scoresby, Arago, Sir James Ross, and Wilkes.--Their Height and Power
-  on Coasts.--Their Destructive Effects along the British Shore.--
-  Dunwich.--Reculver.--Shakspeare's Cliff.                              24
-
-
-  CHAPTER III.
-
-  THE TIDES.
-
-  Description of the Phenomenon.--Devastation of Storm-Floods on Flat
-  Coasts.--What did the Ancients know of the Tides?--Their Fundamental
-  Causes revealed by Kepler and Newton.--Development of their Theory by
-  La Place, Euler, and Whewell.--Vortices caused by the Tides.--The
-  Maelstrom.--Charybdis.--The _Barre_ at the mouth of the Seine.--The
-  Euripus                                                               32
-
-
-  CHAPTER IV.
-
-  MARINE CAVES.
-
-  Effects of the Sea on Rocky Shores.--Fingal's Cave.--Beautiful Lines
-  of Sir Walter Scott.--The Antro di Nettuno.--The Cave of Hunga.--
-  Legend of its Discovery.--Marine Fountains.--The Skerries.--The
-  Souffleur in Mauritius.--The Buffadero on the Mexican Coast           45
-
-
-  CHAPTER V.
-
-  OCEAN CURRENTS.
-
-  Causes of the Oceanic Currents.--The Equatorial Stream.--The Gulf
-  Stream.--Its Influence on the Climate of the West European Coasts.
-  --The Cold Peruvian Stream.--The Japanese Stream                      54
-
-
-  CHAPTER VI.
-
-  THE AËRIAL AND TERRESTRIAL MIGRATIONS OF THE WATERS.
-
-  Movements of the Waters through Evaporation.--Origin of Winds.--
-  Trade-Winds.--Calms.--Monsoons.--Typhoons.--Tornadoes.--Water-Spouts.
-  --The Formation of Atmospherical Precipitations.--Dew.--Its Origin.
-  --Fog.--Clouds.--Rain.--Snow.--Hail.--Sources.--The Quantities of
-  Water which the Rivers pour into the Ocean.--Glaciers and their
-  Progress.--Icebergs.--Erratic Blocks.--Influence of Forests on the
-  Formation and Retention of Atmospherical Precipitations.--
-  Consequences of their excessive Destruction.--The Power of Man over
-  Climate.--How has it been used as yet?                                65
-
-
-  CHAPTER VII.
-
-  MARINE CONSTRUCTIONS.
-
-  Lighthouses.--The Eddystone.--Winstanley's Lighthouse, 1696.--The
-  Storm of 1703.--Rudyerd's Lighthouse destroyed by Fire in 1755.--
-  Singular Death of one of the Lighthouse Men.--Anecdote of Louis XIV.
-  --Smeaton.--Bell Rock Lighthouse.--History of the Erection of
-  Skerryvore Lighthouse.--Illumination of Lighthouses.--The Breakwater
-  at Cherbourg.--Liverpool Docks.--The Tubular Bridge over the Menai
-  Straits.--The Sub-oceanic Mine of Botallack.                          80
-
-
-  PART II.
-
-  THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
-
-
-  CHAPTER VIII.
-
-  THE CETACEANS.
-
-  General Remarks on the Organisation of the Cetaceans.--The Large
-  Greenland Whale.--His Food and Enemies.--The Fin-Back or Rorqual.
-  --The Antarctic Whale.--The Sperm-Whale.--The Unicorn Fish.--The
-  Dolphin.--Truth and Fable.--The Porpoise.--The Grampus.--History
-  of the Whale Fishery                                                  95
-
-
-  CHAPTER IX.
-
-  SEALS AND WALRUSES.
-
-  The Manatees and the Dugongs.--The Seals and the Esquimaux.--King
-  Menelaus in a Seal's Skin.--Barbarous Persecutions of the Seals in
-  Behring's Sea and the Pacific.--Adventures of a Sealer from Geneva.
-  --The Sea Calf.--The Sea Bear.--His Parental Affection.--The Sea
-  Lions.--The Sea Elephant.--The Arctic Walrus.--The Boats of the
-  "Trent" fighting with a Herd of Walruses.--The White Bear.--Touching
-  Example of its Love for its Young.--Chase of the Sea Otter           117
-
-
-  CHAPTER X.
-
-  SEA-BIRDS.
-
-  Their Vast Numbers.--Strand-Birds.--Artifices of the Sea-Lark to
-  protect its Young.--Migrations of the Strand-Birds.--The Sea-Birds
-  in General.--The Anatidæ.--The Eider Duck.--The Sheldrake.--The
-  Loggerheaded Duck.--Auks and Penguins.--The Cormorant.--Its Use
-  by the Chinese for Fish-catching.--The Frigate Bird.--The Soland
-  Goose.--The Gulls.--The Petrels.--The Albatross.--Bird-catching on
-  St. Kilda.--The Guano of the Chincha Islands                         142
-
-
-  CHAPTER XI.
-
-  THE REPTILES OF THE OCEAN.
-
-  The Saurians of the Past Seas.--The Anatomical Structure of the
-  Turtles.--Their Size.--Their Visits to the Shores.--The Dangers
-  that await their Young.--Turtles on the Brazilian Coast.--Prince
-  Maximilian of Neuwied and the Turtle.--Conflicts of the Turtles
-  with Wild Dogs and Tigers on the Coast of Java.--Turtle-catching
-  on Ascension Island.--Tortoise-shell.--The Amblyrhynchus
-  cristatus.--Marine Snakes.--The Great Sea-Snake                      172
-
-
-  CHAPTER XII.
-
-  THE MARINE FISHES.
-
-  General Observations on Fishes.--Their Locomotive Organs.--Tail.
-  --Fins.--Classification of Fishes by Cuvier.--Air-Bladder.--Scales.
-  --Beauty of the Tropical Fishes.--The Gills.--Terrestrial Voyages
-  of the Anabas and the Hassar.--Examples of Parental Affection.--
-  Organs of Sense.--Offensive Weapons of Fishes.--The Sea-Wolf.--The
-  Shark.--The Saw-Fish.--The Sword-Fish.--The Torpedo.--The
-  Star-Gazer.--The Angler.--The Chætodon Rostratus.--The Remora, used
-  for catching Turtles.--Defensive Weapons of Fishes.--The Weever.
-  --The Stickleback.--The Sun-Fish.--The Flying-Fish.--The numerous
-  Enemies of the Fishes.--Importance and History of the Herring
-  Fishery.--The Pilchard.--The Sprat.--The Anchovy.--The Cod.--The
-  Sturgeons.--The Salmon.--The Tunny.--The Mackerel Family.--The Eel.
-  --The Murey.--The Conger.--The Sand-Launce.--The Plectognaths.--The
-  Sea-Horse.--The Pipe-Fish.--The Flat-Fishes.--The Rays.--The
-  Fecundity of Fishes                                                  186
-
-
-  CHAPTER XIII.
-
-  CRUSTACEA.
-
-  CRABS--LOBSTERS.
-
-  How are they distinguished from the Insects?--Barnacles and
-  Acorn-shells.--Siphonostomata.--Entomostraca.--King-Crab.
-  --Edriophthalmia.--Sandhoppers.--Thoracostraca.--Compound
-  Eye of the higher Crustaceans.--Respiratory Apparatus of the
-  Decapods.--Digestive Organs.--Chelæ or Pincers.--Distribution
-  of Crabs.--Land Crabs.--The Calling Crab.--Modifications of
-  the Legs in different species.--The Pinna and Pinnotheres.
-  --Hermit Crabs.--The Lobster.--The Cocoa-nut Crab.--The Shrimp.
-  --Moulting Process.--Metamorphoses of Crabs.--Victims and
-  Enemies of the Crustaceans.--Their Fecundity.--Marine Spiders
-  and Insects                                                          243
-
-
-  CHAPTER XIV.
-
-  MARINE ANNELIDES.
-
-  The Annelides in general.--The Eunice sanguinea.--Beauty of the
-  Marine Annelides.--The Giant Nemertes.--The Food and Enemies of
-  the Annelides.--The Tubicole Annelides.--The Rotifera.--Their
-  Wonderful Organisation.--The Synchæta Baltica                        262
-
-
-  CHAPTER XV.
-
-  MOLLUSCS.
-
-  The Molluscs in general.--The Cephalopods.--Dibranchiates and
-  Tetrabranchiates--Arms and Tentacles.--Suckers.--Hooked Acetabula
-  of the Onychoteuthis.--Mandibles.--Ink Bag.--Numbers of the
-  Cephalopods.--Their Habits.--Their Enemies.--Their Use to Man.
-  --Their Eggs.--Enormous size of several species.--The fabulous
-  Kraken.--The Argonaut.--The Nautili.--The Cephalopods of the
-  Primitive Ocean.--The Gasteropods.--Their Subdivisions.--Gills of
-  the Nudibranchiates.--The Pleurobranchus plumula.--The Sea-Hare.
-  --The Chitons.--The Patellæ.--The Haliotis or Sea-Ear.--The
-  Carinariæ.--The Pectinibranchiates.--Variety and Beauty of their
-  Shells.--Their Mode of Locomotion.--Foot of the Tornatella and
-  Cyelostoma.--The Ianthinæ.--Sedentary Gasteropods.--The Magilus.
-  --Proboscis of the Whelk.--Tongue of the Limpet.--Stomach of the
-  Bulla, the Scyllæa, and the Sea-Hare.--Organs of Sense in the
-  Gasteropods.--Their Caution.--Their Enemies.--Their Defences.
-  --Their Use to Man.--Shell-Cameos.--The Pteropods.--Their
-  Organisation and Mode of Life.--The Butterflies of the Ocean.
-  --The Lamellibranchiate Acephala.--Their Organisation.--Siphons.
-  --The Pholades.--Foot of the Lamellibranchiates.--The
-  Razor-Shells.--The Byssus of the Pinnæ.--Defences of the
-  Bivalves.--Their Enemies.--The common Mussel.--Mussel Gardens.
-  --The Oyster.--Oyster Parks.--Oyster Rearing in the Lago di
-  Fusaro.--Formation of new Oyster Banks.--Pearl-fishing in Ceylon.
-  --How are Pearls formed?--The Tridacna gigas.--The Teredo navalis.
-  --The Brachiopods.--The Terebratulæ.--The Polyzoa.--The Sea-Mats.
-  --The Escharæ.--The Lepraliæ.--Bird's Head Processes.--The
-  Tunicata.--The Sea-Squirts.--The Chelyosoma.--The Botrylli.--The
-  Pyrosomes.--The Salpæ.--Interesting Points in the Organisation
-  of the Tunicata                                                      270
-
-
-  CHAPTER XVI.
-
-  ECHINODERMATA.
-
-  STAR-FISHES, SEA-URCHINS, AND SEA-CUCUMBERS.
-
-  The Star-Fishes.--Their Feet or Suckers.--Voracity of the Asterias.
-  --The Rosy Feather-Star.--Brittle and Sand-Stars.--The real
-  Sea-Stars of the British Waters.--The Sea-Urchins.--The
-  Pedicellariæ.--The Shell and the Dental Apparatus of the
-  Sea-Urchins.--The Sea-Cucumbers.--Their strange Dismemberments.--
-  Trepang-fishing on the Coast of North Australia.--In the Feejee
-  Islands                                                              328
-
-
-  CHAPTER XVII.
-
-  CŒLENTERATA.
-
-  POLYPS AND JELLY-FISHES.
-
-  Thread-cells or Urticating Organs.--Sertulariæ.--Campanulariadæ.--
-  Hydrozoic Acalephæ.--Medusidæ.--Lucernariadæ.--Calycophoridæ.--
-  The Velella.--The Portuguese Man-of-war.--Anecdote of a Prussian
-  Sailor.--Alternating Fixed and Free-swimming Generations of
-  Hydrozoa.--Actinozoa.--Ctenophora.--Their Beautiful Construction.
-  --Sea-anemones.--Dead Man's Toes.--Sea-pens.--Sea-rods.--Red
-  Coral.--Coral Fishery.--Isis hippuris.--Tropical Lithophytes.--
-  History of the Coral Islands.--Darwin's Theory of their
-  Formation.--The progress of their Growth above the level of the Sea  345
-
-
-  CHAPTER XVIII.
-
-  PROTOZOA.
-
-  The Foraminifera.--The Amœbæ.--Their Wonderful Simplicity of
-  Structure.--The Polycystina.--Marine Infusoria.--Sponges.
-  --Their Pores.--Fibres and Spiculæ.--The Common Sponge of
-  Commerce                                                             378
-
-
-  CHAPTER XIX.
-
-  MARINE PLANTS.
-
-  The Algæ.--Zostera marina.--The Ulvæ and Enteromorphæ.--The Fuci.
-  --The Laminariæ.--Macrocystis pyrifera.--Description of the
-  Submarine Thickets at Tierra del Fuego.--Nereocystis lutkeana.
-  --The Sargasso Sea.--The Gathering of edible Birds'-nests in the
-  marine Caves of Java.--Agar-Agar.--The Florideæ.--The
-  Diatomaceæ.--Their importance in the economy of the Seas             390
-
-
-  CHAPTER XX.
-
-  THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF MARINE LIFE.
-
-  The Dependence of all created Beings upon Space and Time.--The
-  Influences which regulate the Distribution of Marine Life.--The
-  four Bathymetrical Zones of Marine Life on the British Coasts,
-  according to the late Professor Edward Forbes of Edinburgh.
-  --Abyssal Animals.--_Bathybius Haeckelii._--Deep-Sea Sponges and
-  Shell-Fish.--Vivid Phosphorescence of Deep-Sea Animals.--Deep-Sea
-  Shark Fishery--The "Challenger."                                     405
-
-
-  CHAPTER XXI.
-
-  THE PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE SEA.
-
-  Its Causes.--Noctiluca miliaris.--Phosphorescent Annelides and
-  Beroës.--Intense Phosphorescence of the Pyrosoma atlantica.
-  --Luminous Pholades.--The luminous Shark.--Phosphorescent Algæ.
-  --Citations from Byron, Coleridge, Crabbe, and Scott.                423
-
-
-  CHAPTER XXII.
-
-  THE PRIMITIVE OCEAN.
-
-  The Giant-Book of the Earth-rind.--The Sea of Fire.--Formation of
-  a solid Earth-crust by cooling.--The Primitive Waters.--First
-  awakening of Life in the Bosom of the Ocean.--The Reign of the
-  Saurians.--The future Ocean.                                         433
-
-
-  PART III.
-
-  THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
-
-
-  CHAPTER XXIII.
-
-  Maritime Discoveries of the Phœnicians.--Expedition of Hanno.
-  --Circumnavigation of Africa under the Pharaoh Necho.--Colæus of
-  Samos.--Pytheas of Massilia.--Expedition of Nearchus.
-  --Circumnavigation of Hindostan under the Ptolemies.--Voyages of
-  Discovery of the Romans.--Consequences of the Fall of the Roman
-  Empire.--Amalfi.--Pisa.--Venice.--Genoa.--Resumption of Maritime
-  Intercourse between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.--Discovery
-  of the Mariner's Compass.--Marco Polo                                443
-
-
-  CHAPTER XXIV.
-
-  Prince Henry of Portugal.--Discovery of Porto Santo and Madeira.
-  --Doubling of Cape Bojador.--Discovery of the Cape Verde Islands.
-  --Bartholomew Diaz.--Vasco de Gama.--Columbus.--His Predecessors.
-  --Discovery of Greenland by Günnbjorn.--Bjorne Herjulfson.--Leif.
-  --John Vaz Cortereal.--John and Sebastian Cabot.--Retrospective
-  View of the Beginnings of English Navigation.--Ojeda and Amerigo
-  Vespucci.--Vincent Yañez Pinson.--Cortez.--Verazzani.--Cartier.
-  --The Portuguese in the Indian Ocean                                 454
-
-
-  CHAPTER XXV.
-
-  Vasco Nuñez de Balboa.--His Discovery of the Pacific, and subsequent
-  Fate.--Ferdinand Magellan.--Sebastian el Cano, the first
-  Circumnavigator of the Globe.--Discoveries of Pizarro and Cortez.
-  --Urdaneta.--Juan Fernandez.--Mendoza.--Drake.--Discoveries of the
-  Portuguese and Dutch in the Western Pacific.--Attempts of the Dutch
-  and English to discover North-East and North-West Passages to India.
-  --Sir Hugh Willoughby and Chancellor.--Frobisher.--Davis.--Barentz.
-  --His Wintering in Nova Zembla.--Quiros.--Torres.--Schouten.--Le
-  Maire.--Abel Tasman.--Hudson.--Baffin.--Dampier.--Anson.--Byron.
-  --Wallis and Carteret.--Bougainville                                 464
-
-
-  CHAPTER XXVI.
-
-  What had Cook's Predecessors left him to discover?--His first Voyage.
-  --Discovery of the Society Islands, and of the East Coast of New
-  Holland.--His second Voyage.--Discovery of the Hervey Group.
-  --Researches in the South Sea.--The New Hebrides.--Discovery of New
-  Caledonia and of South Georgia.--His third Voyage.--The Sandwich
-  Islands.--New Albion.--West Georgia.--Cook's Murder.--Vancouver.
-  --La Peyrouse                                                        485
-
-
-  CHAPTER XXVII.
-
-  Scoresby.--The Arctic Navigators.--Ross.--Parry.--Sufferings of
-  Franklin and his Companions on his Overland Expedition in 1821.
-  --Parry's Sledge-journey to the North Pole.--Sir John Franklin.
-  --M'Clure.--Kane.--M'Clintock.--South Polar Expeditions.
-  --Bellinghausen.--Weddell.--Biscoe.--Balleny.--Dumont d'Urville.
-  --Wilkes.--Sir James Ross.--Recent Scientific Voyages of
-  Circumnavigation                                                     496
-
-
-Description of the Frontispiece.
-
-ARCTIC SLEDGE-JOURNEY.
-
-  The sledge plays a very conspicuous part in the history of arctic
-  discovery, as it enables the bold investigators of the icy
-  wildernesses of the North to penetrate to many places, impervious to
-  navigation, to establish dépôts of provisions for future emergencies,
-  or even becomes the means of saving their lives when their ship has
-  been lost or hopelessly blocked up. Whenever dogs can be had, these
-  useful animals are made use of for the transport. Our plate represents
-  one of these sledging parties threading its way through blocks of ice,
-  and gives a good idea of the difficulties they have to encounter.
-
-
-
-
-LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
-
-
-PLATES.
-
-  Arctic Sledge-Journey                              _Frontispiece._
-
-                                                         FACING PAGE
-
-  The Souffleur Rock, Mauritius                                   52
-
-  Lighthouse and Waterspout                                       65
-
-  Australian Sea-Bears                                           117
-
-  The Boats of H.M.S. "Trent" attacked by Walruses               131
-
-  Penguins                                                       142
-
-  Subaqueous Life--Sticklebacks and Nest                         195
-
-  Russian Official collecting Algæ                               392
-
-
-MAP.
-
-  Map of the Globe, showing the direction of the Ocean Currents,
-    Cotidal Lines, &c.                                _facing page 3_.
-
-
-WOODCUTS.
-
-  Annelidans:--
-    Aphrodita, or Sea-Mouse,                                     264
-    Nereis,                                                      263
-    Serpula, attached to a Shell,                                266
-
-
-  Beachy Head,                                                     5
-
-  Bell Rock Lighthouse,                                           86
-
-  Birds:--
-    Albatross, Wandering,                                        163
-    Auk,                                                         168
-      Great,                                                     151
-    Avoset,                                                      144
-    Barnacle Goose,                                              146
-    Cormorant, common,                                           155
-    Curlew,                                                      143
-    Eider Duck,                                                  146
-    Flamingo,                                                    142
-    Gannet, common,                                              156
-    Great Crested Grebe,                                         150
-    Guillemot, Black,                                            165
-      (winter plumage),                                          167
-    Herring Gulls,                                               158
-    Hooded Merganser,                                            404
-    Pelican,                                                116, 154
-    Penguins,                                                    152
-    Petrel, Broad-billed,                                        160
-      Fork-tailed,                                               160
-      Stormy,                                                    162
-    Plover,                                                      144
-    Puffins,                                                165, 167
-    Red-breasted Merganser,                                      149
-    Scissor-bill (Rhynchops nigra),                              144
-    Sheldrake,                                                   148
-    Skimmer, Black,                                              144
-    Snow Goose,                                                  146
-    Speckled Diver,                                              145
-    Tailor-bird,                                                 143
-
-  Birds of Passage,                                              171
-
-  Bones of the Anterior Fin of a Whale,                           96
-
-
-  Cœlenterata:--
-    Alcyonidium elegans,                                         363
-    Astræa,                                                      373
-    Caryophyllia,                                                370
-    Chrysaora hysoscella,                                        357
-    Coryniadæ,                                                   358
-    Ctenophora,                                                  360
-    Diphyes appendiculata,                                       353
-    Grey Sea-Pen,                                                365
-    Isis hippuris,                                               369
-    Jelly Fishes,                                      349, 350, 351
-    Lucernalia auricula,                                         352
-    Medusæ,                                            349, 350, 351
-    Physalia caravella,                                          355
-    Physophora Philippii,                                        356
-    Red Coral,                                                   367
-    Sertularia tricuspidata,                                     347
-    Stone Corals,                                           373, 374
-    Tubipora Musica,                                             370
-    Velella,                                                     354
-    Virgularia mirabilis,                                        365
-    Vogtia pentacantha,                                          353
-
-  Compound Foraminiferous Protozoon, magnified,                  380
-
-  Crustaceans:--
-    American Sand-Crab,                                          252
-    Balanus ovularis, and group of,                              244
-    Barnacle,                                               101, 244
-    Calling-Crab of Ceylon,                                      251
-    Chelura tenebrans,                                           247
-    Diogenes Hermit-Crab,                                        254
-    Dromia vulgaris,                                             249
-    Jamaica Land-Crab,                                           250
-    King Crab,                                                   246
-    Large-clawed Calling-Crab,                                   250
-    Limnoria lignorum,                                           247
-    Metamorphosis of Carcinus Mœnas,                             258
-    Pea-Crab,                                                    253
-    Phyllosoma,                                                  258
-    Pinna Augustana,                                             253
-    Sandhopper,                                                  246
-    Seyllarus equinoxialis,                                      248
-      square facets of,                                          247
-    Spotted Fin-Crab,                                            252
-    Spotted Mantis-Crab,                                         256
-    Stenopus hispidus,                                           261
-    Whale-Louse,                                                 101
-
-  Crustaceans and Oysters,                                       256
-
-
-  Dental Apparatus of the Sea-Urchin, viewed from above,         339
-
-
-  Ear, Human,                                                    196
-
-  Ear of the Perch,                                              196
-
-  Echinodermata:--
-    Cross-Fish, common,                                          334
-    Eatable Trepang,                                             340
-    Goniaster,                                                   336
-    Lily-Encrinite,                                              330
-    Sand-Star,                                                   332
-    Sea-Urchin,                                                  337
-      Edible,                                                    338
-      Mammillated,                                               338
-    Warted Euryale,                                              333
-
-  Eddystone Lighthouse,                                           84
-
-  Esquimaux in his Kayak,                                        120
-
-
-  Fingal's Cave,                                                  47
-
-  Fishes:--
-    Ammodyte, or Launce,                                         230
-    Anabas of the dry tanks,                                     192
-    Anchovy,                                                     214
-    Angler,                                                      203
-    Bonito,                                                      223
-    Cod,                                                         215
-    Conger Eel,                                                  228
-    Diodon,                                                      205
-    Dory,                                                        242
-    Electric Eel,                                                202
-    European Sly,                                                203
-    Fierasfer,                                                   340
-    File-Fish,                                                   232
-    Flounder,                                                    238
-    Flying Fish,                                       156, 206, 224
-    Frog-Fish,                                                   192
-    Gar-Fish,                                                    223
-    Globe-Fish,                                                  232
-    Gurnard,                                                197, 414
-    Haddock,                                                     215
-    Halibut,                                                     236
-    Herring,                                                101, 208
-    Lamprey,                                                     231
-    Ling,                                                        215
-    Mackerel,                                                    222
-    Mullet, Grey,                                                415
-      Red,                                                  197, 415
-    Myxine,                                                      231
-    Perch, internal ear of the,                                  196
-    Picked Dog-Fish,                                             200
-    Pilchard,                                                    212
-    Pilot-Fish,                                                  225
-    Plaice,                                                      238
-    Porcupine-Fish,                                              232
-    Salmo Rossii,                                                220
-    Salmon,                                                      415
-    Sand-Eel,                                                    415
-    Saw-Fish,                                                    201
-    Sea-Horse,                                              234, 344
-    Shark, Blue,                                                 200
-      Hammer-headed,                                             199
-      White,                                                     198
-    Short Sun-Fish,                                         232, 422
-    Sole,                                                        237
-      portion of skin of, highly magnified,                      190
-    Sturgeon, common,                                            217
-    Surgeon-Fish,                                                205
-    Swimming Pegasus,                                            207
-    Sword-Fish,                                              99, 201
-    Thornback,                                                   240
-    Torpedo,                                                     201
-    Toxotes Jaculator,                                           203
-    Trunk-Fish,                                                  232
-    Tunny,                                                       221
-    Turbot,                                                      237
-    Wolf-Fish,                                                   197
-
-  Foraminifera, various forms of,                                381
-
-  Fossils:--
-    Ammonite,                                                    437
-    Belemnite,                                                   437
-    Ichthyosaurus communis,                                 172, 438
-    Pentacrinus Briareus, portion of,                            330
-    Plesiosaurus,                                                438
-    Trilobite,                                                   436
-
-
-  Hill at the Rapid on Bear Lake River
-    (North-West Territory, North America),                        23
-
-  H.M.S. "Resolute" lying to in the North Atlantic,               24
-
-
-  Ice-Bear approaching the "Dorothea" and "Trent",               137
-
-
-  Japan Junks,                                                    63
-
-
-  Licmophora flabellata,                                         403
-
-
-  Mammals:--
-    Dolphin,                                                     107
-    Dugong,                                                      117
-      female, of Ceylon,                                         119
-    Manatee,                                                     117
-    Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus),                                134
-    Porpoise,                                                    108
-    Rorqual,                                                     101
-    Sea-Otter,                                                   140
-    Seal,                                              119, 123, 135
-      Greenland,                                                 123
-    Walrus,                                                 129, 135
-    Whale, common,                                                97
-    Whale, Spermaceti,                                      102, 115
-
-  Mollusks:--
-    Argonaut,                                                    280
-    Ascidia mammillata,                                          322
-    Banded Dipper,                                               141
-    Bivalve deprived of its shell, to show its various openings, 300
-    Botryllus,                                                   324
-    Bulla,                                                       294
-    Calamary,                                                    272
-    Carinaria,                                                   287
-    Cellularia,                                                  319
-    Chelyosoma Macleayanum,                                 323, 327
-    Chinese Wentle-trap (Scalaria pretiosa),                     289
-    Chiton squamosus,                                            285
-    Clavellina producta,                                         322
-    Clio borealis,                                                98
-    Cockle, common,                                         303, 306
-    Cuttle-Fish (Sepia),                                    104, 275
-    Diazona violacea,                                            324
-    Donax,                                                       301
-    Edible Mussel,                                               307
-    Edible Oyster,                                               308
-    Eolis,                                                       284
-    Eschara cervicornis,                                         318
-    Gorgeous Doris,                                              235
-    Haliotis,                                                    287
-    Harp-shell,                                                  288
-    Hippopus maculatus,                                          315
-    Ianthina communis,                                           290
-    Leaf-like Sea-mat,                                      316, 317
-    Limpet and Shell,                                  286, 292, 411
-    Magilus antiquus,                                            291
-    Mitre-shells,                                                288
-    Murex haustellum,                                       291, 296
-    Oliva hispidula,                                             290
-    Onychoteuthis,                                               274
-    Orange Cone-shell,                                           288
-    Pearl-Oyster,                                                312
-    Pearly Nautilus,                                             280
-    Periwinkle,                                                  411
-    Petunculus,                                                  302
-    Pholas striata,                                              302
-    Pinna,                                                       305
-    Poulp (Octopus),                                        272, 273
-    Pteroceras scorpio,                                          290
-    Retepora cellularis,                                         318
-    Salpa,                                                       326
-    Scyllæa,                                                     283
-    Sea-Hare, compound stomach of,                               295
-    Sepia,                                                  104, 275
-    Solen, or Razor-Shell,                                       304
-    Strombus pes pelicani,                                       290
-    Syllæa, gizzard of,                                          294
-    Tiara,                                                       283
-    Tridacna gigas,                                              314
-    Whelk,                                                       413
-    Worm-shell,                                                  291
-
-  Muscles and Electric Batteries of the Torpedo,                 202
-
-
-  Nervous Axis of an Annelidan,                                  262
-
-  Noctiluca miliaris,                                            419
-
-
-  Ova of the Cuttle-Fish,                                        278
-
-
-  Protozoa:--
-    Amœba,                                                       379
-    Foraminifera,                                                381
-    Halina papillaris,                                           386
-    Infusoria, marine,                                           384
-    Nummulina discoidalis,                                       378
-    Polycistina,                                                 383
-    Sponges,                                                     385
-    Tethea,                                                 385, 386
-
-
-  Reptiles:--
-    Alligator Lucius,                                            173
-    Tortoise,                                                    174
-    Turtle, Green,                                               170
-      Hawk's Bill,                                               180
-      Loggerhead,                                                176
-    Water-Snake,                                                 183
-
-  Rocky Mountains at the bend of the Bear Lake River,             79
-
-  Rotifera:--
-    Conochilus volvox,                                           268
-    Philodina roseola,                                           269
-    Ptygura melicerta,                                           267
-
-
-  Saw of the Saw-Fish,                                           100
-
-  Sea-Fowl Shooting,                                             168
-
-  Skeleton of the Dugong,                                        118
-    of the Perch,                                                188
-    of the Seal,                                                 119
-    of the Tortoise,                                             174
-
-  Skerryvore Lighthouse,                                          89
-
-  Skull and Head of Walrus,                                      129
-
-  Skull of Whale, with the Baleen,                                98
-
-  Sockets with teeth, of Echinus esculentus,                     339
-
-  Surirella constricta,                                          402
-
-
-  Theoretic representation of the Circulation in Fishes,         192
-
-  Theoretic representation of the Circulation in Mammals
-    and Birds,                                                   175
-
-  Theoretic representation of the Circulation in Reptiles,       175
-
-  Torso Rock, near Point Deas Thomson, in the Arctic Ocean,        9
-
-
-  Urticating organs of Cœlenterata,                              346
-
-
-  Water-Sports,                                               69, 70
-
-
-
-
-  PART I.
-
-  THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I.
-
-THE MAGNITUDE OF THE SEA.
-
-  Extent of the Ocean.--Length of its Coast-Line.--Mural, Rocky,
-  and Flat Coasts.--How deep is the Sea?--Average Depth of the
-  Atlantic Ocean.--The Telegraphic Plateau between Newfoundland
-  and Ireland.--Measurement of Depth by the Rapidity of the
-  Tide-Wave.--Progressive Changes in the Limits of the Ocean.--Alluvial
-  Deposits.--Upheaving.--Subsidence.--Does the Level of the Sea
-  remain unchanged, and is it everywhere the same?--Composition and
-  Temperature of Sea-Water.--Its intrinsic Colour.--The Azure Grotto at
-  Capri.--Modification of Colour owing to Animals and Plants.--Submarine
-  Landscapes viewed through the Clear Waters.
-
-
-Of all the gods that divide the empire of the earth, Neptune rules over
-the widest realms. If a giant-hand were to uproot the Andes and cast them
-into the sea, they would be engulphed in the abyss, and scarcely raise
-the general level of the waters.
-
-The South American Pampas, bounded on the north by tropical palm-trees,
-and on the south by wintry firs, are no doubt of magnificent dimensions,
-yet these vast deserts seem insignificant when compared with the
-boundless plains of earth-encircling ocean. Nay! a whole continent, even
-America or Asia, appears small against the immensity of the sea, which
-covers with its rolling waves nearly three-fourths of the entire surface
-of the globe.
-
-A single glance over the map shows us at once how very unequally water
-and land are distributed. In one part we see continents and islands
-closely grouped together, while in another the sea widely spreads in
-one unbroken plain; here vast peninsulas stretch far away into the
-domains of ocean, while there immense gulfs plunge deeply into the bosom
-of the land. At first sight it might appear as if blind chance had
-presided over this distribution, but a nearer view convinces us that
-providential laws have established the existing relations between the
-solid and fluid surfaces of the earth. If the sea had been much smaller,
-or if the greatest mass of land had been concentrated in the tropical
-zone, all the meteorological phenomena on which the existence of actual
-organic life depends would have been so different, that it is _doubtful_
-whether man could then have existed, and _certain_ that, under those
-altered circumstances, he never would have attained his present state of
-civilisation. The dependence of our intellectual development upon the
-existing configuration of the earth, convinces us that Divine wisdom and
-not chaotic anarchy has from all eternity presided over the destinies of
-our planet.
-
-The length of all the coasts which form the boundary between sea and
-land can only be roughly estimated, for who has accurately measured
-the numberless windings of so many shores? The entire coast line of
-deeply indented Europe and her larger isles measures about 21,600 miles,
-equal to the circumference of the earth; while the shores of compact
-Africa extend to a length of only 14,000 miles. I need hardly point out
-how greatly Europe's irregular outlines have contributed to the early
-development of her superior civilisation and political predominance. The
-coasts of America measure about 45,000 miles, those of Asia 40,000, while
-those of Australia and Polynesia may safely be estimated at 16,000. Thus
-the entire coast-line of the globe amounts to about 136,000 miles, which
-it would take the best pedestrian full twenty-five years to traverse from
-end to end.
-
-How different is the aspect of these shores along which the ever-restless
-sea continually rises or falls! Here steep rock-walls tower up from the
-deep, while there a low sandy beach extends its flat profile as far
-as the eye can reach. While some coasts are scorched by the vertical
-sunbeam, others are perpetually blocked up with ice. Here the safe
-harbour bids welcome to the weather-beaten sailor, the lighthouse greets
-him from afar with friendly ray; the experienced pilot hastens to guide
-him to the port, and all along the smiling margin of the land rise the
-peaceful dwellings of civilised man. There, on the contrary, the roaring
-breakers burst upon the shore of some dreary wilderness, the domain of
-the savage or the brute. What a wonderful variety of scenes unrolls
-itself before our fancy as it roams along the coasts of ocean from zone
-to zone! what changes, as it wanders from the palm-girt coral island
-of the tropical seas to the melancholy strands where, verging towards
-the poles, all vegetable life expires! and how magnificently grand does
-the idea of ocean swell out in our imagination, when we consider that
-its various shores witness at one and the same time the rising and the
-setting of the sun, the darkness of night and the full blaze of day, the
-rigour of winter and the smiling cheerfulness of spring!
-
-[Illustration: Beachy Head.]
-
-The different formation of sea-coasts has necessarily a great influence
-on commercial intercourse. Bold mural coasts, rising precipitously from
-the deep sea, generally possess the best harbours. Rocky shores also
-afford many good ports, but most frequently only for smaller vessels, and
-of difficult access, on account of the many isolated cliffs and reefs
-which characterise this species of coast formation.
-
-In places where high lands reach down to the coast, the immediate depth
-of the sea is proportionably great; but wherever the surface rises gently
-landwards, the sea-bed continues with a corresponding slope downwards. On
-these flat coasts the tides roll over a sandy or shingly beach; and here
-the aid of human industry is frequently required to create artificial
-ports, or to prevent those already existing from being choked with sand.
-
-On many flat coasts the drift-sand has raised _dunes_, wearying the eye
-by their monotonous uniformity; on others, where these natural bulwarks
-are wanting, artificial embankments, or dykes protect the lowlands
-against the encroachments of the sea, or else the latter forms vast
-salt-marshes and lagunes. On some coasts these submerged or half-drowned
-lands have been transformed by the industry of man into fertile meadows
-and fields, of which the Dutch Netherlands afford the most celebrated
-example; while in other countries, such as Egypt, large tracts of land
-once cultivated have been lost to the sea, in consequence of long misrule
-and tyranny.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-How deep is the sea? How is its bottom formed? Does life still exist in
-its abyssal depths? These mysteries of ocean, which no doubt floated
-indistinctly before the mind of many an inquisitive mariner and
-philosopher of ancient times, have only recently been subjected to a more
-accurate investigation. Their solution is of the highest importance,
-both to the physical geographer, whose knowledge must necessarily
-remain incomplete until he can fully trace the deep-sea path of oceanic
-currents, and to the zoologist, to whom it affords a wider insight into
-the laws which govern the development of the innumerable forms of life
-with which our globe is peopled.
-
-The ordinary system of sounding by means of a weight attached to a
-graduated line, and "armed" at its lower end with a thick coating of soft
-tallow, so as to bring up evidence of its having reached the bottom in a
-sample of mud, shells, sand, gravel, or ooze, answers perfectly well for
-comparatively shallow water, and for the ordinary purposes of navigation,
-but it breaks down for depths much over 1000 fathoms. The weight is not
-sufficient to carry the line rapidly and vertically to the bottom; and if
-a heavier weight be used, ordinary sounding line is unable to draw up its
-own weight along with that of the lead from great depths, and gives way,
-so that by this means no information can be gained as to the nature of
-the sea-bottom. To obviate this difficulty, several ingenious instruments
-have been invented, such as the "Bull-dog" sounding machine, which is so
-contrived that on touching the bottom the weight becomes detached, while
-at the same time a pair of scoops, closing upon one another scissorwise
-on a hinge, and permanently attached to the sounding-line, retain and
-are able to bring up a sample of the bottom.
-
-With the aid of steam, dredging has also been successfully carried down
-to 2,435 fathoms, so that the ocean bed may become in time as well known
-to us as the bed of the Mersey or the Thames.
-
-Both sounding and dredging at great depths are, however, difficult and
-laborious tasks, which can only be performed under very favourable
-circumstances, and require a vessel specially fitted at considerable
-expense.
-
-Many of the early deep soundings in the Atlantic, which reported the
-astonishing depths of 46,000 or even 50,000 feet, are now known to have
-been greatly exaggerated. In some cases bights of the line seem to be
-carried along by submarine currents, and in others it is found that the
-line has been running out by its own weight only, and coiling itself in
-a tangled mass directly over the lead. These sources of error vitiate
-very deep soundings; and consequently, in the last chart of the North
-Atlantic, published on the authority of Rear-Admiral Richards in November
-1870, none are entered beyond 4000 fathoms, and very few beyond 3000.
-
-"The general result," says Professor Wyville Thomson,[A] "to which we
-are led by the careful and systematic deep-sea soundings which have been
-undertaken of late years is that the depth of the sea is not so great as
-was at one time supposed, and does not appear to average more than 2000
-fathoms (12,000 feet), about equal to the mean height of the elevated
-table-lands of Asia.
-
-[Footnote A: "The Depths of the Sea," p. 228.]
-
-"The thin shell of water which covers so much of the face of the earth
-occupies all the broad general depressions in its crust, and it is only
-limited by the more abrupt prominences which project above its surface,
-as masses of land with their crowning plateaux and mountain ranges. The
-Atlantic Ocean covers 30,000,000 of square miles, and the Arctic Sea
-3,000,000, and taken together they almost exactly equal the united areas
-of Europe, Asia, and Africa--the whole of the Old World--and yet there
-seem to be few depressions on its bed to a greater depth than 15,000 or
-20,000 feet--a little more than the height of Mont Blanc; and, except in
-the neighbourhood of the shores, there is only one very marked mass of
-mountains, the volcanic group of the Açores."
-
-Accurate soundings are as yet much too distant to justify a detailed
-description of the bed of the Atlantic. I will merely state that after
-sloping gradually to a depth of 500 fathoms to the westward of the coast
-of Ireland, in lat. 52° N., the bottom suddenly dips to 1700 fathoms,
-at the rate of from about 15 to 19 feet in the 100. From this point to
-within about 200 miles of the coast of Newfoundland, where it begins
-to shoal again, there is a vast undulating plain averaging about 2000
-fathoms in depth below the surface--the "telegraph plateau" on which now
-rest the cables through which the electric power transmits its marvellous
-messages from one world to another.
-
-Our information about the beds of the Indian, the Antarctic, and the
-Pacific Oceans is still more incomplete, but the few trustworthy
-observations which have hitherto been made seem to indicate that neither
-the depth nor the nature of the bottom of these seas differs greatly from
-what we find nearer home.
-
-The inclosed and land-locked European seas are very shallow when compared
-with the high ocean: the Mediterranean, however, has in some parts a
-depth of more than 6000 feet; and even in the Black Sea, the plummet
-sometimes descends to more than 3000 feet; while the waters of the
-Adriatic everywhere roll over a shallow bed.
-
-The researches of Mr. Russell on the swiftness of the tide-wave, showing
-that the rapidity of its progress increases with the depth of the waters
-over which it passes, afford us another means, besides the sounding
-line, of determining approximately the distance of the sea-bottom from
-its surface. According to this method, the depth of the Channel between
-Plymouth and Boulogne has been calculated at 180 feet; and the enormous
-rapidity of the flood wave over the great open seas (300 miles an hour
-and more) gives us for the mean depth of the Atlantic 14,400 feet, and
-for that of the Pacific 19,500.
-
-Natural philosophers have endeavoured to calculate the quantity of the
-waters contained within the vast bosom of the ocean; but as we are
-still very far from accurately knowing the mean depth of the sea, such
-estimates are evidently based upon a very unsubstantial foundation.
-
-So much at least is certain, that the volume of the waters of the ocean
-as much surpasses all conception, as the number of their inhabitants, or
-of the sands that line their shores.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-[Illustration: Torso Rock, near Point Deas Thomson, in the Arctic Ocean.]
-
-The boundaries of the ocean are not invariable; while in some parts
-it encroaches upon the land, in others it retreats from the expanding
-coast. In many places we find the sea perpetually gnawing and undermining
-cliffs and rocks; and sometimes swelling with sudden rage, it devours a
-broad expanse of plain, and changes fertile meads into a dreary waste of
-waters. The Goodwin Sands, notorious for the loss of many a noble vessel,
-were once a large tract of low ground belonging to Earl Goodwin, father
-of Harold, the last of our Saxon kings; and being afterwards enjoyed
-by the monastery of St. Augustine at Canterbury, the whole surface was
-drowned by the abbot's neglect to repair the wall which defended it from
-the sea. In spite of the endeavours of the Dutch to protect their flat
-land by dykes against the inundatory waters, the storm-flood has more
-than once burst through these artificial boundaries, and converted large
-districts into inland seas.
-
-But the spaces which in this manner the dry land has gradually or
-suddenly lost, or still loses, to the chafing ocean are largely
-compensated for in other places, by the vast accumulations of mud
-and sand, which so many rivers continually carry along with them into
-the sea. Thus at the mouths of the Nile, of the Ganges, and of the
-Mississippi, large alluvial plains have been deposited, which now form
-some of the most fruitful portions of the globe. The whole Delta of
-Egypt, Bengal, and Louisiana, have thus gradually emerged from the waters.
-
-The volcanic powers, which once caused the highest mountain chains to
-rise from the glowing bosom of the earth, are still uninterruptedly
-active in changing its surface, and are gradually displacing the present
-boundaries of sea and land, upheaving some parts and causing others to
-subside.
-
-On the coast of Sweden, it has been ascertained that iron rings fixed to
-rocks which formerly served for the fastening of boats are at present
-much too high. Flat cliffs on which, according to ancient documents,
-seals used to be clubbed while enjoying the warm sunbeam, are now quite
-out of the reach of these amphibious animals. In the years 1731, 1752,
-and 1755, marks were hewn in some conspicuous rocks, which after the
-lapse of half a century were found to have risen about two feet higher
-above the level of the sea. This phenomenon is confined to part of the
-coast, so that it is clearly the result of a local and slowly progressive
-upheaving.
-
-Whilst a great part of Scandinavia is thus slowly but steadily rising,
-the shores of Chili have been found to rise convulsively under the
-influence of mighty volcanic shocks. Thus after the great earthquake of
-1822, the whole coast, for the length of a hundred miles, was found to
-be three or four feet higher than before, and a further elevation was
-observed after the earthquake of Feb. 21st, 1835.
-
-While to the north of Wolstenholme Sound, Kane remarked signs of
-elevation, a converse depression was observed as he proceeded southwards
-along the coast of Greenland, Esquimaux huts being seen washed by the
-sea. The axis of oscillation must be somewhere about 77° N. lat.
-
-At Keeling Island, in the Indian Ocean, Mr. Darwin found evidence
-of subsidence. On every side of the lagoon, in which the water is
-as tranquil as in the most sheltered lake, old cocoa-nut trees were
-undermined and falling. The foundation-posts of a store-house on the
-beach, which the inhabitants had said stood seven years before just above
-high-water mark, were now daily washed by the tide. Earthquakes had been
-repeatedly remarked by the inhabitants, so that Darwin no longer doubted
-concerning the cause which made the trees to fall, and the store-house to
-be washed by the daily tide.
-
-On the columns of the temple of Serapis, near Puzzuoli, the astonished
-naturalist sees holes scooped out by Pholades and Lithodomas, twenty-four
-feet above the present level of the sea. These animals are marine
-testacea, that have the power of burying themselves in stone, and
-cannot live beyond the reach of low-water. How then have they been able
-to scoop out those hieroglyphic marks so far above the level of their
-usual abodes? for surely marble originally defective was never used
-for the construction of so proud an edifice. Alternate depressions and
-elevations of the soil afford us the only key to the enigma. Earthquakes
-and oscillations, so frequent in that volcanic region, must first
-have lowered the temple into the sea, where it was acted upon by the
-sacrilegious molluscs, and then again their upheaving powers must have
-raised it to its present elevation. Thus, even the solid earth changes
-its features, and reminds us of the mutability of all created things.
-
-There can be no doubt that, in consequence of the perpetual increase of
-alluvial deposits, and of the volcanic processes I have mentioned, the
-present boundaries of ocean must undergo great alterations in the course
-of centuries, and the general level of the sea must either rise or fall;
-but the evidence of history proves to us that, for the last 2000 years at
-least, there has been no notable change in this respect.
-
-The baths hewn out in the rocks of Alexandria, and the stones of its
-harbour, have remained unaltered ever since the foundation of the city
-by the Macedonian conqueror; and the ancient port of Marseilles shows
-no more signs of a change of level than the old sea-walls of Cadiz.
-Thus, all the elevations and depressions that have occurred in the bed
-of ocean, or along its margin, and all the mud and sand that thousands
-of rivers continually carry along with them into the sea, have left its
-general level unaltered, at least within the historic ages. However
-great their effects may appear to the eye that confines itself to local
-changes, their influence, as far as the evidence of history reaches, has
-been but slight upon the immensity of the sea.
-
-Geodesical operations have proved that the level of the ocean, with
-the exception of certain enclosed seas of limited extent, is everywhere
-the same. The accurate measurements of Corabœuf and Delcros show no
-perceptible difference between the level of the Channel and that of the
-Mediterranean. In the course of the operations for measuring the meridian
-in France, M. Delambre calculated the height of Rodez above the level
-of the Mediterranean at Barcelona, and its height above the ocean which
-washes the foot of the tower of Dunkirk, and found the difference to be
-equal to a fraction of a yard.
-
-The measurements which, at Humboldt's suggestion, General Bolivar caused
-to be executed by Messrs. Lloyd and Filmore, prove that the Pacific is,
-at the utmost, only a few feet higher than the Caribbean Sea, and even
-that the relative height of the two seas changes with the tides.
-
-The long and narrow inlet of the Red Sea, which, according to former
-measurements, was said to be twenty-four or thirty feet higher than the
-Mediterranean seems, from more recent and accurate investigations, to be
-of the same level, and thus to form no exception to the general rule.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The salts contained in sea water, and to which it owes its peculiar
-bitter and unpleasant taste, form about three and a half per cent. of
-its weight, and consist principally of common table salt (chloride of
-sodium), and the sulphates and carbonates of magnesia and lime. But,
-besides these chief ingredients, there is scarcely a single elementary
-body of which traces are not to be found in that universal solvent.
-Wilson has pointed out fluoric combinations in sea water, and Malaguti
-and Durocher (Annales de Chimie, 1851) detected lead, copper, and silver
-in its composition. Tons of this precious metal are dissolved in the vast
-volume of the ocean, and it contains arsenic sufficient to poison every
-living thing.
-
-Animal mucus, the product of numberless creatures, is mixed up with the
-sea water, and it constantly absorbs carbonic acid and atmospheric air,
-which are as indispensable to the marine animals and plants as to the
-denizens of the atmospheric ocean.
-
-In inclosed seas, communicating with the ocean only by narrow straits,
-the quantity of saline particles varies from that of the high seas. Thus
-the Mediterranean, when evaporation is favoured by heat, contains about
-one half per cent. more salt than the ocean; while the Baltic, which,
-on account of its northern position, is not liable to so great a loss,
-and receives vast volumes of fresh water from a number of considerable
-rivers, is scarcely half so salt as the neighbouring North Sea.
-
-In the open ocean, the perpetual circulation of the waters produces an
-admirable equality of composition: yet Dr. Lenz, who accompanied Kotzebue
-in his second voyage round the world, and devoted great attention to
-the subject, found that the Atlantic, particularly in its western part,
-contains a somewhat larger proportion of salts than the Pacific; and that
-the Indian Ocean, which connects those vast volumes of water, is more
-salt towards the former than towards the latter.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-As water is a bad conductor of caloric, the temperature of the seas is in
-general more constant than that of the air.
-
-The equinoctial ocean seldom attains the maximum warmth of 83°, and has
-never been known to rise above 87°; while the surface of the land between
-the tropics is frequently heated to 129°. In the neighbourhood of the
-line, the temperature of the surface-water oscillates all the year round
-only between 82° and 85°, and scarce any difference is perceptible at
-different times of the day.
-
-The wonderful sameness and equability of the temperature of the tropical
-ocean over spaces covering thousands of square miles, particularly
-between 10° N. and 10° S. lat., far from the coasts, and where it is
-not intersected by pelagic streams, affords, according to Arago, the
-best means of solving a very important, and as yet unanswered question,
-concerning the physics of the globe. "Without troubling itself,"
-says that great natural philosopher, "about mere local influences,
-each century might leave to succeeding generations, by a few easy
-thermometrical measurements, the means of ascertaining whether the sun,
-at present almost the only source of warmth upon the surface of the
-earth, changes his physical constitution, and varies in his splendour
-like most stars, or whether he has attained a permanent condition. Great
-and lasting revolutions in his shining orb would reflect themselves more
-accurately in the altered mean temperature of those ocean plains than in
-the changed medium warmth of the dry land."
-
-The warmest part of the ocean does not coincide with the Equator, but
-seems to form two not quite parallel bands to the north and south.
-
-In the northern Atlantic, the line of greatest temperature (87° F.) which
-on the African coast is found but a little to the north of the Equator,
-rises on the north coast of South America as high as 12° N. lat., and
-in the Gulf of Mexico ranges even beyond the tropic. The influence of
-the warmth-radiating land on inclosed waters is still more remarkable in
-the Mediterranean (between 30° and 44° N. lat.) where during the summer
-months a temperature of 84° and 85° is found, three degrees higher than
-the medium warmth of the open tropical seas.
-
-While in the torrid zone the temperature of the ocean is generally
-inferior to that of the atmosphere, the contrary takes place in the Polar
-seas. Near Spitzbergen, even under 80° N. lat., Gaimard never found the
-temperature of the water below +33°. Between Norway and Spitzbergen the
-mean warmth of the water in summer was +39°, while that of the air only
-attained +37°.
-
-In the enclosed seas of the Arctic Ocean, the enormous accumulation of
-ice, which the warmth of a short summer is unable totally to dissolve,
-naturally produces a very low temperature of the waters. Thus, in
-Baffin's Bay, Sir John Ross found during the summer months only
-thirty-one days on which the temperature of the water rose above freezing
-point.
-
-In the depths of the sea, even in the tropical zone, the water is found
-of a frigid temperature, and this circumstance first led to the knowledge
-of the submarine polar ocean currents; "for without these, the deep sea
-temperature in the tropics could never have been lower than the maximum
-of cold, which the heat-radiating particles attain at the surface."[B]
-
-[Footnote B: Humboldt's "Kosmos."]
-
-It was formerly believed that while the surface temperature--which
-depended upon direct solar radiation, the direction of currents, the
-temperature of winds, and other temporary causes--might vary to any
-amount, at a certain depth the temperature was permanent at 4° C., the
-temperature of the greatest density of fresh water. Late investigations,
-however, have led to the conclusion that instead of there being a
-permanent deep layer of water at 4° C., the average temperature of the
-deep sea in temperate and tropical regions is about 0° C., the freezing
-point of fresh water.
-
-In the atmospheric ocean, aëronauts not seldom meet with warm air
-currents flowing above others of a colder temperature; while, according
-to a general law, the warmth of the air constantly diminishes as its
-elevation above the surface of the sea increases.
-
-Similar exceptions to the general rule are met with in the ocean. In
-moderate depths sometimes the whole mass of water from the surface to the
-bottom is abnormally warm, owing to the movement in a certain direction
-of a great body of warm water, as in the "warm area" to the north-west of
-the Hebrides, where, at a depth of 500 fathoms, the minimum temperature
-was found to be 6° C. On the other hand, the whole body of water is
-sometimes abnormally cold, as in the "cold area," between Scotland and
-Faeroe, where, at a depth of 500 fathoms, the bottom temperature is found
-to average -1° C.[C] The only feasible explanation of these enormous
-differences of temperature, amounting to nearly 13° F. in two areas
-freely communicating with one another, and in close proximity, is that
-in the area to the north-west of the Hebrides a body of water warmed
-even above the normal temperature of the latitude flows northwards from
-some southern source, and occupies the whole depth of that comparatively
-shallow portion of the Atlantic, while an arctic stream of frigid water
-creeps from the north-eastward into the trough between Faeroe and the
-Shetland Islands, and fills its deeper part in consequence of its higher
-specific gravity. There can be no doubt that similar phenomena occur
-in various parts of the ocean, and that the deep seas are frequently
-intersected by streams differing in temperature from the surrounding
-waters.
-
-[Footnote C: "The Depths of the Sea," by Professor Wyville Thomson, p.
-307.]
-
-In some places, owing to the conformation of the neighbouring land or
-of the sea-bottom, superficial warm and cold currents are circumscribed
-and localised, thereby occasioning the singular phenomenon of a patch
-or stripe of warm and a patch of cold sea meeting in an invisible but
-well-defined line.
-
-The temperature of the sea apparently never sinks at any depth below
--3·5° C. This is about the temperature of the maximum density of sea
-water, which contracts steadily till just above its freezing point
-(-3·67° C.), when kept perfectly still.
-
-If we include in the tropical seas all that part of the ocean where the
-surface temperature never falls below 68° F., and where consequently
-living coral reefs may occur, we find that it nearly equals in size the
-temperate and cold ocean-regions added together. This distribution of
-the waters over the surface of the globe is of the highest importance to
-mankind; for the immense extent of the tropical ocean, where, of course,
-the strongest evaporation takes place, furnishes our temperate zone with
-the necessary quantity of rain, and tends by its cooling influence to
-diminish the otherwise unbearable heat of the equatorial lands.
-
-The circumstance of ice being lighter than water also contributes to the
-habitability of our earth. Ice is a bad conductor of heat; consequently
-it shields the subjacent waters from the influence of frost, and prevents
-its penetrating to considerable depths. If ice had been heavier than
-water, the sea-bottom, in higher latitudes, would have been covered
-with solid crystal at the very beginning of the cold season; and during
-the whole length of the polar winter, the perpetually consolidating
-surface-waters would have been constantly precipitated, till finally the
-whole sea, far within the present temperate zone, would have formed one
-solid mass of ice. The sun would have been as powerless to melt this
-prodigious body, as it is to dissolve the glaciers of the Alps, and the
-cold radiating from its surface would have rendered all the neighbouring
-lands uninhabitable.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The mixture of the water of rivers with that of the sea presents some
-hydrostatic phenomena which it is curious enough to observe. Fresh water
-being lighter, ought to keep at the surface, while the salt water, from
-its weight, should form the deepest strata. This, in fact, is what Mr.
-Stephenson observed in 1818 in the harbour of Aberdeen at the mouth of
-the Dee, and also in the Thames near London and Woolwich. By taking up
-water from different depths with an instrument invented for the purpose,
-Mr. Stephenson found that at a certain distance from the mouth the water
-is fresh in the whole depth, even during the flow of the tide, but that
-a little nearer the sea fresh water is found on the surface, while the
-lower strata consist of sea water. According to his observations it is
-between London and Woolwich that the saltness of the bottom begins to be
-perceptible. Thus, below Woolwich the Thames, instead of flowing over a
-solid bed, in reality flows upon a liquid bottom formed by the water of
-the sea, with which no doubt it is more or less mixed.
-
-Mr. Stephenson is of opinion that, at the flow of the tide, the fresh
-water is raised as it were in a single mass by the salt water which
-flows in, and which ascends the bed of the river, while the fresh water
-continues to flow towards the sea.
-
-Where the Amazon, the La Plata, the Orinoco, and other giant streams pour
-out their vast volumes of water into the ocean, the surface of the sea is
-fresh for many miles from the shore; but this is only superficial, for
-below, even in the bed of the rivers, the bitterness of salt water is
-found.
-
-It is a curious fact, that in many parts of the ocean, fresh-water
-springs burst from the bottom of the sea. Thus, in the Gulf of Spezzia,
-and in the port of Syracuse, large jets of fresh water mingle with the
-brine; and Humboldt mentions a still more remarkable submarine fountain
-on the southern coast of Cuba, in the Gulf of Xagua, a couple of sea
-miles from the shore, which gushes through the salt water with such
-vehemence, that boats approaching the spot are obliged to use great
-caution. Trading vessels are said sometimes to visit this spring, in
-order to provide themselves in the midst of the ocean with a supply of
-fresh water.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The sea is not colourless; its crystal mirror not only reflects the
-bright sky or the passing cloud, but naturally possesses a pure bluish
-tint, which is only rendered visible to the eye when the light penetrates
-through a stratum of water of considerable depth. This may be easily
-ascertained by experiment. Take a glass tube, two inches wide and two
-yards long, blacken it internally with lamp-black and wax to within half
-an inch of the end, the latter being closed by a cork. Throw a few pieces
-of white porcelain into this tube, which, after being filled with pure
-sea-water, must be set vertically on a white plate, and then, looking
-through the open end, you will see the white of the porcelain changed
-into a light blue tint.
-
-In the Gulf of Naples, we find the inherent colour of the water exhibited
-to us by Nature on a most magnificent scale. The splendid "Azure cave,"
-at Capri, might almost be said to have been created for the purpose.
-For many centuries its beauties had been veiled from man, as the narrow
-entrance is only a few feet above the level of the sea, and it was
-only discovered in the year 1826, by two Prussian artists accidentally
-swimming in the neighbourhood. Having passed the portal, the cave widens
-to grand proportions, 125 feet long, and 145 feet broad, and except
-a small landing place on a projecting rock at the farther end, its
-precipitous walls are on all sides bathed by the influx of the waters,
-which in that sea are most remarkably clear, so that the smallest objects
-may be distinctly seen on the light bottom at a depth of several hundred
-feet. All the light that enters the grotto must penetrate the whole depth
-of the waters, probably several hundred feet, before it can be reflected
-into the cave from the clear bottom, and it thus acquires so deep a tinge
-from the vast body of water through which it has passed, that the dark
-walls of the cavern are illumined by a radiance of the purest azure, and
-the most differently coloured objects below the surface of the water are
-made to appear bright blue. Had Byron known of the existence of this
-magic cave, Childe Harold would surely have sung its beauties in some of
-his most brilliant stanzas.
-
-All profound and clear seas are more or less of a deep blue colour,
-while, according to seamen, a green colour indicates soundings. The
-bright blue of the Mediterranean, so often vaunted by poets, is found all
-over the deep pure ocean, not only in the tropical and temperate zones,
-but also in the regions of eternal frost. Scoresby speaks with enthusiasm
-of the splendid blue of the Greenland seas, and all along the great
-ice-barrier which under 77° S. lat. obstructed the progress of Sir James
-Ross towards the pole, that illustrious navigator found the waters of as
-deep a blue as in the classical Mediterranean. The North Sea is green,
-partly from its water not being so clear, and partly from the reflection
-of its sandy bottom mixing with the essentially blue tint of the water.
-In the Bay of Loanga the sea has the colour of blood, and Captain Tuckey
-discovered that this results from the reflection of the red ground-soil.
-
-But the essential colour of the sea undergoes much more frequent changes
-over large spaces, from enormous masses of minute _algæ_, and countless
-hosts of small sea-worms, floating or swimming on its surface.
-
-"A few days after leaving Bahia," says Mr. Darwin, "not far from the
-Abrolhos islets, the whole surface of the water, as it appeared under a
-weak lens, seemed as if covered by chipped bits of hay with their ends
-jagged. Each bundle consisted of from twenty to sixty filaments, divided
-at regular intervals by transverse septa, containing a brownish-green
-flocculent matter. The ship passed several bands of them, one of which
-was about ten yards wide, and, judging from the mud-like colour of the
-water, at least two and a half miles long. Similar masses of floating
-vegetable matter are a very common appearance near Australia. During two
-days preceding our arrival at the Keeling Islands, I saw in many parts
-masses of flocculent matter of a brownish green colour, floating in the
-ocean. They were from half to three inches square, and consisted of two
-kinds of microscopical confervæ. Minute cylindrical bodies, conical at
-each extremity, were involved in large numbers in a mass of fine threads."
-
-"On the coast of Chili," says the same author, "a few leagues north of
-Conception, the 'Beagle' one day passed through great bands of muddy
-water; and again, a degree south of Valparaiso, the same appearance
-was still more extensive. Mr. Sulivan, having drawn up some water in a
-glass, distinguished by the aid of a lens moving points. The water was
-slightly stained, as if by red dust, and after leaving it for sometime
-quiet, a cloud collected at the bottom. With a slightly magnifying lens,
-small hyaline points could be seen darting about with great rapidity,
-and frequently exploding. Examined with a much higher power, their shape
-was found to be oval, and contracted by a ring round the middle, from
-which line curved little setæ proceeded on all sides, and these were the
-organs of motion. Their minuteness was such that they were individually
-quite invisible to the naked eye, each covering a space equal only to
-the one-thousandth of an inch, and their number was infinite, for the
-smallest drop of water contained very many. In one day we passed through
-two spaces of water thus stained, one of which alone must have extended
-over several square miles. The colour of the water was like that of
-a river which has flowed through a red clay district, and a strictly
-defined line separated the red stream from the blue water."
-
-In the neighbourhood of Callao, the Pacific has an olive-green colour,
-owing to a greenish matter which is also found at the bottom of the sea,
-in a depth of 800 feet. In its natural state it has no smell, but when
-cast on the fire, it emits the odour of burnt animal substances.
-
-Near Cape Palmas, on the coast of Guinea, Captain Tuckey's ship seemed to
-sail through milk, a phenomenon which was owing to an immense number of
-little white animals swimming on the surface, and concealing the natural
-tint of the water.
-
-The peculiar colouring of the Red Sea, from which it has derived its
-name, is owing to the presence of a microscopic alga, _sui generis_,
-floating at the surface of the sea and even less remarkable for its
-beautiful red colour than for its prodigious fecundity.
-
-I could add many more examples, where, either from minute algæ or from
-small animals, the deep blue sea suddenly appeared in stripes of white,
-yellow, green, brown, orange or red. For fear, however, of tiring the
-reader's patience, I shall merely mention the _olive-green_ water, which
-covers a considerable part of the Greenland seas. It is found between
-74° and 80° N. lat., but its position varies with the currents, often
-forming isolated stripes, and sometimes spreading over two or three
-degrees of latitude. Small yellowish Medusæ, of from one-thirtieth to
-one-twentieth of an inch in diameter are the principal agents that change
-the pure ultramarine of the Arctic Ocean into a muddy green. According
-to Scoresby, they are about one-fourth of an inch asunder, and in this
-proportion a cubic inch of water must contain 64, a cubic foot 110,592,
-a cubic fathom 23,887,872, and a cubic mile nearly twenty-four thousand
-billions! From soundings made in the situation where these animals were
-found, the sea is probably more than a mile deep; but whether these
-substances occupy the whole depth is uncertain. Provided, however, the
-depth to which they extend be about 250 fathoms, the immense number of
-one species mentioned above may occur in a space of two miles square; and
-what a stupendous idea must we form of the infinitude of marine life,
-when we consider that those vast numbers, beyond all human conception,
-occupy after all only a small part of the green-coloured ocean which
-extends over twenty or thirty thousand square miles! It is here that the
-giant whale of the north finds his richest pasture-grounds, which at
-the same time invite man to follow on his track. A small red crustacean
-(_Cetochilus australis_) which forms very extensive banks in the Pacific,
-and in the middle of the Atlantic about 40° S. lat., affords a similar
-supply of food to the whales frequenting those seas, and exposes them to
-the same dangers.
-
-When the sea is perfectly clear and transparent, it allows the eye to
-distinguish objects at a very great depth. Near Mindora, in the Indian
-Ocean, the spotted corals are plainly visible under twenty-five fathoms
-of water. The crystalline clearness of the Caribbean sea excited the
-admiration of Columbus, who in the pursuit of his great discoveries ever
-retained an open eye for the beauties of nature. "In passing over these
-splendidly adorned grounds," says Schöpf, "where marine life shows itself
-in an endless variety of forms, the boat, suspended over the purest
-crystal, seems to float in the air, so that a person unaccustomed to the
-scene easily becomes giddy. On the clear sandy bottom appear thousands of
-sea-stars, sea-urchins, molluscs, and fishes of a brilliancy of colour
-unknown in our temperate seas. Fiery red, intense blue, lively green,
-and golden yellow perpetually vary; the spectator floats over groves of
-sea-plants, gorgonias, corals, alcyoniums, flabellums, and sponges, that
-afford no less delight to the eye, and are no less gently agitated by the
-heaving waters, than the most beautiful garden on earth when a gentle
-breeze passes through the waving boughs."
-
-With equal enthusiasm De Quatrefages expatiates on the beauties of the
-submarine landscapes on the coast of Sicily. "The surface of the waters,
-smooth and even like a mirror, enabled the eye to penetrate to an
-incredible depth, and to recognise the smallest objects. Deceived by this
-wonderful transparency, it often occurred during my first excursions,
-that I wished to seize some annelide or medusa, which seemed to swim
-but a few inches from the surface. Then the boatman smiled, took a net
-fastened to a long pole, and, to my great astonishment, plunged it deep
-into the water before it could attain the object which I had supposed
-to be within my reach. The admirable clearness of the waters produced
-another deception of a most agreeable kind. Leaning over the boat, we
-glided over plains, dales, and hillocks, which, in some places naked
-and in others carpeted with green or with brownish shrubbery, reminded
-us of the prospects of the land. Our eye distinguished the smallest
-inequalities of the piled-up rocks, plunged more than a hundred feet
-deep into their cavernous hollows, and everywhere the undulations of
-the sand, the abrupt edges of the stone-blocks, and the tufts of algæ
-were so sharply defined, that the wonderful illusion made us forget
-the reality of the scene. Between us and those lovely pictures we saw
-no more the intervening waters that enveloped them as in an atmosphere
-and carried our boat upon their bosom. It was as if we were hanging in
-a vacant space, or looking down like birds hovering in the air upon a
-charming prospect. Strangely formed animals peopled these submarine
-regions, and lent them a peculiar character. Fishes, sometimes isolated
-like the sparrows of our groves, or uniting in flocks like our pigeons
-or swallows, roamed among the crags, wandered through the thickets
-of the sea-plants, and shot away like arrows as our boat passed over
-them. Caryophyllias, Gorgonias, and a thousand other zoophytes unfolded
-their sensitive petals, and could hardly be distinguished from the
-real plants with whose fronds their branches intertwined. Enormous
-dark blue Holothurias crept along upon the sandy bottom, or slowly
-climbed the rocks, on which crimson sea-stars spread out immoveably
-their long radiating arms. Molluscs dragged themselves lazily along,
-while crabs, resembling huge spiders, ran against them in their oblique
-and rapid progress, or attacked them with their formidable claws.
-Other crustaceans, analogous to our lobsters or shrimps, gambolled
-among the fuci, sought for a moment the surface waters to enjoy the
-light of heaven, and then by one mighty stroke of their muscular tail,
-instantly disappeared again in the obscure recesses of the deep. Among
-these animals whose shapes reminded us of familiar forms appeared other
-species, belonging to types unknown in our colder latitudes: _Salpæ_,
-strange molluscs of glassy transparency, that, linked together, form
-swimming chains; great _Beroës_, similar to living enamel; _Diphyæ_
-hardly to be distinguished from the pure element in which they move, and
-finally, _Stephanomiæ_, animated garlands woven of crystal and flowers,
-and which, still more delicate than the latter, disappear as they wither,
-and do not even leave a cloud behind them in the vase, which a few
-moments before their glassy bodies had nearly entirely filled."
-
-[Illustration: Hill at the Rapid on Bear Lake River. (North-West
-Territory, North America.)]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. II.
-
-THE WAVES OF THE OCEAN.
-
-  Waves and the Mode of their Formation.--Height and Velocity of
-  Storm-Waves, on the High Seas, according to the Calculations of
-  Scoresby, Arago, Sir James Ross, and Wilkes.--Their Height and
-  Power on Coasts.--Their Destructive Effects along the British
-  Shore.--Dunwich.--Reculver.--Shakspeare's Cliff.
-
-
-After having admired the sea in the grandeur of its expanse, and the
-profundity of its depths, I shall, in this and the two following
-chapters, examine in what manner the perpetual circulation of its waters
-is maintained.
-
-[Illustration: H.M.S. "Resolute" lying to in the North Atlantic.]
-
-"The movements of the sea," says Humboldt, "are of a three-fold
-description: partly irregular and transitory, depending upon the winds,
-and occasioning waves; partly regular and periodical, resulting from
-the attraction of the sun and the moon (ebb and flood); and partly
-permanent, though of unequal strength and rapidity at different periods
-(oceanic currents)."
-
-Who has ever sojourned on the coast, or crossed the seas, and has not
-been delighted by the aspect of the waves, so graceful when a light
-breeze curls the surface of the waters, so sublime when a raging storm
-disturbs the depths of the ocean?
-
-But it is easier to admire the beauty of a wave than clearly to explain
-its nature, so as to convey an accurate or sufficiently general
-conception of its formation to the reader's mind. Those who are placed
-for the first time on a stormy sea, discover with wonder that the large
-waves which they see rushing along with a velocity of many miles an hour
-do not carry the floating body along with them, but seem to pass under
-the bottom of the ship with scarcely a perceptible effect in carrying the
-vessel out of its course.
-
-In like manner, the observer near the shore perceives that floating
-pieces of wood are not carried towards the shore with the rapidity of
-the waves, but are left nearly in the same place after the wave has
-passed them as before. Nay, if the tide be ebbing, the waves may even be
-observed rushing with great velocity towards the shore, while the body of
-water is actually receding, and any object floating in it is carried in
-the opposite direction to the waves out to sea.
-
-What, then, is wave-motion as distinct from water-motion? The force of
-the wind, pushing a given mass of water out of its place into another,
-dislodges the original occupant, which is again pushed forward on the
-occupant of the next place, and so on. As the water-particles crowd
-upon one another, in the act of going out of their old places into the
-new, the crowd forms a temporary heap visible on the surface of the
-fluid, and as each successive mass is displacing the one before it, the
-undulation or oscillatory movement spreads farther and farther over the
-waters. Wave-motion is, in fact, the transference of motion without the
-transference of matter: of form without the substance, of force without
-the agent.
-
-The strongest storm cannot suddenly raise high waves, they require
-time for their development. Fancy the wind blowing over an even sea,
-and it will set water-particles in motion all over the surface,
-and thus give the first impulse to the formation of small waves.
-Numberless oscillations unite their efforts, and create visible
-elevations and depressions. Meanwhile, the wind is constantly setting
-new particles in motion; long before the first oscillations have lost
-their effect, countless others are perpetually arising, and thus the
-sum of the propelling powers is constantly increasing, and gradually
-raising mountain-waves, until their growth is finally limited by the
-counterbalancing power of the earth's attraction.
-
-As the strength of the waves only gradually rises, it also loses itself
-only by degrees, and many hours after the tornado has ceased to rage,
-mighty billows continue to remind the mariner of its extinguished fury.
-The turmoil of waters awakened by the storm propagates itself hundreds
-of miles beyond the space where its howling voice was heard, and often,
-during the most tranquil weather, the agitated sea proclaims the distant
-war of the elements.
-
-The velocity of waves depends not only on the power of the impulse, but
-also on the depth of the subjacent waters, as I have already mentioned in
-the preceding chapter.
-
-For this reason, as increased velocity augments the power of the impulse,
-the waves in the Atlantic or Pacific, the mean depth of which may be
-estimated at 12,000 or 18,000 feet, attain a much greater height than in
-the comparatively shallow North Sea.
-
-The breaking of the waves against the shore arises from their velocity
-diminishing with their depth. As the small flat wave rolls up the beach,
-its front part, retarded by the friction of the ground, is soon overtaken
-by its back, moving in swifter progression, and thus arises its graceful
-swelling, the toppling of its snow-white crest, and finally its pleasant
-prattle among the shingles of the strand. This is one of those pictures
-of nature which Homer describes with such inimitable truth in various
-places of his immortal poems: he paints with admirable colours the slow
-rising of the advancing wave, how it bends forward with a graceful curve,
-and, crowning itself with a diadem of foam, spreads like a white veil
-over the beach, leaving sea-weeds and shells behind, as it rustles back
-again into the sea.
-
-The height which waves may attain on the open sea has been accurately
-investigated by the late Rev. Dr. Scoresby, during two passages across
-the Atlantic in 1847 and 1848.
-
-"In the afternoon of March 5th, 1848," says that eminent philosopher,
-"I stood during a hard gale upon the cuddy-roof or saloon deck of the
-'Hibernia:' a height, with the addition of that of the eye, of 23 feet
-3 inches above the line of flotation (the ship's course being similar
-to that of the waves). I am not aware that I ever saw the sea more
-terribly magnificent; the great majority of the rolling masses of water
-was more than 24 feet high, (including depression as well as altitude,
-or reckoning above the mean-level, more than 12 feet). I then went to
-the larboard paddle-box, about 7 feet higher (30 feet 2 inches up to the
-eye), and found that one half of the waves rose above the level of the
-view obtained.
-
-"Frequently I observed long ranges (200 yards), which rose so high above
-the visible horizon, as to form an angle estimated at two or three
-degrees when the distance of the wave's summit was about 100 yards from
-the observer. This would add near 13 feet to the level of the eye, and at
-least one in half-a-dozen waves attained this altitude. Sometimes peaks
-or crests of breaking seas would shoot upward, at least 10 or 15 feet
-higher.
-
-"The average wave was, I believe, fully equal to that of my sight on
-the paddle-box, or more than 15 feet, and the _mean highest waves_, not
-including the broken or acuminated crests, rose about 43 feet above
-the level of the hollow occupied at the moment by the ship. It was a
-grand storm-scene, and nothing could exceed the pictorial effect of the
-partial sunbeams breaking through the heavy masses of clouds." From the
-time taken by a regular wave to pass from stern to stem, Dr. Scoresby
-calculated its velocity at 2875 feet in each minute, or 32·67 English
-statute miles in an hour. The mean length of the wave-ridges, was from a
-quarter to a third of a mile.
-
-To those who might be inclined to doubt the accuracy of these
-measurements, the remark may suffice that our celebrated countryman had
-been for years engaged in the northern whale-fishery, where he had ample
-opportunities for practising his eye in measuring distances. Besides,
-the conclusions of many other trustworthy observers coincide with the
-evaluations of Dr. Scoresby.
-
-Thus Captain Wilkes, commander of the U. S. Exploring Expedition, found
-the height of the waves near Orange Harbour, where they rose higher and
-more regular than at any other time during the cruise, to be thirty-two
-feet (depression and altitude), and their apparent progressive motion
-about twenty-six and a half miles in an hour.
-
-Sir James Ross calculated the height of the waves on a strongly agitated
-sea at twenty-two feet, and, according to the French naturalists who
-sailed in the frigate "La Venus," on her voyage round the world, the
-highest waves they met with never exceeded that measure.
-
-Thus, according to the joint testimony of the most eminent nautical
-authorities, the waves in the open sea never attain the mountain-height
-ascribed to them by the exuberant fancy of poets or exaggerating
-travellers. But when the tempest surge beats against steep crags or rocky
-coasts it rises to a much more considerable height. The lighthouse of
-Bell Rock, though 112 feet high, is literally buried in foam and spray
-to the very top during ground-swells, even when there is no wind. On the
-20th November, 1827, the spray rose to the height of 117 feet above the
-foundation or low-water mark, which, deducting eleven feet for the tide
-that day, leaves 106 feet for the height of the wave. The strength of
-that remarkable edifice may be estimated from the fact, that the power of
-such a giant billow is equivalent to a pressure of three tons per square
-foot.
-
-In the Shetland Islands, which are continually exposed to the full fury
-of the Atlantic surge (for no land intervenes between their western
-shores and America), every year witnesses the removal of huge blocks
-of stone from their native beds by the terrific action of the waves.
-"In the winter of 1802," says Dr. Hibbert, in his description of that
-northern archipelago, "a tabular-shaped mass, eight feet two inches by
-seven feet, was dislodged from its bed and removed to a distance of from
-eighty to ninety feet. I measured the recent bed from which a block had
-been carried away the preceding winter (A.D. 1818), and found it to be
-seventeen feet and a half by seven feet, and the depth two feet eight
-inches. The removed mass had been borne to a distance of thirty feet,
-when it was shivered into thirteen or more lesser fragments, some of
-which were carried still farther from 30 to 120 feet. A block nine feet
-two inches by six feet and a half, and four feet thick, was hurried up
-the acclivity to a distance of 150 feet."
-
-The great storm of 1824, which carried away part of the breakwater at
-Plymouth, lifted huge masses of rock, from two to five tons in weight,
-from the bottom of the weatherside and rolled them fairly to the top of
-the pile. One block of limestone weighing seven tons was washed round
-the western extremity of the breakwater, and swept to a distance of 150
-feet. In 1807, during the erection of the Bell Rock lighthouse, six large
-blocks of granite which had been landed on the reef were removed by the
-force of the sea and thrown over a rising ledge to the distance of twelve
-or fifteen paces, and an anchor weighing about twenty-two hundredweight
-was cast upon the surface of the rock.
-
-With such examples before our eyes, we cannot wonder that in the course
-of centuries all shores exposed to the full shock of the waves, lashing
-against them with every returning tide, should gradually be wasted and
-worn away. One kind of stone stands the brunt of the elements longer than
-another, but ultimately even the hardest rock must yield to the rage of
-the billows, which when provoked by wintry gales, batter against them
-with all the force of artillery.
-
-Thus, all along our coasts we find innumerable instances of their
-destructive power. Tynemouth Castle now overhangs the sea, although
-formerly separated from it by a strip of land, and in the old maps of
-Yorkshire we find spots, now sand-banks in the sea, marked as the ancient
-sites of the towns and villages of Auburn, Hartburn, and Hyde. The cliffs
-of Norfolk and Suffolk are subject to incessant and rapid decay. At
-Sherringham, Sir Charles Lyell ascertained, in 1829, some facts which
-throw light on the rate at which the sea gains upon the land. There was
-then a depth of twenty feet (sufficient to float a frigate) at one point
-in the harbour of that port, where only forty-eight years ago there
-stood a cliff fifty feet high with houses upon it! "If once in half a
-century," remarks the great geologist, "an equal amount of change were
-produced suddenly by the momentary shock of an earthquake, history would
-be filled with records of such wonderful revolutions of the earth's
-surface; but if the conversion of high land into deep sea be gradual, it
-excites only local attention." On the same coast, the ancient villages of
-Shipden, Wimpwell, and Eccles have disappeared, several manors and large
-portions of neighbouring parishes having gradually been swallowed up; nor
-has there been any intermission, from time immemorial, in the ravages
-of the sea along a line of coast twenty miles in length in which these
-places stood. Dunwich, once the most considerable sea-port on the coast of
-Suffolk, is now but a small village with about one hundred inhabitants.
-From the time of Edward the Confessor, the ocean has devoured, piece
-after piece, a monastery, seven churches, the high road, the town-hall,
-the gaol, and many other buildings. In the sixteenth century not
-one-fourth of the ancient town was left standing, yet, the inhabitants
-retreating inland, the name has been preserved,--
-
-  "Stat magni nominis umbra,"--
-
-as has been the case with many other ports, when their ancient site has
-been blotted out.
-
-The Isle of Sheppey is subject to such rapid decay, that the church at
-Minster, now near the coast, is said to have been in the middle of the
-island fifty years ago, and it has been conjectured that at the present
-rate of destruction, the whole isle will be annihilated before the end of
-the century.
-
-Another remarkable instance of the destructive action of the tidal surge
-is that of Reculver, on the Kentish coast, an important military station
-in the time of the Romans, now nothing but a ruin and a name. So late
-as the reign of Henry VIII., Reculver was still a mile distant from the
-sea; but, in 1780, the encroaching waves had already reached the site
-of the ancient camp, the walls of which, cemented as they were into one
-solid mass by the unrivalled masonry of the Romans, continued for several
-years after they were undermined to overhang the sea. In 1804, part of
-the churchyard with the adjoining houses was washed away, and then the
-ancient church with its two lofty spires, a well-known landmark, was
-dismantled and abandoned as a place of worship.
-
-Shakspeare's Cliff at Dover has also suffered greatly from the waves, and
-continually diminishes in height, the slope of the hill being towards
-the land. About the year 1810, there was an immense landslip from this
-cliff, by which Dover was shaken as if by an earthquake, and a still
-greater one in 1772.
-
-Thus the fame of the poet is likely to outlive for many centuries the
-proud rock, the memory of which will always be entwined with his immortal
-verse:--
-
-                                    "How fearful,
-  And dizzy 'tis to cast one's eyes so low!
-  The crows, and choughs, that wing the midway air,
-  Show scarce so gross as beetles: half way down
-  Hangs one that gathers samphire; dreadful trade!
-  Methinks, he seems no bigger than his head.
-  The fishermen, that walk upon the beach,
-  Appear like mice; and yon tall anchoring bark,
-  Diminish'd to her cock; her cock, a buoy
-  Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge,
-  That on th' unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes,
-  Cannot be heard so high."
-
-The peninsulas of Purbeck and Portland, the cliffs of Devonshire and
-Cornwall, the coasts of Pembroke and Cardigan, the stormy Hebrides,
-Shetland and Orcadia, all tell similar tales of destruction, a mere
-summary of which would swell into a volume.
-
-During the most violent gales the bottom of the sea is said by different
-authors to be disturbed to a depth of 300, 350, or even 500 feet, and Sir
-Henry de la Bêche remarks that when the depth is fifteen fathoms, the
-water is very evidently discoloured by the action of the waves on the mud
-and sand of the bottom. But in the deep caves of ocean all is tranquil,
-all is still, and the most dreadful hurricanes that rage over the surface
-leave those mysterious recesses undisturbed.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. III.
-
-THE TIDES.
-
-  Description of the Phenomenon.--Devastations of Storm-Floods on Flat
-  Coasts.--What did the Ancients know of the Tides?--Their Fundamental
-  Causes revealed by Kepler and Newton.--Development of their Theory
-  by La Place, Euler, and Whewell.--Vortices caused by the Tides.--The
-  Maelstrom.--Charybdis.--The _Barre_ at the mouth of the Seine.--The
-  Euripus.
-
-
-Living on the sea-coast would undoubtedly be deprived of one of its
-greatest attractions, without the phenomenon of the tides, which,
-although of daily recurrence, never loses the charm of novelty, and gives
-constant occupation to the fancy by the life, movement, and perpetual
-change it brings along with it. How wonderful to see the sandy plain on
-which, but a few hours ago, we enjoyed a delightful walk, transformed
-into a vast sheet of water through which large vessels plough their way!
-How agreeable to trace the margin of the rising flood, and listen to its
-murmurs! Those of the rustling grove or waving cornfield are not more
-melodious. And then the variety of interesting objects which the reflux
-of the tide leaves behind it on the beach--the elegantly formed shell,
-the feathery sertularia, the delicate fucoid, and so many other strange
-or beautiful marine productions, that may well challenge the attention of
-the most listless lounger.
-
-But the spectacle of the tides is not merely pleasing to the eye, or
-attractive to the imagination; it serves also to rouse the spirit of
-scientific inquiry. It is indeed hardly possible to witness their regular
-succession without feeling curious to know by what causes they are
-produced, and when we learn that they are governed by the attraction
-of distant celestial bodies, and that their mysteries have been so
-completely solved by man, that he is able to calculate their movements
-for months and years to come, then indeed the pleasure and admiration
-we feel at their aspect must increase, for we cannot walk upon the
-beach without being constantly reminded that all the shining worlds that
-stud the heavens are linked together by one Almighty power, and that
-our spirit, which has been made capable of unveiling and comprehending
-so many of the secrets of creation, must surely possess something of a
-divine nature!
-
-On all maritime coasts, except such as belong to mediterranean seas
-not communicating freely with the ocean, the waters are observed to be
-constantly changing their level. They regularly rise during about six
-hours, remain stationary for a few minutes, and then again descend during
-an equal period of time, when after having fallen to the lowest ebb, they
-are shortly after seen to rise again, and so on in regular and endless
-succession. In this manner twelve hours twenty-four minutes elapse on an
-average from one flood to another, so that the sea twice rises and falls
-in the course of a day, or rather twice during the time from one passage
-of the moon through the meridian to the next, a period equivalent on an
-average to 1-35/1000 day, or nearly twenty-five hours. Thus the tides
-retard from one day to another; least at new and full moon, when our more
-active satellite accomplishes her apparent diurnal motion round the earth
-in twenty-four hours, thirty-seven minutes; and most at half-moon, when,
-sailing more leisurely through the skies, she takes full twenty-five
-hours and twenty-seven minutes to perform her daily journey.
-
-As the retarding of the tides regularly corresponds with the retarding of
-the moon, they always return at the same hour after the lapse of fourteen
-days, so that at the end of each of her monthly revolutions, the moon
-always finds them in the same position. The knowledge of this fact is
-extremely useful to navigators, as it is easy to calculate the time of
-any tide in a port by knowing when it is high-water on the days of new
-and full moon.
-
-The height of the tides in the same place is as unequal and changing as
-the period of their intervals, and is equally dependent on the phases
-of the moon, increasing with her growth, and diminishing with her
-decrease. New and full moon always cause a higher rising of the flood
-(spring-tide), followed by a deeper ebb, while at half-moon the change
-of level is much less considerable (neap-tide). Thus in Plymouth, for
-instance, the neap-tides are only twelve feet high, while the ordinary
-spring-tides rise to more than twenty feet.
-
-The highest tides take place during the equinoxes; and eclipses of the
-sun and moon are also invariably accompanied by considerable floods,
-a circumstance which cannot fail to add to the terror of the ignorant
-and superstitious when a mysterious obscurity suddenly veils the great
-luminaries of the sky. It has also been remarked that the tides are
-stronger or weaker, according as the moon is at a greater or smaller
-distance from the earth.
-
-Thus as the height of the floods is always regulated by the relative
-position of the sun and moon, and the movements of these heavenly bodies
-can be calculated a long time beforehand, our nautical calendars are able
-to tell us the days when the highest spring-tides may be expected.
-
-This however can only be foretold to a certain extent, as the tidal
-height not only depends upon the attraction of the heavenly bodies,
-but also upon the casual influences of the wind, which defies all
-calculation, and of the pressure of the air. Thus Mr. Walker observed
-on the coasts of Cornwall and Devonshire that when the barometer falls
-an inch, the level of the sea rises sixteen inches higher than would
-otherwise have been the case.
-
-When a strong and continuous wind blows in an opposite direction to
-the tide-wave, and at the same time the barometer is high, the curious
-spectators will therefore be deceived in their expectations, however
-promising the position of the attracting luminaries may be; while an
-ordinary spring-tide, favoured by a low state of the barometer and chased
-by a violent storm against the coast, may attain more than double the
-usual height. When all favourable circumstances combine, an event which
-fortunately but rarely occurs, those dreadful _storm-tides_ take place,
-as menacing to the flat coasts of the Netherlands as an eruption of Etna
-to the towns and hamlets scattered along its base, for here also a vast
-elementary power is let loose which bids defiance to human weakness. It
-is then that the rebel sea affords a spectacle of appalling magnificence.
-The whole surface seethes and boils in endless confusion. Gigantic waves
-rear their monstrous heads like mighty Titans, and hurl their whole
-colossal power against the dunes and dykes, as if, impelled by a wild
-lust of conquest, they were burning to devour the rich alluvial plains
-which once belonged to their domain. Far inland, the terrified peasant
-hears the roar of the tumultuous waters, and well may he tremble when
-the mountain-waves come thundering against the artificial barriers, that
-separate his fields from the raging floods, for the annals of his country
-relate many sad examples of their fury, and tell him that numerous
-villages and extensive meads, once flourishing and fertile, now lie
-buried fathom-deep under the waters of the sea.
-
-Thus, on the first of November, 1170, the storm-flood, bursting through
-the dykes, submerged all the land between the Texel, Medenblik, and
-Stavoren, formed the island of Wieringen, and enlarged the openings by
-which the Zuiderzee communicated with the ocean. The inundations of 1232
-and 1242 caused, each of them, the death of more than 100,000 persons,
-and that of 1287 swept away more than 80,000 victims in Friesland alone.
-The irruption of 1395 considerably widened the channels between the Flie
-and the Texel, and allowed large vessels to sail as far as Amsterdam
-and Enkhuizen, which had not been the case before. Whilst reading these
-accounts, we are led to compare the inhabitants of the Dutch lowlands
-with those of the fertile fields and vineyards that clothe the sides of
-Vesuvius: both exposed to sudden and irretrievable ruin from the rage
-of two different elements, and yet both contented and careless of the
-future; the first behind the dykes that have often given way to the
-ocean, the latter on the very brink of a menacing volcano.
-
-The tides which sometimes cause such dreadful devastations on the shores
-of the North Sea are, as is well known, inconsiderable, or even hardly
-perceptible in the Mediterranean, and thus many years passed ere the
-Greeks and Romans first witnessed the grand phenomenon. The Phœnicians,
-the merchant princes of antiquity, who at a very early period of history
-visited the isolated Britons,--
-
-  "Penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos,"--
-
-and sailed far away into the Indian Ocean, were of course well acquainted
-with it; but it first became known to the Greeks through the voyage of
-Colæus, a mariner of Samos, who, according to Herodotus, was driven by a
-storm through the Straits of Hercules into the wide Atlantic 600 years
-before Christ. About seventy years after this involuntary discovery,
-the Phoceans of Massilia, or Marseilles, first ventured to follow on the
-track of Colæus for the purpose of trading with Tartessus, the present
-Cadiz; and from that time remained in constant commercial intercourse
-with that ancient Phœnician colony.
-
-With what eager attention may their countrymen have listened to the
-wondrous tale of the alternate rising and sinking of the ocean! Such
-must have been the astonishment of our forefathers when the first Arctic
-voyagers told them of the floating icebergs, and of the perpetually
-circling sun of the high northern summer.
-
-Thus the tides became known to the Massilians about five centuries
-before Christ, but in those times of limited international intercourse,
-knowledge travelled but slowly from place to place; so that it was not
-before the conquests of Alexander, which first opened the Red Sea and the
-Persian Gulf to Grecian trade, that the great marine phenomenon began to
-attract the general attention of philosophers and naturalists.
-
-The flux and reflux of the sea is evidently so closely connected with the
-movements and changes of the moon, that the intimate relations between
-both could not possibly escape the penetrating sagacity of the Greeks.
-Thus we read in Plutarch, that Pytheas of Marseilles, the great traveller
-who sailed to the north as far as the Ultima Thule, and lived in the
-times of Alexander the Great, ascribed to the moon an influence over the
-tides. Aristotle expressed the same opinion, and Cæsar says positively
-(Commentaries, _De Bel. Gal._ book iv. 29,) that the full-moon causes the
-tides of the ocean to swell to their utmost height. Strabo distinguishes
-a three-fold periodicity of the tides according to the daily, monthly,
-and annual position of the moon, and Pliny expresses himself still more
-to the point, by saying that the waters move as if obeying the thirsty
-orb which causes them to follow its course.
-
-This vague notion of obedience or servitude was first raised by Kepler to
-the clear and well defined idea of an attractive power. According to this
-great and self-taught genius, all bodies strive to unite in proportion
-to their masses. "The earth and moon would mutually approach and meet
-together at a point, so much nearer to the earth as her mass is superior
-to that of the moon, if their motion did not prevent it. The moon
-attracts the ocean, and thus tides arise in the larger seas. If the earth
-ceased to attract the waters, they would rise and flow up to the moon."
-
-The general notion of a mutual attraction, however, did no more than
-point out the way for the solution of the problem, and it was reserved
-to our great Newton to accomplish the prophecy of his great predecessor,
-"that the discovery of the true laws of gravitation would be accomplished
-in a future generation, when it should please the Almighty Creator of
-nature to reveal her mysteries to man."
-
-Newton was the first who proved that the tide-generating power of a
-celestial body arises from the difference of the attraction it exerts on
-the centre and the surface of the earth. Thus it was at once made clear
-how the water not only rises on the surface facing the moon, but also
-on the opposite side of the earth, as in the latter case the moon acts
-more strongly on the mass of the earth than on the waters which cover the
-hemisphere most distant from her. The evident consequence is that the
-earth _sinks_ (so to say), on the surface turned from the moon, whereby
-a deepening of the waters, or, in other words, a rising of the tide, is
-occasioned.
-
-It now also became clear how the moon, whose attractive power upon the
-earth is 160 times smaller than that of the sun, is yet able to occasion
-a stronger tide, since, from her proximity to the earth, she attracts
-the surface more forcibly than the centre with the thirtieth part of
-her power, while the distant sun occasions a difference of attraction
-on these two points equal only to one twelve-thousandth part of her
-attractive force.
-
-Now also a full explanation was first given why the highest tides take
-place at new and full moon: that is, when the moon stands between the sun
-and the earth; or the latter between the sun and the moon; as then the
-two celestial bodies unite their powers; while at half-moon the solar
-tide corresponding with the lunar ebb, or the lunar tide with the solar
-ebb, counteract each other.
-
-But even Newton explained the true theory of the tides only in its more
-prominent and general features, and the labours of other mathematicians,
-such as MacLaurin, Bernoulli, Euler, La Place, and Whewell, were required
-for its further development, so as fully to explain all the particulars
-of the sublime phenomenon.
-
-The reproach has often been made to science, that she banishes poetry
-from nature, and disenchants the forest and the field; but this surely
-is not the case in the present instance, for what poetical fiction
-can fill the soul with a grander image than that of the eternal
-restlessly-progressing tide-wave, which, following the triumphant march
-of the sun and moon, began as soon as the primeval ocean was formed, and
-shall last uninterruptedly as long as our solar system exists!
-
-Were the whole earth covered with one sea of equal depth, the tides would
-regularly move onwards from east to west, and everywhere attain the same
-height under the same latitude. But the direction and the force of the
-tide-wave are modified by many obstacles on its way, such as coast-lines
-and groups of islands, and it has to traverse seas of very unequal depth
-and form. Flat coasts impede its current by friction, while it rolls
-faster along deep mural coasts. From all these causes the strength of the
-tides is very unequal in different places.
-
-They are generally low on the wide and open ocean. Thus the highest tides
-at Otaheiti do not exceed eleven inches, three feet at St. Helena, one
-foot and a half at Porto Rico.
-
-But when considerable obstructions oppose the progress of the tide-waves,
-such as vast promontories, long and narrow channels, or bays of
-diminishing width, and mouths of rivers directly facing its swell, it
-rises to a very great height. Thus, at the bottom of Fundy Bay, which
-stretches its long arm between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the
-spring-tides rise to sixty, seventy, or even one hundred feet, while at
-its entrance they do not exceed nine feet, and their swell is so rapid as
-frequently to sweep away cattle feeding on the shore.
-
-The Bristol Channel and the bay of St. Malo in Brittany, are also
-renowned for their high tides. Near Chepstow, the flux is said sometimes
-to reach the surprising height of seventy feet, and at St. Malo the
-floods frequently rise to forty and fifty feet. When the water is low,
-this small sea-port town appears surrounded on all sides by fantastically
-shaped cliffs covered with sea-weeds and barnacles. Pools of salt water
-interspersed here and there among the hollowed stones, or on the even
-ground between them, and harbouring many curious varieties of marine
-animals, are the only visible signs of the vicinity of the ocean, whose
-hoarse murmurs are heard resounding from afar. But an astonishing change
-takes place a few hours after, when the town, surrounded by the sea,
-would be a complete island, but for a long, narrow causeway called "_the
-Sillon_," which connects it with the mainland. On the side fronting
-the open sea, the tide breaks with tremendous rage against the strong
-buttresses that have been raised to oppose its fury, rises foamingly to
-a height of thirty or forty feet, and threatens the tardy wanderer as he
-loiters on the narrow causeway. The cliffs that erewhile were seen to
-surround the town are now hidden under the waters, some few excepted,
-that raise their rugged heads like minute islands above the circumambient
-floods. The opposite side of the causeway is also washed by the sea: but
-here its motions are less tumultuous, for after having broken against
-numberless rocks and made a vast circuit, it scarce retains a vestige of
-its primitive strength. On this side lies the vast, but deserted harbour
-of St. Malo, completely dry at ebb-tide; a wide sea during the flood.
-
-Two eminent French authors, Chateaubriand and Lamennais, were born at
-St. Malo, and there can be no doubt that the imposing spectacle I have
-briefly described must have greatly contributed to the widening of their
-intellectual horizon. Daily witnesses from their early childhood of
-one of the grandest phenomena of nature in all its wild sublimity, the
-boundless and the infinite soon grew familiar to their mind, enriching it
-with splendid imagery and bold conceptions.
-
-Although the sun and the moon exert some attraction upon the smaller and
-inclosed seas, yet the development of a powerful flood-wave necessarily
-requires that the moon should act upon a sufficiently wide and deep
-expanse of ocean. Even the Atlantic is not broad enough for this purpose,
-as its equatorial width measures no more than one eighth of the earth's
-circumference: and the Pacific itself, notwithstanding its vast area,
-is so studded with islands and shallows, that it presents a much more
-obstructed basin for the action of the tide-wave than might be expected,
-from its apparent dimensions and equatorial position.
-
-Thus it is in the Southern Ocean, where the greatest uninterrupted
-surface of deep water is exposed to the influence of the moon, that we
-must look for the "_chief cradle of the tides_." From this starting point
-they flow on all sides to the northward, progressing like any other wave
-that arises on a small scale in a pond from a gust of wind, the throwing
-of a stone, or any other cause capable of producing an undulating
-movement on the surface of the waters.
-
-The tide-wave, which ultimately reaches our shores, arrives at the Cape
-of Good Hope thirteen hours after it has left Van Diemen's Land, and
-thence rolls onward in fourteen or fifteen hours to the coasts of Spain,
-France, and Ireland. It penetrates into the North Sea by two different
-ways. One of its ramifications turns round Scotland and thence flows
-onwards to the south, taking nineteen or twenty hours for the passage
-from Galway to the mouth of the Thames. A tide-wave, for instance, which
-appears at five in the afternoon on the west coast of Ireland, arrives at
-eight near the Shetland Islands, reaches Aberdeen at midnight, Hull at
-five in the morning, and Margate at noon.
-
-The other ramification of the same tide-wave, taking the shorter route
-through the Channel, had meanwhile preceded it by twelve hours, having
-reached Brest about five o'clock of the afternoon (at the same time that
-the northern branch appeared at Galway), Cherbourg at seven, Brighton at
-nine, Calais at eleven, and the mouth of the Thames at midnight.
-
-Thus, in this southern corner of the North Sea, two tide-waves unite
-that belong to two successive floods; the Scotch branch having started
-twelve hours sooner from the great Southern Ocean than the Channel
-branch, which thus results from the next following tide. The meeting of
-the two branches naturally gives rise to a more considerable rising of
-the waters, so that this circumstance, by allowing large ships to sail
-up the Thames, may be considered as one of the fundamental causes of the
-grandeur of London.
-
-In other parts of the North Sea, where the two tide-waves appear at
-different times, the contrary takes place, for the ebb of the one
-coinciding with the rising of the other, they naturally weaken or
-even neutralise each other. This occasions the low tides on the coast
-of Jutland, in Denmark, where they are scarcely higher than in the
-Mediterranean, and explains the otherwise startling fact of there being a
-space in the North Sea where no periodical rise and fall of the waters
-whatsoever takes place.
-
-Thus we see that the relations of the tides in the North Sea, with regard
-to height and time, are of a somewhat complicated nature, which could
-only be explained after the numerous observations (amounting to more
-than 40,000) made by order of the British Government in all parts of the
-world, under the direction of Professor Whewell, had proved that all
-the floods of the seas chiefly proceed from the great tide-wave of the
-Southern Ocean, which, by its numerous ramifications in narrow seas or
-through groups of islands and by the unequal rapidity of its progress,
-according to the depth or shallowness of the waters it traverses,
-occasions all the seeming anomalies which were quite inexplicable by the
-simple Newtonian theory.
-
-As every twelve hours a new tidal-wave originates in the Southern Ocean
-which regularly follows in the same track as its predecessor, the tides
-everywhere succeed each other in regular and equal periods, and can thus
-everywhere be calculated beforehand.
-
-In narrow straits or in the intricate channels which wind through
-clusters of islands, different tidal-waves meeting from opposite
-directions give rise to more or less dangerous whirlpools. One of the
-most famous of these vortices, though inconsiderable in itself, is the
-renowned Charybdis, which gave so much trouble to Ulysses on his passing
-through the strait which separates Sicily from Italy, but is at present
-an object of fear scarcely even to the poor fisherman's boat.
-
-A much grander whirlpool, owing its celebrity, not to the fictions of
-poetry, but to the magnificent scale on which it has been constructed by
-nature, is the renowned Maelstrom, situated on the Norwegian coast in 68°
-N. lat., and near the island of Moskoe, from whence it also takes the
-name of Moskoestrom. It is four geographical miles in diameter, and in
-tempestuous weather its roar, like that of Niagara, is said to be heard
-several miles off. John Ramus gives us a terrible description of its
-fury, and mentions that in the year 1645 it raged with such noise and
-impetuosity, that on the island of Moskoe, the very stones of the houses
-fell to the ground. He tells us also that whales frequently come too near
-the stream, and, notwithstanding their giant strength, are overpowered by
-its violence, but, unfortunately adds, that it is impossible to describe
-their howlings and bellowings in their fruitless struggles to disengage
-themselves--impossible, no doubt, as whales happen to have no voice at
-all!
-
-According to more modern travellers, such as the celebrated geologist
-Leopold von Buch, the Maelstrom is far from being so terrible as depicted
-by Ramus and other friends of the marvellous; so that, except during
-storms and spring-tides, large ships may constantly cross it without
-danger. The Norwegian fishermen are even said frequently to assemble on
-the field of the Maelstrom on account of the great abundance of fishes
-congregating in those troubled waters, and fearlessly to pursue their
-avocations, while the whirlpool moves their boats in a circular direction.
-
-Sir Robert Sibbald describes a very remarkable marine whirlpool among the
-Orkney islands, which would prove dangerous to strangers, though it is
-of no consequence to the people who are used to it. It is not fixed to
-any particular place, but arises in various parts of the limits of the
-sea among these islands. Wherever it appears, it is very furious, and
-boats would inevitably be drawn in and perish with it, but the people
-who navigate them are prepared for it and always carry a bundle of straw
-or some such matter in the boat with them. This they fling into the
-vortex which immediately swallows it up, and, seemingly pleased with
-this propitiatory offering, subsides into smoothness, but soon after
-re-appears in another place.
-
-A remarkable and sudden rising of the spring-tide takes place at the
-mouth of several rivers, for instance, the Indus (where the surprising
-phenomenon nearly caused the destruction of the fleet of Alexander the
-Great), the Hooghly, the Dordogne, &c. In the Seine it is observed on
-a scale of great magnitude. While the tide gradually rises near Havre
-and Harfleur, a giant wave is suddenly seen to surge near Quillebœuf,
-spanning the whole width of the river (from 30,000 to 36,000 feet).
-After this mighty billow has struck against the quay of Quillebœuf, it
-enters a more narrow bed and flows stream-upwards with the rapidity
-of a race horse, overflowing the banks on both sides, and not seldom
-causing considerable loss of property by its unexpected appearance. The
-astonishment it causes is increased when it takes place during serene
-weather, and without any signs of wind or storm. A deafening noise
-announces and accompanies this sudden swelling of the waters, which owes
-its first origin to the silent action of gravitation, and is the result
-of the diminishing velocity of the tide-wave over a shallow bottom.
-
-While the tide-wave advances over the deep and open seas with an
-astonishing rapidity, its progress up the channel of a river is
-comparatively very slow, partly on account of the reason just mentioned,
-and partly from its meeting a current flowing in an opposite direction.
-
-Thus, the tide takes no less than twelve hours for its progress from the
-mouth of the Thames to London, about the time it requires to travel all
-the way from Van Diemen's Land to the Cape of Good Hope. Consequently,
-when it is high-water at the mouth of the Thames at three o'clock in the
-afternoon, for instance, we have not high-water at London Bridge before
-three o'clock in the following morning, when it is again high water at
-the Nore. But, in the mean time, there has been low water at the Nore
-and high water about half-way to London, and while the high water is
-proceeding to London, it is ebbing at the intermediate places, and is low
-water there when it is high water at London and at the Nore. If the tide
-extended as far beyond London as London is from the Nore, we should have
-three high waters with two low waters interposed. The most remarkable
-instance of this kind is afforded by the gigantic river of the Amazons,
-as it appears by the observations of Condamine and others, that, between
-Para, at the mouth of the colossal stream, and the conflux of the Madera
-and Marañon, there are no less than seven simultaneous high waters with
-six low waters between them. Thus, four days after the tide-wave was
-first raised in the Southern Ocean, its last undulations expire deep in
-the bosom of the South American wilds.
-
-The Mediterranean is generally supposed to be tideless, but this opinion
-is erroneous; and in the Adriatic, the flux of the sea is far from being
-inconsiderable, for, at Venice, the difference between high and low water
-is sometimes no less than six or even nine feet. Mr. W. Trevelyan, during
-a summer residence in the old port of Antium, on the Roman coast, found
-from a series of accurate observations, that the tides regularly succeed
-each other and attain a height of fourteen inches. In the eastern
-Mediterranean new measurements have proved that they are still more
-considerable, while in the western part of that inclosed sea they are
-almost imperceptible.
-
-The differences of level caused by the Mediterranean tides, are indeed
-too inconsiderable to attract the general notice of the inhabitants on
-the coast, but in the famed Euripus, the narrow channel which separates
-the island of Eubœa or Negropont from continental Greece, the tide
-produces the striking phenomenon of very irregular fluctuations of the
-waters, from one end of the channel to the other.
-
-This phenomenon was of course completely inexplicable to the ancient
-philosophers, and Aristotle is even said to have drowned himself in the
-Euripus in a fit of despair, since, with all his prodigious sagacity,
-he could not possibly solve the mystery. For us, who know that peculiar
-formations of the sea-bed and coasts are capable of considerably
-augmenting the force of the floods, and that tidal waves rushing into
-a narrow channel in opposite directions, and at different times, must
-necessarily produce irregular fluctuations of the waters, the phenomenon
-of the Euripus has ceased to be a mystery.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. IV.
-
-MARINE CAVES.
-
-  Effects of the Sea on Rocky Shores.--Fingal's Cave.--Beautiful
-  Lines of Sir Walter Scott.--The Antro di Nettuno.--The Cave
-  of Hunga.--Legend of its Discovery.--Marine Fountains.--The
-  Skerries.--The Souffleur in Mauritius.--The Buffadero on the Mexican
-  Coast.
-
-
-Whoever has only observed the swelling of the tide on the flat coasts
-of the North Sea, has but a faint idea of the Titanic power which it
-develops on the rocky shores of the wide ocean. Even in fair weather, the
-growing flood, oscillating over the boundless expanse of waters, rises
-in tremendous breakers, so that it is impossible to behold their fury
-without feeling a conviction that the hardest rock must ultimately be
-ground to atoms by such irresistible forces.
-
-Day after day, year after year, they renew their fierce attacks, and
-as in the high Alpine valleys the tumultuous torrents rushing from the
-glaciers tear deep furrows in the flanks of the mountains, thus it is
-here the sea which stamps the seal of its might on the vanquished rocks,
-corrodes them into fantastic shapes, scoops out wide portals in their
-projecting promontories, and hollows out deep caverns in their bosoms.
-
-Here, also, water appears as the beautifying element, decorating
-inanimate nature with picturesque forms, and the sea nowhere exhibits
-more romantic scenes than on the rocky shores against which her waves
-have been beating for many a millennium. How manifold the shapes into
-which the rocky shores are worn! how numberless the changes which each
-varying season, nay, every hour of the day with its constant alternations
-of ebb and flood, of cloud and sunshine, of storm or calm, produces in
-their physiognomy! Our coasts abound in beauties such as these; but
-pre-eminent above all other specimens of Ocean's fantastic architecture
-is Fingal's Cave, which may well challenge the world to show its equal.
-
-From afar, the small island of Staffa, rising precipitously from the
-sea, seems destitute of all romantic interest, but on approaching,
-the traveller is struck with the remarkable basaltic columns of which
-it is chiefly composed. Most of them rest upon a substratum of solid
-shapeless rock, and generally form colonnades upwards of fifty feet high,
-following the contours of the inlets or promontories, and overtopped with
-smaller hillocks. Along the west coast of the island they are tolerably
-irregular, but on the south side Staffa appears as an immense Gothic
-edifice, or rather as a forest of gigantic pillars seemingly arranged
-with all the regularity of art. The admiration they cause is, however,
-soon effaced when the vast cave to which the remote islet owes its
-world-wide celebrity bursts upon the view. Fancy a grotto measuring 250
-feet in length by 53 in width at the entrance, and spanned by an arch
-117 feet high, which, though gradually sloping towards the interior,
-still maintains a height of 70 feet at the farthest end of the cavern!
-The walls consist of rows of huge hexagonal basaltic pillars, which seem
-regularly to diminish according to the rules of perspective. The roof
-of the vault is formed of the remnants of similar columns, whose shafts
-have beyond a doubt been torn away by the sea, which, destroying them
-one after the other, has gradually excavated this magnificent temple of
-Nature. All their interstices, like those of the pillars, are cemented
-with a kind of pale yellow spar, which brings out all the angles and
-sides of their surfaces, and forms a pleasing contrast with the dark
-purple colour of the basalt.
-
-The whole floor of the cave is occupied by the sea, the depth of which,
-even at its farthest end, is above six feet, during ebb-tide; but
-it is only in perfectly calm weather that a boat is able to venture
-into the interior, for when the sea is any way turbulent (and this is
-generally the case among the stormy Hebrides) it is in danger of being
-hurled against the walls of the grot and dashed to pieces. Under these
-circumstances, the only access into the cave is by a narrow dyke or ledge
-running along its eastern wall, about fifteen feet above the water. It
-is formed of truncated basaltic pillars, over which it is necessary to
-clamber with great caution and dexterity, as they are always moist and
-slippery from the dashing spray. Frequently there is only room enough
-for one foot, and while the left hand grasps that of the guide, it is
-necessary to hold fast with the right to a pillar of the wall. As this
-difficult path is most dangerous in the darkest part of the cave, but
-few tourists are bold enough to trust themselves to it, for the least
-false step must infallibly precipitate the adventurous explorer into the
-seething caldron below. Sometimes a cormorant, fearless of any accident
-of this kind, has built his nest upon the top of one of the truncated
-pillars, which form the pavement of the pathway, and betrays by a peevish
-hissing his ill humour at being disturbed in his solitary retreat by the
-intrusion of man.
-
-[Illustration: Fingal's Cave.]
-
-The narrow path ultimately widens into a more roomy and slanting space
-formed of the remains of more than a thousand perpendicular truncated
-shafts. The back wall consists of a range of unequally sized pillars,
-arranged somewhat like the tubes of an organ. When the waves rush with
-tumultuous fury into the cave and dash their flakes of snow-white foam
-against its wall, it seems as if the gigantic instrument, touched by an
-invisible hand, were loudly singing the triumphs of ocean.
-
-Among the beauties of this matchless cave, the clear light must not
-be forgotten, which, penetrating through the wide portal, produces an
-agreeable chiaro-oscuro even at its farthest end, so that the eye is able
-to seize at one glance the full majesty of the splendid hall; nor the
-pure air which, constantly renewed by the perpetual alternations of the
-tides, is very different from the chilly dampness which generally reigns
-in subterranean caverns.
-
-When we consider the resemblance which from its regularity this
-magnificent work of nature bears to a production of human art, we cannot
-wonder at its having been ascribed to mortal architecture. But as men
-of ordinary stature seemed too weak for so colossal an enterprise, it
-was attributed to a race of giants, who constructed it for their chief
-and leader, Fingal, so renowned in Gaelic mythology. This belief still
-lingers among the primitive people of the neighbourhood, though some,
-being averse to pagan Goliahs, ascribe its workmanship to St. Columban.
-
-The patriotic muse of Walter Scott, who visited the cave in 1810, rises
-to more than ordinary warmth while describing
-
-                    "That wondrous dome,
-  Where, as to shame the temples deck`d
-  By skill of earthly architect,
-  Nature herself, it seemed, would raise
-  A minster to her Maker's praise!
-  Not for a meaner use ascend
-  Her columns, or her arches bend;
-  Nor of a theme less solemn, tells
-  That mighty surge that ebbs and swells,
-  And still between each awful pause
-  From the high vault an answer draws
-  In varied tones, prolonged and high,
-  That mocks the organ's melody.
-  Nor doth its entrance front in vain
-  To old Iona's holy fane,
-  That Nature's voice might seem to say,
-  'Well hast thou done, frail child of clay,
-  Thy humble powers that stately shrine
-  Task'd high and hard--but witness mine!'"
-
-                _Lord of the Isles_, canto iv. stanza 10.
-
-The Mediterranean has likewise its marine grottoes of world-wide
-celebrity, its azure cave of Capri,[D] which I have previously described,
-and its Antro di Nettuno, in the island of Sardinia, about twelve miles
-from the small sea-port of Alghero. Unfortunately this superb grotto is
-very difficult of access, for any wind between the north-west and the
-south prevents an entry, so that the Algherese assert that 300 out of
-the 365 days it is impossible to enter it. The first vaulted cavern,
-forming an antechamber about thirty feet high, has no peculiar beauty,
-but on crossing a second cavern, in which are about twenty feet of
-beautifully clear water, and then turning to the left, one finds oneself
-in an intricate navigation among stalactites with surrounding walls and
-passages of stalagmites of considerable height. Having passed them and
-proceeding westerly, one reaches another cavern with a natural column in
-its centre, the shaft and capital of which, supporting the immense and
-beautifully fretted roof, reminds one of those in the chapter-house of
-the cathedral at Wells, and the staircase of the hall at Christ Church,
-Oxford. It stands, the growing monument of centuries, in all its massive
-and elegant simplicity with comparatively speaking few other stalagmites
-to destroy the effects of its noble solitude. In parts of the grotto
-are corridors and galleries, some 300 and 400 feet long, reminding one
-of the Moorish architecture of the Alhambra. One of them terminates
-abruptly in a deep cavern into which it is impossible to descend; but
-among many other interesting objects is a small chamber the access to
-which is through a very narrow aperture. After climbing and scrambling
-through it, one finds oneself in a room the ceiling of which is entirely
-covered with delicate stalactites, and the sides with fretted open work,
-so fantastical that one might almost imagine that it was a boudoir of the
-Oceanides, where they amused themselves with making lime lace. Some of
-the columns in different parts of the grotto are from seventy to eighty
-feet in circumference, and the masses of drapery drooping in exquisite
-elegance are of equally grand proportions.
-
-[Footnote D: Chap. i. p. 18.]
-
-If a rare chance was required to discover the narrow opening in the
-cliffs of Capri, behind which one of the loveliest spectacles of nature
-lies concealed, we well may wonder how the famous cave of Hunga in the
-Tonga Archipelago ever became known, as its entrance even at low water
-is completely hidden under the surface of the sea. Mariner, to whom we
-owe our first knowledge of this wonderful play of nature, relates that
-while he was one day _rat-hunting_[E] in the island of Hunga with king
-Finow, who at that time reigned over Tonga, the barbarian monarch took
-a fancy to drink his _kawa_[F] in the cave. Mariner, who had absented
-himself for a few moments from the company, was very much astonished
-when, returning to the strand, he saw one chieftain after another dive
-and disappear. He had but just time to ask the last of them what they
-were about. "Follow me," answered the chieftain, "and I will show thee
-a place where thou hast never been before, and where Finow and his
-chieftains are at present assembled." Mariner immediately guessed that
-this must be the celebrated cave of which he had frequently heard, and,
-anxious to see it, he immediately followed the diving chieftain, and
-swimming close after him under the water, safely reached the opening
-in the rock through which he emerged into the cave. On ascending to
-the surface, he immediately heard the voices of the company, and still
-following his guide, climbed upon a projecting ledge on which he sat
-down. All the light of the cave was reflected from the sea beneath,
-but yet it was sufficient, as soon as the eye had become accustomed to
-the twilight, to distinguish the surrounding objects. A clearer light
-being, however, desirable, Mariner once more dived, swam to the strand,
-fetched his pistol, poured a good quantity of powder on the pan, wrapped
-it carefully up in tapa-cloth and leaves, and, providing himself with
-a torch, returned as quickly as possible to the cave. Here he removed
-the cloth, a great part of which was still quite dry, and igniting it
-by the flame of the powder made use of it to light his torch. This was
-probably the very first time since its creation that the cave had ever
-been illumined by artificial light. Its chief compartment, which on one
-side branched out into two smaller cavities, seemed to be about forty
-feet wide and the mean height above the water amounted to as much. The
-roof was ornamented in a remarkable manner by stalactites resembling the
-arches and fantastic ornaments of a Gothic hall. According to a popular
-tradition, the chieftain who first discovered this remarkable cave while
-diving after a turtle, used it subsequently as a place of refuge for his
-mistress to screen her from the persecutions of the reigning despot.
-The sea faithfully guarded his secret: after a few weeks of seclusion,
-he fled with his beloved to the Feejee Islands, and on his returning to
-his native home after the death of the tyrant, his countrymen heard with
-astonishment of the wonderful asylum that had been revealed to him by the
-beneficent sea-gods. Lord Byron adopted this graceful tale as the subject
-of his poem "The Island, or Christian and his Comrades," and has thus
-described the cave, no doubt largely adorning it from the stores of his
-brilliant fancy:
-
-  "Around she pointed to a spacious cave,
-   Whose only portal was the keyless wave
-   (A hollow archway, by the sun unseen,
-   Save through the billows' glassy veil of green,
-   On some transparent ocean holiday,
-   When all the finny people are at play).
-
-                    "Wide it was and high;
-   And showed a self-born Gothic canopy.
-   The arch upreared by Nature's architect,
-   The architrave some earthquake might erect;
-   The buttress from some mountain's bosom hurl'd,
-   When the poles crash'd and water was the world;
-   Or harden'd from some earth-absorbing fire,
-   While yet the globe reek'd from its funeral pyre.
-   The fretted pinnacle, the aisle, the nave,
-   Were there, all scoop'd by darkness from her cave.
-   There, with a little tinge of fantasy,
-   Fantastic faces mopp'd and mow'd on high;
-   And then a mitre or a shrine would fix
-   The eye upon its seeming crucifix.
-   Thus Nature played with the stalactites,
-   And built herself a chapel of the seas."
-
-[Footnote E: A favourite pastime of the Polynesian chiefs.]
-
-[Footnote F: An intoxicating beverage extracted from the Piper
-methysticum, a species of pepper plant.]
-
-On many rocky shores the ocean has worn out subterraneous channels in the
-cliffs against which it has been beating for ages, and then frequently
-emerges in water-spouts or fountains from the opposite end. Thus, in
-the Skerries, one of the Shetland Islands, a deep chasm or inlet, which
-is open overhead, is continued under ground and then again opens to
-the sky in the middle of the island. When the water is high, the waves
-rise up through this aperture like the blowing of a whale in noise and
-appearance.
-
-A similar phenomenon is exhibited on the south side of the Mauritius, at
-a point called "The Souffleur," or "The Blower." "A large mass of rock,"
-says Lieutenant Taylor,[G] "runs out into the sea from the mainland, to
-which it is joined by a neck of rock not two feet broad. The constant
-beating of the tremendous swell, which rolls in, has undermined it
-in every direction, till it has exactly the appearance of a Gothic
-building with a number of arches. In the centre of the rock, which is
-about thirty-five or forty feet above the sea, the water has forced two
-passages vertically upwards, which are worn as smooth and cylindrical as
-if cut by a chisel. When a heavy sea rolls in, it of course fills in an
-instant the hollow caverns underneath, and finding no other egress, and
-being borne in with tremendous violence, it rushes up these chimneys and
-flies, roaring furiously, to a height of full sixty feet. The moment the
-wave recedes, the vacuum beneath causes the wind to rush into the two
-apertures with a loud humming noise, which is heard at a considerable
-distance. My companion and I arrived there before high water, and,
-having climbed across the neck of rock, we seated ourselves close to the
-chimneys, where I proposed making a sketch, and had just begun when in
-came a thundering sea, which broke right over the rock itself and drove
-us back much alarmed.
-
-"Our negro guide now informed us that we must make haste to recross our
-narrow bridge, as the sea would get up as the tide rose. We lost no time
-and got back dry enough; and I was obliged to make my sketches from
-the mainland. In about three-quarters of an hour the sight was truly
-magnificent. I do not exaggerate in the least when I say that the waves
-rolled in, long and unbroken, full twenty-five feet high, till, meeting
-the headland, they broke clear over it, sending the spray flying over to
-the mainland; while from the centre of this mass of foam, the Souffleur
-shot up with a noise, which we afterwards heard distinctly between two
-and three miles. Standing on the main cliff, more than a hundred feet
-above the sea, we were quite wet. All we wanted to complete the picture
-was a large ship going ashore."
-
-[Footnote G: Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, vol.
-iii. 1833.]
-
-
-THE SOUFFLEUR.
-
-  This plate shows the sea beating against some hollow rocks on the
-  coast of the Mauritius, and producing the remarkable phenomenon called
-  "The Souffleur," or "The Blower," water-spouts issuing from the
-  wave-worn cavities of the cliff to a considerable height, and with a
-  noise distinctly audible at a distance of three miles.
-
-[Illustration: THE SOUFFLEUR ROCK, MAURITIUS.]
-
-A similar phenomenon, on a still more grand and majestic scale, occurs
-near Huatulco, a small Mexican village on the coast of the Pacific. On
-sailing into the bay one hears a distant noise, which might be taken for
-the spouting of a gigantic whale, or the dying groans of a bull struck
-by the sharp steel of the matador, or the rolling of thunder. Anxious to
-know the cause, "It is the Buffadero," answer the boatmen, pointing to a
-fantastically-shaped rock towards which they are rowing. On approaching,
-a truly magnificent spectacle reveals itself; for a colossal fountain
-springs from an aperture in the rock to a height of 150 feet, and after
-having dissolved in myriads of gems, returns to the foaming element
-which gave it birth. This beautiful sight renews itself as often as the
-breakers rush against the rock, and must be of unequalled splendour when
-a tornado sweeps across the ocean and rolls its giant billows into the
-hollowed bosom of the cliff.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. V.
-
-OCEAN CURRENTS.
-
-  Causes of the Oceanic Currents.--The Equatorial Stream.--The
-  Gulf Stream.--Its Influence on the Climate of the West European
-  Coasts.--The Cold Peruvian Stream.--The Japanese Stream.
-
-
-Perpetual motion and change is the grand law, to which the whole of the
-created universe is subject, and immutable stability is nowhere to be
-found, but in the Eternal mind that rules and governs all things. The
-stars, which were supposed to be _fixed_ to the canopy of heaven, are
-restless wanderers through the illimitable regions of space. The hardest
-rocks melt away under the corroding influence of time, for the elements
-never cease gnawing at their surface, and dislocating the atoms of which
-they are composed. Our body appears to us unchanged since yesterday,
-and yet how many of the particles which formed its substance, have
-within these few short hours, been cast off and replaced by others. We
-fancy ourselves at rest, and yet a torrent of blood, propelled by an
-indefatigable heart, is constantly flowing through all our arteries and
-veins.
-
-A similar external appearance of tranquillity might deceive the
-superficial observer, when sailing over the vast expanse of ocean, at a
-time when the winds are asleep, and its surface is unruffled by a wave.
-But how great would be his error! For every atom of the boundless sea is
-constantly moving and changing its place; from the depth to the surface,
-or from the surface to the depth; from the frozen pole to the burning
-equator, or from the torrid zone to the arctic ocean; now rising in the
-air in the form of invisible vapours, and then again descending upon our
-fields in fertilising showers.
-
-The waters are, in fact, the greatest travellers on earth; they know all
-the secrets of the submarine world; climb the peaks of inaccessible
-mountains, shame the flight of the condor as he towers over the summit
-of the Andes, and penetrate deeper into the bowels of the earth than the
-miner has ever sunk his shaft.
-
-Leaving their wanderings through the regions of air to the next chapter,
-I shall now describe the principal ocean currents, the simple, but
-powerful agencies by which they are set in motion, their importance in
-the economy of nature, and their influence on the climate of different
-countries.
-
-Even in the torrid zone, the waters of the ocean, like a false friend,
-are warm merely on the surface, and of an almost icy coldness at
-a considerable depth. This low temperature cannot be owing to any
-refrigerating influence at the bottom of the sea, as the internal warmth
-of the earth increases in proportion to its depth, and the waters of
-profound lakes, in a southern climate, never show the same degree of cold
-as those of the vast ocean.
-
-The phenomenon can thus only arise from a constant submarine current of
-cold water from the poles to the line, and strange as it may seem, its
-primary cause is to be sought for in the _warming_ rays of the _sun_,
-which, as we all know, distributes heat in a very unequal manner over the
-surface of the globe.
-
-Heat expands all liquid bodies, and renders them lighter; cold increases
-their weight by condensation. In consequence of this physical law, the
-waters of the tropical seas, rendered buoyant by the heat of a vertical
-sun, must necessarily rise and spread over the surface of the ocean to
-the north and south, whilst colder and heavier streams from the higher
-latitudes flow towards the equator along the bottom of the ocean, to
-replace them as they ascend.
-
-In this manner, the unequal action of the sun calls forth a general and
-constant movement of the waters from the poles to the equator, and from
-the equator to the poles; and this perpetual migration is one of the
-chief causes by which their purity is maintained. These opposite currents
-would necessarily flow direct to the north or south, were they not
-deflected from their course by the rotation of the earth, which gradually
-gives them a westerly or easterly direction.
-
-The unequal influence of the sun in different parts of the globe, and the
-rotation of the earth, are, however, not the only causes by which the
-course of ocean-currents is determined.
-
-Violent storms move the waters to a considerable depth, and retard the
-flow of rivers, and thus it is to be expected that continuous winds, even
-of moderate strength, must have a tendency to impel the waters in the
-same direction.
-
-The steady trade-winds of the tropical zone, and the prevailing westerly
-winds in higher latitudes, consequently unite their influence with that
-of the above mentioned causes, in driving the waters of the tropical seas
-to the west, and those of the temperate zones to the east.
-
-The tides also, which on the high seas generally move from east to west,
-promote the flow of the ocean in the same direction, and thus contribute
-to the westerly current of the tropical seas.
-
-Nor must we forget that the obstacles which the ocean-currents meet on
-their way; such as intervening lines of coast, sand banks, submarine
-ridges, or mountain chains, have a great influence upon their course, and
-may even give them a diametrically opposite direction to that which they
-would otherwise have followed.
-
-Having thus briefly mentioned the origin and causes of the currents,
-which intersect the seas like huge rivers, I shall now describe such of
-them as are most important and interesting in a geographical point of
-view.
-
-In the northern part of the Atlantic, between Europe, North Africa, and
-the New World, the waters are constantly performing a vast circular or
-rotatory movement. Under the tropics they proceed like the trade-winds
-from east to west, assisting the progress of the ships that sail from
-the Canaries to South America, and rendering navigation in a straight
-line from Carthagena de Indias to Cumana (stream upwards) next to
-impossible. This westerly current receives a considerable addition from
-the _Mozambique_ stream, which, flowing from north to south between
-Madagascar and the coast of Caffraria, proceeds round the southern
-extremity of Africa, and after rapidly advancing to the north, along the
-western coast of that continent, as far as the island of St. Thomas,
-unites its waters with those of the equatorial current, and continues its
-course right across the Atlantic. In this manner the combined tropical
-streams reach the eastern extremity of South America (Cape Roque), where
-they divide into two arms. The one flowing to the south follows the
-south-eastern coast, and gradually takes a south-easterly direction,
-between the tropic of Capricorn and the mouth of the La Plata river,
-beyond the limits of the trade-winds. Its traces show themselves to the
-south-east of the Cape of Good Hope, and are finally lost far in the
-Indian Ocean.
-
-The northern arm of the equatorial stream flows along the north-eastern
-coast of South America; constantly raising its temperature under the
-influence of a tropical sun, and progressing with a rapidity of a hundred
-miles in twenty-four hours (six feet and a half in a second), after
-having been joined by the waters of the Amazon river. Thus it continues
-to flow to the east, until the continent of Central America opposes
-an invincible barrier to its farther progress in this direction, and
-compels it to follow the windings of the coast of Costa Rica, Mosquitos,
-Campeche, and Tabasco. It then performs a vast circuit along the shores
-of the Mexican Gulf, and finally emerges through the Straits of Bahama
-into the open ocean.
-
-Here it assumes a new name, and forms what navigators call the
-_Gulf-stream_, a rapid current of tepid water, which, flowing in a
-diagonal direction, recedes farther and farther from the coast of North
-America as it advances to the north-east. Under the forty-first degree
-of latitude it suddenly bends to the east, gradually diminishing in
-swiftness, and at the same time increasing in width.
-
-Thus it flows across the Atlantic, to the south of the great bank of
-Newfoundland, where Humboldt found the temperature of its stream several
-degrees higher than that of the neighbouring and tranquil waters, which
-form, as it were, the banks of the warm oceanic current. Ere it reaches
-the western Azores, it divides into two arms, one of which is driven,
-partly by the natural impulse of its stream, but principally by the
-prevailing westerly and north-westerly winds, towards the coasts of
-Europe; while the other, flowing towards the Canary Islands and the
-western coast of Africa, finally returns into the equatorial current.
-
-In this manner the waters are brought back to the point from which they
-came, after having performed a vast circuit of 20,000 miles, which it
-took them nearly three years to accomplish. According to Humboldt's
-calculations, a boat left to the current, and moving along without any
-other assistance, would require about thirteen months to float from the
-Canary Islands to the Caribbean Sea as far as Caraccas. From Caraccas
-to the Straits of Florida, it would remain another ten months on the
-way, for though the direct distance is but short, the current has to
-perform an enormous circuit of 2500 miles, and flows but slowly in those
-confined seas. But the accumulated waters having now to force their
-passage through the narrow channel between Cuba and the Bahama Islands on
-one side, and Florida on the other, attain so considerable a velocity,
-that the whole distance from the Havannah to the Bank of Newfoundland, is
-traversed in forty days. During this passage the Gulf-stream particularly
-deserves its name, and is easily distinguished from the surrounding
-waters by its higher temperature and its vivid dark blue colour. Numerous
-marine animals of the tropical seas,--the flying fish, the neat velella,
-the purple ianthina, the crosier nautilus, accompany it to latitudes
-which otherwise would prove fatal to their existence; and, trusting its
-tepid stream, float or swim along to the north or the north-east.
-
-At the extremity of the Bank of Newfoundland, it becomes broader, wavers
-more or less in its course, according to the prevailing winds, and at the
-same time decreases in rapidity, so that the boat would most likely still
-require from ten to eleven months for this last station of its journey,
-ere it once more reached the Canary Islands.
-
-The direction of the Gulf-stream explains to us how the productions of
-tropical America are so frequently found on the shores of the Eastern
-Atlantic. Humboldt relates that the main-mast of the "Tilbury," a ship
-of the line, wrecked during the seven years' war on the coast of San
-Domingo, was carried by the Gulf-stream to the North of Scotland; and
-cites the still more remarkable fact, that casks of palm oil belonging
-to the cargo of an English vessel, which foundered on a rock near Cape
-Lopez, likewise found their way to Scotland, having thus twice traversed
-the wide Atlantic; first borne from east to west by the equatorial
-current, and then carried from west to east, between 45° and 55° N.
-latitude, by means of the Gulf-stream.
-
-Major Rennell ("Investigation of Currents") relates the peregrinations of
-a bottle, thrown overboard from the "Newcastle," on the 20th of January,
-1819, in lat. 38° 52′, and long. 66° 20′, and ultimately found on the 2nd
-of June, 1820, on the shore of the Island of Arran.
-
-On the 16th of April, 1853, another bottle cast into the waters in the
-vicinity of the Bank of Newfoundland, on the 15th of March, 1852, was
-found near Bayonne, not far from the mouth of the Adour.
-
-On the coasts of Orcadia, a sort of fruit, commonly known by the name of
-_Molucca_, or Orkney beans, are found in large quantities, particularly
-after storms of westerly wind.
-
-These beans are the produce of West Indian trees (_Anacardium
-occidentale_), and find their way from the woods of Cuba and Jamaica, to
-the Ultima Thule of the ancients, by means of the Gulf-stream.
-
-Large quantities of American drift-wood are transported by the same
-current to the dreary shores of Iceland,--a welcome gift to the
-inhabitants of a region where the highest tree is but a dwarfish shrub,
-and cabbages of the size of an apple are raised, as a great rarity, in
-the governor's garden.
-
-A short time before Humboldt visited the island of Teneriffe, the sea had
-thrown out the trunk of a North American cedar-tree (_Cedrela odorata_),
-covered with the mosses and lichens that had grown upon it in the virgin
-forest.
-
-The Gulf-stream has even contributed to the discovery of America, for
-it is well known that Columbus was strengthened in his belief in the
-existence of a western continent, by the stranding on the Azores of
-bamboos of an enormous size, of artificially carved pieces of wood, of
-trunks of a species of Mexican pine, and of the dead bodies of two men,
-whose features, resembling neither those of the inhabitants of Europe nor
-of Africa, indicated a hitherto unknown race. But not only lifeless and
-inanimate objects find their way across the wide Atlantic by means of
-the Gulf-stream and its spreading waters; the living aborigines of the
-distant regions of America have also sometimes been driven towards the
-coasts of Europe by the combined action of the currents and the winds.
-Thus, James Wallace tells us that, in the year 1682, a Greenlander in
-his boat was seen by many people near the south point of the island of
-Eda, but escaped pursuit. In 1684 another Greenland fisherman appeared
-near the island of Wistram. An Esquimaux canoe, which the current and
-the storm had cast ashore, is still to be seen in the church of Burra.
-In Cardinal Bembo's "History of Venice," it is related that, in the year
-1508, a small boat with seven strange-featured men, was captured by a
-French vessel in the North Sea. The description given of them corresponds
-exactly with the appearance of the Esquimaux; they were of a middle-size,
-of a dark colour, and had a broad face with spreading features, marked
-with a violet scar. No one understood their language. They were clothed
-in seal-skins. They ate raw flesh, and drank blood as we do wine. Six of
-these men died on the journey; the seventh, a youth, was presented to the
-King of France, who at that time was residing at Orleans.
-
-The appearance of so-called Indians on the coast of the German Sea,
-under the Othos and Frederic Barbarossa, or even, as Cornelius Nepos,
-Pomponius Melas, and Pliny relate, at the time when Quintus Metellus
-Celer was proconsul in Gaul, may be explained by similar effects of the
-current and continuous north-easterly winds. A king of the Boians made
-a present of the stranded dark-coloured men to Metellus Celer. Gomara,
-in his "General History of the Indies," expresses a belief that these
-Indians were natives of Labrador, which would be doubly interesting as
-the first instance recorded in history of the natives of the Old and the
-New World having been brought into contact with each other. We can easily
-account for the appearance of Esquimaux on the North European coasts in
-former times; as during the eleventh and twelve centuries, their race was
-much more numerous than at present, and extended, as we know, from the
-researches of Rask and Finn Magnussen, from Labrador to the good Winland,
-or the shores of the present State of Massachusetts and Connecticut.
-
-If we compare the climates on the opposite coasts of the Northern
-Atlantic, we find a remarkable difference in favour of the Old World.
-The frozen regions of Labrador, lie under the same degree of latitude as
-Plymouth, where the myrtle and laurel remain perpetually verdant in the
-open air. In New York, which has a more southern situation than Rome,
-the winter is colder than at Bergen in Norway, which lies 20° farther
-to the north. While on the northern coasts of the old continent, the
-waters remain open a great part of the year, even beyond the latitude of
-80°, the ice never completely thaws on the opposite shores of Greenland.
-What a contrast between the Feroë islands, where the harbours are never
-frozen, where fertile meadows afford pasturage to numerous flocks of
-sheep, and even crops of barley reward the labours of the husbandman,
-and the frightful wildernesses on the shores of Hudson's Straits!--and
-yet both are situated under the same latitude of 62°.
-
-The milder winter and earlier spring which characterise the north-west
-coast of Europe, are due, in some measure, to the prevailing westerly
-winds; but there can be no doubt that they are mainly owing to the
-influence of the Gulf-stream, which, as we have seen, conveys the heated
-waters of the Mexican Gulf far to the north-east, and thus imparts warmth
-to the climate of our native isle. In both seas, on the contrary, which
-bound the peninsula or island of Greenland, icy currents descend, and
-continue their course to the south, along the coasts of North America.
-Near Newfoundland their temperature, in May, is found to be 14° lower
-than that of the air, and even in spring and the early summer they
-carry along with them immense ice-blocks, which are frequently drifted
-as far south as the latitude of New York, and finally disappear in the
-Gulf-stream.
-
-It is evident that the cold of winter must be increased, and the spring
-retarded along the North American coasts by these cold streams, just
-as the coasts of Europe are favoured by streams of a contrary nature;
-and thus the ocean-currents go a great way to explain the remarkable
-differences of climate between the opposite shores of the Northern
-Atlantic.
-
-On this occasion I cannot omit directing the reader's attention to the
-influence which the far-distant barrier of Central America has upon
-the climate of Great Britain. Supposing yon narrow belt of land to be
-suddenly whelmed under the ocean, then instead of circuitously winding
-round the Gulf of Mexico, the heated waters of the equatorial current
-would naturally flow into the Pacific, and the Gulf-stream no longer
-exist. We should not only lose the benefit of its warm current, but cold
-polar streams, descending farther to the south would take its place,
-and be ultimately driven by the westerly winds against our coasts. Our
-climate would then resemble that of Newfoundland, and our ports be
-blocked up during many months, by enormous masses of ice. Under these
-altered circumstances, England would no longer be the grand emporium of
-trade and industry, and would finally dwindle down from her imperial
-station to an insignificant dependency of some other country more
-favoured by Nature.
-
-On examining other coast-lands, in different parts of the globe, we
-shall everywhere find the influence of the reigning currents producing
-analogous effects to those I have already mentioned.
-
-The Southern Atlantic is not warmed like the European seas by tepid
-streams, it is exposed on all sides to the free afflux of the cold waters
-of the Antarctic Ocean, and during the summer months to the influence of
-drift ice. Thus, the southern extremity of America, Terra del Fuego, the
-Falkland Islands, South Georgia, Sandwich Land, and other isles of the
-southern ocean, have a much colder climate than the European coasts and
-islands situated under the same latitude.
-
-Let us for instance compare the temperature of the Falkland Islands and
-of Port Famine in the Straits of Magellan, with that of Dublin, which is
-situated at an equal distance from the line.
-
-                                            Mean Temperature.
-                       Latitude.   Winter.   Summer.  Annual.
-
-  Dublin               53° 21′ N.   +4·0° R.   15·3°    9·6°
-  Port Famine          53° 38′ S.   +0·6       10·0     5·3
-  Falkland Islands     52°  0′ S.    4·36      11·8     8·24
-  Feroë Islands        62°  2′ N.    3·9       11·6     7·1
-
-Thus the climate of the Falkland Islands is, as we see, not very
-different from that of the Feroë Islands, although the latter lie ten
-degrees farther from the equator.
-
-In the Pacific Ocean, as well as in the Atlantic, we find a westerly
-current filling the whole breadth of the tropical zone, from the coast of
-America to that of Australia and the Indian Archipelago. The best known
-of its affluxes is the cold Peruvian stream, which, emerging from the
-Polar Sea, flows with great rapidity along the shores of Chili and Peru,
-and does not take a westerly direction, before reaching the neighbourhood
-of the line. It has everywhere a remarkably low temperature,
-comparatively to the latitude, and this sufficiently accounts for the
-equal and temperate climate on the coasts of Chili and Peru. Thus, the
-mean temperature of Callao (12° S. lat.) is only 20° R. while in Rio
-Janeiro (23° S. lat.), though so much farther from the line, the annual
-warmth rises to 23·2° R.
-
-In the beginning of November, Humboldt found at Callao the temperature
-of the sea within the current not higher than 15·5°, while outside the
-stream it rose to 26° or even 28·5° R.
-
-Even in the vicinity of the equator, after the current has already
-assumed a westerly direction, its mean temperature does not exceed 20·5°.
-But as it advances towards the west, its temperature gradually rises to
-27° or 28°.
-
-On the western banks of the Pacific the equatorial stream divides into
-several branches. Part of its waters flow to the south, a greater
-quantity penetrates through the channels of the south Asiatic Archipelago
-into the Indian Ocean, the remainder turns to the north-east, on the
-confines of the Chinese Sea, leaves the eastern coast of the Japanese
-Islands, and then spreads its warm waters under the influence of
-north-westerly winds over the northern part of the Pacific. Thus the
-Japanese stream plays here the same part as the Gulf-stream in the
-Atlantic, and exerts a similar, though less mighty influence over the
-climate of the west coast of America, as it is neither so large nor
-so warm, and, having to traverse a wider ocean, in higher latitudes,
-naturally loses more of its heat during the passage.
-
-[Illustration: Japan Junks.]
-
-It is owing to this stream that Sitcha enjoys a mean annual temperature
-of +7° R., while Nain in Labrador, situated under the same latitude, is
-indebted to the Greenland current for a summer of +7·8°, a winter of
--18·5°, and a miserable annual temperature of -3·6°. On the west coast of
-North America the analogous trees grow 3° or 4° nearer to the pole, and
-the aboriginal tribes go naked as far to the north as 52°, a simplicity
-of toilet that would but ill suit the Esquimaux of Labrador.
-
-Besides their beneficial influence on different climates the
-ocean-currents tend to equalise, or to maintain the equilibrium of
-the saline composition of sea-water, and thus secure the existence
-of numberless marine animals. Their movements also contribute to the
-formation of sand-banks, where at certain seasons legions of fishes
-deposit their spawn and invite the persecutions of man.
-
-The rapidity of currents is very different, but always important enough
-to be taken into account by navigators. The well-informed seaman makes
-use of them to traverse wide spaces with greater rapidity, and, after
-an apparently circuitous course, arrives sooner and more safely at his
-journey's end than the ignorant steersman, who vainly endeavours to
-strive against their power.
-
-[Illustration: Pavonia lactuca, with Polypes in Natural Position.]
-
-
-[Illustration: LIGHTHOUSE AND WATER-SPOUTS.]
-
-LIGHTHOUSE AND WATER-SPOUTS.
-
-  A Lighthouse on a rocky shore is represented as just lighted, the
-  twilight having become darkened by a sudden storm, during which the
-  phenomena of "water-spouts" occur, which are represented to the left
-  of the Lighthouse.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. VI.
-
-THE AËRIAL AND TERRESTRIAL MIGRATIONS OF THE WATERS.
-
-  Movements of the Waters through Evaporation.--Origin of
-  Winds.--Trade-Winds.--Calms.--Monsoons.--Typhoons.--Tornadoes.--
-  Water-Spouts.--The Formation of Atmospherical Precipitations.--Dew.--
-  Its Origin.--Fog.--Clouds.--Rain.--Snow.--Hail Sources.--The Quantities
-  of Water which the Rivers pour into the Ocean.--Glaciers and their
-  Progress.--Icebergs.--Erratic Blocks.--Influence of Forests on the
-  Formation and Retention of Atmospherical Precipitations.--Consequences
-  of their excessive Destruction.--The Power of Man over Climate.--How
-  has it been used as yet?
-
-
-Neither storms nor ocean-currents, nor ebb and flood, however great
-their influence, cause such considerable movements of the waters, or
-force them to wander so restlessly from place to place as the silent and
-imperceptible action of the warming sunbeam. In every zone evaporation
-is constantly active in impregnating the atmosphere with moisture, but
-the chief seat of its power is evidently in the equatorial regions, where
-the vertical rays of the great parent of light and heat plunge, day after
-day, into the bosom of ocean, and perpetually saturate the burning air
-with aqueous vapours.
-
-In this chapter I intend following these invisible agents of fertility
-and life, as they lightly ascend from the tropical seas, and accompanying
-them in their various transformations, until they once more return to the
-bosom of their great parent. A cursory view of the benefits they confer
-on the vegetable and animal world, as they wander over the surface of the
-land, will, I hope, agreeably occupy the reader, and serve to increase
-his admiration for that deep and dark blue ocean without which all
-organic life would soon be extinct upon earth.
-
-I begin with a few words on the winged carriers of marine exhalations,
-the _winds_, which, although now and then detrimental or fatal to
-individuals by their violence, largely compensate for these local
-injuries, by the constant and inestimable benefits they confer on the
-whole body of mankind.
-
-On taking a comprehensive view of their origin, we find that, like the
-oceanic currents, they are chiefly caused by the unequal influence of
-solar warmth upon the atmosphere under the line and at the poles. In the
-torrid zone, the air, rarefied by intense heat, ascends in perpendicular
-columns high above the surface of the earth, and there flows off towards
-the poles, in the same manner as in a vase filled with cold water and
-placed over the flame of a lamp, the warmed liquid rises from the bottom
-and spreads over the surface.
-
-But cold air-currents must naturally come flowing in an opposite
-direction from the poles to the equator to fill up the void, as in
-the example I have cited, colder and consequently heavier water comes
-streaming down the sides of the vase to replace the liquid which is
-rising in the centre under the influence of heat.
-
-Thus the unequal distribution of solar warmth over the surface of the
-earth evidently generates a constant circulation of air from the equator
-to the poles, and from the icy regions to the tropics, and by this means
-the purity of the atmosphere is chiefly maintained. The sun is not only
-the great fountain of warmth, he is also the universal ventilator; he
-not only calls forth animal life, but at the same time, by a simple and
-admirable mechanism, provides for its health by constantly renewing the
-air, which is essential to its existence.
-
-If caloric were the sole agent which influences the direction of the
-winds, or if the earth were one uniform plain, the opposite air-currents
-I have mentioned would naturally flow straight to the north and south;
-but their course is modified or diverted in the same manner as that
-of the ocean-currents by the rotation of the globe. Thus, the cold
-air-current (polar-stream) which comes rushing upon us from the Arctic
-regions, is felt in our latitude as the biting east or north-east wind,
-so trying to our nerves and organs of respiration, while we enjoy the
-warm air-current from the tropics as the mild western or south-western
-breeze.
-
-But besides the rotation of the earth, there are many other local
-influences by which the winds are deflected from their course, or by
-whose agency partial air-currents are called forth. Among these we
-particularly notice high chains of mountains, the unequal capacity of
-sea and land in absorbing and retaining heat, which gives rise to sea
-and land breezes; the increasing or diminishing power of the sun in
-different seasons by which the equilibrium of the air is modified in many
-countries, the difference of radiation from a sandy desert or a forest,
-electrical discharges from clouds, &c. &c.
-
-Although subject to many of these local disturbances, the winds generally
-blow with an astonishing regularity in the tropical zone; while in
-our variable climate the polar and equatorial stream are engaged in a
-perpetual strife, now bringing us warmth and moisture from the south and
-west, now cold and dryness from the north and east.
-
-Thus, in the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean we find the trade-winds
-perpetually blowing from the east, the north-east trade-wind between 9°
-and 27° N. lat., and the south-east trade-wind between 3° N. lat. and 25°
-S. lat. It was by their assistance that Columbus was enabled to discover
-America, and that the wretched barks of Magellan traversed the wide
-deserts of the Pacific from end to end.
-
-Between these two regions of the trade-winds lies the dreaded zone or
-girdle of the equatorial calms (doldrums), where long calms alternate
-with dreadful storms, and the sultry air weighs heavily upon the spirits.
-
-  "Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down,
-     'Twas sad as sad could be;
-   And we did speak, only to break
-     The silence of the sea.
-
-  "Day after day, day after day,
-     We stuck, nor breath, nor motion,
-   As idle as a painted ship
-     Upon a painted ocean."
-
-On their polar limits, the trade-wind zones are again girdled with calm
-belts, the _horse latitudes_, whose mean breadth is from ten to twelve
-degrees. The boundaries of these alternating regions of winds and calms
-are not invariably the same, on the contrary, they are perpetually moving
-to the north or south, according to the position of the sun.
-
-From 40° N. lat. to the pole, westerly winds begin to be prevalent, and
-in the Atlantic Ocean their proportion to the easterly winds is as two to
-one.
-
-In the Northern Indian Ocean and in the Chinese Sea we also find the
-trade-wind, which is there called the _north-east monsoon_; here,
-however, it only blows from October to April, as during the summer
-terrestrial influences prevail which completely divert it from its course.
-
-From the wide plains of central Asia glowing with the rays of a
-perpetually unclouded sun, the rarefied air rises into the higher
-regions. Other columns of air rush from the equator to fill up the
-void, and cause the trade-wind to vary its course, and change into the
-_south-western monsoons_ of the Indian Ocean, which blow from May to
-September. The regularly alternating monsoons materially contributed to
-the early development of navigation in the Indian seas, and conducted
-the Greeks and Romans as far as Ceylon, Malacca, and the Gulf of Siam.
-Similar monsoons, or deflections from the ordinary course of the
-trade-winds, occur also in the Mexican Gulf, in the Gulf of Guinea, and
-in that part of the Pacific which borders on Central America, through the
-influence of the heated plains of Africa, Utah, Texas, and New Mexico.
-
-The passage from one monsoon to the other is of course only gradual,
-since the land also is only gradually heated and cooled. Thus at the
-change of the monsoon, an atmospheric war of several weeks' continuance
-occurs, during which the trade-wind and the monsoon measure their
-strength, and calms alternate with dreadful storms (typhoons, cyclones,
-tornadoes).
-
-According to the researches and observations of Franklin, Cooper,
-Redfield, Reid, &c. &c., these storms are great rotatory winds, that move
-along a curved line in increasing circles. In the northern hemisphere,
-the rotatory movement follows a direction contrary to that of the hands
-of a clock; while the opposite takes place in the southern hemisphere.
-The knowledge of the laws which regulate the movements of storms is of
-great importance to the mariner, since it points out to him the direction
-he has to give his ship to gain the external limits of the tornado, and
-thus to remove it from danger.
-
-_Water-spouts_ are formed by two winds blowing in opposite directions,
-and raising or sucking up the water in their vortex. They generally form
-a double cone; the superior part with its apex downwards, consisting
-of a dense cloud, while the inferior cone, the apex of which is turned
-upwards, consists of water, which is thus sometimes raised to a height of
-several hundred feet.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Water-spouts seldom last longer than half-an-hour. Their course and
-movements are irregular; straight forwards; in zig-zag lines; alternately
-rising and falling; stationary; slow; or progressing with the rapidity
-of thirty miles an hour. The rotatory movement is also variable; its
-power is often very great, but sometimes water-spouts pass over small
-vessels without injuring them. They are more frequent near the coast than
-on the high seas; and are more commonly seen in warm climates. They seem
-to occur particularly in regions where calms frequently alternate with
-storms, which is not to be wondered at, since they owe their origin to
-miniature storms or whirlwinds.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-How do the aqueous vapours with which evaporation impregnates the
-atmosphere, again descend upon the surface of the earth?
-
-Everybody knows that when in summer a bottle filled with cold water is
-brought into the room, it soon gets covered with thick dew-drops, which
-presently trickle down its sides, although it was perfectly dry on
-entering. Whence does this moisture come from? Not from the inside of
-the bottle as ignorant people might imagine, but from the surrounding
-atmosphere; in consequence of the capacity of the air to absorb and
-retain moisture, increasing or diminishing, as its temperature grows
-warmer or colder.
-
-Thus when the cold bottle is introduced into the room, the warm sheet of
-air, which is in immediate contact with its surface, immediately cools,
-and being no longer able to retain all the moisture with which it was
-impregnated, is obliged to deposit it on the sides of the vessel. This
-familiar example suffices to explain the formation of dew, rain, hail,
-snow, hoar-frost, and all other atmospherical precipitations. They all
-result from the influence of some refrigerating cause upon the air; such
-as the passage of a warm current into a cooler region; the influx of a
-cold wind; a cold-radiating chain of high mountains; a forest, and so
-forth.
-
-The very name of dew is refreshing, and calls forth a host of pleasing
-ideas, associated as it is with the memory of serene skies and sunny
-mornings. How beautiful are its diamonds glittering in all the colours of
-the rainbow, on verdant meads, or on the blushing petals of the rose. How
-suggestive of all that is lovely, pure, and innocent!
-
-Poetry is of older date than prose, and bards have sung long before
-philosophers inquired. Thus, although the children of song from Homer and
-Theocritus to Byron and Wordsworth so frequently mention dew in their
-immortal strains, it is only in our time that its formation has been
-fully explained by Dr. Wells, who in a very ingenious and masterly essay
-on this subject, first proved that it results from the ground radiating
-or projecting heat into free space, and consequently becoming colder than
-the neighbouring air. During calm and clear nights, the upper surfaces of
-grass-blades, for instance, radiate their caloric into the serene sky,
-from which they receive none in return. The lower parts of the plant,
-being slow conductors of heat, can only transmit to them a small portion
-of terrestrial warmth, and their temperature consequently falling below
-that of the circumambient atmosphere, they condense its aqueous vapours.
-Clouds on the contrary compensate for the loss of heat the grass sustains
-from radiation, by reflecting or throwing back again upon the terrestrial
-surface, the caloric which would else have been dissipated in a clear
-sky, and this is the reason why dew does not fall, or but slightly falls
-during clouded nights. It is easy to conceive why none is formed in windy
-weather, as then the air in contact with the ground is constantly removed
-ere it has time to cool so far as to compel it to part with its moisture.
-We can also understand why dew is more abundant in autumn and spring than
-at any other season; as then very cold nights frequently follow upon warm
-days; and why it is most copious in the torrid zone, as in those sultry
-regions the air is more saturated with moisture than anywhere else, and
-the comparatively cold nights are almost constantly serene and calm.
-Hoar-frost is nothing but congealed dew, and owes its formation to the
-same causes.
-
-When warmer air-currents are cooled by being transported into colder
-regions, or from any other refrigerating cause, a great part of their
-moisture generally condenses into small vesicles, but very little heavier
-than the surrounding atmosphere, which then becomes visible under the
-form of clouds, those great beautifiers of our changing skies, that
-frequently trace such picturesque, gorgeous, or singular groups and
-landscapes in the aërial regions. The inhabitants of countries where
-the heavens are monotonously serene, may well envy us the charms of a
-phenomenon which in some measure affords us compensation for so many
-disagreeable vicissitudes of the weather. Who that has admired at sunset
-the light clouds so beautifully fringed with silver and gold, or glowing
-with the richest purple, and loves to follow them in all their wonderful
-and fantastic transformations, will deny that they are the poesy and life
-of the skies, the awakeners of pleasing fancies and delightful reveries?
-
-Thin wreaths of clouds have been observed, by travellers that have
-ascended the most elevated mountains, floating high above the peak of
-Chimborazo or Dhawalagiri, and thus shows us to what an amazing altitude
-the emanations of ocean are carried by the ascending air-current.
-
-Sometimes when light clouds pass into a warmer atmosphere, they gradually
-dissolve and vanish; more frequently the accumulating moisture, too heavy
-to continue floating in the air, or condensed by electrical explosions,
-descends upon the earth in rain, which, with few exceptions, visits
-every part of the globe, either in its liquid form or congealed to snow
-or hail. But the quantity of rain which annually falls in different
-regions is very unequal, and strange to say, it is not most considerable
-in those countries whose climate enjoys an unenviable notoriety for
-its clouded atmosphere and the great number of its rainy days. In the
-tropical regions it is generally only about the time of the summer
-solstice that abundant showers of rain fall regularly every afternoon,
-while the rest of the year, the sky is uninterruptedly serene; but during
-the short period of the rainy season, a far greater quantity of water is
-precipitated upon the earth, than in the temperate zones.
-
-While on the island of Guadaloupe, the annual quantity of rain amounts
-to 274·2 French inches, and to 283·3 at Mahabuleshwar, on the western
-declivity of the Ghauts, which, as far as has hitherto been ascertained,
-is the place where most rain descends; only from 35 to 40 inches fall on
-the western coast of England, where the skies are chronically weeping.
-
-It is a remarkable circumstance that the annual quantity of rain which
-falls in the same place remains about the same from year to year; so that
-by an admirable balancing of conflicting influences, nature seems to
-have provided for stability in a province which of all others might be
-supposed most open to the caprices of chance.
-
-Having thus followed the exhalations of ocean to the end of what may
-be called the first stage of their journey, and seen them descend in a
-condensed form upon the surface of the dry land, I will now accompany
-them in their ulterior progress to the bosom of the seas. A great part
-of them have many transformations and changes to undergo ere they can
-accomplish their return; repeatedly rising in vapours from the solid
-earth, and falling in showers upon its surface; or circulating through
-the tissues of organic life: but after all these intermediate stages and
-delays, they ultimately find their way into rivulets or streams, which
-after many a meander restore them to the vast reservoir from which they
-arose.
-
-The waters that descend upon solid rocks, or fall in large quantities
-upon abrupt declivities, immediately flow into the brooks or rivers;
-but when they gently and gradually alight upon a porous soil, they are
-absorbed by the earth, and, displacing in virtue of capillary attraction,
-and of their superior weight, the air which fills the interstices
-between its solid particles, sink deeper and deeper until they meet with
-a solid and impenetrable stratum. If this forms a hollow basin, they
-naturally settle in the cavity; whence they are slowly displaced by fresh
-accessions and evaporation; but if its deepest declivity lies somewhere
-near the surface, they gradually gush forth under the form of sources
-or springs, having unequal distances to perform before they can reach
-the orifice. If no fresh supply of water falls, ere the most distant
-particles have reached their journey's end, the source dries up: but if
-new atmospheric precipitations continually take place, the source is
-perennial, although naturally of unequal strength at different times.
-
-The temperature of springs varies from icy coldness to boiling heat. Cold
-springs arise when the waters, by which they are fed, descend from high
-mountains or do not penetrate a great way into the bowels of the earth;
-but if the filtering waters reach a depth which is constantly of a higher
-temperature, they then gush forth in the form of warm or even boiling
-springs.
-
-A crowd of agreeable associations attaches itself to the idea of sources
-and springs, for they are generally both pleasing and useful to man. How
-we long in summer for the refreshing waters of the cool fountain issuing
-from the mountain side, and murmuring through the woods. The lover of
-nature spends hours near some solitary spring, and forgets the flow of
-time, as he observes the bubbling and listens to the sweet music of its
-crystal waters. A luxuriant vegetation marks their progress, though all
-around be burnt up by the scorching sun. Along their margin many a wild
-flower blooms, and herbs and shrubs and trees rejoice in a more vivid
-green, and statelier growth. There also congregate such members of the
-finny race, as delight in cooler streams of untainted purity, and birds
-love to build their nests among the sheltering foliage. Thus a little
-world forms around the gushing spring, and shows on a diminutive scale,
-how all that lives and breathes depends upon the liquid element for its
-existence.
-
-While the waters filter through the earth they naturally dissolve a
-variety of substances, and all springs are more or less mixed with
-extraneous particles. But many of them, particularly such as are of a
-higher temperature and consequently arise from deeper strata, contain
-either a larger quantity or so peculiar a combination of mineral
-substances as to acquire medicinal virtues of the highest order, and to
-become objects of importance to a large portion of mankind. Numberless
-invalids annually flock to the hygeian fountains which nature unceasingly
-pours forth from her mysterious laboratory, and are by them restored to
-the enjoyments of a pleasurable existence.
-
-How truly wonderful is the chain of processes which first raises vapours
-from the deep, and eventually causes them to gush forth from the entrails
-of the earth, laden with blessings and enriched with treasures more
-inestimable than those the miner toils for!
-
-Although a river generally has its source in mountainous regions, it
-must be remembered that all the waters that descend upon the territory
-of which it forms the lowest level, gradually find their way into
-its current. Thus, the monarch of all streams, the Amazon River, is
-the natural drain of a territory thirty times larger than England.
-Thousands of rivulets and brooks, fed by the waters which descend
-from the slopes of thousands of glens and valleys, or filter through
-the vast forest-plains that rise but a few feet above their surface,
-all contribute to swell the majesty of its current. Its sources are
-in reality wherever, on that vast extent of land, water descends and
-drains into any one of its innumerable affluents. When we hear that on
-an average the river of the Amazons alone restores every minute half a
-million of tons of water to the ocean, and then consider the countless
-number of streams all alike active, that are scattered over the globe,
-we may form a faint idea of the vast quantity of vapours which are
-constantly rising from the deep, and of the magnitude of these silent
-operations of nature. Yet such is the immensity of ocean, that supposing
-all the waters it constantly loses, never to return again into its
-bosom, it would require thousands of years of evaporation to exhaust the
-immensity of its reservoirs!
-
-It might be supposed that the waters which congeal on the sides of
-mountains covered with perennial snow, or fill Alpine valleys in the
-form of glaciers, were eternally fixed on earth--but there also we are
-deceived by delusive appearances of immobility. Every year the glacier
-slowly but restlessly makes a step forwards into the valley, and while
-its lower end dissolves, new supplies of snow constantly feed it from
-above. It has been calculated by Agassiz that the ice masses of the Aar
-glacier require 133 years to perform their descent from its summit to
-its inferior extremity--a distance of ten miles--so that their sojourn
-in that chilled valley far surpasses that of the oldest patriarch of
-the mountains. How great must be their delight when they at last are
-liberated from the spell which so long enchained them, and freely bound
-along on their way to Ocean! How they must shudder at the idea of once
-more returning to their desolate prison, and long for the perpetual
-warmth of spicy groves and tropical gardens!
-
-In the colder regions of the earth, in Greenland or Spitzbergen, immense
-glaciers frequently fill the valleys that open on the sea, descend even
-beyond the water's edge, and, as they move along, their overhanging
-masses separate from their base and plunge into the deep with a crash
-louder than thunder. The icebergs that drift about the Arctic seas,
-and are annually conveyed by the currents into lower latitudes, are
-formed in this manner. Huge blocks of granite, detached by atmospherical
-vicissitudes from the higher mountains and precipitated on the surface
-of the glaciers, frequently float on the broad back of an iceberg far
-away from the spot where they seemed rooted for eternity. As their
-crystal support melts away in its progress to warmer climes, these rocky
-fragments, which have been appropriately named _erratic blocks_, fall
-to the bottom of the sea hundreds or even thousands of miles from the
-starting point of their journey. Thus the great bank of Newfoundland is
-covered with stones from distant Greenland, raised high in the air by
-volcanic power myriads of years ago, and now condemned to an equally
-long repose below the surface of ocean. When will they rise again above
-the waters, and what further changes will they have to undergo ere their
-compacted atoms resolve themselves into dust and assume new forms? But,
-however remote their dissolution, it will inevitably come, for Time is
-all-powerful, and has an eternity to work out his changes.
-
-The large blocks of stone that so wonderfully migrate on the wandering
-iceberg form but a small and insignificant portion of the terrestrial
-spoils which are transported to ocean by the returning waters. Every
-river is more or less laden with earthy particles which its current
-carries onwards to the sea and deposits at its mouth. In course of time
-their accumulation, as I have already mentioned, forms large tracts of
-fertile territory encroaching upon the maritime domains.
-
-I shall end with a few words on the influence of forests in attracting
-or retaining the atmospherical moisture, as it is a subject of great
-importance in the economy of nations, and shows us how much it is in the
-power of man to improve or to defeat the provisions of nature in his
-favour.
-
-Forests always cool the neighbouring atmosphere, for their foliage offers
-an immense warmth-radiating surface, so that the vapours readily condense
-above them and descend in frequent showers. At the same time their roots
-loosen the soil, and the successive falling of their leaves forms a
-thick layer of humus, which has an uncommon power in attracting and
-retaining moisture. Their thick canopy of verdure also prevents the rays
-of the sun from penetrating to the ground, and absorbing its humidity.
-Thus the soil on which forests stand is constantly saturated with water,
-and becomes the parent of perennial sources and rills, that spread
-fertility and plenty far from the spot where they originated.
-
-The rain-attractive influence of forests did not escape the attention of
-Columbus, who ascribed the frequent showers which refreshed and cooled
-the air, as he sailed along the coasts of Jamaica, to the vast extent and
-density of the woods that covered the mountains of that island. On this
-occasion he mentions in his journal that formerly rain had been equally
-abundant on Madeira, the Canaries, and the Azores, before their shady
-forests were felled or burnt by the improvident settlers.
-
-The wanton destruction of woods has entailed barrenness on countries
-renowned in former times for their fertility. The mountains of Greece
-were covered with trees during the great epoch of her history, and
-the well-watered land bore abundant fruits, and sustained a numerous
-population. But man recklessly laid waste the sources of his prosperity.
-Along with the woods, many brooks and rivulets disappeared, and ceased
-to water the parched plains. The rain gradually washed the vegetable
-earth from the sides of the naked hills, and condemned them to sterility.
-When the snow of the mountains began to thaw under the warm breath of
-spring, it was now no longer retained by the spongy soil of the forests,
-and gradually dissolved under their cover; but, rapidly melting, filled
-with its impetuous torrents the bed of the rivers, and overflowing their
-banks, spread ruin and devastation far around.
-
-Unfortunately, forests when once destroyed are not so easily restored,
-and it requires many centuries ere the bared mountain side reassumes
-its pristine vesture of shady woods. First lichens, mosses, and other
-thrifty herbs, content to feed upon nothing, have to prepare a scanty
-humus for the reception of more pretentious guests. In course of time
-some small stunted shrub makes its appearance here and there in some
-peculiarly favoured spot, and after all requires vast powers of endurance
-to maintain itself on the niggard soil, exposed to the full enmity of
-wind and weather. This paves the way for a more vigorous and fortunate
-offspring; and as every year adds something to the vegetation on the
-mountain's side, and opposes increasing obstacles to the winds, the
-falling leaves and decaying herbage accumulate more and more, until
-dwarfish trees first find a sufficiency of soil to root upon, and
-finally, the proud monarch of the forest spreads out his powerful arms
-and raises his majestic summit to the skies.
-
-While Greece and Asia Minor have seen their fertility decrease or
-vanish with the trees that once covered their hills, other countries
-have improved as their vast woods have been thinned by the axe of the
-husbandman. In the time of the Romans all Germany formed one vast and
-continuous forest, and its climate was consequently much more rigorous
-than it is at present. All the low grounds were covered with impervious
-morasses, and the winter is described by historians in terms like those
-we should employ to paint the cold of Siberia.
-
-But the scene gradually changed as tillage usurped the sylvan domain. The
-excessive humidity of the soil diminished, the swamps disappeared, and
-the heat of the sea, penetrating into the bosom of the earth, developed
-its productive powers. Thus the chestnut and the vine now thrive and
-ripen their fruits on the banks of the Rhine and the Danube, where 2000
-years ago they could not possibly have existed. But Germany would also
-see her fertility decline, if the destruction of the forests which still
-crown the brow of many of her hills should continue in a considerable
-degree. Numerous rivulets would then be dried up during the warm season,
-in consequence of the more rapid descent and thaw of vernal rains and
-wintry snows, and most likely, refreshing summer showers would be far
-less frequent. Even now the inundations which almost annually desolate
-the banks of the Elbe, the Oder, and the Rhine, are ascribed by competent
-judges to the excessive clearing of the forests in the mountainous
-countries where those rivers originate. These few examples suffice to
-prove to us the power of man in modifying the climates of the earth, and
-the vast importance of the study of terrestrial physics. By planting
-or destroying woods, he is able to compel nature to a more equitable
-distribution of her gifts. In marshy and low countries, he may remove
-the superfluous waters by drainage, and increase the productiveness of
-arid plains by judicious irrigation. Thus man is the lord and master
-of the earth; but hitherto he has done but little to reap all the
-advantages he might have obtained from his dominion, or even used it
-to his own detriment. Drainage, irrigation, and a judicious management
-of forest-lands, are only beginning to be understood even among the
-most enlightened nations. A great part of our damp island still remains
-undrained, and we allow the rivers of India to pour their waters into the
-sea, instead of diverting them upon her thirsty plains. But there can be
-no doubt that as knowledge increases, man will gradually learn to provide
-every soil with the exact measure of humidity that is requisite to make
-it bring forth its fruits in the greatest abundance. Views such as these
-teach us, that, far from having attained the summit of civilisation,
-we are still on the threshold of her temple, and that most likely our
-descendants will look down upon our present condition as we do upon that
-of our barbarous ancestors.
-
-[Illustration: Rocky Mountains at the bend of Bear Lake River.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. VII.
-
-MARINE CONSTRUCTIONS.
-
-  Lighthouses.--The Eddystone.--Winstanley's Lighthouse, 1696.--The
-  Storm of 1703.--Rudyerd's Lighthouse destroyed by Fire in
-  1755.--Singular Death of one of the Lighthouse Men.--Anecdote of
-  Louis XIV.--Smeaton.--Bell Rock Lighthouse.--History of the Erection
-  of Skerryvore Lighthouse.--Illumination Lighthouses.--The Breakwater
-  at Cherbourg.--Liverpool Docks.--The Tubular Bridge over the Menai
-  Straits.--The Sub-oceanic Mine of Botallack.
-
-
-In one of the finest passages of "Childe Harold," Byron contrasts the
-gigantic power of the sea with the weakness of man. He describes the
-resistless billows contemptuously playing with the impotent mariner--now
-heaving him to the skies, now whelming him deep in the bosom of the
-tumultuous waters; he mocks the vain pride of our armadas, which are but
-the playthings of ocean, and points with a bitter sneer at the wrecks
-with which he strews his shores. A less misanthropic mood or a more
-truthful view of things might have prompted the wayward poet to celebrate
-the triumphs of man over the brute strength of the winds and waves; how,
-guided by the compass, he boldly steers through the vast waste of waters,
-how he excavates the artificial harbour, or piles up the breakwater to
-protect his bark against the destructive agencies of the billow and the
-storm, or how he erects the lighthouse to point out the neighbourhood of
-dangerous shoals or the entrance of the friendly port.
-
-The various constructions planned and executed by man to disarm the
-turbulent or perfidious seas of a great part of their terrors, are indeed
-among the noblest monuments of his architectural genius, nor are any more
-deserving of universal applause and gratitude. Who has ever performed a
-winter voyage homewards over the wide Atlantic and not felt a thrill of
-delight when the first bright flash of light beamed over the dark waters
-and welcomed him back to his native isle? or what generous mind has ever
-experienced this feeling without devoting the tribute of its thanks to
-the wise and beneficent men whose energy and perseverance have succeeded
-in lighting every headland or estuary of our rugged coast? So completely
-has this been done, that in the dark and stormy night, almost as well as
-in the brightest day, the homeward-bound ship need not approach danger
-without receiving friendly warning, for her pathway is illuminated by
-gigantic fire-beacons so thickly set that when one fades to the sight a
-new one rises to the view.
-
-Among the numerous lighthouses with which the genius of humanity has
-encircled our native shores, the Eddystone, the Bell Rock, and the
-Skerryvore, are pre-eminent for the vast difficulties that had to be
-surmounted in their construction, situated as they are upon solitary
-rocks, exposed to the full fury of the insurgent waves; and should by
-some revolution all other monuments erected by man be swept away from
-the surface of our land, and these alone remain, they would suffice
-to testify to future ages that these islands were once inhabited by a
-highly civilised and energetic race, one well worthy to lay claim to the
-dominion of the seas.
-
-At the distance of about twelve miles and a half from Plymouth Sound,
-and intercepting, as it were, the entrance of the Channel, the
-Eddystone rocks had been for ages a perpetual menace to the mariner.
-The number of vessels wrecked on these perfidious shoals must have been
-terrible indeed, it being even now a common thing in foggy weather for
-homeward-bound ships to make the Eddystone Lighthouse as the first
-point of land of Great Britain, so that in the night and nearly at high
-water, when the whole range of the rocks is covered, the most careful
-pilot might run his ship upon them, if nothing was placed there by way
-of warning. As the trade of England increased, the number of fatal
-accidents naturally augmented, rendering it more and more desirable to
-crest the Eddystone with a tutelary beacon; yet years elapsed before
-an architect appeared bold enough to undertake the task. At length, in
-1696, Mr. Winstanley, a country gentleman and amateur engineer, made the
-first attempt of raising a lighthouse on those sea-beaten rocks, but as
-he was possessed of more enterprise than solid knowledge, the structure
-he erected was deficient in every element of stability. Yet such was
-the presumption of the man that he was known to express a wish that
-the fiercest storm that ever blew might arise to test the solidity of
-the fabric. The elements took him at his word, for while on a visit of
-inspection to his lighthouse the dreadful storm of November 26, 1703,
-arose, the only storm which in our latitude has equalled the rage of
-a tropical hurricane. "No other tempest," says Macaulay in his Essay
-on Addison, "was ever in this country the occasion of a Parliamentary
-address or of a public fast. Whole fleets had been cast away. Large
-mansions had been blown down. One Prelate had been buried beneath the
-ruins of his palace. London and Bristol had presented the appearance of
-cities just sacked. Hundreds of families were still in mourning. The
-prostrate trunks of large trees and the ruins of houses still attested
-in all the southern counties the fury of the blast." No wonder that a
-tempest like this swept away the ill-constructed lighthouse like the
-"unsubstantial fabric of a vision," and that neither poor Mr. Winstanley
-nor any of his companions survived to recount the terrors of that
-dreadful night.
-
-Strange to say, the task of rebuilding the Eddystone lighthouse, which
-was now felt as a national necessity, once more devolved, not upon a
-professed architect, but upon a Mr. Rudyerd, a linendraper of Ludgate
-Hill, the son of a Cornish vagrant, who had raised himself by his
-talents and industry from rags and mendicancy to a station of honourable
-competence. The choice, however, was not ill made, for, with the
-assistance of two competent shipwrights, the London tradesman constructed
-an edifice which, though mainly of timber, was so firmly bolted to the
-rock with iron branches that for nearly half a century it resisted the
-fury of the billows, and might have withstood them for many a year to
-come had it not been rapidly and completely destroyed by fire. This
-catastrophe, which happened on December 2, 1755, was marked by a strange
-accident, for while one of the light-keepers was engaged in throwing up
-water four yards higher than himself, a quantity of lead, dissolved by
-the heat of the flames, suddenly rushed like a torrent from the roof,
-and falling upon his head, face, and shoulders, burnt him in a dreadful
-manner. Having been conveyed to the hospital at Plymouth, he invariably
-told the surgeon who attended him, that he had swallowed part of the
-lead while looking upward; the reality of the assertion seemed quite
-incredible, for who could suppose it possible that any human being could
-exist after receiving melted lead into the stomach, much less that he
-should afterwards be able to bear the hardships and inconvenience from
-the length of time he was in getting on shore before any remedies could
-be applied. On the twelfth day, however, the man died, and having been
-opened a solid piece of lead, which weighed above seven ounces, was found
-in his stomach.[H]
-
-[Footnote H: A full account of this extraordinary circumstance was sent
-to the Royal Society, and printed in vol. xlix. of their Transactions, p.
-477.]
-
-Another interesting anecdote is attached to the history of Rudyerd's
-lighthouse. Louis XIV. being at war with England while it was being
-built, a French privateer took the men at work upon it and carried them
-to France, expecting, no doubt, a good reward for the achievement. His
-hopes, however, were doomed to a grievous disappointment, for while the
-captives lay in prison, the transaction reached the ears of the monarch,
-who immediately ordered them to be released and the captors to be put in
-their place; declaring that though he was at war with England, he was not
-at war with mankind. He therefore directed the men to be sent back to
-their work with presents; observing that the Eddystone lighthouse was so
-situated as to be of equal service to all nations navigating the Channel.
-It is gratifying to meet with this trait of natural generosity in a mind
-long since obscured by the bigotry which prompted the revocation of the
-Edit de Nantes.
-
-[Illustration: Eddystone Lighthouse.]
-
-After these repeated disasters, the rebuilding of Eddystone lighthouse,
-in a more substantial manner than had hitherto been effected, was now no
-longer confided to amateur ingenuity, but to John Smeaton, an eminent
-civil engineer, one of those men who by originality of genius and
-strength of character are so well entitled to rank among the worthies of
-England. From his early infancy Smeaton (born May 28, 1724) gave tokens
-of the extraordinary abilities which were one day to render his name
-illustrious. Before he attained his sixth year his playthings were not
-the playthings of children but the tools which men employ: before he
-was fifteen he made for himself an engine for turning, forged his iron
-and steel, and had self-made tools of every sort for working in wood,
-ivory, and metals. At eighteen he by the strength of his genius acquired
-the art of working in most of the mechanical trades, and such was his
-untiring zeal that a part of every day was generally occupied in forming
-some ingenious piece of mechanism. In 1753, his various inventions and
-improvements had already attracted such notice that he was elected member
-of the Royal Society; and when, a few years later, the accident happened
-which burnt down the Eddystone lighthouse to the ground, he was at once
-fixed upon as the person most proper to rebuild it. A better choice
-could not possibly have been made, for Smeaton's lighthouse, firm as
-the rock on which it stands, has now already braved the storms of more
-than a century, and will no doubt continue to brave them for many ages
-to come. Of him it may well be said "exegit monumentum ære perennius,"
-for to him is due the honour of having fixed the _best form_ to be given
-to a marine lighthouse, and even now the Eddystone beacon-tower remains
-a model which has hardly been surpassed by the taller and more graceful
-edifices of Bell Rock and Skerryvore. Nothing could exceed the patient
-ingenuity, the sagacity, and forethought with which that great engineer
-mortised his tall tower to the wave-worn rock, and then dove-tailed the
-whole together, so as to make rock and tower practically one stone, and
-that of the very best form for deadening the action of the wave. Nor must
-we forget that our great marine lighthouses, of which Smeaton gave the
-model, are as remarkable from an artistic as from a utilitarian point
-of view, as pleasing to the man of taste as to the friend of humanity.
-"It is to be regretted," says, with perfect justice, the author of an
-excellent article in the Quarterly Review,[I] "that these structures are
-placed so far at sea that they are very little seen, for they are, taken
-altogether, perhaps the most perfect specimens of modern architecture
-which exist. Tall and graceful as the minar of an Eastern mosque, they
-possess far more solidity and beauty of construction; and, in addition
-to this, their form is as appropriate to the purposes for which it was
-designed as anything ever done by the Greeks, and consequently meets
-the requirements of good architecture quite as much as a column of the
-Parthenon."
-
-[Footnote I: No. 228.]
-
-Covered to the height of fifteen feet at spring tide, and little more
-than a hundred yards in its extent, the famous Bell Rock, or Inchcape,
-facing the Frith of Tay at a distance of twelve miles at sea, was as
-dangerous to the navigation of the eastern coast of Scotland as the
-Eddystone had been to the entrance of the Channel. To erect a tower on a
-spot like this was an undertaking of no common boldness, but, fired by
-Smeaton's example, Mr. Robert Stevenson no less gloriously succeeded in
-converting what for ages had been a source of danger into a beacon of
-safety.
-
-[Illustration: Bell Rock Lighthouse.]
-
-On the opposite coast of Scotland, and placed in the same parallel of
-latitude as Bell Rock, the Skerryvore Reef had a name equally dreaded by
-the mariner. Situated considerably farther from the mainland than the
-Bell Rock, it is less entirely submerged, some of its summits rising
-above the level of high water, though the surf dashes over them; but the
-extent of foul ground is much greater, and hidden dangers, even in fine
-weather, beset the intervening passage between its eastern extremity
-and Tyree, from which island it is distant some eleven miles. In rough
-weather the sea which rises there is described as one in which no ship
-could live. This terrible reef, so fatal to many a gallant bark, rendered
-the erection of a lighthouse most desirable, yet such was the difficulty
-of the case that although so long ago as 1814 an Act was obtained for
-a light on Skerryvore, it was not before 1837 that Mr. Alan Stevenson,
-son of the famous architect of the Bell Rock sea-tower, was authorised
-to commence the work. That difficulty was not confined to the position
-and character of the reef itself, as the neighbouring island of Tyree
-afforded no resource, and all the materials for the building, even the
-stone itself, had to be transported from distant quarters. At length, all
-preliminary arrangements being settled, the engineer reached the rock
-and commenced his work, in June 1838, by erecting a barrack-house upon
-stilts--a sort of dovecot perched on poles--high out of the water on the
-reef, close to the proposed site of the lighthouse. The erection of this
-barrack fully occupied the first summer; and, lest it might be supposed
-that this was but little work for so long a time, it may be as well to
-remark that, such was the turbulence of the sea that between August 7
-and September 11, it had only been possible to be 165 hours on the rock.
-Much inconvenience was occasioned by the hard and slippery nature of the
-volcanic formation of the Skerryvore, to which the action of the sea had
-given the appearance and the smoothness of a mass of dark-coloured glass,
-so that the foreman of the masons compared the operation of landing on it
-to that of climbing up the neck of a bottle. When we consider how often,
-by how many persons, and under what circumstances of swell and motion,
-this operation was repeated, we must look upon this feature of the spot
-as an obstacle of no slight amount.
-
-At length, after much danger and difficulty, the barrack was completed,
-but the first November storm swept it away and utterly annihilated the
-work of the season. Iron stancheons had been drawn, broken, and twisted
-like the wires of a champagne bottle; the smith's iron anvil had been
-transported eight yards from where it was left; and a stone three-fourths
-of a ton was lifted out from the bottom of a hole and sent towards the
-top of the rock.
-
-Mortified, but nothing daunted by this disaster, which gave him a warning
-of the tremendous power he had to contend with, Mr. Stevenson prepared
-during the winter for the labours of 1839, which, besides the re-erection
-of the barrack on an improved plan, chiefly consisted in the levelling or
-blasting of a flat surface of forty-two feet diameter on the top of the
-rock from which the lighthouse was to arise. This foundation pit was in
-itself a work of no small magnitude, as it required for its excavation
-the labours of 20 men for 217 days, the firing of 296 shots, and the
-removal into deep water of 2,000 tons of material. The blasting, from
-the absence of all cover and the impossibility of retiring to a distance
-farther in any case than thirty feet, and often reduced to twelve,
-demanded all possible carefulness.
-
-The only precautions available were a skilful appointment of the charge
-and the covering the mines with mats and coarse netting made of old rope.
-Every charge was fired by or with the assistance of the architect in
-person, and no mischief occurred.
-
-The year 1840 had now arrived, and the construction of the lighthouse
-was about to begin. Quarriers and labourers had been busily employed
-in cutting blocks of stone in the quarries. Carpenters were diligently
-engaged in making wooden moulds for each lighthouse block wherewith
-to gauge its exact mathematical figure. In April, a reinforcement of
-thirty-seven masons from Aberdeen arrived at Tyree--men expert in the
-difficult work of dressing granite--and, on April 30, the first visit was
-made to the rock. To the great joy of all, the barrack constructed in
-the previous season was found uninjured, though a mass of rock weighing
-about five tons had been detached from its bed and carried right across
-the foundation pit by the violence of the waves. In this barrack the
-architect and his party now took up their quarters, which from the
-frequent flooding of the apartments with water and from the heavy spray
-that washed the walls were anything but agreeable. "Once," says the
-gallant engineer,[J] "we were fourteen days without communication with
-the shore or the steamer, and during the greater part of that time we
-saw nothing but white fields of foam as far as the eye could reach;
-and heard nothing but the whistling of the wind and the thunder of the
-waves, which was at times so loud as to make it almost impossible to
-hear anyone speak. Such a scene, with the ruins of the former barrack
-not twenty yards from us, was calculated to inspire the most desponding
-anticipations; and I well remember the undefined sense of dread that
-flashed on my mind, on being awakened one night by a heavy sea which
-struck the barrack and made my cot swing inwards from the wall, and was
-immediately followed by a cry of terror from the men in the apartment
-above me, most of whom, startled by the _sound and the tremor_, sprang
-from their berths to the floor, impressed with the idea that the whole
-fabric had been washed into the sea."
-
-[Footnote J: Account of Skerryvore Lighthouse, by Alan Stevenson,
-Engineer to the Northern Lighthouse Board. Edinburgh, 1848.]
-
-This spell of bad weather, though in summer, well-nigh outlasted their
-provisions; and when at length they were able to make the signal that a
-landing would be practicable, scarcely twenty-four hours' stock remained
-on the rock. The landing of the heavy stones from the lighters was a work
-of no small difficulty, considering the slippery nature of the rock,
-and as the loss of one dressed stone would frequently have delayed the
-whole progress of the building, the anxiety was incessant. On July 4, the
-building of the tower really commenced. Six courses of masonry carried
-the building to the height of 8 feet 2 inches before the autumnal gales
-terminated the work of 1840, and an excellent year's work it was. The
-saying that "what is well begun is half done" was illustrated here. Next
-year's work was comparatively easy--so that in 1842 the tower rose to its
-full height of 138 feet; and the year after the light was shedding its
-beneficent rays over the thirty miles of watery waste that surround the
-hidden rocks of Skerryvore.
-
-[Illustration: The Skerryvore Lighthouse.]
-
-Well may we be proud of men like Smeaton and the Stevensons; but, while
-justly admiring their architectural skill, their perseverance, and their
-courage, we must not forget to offer the just tribute of our gratitude
-to the eminent natural philosophers without whose ingenious optical
-inventions the most splendid sea-towers would be comparatively useless.
-The Pharus or lighthouse of Alexandria was, probably with justice,
-reckoned among the seven wonders of the world, and its several stories,
-rising on marble columns to the height of 400 feet, must have presented
-an imposing spectacle, but I strongly suspect that the rude brazier
-on the summit of the majestic pile bore the same proportion to the
-lighthouse lanterns of our time as the wretched coasting-craft of the
-ancient Greeks to the ocean steamers of the present day. Among the names
-of those who have contributed most effectually to the progress of marine
-illumination Argand, Borda, and Fresnel are conspicuous. The hollow
-cylindrical wick of the first was a sudden and immense advance in the art
-of economical and effective illumination. The second, by his invention
-of the parabolic mirror, multiplied the effect of the unassisted flame
-by 450, and the refracting lens of Fresnel so admirably concentrates the
-light as to project its warning beams to the wonderful distance of thirty
-or thirty-five miles.
-
-In former ages the efforts of man to provide a refuge to the mariner
-from the fury of the raging gale were feeble and insignificant. Content
-with the harbours that nature had provided, it was then thought quite
-sufficient to line a river-bank with quays or to enclose a natural pond
-by walls. The idea of raising colossal breakwaters by casting whole
-quarries into the deep, or of extending artificial promontories far
-into the bosom of the ocean, is of modern date, and would have appeared
-chimerical not only to the ancients but to our fathers not a century ago.
-The first great work of this description is the famous breakwater planned
-by De Cessart in 1783, and terminated in 1853, which has converted the
-open roadstead of Cherbourg into a land-locked harbour. Rising from a
-depth of 40 feet at low spring tides, on a coast where the floods attain
-a height of 19 feet, it opposes a front of 12,700 feet to the fury of the
-storm, and carries 250 pieces of the heaviest cannon on its formidable
-brow.
-
-It far surpasses in extent and boldness of construction the breakwater at
-Plymouth, nor will it be eclipsed by the moles now forming at Portland,
-Holyhead, and Alderney; but although it is a more impressive spectacle to
-see man struggling with the ocean and producing calmness and shelter in
-the midst of the raging storm, than to contemplate his operations where
-he has no such adversaries to subdue, still such buildings as those just
-described are neither the largest nor the most expensive works required
-for the accommodation of shipping. Witness the Cyclopean grandeur of the
-Liverpool docks or of the Great Float at Birkenhead, which alone covers
-an area of water of 121 acres, and whose portals, with a clear opening
-of 100 feet, will admit the largest screw-steamer or sailing ship the
-wildest imagination has yet conceived. Six millions of money is the cost
-of this one work alone--more than would be required to raise a pyramid
-like that of Cheops--and even this sum is a trifle when compared with
-what has been spent on the harbours of Liverpool, London, and other great
-commercial cities.
-
-Not satisfied with erecting his lighthouses on wave-worn rocks or defying
-the waves with his colossal breakwaters, man spans bridges over arms of
-the sea and excavates mines under the abysses of the deep. The locomotive
-now rolls full speed 100 feet above high water over the strait which
-separates Anglesea from the mainland; and in Botallack and several other
-Cornish mines the workman, while resting from his subterranean labours,
-hears the awful voice of the ocean rolling over his head.
-
-"In all these submarine mines," says Mr. Henwood, "I have heard the
-dashing of the billows and the grating of the shingle when in calm
-weather. I was once, however, underground in Wheal Cock during a storm.
-At the extremity of the level seaward some eighty or one hundred
-fathoms from the shore, little could be heard of its effects, except
-at intervals, when the reflux of some unusually large wave projected a
-pebble outward, bounding and rolling over the rocky bottom. But when
-standing beneath the base of the cliff, and in that part of the mine
-where but nine feet of rock stood between us and the ocean, the heavy
-roll of the large boulders, the ceaseless grinding of the pebbles, the
-fierce thundering of the billows, with the crackling and boiling as they
-rebounded, placed a tempest in its most appalling form too vividly before
-me ever to be forgotten. More than once doubting the protection of our
-rocky shield, we retreated in affright, and it was only after repeated
-trials that we had confidence to pursue our investigations." Yet the
-miners, accustomed from their early youth to the fierce and threatening
-roaring of the stormy sea, pursue their work from year to year, never
-doubting that the thin roof which separates them from a watery grave will
-continue to protect them, as it has shielded their fathers before them.
-
-
-
-
-PART II.
-
-THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. VIII.
-
-THE CETACEANS.
-
-  General Remarks on the Organisation of the Cetaceans.--The Large
-  Greenland Whale.--His Food and Enemies.--The Fin-Back or Rorqual.--The
-  Antarctic Whale.--The Sperm-Whale.--The Unicorn Fish.--The
-  Dolphin.--Truth and Fable.--The Porpoise.--The Grampus.--History of
-  the Whale Fishery.
-
-
-Of all the living creatures that people the immensity of ocean, the
-cetaceans, or the whale family, are the most perfect. Their anatomical
-construction renders them in many respects similar to man, and their
-heart is susceptible of a warmth of feeling unknown to the cold-blooded
-fishes; for the mother shows signs of attachment to her young, and
-forgets her own safety when some danger menaces her offspring. Like
-man, the cetaceans breathe through lungs, and possess a double heart,
-receiving and propelling streams of _warm_ red blood. The anatomical
-structure of their pectoral fins bears great resemblance to that of the
-human arm, as the bony structure of those organs equally consists of a
-shoulder-blade, an upper arm, a radius and ulna, and five fingers.
-
-But the arm, which in man moves freely, is here chained to the body as
-far as the hand, and the latter, which, in obedience to human volition
-and intellect, executes such miracles of industry and art, is here
-covered with a thick skin, and appears as a broad undivided fin or
-flapper. Yet still it is destined for higher service than that of a mere
-propelling oar, as it serves the mother to guide and shield her young.
-The lower extremities are of course wanting, but their functions are
-performed by the mighty _horizontal_ tail, by whose powerful strokes the
-unwieldy animal glides rapidly through the waters.
-
-The cetaceans distinguish themselves, moreover, from the fishes by the
-bringing forth of living young, by a greater quantity of blood, by the
-smoothness of their skin, under which is found a thick layer of fat, and
-by their simple or double blow-hole, which is situated at the top of the
-head, and corresponds to the nostrils of the quadrupeds, though not for
-the purpose of smelling, but merely as an organ of respiration.
-
-[Illustration: Bones of the Anterior Fin of a Whale.]
-
-Our knowledge of the cetaceans is still very incomplete; and this is not
-to be wondered at, when we consider that they chiefly dwell in the most
-inaccessible parts of the ocean, and that when met with, the swiftness
-of their movements rarely allows more than a flighty view of their
-external form. Thus their habits and mode of living are mostly enveloped
-in obscurity; and while doubtless many cetaceans are to the present day
-unknown, one and the same species has not seldom been described under
-different names, to the no small confusion of the naturalist.
-
-The cetaceans are either without a dental apparatus, or provided with
-teeth. The former, or the whalebone whales, have two blow-holes on the
-top of the head, in the form of two longitudinal fissures; while in the
-latter, (sperm-whales, unicorn-fish, dolphins,) which comprise by far
-the greater number of species, there is but one transversal spout-hole.
-In all whales the larynx is continued to the spouting canal, and deeply
-inserted or closely imbricated within its tube. Thus no tones approaching
-to a voice can be emitted except through the spiracles, which are
-encumbered with valves, and evidently badly adapted for the transmission
-of sound. Scoresby assures us that the Greenland whale has no voice, and
-Bennett frequently noticed sperm-whales suffering from extreme alarm
-and injury, but never heard any sound from them beyond that attending an
-ordinary respiration.
-
-The whalebone whales are either _smooth-backs_ (Balænæ), or _fin-backs_
-(Balænopteræ), having a vertical fin rising from the lower part of
-the back. To the former belongs the mighty Greenland Whale (_Balæna
-mysticetus_), the most bulky of living animals, and of all cetaceans
-the most useful and important to man. Its greatest length, according to
-Scoresby, is from sixty to seventy feet, and round the thickest part
-of its body it measures from thirty to forty feet, but the incessant
-persecutions to which it is subjected scarcely ever allow it to attain
-its full growth.
-
-The whale being somewhat lighter than the medium in which it swims,
-its weight may be ascertained with tolerable accuracy; and Scoresby
-tells us that a stout animal of sixty feet weighs about seventy tons,
-allowing thirty to the blubber, eight or ten to the bones, and thirty
-or thirty-two to the carcase. The lightness of the whale, which enables
-it to keep its _crown_, in which the blow-hole is situated, and a
-considerable extent of back above the water, without any effort or
-motion, is not only owing to its prodigious case of fat, but also to the
-lightness of its bones, most of which are very porous and contain large
-quantities of fine oil; an admirable provision of nature for the wants of
-a creature destined to breathe the atmospheric air, and to skim its food
-from the surface of the waters.
-
-The unsightly animal shows disproportion in all its organs. While
-the tail fin measures twenty-four feet across, the pectoral fins or
-paddles are no more than six feet long. The monstrous head forms
-about the third of the whole body, and is furnished with an equally
-monstrous mouth, which on opening exhibits a cavity about the size of
-an ordinary ship's cabin. The leviathans of the dry land, the elephant,
-the rhinoceros, and the hippopotamus, are provided with tusks and teeth
-corresponding to their size--huge weapons fit for eradicating trees or
-crushing the bone-harnessed crocodile; but the masticatory implements
-of the giant of the seas are scarcely capable of dividing the smallest
-food. Instead of teeth, its enormous upper jaw is beset with about 500
-laminæ of whalebone, ranged side by side, two-thirds of an inch apart,
-the thickness of blade included, and resembling a frame of saws in
-a saw-mill. Their interior edges are covered with fringes of hair;
-externally they are curved and flattened down, so as to present a smooth
-surface to the lips. The largest laminæ, situated on both sides of the
-jaw, attain a length of fifteen feet, and measure from twelve to fifteen
-inches at their base; in front and towards the back of the mouth they are
-much shorter.
-
-[Illustration: Skull of Whale, with the Baleen.]
-
-Besides these, there are suspended from the palate many other small
-laminæ of the thickness of a quill, a few inches long, and likewise
-terminating in a fringe. Thus the whole roof of the mouth resembles a
-shaggy fur, under which lies the soft and spongy tongue, a monstrous mass
-often ten feet broad and eighteen feet long.
-
-[Illustration: Clio borealis.]
-
-This whole formation is beautifully adapted to the peculiar nourishment
-of the whale, which does not consist, as one might suppose, of the larger
-fishes, but of the minute animals, (_Medusæ_, _Entomostraca_, _Clio
-borealis_, and other pteropod molluscs,) with which its pasture-grounds
-in the northern seas abound. To gather food, it swims rapidly with open
-mouth over the surface; and on closing the wide gates, and expelling the
-foaming streams, the little creatures remain entangled by thousands in
-the fringy thicket as in a net; there to be crushed and bruised by the
-tongue into a savoury pulp. Fancy the vast numbers requisite to keep a
-monster of seventy tons in good condition.
-
-The back of the whale is usually of a fine glossy black, marked with
-whitish rays, which have some resemblance to the veins of wood. This
-mixture of colours presents an agreeable appearance, especially when
-the back of the fish is illuminated with the rays of the sun. The under
-part of the trunk and of the lower jaw is of a dead white. The skin is
-about an inch thick, and covers a layer of fat of fifteen inches; a most
-excellent coat for keeping the whale warm and increasing its buoyancy,
-but at the same time the chief cause which induces man to pursue it with
-the deadly harpoon.
-
-The usual march of the whale over the waters is rarely more than four
-miles an hour, but its speed increases to an astonishing rapidity when
-terror or the agonies of pain drive it madly through the sea.
-
-In its sportive humours it is sometimes seen to spring out of the water,
-and to remain suspended for a moment in the air. On falling back again
-into the sea, high foam-crested fountains spout forth on all sides, and
-mighty waves propagate the tumult in widening circles over the troubled
-ocean. Or else it raises its bulky head vertically on high, so that the
-deceived mariner fancies he sees some black rock looming out of the
-distant waters. But suddenly the fancied cliff turns round and brandishes
-playfully its enormous flukes in the air, or lashes the waters with such
-prodigious power, that the sound rolls far away like thunder over the
-deserts of the ocean.
-
-Strange to say, the giant is of so cowardly a nature, that the sight of
-a sea-bird often fills him with the greatest terror, and causes him to
-avoid the imaginary danger by a sudden plunge into the deep.
-
-Besides man, a vast number of enemies, great and small, persecute the
-whale and embitter his life.
-
-The Sword-fish (_Xiphias Gladius_) and the Thresher or Sea-fox, a species
-of shark (_Carcharias Vulpes_), often attack him conjointly and in packs.
-As soon as his back appears above the water, the threshers, springing
-several yards into the air, descend with great violence upon the object
-of their rancour, and inflict upon him the most severe slaps with their
-long tails, the sound of which resembles the report of distant musketry.
-The sword-fish, in their turn, attack the distressed whale, stabbing from
-below; and thus beset on all sides, and bleeding from countless wounds,
-the huge animal, though dealing the most dreadful blows with its enormous
-tail, and lashing the crimsoned waters into foam, is obliged to succumb
-at last.
-
-The Greenland Shark (_Squalus borealis_) is also one of the bitterest
-enemies of the whale, biting and annoying it while living, and feeding
-on it when dead. It scoops hemispherical pieces out of its body nearly
-as big as a man's head, and continues scooping and gorging lump after
-lump, until the whole cavity of its belly is filled. It is so insensible
-of pain, that, though it has been run through the body, and escaped,
-yet after a while Scoresby has seen it return to banquet again on the
-whale at the very spot where it received its wounds. The heart, as is
-frequently the case with gluttons, bears no proportion to its vast
-capacity of stomach; for it is very small, and performs only six or eight
-pulsations in a minute, continuing its beating for some hours after
-having been taken out of the body. The body also, though separated into
-any number of parts, gives evidence of life for a similar length of time.
-It is therefore so difficult to kill, that it is actually unsafe to trust
-the hand in its mouth though the head be separated from the body.
-
-Strange to say, though the whale-fishers frequently slip into the water
-where sharks abound, Scoresby never heard an instance of their having
-been attacked by one of these voracious monsters. Perhaps they are loth
-to attack man, looking upon him as their best purveyor.
-
-[Illustration: Saw of the Saw-fish.]
-
-Fishermen relate that the whale and saw-fish, whenever they come
-together, engage in deadly combat; the latter invariably making the
-attack with inconceivable fury.
-
-  "The meeting of these champions proud
-   Seems like the bursting thunder cloud."
-
-The whale, whose only defence is his tail, endeavours to strike his enemy
-with it; and a single blow would prove mortal. But the saw-fish, with
-astonishing agility, shuns the tremendous stroke, bounds into the air,
-and returns upon his huge adversary, plunging the rugged weapon with
-which he is furnished into his back. The whale is still more irritated by
-this wound, which only becomes fatal when it penetrates the fat; and thus
-pursuing and pursued, striking and stabbing, the engagement only ends
-with the death of one of the unwieldy combatants.
-
-Even the white-bear is said to attack the whale, watching his approach
-to the sea-shore; but the enmity of the narwhal is evidently fabulous, as
-both cetaceans may frequently be seen together in perfect harmony.
-
-Besides these formidable attacks of what may be considered as more
-or less noble foes, the whale is constantly harassed by the bites of
-the vilest insects. A large species of louse adheres by thousands to
-its back, and gnaws this animated pasture-ground, so as to cover it
-frequently with one vast sore. In the summer, when this plague is
-greatest, numbers of aquatic birds accompany the whale, and settle on his
-back, as soon as it appears above the water, in order to feed upon these
-disgusting parasites.
-
-[Illustration: Whale Louse.]
-
-Barnacles often cover the whale in such masses, that his black skin
-disappears under a whitish mantle, and even sea-weeds attach themselves
-to his vast jaws, floating like a beard, and reminding one of Birnam's
-wandering forest.
-
-As its name testifies, the home of the Greenland whale is confined to
-the high northern seas, where it has been met with in the open waters
-or along every ice-bound shore as far as man has penetrated towards
-the Pole. The southern limit of its excursions seems to be about 60°
-N. lat. It never visits the North Sea, and is seldom found within 200
-miles of the British coasts. Its favourite resorts are the so-called
-whale-grounds,[K] between 74° and 80° N. lat., where the warmth, imparted
-to the water by the Gulf-stream, favours the multiplication of the small
-marine animals which form the nourishment of the Leviathan of the seas.
-
-[Footnote K: See page 20.]
-
-Sometimes open spaces in the ice, abounding in minute crustaceans and
-medusæ, attract a larger number of whales, but the huge creature cannot
-be said to live in larger herds or associations.
-
-The Fin-fish or northern Rorqual (_Balænoptera boops_, _musculus_)
-attains a greater length than the sleek-backed Greenland whale, but
-does not equal it in bulk, having a more elongated form and a more
-tapering head. Its whalebone is much shorter and coarser, being adapted
-to a different kind of food, for, despising the minute medusæ and
-crustaceans which form the food of its huge relation, the more nimble
-rorqual pursues the herring and the mackerel on their wandering path.
-Like the blubber-whale, the fin-back is black above, white below, but
-distinguishes itself by long and numerous blood-red streaks or furrows,
-running under the lower jaw and breast as far as the middle of the belly.
-This is the species of whale which not unfrequently strands on our
-shores, for though an inhabitant of the Arctic seas, it wanders farther
-to the south than the Greenland whale. It is seldom harpooned, for the
-produce of oil is not equivalent to the expense, the risk, and the danger
-attending its capture.
-
-In the southern hemisphere, the Antarctic Smooth-backed Whale (_B.
-antarctica_), a species similar to the Greenland whale, though of less
-bulk, is the chief object of the fisherman's pursuit. It hangs much about
-the coasts in the temperate latitudes, and loves the neighbouring seas,
-where the discoloured waters afford the richest repasts, but is not
-known in the central parts of the Pacific. In the spring it resorts to
-the bays on the coasts of Chili, South Africa, the Brazils, Australia,
-New Zealand, Van Diemen's Land, &c. &c., where it is attacked either by
-stationary fishermen, or by whalers, who at that time leave the high seas.
-
-Farther towards the pole _Hump-backs_ and _Fin-backs_ abound; but these
-are far from equalling the former in value. When Dumont d'Urville,
-returning from his expedition to the south pole, told the whalers whom
-he found in the Bay of Talcahuano of the great number of cetaceans he
-had seen in the higher latitudes, their eyes glistened at the pleasing
-prospect; but when he added that they were only hump-backs and fin-backs,
-they did not conceal their disappointment; for the hump-back is meagre,
-and not worth the boiling, and the fin-back dives with such rapidity,
-that he snaps the harpoon line, or drags the boat along with him into the
-water.
-
-The Sperm-Whale, or Cachalot (_Physeter macrocephalus_), rivals the great
-smooth-backed whales both in its various utility to man and the colossal
-dimensions of its unwieldy body. The largest authentically recorded size
-of the uncouth animal is seventy-six feet by thirty-eight in girth; but
-whalers are well contented to consider fifty-five or sixty feet the
-average length of the largest examples they commonly obtain. The male,
-however, alone attains these ample proportions; the adult female does not
-exceed thirty or at most thirty-five feet, so that there is a greater
-disproportion of size between sexes than in any other known species of
-cetaceans.
-
-The form of the beast is without symmetry, and from the general absence
-of other prominent organs than the tail or pectoral fins, can be compared
-to little else than a dark rock or the bole of some giant tree. The
-prevailing colour is a dull black, occasionally marked with white,
-especially on the abdomen and tail. The summit of the head and trunk
-presents a plane surface, until about the posterior third of the back,
-whence arises a hump or spurious fin of pyramidal form, and entirely
-composed of fat. From this embossed appendage an undulating series of
-six or eight similar, but smaller elevations, occupies the upper margin
-or ridge of the tail to the commencement of the caudal fin. The pectoral
-fins or paddles are placed a short distance behind the head; they are
-triangular in shape, diminutive as compared with the size of the whale,
-and being connected to the trunk by a ball and socket joint, possess free
-movement, either vertical or horizontal.
-
-[Illustration: Cuttle-fish (Sepia).]
-
-Owing to the flexibility of the tail, the movements of the tail-fin, or
-"flukes," which sometimes measures eighteen feet across, are exceedingly
-extensive, whilst its power may be estimated by the gigantic bundles of
-round tendons, which pass on either side the loins, to be inserted into
-its base. Whether wielded in sportive mood or in anger, its action is
-marked by rapidity and ease, and when struck forcibly on the surface
-of the ocean, produces a report which may be heard at a considerable
-distance. In progression, the action of this organ is precisely the
-reverse of that of the tail of the lobster, for whilst the latter
-animal swims backward by striking the water with its tail from behind
-forwards, the cachalot and other cetaceans swim forward by striking
-with their flukes in the contrary direction, the fin being brought
-beneath the body by an oblique and unresisting movement; while the act
-of springing it back and straightening the tail propels the animal ahead
-with an undulating or leaping gait. When employed offensively the tail
-is curved in a direction contrary to that of the object aimed at, and
-the blow is inflicted by the force of the recoil. The lower jaw appears
-diminutive, slender, and not unlike the lower mandible of a bird. When
-the mouth is closed it is received within the soft parts pendent from
-the border of the upper jaw, and is nearly concealed by them. True and
-serviceable teeth are situated only in the lower jaw, and are received
-into corresponding sockets in the upper jaw. In aged males they are of
-great solidity and size, attaining a weight of from two to four pounds
-each; their entire structure is ivory. This powerful armament shows us at
-once that the food of the cachalot must be very different from that of
-the whalebone cetaceans; it generally consists of cuttle-fish, many kinds
-of which are ejected from its stomach when it is attacked by the boats,
-as well as after death. Owing to the great projection of the snout beyond
-the lower jaw, it may be requisite for this whale to turn on its side
-or back to seize its more bulky prey; a supposition strengthened by the
-fact that, when the animal attacks a boat with its mouth, it invariably
-assumes a reversed posture, carrying the lower jaw above the object it is
-attempting to bite. As long as it continues on the surface of the sea,
-the cachalot casts from its nostril a constant succession of spouts, at
-intervals of ten or fifteen seconds. As in all whales, the jets are not,
-as frequently imagined, water-columns, but a thick white mist ejected
-by one continual effort to the height of six or eight feet, and rushing
-forth with a sound resembling a moderate surf upon a smooth beach. The
-peculiar fat or sperm which renders the cachalot so valuable, is chiefly
-situated in the head. _Junk_ is the name given by the fishermen to a
-solid mass of soft, yellow, and oily fat, weighing between two and three
-tons, based on the upper jaw, and forming the front and lower part of
-the snout; while the cavity called _case_ is situated beneath and to the
-right of the spouting canal, and corresponds to nearly the entire length
-of that tube. It is filled with a very delicate web of cellular tissue,
-containing in large cells a limpid and oily fluid, which is liberated
-by the slightest force. The quantity, chiefly spermaceti, contained in
-this singular receptacle, is often very considerable, nearly 500 gallons
-having been obtained from the case of one whale. So vast an accumulation
-of fat has obviously been intended to insure a correct position in
-swimming, to facilitate the elevation of the spiracle above the
-surface of the sea, and to counteract the weight of the bony and other
-ponderous textures of the head; objects which in the Greenland whale are
-sufficiently attained by a similar accumulation of fat in the lips and
-tongue, and by the more elevated situation of the spout-hole.
-
-While the large whalebone whales generally roam about in solitary
-couples, the cachalot forms large societies. _Schools_, consisting of
-from twenty to fifty individuals, are composed of females attended by
-their young, and associated with at least one adult male of the largest
-size, who generally takes a defensive position in the rear when the
-school is flying from danger.
-
-_Pods_ are smaller congregations of young or half-grown males, which have
-been driven from the maternal schools. Two or more schools occasionally
-coalesce to a "_body of whales_," so that Bennett[L] sometimes saw the
-ocean for several miles around the ship swarming with sperm leviathans,
-and strewn with a constant succession of spouts. These large assemblies
-sometimes proceed at a rapid pace in one determinate direction, and are
-then soon lost sight of; at other times they bask and sleep upon the
-surface, spouting leisurely, and exhibiting every indication of being
-_at home_, or on their feeding ground. Like most gregarious animals,
-the cachalots are naturally timid. A shoal of dolphins leaping in their
-vicinity is sufficient to put a whole school to flight: yet occasionally
-fighting individuals are met with; particularly among those morose
-solitary animals that most likely from their intolerable character have
-been turned out of the society of their kind. The central deserts of
-ocean, or the neighbourhood of the steepest coasts, are the chief resort
-of the cachalot; and so great is the difference of his _habitat_ from
-that of the smooth-backed whales, that during the whole time Bennett
-was cruising in quest of cachalots, he in no single instance saw an
-example of the true whale. The cachalot is more especially found on
-the _line-currents_, which extend from the equator to about the seventh
-degree of north and south latitudes, yet it has been noticed in the
-Mediterranean, and one individual, a stray sheep indeed, has even been
-captured in the Thames.
-
-[Footnote L: Narrative of a Whaling Voyage round the Globe.]
-
-The Narwal, or Unicorn-fish, attains a length of from twenty to
-twenty-five feet. He is of a grey-white colour, punctured with many
-white spots, and as his head is not disproportionate to the length of
-his body, may rank among the handsomest cetaceans. He distinguishes
-himself, as is well known, from all other members of the family by
-the long twisted tooth or horn projecting horizontally from the upper
-jaw. This mighty weapon, the true use of which has not yet been fully
-ascertained, was formerly sold at a very high price, as proceeding from
-the fabulous unicorn; at present, it is only paid according to the worth
-of its excellent ivory, which is harder, heavier, and less liable to
-turn yellow than that of the elephant. The whalers are therefore highly
-delighted when they can pick up a chance narwal, but this only succeeds
-in narrow bays; for the unicorn-fish is an excellent swimmer, and
-extremely watchful. In spite of his menacing appearance, he is a harmless
-sociable creature, fond of gambolling and crossing swords playfully with
-his compeers. It is remarkable that the opening of the mouth of so huge
-an animal is scarcely large enough to admit the hand of a man. Scoresby
-found in the stomach of a narwal remains of cuttle fishes, which seem to
-form his chief aliment, besides pieces of skates and plaice. The narwal
-is frequent about Davis' Straits and Disco Bay, but is nowhere found in
-the Pacific, having most likely not yet discovered the north-western
-passage. He rarely wanders into the temperate seas, yet one was caught,
-in 1800, near Boston in Lincolnshire, and two others, in 1736, on the
-German coast of the North Sea.
-
-The Dolphin tribe is distinguished from the cachalot by a more
-proportionate head; from the narwal by the absence of the long horn; and
-generally possesses sharp teeth in both jaws, all of one form. The number
-of species is very great; Linnæus distinguished four sperm-whales and
-three dolphins; now many naturalists acknowledge but one species of the
-former, while the dolphins have increased to more than thirty, and many
-are as yet unknown.
-
-[Illustration: Delphinus Delphis.]
-
-The most famous member of this numerous family is undoubtedly the
-classical Dolphin of the ancients (_Delphinus delphis_) which attains
-a length of from nine to ten feet, and is, according to Pliny, the
-swiftest of all animals, so as to merit the appellation of the "arrow
-of the sea." His lively troops often accompany for days the track of a
-ship, and agreeably interrupt the monotony of a long sea-voyage. As if in
-mockery of the most rapid sailer, they shoot past so as to vanish from
-the eye, and then return again with the same lightning-like velocity.
-Their spirits are so brisk that they frequently leap into the air, as
-if longing to expatiate in a lighter fluid. Hence, dolphins are the
-favourites of the mariner and the poet, who have vied in embellishing
-their history with the charms of fiction.
-
-Everybody knows the wonderful story of Arion, who having been forced by
-pirates to leap into the sea, proceeded merrily to his journey's end on
-the back of a dolphin:--
-
-  "Secure he sits, and with harmonious strains
-   Requites his bearer for his friendly pains.
-   The gods approve, the dolphin heaven adorns,
-   And with nine stars a constellation forms."
-
-Pliny relates the no less astonishing tale of a boy at Baiæ, who by
-feeding it with bread, gained the affections of a dolphin, so that
-the thankful creature used to convey him every morning to school
-across the sea to Puteoli, and back again. When the boy died, the poor
-disconsolate dolphin returned every morning to the spot where he had
-been accustomed to meet his friend, and soon fell a victim to his grief.
-The same naturalist tells us also that the dolphins at Narbonne rendered
-themselves very useful to the fishermen by driving the fish into their
-nets, and were generously rewarded for their assistance with "bread
-soaked in wine." A king of Caria having chained a dolphin in the harbour,
-its afflicted associates appeared in great numbers, testifying their
-anxiety for its deliverance by such unequivocal signs of sorrow, that the
-king, touched with compassion, restored the prisoner to liberty.
-
-Such, and similar fables, which were believed by the naturalists of
-antiquity, are laughed at even by the old women of our times. The dolphin
-is in no respects superior to the other cetaceans; his musical taste is
-as low as zero, and if, like the bonito and albacore, he follows a ship
-for days together, it is most surely not out of affection for man, but
-on account of the offal that is thrown overboard. But do not many human
-friendships repose on similar selfish motives?
-
-[Illustration: The Porpoise.]
-
-The Porpoise (_Delphinus Phocœna_), which only attains a length of five
-or six feet, and seems to be the smallest of all cetaceans, is frequently
-confounded with the dolphin. It is at home in the whole Northern
-Atlantic, in the Mediterranean, and the Euxine. While the dolphin prefers
-the high sea, the porpoise loves tranquil bays and cliff-sheltered
-shores, and often swims up the rivers, so that individuals have been
-caught in the Elbe and Seine as high up as Dessau and Paris. The porpoise
-is a no less excellent swimmer than the dolphin, making at least fifteen
-miles an hour. His rapidity and sharp teeth render him a most dangerous
-enemy to all the lesser fry of the ocean, whose sole refuge lies in the
-shallowest waters. When he rises to the surface to draw breath, the back
-only appears, the head and tail are kept under water. At the entrance
-of harbours, where he is frequently seen gambolling, his undulatory or
-leaping movements, now rising with a grunt, now sinking to reappear again
-at some distance, afford an entertaining spectacle.
-
-A much more formidable animal, the largest of the whole dolphin tribe,
-is the ravenous Grampus, (_Delphinus Orca_,) which measures no less than
-twenty-five feet in length, and twelve or thirteen in girth. The upper
-part of the body is black, the lower white: the dorsal fin rises in the
-shape of a cone, to the height of three feet or more.
-
-All naturalists agree in describing the grampus as the most voracious
-of the dolphin family. Its ordinary food is the seal and some species
-of flat-fish, but it also frequently gives chase to the porpoise, and
-perhaps the whale would consider the grampus as his most formidable
-enemy, were it not for the persecutions of man. Pliny gives us a fine
-description of the conflicts which arise between these monsters of the
-deep. At the time when the whale resorts to the bays to cast its young,
-it is attacked by the grampus, who either lacerates it with his dreadful
-jaws, or in rapid onset endeavours to strike in its ribs, as with a
-catapult. The terrified whale knows no other way to escape from these
-furious attacks, than by interposing a whole sea between him and his
-enemy. But the grampus, equally wary and active, cuts off his retreat,
-and drives the whale into narrower and narrower waters, forcing him to
-bruise himself on the sharp rocks, or to strand upon the shelving sands,
-nor ceases his efforts until he has gained a complete victory. During
-this fight the sea seems to rage against itself, for though no wind may
-be stirring the surface, waves, such as no storm creates, rise under the
-strokes of the infuriated combatants.
-
-While the Emperor Claudius was visiting the harbour of Ostium, a grampus
-stranded in the shallow waters. The back appeared above the surface of
-the sea, and resembled a ship with its keel turned upwards. The Emperor
-caused nets to be stretched across the mouth of the harbour to prevent
-the animal's escape, and then attacked it in person with his prætorian
-guards. The soldiers surrounding the monster in boats, and hurling their
-inglorious spears, exhibited an amusing spectacle to the populace.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-That man ventures to pursue the leviathans of the deep among the fogs
-and icebergs of the Arctic seas, and is generally successful in their
-capture, may surely be considered as one of the proudest triumphs of his
-courage and his skill.
-
-The breast of the first navigator, says Horace, was cased with triple
-steel; but of what adamantine materials must that man's heart have
-been formed, whose steadfast hand hurled the first harpoon against the
-colossal whale?
-
-History has not preserved his name; like the great warriors that lived
-before Agamemnon, he sank into an obscure grave for want of a Homer to
-celebrate his exploits. We only know that the Biscayans were the first
-_civilised_ people that in the fourteenth and fifteenth century fitted
-out ships for the whale fishery. At first the bold men of Bayonne and
-Santander contented themselves with pursuing their prey, (most likely
-rorquals) in the neighbouring seas, but as the persecuted whales
-diminished in frequency, they followed them farther to the north, until
-they came to the haunts of the real whale, whose greater abundance of fat
-rewarded their intrepidity with a richer spoil.
-
-Their success naturally roused the emulation and avidity of other
-seafaring nations, and thus, towards the end of the sixteenth century,
-we see the English, and soon after the Dutch, enter the lists as their
-competitors. At first our countrymen were obliged to send to "Biskaie
-for men skilful in catching the whale, and ordering of the oil, and one
-cooper, skilful to set up the staved casks," (Hakluyt's _Voyages_, i.
-414); but soon, by their skill, their industry and perseverance, together
-with the aid and encouragement granted by the legislature, they learnt to
-carry on the whale fishery on more advantageous terms than the original
-adventurers, whose efforts became less enterprising as their success was
-more precarious.
-
-The first attempts of the English date as far back as the year 1594, when
-some ships were sent out to Cape Breton for morse and whale fishing. The
-fishing proved unsuccessful, but they found in an island 800 whale fins
-or whalebone, part of the cargo of a Biscayan ship wrecked there three
-years before, which they put on board and brought home. This was the
-first time this substance was imported into England.
-
-Hull took the lead in the Greenland whale fishery in 1598, thirteen years
-after the first company for that purpose had been formed in Amsterdam,
-and as both maritime nations gave it every encouragement, not only on
-account of its profits, but also from considering it as one of the best
-nurseries for their seamen, it gradually grew to a very important branch
-of business. Some idea may be formed of the extent to which the Dutch
-engaged in the whale fishery during the last century, by stating that for
-a period of forty-six years preceding 1722, 5886 ships were employed in
-it, and captured 32,907 whales.
-
-In the year 1788, 222 English vessels were employed in the northern
-fishery.
-
-The earliest period at which we find the pursuit of the sperm-whale
-conducted upon a scientific plan is about 1690, when it was commenced by
-the American colonists. In 1775, ships were first sent out from ports of
-Great Britain, but for some years it was necessary to appoint an American
-commander and harpooner until competent officers could be reared. At the
-same early date the sperm fishery was chiefly prosecuted in the Atlantic,
-but Messrs. Enderby's ship "Emilia" having rounded Cape Horn in 1788,
-first carried the sperm-whale fishery into the Pacific, where its success
-opened a wide and fruitful field for future exertions. As our whalers
-became better acquainted with the South Sea, many valuable resorts were
-discovered. In 1819 the "Syren" (British) first carried on the fishery
-in the western parts of that great ocean, and in the year 1848 the
-American whaler "Superior," Captain Roys, penetrated through Behring's
-Straits into the Icy Sea, and opened the fishery in those remote waters.
-The year after no less than 154 vessels followed upon his track, and
-the number has been increasing ever since. At present the Americans are
-the people which carries on the whale fishery with the greatest energy
-and good fortune. While of late years only thirty or forty British sail
-have been employed in the Pacific, our cousins "across the Atlantic"
-numbered in the year 1841 no less than 650 whalers, manned by 13,500
-seamen. One of the causes of their success may be, that while the whale
-fishery in England is carried on by men of large capital, who are the
-sole proprietors of the ship, the American interest in one vessel is
-held by many men of small capital, and not unfrequently by the commander
-and officers. It must, however, not be forgotten that the Australian
-colonies, being more conveniently situated than the mother country, fit
-out many ships for the whale fishery, which is besides conducted in
-several permanent stations along the coasts of New Zealand, &c.
-
-Whale charts have of late years been drawn, on which the best fishing
-grounds at different seasons are delineated. These maps are not only
-useful guides for the fishermen, but promise the future solution of
-the still undecided question of the migration of whales. While some
-naturalists are of opinion that the cetaceans, flying from the pursuit
-of man, abandon their old haunts for more sequestered regions, others,
-like M. Jacquinot (_Zoologie, Voyage de l'Astrolabe et de la Zèlée_)
-believe that if the whaler is continually obliged to look out for more
-productive seas, it is not because the whale has migrated, but because he
-has been nearly extirpated in one place and left unmolested in another.
-
-The Greenland whale fishery was for more than a hundred years confined
-to the seas between Spitzbergen and Greenland; the entrance and east
-shore of Davis' Straits not being frequented before the beginning of the
-last century. Since then the expeditions of Ross and Parry have made the
-whalers acquainted with a number of admirable stations on the farther
-side of Davis' Straits and in the higher latitudes of Baffin's Bay. The
-vessels destined for that quarter sail usually in March, though some
-delay their departure till the middle or even the end of April. They
-proceed first to the northern parts of the coast of Labrador, or to the
-mouth of Cumberland Strait, carrying on what is called the south-west
-fishery. After remaining there till about the beginning of May, they
-cross to the eastern shore of the strait and fish upwards along the
-coast, particularly in South-east Bay, North-east Bay, Kingston Bay, or
-Horn Sound.
-
-About the month of July they usually cross Baffin's Bay to Lancaster
-Sound, which they sometimes enter, and occasionally even ascend Barrow's
-Strait twenty or thirty miles. In returning, they fish down the western
-shore, where their favourite stations are Pond's Bay, Agnes' Monument,
-Home Bay, and Cape Searle, and sometimes persevere till late in October.
-The casualties are generally very great, the middle of Baffin's Bay
-being filled with a compact and continuous barrier, through which, till
-a very advanced period of the season, it is impossible for the navigator
-to penetrate. Between this central body and that attached to the land,
-there intervenes a narrow and precarious passage, where many a vessel
-has been crushed or pressed out of the water and laid upon the ice. In
-1819 ten ships were lost out of sixty-three, and in 1821 eleven out of
-seventy-nine. Fortunately the loss of lives is seldom to be deplored, as
-the weather is generally calm and the crew has time enough to escape in
-another vessel.
-
-Whale fishing is not only a very dangerous and laborious pursuit, it
-is also extremely precarious and uncertain in its results. Sometimes a
-complete cargo of oil and whalebone is captured in a short time, but it
-also happens that after a long cruise not a single fish is caught--a
-result equally unfortunate for the ship owner and the crew, who look to a
-share of the profits for their pay.
-
-How much the whale fishery depends upon chance is shown by the following
-facts. In the year 1718 the Dutch Greenland fleet, consisting of 108
-ships, captured 1291 fish, worth at least 650,000_l._, while in the
-year 1710, 137 ships took no more than 62. Various meteorological
-circumstances--the prevalence of particular winds, the character of the
-summer or preceding winter--are probably the causes of the extraordinary
-failure and success of the fishery in different years. The Pacific is
-as fallacious as the Arctic seas. Thus Dumont d'Urville met in the Bay
-of Talcahuano with several whalers, one of whom had rapidly filled half
-his ship, while the others had cruised more than a year without having
-harpooned a single fish. In such cases the captains have the greatest
-trouble in preventing their men from deserting, who, being disappointed
-in their hopes, naturally enough look out for a better chance elsewhere.
-
-The method of whale catching has been so often and so minutely described,
-that it is doubtless familiar to the reader. As soon as a whale is in
-sight, boats are got out with all speed, and row or sail as silently and
-quietly as possible towards the monster. One of the crew--the man of
-unflinching eye and nervous arm--stands upright, harpoon in hand, ready
-to hurl the murderous spear into the animal's side, as soon as the proper
-moment shall have come. When struck the whale dives down perpendicularly
-with fearful velocity, or goes off horizontally with lightning speed, at
-a short distance from the surface, dragging after him the line to which
-the barbed instrument of his agony is fixed. But soon the necessity of
-respiration forces him to rise again above the waters, when a second
-harpoon, followed by a third or fourth at every reappearance, plunges
-into his flank. Maddened with pain and terror, he lashes the crimsoned
-waters into foam, but all his efforts to cast off the darts that lacerate
-his flesh are vain, and his gaping wounds, though not "as deep as
-wells, nor as wide as church-doors," are still large enough to let out
-sufficient blood even to exhaust a whale. His movements become more and
-more languid and slow, his gasping and snorting more and more oppressed,
-a few convulsive heavings agitate the mighty mass, and then it floats
-inert and lifeless on the waters. As soon as death is certain--for to
-the last moment a convulsive blow of the mighty tail might dash the
-overhasty boat to pieces--the whale is lashed by chains to the vessel's
-side, stripped of his valuable fat, and then left to float, a worthless
-carcase, on the heaving ocean.
-
-And now, man having taken his share, there begins a magnificent feast
-for birds and fishes. Crowds of fulmars, snow birds, or kittiwakes,
-flock together from all sides to enjoy the delicious repast; but their
-delight, so rare is perfect felicity on earth, is but too often disturbed
-by their terrible rival the blue gull (_Larus glaucus_), which, while
-it rivals them in rapacity, surpasses them all in strength, and forces
-them to disgorge the daintiest morsels. Meanwhile sharks, saw-fishes, and
-whatever else possesses sharp teeth and boldness enough to mix among such
-formidable company, are busy biting, hacking, scooping, and cutting below
-the water line, so that in a short time, notwithstanding its vast bulk,
-the carrion disappears.
-
-The catching of the whale does not always end so fortunately as I have
-just described. Sometimes the line becomes entangled, and drags the boat
-into the abyss; or the tail of the animal, sweeping rapidly through the
-air, either descends upon the shallop, cutting it down to the water's
-edge, or encounters in its course some of the crew standing up (such as
-the headsman or harpooner), who are carried away and destroyed. Thus Mr.
-Young, chief mate of the "Tuscan," was seen flying through the air at a
-considerable height, and to the distance of nearly forty yards from the
-boat, ere he fell into the water, where he remained floating motionless
-on the surface for a few moments, and then sank and was seen no more.
-
-Sometimes, particularly among the sperm-whales, desperate characters
-are found, that without waiting for the attack, rush furiously against
-the boats sent out against them, and seem to love fighting for its own
-sake. Bennett describes an encounter of this kind which he witnessed in
-the South Sea. The first effort of the whale was to rush against the
-boat with his head. Having been baffled by the crew steering clear, he
-next attempted to crush it with his jaws; failing again, through the
-unaccommodating position of his mouth, he remedied this defect with much
-sagacity, for approaching impetuously from a distance of forty yards,
-he turned upon his back, raising his lower jaw to grasp the boat from
-above. A lance-wound, however, applied in time, caused him to close his
-mouth; but continuing to advance, he struck the boat with such force
-that he nearly overturned it, and concluded by again turning on his back
-and thrusting his lower jaw through the planks. Fortunately the other
-boats came up to the rescue, and an addition of many tons of sperm to the
-ship's cargo made up for the damaged boat.
-
-[Illustration: Sperm-Whale.]
-
-Although generally only the greater cetaceans are objects of pursuit at
-sea, yet man does not disdain the capture of the several dolphin-species
-when they approach his shores, and surrender themselves as it were into
-his hands. The intelligence that a shoal of ca'ing whales (_Delphinus
-melas_) has been seen approaching the coast, operates like an electric
-shock upon the inhabitants of the Feroë Islands. The whole village, old
-and young, is instantly in motion, and soon numerous boats push off
-from shore to surround the unsuspecting herd. Slowly and steadily they
-are driven into a bay, the phalanx of their enemies draws closer and
-closer together; terrified by stones and blows, they run ashore, and lie
-gasping as the flood recedes. Then begins the work of death, amid the
-loud rejoicings of the happy islanders. The visits of the ca'ing whale
-are extremely uncertain. From 1754 till 1776 scarce one was caught, but
-on the 16th of August of the last-named year more than 800 were driven
-on the strand, and changed dearth into abundance. During the four summer
-months that Langbye sojourned on the islands in the year 1817, 623 of
-these large dolphins, mostly from eight to ten yards long, were caught,
-and served to pay one half of the imported corn. The division of spoil is
-made in presence of the "_Amtmann_." Each fish is measured, and its size
-marked on its skin in Roman characters. The largest whale is given to
-the boat which first discovered the shoal; then others for the poor and
-clergyman are selected, and the remainder divided, according to stated
-rules, between the proprietor of the ground and the persons who drove
-them on shore. The flesh is either eaten fresh, or cut into slices and
-hung up to dry; whilst the blubber is partly converted into train oil, or
-salted in casks and barrels. The fat on the sides of the fish, when hung
-for a week or two, will keep for years, and is used instead of bacon by
-the natives.
-
-The ca'ing whale, remarkable from following a leader and swimming in
-large herds, also strands from time to time on the coasts of Iceland and
-on the Shetland and Orkney Islands, where his appearance is hailed with
-universal pleasure.
-
-[Illustration: Pelican.]
-
-
-[Illustration: AUSTRALIAN SEA-BEARS.]
-
-AUSTRALIAN SEA-BEARS.
-
-  The group of Australian sea-bears is taken from the "Zoology of the
-  voyage of H.M.S. Erebus and Terror." This animal, _Arctocephalus
-  lobatus_, is among the largest of the Seal family. It is occasionally
-  found congregating in vast numbers upon various portions of the coast
-  of Australia.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. IX.
-
-SEALS AND WALRUSES.
-
-  The Manatees and the Dugongs.--The Seals and the Esquimaux.--King
-  Menelaus in a Seal's Skin.--Barbarous Persecutions of the Seals
-  in Behring's Sea and the Pacific.--Adventures of a Sealer from
-  Geneva.--The Sea Calf.--The Sea Bear.--His Parental Affection.--The
-  Sea Lions.--The Sea Elephant.--The Arctic Walrus.--The Boats of the
-  "Trent" fighting with a Herd of Walruses.--The White Bear.--Touching
-  Example of its Love for its Young.--Chase of the Sea Otter.
-
-
-The Manatees or Lamantins of the Atlantic Ocean, and the now nearly
-extinct Dugongs of the Indian seas, form the connecting link between the
-real whales and the seals and walruses. Like the whales, these animals
-have no hind feet, and a powerful tail, which is their chief instrument
-of locomotion; they are distinguishable, however, from them by less
-fin-like, more flexibly-jointed anterior extremities, on which they lean
-while cropping the sea-weeds on the shallow shores. When they raise
-themselves with the front part of their body out of the water, a lively
-fancy might easily be led to imagine that a human shape, though certainly
-none of the most beautiful, was surging from the deep. Hence they have
-been named sea-sirens, mermaids, and mermen, and have given rise to many
-extravagant fictions. Their intelligence is very obtuse, but their stolid
-calf-like countenance indicates great mildness of temper.
-
-They live at peace with all other animals, and seem to be solely intent
-upon satisfying their voracious appetite. Like the hippopotamus, they
-swallow at once large masses of sea-plants or of juicy grasses growing
-beyond the water's edge on the borders of rivers.
-
-The Manatees, or Sea-cows, as they are familiarly called, inhabit the
-coasts and streams of the Atlantic between 19° S. lat. and 25° N. lat.,
-and attain a length of from eight to ten feet. Humboldt compares the
-flesh to ham, and Von Martius says he never tasted better meat in the
-Brazils. The South American monks, who have their own ideas on the
-classification of animals, consider it as fish, and fare sumptuously
-upon it during Lent. Besides its flesh, one single animal gives as much
-as 4000 bottles of oil, which is used both in cookery and for lighting.
-The thick hide is cut into stripes, from which straps or whips are made,
-to flog the unfortunate negroes. Useful in many respects, defenceless
-and easy to kill, particularly during the time of the inundations, when
-it ascends the great rivers, the manatee or sea-cow has been nearly
-extirpated in many parts where it formerly abounded, a fate which it
-partakes with the East Indian dugong. These animals might easily be
-enclosed and tamed, in the lagoons and bays of the tropical streams; but
-it is to be feared that they will have vanished from the face of the
-earth before the industry of man endeavours to introduce them, as it
-were, among the domestic animals.
-
-[Illustration: Skeleton of the Dugong.]
-
-The Seal family forms a still nearer approach to the land quadrupeds, as
-here hind feet begin to make their appearance. The shortness of these
-extremities renders their movements upon land generally awkward and
-slow, but they make up for this deficiency by an uncommon activity in
-the water. Their body, tapering fish-like from the shoulders to the
-tail, their abundance of fat, the lightness of which is so favourable
-to swimming, the position of their feet, admirably formed for rowing,
-paddling, and steering, their whole economy, in a word, is calculated for
-the sea. Although citizens of two worlds, their real element is evidently
-the water, from which their food is exclusively derived.
-
-[Illustration: Female Dugong of Ceylon. (From Sir J. Emerson Tennent's
-Work on Ceylon.)]
-
-[Illustration: Skeleton of Seal.]
-
-Seals are found in almost all seas, but they particularly abound on
-the coasts of the colder regions of the earth, and diminish in size
-and numbers as they approach the torrid zone. Small seals are found
-near Surinam, but the giants of the family, the huge, sea-elephant, the
-sea-lion, the sea-bear, belong exclusively to those higher latitudes
-which the sun visits only with slanting rays, or where the winter forms a
-dreary and continuous night.
-
-[Illustration: The Seal.]
-
-How wonderful to see the desolate coasts of the icy seas peopled by such
-herds of great warm-blooded mammalia! But there, where the dry land
-produces only the scantiest vegetation, the bountiful sea teems with
-fishes, affording abundance to the hungry seals. The _Merlangus polaris_
-and the _Ophidium Parryii_ in the northern hemisphere, as well as the
-_Nothothenia phocæ_, which Dr. Richardson discovered off Kerguelen's
-Land, seek in vain to escape from the pursuit of the seals in the hollows
-and crevices of the pack-ice; and these small fish, in turn, fare
-sumptuously upon the minute crustaceans and molluscs with which those
-cold waters abound. Thus animal life, but sparingly diffused over the
-barren land, luxuriates in the sea, where we find one species preying
-upon the other, until at last, at the bottom of the scale, we come to
-creatures so small as to be invisible to the naked eye.
-
-[Illustration: Esquimaux in his Kayak.]
-
-The Greenland Esquimaux, whose ice-bound fatherland affords no food but
-berries, is also obliged to look to the sea for his subsistence; and the
-seal plays as important a part in his humble existence as the reindeer
-among the Laplanders, or the camel among the Bedouins of the desert. Its
-flesh and fat form his principal food; from its skin he makes his boat,
-his tent, his dress; from its sinews and bones, his thread and needles,
-his fishing line, and his bow-strings. Thus on the frozen confines of the
-Polar Sea, as in many other parts of the world, we find the existence of
-man almost entirely depending upon that of a single class of animals. But
-the Bedouin who tends the patient dromedary, or the Laplander who feeds
-on the flesh and milk of the domesticated reindeer, enjoys an easy life
-when compared to the Esquimaux, who, to satisfy the cravings of his sharp
-appetite, is in all seasons obliged to brave all the perils of the Arctic
-Ocean. Sometimes he waits patiently for hours in the cold fog until a
-seal rises to the surface, or else he warily approaches a herd basking
-or sleeping on the ice blocks, for the least noise awakens the watchful
-animals. Sometimes he has recourse to stratagem, covers himself with a
-seal skin, and, imitating the movements and gestures of the deceived
-phocæ, introduces himself into the midst of the unsuspecting troop.
-
-We read in the _Odyssey_ how the "dark-featured hero," Menelaus, deigned
-to conceal his royal limbs under a fresh seal-skin, in order to surprise
-Proteus, the infallible seer; and what sufferings his olfactory organs
-underwent from the
-
-  "Unsavoury stench of oil and brackish ooze,"
-
-until the fair sea-nymph Eidothea, whom the gallant chief implored in his
-distress,
-
-  "With nectar'd drops the sickening sense restor'd."
-
-Fortunately for the Esquimaux, his nose is less sensitive than that of
-the son of Atreus, and without ambrosia, he willingly dons a disguise
-which affords his unsophisticated taste the pleasure of a theatrical
-entertainment, combined with the profit of a savoury prize. Physical
-strength, dexterity, caution, quickness of eye, and acuteness of hearing,
-are the indispensable qualities of the Esquimaux, and require to be
-exercised and developed from his tenderest years. The boy of fifteen must
-be as perfect a seal-catcher as his father, and be able to make all the
-instruments necessary for the chase. In these inhospitable regions, every
-one is obliged to rely upon himself alone; there, where all the powers
-of the body and mind are tasked to the utmost for the mere sustenance of
-life, weakness and want of dexterity must inevitably succumb.
-
-Besides the savages of the north, the civilised nations also give chase
-to the seals, or rather wage a barbarous war of extermination against
-these helpless creatures. Thus, from the year 1786 to 1833, more than
-3,000,000 sea-bears were killed on the Pribilow Islands, in Behring's
-Sea. At Unalaschka, the chief staple-place of the Russian Fur Company,
-700,000 skins were cast into the water in the year 1803, on the same
-principle as that which induced the Dutch to burn their superfluous
-nutmegs, viz. "not to glut the market." As a well-merited punishment for
-this stupid slaughter, the products of the chase diminished rapidly from
-that time until within the last few years, when a better husbandry has
-again increased the number of the sea-bears.
-
-Unfortunately, our own countrymen and the Americans have done no better
-in the southern seas. Thousands of sea-lions used formerly to be killed
-on the South American coast, while at present the number of the animals
-is so much diminished as scarce to reward the sealer's trouble. Sir James
-Ross informs us that the sea elephant was formerly found in great numbers
-on Kerguelen's Land, and yearly attracted many vessels to those desert
-islands. But at present, after such incessant persecution, the animals
-have either migrated, or been almost totally extirpated. English and
-American captains often set some men ashore on the uninhabited coasts
-and islands of the southern seas, for the purpose of catching seals,
-boiling their oil, and stripping their skins. After a few months the ship
-generally returns to fetch the produce of their labours, or to bring a
-fresh supply of provisions to the seal catchers, who often remain several
-years in their solitary hunting grounds. But sometimes the poor wretches
-are abandoned by their associates, and then their despair may be imagined
-when week after week elapses without the expected sail appearing! Dumont
-d'Urville found one of these adventurers in the Straits of Magellan among
-a horde of Patagonians, who, though hospitably inclined, were themselves
-so poor as hardly to be able to keep body and soul together. He was a
-watchmaker from Geneva, who, having emigrated to New York, and finding
-himself disappointed, had listened to the fair promises of a skipper,
-who carried him out to Tierra del Fuego, and not finding the business
-answer, had left him to his fate. The French navigator took the poor man
-on board, and gave him a passage to Talcahuano in Chili.
-
-On the east coast of North America seal catching is still carried on
-with considerable success. Newfoundland intercepts many of the immense
-fields and islands of ice which in the spring move south from the Arctic
-Sea. The interior parts, with the openings or lakes interspersed, remain
-serene and unbroken, and form the transitory abodes of myriads of seals.
-In the month of March upwards of three hundred small vessels, fitted
-out for the seal fishery, are extricated from the icy harbours on the
-east coast of Newfoundland; the fields are now all in motion, and the
-vessels plunge directly into the edges of such as appear to have seals
-on them; the crews, armed with firelocks and heavy bludgeons, there
-_land_, and in the course of a few weeks destroy nearly 300,000 of these
-animals. The Greenland winter, it would appear, is too severe for these
-luckless wanderers, and when it sets in, they accompany the field-ice,
-and remain on it until it is scattered and dissolved. Old and young
-being then deserted in the ocean, nature points out to them the course
-to their favourite icy haunts, and thither their herds hurry over the
-deep to pass an arctic summer. Winter returns, and with it commences
-again their annual migration from latitude to latitude. The Scotch ports,
-particularly Aberdeen, fit out ships for the spring seal-catching on the
-American coast, and are generally successful in their undertakings.
-
-[Illustration: Greenland Seal.]
-
-[Illustration: Seal.]
-
-According to the different numbers and forms of their canine teeth and
-grinders, and to the deficiency or presence of an _outward_ ear, the seal
-tribe is divided into many families, genera, and species, among which I
-shall select a few of the most remarkable for further notice. The Common
-Seal or Sea-calf, (_Calocephalus vitulinus_), which owes the latter name
-to the unharmonious accents of its voice, attains a length of from five
-to six feet. It has a large round head, small short neck, and several
-strong bristles on each side of its mouth, large eyes, no external ears,
-and a forked tongue. It has six fore teeth in the upper jaw, four in
-the lower, a strong pointed canine tooth on each side in both jaws,
-and a goodly row of sharp and jagged grinders. Woe to the poor herring
-whose evil star leads him between these engines of destruction--he is
-irrevocably lost! Different species of common seals inhabit the Northern
-seas, from Greenland and Spitzbergen to the mouth of the Scheldt, and
-from the White Sea to the eastern coast of America. Others are found in
-the Antarctic seas. An excellent swimmer, the seal dives like a shot, and
-rises at fifty yards' distance, often remaining full a quarter of an hour
-under the water--three times longer than the most strong-breasted and
-expert pearl fisher. Yet he is seldom seen more than thirty miles from
-land, where he sleeps and reposes, choosing rocks surrounded by the sea
-or the less accessible cliffs, left dry by the ebb of the tide, so that,
-if disturbed by an enemy, he may be able to plunge immediately into the
-sea. In the summer he will come out of the water to bask or sleep in the
-sun on the top of large stones and ledges of rocks; and this affords our
-countrymen the opportunity of shooting him. If he chances to escape, he
-hastens towards his proper element, flinging dirt or stones behind him
-as he scrambles along, at the same time expressing his fears by piteous
-moans; but if he happens to be overtaken, he will make a vigorous defence
-with his feet and teeth till he is killed. His flesh, which is tender,
-juicy, and fat, was formerly, like that of the porpoise, served up at the
-tables of the great, as appears from the bill of fare of a magnificent
-feast that Archbishop Neville gave in the reign of Edward the Fourth.
-Seals commonly bring forth two young ones at a time, which they suckle
-for about a fortnight, and then carry them out to sea to instruct them
-in swimming. When taken young, they may be domesticated, and will follow
-their master like a dog, coming to him when called by name. According
-to Pliny, no animal enjoys a deeper sleep,--"nullum animal graviore
-somno premitur." This assertion is, however, contradicted by general
-observation, for it is well known that seals are extremely watchful,
-seldom sleeping longer than a minute without moving their heads to
-ascertain whether anything suspicious is going on.
-
-Although without external ears, seals appear to hear well both above and
-under the water. Music or whistling will draw them to the surface and
-induce them to stretch their necks to the utmost extent--a curiosity
-which often proves a snare for their destruction. The most effectual
-way of shooting seals is by firing small shot into their eyes; for
-when killed with a bullet they generally sink and are lost. They are
-often seen in very large shoals on their passage from one situation to
-another. In such cases, all appear every now and then at the surface
-together for the sake of respiration, springing up so as to run their
-heads, necks, and often their whole bodies out of the water. They shuffle
-along, especially over the ice, with a surprising speed considering the
-shortness of their legs. They are very tenacious of life, and able to
-survive even when shockingly mangled. According to Dr. Scoresby, the
-island of Jan Mayen affords excellent seal fishing in March and April.
-When on detached pieces of drift ice, they are captured by the use of
-boats, each boat making a descent upon a different herd. When the seals
-observe the boat, they endeavour to escape before it reaches the ice; the
-sailors, however, raise a long-continued shout, which frequently causes
-the amazed animals to delay their retreat until arrested by blows. When
-seals are abundant, the boat immediately pushes off after the slaughter
-is finished, and proceeds to another piece of ice for the increase of its
-harvest, leaving one man to flay off the skins and fat. But in situations
-where boats cannot navigate, the seal fishers have to pursue them over
-the ice, leaping from piece to piece until the capture is made; every
-man then flenses his own, and drags the skins and blubber to his boat
-or ship. Ships fitted out for seal fishing have occasionally procured
-cargoes of four or five thousand, yielding nearly a hundred tons of oil;
-but such enterprises are very hazardous, from the exposed nature of that
-dreary island, and the liability to heavy and sudden storms.
-
-The Sea-Elephant (_Cystophora proboscidea_) deserves his name, not only
-from his immense size, attaining a length of twenty, twenty-five, or
-even thirty feet, but also from the singular structure of his elongated
-nostrils, which hang down when he is in a state of repose, but swell
-out to a foot-long proboscis when he is enraged. Then the beast has
-a most formidable appearance, which, along with its gaping jaws and
-dreadful roar, might strike terror into the boldest huntsman. But total
-helplessness and weakness conceal themselves behind this terrible mask,
-for a single blow upon the snout with a club suffices to fell the giant.
-Between 35° and 55° S. lat. is the home of the sea-elephant, where he
-frequents desert islands and uninhabited coasts. But even here, as I have
-already mentioned, he could not escape the rapacity of man, for his tough
-hide and the thick layer of blubber beneath were too tempting to remain
-unnoticed.
-
-The Hooded Seal of the northern seas, (_Cystophora borealis_,) enjoys
-the same faculty of inflating a folding, skinny crest extending on each
-side from the snout to the eyes. But in spite of the menacing appearance
-of these wind-bags, the seal fisher knocks him on the head, draws,
-without ceremony, his skin over his ears, and throws his blubber into the
-oil-kettle.
-
-The _Otarias_, or seals furnished with an external ear, and whose longer
-and more developed feet allow them to move more freely on land, rank in
-point of organisation at the head of the whole tribe. The most important
-and valuable of all is the Sea-Bear (_Arctocephalus ursinus_), of which
-there are probably two species; the one inhabiting the Antarctic seas,
-while the other roams about the coasts and islands of the Northern
-Pacific, and selects St. Paul, one of the Pribilow group in Behring's
-Sea, as its favourite summer haunt. The fine-haired, black, curly skin of
-the younger animals, of from four months to one year old, is particularly
-esteemed, so as to be classed among the finer furs which find a ready
-sale in the Chinese market, and serve to decorate the persons of the
-higher rank of mandarins. The chase, which on the latter island was
-formerly a promiscuous massacre, is now reduced to the slaughter of a
-limited number of victims. It begins in the latter part of September, on
-a cold foggy day when the wind blows from the side where the animals are
-assembled on the rocky shore. The boldest huntsmen, accustomed to clamber
-over stones and cliffs, open the way; then follow their less experienced
-comrades, and the chief personage of the band comes last, to be the
-better able to direct and survey the movements of his men, who are all
-armed with clubs. The main object is to cut off the herd as quickly as
-possible from the sea. All the grown-up males and females are spared, but
-the younger animals are all driven landwards, sometimes to the distance
-of a couple of miles, and then partly clubbed to death. Those which are
-only four months old are doomed without exception; while of the others
-only a certain number of the males are killed, and the females allowed to
-return again to the coast, when they soon betake themselves to the water.
-For several days after the massacre, the bereaved mothers swim about the
-island, seeking and loudly wailing for their young.
-
-From the 5th of October, St. Paul is gradually deserted by the sea
-bears, who then migrate to the south, and reappear towards the end of
-April,--the males arriving first. Each seeks the same spot on the shore
-which he occupied during the preceding year, and lies down among the
-large stone blocks with which the flat beach is covered. About the middle
-of May the far more numerous females begin to make their appearance, and
-Otarian life takes full possession of the strand. The full-grown sea-bear
-is from eight to nine feet long, measures five in girth, and acquires
-a weight of from eight to nine hundred pounds. He owes his name to his
-shaggy blackish fur, and not to his disposition, which is far from being
-cruel or savage. He indulges in polygamy like a Turk or a Mormon, and
-has often as many as fifty wives. The young are generally lively, fond
-of play and fight. When one of them has thrown another down, the father
-approaches with a growl, caresses the victor, tries to overturn him,
-and shows increasing fondness the better he defends himself. Lazy and
-listless youngsters are objects of his dislike, and these hang generally
-about their mother. The male is very much attached to his wives, but
-treats them with all the severity of an oriental despot. When a mother
-neglects to carry away her young, and allows it to be taken, she is made
-to feel his anger. He seizes her with his teeth, and strikes her several
-times, not over gently, against a cliff. As soon as she recovers from
-the stunning effects of these blows, she approaches her lord in the
-most humble attitudes, crawls to his feet, caresses him, and even sheds
-tears, as Steller, the companion of Behring's second voyage, informs us.
-Meanwhile the male crawls about to and fro, gnashes his teeth, rolls his
-eyes, and throws his head from side to side. But when he sees that his
-young is irrevocably lost, he then, like the mother, begins to cry so
-bitterly, that the tears trickle down upon his breast. In his old age
-the ursine seal is abandoned by his wives, and spends the remainder of
-his life in solitude, fasting, and sleeping; an indolence from which he
-can only be roused by the intrusion of another animal, when a tremendous
-battle is the consequence. Though extremely irascible, the sea-bears
-are lovers of fair play, so that when two are fighting, the others
-form a ring, and remain spectators until the contest is decided. Then,
-however, they take the part of the weaker, which so enrages the victor
-that he immediately attacks the peace-makers. These in turn fall out,
-the dreadful roaring attracts new witnesses, and the whole ends, like an
-Irish wedding, with a general fight.
-
-Ursine seals are also found in the southern hemisphere, on desert coasts
-analogous to their residences in the north. Common seals and sea-otters
-stand in great awe of these animals, and shun their haunts. They again
-are in equal fear of the Leonine seals, and do not care to begin a
-quarrel in their presence, dreading the intervention of such formidable
-arbitrators, who likewise possess the first place on the shore.
-
-Steller's Sea-Lion, (_Otaria Stelleri_,) is about as large again as
-the sea-bear, but its tawny hide, covered with short bristles, is
-without value in the fur trade. To the Aleut, however, the animal is of
-great use, for he covers his boat with its skin, makes his water-tight
-_kamleika_ with its intestines, the soles of his shoes with the webs of
-its feet, ornaments his cap with its long beard hair, and feasts upon
-its flesh. On all the coasts and islands of the Pacific this sea-lion
-is found, from 61° N. lat. to unknown southern limits, but nowhere in
-such numbers as on the Pribilow Island, St. George, where its countless
-herds afford a wonderful spectacle. The shapeless gigantic fat and
-flesh-masses, awkward and unwieldy on land, cover, as far as the eye
-can reach, a broad, rocky, naked strand-belt, blackened with oil. The
-sea-birds occupy the empty places between the herds of the sea-lions,
-and fly fearlessly before the gaping jaws of the huge monsters, without
-caring about their hideous bellowing. In countless numbers they build
-their nests in the caves of the surf-beaten cliffs, and among the large
-boulders on the shore, whose tops are whitened with their dung. A thick
-fog generally spreads over the desolate scene, and the hollow roaring of
-the breakers unites, with the screaming of the birds and the bellowing of
-the sea-lions, to form a wild and melancholy concert.
-
-Steller's sea-lion is furnished only with an erect and curly hair-tuft at
-his neck, while a complete mane flows round the breast of the sea-lion
-of the southern hemisphere, (_Otaria jubata_). The remainder of the body
-is covered with short smooth hairs, or bristles. The sea-lioness has no
-mane, and is darker than the male. The fore-fins have the appearance of
-large pieces of black tough leather, showing, instead of nails, slight
-horny elevations; the hind-fins, which are likewise black, have a closer
-resemblance to feet, and the five toes are furnished with small nails. A
-formidable-looking beast, eleven feet long! and well may the naturalist
-start, when, walking through the high tussack grass of the Falkland
-Islands, he suddenly stumbles over a huge sea-lion, stretched along the
-ground, and blocking up his path.
-
-[Illustration: Walrus, or Morse.]
-
-[Illustration: Skull and Head of Walrus.]
-
-The Arctic Walrus forms the nearest approach to the seals in the scale
-of creation, and is likewise better adapted for a marine life than for
-existence on dry land. But he is completely without fore-teeth, and his
-grinders have a broad furrowed crown, like those of the herbivorous
-animals. This difference of dentition points to a different food, and
-while the phocæ are such voracious fish-eaters that Sir James Ross found
-no less than twenty-eight pounds of undigested fish in the stomach of a
-southern seal, the walrus principally lives on sea-weeds and molluscs.
-The Arctic walrus or sea-horse (_Trichechus rosmarus_) is one of the
-largest mammals known, as he sometimes grows to the length of eighteen
-feet, and so thick as to measure twelve feet about the middle of the
-body. His form is very clumsy, having a small head, a strong elongated
-neck, a thick body, and short legs, the hind feet uniting to a broad
-fin. With such a form, no one can wonder at the clumsiness of its
-movements on land. Admiral Beechey describes the gallop of a sea-horse
-as probably the most awkward motion exhibited by the animal tribe, for,
-like a large caterpillar, the unwieldly creature alternately lowers and
-raises its head, in order to facilitate the bringing up of the hinder
-parts of the body;--no easy task, when we consider the immense weight of
-the animal, and the great disproportion between the length of its body
-and its legs. The upper lip, which is very thick, and indented or cleft
-into two large rounded lobes, furnished with thick yellow bristles,
-contributes also but little to its external beauty. From under this
-formidable-looking inflation protrude two large and long tusks, growing,
-like those of the elephant, from the upper jaw, but bent downwards, not
-outward and upwards, as is the case with the latter. Their uses are also
-very different, for while the elephant employs his tusks in digging up
-roots, the walrus raises by their assistance his unwieldy body upon
-the ice-blocks and precipitous shores, where he loves to bask in the
-sun. Both animals use them, moreover, as formidable weapons, the former
-against the bounding tiger, the latter against the hungry ice-bear or the
-voracious shark.
-
-In fine weather the walruses, like the seals, gather on the ice,
-where they may be seen in herds consisting occasionally of upwards of
-100 animals each. In these situations they appear greatly to enjoy
-themselves, rolling and sporting about, and frequently making the air
-resound with their bellowing, which bears some resemblance to that of a
-bull. These diversions generally end in sleep, during which these wary
-animals appear always to take the precaution of having a sentinel to warn
-them of any danger to which they may be liable. So universal seems the
-observance of this precaution amongst their species, that Beechey, who
-had many opportunities of observing them in Spitzbergen, scarcely ever
-saw a herd, however small, in which he did not notice one of the party
-on the watch, stretching his long neck in the air every half-minute, to
-the utmost extent of its muscles, to survey the ground about him. In the
-event of any alarming appearances, the sentinel begins by seeking his
-own safety; and as these animals always lie huddled upon one another,
-the motion of one is immediately communicated to the whole group, which
-is instantly in motion towards the water. When the herd is large, and an
-alarm is given, the consequences are most ludicrous. From the unwieldy
-nature of the animals, the state of fear into which they are thrown,
-and their being so closely packed together, at first they tumble over
-one another, get angry, and in their endeavour to regain their feet
-flounder about in each other's way, till having at last scrambled to the
-edge of the ice, they tumble into the water, head first, if possible,
-but otherwise, in any position in which chance may have placed them,
-occasioning one of the most laughable scenes it is possible to conceive.
-
-Though the first movement of the walruses at the approach of danger is
-to seek the water, yet here, enraged by an unprovoked attack, they often
-become most formidable assailants; of which Beechey recounts a remarkable
-instance.
-
-[Illustration: THE BOATS OF H.M.S. TRENT ATTACKED BY WALRUSES.]
-
-THE BOATS OF H.M.S. TRENT ATTACKED BY WALRUSES.
-
-  This plate is taken from an incident narrated in the account of the
-  voyage of H.M. ships Dorothea and Trent. The boat belonging to the
-  Trent was attacked by a shoal of walruses, which were near swamping
-  it; and were not driven off till a gigantic walrus, which appeared
-  to be the captain of the shoal, was destroyed by a shot fired into
-  its throat as represented in the engraving, the original of which, as
-  published in the account of the voyage, was taken from a sketch by an
-  officer present in the singular conflict.
-
-One evening, while the Dorothea and Trent were at anchor in Magdalena
-Bay, Spitzbergen, several herds of these animals had crawled upon the
-ice, to enjoy the fine weather and rest themselves. The boats, properly
-equipped, and manned with some of the officers and seamen, pushed off
-in pursuit of them. The first herd which was selected disappointed the
-sportsmen, but another was so intent upon its gambols, that the sentinel
-absolutely forgot his duty, and several of the crew managed to effect
-a landing upon the ice without any alarm being given to the animals;
-as soon, however, as the first musket was fired, the affrighted group
-made such a desperate rush towards the edge of the ice that they nearly
-overturned the whole of the assailing party, purposely stationed there
-to intercept them. The seamen, finding this charge more formidable than
-they expected, were obliged to separate to allow their opponents to pass
-through their ranks; and being thus in their turn taken by surprise, they
-suffered them, almost unmolested, to perform their somersaults towards
-the sea. What with their uncertain movements, the extreme toughness of
-their skin, and the respectful distance at which the men were obliged
-to keep, to avoid the lashing of the head and tusks of the animals, it
-was indeed no easy task to inflict any serious injury upon them. One,
-however, was desperately wounded in the head with a ball, and the mate
-of the brig, being determined if possible to secure his prey, resolutely
-struck his tomahawk into his skull; but the enraged animal, with a twist
-of its head, sent the weapon whirling in the air, and then lashing his
-neck, as though he would destroy with his immense tusks everything that
-came in his way, effected his escape to the water. The seamen followed
-and pushed off in their boats; but the walruses, finding themselves more
-at home now than on the ice, in their turn became the assailants. They
-rose in great numbers about the boats, snorting with rage, and rushing
-at the boats, and it was with the utmost difficulty they were prevented
-upsetting or staving them by placing their tusks upon the gunwales, or by
-striking at them with their heads. It was the opinion of the seamen that
-in this assault the walruses were led on by one animal in particular, a
-much larger and more formidable beast than any of the others, and they
-directed their efforts more particularly towards him; but he withstood
-all the blows of their tomahawks without flinching, and his tough hide
-resisted the entry of the whale lances, which were unfortunately not
-very sharp, and soon bent double. The herd was so numerous, and their
-attacks so incessant, that there was not time to load a musket, which
-indeed was the only effectual mode of seriously injuring them. The
-purser fortunately had his gun loaded, and the whole now being nearly
-exhausted with chopping and striking at their assailants, he snatched it
-up, and thrusting the muzzle down the throat of the leader, fired into
-his bowels. The wound proved mortal and the animal fell back amongst
-his companions, who immediately desisted from the attack, assembled
-round him, and in a moment quitted the boat, swimming away as hard as
-they could with their leader, whom they actually bore up with their
-tusks, and assiduously preserved from sinking. Whether this singular
-and compassionate conduct, which in all probability was done to prevent
-suffocation, arose from the sagacity of the animals, it is difficult to
-say; but there is every probability of it, and the fact must form an
-interesting trait in the history of the habits of the species. After the
-discharge of the purser's gun, there remained of all the herd only one
-little assailant, which the seamen, out of compassion, were unwilling to
-molest. This young animal had been observed fighting by the side of the
-leader, and from the protection which was afforded it by its courageous
-patron, was imagined to be one of its young. This little animal had no
-tusks, but it swam violently against the boat, and struck her with its
-head, and indeed would have stove her, had it not been kept off by whale
-lances, some of which made deep incisions in its young sides. These,
-however, had not any immediate effect; the attack was continued, and the
-enraged little animal, though disfigured with wounds, even crawled upon
-the ice in pursuit of the seamen, who had _relanded_ there, until one of
-them, out of compassion, put an end to its sufferings.
-
-The valuable ivory of its tusks, which is more solid, finer grained, and
-whiter than that of the elephant, exposes the walrus to the attacks of
-man, no less than his thick hide, from which a strong elastic leather is
-made, and his abundance of flesh and blubber. The former are sought by
-civilised nations, while the latter forms the chief food of the northern
-Esquimaux and of the Tschutchi on the western shore of Behring's Straits.
-
-Every year a troop of Aleuts land on the northern coast of the peninsula
-of Aliaska, where the young walruses assemble in great numbers during
-the summer, having most likely been driven away by the older males from
-their more northern haunts. The walruses herd on the lowest edge of the
-coast which is within reach of the high spring-tides. When the Aleuts
-prepare to attack the animals, they take leave of each other as if they
-were going to face death, being no less afraid of the mighty tusks of
-the walruses than of the awkwardness of their own companions. Armed
-with lances and heavy axes, they stealthily approach the walruses, and
-having disposed their ranks, suddenly fall upon them with loud shouts,
-and endeavour to drive them from the sea, taking care that none of them
-escape into the water, as in this case the rest would irresistibly follow
-and precipitate the huntsmen along with them. As soon as the walruses
-have been driven far enough up the strand, the Aleuts attack them with
-their lances, endeavouring to strike at them in places where the hide is
-not so thick, and then pressing with all their might against the spear,
-to render the wound deep and deadly. The slaughtered animals fall one
-over the other and form large heaps, while the huntsmen, uttering furious
-shouts and intoxicated with carnage, wade through the bloody mire. They
-then cleave the jaws and take out the tusks, which are the chief objects
-of the slaughter of several thousands of walruses, since neither their
-flesh nor their fat is made use of in the colony. Sir George Simpson,
-in his "Overland Journey Round the World," relates that the bales of
-fur sent to Kjachta are covered with walrus hide; then it is made to
-protect the tea chests, which find their way to Moscow; and after all
-these wanderings, the far-travelled skin returns again to its native
-seas, when, cut into small pieces and stamped with a mark, it serves as a
-medium of exchange. The carcases of the wholesale slaughter are left on
-the shore to be washed away by the spring-tides, which soon erase every
-vestige of the bloody scene, and in the following year the inexhaustible
-north sends new victims to the coast.
-
-Kane gives us a vivid description of a walrus hunt in Smith's Sound, most
-likely the most northern point of the earth inhabited by man. "After a
-while Myouk became convinced, from signs or sounds, that walruses were
-waiting for him in a small space of recently open water that was glazed
-over with a few days' growth of ice, and, moving gently on, soon heard
-the characteristic bellow of a bull,--the walrus, like some bipeds,
-being fond of his own music. The party now formed in single file, and
-moved on in serpentine approach to the recently frozen ice spots, which
-were surrounded by older and firmer ice. When within half a mile the line
-broke, and each man crawled towards a separate pool. In a few minutes
-the walruses were in sight, five in number, rising at intervals through
-the ice in a body with an explosive puff that might have been heard
-for miles. Two large grim-looking males made themselves conspicuous as
-leaders of the group. When the walrus is above the water, the hunter lies
-flat and motionless; as it begins to sink, he is alert and ready for a
-spring. The animal's head is hardly below the water line, when every man
-advances in rapid run, and again, as if by instinct, before the beast
-returns, all are motionless behind protecting knolls of ice. In this way
-the Esquimaux have reached a plate of thin ice, hardly strong enough to
-bear them, at the very brink of the pool. Myouk, till now phlegmatic,
-seems to waken with excitement. A coil of walrus hide lies by his side,
-and he grasps the harpoon, ready for action. Presently the water is in
-motion, and, puffing with pent-up respiration, the walrus rises before
-him. Myouk rises slowly, the right arm thrown back, the left flat at his
-side. The walrus looks about him, shaking water from his crest, Myouk
-throws up his left arm, and the animal, rising breast-high, fixes one
-look before he plunges. It has cost him all that curiosity can cost, for
-the harpoon lies buried under his left flipper." The wounded animal makes
-a desperate spring, and endeavours to lift itself upon the ice, which
-breaks under its weight. These fruitless endeavours give its physiognomy
-a still more vengeful expression; its bellowing degenerates into a roar,
-and crimson foam gathers round its mouth.
-
-[Illustration: Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus).]
-
-The Ice-Bear (_Ursus maritimus_) may also be reckoned among the marine
-animals, as the sea affords him by far the greater part of his food. From
-the common bear, whom he surpasses in strength and size, as he attains
-a length of nine feet, and a height of four, he not only distinguishes
-himself by his white sleek-haired fur, but also by a much longer neck.
-His half-webbed feet show at once that he is born for a sea life, and
-he is able to swim three miles an hour, and to dive for a considerable
-length of time. On land he runs as fast again as a man, and often
-surprises his prey, as his tread upon the snow is almost inaudible. He
-principally lives on fish, but also on seals, birds, foxes, reindeer,
-and even attacks man--particularly when pinched with hunger. But in his
-turn he falls a prey to the inhabitants of the Arctic regions, who eat
-the flesh, though it is very coarse, and use the skin for coverings of
-various kinds. He is a cunning hunter, though not always successful.
-Thus one sunshiny day, Admiral Beechey saw a large walrus rise in a
-pool of water not very far from where he stood. After looking around,
-the grim-visaged creature drew his greasy carcase upon the ice, where
-he rolled about for a time, and at length laid himself down to sleep. A
-bear, which had probably been observing his movements, crawled carefully
-upon the ice on the opposite side of the pool, and began to roll about
-also, but apparently more with design than amusement, progressively
-lessening the distance that intervened between him and his prey. The
-suspicious walrus drew himself up, preparatory to a precipitate retreat,
-when immediately the bear remained motionless, as if in the act of sleep;
-but after a time he began to lick his paws, and clean himself, and
-occasionally to encroach a little more upon his intended victim. This
-time, however, his cunning was useless, for the walrus suddenly plunged
-into the pool, and though the bear, throwing off all disguise, rushed
-to the spot and followed him in an instant into the water, he was most
-likely disappointed of a meal that would have made up for a long period
-of fasting. The ice-bear is everywhere at home within the Arctic circle,
-and particularly abounds on Spitzbergen and the other small islands of
-that sea. He sometimes comes floating on drift ice to the north coasts of
-Iceland, Norway, and Newfoundland, but is soon killed by the inhabitants.
-
-[Illustration: Seal.]
-
-[Illustration: Arctic Walrus.]
-
-Manby, in his "Voyage to Spitzbergen," relates several interesting
-examples of his ferocity and daring. Having perceived an ice-bear
-swimming in the sea, a boat went after him to cut him off; when suddenly
-the monster changed his route, faced the boat, and approached it, keeping
-up a continued growling, with other indications of rage, such as showing
-his frightful teeth, and elevating his head and much of his body out of
-the water. Being desirous to preserve the head, Manby let him come within
-twelve yards, when he fired a ball through his shoulder, which deprived
-him of the use of a fore-leg. Roaring hideously, the infuriated animal
-pressed towards the boat in the most ferocious manner, endeavouring to
-board or upset it, but failed from the loss of his leg. He was then
-attacked by the crew with lances, the thrusts of some of which he
-avoided with astonishing dexterity, and, in the most resolute manner,
-again made several attempts to reach the boat; but being repulsed by the
-overpowering thrust of a lance from the harpooner on his flank, he was
-unable longer to continue the contest. He had bitten a lance, in the heat
-of the combat, with such exasperated rage, as to break one of his long
-tusks; but finding his efforts fruitless, he retreated towards the ice,
-swimming most astonishingly fast, considering the great propelling power
-he had lost, and finally ascended it with great difficulty, having only
-one fore-paw to assist him, when, exhausted by the effort, he fell down
-dead, uttering a tremendous growl.
-
-Captain Lewis, with a party of five hunters, attacked a bear, and when at
-a distance of forty yards, four of them fired, and each lodged a musket
-ball in its body, two of which passed directly through the lungs. The
-enraged animal ran at them with open mouth, and as it came near, the
-two men who had reserved their fire gave it two wounds, and broke its
-shoulder, which retarded its motion for a moment. But before they could
-reload, it was so near that they were obliged to run, and before they
-reached the shore the bear had almost overtaken them. Two jumped into the
-canoe, the other four separated, concealed themselves behind ice blocks,
-and firing as fast as they could load, struck the bear several times. But
-although eight balls had passed through its body, the bear pursued two of
-them so closely, that they were obliged to leap down a perpendicular bank
-of twenty feet into the water. The dying animal sprang after them, and
-was within a few feet of the hindermost, when his strength at last failed
-him.
-
-Scoresby relates that in 1783, Captain Cook, of the Archangel, of Lynn,
-landed on the coast of Spitzbergen, accompanied by the surgeon and
-mate. While traversing the shore, the captain was unexpectedly attacked
-by a bear, which seized him in an instant between its paws. At this
-awful juncture, when a moment's pause must have been fatal to him,
-the unfortunate man called to his surgeon to fire, who immediately,
-with admirable resolution and steadiness, discharged his piece, and
-providentially shot the bear through the head, thus literally saving the
-master from the jaws of death.
-
-[Illustration: Ice-bear approaching the "Dorothea" and "Trent."]
-
-"One evening," says Beechey, "we set on fire some sea-horse fat, in order
-to entice within reach of our muskets any bears that might be ranging
-the ice; as these animals possess a very keen scent, and are invariably
-attracted by burnt animal matter. About midnight we had the satisfaction
-of seeing one of them drag his huge carcass out of the water, and slowly
-make his way towards us. The sight of the tall masts of the ships
-appeared to alarm him a little at first, for he occasionally hesitated,
-threw up his head, and seemed half inclined to turn round and be off; but
-the agreeable odour of the burnt blubber was evidently so grateful to his
-olfactory nerves and empty stomach, that it overcame every repugnance,
-and gradually brought him within range of our muskets. On receiving the
-first shot he sprang round, uttered a terrific growl, and half raised
-himself upon his hind legs, as if in expectation of seizing the object
-that had caused him such excruciating pain; and woe to any human being
-who had at that moment been within reach of his merciless paws! The
-second and third ball left him writhing upon the ice, and the mate of the
-Dorothea jumped out of the vessel and endeavoured to despatch him with
-the butt end of a musket; but it unfortunately broke short off, and for
-a moment left him at the mercy of his formidable antagonist, who showed,
-by turning sharply upon his assailant, and seizing him by the thigh, that
-he was not yet mastered; and he would most certainly have inflicted a
-serious wound, had it not been for the prompt assistance of two or three
-of his shipmates who had followed him. The animal was by no means one of
-the largest of his species, being only six feet in length, and three feet
-four inches in height. His stomach was quite empty, with the exception
-of a garter, such as is used by Greenland sailors to tie up their boat
-stockings. In his left side there was a cicatrised wound of considerable
-magnitude. From what we saw of the activity and ferociousness of this
-animal, added to the well-known strength of his species, we readily gave
-credit to the accounts of Barentz and other early visitors to these
-regions; and it may be considered a fortunate circumstance for the hero
-of the Nile and Trafalgar that a natural barrier was interposed between
-him and the object of his chase, when in his youth he ventured alone over
-the ice in these regions in pursuit of such formidable game."
-
-The ferocious white bear, the enemy and the dread of all other animals
-that come within its reach, is exceedingly tender and affectionate to its
-young, of which the following anecdote affords a striking and interesting
-example. While the "Carcase" was locked in the ice, early one morning the
-man at the mast-head gave notice that three bears were making their way
-very fast over the frozen ocean, and were directing their course towards
-the ship. They had no doubt been invited by the scent of some blubber
-of a sea-horse that the crew had killed a few days before, which had
-been set on fire; for they drew out of the flames a part of the flesh
-that remained unconsumed, and ate it voraciously. The crew from the ship
-threw great lumps of the flesh of the sea-horse, which they had still
-left, upon the ice, which the old bear fetched singly, laid every lump
-before her cubs as she brought it, and dividing it, gave to each a share,
-reserving but a small portion to herself. As she was fetching away the
-last piece, they levelled their muskets at the cubs and shot them both
-dead, and in her retreat they wounded the dam, but not mortally. It would
-have drawn tears of pity from any but unfeeling minds, to have marked the
-affectionate concern expressed by this poor beast in the dying moments of
-her expiring young. Though she was herself dreadfully wounded, and could
-but just crawl to the place where they lay, she carried the lump of flesh
-she had fetched away, as she had done others before, tore it in pieces,
-and laid it before them; and when she saw that they refused to eat, she
-laid her paws first upon one and then upon the other, and endeavoured
-to raise them up, piteously moaning all the while. When she found she
-could not stir them, she went off, and when she had got at some distance,
-looked back and moaned; and that not availing her to entice them away,
-she returned, and smelling round them, began to lick their wounds. She
-went off a second time as before, and having crawled a few paces, looked
-again behind her, and for some time stood moaning. But still her cubs
-not rising to follow her, she returned to them again, and with signs of
-inexpressible fondness, went round one and round the other, pawing them
-and moaning. Finding at last that they were cold and lifeless, she raised
-her head towards the ship, and uttered a growl of despair, which the
-murderers returned with a volley of musket balls. She fell between her
-cubs, and died licking their wounds.
-
-The Sea-Otter is the last of the marine mammiferous animals that claim
-our attention. Although it is also found in the southern Pacific, yet
-its chief resort is in the Behring's Sea, along the chain of the Aleut
-Islands. It is but a small animal, yet its long-haired, beautifully fine
-and black fur, which is not seldom paid for with 400 or 500 rubles,
-renders it by far the most important product of those seas. It has even
-got an historical interest, since it has been the chief cause which led
-the Russians from Ochotzk to Kamtschatka, and from thence over the Aleut
-chain to the opposite coast of America.
-
-[Illustration: Sea-Otter.]
-
-The Aleut islanders show a wonderful dexterity in the capture of this
-animal. In April or May they assemble at an appointed spot in their light
-skin-boats, or _baidars_, and choose one of the most respected _tamols_,
-or chiefs, for the leader of the expedition, which generally numbers from
-fifty to a hundred boats. Such hunting-parties are annually organised
-from the Kurile Islands to Kadjack, and consequently extend over a line
-of three thousand miles. On the first fine day the expedition sets out,
-and proceeds to a distance of about forty wersts from the coast, when
-the baidars form into a long line, leaving an interval of about two
-hundred and fifty fathoms from boat to boat as far as a sea-otter diving
-out of the water can be seen; so that a row of thirty baidars occupies
-a space of from ten to twelve wersts. When the number of the boats is
-greater, the intervals are reduced. Every man now looks upon the sea with
-concentrated attention. Nothing escapes the penetrating eye of the Aleut;
-in the smallest black spot appearing but one moment over the surface of
-the waters, his experienced glance at once recognises a sea-otter. The
-baidar which first sees the animal, rows rapidly towards the place where
-the creature dived, and now the Aleut, holding his oar straight up in
-the air, remains motionless on the spot. Immediately the whole squadron
-is in motion, and the long straight line changes into a wide circle, the
-centre of which is occupied by the baidar with the raised oar. The otter
-not being able to remain long under water, re-appears, and the nearest
-Aleut immediately greets him with an arrow. This first attack is seldom
-mortal; very often the missile does not even reach its over-distant mark,
-and the sea-otter instantly disappears. Again the oar rises from the next
-baidar; again the circle forms, but this time narrower than at first; the
-fatigued otter is obliged to come oftener to the surface, arrows fly from
-all sides, and finally the animal, killed by a mortal shot, or exhausted
-by repeated wounds, falls to the share of the archer who has hit it
-nearest to the head. If several otters appear at the same time, the boats
-form as many rings, provided their number be sufficiently great. All
-these movements are executed with astonishing celerity and precision, and
-amidst the deepest silence, which is only interrupted from time to time
-by the hissing sound of the flying arrows.
-
-[Illustration: Banded Dipper.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. X.
-
-SEA-BIRDS.
-
-  Their vast Numbers.--Strand-Birds.--Artifices of the Sea-Lark to
-  protect its Young.--Migrations of the Strand-Birds.--The Sea-Birds
-  in General.--The Anatidæ.--The Eider Duck.--The Sheldrake.--The
-  Loggerheaded Duck.--Auks and Penguins.--The Cormorant.--Its Use by the
-  Chinese for Fish catching.--The Frigate Bird.--The Soland Goose.--The
-  Gulls.--The Petrels.--The Albatross.--Bird-catching on St. Kilda.--The
-  Guano of the Chincha Islands.
-
-
-[Illustration: Flamingo.]
-
-Countless are the birds of the wood and field, of the mountain and the
-plain; and yet it is doubtful whether they equal in number those of the
-fish-teeming seas. For every naked rock or surf-beaten cliff that rises
-over the immeasurable deserts of ocean, is the refuge of myriads of
-sea-birds; every coast, from the poles to the equator, is covered with
-their legions and far from land, their swarms hover over the solitudes
-of the deep. Many, unfit for swimming, seek their food along the shores;
-others rival the fishes in their own native element; and others, again,
-armed with indefatigable wings, pursue their prey upon the high seas.
-But, however different the mode of living and destination of the numerous
-tribes, families, genera, and species of the sea-birds may be, each of
-them is organised in the most perfect manner for the exigencies of its
-own peculiar sphere. Take, for instance, the Strand-birds, that live
-on the margin of ocean, and feast upon the molluscs and sea-worms,
-that inhabit the littoral zone. How admirably the light weight of
-their proportionally small body suits the soft, yielding soil on which
-they have to seek their food; how well their long legs are adapted for
-striding through the mud of the shallow waters; and their long bill and
-flexible neck, how beautifully formed for seizing their fugitive prey,
-ere it can bury itself deep enough in the safe mud or sand!
-
-PENGUINS ON THE SOUTH POLAR ICE.
-
-  A scene showing the immense droves of penguins which often clothe
-  the sea edges of the ice and rocks in the South Polar regions is
-  represented in the annexed plate.
-
-  The individuals in the front are of the large species known as the
-  Great Penguin, _Aptenodytes Forsteri_. Beyond is a group of the
-  lesser, but perhaps more beautiful, species, _Aptenodytes Pennantii_.
-
-  In the distance are seen lines of another small kind, which has been
-  made a separate genus, under the denomination of _Eudyptes_. It
-  is inferior in characteristic beauty to either of the last named.
-  _Eudyptes antipodes_ is, however, worthy of a better representation
-  than the dimensions of our plate permitted.
-
-[Illustration: PENGUINS ON THE SOUTH POLAR ICE.]
-
-[Illustration: Curlew.]
-
-The wonderful art with which the feathered inhabitants of the grove
-construct their nests, we should in vain look for among the Strand-birds,
-but the anxiety they show in protecting their young brood, and the
-stratagems they use to divert the attention of the enemy, are after all
-instincts no less admirable than those which prompt the Cassique or the
-Tailor-bird to build their complicated dwellings. Thus on the approach
-of any person to its nest, the Lapwing flutters round his head with
-great inquietude, and if he persists in advancing, it will endeavour
-to draw him away by running along the ground as if lame, and thereby
-inviting pursuit. The Golden Plover also, when it sees an enemy---man
-or dog---approach, does not await their arrival, but advances to meet
-them. Then suddenly rising with a shrill cry, as if just disturbed from
-its nest, it flutters along the ground as if crippled, and entices them
-farther and farther from its young. The dogs, expecting to catch an easy
-prey, follow the lame bird, which suddenly, however, flies off with
-lightning speed, and leaves its disappointed pursuers on the beach. The
-discovery of the nest is rendered still more difficult by the colour and
-markings of the eggs assimilating so closely to that of the ground and
-surrounding herbage.
-
-The Scoopers, Oyster-catchers, Avosets, and other strand-birds have
-recourse to similar stratagems for the protection of their young. In New
-Zealand, the French naturalists, Quoy and Gaimard, were deceived by an
-oyster-catcher, which, having been shot at, feigned to be wounded, and
-with hanging wing, diverted them from the right track.
-
-[Illustration: Avoset.]
-
-The strand-birds of the high northern regions fly from the winter to
-coasts where milder winds are blowing. But as soon as the summer's
-sun begins to exert its power, the desert shores of the Arctic Ocean
-become animated with swarms of plovers, sand-pipers, rails, herons, and
-phalaropes, to whom the thawed strand opens its inexhaustible supplies.
-Soon, however, the approach of winter hardens once more the soil, want
-follows upon abundance, and the whole long-legged host hastens to abandon
-the ice-bound strand, which opposes an impenetrable armour to their beaks.
-
-[Illustration: Plover.]
-
-The food of the different kinds of strand-birds varies, and consequently
-their bills are variously formed. Those that live upon worms have
-generally a long thin awl-shaped bill, well fitted for picking their
-prey out of the soft muddy or sandy soil. If the small creatures conceal
-themselves under large stones, they are secure from these attacks; but
-then comes the Turn-stone, (_Tringa interpres_,) who with his bill, a
-little turned up at the top, raises the stone as with a lever, and makes
-sad havoc amongst the defenceless garrison.
-
-[Illustration: Scissor-bill (Rhynchops nigra).]
-
-The Sea-pie uses its wedge-shaped bill for opening shell-fish with
-great adroitness; but the industry of the Black Skimmer or Cut-water,
-(_Rhynchops nigra_,) is still more remarkable. The bill of this bird,
-which chiefly inhabits the hot coasts of America, is quite unique in its
-kind; the under mandible, which is in fact nothing but a wedge, being
-about an inch longer than the upper one, by which it is clasped. The
-sandy beach of Penco, says Lesson, is full of shell-fish, which remain
-nearly dry at low water in small pools. The skimmer keeps waiting close
-by until one of them opens its shell, when he immediately introduces
-his wedge. He then seizes the mussel, beats it to pieces upon the sand,
-and devours it with all the pleasure of an epicure eating an oyster. He
-is also very active in sweeping the surface of the water, from which he
-skims, as it were, the smaller fish or shrimps. Thus, on all flat sandy
-shores nothing exists, either soft or hard, creeping or swimming, jumping
-or running, that does not find among the strand-birds its peculiar and
-admirably armed enemy, or that can boast of a perfect immunity from
-hostile attacks.
-
-[Illustration: Speckled Diver.]
-
-If we examine the real sea-birds, such as are formed for indefatigable
-swimming or diving, or for wide flights over the deserts of ocean, we
-shall find them no less wonderfully organised than the winged dwellers
-on the strand. Their short compressed toes easily cleave the waters,
-and by means of their membranes or webs form, as it were, broad oars.
-Their muscular short legs, placed more behind than in other birds, are
-beautifully adapted for rowing, although their movements on land are
-awkward and slow. All creatures living on the sea of course require a
-thick waterproof mantle against weather and storm; and consequently we
-find the plumage of sea birds thicker, closer, and better furnished with
-down than that of the other feathered tribes. And finally, the gland
-which all birds have at the rump, and from which they express an oily
-matter to preserve their feathers moist, is most considerable among
-those that live upon the water, and contributes to make their plumage
-impermeable. Surely the sea bird has no right to complain of imperfect
-clothing or a deficient outfit!
-
-[Illustration: Snow Goose.]
-
-The numerous members of the duck family, or the Anatidæ, mostly live
-during the summer in higher latitudes, and wander in winter in countless
-swarms towards sunnier regions; as, for instance, the Snow Goose and the
-Barnacle. Some remain throughout the year in Great Britain, some only
-during the winter; while others, which are more particularly birds of
-the Arctic zone, but very seldom make their appearance in our southern
-clime. Most Anatidæ prefer the lake, the river, the pond, or the morass;
-but many of them are true littoral birds, and spend a great part of their
-time swimming and fishing in the sea.
-
-[Illustration: Barnacle Goose.]
-
-The Eider Duck, (_Anas mollissima_,) which attains nearly double the
-size of the common duck, inhabits the higher latitudes of Europe, Asia,
-and America. One of its most remarkable breeding places is on the small
-island of Vidoë near Reikiavik (Iceland), where it lives under the
-protection of the law; a person who should chance to kill a breeding bird
-having to pay a fine of thirty dollars.
-
-[Illustration: Eider Duck.]
-
-"As our boat approached the shore," says Mackenzie, ("Voyage through
-Iceland,") "we came through a multitude of these beautiful birds, who
-hardly gave themselves the trouble to move out of the way. Between the
-landing place and the house of the old governor the ground was covered
-with them, and it was necessary to walk cautiously not to tread upon
-their nests. The ganders went about with a cackle resembling the cooing
-of a pigeon, and were even more familiar than our common duck. Round
-about the house, on the garden wall, on the roofs, even in the inside of
-the huts and the chapel, they sat breeding in great numbers. Those which
-had not been long upon their nest generally left it at our approach, but
-those which had more than one or two eggs remained undisturbed, allowed
-themselves to be handled, and sometimes even gently used their bills to
-remove our hand. The nests were lined with down, which the mother plucks
-from her own breast; and near at hand a sufficient quantity was piled up
-to cover the eggs when she goes to feed, which is generally at low water.
-The downs are twice removed, but sometimes the poor duck is obliged to
-provide for a fourth lining; and when she has no more to spare, the
-gander willingly deprives himself of part of his showy snow-white and
-rose-red garment. The eggs, which are considered a great delicacy, are
-also partially taken away. Our Vidoë friend used to send us two hundred
-at a time. When boiled, they are tolerably good, but always very inferior
-to those of our domestic hen. When taken from the nest, the downs are of
-course mixed with feathers and straw; and to sort and prepare them for
-sale is part of the winter employment of the women. One nest furnishes
-about a quarter of a pound of cleaned downs. The softness, lightness,
-and elasticity of these feathers is universally known. A few handfuls
-of compressed downs suffice to fill a whole coverlet, under which the
-northlander bids defiance to the strongest winter cold. Almost as soon
-as the young have left the egg, the mother conducts them to the water's
-edge, takes them on her back, and swims a few yards with them, when she
-dives, and leaves them on the surface to take care of themselves. As
-soon as they have thus acquired the art of swimming, the duck returns
-and becomes their leader. The broods often unite in great numbers, and
-remain some weeks quite wild, after which they disappear. Long before
-we left Iceland not a single duck was to be seen. No one knows to what
-parts they migrate. The bird is found on the Flannen Islands, to the west
-of Lewis; it is seen on the Shetland and Orkney Islands; it breeds on
-May Island, at the mouth of the Frith of Forth." Even on Heligoland the
-eider duck sometimes makes its appearance, but not to breed. The produce
-of the eider duck, either for personal use or as an article of trade,
-contributes to the comforts of many northern nations. The Esquimaux kill
-these birds with darts, pursuing them in their little boats, watching
-their course by the air bubbles when they dive, and always striking at
-them when they rise wearied to the surface. Their flesh is valued as
-food, and their skins are made into warm and comfortable under garments.
-
-The Long-tailed Duck and the Sheldrake or Burrow Duck, (_Anas glacialis_
-_tadorna_), likewise inhabit the northern shores of Europe, Asia, and
-America. The former often remains the whole year in the high north,
-bidding defiance to the icy winter of the Arctic circle, and enjoying
-during the summer the light of an uninterrupted day. Often, however,
-it migrates to the south, and wanders from Greenland and Hudson's Bay
-as far as New York, and from Spitzbergen and Iceland to Heligoland and
-the Schleswig Islands. The duck likewise lines her nest with her downs.
-During the winter, the sheldrake is often seen in the west of England and
-in Ireland, where it is caught in nets. On Sylt, on the Danish coast, it
-is half domesticated, living in artificial burrows, and breeding even
-in the villages, on walls, and in earth holes. In a pleasant valley
-among the downs, which, although without trees, refreshed the eye with a
-verdant carpet variegated with flowers, Naumann, the celebrated German
-ornithologist, saw thousands of sheldrakes scattered in couples over
-the meads, so tame that they could be approached within twenty paces,
-when they flew up, but soon again alighted on the sward. He admired the
-construction of the artificial nests, often thirteen in one cavity, with
-a common entrance, and communicating by horizontal tunnels. Over every
-nest is a perpendicular opening, decked with a sod. On this being raised
-the duck is often seen sitting on her nest, so tame that it allows itself
-to be stroked. Every householder possesses several of these artificial
-burrows, from which he daily gathers during several weeks from twenty to
-thirty eggs, leaving six in each nest to be hatched. He also takes care
-to remove one half of the beautiful downs, which are no less light and
-valuable than those of the eider duck.
-
-[Illustration: Sheldrake.]
-
-One of the most curious members of the duck family is the large
-Loggerheaded Duck or goose (_Anas brachyptera_) of the Falkland Islands,
-which sometimes weighs twenty-two pounds. It was formerly called, from
-its extraordinary manner of paddling and splashing upon the water,
-race-horse, but is now named, much more appropriately, steamer. Its wings
-are too small and weak to allow of flight, but by their aid, partly
-swimming and partly flapping the surface of the water, it moves very
-quickly. The manner is something like that by which the common house
-duck escapes when pursued by a dog; but Mr. Darwin, who often watched
-the bird, is nearly sure that the steamer moves its wings alternately,
-instead of both together, as in other birds. These clumsy logger-headed
-ducks make such a noise and splashing, that the effect is exceedingly
-curious. It is able to dive only a very short distance. It feeds entirely
-on shell-fish from the kelp and tidal rocks; and hence its beak and head,
-which it uses for the purpose of breaking them, are so surprisingly heavy
-and strong, that they can scarcely be fractured with a hammer.
-
-Another remarkable inhabitant of the southern hemisphere is the Rock
-Goose, (_Anas antarctica_,) which exclusively inhabits rocky shores,
-and is often met with on the Falkland Islands, and on the west coast
-of America, as far north as Chili. In the deep and retired channels of
-Tierra del Fuego, the snow-white gander, invariably accompanied by his
-darker consort, and standing close by each other on some distant rocky
-point, is a common feature in the landscape.
-
-[Illustration: Red-Breasted Merganser.]
-
-The Mergansers differ chiefly from the sea-ducks, whom they otherwise
-closely resemble both in outward form and mode of life, by their
-comparatively long and slender bill, furnished with serrated edges and
-hooked at the extremity. All the British species are adorned with crests,
-or a tuft of long feathers, at the back of the head. The red-breasted
-merganser is a beautiful bird, painted with a variety of gay colours.
-"The head and throat are of a rich shining green, the neck white, except
-a narrow dark line behind; at either side before the wings are numerous
-large white feathers bordered by velvet-black; the lower part of the neck
-and breast is chestnut-brown, varied with dark streaks, and the body and
-wings are elegantly diversified with white, black, and brown feathers."
-(Harvey, _Sea Side Book_.)
-
-The family of the Grebes and Divers approximates the duck tribe in
-the order of creation, but is distinguished by a long conical bill,
-and the position of the legs, which are placed so far back towards
-the tail, that when the bird leaves the water it is obliged to stand
-nearly erect to preserve its equilibrium. The foot in the grebes is only
-partially webbed, the toes being merely lobed or finned; but the divers
-are completely web-footed, like the duck. These latter do honour to
-their name, being most expert and indefatigable divers, remaining down
-sometimes for several minutes, and swimming rapidly under the water. The
-Red-throated Diver preys much on the fish entangled in the nets, but is
-often caught himself in his rapid pursuit of the fish; thus affording a
-strange example of a bird caught under water.
-
-[Illustration: Great Crested Grebe.]
-
-The Arctic Diver enjoys among the Norwegians the reputation of being a
-most excellent weather-prophet. When the skies are big with rain, the
-birds fly wildly about, and make the most horrible hoarse noise, fearing
-that the swelled waters should invade their nest; on the contrary, in
-fine weather, their note is different, and seemingly in an exulting
-strain. For this reason, the Norwegians, who, being mostly a maritime
-population, pay the greatest attention to the aspect of the sky, think it
-impious to destroy, or even to disturb, this species.
-
-The family of _Alcadæ_, comprising the Guillemots, Auks, Razor Bills, and
-Puffins, is in form of body very similar to the Divers: the legs, which
-are short and thick, are inserted very far back, and give a still more
-erect carriage to the bird when on shore. The wings are short and small
-in proportion to the bulk of the body, and in the (now probably extinct)
-Great Auk, so much so as to be unfitted for flight. The Auks are strictly
-sea-birds, and nestle on its borders, breeding in caverns and rocky
-cliffs, and laying only one large egg. They obtain their food by diving,
-at which they are very expert. They are of social habits, and congregate
-in vast flocks on the rocky islets and head-lands of the northern coasts.
-At the head of the Magdalen Bay, on Spitzbergen, for instance, there is a
-high pyramidal mountain of granite, termed Rotge Hill, from the myriads
-of small birds of that name (Little Auk, _Alca alce_), which frequent
-its base, and which appear to prefer its environs to every other part of
-the harbour. They are so numerous that Admiral Beechey frequently saw an
-uninterrupted line of them extending full half-way over the bay, or to a
-distance of more than three miles, and so close together that thirty fell
-at one shot. This living column, on an average, might have been about six
-yards broad, and as many deep; so that allowing sixteen birds to a cubic
-yard, there must have been nearly four millions of birds on the wing at
-one time.
-
-The calling or crying of the rotges amongst one another sounds at a
-distance as if you heard a great many women scolding together; so that
-the noise of millions uniting in a chorus must be terrific. On a fine
-summer's day, when a glorious sunshine gilds the snow peaks and glaciers
-of Spitzbergen, the merry cry of the little auk unites with that of
-the willocks, divers, cormorants, gulls, and other aquatic birds; and
-everywhere groups of walruses, basking in the sun, mingle their playful
-roar with the husky bark of the seal. It is pleasant to reflect that in
-those arctic wilds, uninhabitable by man, there are still millions of
-creatures enjoying life, all owing their support to the inexhaustible
-"garners" of the deep.
-
-In the Penguins of the southern hemisphere, the shortness of wing and
-aptitude for swimming and diving are still more conspicuous than in the
-auks of the northern regions. In the water, the penguin makes use of
-its small featherless wing-stumps as paddles; on land, as fore feet,
-with whose help it scales so rapidly the grass-grown cliffs, as to be
-easily mistaken for a quadruped. When at sea, and fishing, it comes to
-the surface for the purpose of breathing, with such a spring, and dives
-again so instantaneously, that at first sight no one can be sure that it
-is not a fish leaping for sport. Other sea-birds generally keep part of
-their body out of the water while swimming; but this is not the case with
-the penguin, whose head alone appears upon the surface; and thus it swims
-with such rapidity and perseverance, as almost to defy many of the fishes
-to equal it. How much it feels itself at home on the waters, may be
-inferred from the fact that Sir James Ross once saw two penguins paddling
-away a thousand miles from the nearest land.
-
-[Illustration: Antarctic Penguin.]
-
-On many uninhabited islands in the higher latitudes of the southern
-hemisphere, this strange bird is met with in incredible numbers. On
-Possession Island, for instance, a desolate rock discovered by Sir
-James Ross in lat. 71° 56′, not the smallest appearance of vegetation
-could be found; but inconceivable myriads of penguins completely and
-densely covered the whole surface of the island, along the ledges of the
-precipices, and even to the summits of the hills, attacking vigorously
-the sailors as they waded through their ranks, and pecking at them with
-their sharp beaks, disputing possession, which, together with their
-loud coarse notes, and the insupportable stench from the deep bed of
-guano which had been forming for ages, made them glad to get away again.
-Sir James took possession of the island in the name of Queen Victoria;
-but unfortunately its treasures of manure are hidden beyond a far too
-formidable barrier of ice ever to be available to man.
-
-[Illustration: Penguin.]
-
-Duperrey ("Voyage de la Coquille,") found the Falklands swarming with
-penguins. In summer and autumn these strange birds leave their burrows
-early in the morning, and launch into the sea for fishing. After having
-filled their capacious stomachs, they waddle on shore, and remain for a
-time congregated on the strand, raising a dreadful clamour; after which
-they retire to enjoy a noon-tide sleep among the high tussack grass
-or in their burrows. In the afternoon the fishing recommences. Lesson
-says that about sunset on fine summer evenings, which unfortunately are
-but of rare occurrence on those foggy, storm-visited islands, all the
-penguins together raise their discordant voices, so that at a distance
-the noise might be mistaken for the hoarse murmur of a great popular
-assembly. As soon as the young are sufficiently strong, the whole band
-leaves the island, departing no one knows whither, though the mariners
-frequenting those seas believe that they spend the winter on the ocean.
-This opinion seems to be corroborated by the observations of Sir James
-Ross, who, on the 4th of December, in 49° S. lat., met on the high sea a
-troop of penguins that were doubtless on the way to their breeding place.
-He admired the astonishing instinct of these creatures, half fish, half
-bird, which leads them hundreds of miles through the pathless ocean to
-their accustomed summer abodes.
-
-It may be imagined how the neighbouring seas must abound with fish, to be
-able to nourish such multitudes of penguins, whose stomach is capable of
-holding more than two pounds, and whose voracity is so great that they
-are often obliged to disgorge their superabundant meal. The elongated
-stomach reaches to the lower part of the abdomen, and the whole length of
-the intestinal canal is twenty-five feet, fifteen times longer than the
-body, so that nature has evidently provided for a most vigorous appetite,
-whetted by sea-bathing and sea air.
-
-There are several species of penguins. The largest (_Aptenodytes
-antarctica_) weighs about eighty pounds. It is a rare bird, generally
-found singly, while the smaller species always associate in vast numbers.
-In 77° S. lat., Sir James Ross caught three of these giant penguins,
-the smallest of which weighed fifty-seven pounds. In the stomach of one
-of them he found ten pounds of quartz, granite, and trap fragments,
-swallowed most likely to promote digestion.
-
-The penguin, like his northern representative the auk, lays but one
-single egg. His not unsavoury flesh is black. Besides his dense plumage,
-he is protected against the cold of the higher latitudes by a thick cover
-of fat under his skin.
-
-Humboldt's penguin (_Spheniscus Humb._) is frequently found in the Bay of
-Callao. This bird is a little smaller than the common grey penguin, with
-a somewhat differently coloured back and breast. The Peruvians call it
-_pajaro niño_, "little darling bird," and keep it in their houses; it is
-very easily tamed, gets very familiar, and follows its master like a dog.
-The sight of the fat creature, awkwardly waddling about the streets on
-its short feet, and violently agitating its wing-stumps to maintain its
-equilibrium, is inexpressibly grotesque. Tschudi kept one of these tame
-penguins, which punctually obeyed his call. At dinner it regularly stood
-like a stiff footman behind his chair, and at night slept under his bed.
-When "Pepe" wanted a bath, he went into the kitchen and kept striking
-with his beak against an earthen jar, until some one came to pour water
-over him.
-
-[Illustration: Common Pelican.]
-
-To the pelican tribe, which is generally distinguished by a surface of
-naked skin about the throat, capable of considerable dilatation, and
-serving as a pouch for the reception of unswallowed food, belong among
-others the Cormorant (_Phalacrocorax_), the Frigate-Bird (_Tachypetes
-aquila_), and the Gannet (_Sula bassana_), or Solan goose. All these
-birds are of much more active habits than the last named family, with
-bodies of more shapely form, more ample wings, and a stronger flight.
-
-The common cormorant with his long bill, bent at the point, and furnished
-with a nail, his black livery, and yellowish chin-pouch, is a most
-disagreeable comrade. His smell, when alive, is more rank and offensive
-than that of any other bird, and his flesh is so disgusting, that it
-turns the stomach even of an Esquimaux. In spite of his voracity, he
-always remains thin and meagre, the picture of a hungry parasite.
-But fishing he understands remarkably well, and formerly used to be
-trained for this purpose in England, in the same manner as a nearly
-related species is to the present day employed in China. Mr. Fortune
-thus describes this original chase, which he witnessed on the Yellow
-River:--"There were two boats, each containing one man, and about ten or
-twelve birds. The latter stood perched on the sides of the boats, and
-seemed to have just arrived upon the scene of action. Their masters now
-commanded them to leave the boats; and so excellent was their training,
-that they instantly obeyed, scattered themselves over the canal, and
-began to look for prey. They have a splendid sea-green eye, and quick as
-lightning they see and dive upon the finny tribe, which, once caught in
-the sharp notched bill, finds escape impossible. As soon as a cormorant
-rises to the surface with his prey in his bill, his master calls him,
-when, docile as a dog, he swims to the boat and surrenders the fish,
-after which he again resumes his labours. And what is more wonderful
-still, when one of them has got hold of a fish so large as to be with
-difficulty dragged to the boat, the others come to his assistance, and
-by their united strength overpower the sprawling giant. Sometimes when
-a cormorant is lazy or playful, and seems to forget his business, the
-Chinaman strikes the water with a long bamboo near to the dreamer, and
-calls out to him in an angry tone. Immediately the bird, like a schoolboy
-caught nodding over his lesson, gives up his play, and returns to his
-duty. A small string is tied round the neck of the birds, for fear they
-might be tempted to swallow the fish themselves."
-
-[Illustration: Common Cormorant.]
-
-[Illustration: Frigate-Bird.]
-
-The frigate-bird hovers over the tropical waters. Its singularly easy and
-graceful flight affords all the charm of variety. Sometimes it is seen
-balanced in mid air, its wings spread, but apparently motionless, its
-long forked tail expanding and closing with a quick alternate motion, and
-its head turned inquisitively downwards; sometimes it wheels rapidly,
-and darts to the surface of the water in pursuit of prey; and then
-again it soars so as to be lost to vision, its elevation alone being
-sufficient to distinguish it from all other sea birds. Sometimes it is
-seen 400 leagues from land; and yet it is said to return every night to
-its solitary roost. Its expanded pinions measure from end to end fourteen
-feet, a prodigious extent of wings, equalling or even surpassing that of
-the condor, the lordly bird of the loftiest Andes. Being unable to swim
-or dive, it seizes the flying-fish, that, springing out of the water to
-avoid the jaws of the bonito, often falls a prey to the frigate-bird, or
-else it compels boobies or tropic birds to disgorge. On volcanic coasts
-it builds its nest in the crevices of the high cliffs, and on the low
-coral islands in the loftiest trees. In the Paumotu Group, Captain Wilkes
-saw whole groves covered with the nests of the frigate-bird. When the
-old birds flew away, they puffed up their red pouches to the size of a
-child's head, so that it looked as if a large bladder full of blood was
-attached to their neck.
-
-[Illustration: Flying Fish.]
-
-[Illustration: Common Gannet.]
-
-The Gannet or Soland-goose (_Sula Bassana_) haunts the Bass Island, a
-high steep rock in the Frith of Forth, whose black precipices are painted
-with dazzling stripes of white _guano_, the product of the inconceivable
-number of birds which settle upon the weather-beaten ledges. The gannets
-incubate in the turf of the slopes above, and you may sit down by them
-and their great downy young while their mates hover over you with
-discordant screams and almost touch you with their outspread pinions.
-There is but one landing-place, and this sole entrance to the natural
-fastness is closed by a barred gate, proclaiming that man has taken
-possession of the rock. Some years ago it was let at an annual rent
-of thirty-five pounds. The eggs are not collected, and no old bird is
-allowed to be shot, under a penalty of five pounds; only the young
-birds are persecuted. The chase begins on the 1st of August. They are
-taken with the hand or knocked on the head with sticks, and sent to the
-Edinburgh market, where they fetch about half a crown a piece. The gannet
-breeds also on Lundy Island, in the Severn, on Ailsa, on the coast of
-Ayrshire, on the island of St. Kilda, and hardly anywhere else in Europe.
-As it must let itself fall before taking wing, it requires a steep
-and precipitous breeding-station. Its mode of fishing is particularly
-graceful. Rapidly skimming the surface of the sea, as soon as it spies a
-fish swimming below, it rises perpendicularly over the spot, and then,
-suddenly folding its wings, drops head-foremost on its prey swifter than
-an arrow, and with almost unerring aim. The prevalent colour of the
-full-plumaged bird is white, the tips of its wings only being black, and
-some black lines about the face, resembling eyebrows or spectacles. The
-pale yellow eyes are encircled with a naked skin of fine blue, the head
-and neck are buff colour, the legs black, and greenish on the fore part.
-The plumage of the young bird is very different, being blackish, dotted
-irregularly with small white specks.
-
-The family of the Laridæ, which comprises the gulls, the sea-swallows,
-the petrels, and the albatrosses, is widely spread over the whole surface
-of the ocean. All the birds of this tribe have a powerful flight, and
-are distinguished by the easy grace of their motions, striking the air
-at long intervals with their wings, and generally gliding or soaring
-with outstretched pinions. Their form is handsome and well-proportioned,
-some of them resembling the swallow, others the dove; but their mode of
-life does not correspond with their beauty, as they are all ill-famed
-for their predatory habits and insatiable voracity. The cry of the
-sea-mew is peculiar, being a mixture of screaming and laughing. When in
-the solitude of a wild rocky coast it is heard mingling with the hoarse
-rolling of the surge and the moaning wind, it harmonises well with the
-character of the dreary scene, and produces a not unpleasing effect. It
-is amusing to witness the movements of the sea-mews at the mouths of the
-larger rivers, where they are seen in numbers, picking up the animal
-substances which are cast on shore, or come floating down with the ebbing
-tide. Such as are near the breakers will mount up the surface of the
-water, and run splashing towards the crest of the wave, to get hold of
-the object of their pursuit, while others are seen every now and then
-diving, and reappearing with a fish in their bill. Sometimes the more
-powerful sea-hawk interrupts their pleasure, pounces upon the robbers,
-and scatters the screaming band.
-
-Many different species of gulls inhabit the northern shores, and various
-are the places which they choose for breeding. The Kittiwake or Tarrock
-(_Larus tridactylus_), one of the commonest sea-birds in Greenland,
-Iceland, the Feroës and the Scotch islands, builds its sea-weed nest on
-the highest and most inaccessible rocks. According to Faber (Prodromus of
-Icelandic Ornithology), its swarms are so numerous on Grimsoe, that they
-darken the sun when they fly, deafen the ear when they scream, and deck
-the green-capped rocks with a white covering when they breed.
-
-[Illustration: Herring Gull (Young).]
-
-In the famous "bird-city" at the north point of Sylt, the Silvery or
-Herring-gull plays a prominent part. Its great size, equal to that of
-the raven, but with much longer wings--its agreeable form, its pure
-white plumage, of metallic brilliancy on the back, gradually melting
-into light ash-blue; the velvet-black ends of the wings, with snowy
-feather tips, the lovely yellow eye, and the deep yellow beak, with its
-coral-red spot, all this together forms a beautiful picture. "There we
-stood," says Naumann, "surrounded by thousands, that partly hovered close
-over our heads, uttering their shrill screams, partly stood before us in
-pairs; some on their nests, the males keeping guard, some sleeping on
-one leg, and others leisurely stretching themselves. In one word, one
-hardly knew what most to admire, the uncommon cleanliness and beauty of
-their plumage, the great variety and elegance of their attitudes, their
-tameness, or the immense numbers collected in so small a space."
-
-[Illustration: Herring Gull, or Silvery Gull (Adult).]
-
-In the same "bird-city," but apart from the former, breed also the Common
-Gull (_Larus canus_) which is much smaller and of a more slender shape,
-and also the Sandwich and Caspian Terns. It is astonishing to see how
-each kind of sea-bird seeks its particular spot for breeding; only the
-auks and guillemots herd promiscuously. What may induce the birds to meet
-in such large bodies and then always to choose some particular cliff?
-The gulls yield the fortunate possessor of their district an annual
-income of at least two hundred rix-dollars. More than thirty thousand
-of the eggs, which are larger than those of the turkey, are collected
-every year, packed up with moss in baskets, and sent to the market. Two
-or three persons are busy from morning till evening, during the whole
-season, collecting the eggs, and receive for their trouble those of
-the smaller birds, which may also amount to about twenty thousand. But
-although the terns appear in considerable numbers on Sylt, they have
-chosen the small flat island, Norder Oog, to the west of Pelworm, for
-their chief residence. The breeding colony of the Sandwich tern amounts
-here to at least a million of individuals, so that when the birds are at
-rest, the island, at the distance of a mile, resembles a white stripe
-in the sea; but when their innumerable multitudes hover above it, they
-seem an immense white rotatory cloud. The eggs lie in some places so
-close together, that it is almost impossible to walk between them without
-treading upon them; the breeding birds often touch one another, and
-would not find room, if, like all sea-swallows that breed socially on
-the coast, they did not sit in the same posture, with their head facing
-the water. It is incomprehensible how each bird can find its eggs; it
-would even seem impossible, did we not know the miracles of animal
-instinct. Their noise is incessant, for even during the night they keep
-up a continual and lively prattle. He who approaches them during the day
-is soon surrounded by these screamers, whose whirling thousand-tongued
-multitudes stun his senses; and these birds, at other times so shy,
-flutter so close over his head, as often to touch him with their wings.
-
-On Nowaja Semlja's ice-bound coast, on the peaks of isolated cliffs, and
-suffering no other bird in his vicinity, dwells the fierce imperious
-Burgomaster (_Larus glaucus_). None of its class dares dispute the
-authority of the lordly bird, when with unhesitating superiority it
-descends on its prey, though in the possession of another. Although not
-numerous, yet it is the general attendant on the whale-fisher whenever
-spoils are to be obtained. Then it hovers over the scene of action, and
-having marked out its morsel, descends upon it and carries it off on the
-wing. On its descent, the most dainty pieces must be relinquished, though
-in the grasp of fulmar, snow-bird, or kittiwake.
-
-The larger parasitical or raptorial gulls (_Lestris parasiticus,
-catarrhactes_), are incapable of diving or plunging, their feathers being
-too large in proportion to their bulk. They are therefore obliged to
-live by the exertions of the lesser species, making them disgorge what
-they have eaten, and dexterously catching the rejected fish before it
-reaches the water. Thus we see the old feudal relations of baron and serf
-established as a natural institution among the gull-tribe.
-
-[Illustration: Broad-billed Petrel.]
-
-Although the sea-swallows and sea-mews are endowed with great power of
-wing, yet the petrels and albatrosses alone deserve the name of oceanic
-birds, as they are almost always found on the high seas, at every
-distance from land, and only during breeding-time seek the solitary
-coasts and islands. Petrels are scattered over the whole extent of the
-ocean, but the petrels which inhabit the northern seas are different from
-those of the antarctic ocean, and between both are other species, that
-never forsake the intertropical waters.
-
-[Illustration: Fork-tailed Petrel.]
-
-The Fulmar (_Procellaria glacialis_) is at home in the high north. As
-soon as the whale-fisher has passed the Shetland Islands, on his way
-to the Arctic Seas, this bird is sure to accompany his track, eagerly
-watching for anything thrown overboard. Walking awkwardly on land, the
-fulmar flies to windward in the most terrific storms. Many thousands
-frequently accumulate round a dead whale, rushing in from all quarters.
-The sea immediately about the ship's stern, when the men are engaged in
-skinning their gigantic prey, is sometimes so completely covered with
-them that a stone can scarcely be thrown overboard without striking
-one of them. When anything is thus cast among the crowd, those nearest
-take alarm, and so on, till a thousand are put in motion; but as in
-rising they strike the water with their feet, a loud and most irregular
-splashing is produced. It is amusing to observe with what jealousy they
-view, and with what boldness they attack, any of their species engaged
-in devouring the finest morsels, and to hear the curious chuckling
-noise they make in their anxiety for despatch, lest they should be
-disturbed. The voracious birds are frequently so glutted as to be unable
-to fly, in which case they rest upon the water until the advancement of
-digestion restores their wonted powers. They then return to the banquet
-with the same gusto as before, and although numbers of the species may
-have been killed with boat-hooks, and float among them, the others,
-nothing daunted, and unconscious of danger to themselves, continue their
-gormandising labours. When carrion is scarce, the fulmars follow the
-living whale, as if they had a presentiment of his future fate, and
-sometimes, by their peculiar motions while hovering on the surface of the
-water, point out to the fisherman the position of the animal. As their
-beak cannot make an impression on the dead whale until some more powerful
-creature tears away the skin, it may be imagined how delighted they are
-when man takes upon himself the trouble of peeling a whale for them.
-
-The Glacial Petrel (_Procellaria gelida_) does not seem to approach the
-pole so near as the fulmar. He appears but seldom in Iceland, but breeds
-frequently in Newfoundland. The same is the case with the Shearwater (_P.
-puffinus_), which breeds in great numbers on the Feroë islands, and in
-Orcadia. The tropical petrels are the least known. They do not appear to
-gather troopwise, and but seldom follow ships. Towards 45° S. lat. the
-first Pintados (_P. capensis_) make their appearance, and are more rarely
-seen after having passed 60° S. lat. The Giant Petrel (_P. gigantea_),
-extends its flight as far as the ice-banks of the south, where the
-Antarctic and the Snowy (_P. antarctica et nivea_) Petrels first appear,
-birds which never leave those dreary seas, and are often seen in vast
-flocks floating upon the drift ice. Thus nature has set bounds to
-petrels, as to all other creatures that swim or fly in and over the
-ocean, and has divided the wide deserts of the sea among their different
-species. Who can tell us the mysterious laws which assign to each of them
-its limits? Who can show us the invisible barriers they are not allowed
-to pass?
-
-[Illustration: Stormy Petrel.]
-
-The Stormy Petrel (_P. pelagica_) seems to belong to every sea. It is
-about the size of a swallow, and in its general appearance and flight is
-not unlike that bird. Although the smallest web-footed bird known, it
-braves the utmost fury of the tempest, often skimming with incredible
-velocity the trough of the waves, and sometimes gliding rapidly over
-their snowy crests. Like all of its kind, it lives almost constantly at
-sea, and seeks during the breeding season some lonely rock, where it
-deposits in some fissure or crevice its solitary egg.
-
-The mode of life of the petrels corresponds but little with their
-external beauty; they are in fact the crows of the ocean, and live upon
-the dead animal substances floating on its surface. Wherever the carcase
-of a whale, borne along by the current, covers the sea with a long stripe
-of putrid oil, they are seen feasting in the polluted waters. All petrels
-have the remarkable faculty of spouting oil of a very offensive smell,
-from their nostrils when alarmed, and this apparently as a means of
-defence.
-
-The Albatross (_Diomedea exulans_) is the monarch of the high seas; the
-picture of a hero, who, under every storm of adverse fortune, preserves
-the immoveable constancy of an undaunted heart. Proud and majestic, he
-swims along in his own native element, and without ever touching the
-water with his pinions, rises with the rising billow, and falls with the
-falling wave. It is truly wonderful how he bids defiance to the fury of
-the unshackled elements, and how quietly he faces the gale. "He seems
-quite at home," say the sailors; and indeed this expression is perfectly
-characteristic of his graceful ease as he hovers over the agitated ocean.
-
-[Illustration: Wandering Albatross.]
-
-The albatross exceeds the swan in size, attains a weight of from 12lbs.
-to 28lbs., and extends his wings from ten to thirteen feet. His plumage
-is white and black, harmonising with the wave-crest and the storm-cloud.
-For weeks and months together he is seen to follow the course of a ship;
-but, according to Mr. Harvey (Sea Side Book), "the time he can remain on
-the wing seems to have been much exaggerated, for although, like the gull
-and the petrel, he is no diving-bird, he swims with the greatest ease;
-and notwithstanding the enormous length of his pinions, knows well how to
-rise again into the air. He is indeed unable to take wing from a narrow
-deck, but when he wishes to rise from the sea, he runs along flapping
-the waters until he has acquired the necessary impetus, or meets with a
-wave of a sufficient height, from whose lofty crest he starts as from a
-rocky pinnacle, and resumes his extensive flight over an immense expanse
-of ocean." A short-winged species frequents the waters of Kamtschatka
-and Japan; but the _wandering_ albatross (_D. exulans_) belongs more
-particularly to the southern hemisphere, being rarely seen to the north
-of 30° S. lat., and appearing more frequently as the higher latitudes
-are approached. The regions of storms--the Cape of Good Hope and Cape
-Horn--are his favourite resorts, and all travellers know that the
-southern point of Africa is not far distant as soon as the albatrosses
-show themselves in larger numbers. These birds are the vultures of the
-ocean; their crooked sharp-edged beak is better adapted to lacerate a
-lifeless prey, than to seize upon the rapid fish as it darts swiftly
-along below the surface of the waters. From a vast distance they smell
-the floating carcase of a whale, and soon alight in considerable numbers
-upon the giant carrion. They also feed upon the large cephalopods that
-inhabit mid-ocean, and remains of these molluscs are generally found in
-their stomach. The Auckland and Campbell islands seem to be two of their
-favourite breeding-stations. When Sir James Ross visited these secluded
-groups, the birds were so assiduously breeding as to allow themselves
-to be taken with the hand. The nest is built of sand mixed with dried
-leaves and grasses, generally eighteen inches high, with a diameter of
-twenty-seven inches at the surface, and of six feet at the base. While
-breeding, the snow-white head and neck of the bird project above the
-grasses, and betray it from afar. On endeavouring to drive it from its
-eggs it defends itself valiantly, snapping with its beak. Its greatest
-enemy is a fierce raptorial gull (_Lestris antarcticus_), which is always
-on the look-out, and, as soon as the albatross leaves the nest, shoots
-down upon it to steal the eggs.
-
-Swift flies the albatross, but fancy travels with still more rapid wings
-through the realms of space, and leads us suddenly from the lone islands
-of the Pacific to the north of another hemisphere. Saint Kilda rises
-before us--a glorious sight when the last rays of the setting sun, as
-he slowly sinks upon the ocean, light up with dazzling splendour the
-towering cliffs of the island, which one might almost fancy to be some
-huge volcano newly emerged from the deep, or the impregnable bulwark of
-some enchanted land. St. Kilda, one of the most striking examples of the
-grandest rock-scenery, plunges on all sides perpendicularly into the sea,
-so that although six miles in circumference, it affords but one single
-landing-place, accessible only in fair weather. Four of the promontories
-are perforated, and as many large caverns are formed, through which the
-sea rolls its heaving billows. From the eastern extremity, which rises
-nearly perpendicularly to the height of 1380 feet, and is supposed to
-be the loftiest precipice in Britain, the view is of indescribable
-sublimity. Far below, the long heavy swell of the ocean is seen climbing
-up the dark rock, whose base is clothed with sheets of snow-white foam.
-In many places the naked rock disappears under the myriads of sea-birds
-sitting upon their nests; the air is literally clouded with them, and
-the water seems profusely dotted with the larger fowl, the smaller ones
-being nearly invisible on account of the distance. Every narrow ledge is
-thickly covered with kittiwakes, auks, and guillemots; all the grassy
-spots are tenanted by the fulmar, and honey-combed by myriads of puffins;
-while close to the water's edge on the wet rocks, which are hollowed out
-into deep recesses, sit clusters of cormorants, erect and motionless,
-like so many unclean spirits, guarding the entrance of some gloomy cave.
-
-[Illustration: Black Guillemot.]
-
-On rolling down a large stone from the summit, a strange scene of
-confusion ensues. Here, falling like a thunderbolt on some unfortunate
-fulmar sitting upon its nest, it crushes the poor creature in an instant;
-then rolling down the crags, and cutting deep furrows in the grassy
-slopes, it scatters in dismay the dense groups of auks and guillemots.
-Its progress all along is marked by the clouds of birds, which affrighted
-shoot out from the precipice to avoid the fate to which nevertheless
-many fall a prey, until at length it reaches the bottom along with
-its many victims. The scared tenants of the rock now return to their
-resting-places, and all is again comparatively quiet.
-
-[Illustration: Common Puffin.]
-
-Several species of gulls are of common occurrence on St. Kilda: _Larus
-marinus_, _fuscus_, _canus_, and _tridactylus_. The last, or kittiwake,
-is the most abundant; a social bird, choosing the most inaccessible
-spots. On disturbing a colony of kittiwakes, most of the birds leave
-their nests and fly about the intruder, uttering incessantly their
-clamorous but not unmusical cry. The noise from a large flock is almost
-deafening; the flapping of their wings and their loud screams, joined
-to the deep guttural notes of the passing gannets, and the shrill tones
-of the larger gulls, form a combination of sounds without a parallel
-in nature. Probably on account of its vigilance, the kittiwake is not
-pursued by the fowler.
-
-The fulmar breeds in almost incredible numbers on St. Kilda (the only
-place in Britain where he is found), and is to the natives by far the
-most important production of their barren land. On the crest of the
-highest precipices, and only on such as are furnished with small grassy
-shelves, on every spot above a few inches in extent, the fulmars have
-taken possession of the rock. On being seized, they instantly disgorge a
-quantity of clear amber-coloured oil, which imparts to the whole bird,
-its nest and young, and even the very rock which it frequents, a peculiar
-and very disagreeable odour.
-
-Fulmar oil is one of the most valuable productions of St. Kilda. The best
-is obtained from the old bird by surprising it at night upon the rock,
-and tightly closing the bill until the fowler has seized the bird between
-his knees with its head downwards. By opening the bill, the fulmar is
-allowed to eject about a table-spoonful, or rather more, of oil into the
-dried gullet or stomach of a solan-goose. The islanders use fulmar oil
-for their lamps, and consider it as an infallible remedy against chronic
-rheumatism.
-
-It is chiefly in pursuit of the fulmar that the St. Kildian often
-endangers his life. Two of the fowlers generally proceed in company, each
-furnished with several coils of rope, about half an inch in diameter.
-One of them fastens one of the ropes under his arm-pits, and holding
-the extremity of another rope in one hand, is lowered down the cliff.
-His comrade stands a little away from the edge, holding the supporting
-rope firmly with both hands and letting it out very slowly, while he
-allows the other, or guide-rope, to slip out as is required from under
-one foot, which loosely secures it. On reaching a ledge occupied by
-birds, the fowler commences his operations, easily securing the eggs
-and young birds, and knocking down the old ones with a short stick, or
-catching them by a noose attached to a long slender rod. He then secures
-his sport by bundling the birds together, and tying them to a rope let
-down from above, depositing at the same time in a small basket the eggs
-he has gathered. The dexterity of these rocksmen is truly astonishing.
-The smallest spot is considered by them as a sufficiently secure
-standing-place, and they will creep on hands and knees, though cumbered
-with a load of birds, along a narrow ledge, seemingly without concern
-for their personal safety. When exhibiting before strangers, a precipice
-about six hundred feet high, overhanging the sea, at a short distance
-from the village, is generally chosen for a display of their agility.
-About midway they strike against the rock, and rebound twelve feet or
-more with all the agility of a tight-rope dancer.
-
-The Gannet, or Solan-goose, which abounds in the north of Scotland and on
-the numberless islands and rocky fiords which line the Norwegian coast,
-likewise congregates in vast numbers about St. Kilda, from whence a
-portion of them take their departure every morning to fish for herrings,
-their favourite food, in the bays and channels of the other Hebrides, the
-nearest of which is about fifty miles distant. This bird is very select
-in the choice of its breeding-places, which it occupies to the total
-exclusion of every other species. None are to be found in Hirta, but the
-island of Borreray is almost entirely occupied with them, as are also the
-adjacent rocks, Stack Ly and Stack Narmin. These cliffs are remarkable
-for their pointed summits and towering height, and appear, even from the
-distance of many miles, as if they were covered with snow, the deceptive
-appearance being caused by the myriads of gannets with which the rock
-is thickly covered, as well as the dense clouds of these white-plumed
-birds passing and repassing in the neighbourhood of their nests. Petrels,
-shearwaters, puffins, guillemots, and auks, are also very abundant about
-the weather-beaten cliffs of St. Kilda.
-
-[Illustration: Puffin.]
-
-If we consider that similar bird-republics are to be found on almost
-every rocky coast or surf-beaten cliff of the northern seas, we must
-needs be astonished at the inexhaustible prodigality of Nature, which
-covers desolate rocks with such a profusion of life. The vast number of
-sea-birds is the more surprising, as many species, such as the guillemot,
-the auk, the fulmar, and the puffin, lay but one single egg on the
-naked rock, and often in so precarious a situation, that it is almost
-inconceivable how breeding can take place. When the birds are surprised
-and suddenly fly off, many of the eggs tumble down into the surf.
-Sea-eagles, falcons, and raptorial gulls destroy a great number, and
-pounce upon the young; thousands fall a prey to the rigours of an Arctic
-winter; the spring-tides sweeping over low shores, often carry away whole
-generations at once, and many a maritime population lives entirely upon
-the sea-fowl that breed upon the sterile soil. And yet, in spite of so
-many enemies and persecutions, their numbers remain undiminished, nor
-has their importance ever ceased in the domestic economy of the rude
-islanders of the north.
-
-[Illustration: Auk.]
-
-[Illustration: Sea-Fowl Shooting.]
-
-But however valuable the eggs and the oil, the feathers and the flesh
-of the hyperborean bird-republics may be to man, they are far from
-equalling in importance the guano producing sea-fowl of the tropical
-seas. This inestimable manure, which has become so indispensable to the
-British agriculturist, is found scattered over numerous localities in
-the intertropical regions. It abounds on many of the rocky islets of the
-Red Sea, where the life-teeming waters afford sustenance to innumerable
-sea-gulls, cormorants, and pelicans; but its most widely celebrated
-stores cover the small Chincha Islands, not far from Pisco, about a
-hundred miles to the south of Callao, where they form enormous layers 50
-or 60 feet deep.
-
-The upper strata are of a greyish-brown colour, which lower down
-becomes darker; and in the inferior strata the colour is a rusty red,
-as if tinged by oxide of iron. The guano becomes progressively more
-and more compact from the surface downwards, a circumstance naturally
-accounted for by the gradual deposit of the strata and the increasing
-superincumbent weight. As is universally known, guano is formed of the
-excrements of different kinds of marine birds; but the species which
-Tschudi, the celebrated Peruvian traveller, more particularly enumerates
-are--_Larus modestus_ (Tschudi), _Rhynchops nigra_ (Linn.), _Plotus
-anhinga_ (Linn.), _Pelecanus thayus_ (Mol.), _Phalacrocorax Gaimardii_
-and _albigula_ (Tsch.), and chiefly the _Sula variegata_ (Tsch.).
-
-The immense flocks of these birds, as they fly along the coast, appear
-like aërial islands; and when their vast numbers, their extraordinary
-voracity, and the facility with which they procure their food are
-considered, we cannot be surprised at the magnitude of the beds of guano
-which have resulted from the uninterrupted accumulations of countless
-ages. During the first year of the deposit the strata are white, and
-the guano is then called _Guano blanco_. In the opinion of the Peruvian
-cultivators, this is the most efficacious kind. As soon as the dealers
-in guano begin to work one of the beds, the island on which it is formed
-is abandoned by the birds. It has also been remarked that, since the
-increase of trade and navigation, they have withdrawn from the islands in
-the neighbourhood of the ports. Under the empire of the Incas, the guano
-was regarded as an important branch of state economy. It was forbidden,
-on pain of death, to kill the young birds. Each island had its own
-inspector, and was assigned to a certain province. The whole distance
-between Arica and Chaucay, a length of two hundred nautical miles, was
-exclusively manured with guano. These wise provisions have been entirely
-forgotten by the Spaniards, but the Peruvians now begin to discover the
-error of their former masters, and look forward with anxiety to the
-period when the guano will no longer suffice for the wants of husbandry.
-At the present day they use it chiefly in the cultivation of maize and
-potatoes. A few weeks after the seeds begin to shoot, a little hole
-is made round each root and filled up with guano, which is afterwards
-covered with a layer of earth. After the lapse of twelve or fifteen
-hours, the whole field is laid under water, and left in that state for
-about half a day. Of the guano blanco a less quantity suffices, and the
-field must be more speedily and abundantly watered, otherwise the roots
-would be destroyed. The effect of this manure is incredibly rapid. In a
-few days the growth of the plant is doubled; if the manure is repeated
-a second time, but in smaller quantity, a rich harvest is certain;--at
-least the produce will be three times greater than that which would have
-been obtained from the unmanured soil. The uniformity of climate, along a
-coast where rain is _never_ known to fall, contributes essentially to the
-superior quality of the Chincha guano, as atmospherical precipitations
-naturally dissolve and wash away many of the most fertilising salts.
-
-The consumption of guano in Western Europe, and particularly in England,
-increases with surprising rapidity. On the island of Iquique a layer
-thirty feet deep, and covering a space of 220,000 square feet, has been
-entirely removed within twenty-seven years. In the year 1854, 250,000
-tons were dug in the Chincha Islands, and the actual annual exportation
-amounts to double the quantity. The digestive functions of the Sula and
-her companions thus bring in _larger_ sums to the Peruvian Government
-than all the silver mines of Cerro de Pasco, and the transport of the
-guano employs larger fleets than ever Spain possessed at the brightest
-period of her power.
-
-"The Chincha Islands," says Castelnau (_Expédition dans les Parties
-Centrales de l'Amérique du Sud_; Paris, 1851), "are completely desert and
-devoid of vegetation; their granite soil is clearly distinguished by its
-colour from the thick stratum of guano with which it is covered, and the
-surface of which looks at a distance like snow. The steep banks render
-landing difficult, but facilitate at the same time the shipping of the
-produce, as the vessels lie at anchor close to the pits. Digging takes
-place at three places, close to one another, and the traveller has only
-to compare the enormous deposits with the smallness of the excavations,
-which at some distance are hardly perceptible, to convince himself of
-the inexhaustible supply. Some huts have been constructed on the island,
-where, in the midst of ammoniacal effluvia, some Peruvian customhouse
-officers and soldiers superintend the working of the guano-mines."
-
-[Illustration: Birds of Passage.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XI.
-
-THE REPTILES OF THE OCEAN.
-
-  The Saurians of the Past Seas.--The Anatomical Structure of the
-  Turtles.--Their Size.--Their Visits to the Shores.--The Dangers that
-  await their Young.--Turtles on the Brazilian Coast.--Prince Maximilian
-  of Neuwied and the Turtle.--Conflicts of the Turtles with Wild Dogs
-  and Tigers on the Coast of Java.--Turtle-catching on Ascension
-  Island.--Tortoise-shell.--The Amblyrhynchus cristatus.--Marine
-  Snakes.--The Great Sea-Snake.
-
-
-There was a time when the reptiles were the monarchs of the sea, when the
-ocean swarmed with gigantic saurians, tyrants of the fishes, combining
-the swiftness of the dolphin with the rapacity of the crocodile. Had
-those monsters of the deep been endowed with human intelligence, they
-would most likely also, with human arrogance, have boasted of an eternal
-sway. For where in the whole ocean was the enemy that could cope with
-them? Did not all beings flee wherever they appeared? and did not the
-inexhaustible sea promise them an everlasting supply of food?
-
-[Illustration: Ichthyosaurus.]
-
-But in spite of their colossal power, the saurians, like all created
-beings, have been forced to succumb to time.
-
-Centuries and centuries passed on, the sea and air gradually changed,
-the temperature of the elements no longer remained the same, and thus
-by degrees a new ocean and a new atmosphere were formed, uncongenial to
-the nature of those huge reptiles. Thus they have been effaced from the
-roll of living things, and some petrified remains alone bear testimony to
-their former existence.
-
-The most powerful saurians of the present day--the crocodile the gavial
-and the alligator--have left to the dolphins, the sharks, and other
-monstrous or swiftly-swimming cetaceans and fishes the dominion of the
-seas, and now merely infest the rivers and swamps of the tropical zone.
-The lizards also have long since retired from the scene where they once
-abounded, and the ocean at present harbours no other reptiles in its
-bosom than turtles and sea-snakes.
-
-Most of the animals belonging to this class are either dangerous or of
-a disgusting appearance. Few creatures are objects of such universal
-abhorrence as the crocodile--the very type of brutal cold-blooded
-ferocity; as the venomous snake--the emblem of perfidy and ingratitude;
-or as the loathsome, but innocent toad, to which, on account of its
-ugliness, noxious properties have been ascribed which the poor animal
-does not possess. The frogs, lizards, and turtles alone seem to have
-escaped this general detestation, either from their more active habits,
-or their well-known harmlessness, or their various utility to man.
-
-The anatomy of the turtle offers many points of interest; its vertebræ,
-ribs, and breast-bone growing together so as to form a bony envelope
-round the whole animal. This harness is covered by the skin, which in
-its turn is bedecked with large scales, while all the muscles and other
-soft parts are enclosed in the inner cavity. Only the head, feet, and
-tail protrude through openings between the upper and under carapace, and
-these can, by the land tortoises at least, be withdrawn entirely under
-the former. This is the only protection which Nature has afforded these
-animals against their enemies, for they have neither swiftness of flight,
-nor any offensive weapon at their command. But as soon as anything
-suspicious approaches, they conceal themselves under their massive cover,
-and oppose to every attack by tooth or nail the passive resistance of an
-impenetrable shield. Most of their enemies find it, besides, no easy task
-to turn them on their back, as many species attain a very considerable
-weight, so that their mere bulk constitutes a good defence. It might
-be supposed that this protection could only avail for a short time, as
-the want of air must soon force the animal to stretch its head out of
-its hiding-place, and this indeed would be the case, if kind Nature had
-not taken her measures against this emergency, by giving the creature a
-_cold_ blood, so that it can remain a very long time without breathing;
-long enough, at least, to tire the patience of the most obstinate foe.
-
-[Illustration: Skeleton of Tortoise.
-
-  A, superior maxilla; B, inferior maxilla; C, ossiculum auditus;
-  D, os hyoides; E, cervical vertebræ; F, dorsal vertebræ;
-  G, sacrum; H, caudal vertebræ; I, dorsal ribs; K, marginal scales;
-  N, scapula; O, coracoid bone; P, os humeri; Q, radius; R, ulna;
-  S, bones of the carpus; T, metacarpal bones; U, digital phalanges;
-  V, pelvis; W, femur; X, tibia; Y, fibula; Z, tarsus; Æ, metatarsus;
-  A.V., phalanges of the foot.
-]
-
-But how comes it, the reader may ask, that respiration, which pours a
-warm current through our veins, fails in raising the temperature of the
-turtle's blood?
-
-Without entering into a lengthened description of the human heart, I
-shall merely observe that it consists of two halves (each half being
-again subdivided into two separate chambers), and that the right half,
-which receives venous blood and pours it into the lungs, is completely
-separated by a partition from the left half, which receives arterial or
-aërated blood from the lungs, and propels it into every part of the body.
-Thus the two different kinds of blood are completely separated, so that
-an _unmixed_ venous blood flows into the lungs, where it is converted by
-the oxygen of the air into arterial blood. But this connection, like most
-chemical processes, takes place under an evolution of heat, which is so
-considerable that our internal temperature constantly maintains itself at
-the height of 98° F.
-
-[Illustration: Theoretic Representation of the Circulation in Mammals and
-Birds.]
-
-[Illustration: Theoretic Representation of the Circulation in Reptiles.]
-
-But the turtle's heart is differently formed, consisting, as the annexed
-theoretic representation shows, of but one ventricle and two auricles,
-so that a _mixed_, or only half aërated blood circulates throughout the
-body, which naturally produces a torpidity of the whole vital process.
-Besides, the lungs of the reptiles are incapable of aërating so great a
-quantity of blood as ours, as their cells are much larger, thus offering
-less surface to the action of the air; and finally, the ribs of the
-turtles being immovable, they are incapable of extending the lungs, so
-that the animal is absolutely obliged to swallow the necessary supply
-of air, and to pump it, as it were, into the lungs, by contracting the
-muscles of the throat. Thus we see that every precaution has been taken
-to reduce respiration to a low standard, and prevent the evolution of
-heat. With this indolence of its cold-blooded circulation, the whole
-nature of the animal is in harmony; the bluntness of its senses, its want
-of intelligence, its slow movements, and its long endurance of hunger,
-thirst, and want of air. It leads but a drowsy dream-like existence,
-and yet, we may be sure, it is far from unhappy, for all its functions
-and organs agree perfectly one with the other, and when concord reigns,
-enjoyment of some kind must exist.
-
-The turtles are distinguished from the land tortoises particularly
-by their large and long fin-shaped feet, and also by a longer tail,
-which serves them as a rudder. They have no teeth, but the horny upper
-jaw closes over the lower like the lid of a box, thus serving them as
-excellent shears, either for crushing shells or dividing the tough fibres
-of the sea-grass.
-
-[Illustration: Green Turtle.]
-
-They are at home in all the warmer seas, but sometimes they are carried
-by oceanic streams far away from their accustomed haunts. Thus, in the
-year 1752, a Green turtle, six feet long, and weighing 900 pounds,
-stranded near Dieppe; and in 1778 another, seven feet long, on the coast
-of Languedoc. One taken on the coast of Cornwall in July, 1756, measured
-from the tip of the nose to the end of the shell, six feet nine inches,
-and the weight was supposed to be nearly 800 pounds. These few examples
-show us that the turtles rank among the larger inhabitants of the ocean,
-although they are far from attaining the fabulous proportions assigned to
-them by Pliny (who makes the Indians use their shells as boats or roofs),
-or the enormous size of some colossal extinct species, such as the fossil
-tortoise from the Siwala hills, preserved in the East Indian Museum,
-which measures twelve feet in length. They live almost constantly at
-sea, partly on shell-fish, like the fierce Loggerhead turtle (_Testudo
-Caretta_), partly on sea-grass, like the Green turtle (_T. Midas_), and
-only go on shore during the warmest months of the year, for the purpose
-of laying their eggs.
-
-[Illustration: Loggerhead Turtle.]
-
-"We followed the monotonous sea-coast," says Prince Maximilian of
-Neuwied, in his interesting "Travels through the Brazils;" "our two
-soldiers, a Negro and an Indian, frequently stopping to dig turtle-eggs
-out of the sand, which, boiled in sea-water, used to form our evening
-repast. Once, while they were busy gathering drift-wood for cooking,
-we found at a small distance from our fire an enormous turtle busy
-laying her eggs. We could not possibly have met with anything more
-agreeable; the creature seemed to have crawled there for the express
-purpose of providing for our supper. Our presence did not discompose her
-in the least; she allowed herself to be touched, and even raised from
-the ground, for which purpose four men were required. During our loud
-deliberations on her future fate, she gave no other sign of uneasiness
-than a blowing sound, and continued to work slowly with her hind fins,
-throwing up the earth at regular intervals.
-
-"One of the soldiers stretched himself out at full length on the ground
-near the purveyor of our kitchen, inserted his arm into the earth-hole,
-and threw out the eggs as they were laid by the turtle. In this manner
-above a hundred were collected in about ten minutes. A council was now
-held as to the means of adding the beast to our collection, but as it
-would have required an additional mule for the transport, we gave it its
-life. These colossal turtles--Midas, Coriacea, and Caretta--especially
-choose these desert coasts for the laying of their eggs. They emerge from
-the sea in the dusk of evening, and then crawl back again into the water
-one or two hours after the setting of the sun. Thus also the friendly
-turtle, which had so abundantly provided for our wants, disappeared after
-a short time; we found the large hole filled up, and a broad trace in the
-sand showed that the animal had again retreated to its favourite element.
-The Midas is said to lay from ten to twelve dozen, and the Coriacea from
-eighteen to twenty dozen eggs at once."
-
-The wild sand coast of Bantam (Java) is annually frequented by a large
-number of turtles. They are often obliged to creep over nearly a quarter
-of a mile of the beach, before finding at the foot of the sand-dunes a
-dry and loose soil fit for their purpose; and on this journey, which for
-them is a very long one, they have many dangers to encounter. Hundreds of
-their skeletons lie scattered about the strand, many of them five feet
-long, and three feet broad; some bleached and cleaned by time, others
-still half filled with putrid intestines, and others, again, quite fresh
-and bleeding. High in the air a number of birds of prey wheel about,
-scared by the traveller's approach. Here is the place where the turtles
-are attacked by the wild dogs. In packs of from twenty to fifty, the
-growling rabble assails the poor sea-animal at every accessible point,
-gnaws and tugs at the feet and at the head, and succeeds by united
-efforts in turning the huge creature upon its back. Then the abdominal
-scales are torn off, and the ravenous dogs hold a bloody meal on the
-flesh, intestines, and eggs of their defenceless prey. Sometimes,
-however, the turtle escapes their rage, and dragging its lacerating
-tormentors along with it, succeeds in regaining the friendly sea. Nor
-do the dogs always enjoy an undisturbed repast. Often during the night,
-the "lord of the wilderness," the royal tiger, bursts out of the forest,
-pauses for a moment, casts a glance over the strand, approaches slowly,
-and then with one bound, accompanied by a terrific roar, springs among
-the dogs, scattering the howling band like chaff before the wind. And now
-it is the tiger's turn to feast, but even he, though rarely, is sometimes
-disturbed by man. Thus, on this lonely, melancholy coast, wild dogs and
-tigers wage an unequal war with the inhabitants of the ocean.
-
-The cold-blooded turtle is obliged to confide the hatching of her eggs
-to the sun, which generally accomplishes the task in three weeks. On
-creeping out of the egg, the young, even those of the largest species,
-are not larger than half-a-crown and of a white colour. Unprotected by
-a parent's tenderness, the poor little creatures seem only to be born
-for immediate death. Their first instinctive movements are towards
-the element for which they are destined; slowly they drag themselves
-towards the water, but the sea meets them with a rough embrace, and the
-unmerciful waves generally throw them back again upon the shore. Here
-they are attacked by great sea-birds, storks and herons, against which,
-in spite of their smallness, they make feeble efforts of defence, or by
-still more powerful beasts of prey; and thus the greater part of the
-unfortunate brood is destroyed at its very first entrance into life;
-while those which reach the sea, are generally devoured by sharks and
-other sharp-toothed fishes. It is therefore not in vain that the turtle
-lays four or five hundred eggs in the course of a single summer, for were
-she less fruitful, the race would long since have been extinguished.
-
-I need hardly mention, that the flesh of the green turtle is everywhere
-esteemed as a first-rate delicacy. The king of the Manga Reva Islands in
-the South Sea keeps them in a pen for the wants of his table; and the
-London alderman is said to know no greater enjoyment than swallowing
-a basin of turtle soup. Hence it is no wonder that the mariner, tired
-of salt-beef and dried peas, persecutes them on all the coasts of the
-tropical seas, wherever solitude, a flat beach, and a favourable season
-promise to reward his trouble.
-
-Bernardin de St. Pierre gives us the following picturesque description
-of turtle-catching on Ascension Island;--"Fire-wood, a kettle, and the
-great boat-sail were landed, and the sailors lay down to sleep, as the
-turtles do not emerge from the sea before night-fall. The moon rose
-above the horizon and illumined the solitude, but her light, which adds
-new charms to a friendly prospect, rendered this desolate scene more
-dreary still. We were at the foot of a black hillock, on whose summit
-mariners had planted a great cross. Before us lay the plain, covered with
-innumerable blocks of black lava, whose crests, whitened by the drippings
-of the sea-birds, glistened in the moonbeam. These pallid heads on dark
-bodies, some of which were upright, and others reclined, appeared to us
-like phantoms hovering over tombs. The greatest stillness reigned over
-this desolate earth, interrupted only from time to time by the breaking
-of a wave, or the shriek of a sea-bird. We went to the great bay to await
-the arrival of the turtles, and there we lay flat upon the sand in the
-deepest silence, as the least noise frightens the turtles, and causes
-them to withdraw. At last we saw three of them rising out of the water,
-and slowly creeping on shore, like black masses. We immediately ran up to
-the first, but our impatience caused it to drop immediately again into
-the sea, where it escaped our pursuit. The second, which had already
-advanced too far, was unable to retreat; we turned it on its back. In
-this way we caught about fifty turtles, some of which weighed five
-hundred pounds. Next morning, at ten, the boat came to fetch the produce
-of our nocturnal sport. This work occupied us the whole day, and in the
-evening the superfluous turtles were restored to the sea. If suffered
-to remain a long time on their back, their eyes become blood-red, and
-start out of their sockets. We found several on the strand that had
-been allowed to perish in this position, a cruel negligence, of which
-thoughtless sailors are but too often guilty."
-
-In the sea, also, the turtles are pursued by man. In the clear West
-Indian waters, where they are frequently seen at great depths, feeding
-on the sea-grass meadows, divers plunge after them and raise them to the
-surface. Sometimes they are harpooned, or even caught sleeping on the
-waters.
-
-The ancient Romans, who spent such extravagant sums upon dishes repugnant
-to our taste, seem to have had but little relish for turtle flesh, which
-otherwise the conquerors of the world might easily have obtained from
-the Red Sea; for though we read that Vitellius feasted upon the brains
-of pheasants, and the tongues of nightingales, it is nowhere mentioned,
-that he ever, like the Lord Mayor of London, set seven hundred tureens of
-turtle soup before his guests.
-
-On the other hand, they made a very extensive use of tortoise-shell,
-the produce of the Hawk's-bill turtle (Testudo imbricata) a native
-both of the American and Asiatic seas, and sometimes, but more rarely,
-met with in the Mediterranean. The flesh of the animal is not held in
-any estimation as a food, but the plates of the shell being thicker,
-stronger, and cleaner than those of any other species, render it of great
-importance as an article of trade.
-
-[Illustration: Hawk's-bill Turtle.]
-
-"Carvilius Pollio," says Pliny, "a man of great invention in matters
-pertaining to luxury, was the first who cut the plates of the tortoise
-for veneering or inlaying." The Romans imported large quantities of this
-precious article from Egypt, and under the reign of Augustus, the wealthy
-patricians used even to inlay the doors and columns of their palaces
-with it. When Alexandria was taken by Julius Cæsar, the warehouses were
-so full of tortoise-shell that the conqueror proposed to make it the
-principal ornament of his triumph.
-
-The use of tortoise-shell for the decoration of houses and furniture
-is long since out of fashion, but it is still in great request for the
-making of combs and boxes. By steeping it in boiling water it softens,
-and may then, by a strong pressure, be moulded into any form. When a
-considerable extent of surface is required, different pieces must be
-joined together. This is done by scraping thin the edges of the pieces to
-be united, and laying them over each other while they are in the heated
-and softened state; strong pressure being then applied, they become
-completely agglutinated. It is in this way that gold, silver, and other
-metals for different ornaments are made to adhere to tortoise-shell.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-When, at the beginning of the chapter, I mentioned that the lizards had
-entirely forsaken the ocean, I forgot that the Galapagos Islands in the
-South Sea, right under the Equator, exclusively possess a maritime animal
-of this kind, which, from its being the sole existing representative,
-or dwindled descendant of the giant oceanic saurians of yore, is far
-too interesting to be passed unnoticed. This lizard is extremely common
-on all the islands throughout the Archipelago. It lives exclusively on
-the rocky sea-beaches, and is never found,--at least Mr. Darwin never
-saw one,--even ten yards inshore. It is a hideous-looking creature, of
-a dirty black colour, stupid and sluggish in its movements. The usual
-length of a full-grown one is about a yard, but there are some even
-four feet long. These lizards were occasionally seen some hundred yards
-from the shore, swimming about; and Captain Collnett, in his "Voyage,"
-says they go out to sea in shoals to fish. With respect to the object,
-Mr. Darwin believes he is mistaken; but the fact, stated on such good
-authority, cannot be doubted. When in the water the animal swims with
-perfect ease and quickness by a serpentine movement of its body and
-flattened tail; the legs, during this time, being motionless and closely
-collapsed on its sides. A seaman of the "Beagle" sank one with a heavy
-weight attached to it, thinking thus to kill it directly; but when an
-hour afterwards he drew up the line the lizard was quite active. Their
-limbs and strong claws are admirably adapted for crawling over the
-rugged and fissured masses of lava, which every where form the coast. In
-such situations a group of six or seven of these hideous reptiles may
-oftentimes be seen on the black rocks, a few feet above the surf, basking
-in the sun with outstretched legs.
-
-Mr. Darwin opened the stomach of several, and in each case found it
-largely distended with minced sea-weed, of a kind growing at the bottom
-of the sea, at some little distance from the coast. The nature of this
-lizard's food, as well as the structure of its tail, and the certain fact
-of its having been seen voluntarily swimming out at sea, absolutely prove
-its aquatic habits; yet there is in this respect one strange anomaly,
-namely, that when frightened it will not enter the water. From this cause
-it is easy to drive these lizards down to any little point overhanging
-the sea, where they will sooner allow a person to catch hold of their
-tail than jump into the water. They do not seem to have any notion of
-biting; but when much frightened they squirt a drop of fluid from each
-nostril. One day Mr. Darwin carried one to a deep pool left by the
-retiring tide, and threw it in several times as far as he was able. It
-invariably returned in a direct line to the spot where he stood. It swam
-near the bottom with a very graceful and rapid movement, and occasionally
-aided itself over the uneven ground with its feet. As soon as it arrived
-near the margin, but still being under water, it either tried to conceal
-itself in the tufts of sea-weed, or it entered some crevice. As soon
-as it thought the danger was past, it crawled out on the dry rocks and
-shuffled away as quickly as it could. Mr. Darwin several times caught
-this same lizard by driving it down to a point, and, though possessed
-of such perfect powers of diving and swimming, nothing could induce it
-to enter the water; and as often as he threw it in, it returned in the
-manner above described.
-
-Perhaps this singular piece of apparent stupidity may be accounted for
-by the circumstance that this reptile has no enemy whatever on shore,
-whereas at sea it must often fall a prey to the numerous sharks. Hence,
-probably urged by a fixed and hereditary instinct that the shore is its
-place of safety, whatever the emergency may be, it there takes refuge.
-On a comparison of this singular animal with the true iguanas, the most
-striking and important discrepancy is in the form of the head. Instead
-of the long pointed narrow muzzle of those species, we have here a
-short obtusely truncated head, not so long as it is broad; the mouth
-consequently is capable of being opened to only a very small extent. From
-this circumstance, and from the crest on its head, it has received the
-Latin name of _Amblyrhynchus cristatus_.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The serpent race, which thrives so abundantly in the tropical forests
-and morasses, has also its marine representatives in the Indian and
-Pacific Oceans, where more than fifty species of Hydrophis, Pelamys, and
-Chersydra have been found. They are distinguished from their terrestrial
-relations by the flattened form of their tail, the planes of which being
-directed vertically give it the properties of a powerful oar, in striking
-the water by lateral oscillations. These sea-snakes always appear to
-prefer calms, swimming on the still surface in an undulating manner,
-never raising the head much from the surface, or vaulting out of the
-water. They dive with facility on the approach of danger, but do not
-appear to be particularly timid.
-
-[Illustration: Water-Snake.]
-
-The Pelamys bicolor is very common from India to Otaheite. In the seas
-of Mindoro and Sooloo, Mr. Adams saw thousands swimming on the top of
-the water, especially in eddies and tide-ways where the ripple collects
-numerous fish and medusæ, which principally constitute their prey. Their
-tongue is white and forked, differing in respect of its colour from
-the tongue of other snakes, which is generally black. The water-snakes,
-which are frequently beautifully banded, and as thick as a man's leg, are
-said to be highly venomous. Captain Cook, in one of his voyages, "saw
-abundance of water-snakes, one of which was coming up the side of our
-ship, and our men beat it off. The Spaniards affirm there is no cure for
-such as are bit by them; and one of our blacks happened to fall under
-that misfortune, and died notwithstanding the utmost care was taken by
-our surgeons to recover him."
-
-Such are the _real_ sea-snakes as they are met with by ordinary
-travellers, while _the great sea-serpent_, which from time to time
-dives up in the columns of the newspapers, must, until better evidence
-be brought forward for its existence, be banished to those dim regions
-peopled by unicorns, griffins, krakens, and tailed men.
-
-Olaus Magnus, it is true, speaks of the great sea-snake as if it made its
-daily appearance on the Norwegian coast. According to him, it inhabits
-the rocky caves near Bergen, and wanders forth at night, particularly
-by moonshine, to commit its depredations by sea and land; as calves
-and pigs seem to suit its appetite as well as fishes and lobsters. The
-body is covered with scales, a long mane flows along the neck, and the
-head, furnished with two glistening eyes, rises like a mast out of the
-water. It often attacks ships, and picks up seamen from the deck. This
-description may serve as an example of the boldness with which authors
-have sometimes asserted the most extravagant things.
-
-The Greenland missionary Egede tells us in his Journal, that "on the 6th
-of July, 1734, there appeared a very large and frightful sea-monster,
-which raised itself so high out of the water that its head reached above
-our main-top. It had a long sharp snout, very broad flappers, and spouted
-water like a whale. The body seemed to be covered with scales, the skin
-was uneven and wrinkled, and the lower part was formed like a snake.
-After some time the creature plunged backwards into the water, and then
-turned its tail up above the surface, a whole ship-length from the head."
-
-It is hard to disbelieve so pious and excellent a man, whose excited
-fancy no doubt gave extraordinary forms and dimensions to some commoner
-sea-animal of large size; but the testimony of a Scoresby, who during his
-frequent Arctic voyages never saw anything of the kind, would have been
-more convincing.
-
-If to this account of Egede be added the reports of some other northern
-divines, such as Pontoppidan, the missionary Nicholas Græmius, and
-Maclean, who either pretend to have actually seen the monster or write
-about it from hearsay--and the testimony of a few seamen, among others
-of Captain M'Quhae of the Dædalus, who, on the 6th of August, 1848, saw
-a sea-snake on his homeward voyage from the East Indies; we have all the
-evidence extant in favour of the existence of the monstrous animal.
-
-In opposition to these testimonies, incredulous naturalists beg to
-remark, that no museum possesses a single bone of the huge snake, and
-that its body has nowhere been found swimming on the ocean or cast
-ashore. They therefore agree with Professor Owen in regarding the
-negative evidence, from the utter absence of any recent remains, as
-stronger against their actual existence than the positive statements
-which have hitherto weighed with the public mind in favour of their
-reality; and believe that a larger body of evidence from eye-witnesses
-might be got together in proof of the reality of ghosts than in proof of
-the existence of the great sea-serpent.
-
-The plain truth seems to be that lines of rolling porpoises, resembling
-a long string of buoys, first gave origin to the marvellous stories of
-the fabulous monster. For, keeping in close single file, and progressing
-rapidly along the calm surface of the water by a succession of leaps
-or demivaults forward, part only of their uncouth forms appears to the
-eye, so as to resemble the undulatory motions of one large serpentiform
-animal.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XII.
-
-THE MARINE FISHES.
-
-  General Observations on Fishes.--Their Locomotive
-  Organs.--Tail.--Fins.--Classification of Fishes by
-  Cuvier.--Air-Bladder.--Scales.--Beauty of the Tropical Fishes.--The
-  Gills.--Terrestrial Voyages of the Anabas and the Hassar.--Examples
-  of Parental Affection.--Organs of Sense.--Offensive Weapons
-  of Fishes.--The Sea-Wolf.--The Shark.--The Saw-Fish.--The
-  Sword-Fish.--The Torpedo.--The Star-Gazer.--The Angler.--The Chætodon
-  Rostratus.--The Remora, used for catching Turtles.--Defensive Weapons
-  of Fishes.--The Weever.--The Stickleback.--The Sun-Fish.--The
-  Flying-Fish.--The numerous Enemies of the Fishes.--Importance and
-  History of the Herring Fishery.--The Pilchard.--The Sprat.--The
-  Anchovy.--The Cod.--The Sturgeons.--The Salmon.--The Tunny.--The
-  Mackerel Family.--The Eel.--The Murey.--The Conger.--The
-  Sand-Launce.--The Plectognaths.--The Sea-Horse.--The Pipe-Fish.--The
-  Flat-Fishes.--The Rays.--The Fecundity of Fishes.
-
-
-The bosom of the ocean is full of mysteries; it conceals a whole world of
-curiously-shaped animals, which the naturalist only superficially knows,
-and may, perhaps, never be able to fathom. To observe the habits of
-terrestrial animals, and accurately to determine their various species,
-is a comparatively easy task; but the denser element in which fishes live
-prevents us from following their motions with exactness, from studying
-their instincts, and from noting with fidelity their specific differences.
-
-Since Pliny, who mentions but seventy-four different kinds of fishes, the
-number of known species has indeed enormously increased. The ancients,
-who knew only the waters of the Mediterranean and a very small part of
-the ocean, had no conception of the finny multitudes inhabiting the
-tropical and icy seas; but although modern science has succeeded in
-describing and picturing above eight thousand different kinds of fishes,
-yet there can be no doubt that many still unknown species dwell in the
-depths of ocean, or in the distant seas which are but seldom visited by
-the European mariner.
-
-If the whole economy of the world of fishes were opened to our view,
-the magnificent picture would, no doubt, give us additional reasons for
-admiring the infinite wisdom of the Creator; but the little we do know
-suffices to convince us that the same wonderful harmony existing between
-the anatomical structure and the outward relations or mode of life in
-birds and mammiferous quadrupeds is also to be found in fishes, and that
-these creatures, though occupying a lower grade in Creation, are no less
-beautifully adapted to the peculiar element in which they are destined to
-live and move.
-
-This strikes us at once in their external form, which, though subject to
-great variety, being sometimes spherical as in the globe-fish, or cubical
-as in the ostracion, or expanded as in the skate, or snake-like as in
-the eel, is generally that of an elongated oval, slightly compressed
-laterally, a shape which enables the fishes to traverse their native
-fluid with the greatest celerity and ease. We wisely endeavour to imitate
-this peculiar form in the construction of our ships, yet the rapidity
-with which the fastest clipper cleaves the waters is nothing to the
-velocity of an animal formed to reside in that element. The flight of
-an arrow is not more rapid than the darting of a tunny, a salmon, or a
-gilt-head through the water. It has been calculated that a salmon will
-glide over 86,400 feet in an hour, that it will advance more than a
-degree of the meridian of the earth in a day, and that it could easily
-make the tour of the world in some weeks, were it desirous of emulating
-the fame of a Cook or of a Magellan. Every part of the body seems exerted
-in this despatch; the fins, the tail, and the motion of the whole
-backbone assist progression; and it is to this admirable flexibility of
-body, which mocks the efforts of art, that fishes owe the astonishing
-rapidity of their movements.
-
-Whales and dolphins move onwards by striking the water in a vertical
-direction, while fishes glide along by laterally curving and extending
-the spine. In some species, such as the eel, the whole body is flexible;
-but most of them paddle away with their tail to the right and left, and
-are thus driven forwards by the resistance of the water. Consequently the
-power of fishes is chiefly concentrated in the muscles bending the spine
-sideways, and generally we find these parts so much developed as to form
-the greatest part of the body.
-
-[Illustration: Skeleton of the Perch.
-
-A A, Dorsal Fins; B, Caudal; C, Anal; D, Ventral; E, Pectoral.]
-
-The fins are the most important auxiliary organs of locomotion in fishes.
-The dorsal, caudal, and anal fins serve by their vertical position to
-increase the extent of the rowing surface, and to maintain the animal's
-balance, while the pectoral and ventral fins, which must be considered as
-the representatives of the fore and hind limbs of other vertebrata, are,
-moreover, of great assistance in directing its movements. With the help
-of these organs, fishes can advance or retrograde, ascend or descend in
-the water as they please, and it is curious to observe how, alternately
-extending or contracting one fin or the other, they gracefully plough the
-liquid element in every direction.
-
-It is no less wonderful how perfectly the size and texture of the fins
-corresponds with the habits and necessities of the different species
-of fishes. Those which traverse vast portions of the ocean, or have
-frequently to struggle against swelling waves, are furnished with large
-and strong fins, while these organs are soft in the species which confine
-themselves to greater depths, where the winds cease to disturb the waters.
-
-From the great variety which is met with both in the number and position
-of the fins, they are also of the greatest use in the classification of
-fishes, and afford the naturalist many of the chief characters which
-serve to distinguish the several orders, families, genera, and species of
-these aquatic vertebrates.[M]
-
-[Footnote M: Cuvier divides the fishes into:
-
-  I. Chondropterygii--Skeleton cartilaginous; fins supported by
-  cartilaginous rays; and
-
-  II. Osteopterygii--Skeleton composed of true bone.
-
-
-  The Chondropterygii are subdivided into three orders:
-
-  (_a_) Sturionidæ (sturgeons), with free gills.
-
-  (_b_) Selacii (rays, sharks), with gills fixed and a mouth formed for
-  mastication.
-
-  (_c_) Cyclostomata (lamprey, myxine), with gills fixed and a mouth
-  formed for suction.
-
-The osseous fishes, which are far more numerous, are subdivided into six
-orders:
-
-  (_a_) Acanthopterygii; distinguished by the stiff spines which
-  constitute the first fin-rays of the dorsal fin, or which support
-  the anterior fin of the back in case there are two dorsals. In some
-  cases the anterior dorsal fin is only represented by detached spines.
-  The first rays of the anal fin are likewise spinous, as well as the
-  first ray of the ventral fin. To this extensive order, which comprises
-  about three-fourths of the osseous fishes, belong, among others, the
-  families of the perches, gurnards, mackerels, mullets, breams, gobies,
-  blennies, &c.
-
-The three following orders of the osseous fishes have the rays that
-support the fins soft and composed of numerous pieces articulated with
-each other, with the exception in some cases of the first ray of the
-dorsal, or of the pectoral. Their leading character is afforded by the
-situation or absence of the ventral fin, which in the
-
-  (_b_) Malacopterygii abdominales are suspended beneath the abdomen,
-  and behind the pectorals; in the
-
-  (_c_) Malacopterygii subbrachiales beneath the pectorals; and in the
-
-  (_d_) Malacopterygii apodes are totally wanting.
-
-To the abdominal soft-rayed fishes belong the herring, salmon, pike, sly,
-and carp families; to the subbrachial, the cod family, the side-swimmers,
-and the lump fishes; and, finally, to the apodal malacopterygians, the
-single family of the anguilliform fishes. The small order of the
-
-  (_e_) Lophobranchi comprises the pipe-fishes, sea-horses, in whom
-  the gills are not pectinated, as in the preceding subdivisions, but
-  consist of little round tufts; and, finally, the
-
-  (_f_) Plectognathi--comprising the file, porcupine, and sun
-  fishes--are distinguished by their maxillaries and premaxillaries
-  being joined immovably to each other, so as to render the upper jaw
-  incapable of protrusion.
-]
-
-Most fishes possess a remarkable accessory organ of locomotion in the
-air-bladder or swim-bladder which extends to a greater or smaller
-distance along the ventral surface of the spine, and enables them
-voluntarily to increase or diminish the specific gravity of their body.
-When they contract this remarkable gas-reservoir, or press out the
-included air by means of the abdominal muscles, the bulk of the body
-is diminished, its weight in proportion to the water is increased, and
-the fish swims easily at a greater depth. The contrary takes place on
-relaxing the tension of the abdominal muscles; and thus we see fishes
-rise and fall in their denser element by the application of the same
-physical law which is made use of by our aëronauts, to scale the heavens
-or to descend again upon the earth. Those fishes which are destined to
-live at the bottom of the sea or to conceal themselves in the mud, such
-as eels and skates, have either no air-bladder or a very small one--for
-economical Nature gives none of her creatures any organ that would be
-useless to them. Even the slimy glutinous matter which is secreted from
-the pores of most fishes, and lubricates their bodies, assists them in
-gliding through the waters, so that no means have been neglected to
-promote the rapidity of their movements.
-
-The skin of fishes is but seldom naked; in most species it is covered
-with scales, that sometimes appear in the form of osseous plates,
-as in the ostracions, or project into formidable prickles, as in
-the porcupine-fish, but generally offer the aspect of thin laminæ,
-overlapping each other like the tiles of a roof, and embedded, like our
-nails, in furrows of the skin. In nearly all the existing fishes, the
-scales are flexible and generally either of a more or less circular
-form (_cycloid_), as in the salmon, herring, roach, &c., or provided
-with comb-like teeth projecting from the posterior margin (_ctenoid_),
-as in the sole, perch, pike, &c.; while the majority of fossil fishes
-were decked with hard bony scales, either rhomboidal in their form, of
-a highly polished surface, as in our sturgeons (_ganoid_), and arranged
-in regular rows, the posterior edges of each slightly overlapping the
-anterior ones of the next, so as to form a very complete defensive armour
-to the body; or irregular in their shape and separately imbedded in the
-skin (_placoid_), as in the sharks and rays of the present day.
-
-[Illustration: Portion of Skin of Sole highly magnified.]
-
-The scales of almost any fish afford admirable subjects for microscopic
-observation, but more particularly those of the ctenoid kind, which
-exhibit a brilliancy of reflected light, and a regularity of structure,
-such as no human mosaic could ever equal.
-
-Many of our European fishes are richly decorated with vivid colours,
-but their scaly raiment is generally far from equalling the gorgeous
-magnificence of the fishes of the tropical seas.
-
-If in the birds of the equatorial zone a part of the plumage sparkles
-with a gem-like brilliancy, all the colours of the rainbow combine
-to decorate the raiment of the tropical fishes, and no human art can
-reproduce the beauty of their metallic lustre, which at every movement in
-the crystalline waters exhibits to the enchanted eye new combinations and
-reflections of the most splendid tints.
-
-The gaudiest fishes live among the coral reefs. In the tepid waters,
-where the zoophytes, those sensitive flowers of the ocean, build their
-submarine palaces, we find the brilliant Chetodons, the gorgeous
-Balistinæ, and the azure Glyphysodons gliding from coral branch to coral
-branch like the playful Colibris, that over the Brazilian fields dart
-from one lustrous petal to another.
-
-Oxygen is as necessary to fishes and other marine creatures as it is
-to the terrestrial animals, but as they are obliged to draw it from a
-denser element, which absorbs but a small volume of air, their gills
-are necessarily differently constructed from the lungs of the creatures
-breathing in the atmosphere. In most species, comprising all the bony
-fishes, and the sturgeons, among those which have a cartilaginous
-skeleton, we find on either side of the throat five apertures, separated
-from each other by four crooked, parallel and unequal bones, and leading
-to a cavity, which is closed on the outside by an operculum or cover.
-In this cavity, and attached to the bones, are situated the delicate
-membranes, bearded like feathers, which serve to aërate the blood. The
-water constantly flows through the gills in one direction, entering
-by the branchial apertures of the throat, and emerging through the
-operculum. This is, in more than one respect, a most wise provision of
-Nature; for if the fishes were obliged to receive and reject the water
-by the same aperture, as we do the air, each expiration would evidently
-drive them backwards, and consequently retard their movements. It is
-also evident that the delicate fringes or folds of the gills would soon
-get into disorder if the water were carried through them in two opposite
-directions.
-
-In most of the cartilaginous fishes, such as the sharks, rays, and
-lampreys, the gills are differently formed, the water not passing into
-a cavity closed by a cover, but flowing directly outwards through five
-(in the shark) or seven (in the lamprey) vents or spiracles. In these
-species also the gills are fixed, their margins being attached. Though
-the whole breathing apparatus of a fish is comprised in a small compass,
-its surface, if fully extended, would occupy a very considerable space;
-that of the common skate, for instance, being equal to the surface of
-the human body. This single fact may convince us of the numberless
-ramifications and convolutions of the gills, in which the water is
-elaborated and attenuated in the course of giving out its air; and how
-wonderfully Nature has contrived to effect her purpose with the greatest
-economy of space.
-
-[Illustration: Theoretic representation of the Circulation in Fishes.]
-
-Respiration is a species of combustion, and this must necessarily be
-very slow in an element which contains so small a portion of oxygen. No
-wonder that the circulation of the blood in fishes is equally tardy.
-Their heart, in comparison with _ours, is but half a one_, as it merely
-serves to force the venous blood into the gills--whence the aërated blood
-does not flow back to the heart as with us, to be rapidly and strongly
-propelled through the body, but proceeds immediately to the arteries.
-Evidently only a cold blood could be formed under such circumstances. It
-may seem strange that, when fishes are taken out of the water, they die
-from want of air; such, however, is the case. Their delicate breathing
-membranes collapse in the atmosphere, the blood can no longer flow as
-before into the innumerable small vessels with which they are interwoven,
-and, by rapidly drying in the air, they soon entirely lose the faculty
-of breathing. Thus those fishes whose gill-cover has a large aperture,
-die soonest in the air, while those where the opening is narrow, and more
-particularly those species where the gills communicate with a cellular
-labyrinth containing water, which serves to keep them moist, are able to
-live a much longer time in the atmosphere.
-
-[Illustration: The Anabas of the Dry Tanks.]
-
-[Illustration: Frog-Fish.--(Cheironectes.)]
-
-It is owing to such a moistening apparatus that _the climbing fishes_
-(Anabas) live for days out of the water, and even creep up the trees at
-some distance from the shore, to catch the insects which serve them as
-food--a curious instance indeed of an animal seeking its nourishment in
-another element.
-
-The Frog-fish of the Asiatic islands and the Southern hemisphere is
-not more remarkable for its hideous deformity than for its capacity of
-leading a terrestrial life. Not only can it live several days out of the
-water but it can crawl about the room in which it is confined, a facility
-which it owes to the great strength and the peculiar position of its
-pectoral fins, which thus perform the office of feet. The whole aspect of
-these grotesque-looking creatures, particularly in a walking position, is
-so much like that of toads or frogs, that a careless observer would at
-first be at some loss to determine their real nature.
-
-A no less wonderful pedestrian is the Hassar (_Doras costata_), a South
-American fish, that marches over land in search of water, travelling
-a whole night when the pools dry up in which it commonly resides. It
-projects itself forwards on its bony pectoral fins, by the elastic spring
-of the tail, exerted sidewise, and in this manner proceeds nearly as fast
-as a man will leisurely walk. The strong scuta or bands which envelop its
-body must greatly facilitate its march, in the manner of the plates under
-the belly of serpents, which are raised and depressed by a voluntary
-power, in some measure performing the office of feet. The Indians say
-justly that these fishes supply themselves with water for their journey.
-If they find the pools and rivers everywhere dried up, they bury
-themselves in the mud, and fall into a kind of asphyxia or lethargy, till
-the rainy season recalls them again to life.
-
-The hassar is also remarkable for a parental affection, almost unexampled
-among fishes. Sir Richard Schomburgk relates that it not only builds a
-complete nest for its spawn but also watches over it with the utmost
-vigilance till the young brood comes forth. In April, this marine artist
-begins to build his little dwelling of vegetable fibres, among the
-water-plants and rushes, until it resembles a hollow ball, flattened at
-the top. An aperture corresponding to the size of the mother leads into
-the interior. The parental affection of the fish is shamefully misused by
-man for its destruction. A small basket is held before the opening; then
-the nest is slightly beaten with a stick; and, furious, with extended
-fins, whose sharp points are able to inflict a painful wound, the poor
-hassar darts into the fatal basket.
-
-
-[Illustration: SUBAQUEOUS LIFE--STICKLEBACKS AND NEST.]
-
-SUBAQUEOUS LIFE--STICKLEBACKS AND NEST.
-
-  This plate represents a group of fifteen-spined sticklebacks busily
-  employed in making their nests. To the left is seen a curious piece
-  of marine architecture, mentioned by Mr. Couch, the well-known
-  ichthyologist. A pair of sticklebacks had made their nest "in the
-  loose end of a rope, from which the separated strands hung out about
-  a yard from the surface, over a depth of four or five fathoms, and to
-  which the materials could only have been brought, of course, in the
-  mouth of the fish, from the distance of about thirty feet. They were
-  formed of the usual aggregation of the finer sorts of green and red
-  sea-weed, but they were so matted together in the hollow formed by
-  the untwisted strands of the rope that the mass constituted an oblong
-  ball of nearly the size of the fist, in which had been deposited the
-  scattered assemblage of spawn, and which was bound into shape with a
-  thread of animal substance, which was passed through and through in
-  various directions, while the rope itself formed an outside covering
-  to the whole."
-
-The black Goby (_Gobius niger_) also prepares a nest for its eggs. This
-fish inhabits the slimy bottoms of the lagoons near Venice, and burrows
-galleries in the clayey soil, where it spends the greater part of the
-year, protected against storms and enemies. In spring it digs more
-superficial dwellings among the roots of the sea-grass, to which the
-spawn attaches itself. The architect watches over the entrance of the
-house, opposing sharp rows of teeth to every intruder.
-
-A similar care may be admired in the tiny Stickleback, which the
-celebrated ichthyologist, M. Coste, has often watched building its
-nest. After the fish has collected the materials, it covers them with
-sand, glues the walls with a mucous secretion, and prepares a suitable
-entrance. At a later period it becomes the bold and indefatigable
-defender of its eggs, repelling with tooth and prickles all other
-sticklebacks that approach the nest. If the enemy is too powerful,
-it has recourse to artifice, darts forth, seems actively engaged in
-the pursuit of an imaginary prey, and often succeeds in diverting the
-aggressor's attention from its nest. The River Bullhead is likewise said
-to evince the same parental affection for its ova, as a bird for its
-nest, returning quickly to the spot, and being unwilling to quit it when
-disturbed. It is believed, also, of the Lump-Sucker, that the male first
-keeps watch over the deposited ova, and guards them from every foe with
-the utmost courage. If driven from the spot by man, he does not go far,
-but is continually looking back, and in a short time returns. Thus we
-find among the inferior animals glimpses of a higher nature, which prove
-that all created beings form a continuous chain, linked together by one
-all-pervading and almighty Power.
-
-[Illustration: Internal Ear of Perch.]
-
-[Illustration: Osseous labyrinth of the Human Ear.
-
-_a_, Oval or vestibular fenestra; _b_, round or cochlear fenestra; _c_,
-external or horizontal semicircular canal; _d_, superior or anterior
-vertical semicircular canal; _e_, posterior or inferior vertical
-semicircular canal; _f_, the turns of cochlea.]
-
-The senses of the fishes are also in perfect harmony with the
-peculiarities of their mode of life. Their eyes are indeed wanting in
-the fire and animation which gives so much expression to the physiognomy
-of the higher animals, but the structure of these organs is admirably
-calculated for the element in which they are plunged, as the spherical
-form and great size of the crystalline lens, by concentrating the rays
-of light, enables them to see with distinctness even through so dense a
-medium as that which surrounds them. When water is clear, smooth, and
-undisturbed the sight of fishes is very acute, a circumstance well known
-to anglers, who prefer a breeze undulating over the surface, as they can
-then approach much nearer the objects of their pursuit and practise their
-_artful dodges_ with a much better chance of success. The eyes in fishes
-are observed to occupy very different positions in different species,
-but their situation is always such as best to suit the exigencies of
-the particular fish. Thus in the star-gazer and sea-devil, that watch
-their prey from a muddy concealment, they are very appropriately placed
-at the top of the head, while in the flat-fishes, where an eye on the
-side habitually turned towards the ground would have been useless, the
-distorted head, by placing both eyes on the same level, affords them an
-extensive range of view in those various directions in which they may
-either endeavour to find suitable food or avoid dangerous enemies. That
-fishes are not deficient in the sense of hearing may be seen at once by
-the annexed illustrations, which show a marked similarity of organisation
-between the human ear and that of the perch. It is well known that they
-start at the report of a gun, though it is impossible for them to see
-the flash. Sir Joseph Banks used to collect his fishes by sounding a
-bell, and the Chinese call the gold-fish with a whistle to receive their
-food. In spite of their scaly covering, the fishes are not unprovided
-with organs of touch. The lips in many species are soft, and the mouths
-of others, such as the red mullet--for which such enormous sums were
-paid by the Roman epicures--are provided with barbules largely supplied
-with nerves, which no doubt enable them to distinguish the objects with
-which they come in contact. In the three elongated rays of their pectoral
-fins the gurnards may be said to possess fingers to compensate for their
-bony lips; and in many other fishes these modified arms or forefeet are
-applied as organs of feeling to ascertain the character of the bottom of
-the water. "You may witness the tactile action of the pectoral fins,"
-says Professor Owen,[N] "when gold-fish are transferred to a strange
-vessel; their eyes are so placed as to prevent them seeing what is below
-them; so they compress their air-bladder, and allow themselves to sink
-near the bottom, which they sweep, as it were, by rapid and delicate
-vibrations of the pectoral fins, apparently ascertaining that no sharp
-stone or stick projects upwards, which might injure them in their rapid
-movements round their prison." Whether fishes possess any high degree of
-taste is a subject not easily proved; but, to judge by the large size of
-their olfactory nerves, their sense of smell is probably acute.
-
-[Footnote N: "Lectures on Comparative Anatomy."]
-
-[Illustration: Red Mullet.]
-
-[Illustration: Gurnard.]
-
-[Illustration: Wolf-Fish.--(Anarrhicas lupus.)]
-
-The life of fishes is a state of perpetual warfare, a constant
-alternation of flight and pursuit. Prowling through the waters, they
-attack and devour every weaker being they meet, or dart away to escape
-a similar lot. Many of them are provided, besides their swiftness and
-muscular power, with the most formidable weapons. Thus the Sea-wolf
-has six rows of grinders in each jaw, excellently adapted for bruising
-the crabs and whelks, which this voracious animal grinds to pieces,
-and swallows along with the shells. When caught, it fastens with
-indiscriminate rage upon anything within its reach, fighting desperately,
-even when out of its own element, and inflicting severe wounds if not
-cautiously avoided. Schönfeld relates that it will seize on an anchor,
-and leave the marks of its teeth behind, and Steller informs us that
-one which he saw taken on the coast of Kamschatka frantically seized a
-cutlass with which it was attempted to be killed, and broke it in pieces
-as if it had been made of glass. No wonder that the fishermen, dreading
-its bite, endeavour as soon as possible to render it harmless by heavy
-blows upon the head. The great size of the monster, which in the British
-waters attains the length of six or seven feet, and in the colder and
-more extreme northern seas is said to become still larger, renders it one
-of the most formidable denizens of the ocean. It commonly frequents the
-deep parts of the sea, but approaches the coasts in spring to deposit
-its spawn among the marine plants. Fortunately for its more active
-neighbours, it swims but slowly, and glides along with the serpentine
-motion of the eel.
-
-[Illustration: White Shark.]
-
-Far more dreadful, from its gigantic size and power, is the White
-Shark (_Squalus carcharias_), whose jaws are likewise furnished with
-from three to six rows of strong, flat, triangular, sharp-pointed, and
-finely serrated teeth, which it can raise or depress at pleasure. This
-tyrant of the seas grows to a length of thirty feet, and its prodigious
-strength may be judged of from the fact that a young shark, only six feet
-in length, is able to break a man's leg by a stroke of its tail. Thus,
-when a shark is caught with a baited hook at sea, and drawn upon deck,
-the sailors' first act is to chop off its tail, to prevent the mischief
-otherwise to be apprehended from its enormous strength. An anecdote
-related by Hughes, the well-known and esteemed author of the "Natural
-History of Barbadoes," gives a good idea of the savage nature of this
-monster. "In the reign of Queen Anne a merchant-ship arrived at that
-island from England: some of the crew, ignorant of the danger of the
-recreation, were bathing in the sea, when a large shark appeared and swam
-directly towards them; being warned of their danger, however, they all
-hurried on board, where they arrived safe, except one poor fellow, who
-was bit in two by the shark, almost within reach of the oars. A comrade,
-and intimate friend of the unfortunate victim, when he observed the
-severed trunk of his companion, vowed his revenge. The voracious monster
-was seen traversing the bloody surface of the waves, in search of the
-remainder of his prey, when the brave youth plunged into the water. He
-held in his hand a long sharp-pointed knife; and the rapacious animal
-pushed furiously towards him. He had turned on his side and opened his
-enormous jaws, when the youth, diving dexterously, seized the shark with
-his left hand, somewhere below the upper fins, and stabbed him repeatedly
-in the belly. The animal, enraged with pain, and streaming with blood,
-attempted in vain to disengage himself. The crews of the surrounding
-vessels saw that the combat was decided; but they were ignorant which
-was slain, till the shark, exhausted by loss of blood, was seen nearer
-the shore, and along with him his gallant conqueror--who, flushed with
-victory, redoubled his efforts, and, with the aid of an ebbing tide,
-dragged him to the beach. Finally, he ripped open the stomach of the
-fish, and buried the severed half of his friend's body with the trunk in
-the same grave."
-
-[Illustration: Hammer-headed Shark.--(Squalus Zygæna.)]
-
-It is no uncommon thing for the negroes, who are admirable divers,
-thus to attack and vanquish the dreaded shark, but success can only be
-achieved by consummate dexterity, and by those who are armed for this
-express purpose.
-
-Ordinary swimmers are constantly falling a prey to the sharks of warm
-climates. Thus Sir Brooke Watson, when in the West Indies, as a youth,
-was swimming at a little distance from a ship, when he saw a shark making
-towards him. Struck with terror at its approach, he immediately cried out
-for assistance. A rope was instantly thrown, but, even while the men were
-in the act of drawing him up the ship's side, the monster darted after
-him, and at a single snap took off his leg.
-
-Fortunately for the friends of sea-bathing on our shores, the white
-shark, like his relation, the monstrous Hammer-headed Zygæna, appears but
-seldom in the colder latitudes, though both have occasionally been found
-on the British coast.
-
-[Illustration: Picked Dog-Fish.]
-
-The northern ocean has got its peculiar sharks, but they are generally
-either good-natured like the huge basking shark (_S. maximus_), which
-feeds on sea-weeds and medusæ, or else like the _Picked_ dog-fish
-(_Galeus acanthius_), of too small a size to be dangerous to man, in
-spite of the ferocity of their nature.
-
-[Illustration: Blue Shark.]
-
-But the dog-fish and several other species of our seas, such as the Blue
-Shark (_Carcharias glaucus_), though they do not attempt the fisherman's
-life, are extremely troublesome and injurious to him, by hovering about
-his boat and cutting the hooks from the lines in rapid succession. This,
-indeed, often leads to their own destruction, but when their teeth do not
-deliver them from their difficulty, the blue sharks, which hover about
-the Cornish coast during the pilchard season, have a singular method of
-proceeding, which is, by rolling the body round so as to twine the line
-about them throughout its whole length; and sometimes this is done in
-such a complicated manner, that Mr. Yarrell has known a fisherman give up
-any attempt to unroll it as a hopeless task. To the pilchard drift-net
-this shark is a still more dangerous enemy, and it is common for it
-to pass in succession along the whole length of net, cutting out, as
-with shears, the fish and the net that holds them, and swallowing both
-together.
-
-[Illustration: Saw-Fish.]
-
-[Illustration: Sword-Fish.]
-
-The Saw-snouted Shark or Saw-fish (_Squalus pristis_), which grows
-to fifteen feet in length, and the Sword-fish (_Xiphias gladius_,
-_platypterus_), are furnished with peculiarly formidable weapons. The
-long flat snout of the former is set with teeth on both sides through
-its whole length, while the upper jaw of the latter terminates in a long
-sword-shaped snout. A twenty-feet long sword-fish once ran his sword with
-such violence into the keel of an East Indiaman, that it penetrated up to
-the root, and the fish itself was killed by the violence of the shock.
-The perforated beam, with the driven-in sword, are both preserved in
-the British Museum, and give a good idea of the prodigious power of the
-leviathans of ocean.
-
-[Illustration: Torpedo.]
-
-While most fishes only rely upon their well-armed jaws, their physical
-strength, or their rapidity, for attack or defence, some of them are
-provided with more mysterious weapons, and stun their victims or their
-enemies by electrical discharges.
-
-[Illustration: Muscles and Electric Batteries of the Torpedo.]
-
-The Torpedo of the Mediterranean is furnished with wonderful organs
-for this purpose, situated on each side of the anterior part of the
-body,--perfect galvanic batteries, consisting of a multitude of small
-prismatic columns, subdivided into cells, and interwoven with a multitude
-of nerves, which serve to disengage the electric fluid, and discharge
-it according to the will of the fish, or when it is excited by some
-external stimulus. The shock of the torpedo is not so strong as that of
-the electric eel (_Gymnotus electricus_) of the Orinoco, which is able
-to stun a horse, but its power suffices to paralyse the arm of a man. A
-Sly, or Silurus, found in the Nile or Senegal, and called by the Arabs
-_raasch_, or lightning, and one of the many Tetrodons inhabiting the
-tropical seas, is endowed with a similar faculty of producing galvanic
-shocks.
-
-[Illustration: Electric Eel.]
-
-Some fishes, to whom nature has denied all other offensive weapons,
-have recourse to stratagem for procuring their food. Hidden in the mud,
-the Star-gazer (_Uranoscopus scaber_) exposes only the tip of the head,
-and waving the beards with which its lips are furnished in various
-directions, decoys the smaller fishes and marine insects, that mistake
-these organs for worms.
-
-The Angler, or Sea-devil (_Lophius piscatorius_), a slow swimmer, who
-would very often be obliged to fast if he had only his swiftness to
-rely upon, uses a similar stratagem. Crouching close to the ground, he
-stirs up the sand or mud, and, hidden by the obscurity thus produced,
-attracts many a prize by leisurely moving to and fro the two slender
-and elongated appendages on his head, the first of which, the better
-to deceive, is broad and flattened at the end, inviting pursuit by the
-shining silvery appearance of the dilated part. Even the great European
-Sly, a fish which has been known to grow to the length of fifteen feet,
-and to attain a weight of 300 lbs. is not ashamed to owe its food to
-similar deceits. Like a true lazzarone, the fat creature lies hidden in
-the mud of rivers, its mouth half open, and angling with its long beards.
-
-[Illustration: Angler.]
-
-[Illustration: European Sly.--(Silurus glanis.)]
-
-
-But no fish catches its prey in a more remarkable manner than the Beaked,
-or Rostrated Chætodon, a native of the fresh waters of India. When he
-sees a fly alighting on any of the plants which overhang the shallow
-water, he approaches with the utmost caution, coming as perpendicularly
-as possible under the object of his meditated attack. Then placing
-himself in an oblique direction, with the mouth and eyes near the
-surface, he remains a moment immoveable, taking his aim like a first-rate
-rifleman. Having fixed his eyes directly on the insect, he darts at it a
-drop of water from his tubular snout, but without showing his mouth above
-the surface, from which only the drop seems to rise, and that with such
-effect, that though at the distance of four, five or six feet, it very
-seldom fails to bring its prey into the water. Another small East Indian
-fish, the _Toxotes jaculator_, catches its food by a similar dexterous
-display of archery.
-
-[Illustration: Toxotes Jaculator.]
-
-While all other fishes hunt only for their own benefit, the Indian
-Remora, or Sucking-fish (_Echeneis Naucrates_), owes to the remarkable
-striated apparatus on its head, by which it firmly adheres to any
-object--rock, ship, or animal,--to which it chooses to attach itself,
-the rare distinction of being employed by man as a hunting-fish. When
-Columbus first discovered the West Indies, the inhabitants of the
-coasts of Cuba and Jamaica made use of the remora to catch turtles, by
-attaching to its tail a strong cord of palm-fibres, which served to drag
-it out of the water along with its prey. By this means they were able
-to raise turtles weighing several hundred pounds from the bottom; "for
-the sucking-fish," says Columbus, "will rather suffer itself to be cut
-to pieces than let go its hold." In Africa, on the Mozambique coast,
-a similar method of catching turtles is practised to the present day.
-Thus a knowledge of the habits of animals, and similar necessities, have
-given rise to the same hunting artifices among nations that never had
-the least communication with each other. Everybody knows the fables that
-have been related of the small Mediterranean remora (_Echeneis remora_).
-It even owes its Latin name to the marvellous story of its being able
-to arrest a ship under full sail in the midst of the ocean; and from
-this imaginary physical power a no less astonishing moral influence was
-inferred, for the ancients believed that tasting the remora completely
-subdued the passion of love, and that if a delinquent, wishing to gain
-time, succeeded in making his judge eat some of its flesh, he was sure of
-a long delay before the verdict was pronounced.
-
-[Illustration: Sucking-fish. (Remora.)]
-
-[Illustration: Common Weever.]
-
-Most fishes have only a rapid flight to depend upon for their safety;
-some, however, more favoured by nature, have been provided with peculiar
-defensive weapons. Thus the dorsal fins of the Dragon-weever (_Trachinus
-draco_), a small silvery fish, frequently occurring on our shores, are
-armed with strong spines, that effectually provide against its being
-easily swallowed by a more powerful enemy. The wounds it inflicts are
-very troublesome and painful, though it does not appear that the spines
-contain any poisonous matter, as the fishermen generally believe. At
-all events, the dragon-weever is not nearly so dangerous as the _Clip
-bagre_, a kind of silurus or sly, inhabiting the Brazilian rivers, that
-inflicts with its long spines such painful wounds as to deprive the
-sufferer of consciousness, and to produce an inflammation that lasts for
-several weeks. The Lance-tails, or Acanthuri, have a sharp bony process,
-not unlike the very large thorn of a rose-tree, placed on each side of
-the tail; by this they can inflict a deep cut on the hand of any one who
-is so imprudent as to seize them in that part.
-
-[Illustration: Surgeon Fish. (Acanthurus.)]
-
-I could still add a long list of spine-armed fishes, but content myself
-with noticing the Stickleback, which frequently owes its preservation to
-the sharp needles with which it is provided.
-
-[Illustration: Diodon.]
-
-The Tetrodons and Diodons have the power of inflating their body at
-pleasure, and thus raising the small spines dispersed over their sides
-and abdomen in such a manner, as to operate as a defence against their
-enemies. These beautiful and remarkable fishes chiefly inhabit the
-tropical waters, but sometimes wander into higher latitudes. Man is not
-the only creature driven by the currents of fate far from the place of
-his birth.
-
-The Flying-fishes (_Exoceti_) are provided with pectoral fins of so great
-a length, as to be able to carry them, like wings, a great distance
-through the air. According to Mr. George Bennett ("Wanderings in New
-South Wales"), they cannot raise themselves when in the atmosphere,
-the elevation they take depending entirely on the power of the first
-spring or leap they make on leaving their native element. Their flight,
-as it is called, carries them fifteen or eighteen feet high over the
-water, and the lines which they traverse when they enjoy full liberty
-of motion, are very low curves, and always in the direction of their
-previous progress in the usual element of fishes. Their silvery wings and
-blue bodies glittering beneath the rays of a tropical sun, afford a most
-beautiful spectacle, when, as is frequently the case, they rise into the
-air by thousands at once, and in all possible directions. The advantage
-afforded them by their wing-like fins, in escaping from the pursuit of
-the bonitos and albacores, often, however, leads to their destruction
-in another element, where gulls and frigate-birds frequently seize them
-with lightning-like rapidity, ere they fall back again into the ocean.
-It is amusing to observe a bonito swimming beneath the feeble aëronaut,
-keeping him steadily in view, and preparing to seize him at the moment
-of his descent. But the flying-fish often eludes the bite of his enemy,
-by instantaneously renewing his leap, and not unfrequently escapes by
-extreme agility.
-
-[Illustration: Flying-Fish.]
-
-The specific gravity of the flying-fish can be most admirably regulated
-in correspondence with the element through which it may move. The
-swim-bladder, when distended, occupies nearly the entire cavity of the
-abdomen, thus containing a large volume of air; and in addition to this,
-there is a membrane in the mouth which can be inflated through the gills.
-The pectoral fins, though so large when expanded, can be folded into an
-exceedingly slender, neat, and compact form, so as to be no hindrance
-to swimming. A light displayed from the chains of a vessel in a dark
-night, will bring many flying-fishes on board, where they are esteemed
-as a great delicacy. Their fate, thus to be persecuted in both elements
-and to find security nowhere, has often been pitied in prose and verse;
-but although they excite so much sentimental commiseration, they are
-themselves no less predaceous than their enemies, feeding chiefly on
-smaller fishes.
-
-The flying-fish of the West Indian waters is frequently allured by the
-tepid waters of the Gulf-stream into higher latitudes, and Pennant cites
-several examples of its having been found near the British coast.
-
-The Flying-Gurnard (_Trigla volitans_) of the Mediterranean, Atlantic,
-and Indian seas, a highly singular and beautiful species, also raises
-itself into the air by means of its large pectoral fins. It does not fly
-very high, but swings itself as far as a musket-ball reaches, and may
-thus elude even the rapidity of the dolphin. That strangely formed fish,
-the _Pegasus_ of the Indian seas, is also enabled by its large pectoral
-fins to support itself for some moments in the air, when it springs over
-the surface of the water.
-
-[Illustration: Swimming Pegasus.]
-
-Neither the quadrupeds nor the birds are subject to so many persecutions
-as the fishes, which have inexorable enemies in all classes of animals.
-Numberless molluscs and zoophytes feed upon their eggs, or devour their
-minute fry; myriads of sea-birds are on the look-out for them along
-the strands, or on the high ocean; seals and ice-bears lie in wait for
-them, while with weapons and deceit, with net, angle and harpoon, man
-carries death and destruction into their ranks. It would be a difficult
-task to state with any degree of exactness the number of fishermen
-disseminated over the face of the globe, but if we consider that, on
-a moderate calculation, at least a million of persons are directly or
-indirectly engaged in fishing in Great Britain and Ireland alone, and
-then cast a glance over the immense coast-line of the ocean, we may
-without exaggeration affirm that at least one-fiftieth part of the
-human race lives upon the produce of the seas. If we further reflect
-that fishes form a great part of the food of all coast-inhabitants, and
-consider in what masses they are sent into the interior,--fresh, dried,
-salted, smoked, and pickled,--we cannot doubt that the great extent of
-the ocean only apparently limits the numbers of the human race, for how
-many thousands of square miles of the most fruitful soil would it not
-require to bring forth the quantity of food which the blue and green
-fields of ocean supply to man? "Bounteous mother," "_Alma parens_," was
-the name given by the grateful ancients to the corn and grass-producing,
-herd-feeding earth; but how much more deserving of that endearing
-appellation is the sea, that, without being ploughed or manured,
-dispenses her gifts with such inexhaustible profusion! Numberless indeed
-are the various kinds of fishes which she furnishes to man, for almost
-every species affords an equally agreeable and healthy food: but of all
-the finny families or tribes that people the ocean none can compare
-for utility with that of the _Clupeidæ_, or Herrings, small in size but
-great in importance. In mile-long shoals, often so thickly pressed that
-a spear cast into them would stand upright in the living stream, the
-common herring appears annually on the coasts of north-western Europe,
-pouring out the horn of abundance into all the lochs, bays, coves, and
-fiords, from Norway to Ireland, and from Orcadia to Normandy. Sea-birds
-without end keep thinning their ranks during the whole summer; armies of
-rorquals, dolphins, seals, shell-fish, cods, and sharks devour them by
-millions, and yet so countless are their numbers, that whole nations live
-upon their spoils.
-
-[Illustration: Herring.]
-
-As soon as the season of their approach appears, fleets of herring boats
-leave the northern ports, provided with drift-nets, about 1200 feet long.
-The yarn is so thick that the wetted net sinks through its own weight,
-and need not be held down by stones attached to the lower edge, for it
-has been found that the herring is more easily caught in a slack net.
-The upper edge is suspended from the drift-rope by various shorter and
-smaller ropes, called buoy ropes, to which empty barrels are fastened,
-and the whole of the floating apparatus is attached by long ropes to
-the ship. Fishing takes place only during the night, for it is found
-that the fish strike the nets in much greater numbers when it is dark
-than while it is light. The darkest nights, therefore, and particularly
-those in which the surface of the water is ruffled by a fresh breeze,
-are considered the most favourable. To avoid collisions, each boat is
-furnished with one or two torches. From off the beach at Yarmouth,
-where often several thousand boats are fishing at the same time, these
-numberless lights, passing to and fro in every direction, afford a
-most lively and brilliant spectacle. The meshes of the net are exactly
-calculated for the size of the herring, wide enough to receive the head
-as far as behind the gill-cover, but not so narrow as to allow the
-pectoral fins to pass. Thus the poor fish, when once entangled, is unable
-to move backwards or forwards, and remains sticking in the net, like a
-bad logician on the horns of a dilemma, until the fisherman hauls it on
-board. In this manner a single net sometimes contains so vast a booty,
-that it requires all the authority of a Cuvier or a Valenciennes to make
-us believe the instances they mention. A fisherman of Dieppe caught in
-one night 280,000 herrings, and threw as many back again into the sea.
-Sometimes great sloops have been obliged to cut their nets, being about
-to sink under the superabundant weight of the fish.
-
-The oldest mention of the herring-fishery is found in the chronicles
-of the monastery of Evesham, of the year 709; while the first French
-documents on the subject only reach as far as the year 1030. As far back
-as the days of William the Conqueror, Yarmouth was renowned for its
-herring-fishery; and Dunkirk and the Brill conducted it on a grand scale
-centuries before William Beukelaer of Biervliet, near Sluys, introduced a
-better method of pickling herrings in small kegs, instead of salting them
-as before in loose irregular heaps. It is very doubtful whether Solon
-or Lycurgus ever were such benefactors of their respective countries as
-this simple uneducated fisherman has been to his native land; for the
-pickled herring mainly contributed to transform a small and insignificant
-people into a mighty nation. In the year 1603, the value of the herrings
-exported from Holland amounted to twenty millions of florins; and in
-1615, the fishery gave employment to 2000 _buysen_, or smacks, and to
-37,000 men. Three years later we see the United Provinces cover the
-sea with 3000 _buysen_; 9000 additional boats served for the transport
-of the fishes, and the whole trade gave employment to at least 200,000
-individuals. At that time Holland provided all Europe with herrings, and
-it may without exaggeration be affirmed that this small fish was their
-best ally and assistant in casting off the Spanish yoke, by providing
-them with money, the chief sinew of war. Had the emperor Charles V.
-been able to foresee that Beukelaer's discovery would one day prove so
-detrimental to his son and successor Philip II., he would hardly have
-done the poor fisherman the honour to eat a herring and drink a glass of
-wine over his tomb.
-
-But all human prosperity is subject to change; and thus towards the
-middle of the sixteenth century a series of calamities ruined the Dutch
-fisheries. Cromwell gave them the first blow by the Navigation Act;
-Blake the second, by his victories; in 1703 a French squadron destroyed
-the greatest part of their herring-smacks; and finally, the competition
-of the Swedes, and the closing of their ports by the English, under the
-disastrous domination of Napoleon I., completed the ruin of that branch
-of trade which had chiefly raised the fortunes of their fathers.
-
-In the year 1814, when the Dutch first began to breathe after having
-shaken off the yoke of the modern Attila, they made a faint attempt to
-renew the herring-fishery with 106 boats, which, up to the year 1823,
-had only increased to 128; since 1836, however, there has been a steady
-progress, and herring-catching in the Zuyder Zee during the winter months
-is yearly increasing in importance.
-
-During the second half of the last century, while the herrings began
-to desert the Dutch nets, they enriched the Swedes, who, during the
-year 1781, exported from Gottenburg alone 136,649 barrels, each of them
-containing 1200 herrings. But some years after, the shoals on the Swedish
-coasts began also to diminish, so that in 1799 there was hardly enough
-for home consumption. And now commenced the rapid rise and increase of
-the Scotch herring-fisheries; and it is certainly remarkable that this
-should have taken place at so late a period, since the British waters are
-perhaps those which most abound in herrings. When we think of the present
-grandeur of British commerce, which extends to the most distant parts of
-the globe, and ransacks all Nature for new articles of trade, it seems
-almost incredible that up to the middle of the sixteenth century the
-herring-fishery on the British coasts was left in the hands of the Dutch
-and Spaniards, and that the acute and industrious Scotchmen should have
-been so tardy in working the rich gold-mines lying at their gates. But if
-their appearance in the market has been late, they have made up for lost
-time, by completely distancing all their competitors. In 1855, the Scotch
-herring-fisheries employed no less than 11,000 smacks or boats, manned
-by 40,000 seamen, who were assisted by 28,000 curers and labourers,
-exclusive of the vessels and men bringing salt and barrels or engaged in
-carrying on the export trade.
-
-The English herring-fishery is also extremely important, for Yarmouth
-alone employs in this branch of trade about 400 sloops, of from forty
-to seventy tons, the largest of which have ten or twelve men on board.
-Three of these sloops, belonging to the same proprietor, landed, in the
-year 1857, 285 lasts, or 3,762,000 fishes; and as each last was sold for
-£14 sterling, it is probable that no whaler made a better business that
-season. The importance of the Yarmouth herring-fishery may be inferred
-from the fact, that it gives employment and bread to about 5,000 persons
-during several months of the year, and engages a capital of at least
-£700,000. No wonder, that among the north seamen the herring-fishery is
-called the "great" fishery, while that of the whale is denominated only
-the "small."
-
-But the herring is a very capricious creature, seldom remaining long in
-one place; and there is not a station along the British coast which is
-not liable to great changes in its visits, as well with regard to time
-as to quantity. The real causes of these irregularities are unknown; the
-firing of guns, the manufacture of kelp, and the paddling of steam-boats
-have been assigned as reasons, but such reasons are quite imaginary.
-The progress of science promises to find, however, a remedy even for
-the caprices of the herring; and if his shoals frequently appear and
-disappear again in the more retired bays or fiords of Norway, before the
-fishermen are apprised of his movements, the electric telegraph (the most
-wonderful discovery of a time so rich in wonderful inventions), will be
-used for his more effectual capture. By this time the wires are already
-laid, which are to communicate along the whole Scandinavian coast, and
-with the rapidity of lightning, every important movement of the marine
-hosts. Poor herring! who would have thought, when Franklin made his first
-experiments upon electricity, that that mysterious power should ever be
-used for thy destruction!
-
-The supposed migration of herrings to and from the high northern
-latitudes is not founded on fact; the herring has never been seen in
-abundance in the northern seas, nor have our whale-fishers or Arctic
-voyagers taken any particular notice of them. There is no fishery for
-them of any consequence either in Greenland or Iceland. On the southern
-coast of Greenland the herring is a rare fish, and, according to Crantz,
-only a small variety makes its appearance on the northern shore. This
-small variety, or species, was found by Sir John Franklin on the shore of
-the Polar basin, on his second journey. There can be no doubt that the
-herring inhabits the deep water all round our coast, and only approaches
-the shores for the purpose of depositing its spawn within the immediate
-influence of the two principal agents in vivification--increased
-temperature and oxygen--and as soon as that essential object is
-effected, the shoals that haunt the superficial waters disappear, but
-individuals are found, and many are to be caught throughout the year. So
-far are they from being migratory to us from the north only, that they
-visit the west coast of Cork in August, arriving there much earlier than
-those which come down the Irish Channel, and long before their brethren
-make their appearance at places much farther north. Our common herring
-spawns towards the end of October, or the beginning of November, and
-it is for two or three months previous to this, when they assemble in
-immense numbers, that the fishing is carried on, which is of such great
-and national importance. "And here," Mr. Couch observes, "we cannot but
-admire the economy of Divine Providence, by which this and several other
-species of fish are brought to the shores, within reach of man, at the
-time when they are in their highest perfection and best fitted to be his
-food." The herring having spawned, retires to deep water, and the fishing
-ends for that season. While inhabiting the depths of the ocean, its food
-is said, by Dr. Knox, to consist principally of minute entomostraceous
-animals, but it is certainly less choice in its selection when near the
-shore.
-
-[Illustration: Pilchard.]
-
-Although the common herring of our northern seas is beyond all doubt
-the most important of the tribe, yet there is no sea, no coast, where
-other species of the same family are not a source of abundance to man,
-and of astonishment by their vast numbers. Thus the enormous shoals of
-Pilchards appearing along our south-western coasts are not less valuable
-to the fishermen of Devon and Cornwall than the common herring to those
-of the North Sea. The older naturalists considered the pilchard, like
-the herring, as a visitor from a distant region, and they assigned to
-it also the same place of resort as that fish, with which indeed the
-pilchard has been sometimes confounded. To this it will be a sufficient
-reply, that the pilchard is never seen in the Northern Ocean. They
-frequent the French coasts, and are seen on those of Spain, but on
-neither in considerable numbers or with much regularity; so that few
-fishes confine themselves within such narrow bounds. On the coast of
-Cornwall they are found throughout all the seasons of the year, and even
-there their habits vary in the different months. In January they keep
-near the bottom, and are chiefly hauled up in the stomachs of ravenous
-fishes; in March they sometimes assemble in _schulls_, but this union is
-only partial and not permanent and only becomes so in July; when they
-regularly and permanently congregate so as to invite the fisherman's
-pursuit. The season and situation for spawning, and the choice of food,
-are the chief reasons which influence the motions of the great bodies
-of these fish; and it is probable that a thorough knowledge of these
-particulars would explain all the variations which have been noticed in
-the doings of the pilchard, in the numerous unsuccessful seasons of the
-fishery.
-
-They feed with voracity on small crustaceous animals, and Mr. Yarrell
-frequently found their stomachs crammed with thousands of a minute
-species of shrimp, not larger than a flea. It is probably when they are
-in search of something like this, that fishermen report they have seen
-them lying in myriads quietly at the bottom, examining with their mouths
-the sand and small stones in shallow water. The abundance of this food
-must be enormous, to satisfy such a host.
-
-"When near the coast," says the author of the "History of British
-Fishes," "the assemblage of pilchards assumes the arrangement of a mighty
-army, with its wings stretching parallel to the land, and the whole is
-composed of numberless smaller bodies, which are perpetually joining
-together, shifting their position, and separating again. There are three
-stations occupied by this great body, that have their separate influence
-on the success of the fishery. One is to the eastward of the Lizard, the
-most eastern extremity, reaching to the Bay of Bigbury in Devonshire,
-beyond which no fishing is carried on, except that it occasionally
-extends to Dartmouth; a second station is included between the Lizard and
-Land's End; and the third is on the north coast of the county, the chief
-station being about St. Ives. The subordinate motions of the shoals are
-much regulated by the tide, against the current of which they are rarely
-known to go, and the whole will sometimes remain parallel to the coast
-for several weeks, at the distance of a few leagues; and then, as if by
-general consent, they will advance close to the shore, sometimes without
-being discovered till they have reached it. This usually happens when the
-tides are strongest, and is the period when the principal opportunity
-is afforded for the prosecution of the sean-fishery." The quantity of
-pilchards taken is sometimes incredibly large. In 1847, a very productive
-year, 40,000 hogsheads were cured in Cornwall alone, representing
-probably, after all deductions, a net value to the takers of £80,000. The
-Sardine (_Clupea sardina_), a fish closely allied to the Pilchard though
-smaller, is considered as the most savoury of all the herring tribe. It
-is chiefly found in the Mediterranean, on the coasts of South France and
-Africa, and about the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, where it plays a
-no less important part than the Pilchard on the coasts of Cornwall and
-Devonshire.
-
-Though a much less valuable fish than its larger-sized relatives, the
-diminutive Sprat is not to be despised. Coming into the market in immense
-quantities, and at a very moderate price, immediately after the herring
-season is over, it affords during all the winter months a cheap and
-agreeable food. Like all other species of the herring tribe, the sprats
-are capricious wanderers, and make their appearance in exceedingly
-variable numbers. The coasts of Kent, Essex, and Suffolk, are the most
-productive. So great is the supply thence obtained, that notwithstanding
-the immense quantity consumed by the vast population of London and its
-neighbourhood, there is yet occasionally a surplus to be disposed of at
-so low a price, as to induce the farmers, even so near the metropolis as
-Dartford, to use them for manure.
-
-[Illustration: Anchovy.]
-
-The Mediterranean seems to be the peculiar birthplace of the Anchovy
-(_Engraulis encrasicholus_), where it appears in the spawning season in
-countless multitudes along the shallow coasts. It is about four inches
-long, of a bluish-brown colour on the back, and silvery-white on the
-belly. It is covered with large thin and easily deciduous scales, and
-may be readily distinguished from the Sprat and other kindred species
-by the anal fins being remarkably short. It is mostly caught in the
-neighbourhood of Antibes, Frejus, and St. Tropez, and sent pickled
-in enormous quantities to the fair of Beaucaire, from whence it is
-transported in small tin boxes to all parts of the world.
-
-[Illustration: Haddock.]
-
-[Illustration: Ling.]
-
-[Illustration: Cod.]
-
-The Cod-family, to which among others, the Dorse, the Haddock, the
-Whiting, the Hake, the Ling, and other valuable fishes belong, ranks next
-to that of the herrings in importance to man. In the seas with which
-Europeans are best acquainted the common Cod, the chief representative
-of the tribe, is found universally, from Iceland to very nearly as far
-south as Gibraltar, but appears most abundantly on the eastern side of
-the American continent, and among its numerous islands, from 40° up to
-66° N. lat., where it may be said to hold dominion from the outer edge
-of the great banks of Newfoundland, which are more than three hundred
-miles from land, to the verge of every creek and cove of the bounding
-coast. To support such a mass of living beings, the ocean sends forth
-its periodical masses of other living beings. At one season the cod is
-accompanied by countless myriads of the Capelin (_Salmo arcticus_),
-and at another by equal hosts of a molluscous animal, the Cuttle-fish
-(_Sepia loligo_), called in Newfoundland the squid. The three animals are
-migratory, and man, who stations himself on the shore for their combined
-destruction, conducts his movements according to their migrations,
-capturing millions upon millions of capelins and squids, to serve as
-a bait for the capture of millions of cods. In the United Kingdom
-alone this fish, in the catching, the curing, the partial consumption,
-and sale, supplies employment, food, and profit to thousands of the
-human race; but the banks of Newfoundland are the chief scene of its
-destruction. As soon as spring appears, England sends forth 2000 ships,
-with 30,000 men, across the Atlantic, towards those teeming shallows;
-France about one-half the number; and the Americans as many as both
-together. On an average, each ship is reckoned to catch about 40,000
-fishes; and we may form some idea of the voracity, as well as of the
-numbers of the cod, when we hear that in the course of a single day a
-good fisherman is able to haul up four hundred one after another with his
-line--no easy task considering the size of the fish, which often attains
-a length of from two to three feet and a weight of from twenty to forty
-pounds.
-
-The captured fish have but little time left them to bewail their lot,
-for a few thousands will be "dressed down"--that is, gutted, boned and
-salted--in the course of two or three hours. For this purpose the crew
-divide themselves into throaters, headers, splitters, salters, and
-packers. First the throater passes his sharp knife across the throat of
-the unfortunate cod to the bone and rips open the bowels. He then passes
-it quickly to the header, who with a strong sudden wrench pulls off the
-head and tears out the entrails, which he casts overboard, passing at
-the same time the fish instantly to the splitter, who with one cut lays
-it open from head to tail, and almost in the twinkling of an eye with
-another cut takes out the backbone. After separating the sounds, which
-are placed with the tongues, and packed in barrels as a great delicacy,
-the backbone follows the entrails overboard, while the fish at the same
-moment is passed with the other hand to the salter. Such is the amazing
-quickness of the operations of heading and splitting that a good workman
-will often decapitate and take out the entrails and backbone of six fish
-in a minute. Every fisherman is supposed to know something of each of
-these operations, and no rivals at cricket ever entered with more ardour
-into their work than do some athletic champions for the palm of "dressing
-down" after a "day's catch."
-
-Besides its excellent firm flesh, the liver-oil of the cod is used as a
-valuable medicine, and serves to restore many a scrofulous or rickety
-child to health. The sound-bladder is also employed by the Icelanders for
-the manufacture of fish-lime or isinglass. The best quality of the latter
-article, however, is afforded by a species of Sturgeon (_Accipenser
-Huso_) which is chiefly found in the Black and Caspian seas, and ascends
-the tributary rivers in immense numbers.
-
-The Common Sturgeon (_Accipenser sturio_), though principally frequenting
-the seas and rivers of North-Eastern Europe, where, especially in the
-Volga, extensive fisheries are established for its destruction, is also
-captured on the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland, as examples are by
-no means uncommon in the fish-mongers' shops of our great cities, a few
-coming into the hands of the principal dealers every season. Yarrell
-mentions one caught in a stake-net near Findhorn, in Scotland, in July
-1833, which measured eight feet six inches in length and weighed two
-hundred and three pounds; but in the Baltic specimens of a length of
-eighteen feet and weighing a thousand pounds have occasionally been
-captured. The body is long and slender from the shoulders backward,
-somewhat pentagonal in shape, with five longitudinal rows of flattened
-plates, with pointed central spines, directed backwards, and the snout
-is tapering and beak-shaped, the mouth small and toothless, so that the
-sturgeon, though almost equalling the white shark in size, is of a much
-more harmless character and formidable only to the crustaceans, small
-fish, or soft animals, he meets with at the bottom in deep water, beyond
-the ordinary reach of sea-nets. Hence he is rarely caught in the open
-sea, but falls an easy prey to the cunning of man when entering the
-friths, estuaries, and rivers for the purpose of spawning. The sturgeon
-is a highly valuable fish not only for its well-flavoured flesh but
-also for its roe, which furnishes the delicate caviar of commerce. The
-smallest but most highly esteemed of the sturgeons is the Sterlet of
-the Volga, which sometimes fetches such extravagant prices that Prince
-Potemkin has been known to pay three hundred roubles for a single tureen
-of sterlet-soup.
-
-[Illustration: Common Sturgeon.]
-
-While many of the numerous members of the salmon family confine
-themselves to the rivulet or to the lake, others alternate, like the
-sturgeons, between the river and the sea. Of these the most remarkable
-is the noble fish which has given its name to the whole tribe, and may
-justly be considered as its head, not only in point of size but also for
-its wide-spread utility to man.
-
-Every spring or summer the salmon leave the ocean to deposit their spawn
-in the sweet waters, often at a distance of many hundred miles in the
-interior of the Continent, so that the same fish which during part of
-the year may be breasting the waves of the North Sea, may at another
-be forcing the current of an Alpine stream. Their onward progress is
-not easily stopped: they shoot up rapids with the velocity of arrows,
-and make wonderful efforts to surmount cascades or weirs by leaping,
-frequently clearing an elevation of eight or ten feet. These surprising
-bounds appear to be accomplished by a sudden jerk, which is given to its
-body by the animal from a bent into a straight position. If they fail
-in their attempt, and fall back into the stream, it is only to rest a
-short time, and thus recruit their strength for a new effort. The fall of
-Kilmaroc, on the Beauly, in Inverness-shire, is one of the spots where
-the leaping feats of the salmon can best be witnessed. "The pool below
-that fall," says Mr. Mudie, in the _British Naturalist_, "is very large,
-and as it is the head of the run in one of the finest salmon rivers in
-the north, and only a few miles distant from the sea, it is literally
-thronged with salmon, which are continually attempting to pass the fall,
-but without success, as the limit of their perpendicular spring does not
-appear to exceed twelve or fourteen feet; at least, if they leap higher
-than that, they are aimless and exhausted, and the force of the current
-dashes them down again before they have recovered their energy. They
-often kill themselves by the violence of their exertions to ascend, and
-sometimes they fall upon the rocks and are captured. It is indeed said
-that one of the wonders which the Frasers of Lovat, who are lords of the
-manor, used to show their guests was a voluntarily cooked salmon at the
-falls of Kilmaroc. For this purpose a kettle was placed upon the flat
-rock on the south side of the fall, close by the edge of the water and
-kept full and boiling. There is a considerable extent of the rock where
-tents were erected, and the whole was under a canopy of overshadowing
-trees. There the company are said to have waited until a salmon fell into
-the kettle, and was boiled in their presence. We have seen as many as
-eighty taken in a pool lower down the river at one haul of the seine, and
-one of the number weighed more than sixty pounds."
-
-As the salmon laboriously ascend the rivers, it may easily be imagined
-that the cunning and rapacity of man seeks every opportunity to intercept
-their progress. Nets of the most various form and construction are
-employed for their capture; numbers are entrapped in enclosed spaces
-formed in weirs, into which they enter as they push up the stream, and
-are then prevented by a grating of a peculiar contrivance from returning
-or getting out; and many are speared, a mode frequently practised at
-night-time, when torches are made use of to attract them to the surface,
-or to betray them by their silvery reflection to the attentive fisherman.
-
-The ruddy gleam illumining the river banks or sparkling in the agitated
-waters, the black sky above, the deep contrasts of light and shade,
-attach a romantic interest to this nocturnal sport, which has been both
-practised and sung by Walter Scott.
-
-  "'Tis blithe along the midnight tide
-   With stalwart arm the boat to guide,
-   On high the dazzling blaze to rear
-   And heedful plunge the barbed spear.
-   Rock, wood, and scour emerging bright,
-   Fling on the stream their ruddy light,
-   And from the bank our band appears
-   Like Genii armed with fiery spears."
-
-The natural history of the salmon was until lately but very imperfectly
-known, as the parr (brandling, samlet) and the grilse, which are now
-fully proved to be but intermediate stages of its growth, were supposed
-by Yarrell to be distinct fishes. The first person who seems to have
-suspected the true nature of the parr was James Hogg, the Ettrick
-shepherd, who in his usual eccentric way took some pains to verify his
-opinion. As an angler, he had often caught the parr in its transition
-state, and had frequently captured smolts (at that time the only
-acknowledged youthful salmon) with the scales barely covering the bars
-or finger marks of the parr. Wondering at this, he marked a great number
-of the lesser fish and offered rewards of whisky (being himself a great
-admirer of the genuine mountain-dew) to the peasantry to bring him any
-fish that had evidently undergone the change. These crude experiments
-of the talented shepherd convinced him that the parr were the young of
-the salmon in the first stage, and since then professed naturalists have
-fully settled the question by watching the egg into life, and tracing
-the growth of the young fish step by step until it ultimately changed
-into the kingly salmon.
-
-This ignorance of the true nature of the parr had most disastrous
-effects, as it largely contributed to the depopulation of our streams,
-for the farmers and cottars who resided near the rivers used not
-unfrequently, after filling the frying-pan with parr, to feed their
-pigs with them, and myriads were annually killed by juvenile anglers.
-This truly deplorable havoc has fortunately been arrested by Act of
-Parliament, but the killing of grilse is still, I believe, a fertile
-source of destruction,[O] and should undoubtedly be restrained by law,
-as the wholesale slaughter of these juvenile fishes is a most lamentable
-example of improvident waste.
-
-[Footnote O: In 1862, 8,467 salmon and 25,042 grilse were captured in the
-Tweed.]
-
-In former times our rivers abounded with salmon, more than 200,000
-having been caught in a single summer in the Tweed alone, and 2,500 at
-one haul in the river Thurso; but, besides the causes above mentioned,
-over fishing or fishing at an improper season, and probably in many
-cases the pollution of the streams with deleterious matter from mines
-or manufactories, have considerably reduced their numbers. Fortunately,
-public attention has at length been thoroughly aroused to the danger
-which menaces our king of fishes; and, what with better laws for his
-protection and the successful attempts that have latterly been made in
-artificial fish-breeding, we may hope that more prosperous times are in
-store for our salmon-fisheries.
-
-[Illustration: Salmo Rossii]
-
-The salmon not only frequents the streams of Northern Europe but ascends
-in vast multitudes the giant rivers of Siberia and of North America. It
-is fished by the Ostjak and the Tunguse, and speared by the Indian of the
-New World. Ross's Arctic salmon, which is of a more slender form than the
-common salmon, differently marked and coloured, and with a remarkably
-long under jaw, is so extremely abundant in the sea near the mouths of
-the rivers of Boothia Felix that 3,378 were obtained at one haul of a
-small-sized seine. The rivers of Kamtschatka abound in salmon of various
-kinds, so that the stream, swelling as it were with living waves, not
-seldom overflows its banks and casts multitudes ashore. Steller affirms
-that, in that almost uninhabited peninsula, the bears and dogs and other
-animals catch more of these fishes with their mouths and feet than man in
-other countries with all his cunning devices of net and angle.
-
-The salmon of Iceland, which formerly remained undisturbed by the
-phlegmatic inhabitants, are now caught in large numbers for the British
-market. A small river, bearing the significant name of Laxaa or Salmon
-river, has been rented for the trifling sum of 100_l._ a year by an
-English company which sends every spring its agents to the spot,
-well provided with the best fishing apparatus. The captured fish are
-immediately boiled and hermetically packed in tin boxes, so that they can
-be eaten in London almost as fresh as if they had just been caught. Other
-valuable salmon-streams in Iceland and Norway pay us a similar tribute;
-and as commerce, aided by the steamboat and the railway, extends her
-empire, rivers more and more distant are made to supply the deficiencies
-of our native streams. More than 150,000 salmon are annually caught in
-Aljaska--not a quarter of a century ago a real "ultima Thule"--and after
-having been well pickled and smoked at the various fishing-stations are
-chiefly sent from Sitcha to Hamburg.
-
-Nature has denied the salmon to the streams of Australia and New Zealand;
-but as the eggs of this fish can be preserved for a very long time, they
-have been transported with perfect success to those far-distant colonies.
-
-[Illustration: Tunny.]
-
-If neither the salmon, nor the common herring, nor the cod, dwell in the
-Mediterranean, the fishermen of that sea rejoice in the capture of the
-Tunny, the chief of the mackerel or scomberoid family. Its usual length
-is about two feet, but it sometimes grows to eight or ten; and Pennant
-saw one killed in 1769, when he was at Inverary, that weighed 460 pounds.
-The flesh is as firm as that of the sturgeon, but of a finer flavour.
-
-"In May and June," says Mr. Yarrell, "the adult fish rove along the coast
-of the Mediterranean in large shoals and triangular array. They are
-extremely timid, and easily induced to take a new and apparently an open
-course, in order to avoid any suspected danger. But the fishermen take
-advantage of this peculiarity for their destruction by placing a look-out
-or sentinel on some elevated spot, who makes the signal that the shoal
-of tunnies is approaching, and points out the direction in which it will
-come. Immediately a great number of boats set off, range themselves in a
-curved line, and, joining their nets, form an enclosure which alarms the
-fish, while the fishermen, drawing closer and closer, and adding fresh
-nets, still continue driving the tunnies towards the shore, where they
-are ultimately killed with poles.
-
-"But the grandest mode of catching the tunny is by means of the French
-_madrague_, or, as the Italians call it, _tonnaro_. Series of long and
-deep nets, fixed vertically by corks at their upper edges, and with lead
-and stones at the bottom, are kept in a particular position by anchors,
-so as to form an enclosure parallel to the coast, sometimes extending an
-Italian mile in length; this is divided into several chambers by nets
-placed across, leaving narrow openings on the land side. The tunnies
-pass between the coast and the tonnaro; when arrived at the end, they
-are stopped by one of the cross-nets, which closes the passage against
-them, and obliges them to enter the tonnaro by the opening which is left
-for them. When once in, they are driven by various means from chamber
-to chamber to the last, which is called the chamber of death. Here a
-strong net, placed horizontally, that can be raised at pleasure, brings
-the tunnies to the surface, and the work of destruction commences.
-The tonnaro fishery used to be one of the great amusements of rich
-Sicilians, and, at the same time, one of the most considerable sources
-of their wealth. When Louis XIII. visited Marseilles, he was invited to
-a tunny-fishery, at the principal _madrague_ of Morgiou, and found the
-diversion so much to his taste that he often said it was the pleasantest
-day he had spent in his whole progress through the south."
-
-[Illustration: Mackerel.]
-
-The elegant shape and beautiful colouring of the common Mackerel are too
-well known to require any particular description, and its qualities as
-an edible fish have been long duly appreciated. It dies very soon after
-it is taken out of the water, exhibits for a short time a phosphoric
-light, and partly loses the brilliancy of its hues. Like all other
-members of the family, it is extremely voracious, and makes great havoc
-among the herring-shoals, although its own length is only from twelve to
-sixteen inches. It inhabits the northern Atlantic, and is caught in large
-numbers along the British coast, where it is preceded in its annual visit
-by the Gar-fish, which for this reason has received also the name of
-Mackerel-guide. The older naturalists ascribed to the mackerel the same
-distant migrations as to the tunny, but most probably it only retires
-during the winter into the deeper waters, at no very great distance
-from the shores, where it appears during the summer season in such
-incalculable numbers.
-
-[Illustration: Gar-Fish.]
-
-The mackerel is caught with long nets or by hand-lines. It bites greedily
-at every bait, but generally such a one is preferred as best represents a
-living prey darting through the water--either some silvery scaled fish,
-or a piece of metal, or of scarlet cloth. With swelling sails the boat
-flies along, and a sharp wind is generally considered so favourable that
-it is called a "Mackerel-breeze." The line is short, but made heavy with
-lead, and in this manner a couple of men can catch a thousand in one day.
-The more rapid the boat the greater the success, for the mackerel rushes
-like lightning after the glittering bait, taking it for a flying prey.
-The chieftains of the Sandwich Islands used to catch the bonito mackerels
-in a similar way, by attaching flying-fish to their hooks, and rapidly
-skimming the surface of the waters. Thus everywhere man knows how to turn
-to his advantage the peculiar instincts or habits of the animal creation.
-
-[Illustration: Bonito.]
-
-The author of "Wild Sports of the West" has favoured us with an animated
-description of mackerel-fishing on the coast of Ireland.
-
-"It was evident that the bay was full of mackerel. In every direction,
-and as far as the eye could range, gulls and puffins were collected,
-and, to judge by their activity and clamour, there appeared ample
-employment for them among the fry beneath. We immediately bore away for
-the place where these birds were numerously congregated, and the lines
-were scarcely overboard when we found ourselves in the centre of a shoal
-of mackerel. For two hours we killed these beautiful fish, as fast as
-the baits could be renewed and the lines hauled in; and when we left
-off fishing, actually wearied with sport, we found that we had taken
-above five hundred, including a number of the coarser species, called
-Horse-mackerel. There is not, on sea or river, always excepting angling
-for salmon, any sport comparable to this delightful amusement: full of
-life and bustle, everything about it is animated and exhilarating; a
-brisk breeze and fair sky, the boat in quick and constant motion, all is
-calculated to interest and excite. He who has experienced the glorious
-sensations of sailing on the Western Ocean, a bright autumnal sky above,
-a deep-green lucid swell around, a steady breeze, and as much of it as
-the hooker can stand up to, will estimate the exquisite enjoyment our
-morning's mackerel-fishing afforded."
-
-Although an occasional visitor of our shores, the Bonito, or
-Stripe-bellied Tunny (_Thynnus pelamys_), which is much inferior in
-size to the common tunny of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, is a
-true ocean-fish, and generally met with at a vast distance from land.
-It inhabits the warmer seas, of which it is one of the most active and
-voracious denizens. It is well known to all voyagers within the tropics
-for the amusement it affords by its accompanying the vessel in its track,
-and by its pursuit of the flying-fish. But in its turn the predacious
-Bonito is subject to the persecutions of the huge Sperm-whale, who will
-often drive whole shoals before him, and crush dozens at a time between
-his prodigious jaws.
-
-The Pelamid (_Thynnus sarda_), which abounds in all districts of the
-Mediterranean and on both sides of the Atlantic, has but very lately been
-discovered in the British waters, a single specimen having been caught
-a few years ago at the mouth of the North Esk. It greatly resembles the
-species just mentioned in form and mode of life, prowling about the high
-seas for cephalopods and flying-fishes, and is very commonly confounded
-with the bonito by sailors, who also give both of them the name of
-Skip-jacks, expressive of the habit which many of the large Scomberoids
-have of skimming the surface of the sea, and springing occasionally into
-the air.
-
-[Illustration: Pilot-Fish.--(Naucrates ductor.)]
-
-Another member of the mackerel family, the Pilot-Fish (_Naucrates
-ductor_), easily recognised by the three dark-blue bands which surround
-its silvery body, will frequently attend a ship during its course at sea
-for weeks or even months together, most likely to profit by the offal
-thrown overboard. Regardless of the useful precept, "avoid bad company,"
-it is frequently found attending the white shark, and owes its name to
-its being supposed to act as a trusty guide or friendly monitor to that
-voracious monster, sometimes directing it where to find a good meal,
-and at others warning it when to avoid a dangerous bait. At all events,
-the pilot-fish is well rewarded for his attendance by snatching up the
-morsels which are overlooked by his companion, and as he is an excellent
-swimmer, and probably keeps a good look-out, has but little reason to
-fear being snatched up himself.
-
-"It has been observed," says Yarrell, "that when a shark and his pilot
-were following a vessel, if meat was thrown overboard cut into small
-pieces, and therefore unworthy the shark's attention, the pilot-fish
-showed his true motive of action by deserting both shark and ship to feed
-at his leisure on the morsels."
-
-The family of the anguilliform fishes, characterised by their
-serpent-like bodies, destitute of ventral fins, and generally covered
-by a slippery skin, with, in some of the genera, small scales embedded
-therein, likewise comprises a number of highly interesting and useful
-species, forming many generic groups.
-
-Its chief representative in our waters is the Common Eel (_Anguilla
-vulgaris_), which, though a frequent inhabitant of our lakes, ponds,
-and rivers, may also justly be reckoned among the marine fishes; for
-the same wonderful instinct which prompts the salmon and the sturgeon
-annually to leave the high seas and seek the inland streams for the sake
-of perpetuating their race, forces also the eel to migrate, but his
-peregrinations are of an opposite character, for here the full-grown
-fishes descend the rivers to deposit their spawn in the sea, and the
-young, after having been born in the brackish estuaries, ascend the
-streams to accomplish their growth in the sweet waters. The mode of
-procreation of eels, which for ages had been an enigma, has now at length
-been completely elucidated by Professor Rathke, who discovered that the
-eggs, which are of microscopic smallness, so as to be undistinguishable
-by the naked eye from the fat in which they lie imbedded, are expelled
-through an opening hardly large enough to admit the point of a needle.
-The energy of the salmon in swimming stream-upwards for hundreds and
-hundreds of miles, and bounding over rapids and cataracts, is truly
-wonderful, but the instinctive efforts of the little eels or _elvers_ to
-surmount obstacles that seem quite out of proportion to their strength
-are no less admirable. Mr. Anderson, upwards of a century ago, described
-the young eels as ascending the upright posts and gates of the waterworks
-at Norwich until they came into the dam above; and Sir Humphry Davy,
-who was witness of a vast migration of elvers at Ballyshannon, speaks
-of the mouth of the river under the fall as blackened by millions of
-little eels. "Thousands," he adds, "died, but their bodies remaining
-moist, served as the ladder for others to make their way; and I saw some
-ascending even perpendicular stones, making their road through wet moss,
-or adhering to some eels that had died in the attempt. Such is the energy
-of these little animals that they continue to find their way in immense
-numbers to Loch Erne. Even the mighty fall of Schaffhausen (which stops
-the salmon) does not prevent them from making their way to the Lake of
-Constance, where I have seen many very large eels." After the little eels
-have gained the summit of a fall, they rest for a while with their heads
-protruded into the stream. They then urge themselves forward, taking
-advantage of every projecting stone or slack water, and never get carried
-back by the current. Myriads are destroyed on the way by birds or fishes;
-but, as usual, their greatest enemy is man, who not only devours whole
-cart-loads of little eels not larger than a knitting-needle, frying them
-into cakes, which are said to be delicious, though rather queer-looking
-from the number of little eyes with which they are bespangled, but after
-getting tired of eating them, actually feeds his pigs with them, or even
-uses them for manure. A prodigal waste which should be looked after, as
-these little eels would soon increase their weight, and consequently
-their value a thousand fold. On the Continent many lakes and ponds have
-been stocked with elvers, packed in wet grass, and sent by the railroads
-or the post far into the interior of the country.
-
-Eels are pre-eminently nocturnal animals. They always congregate at the
-darkest parts of the stews in which they are kept, and invariably select
-the darkest nights for their autumnal migration to the sea. Owing to
-the smallness of their gill aperture, the membranous folds of which,
-by closing the orifice when the eel is out of the water, prevents the
-desiccation of the branchiæ, they have the power of living a long time
-out of the water when the air is humid, and not unfrequently travel
-during the night over the moist surface of meadows or gardens in quest of
-frogs or other suitable food.
-
-That eels are not devoid of sagacity is proved by many well authenticated
-anecdotes. "In Otaheite," says Ellis in his "Polynesian Researches,"
-"they are fed till they attain an enormous size. These pets are kept in
-large holes two or three feet deep, partially filled with water. On the
-sides of these pits they generally remain, excepting when called by the
-person who feeds them. I have been several times with the young chief
-when he has sat down by the side of the hole, and by giving a shrill sort
-of whistle has brought out an enormous eel, which has moved about the
-surface of the water and eaten with confidence out of his master's hand."
-
-The eel has many enemies, among others the common heron, who, in spite
-of the slippery skin of his victim, knows how to drive his denticulated
-middle claw into his body, or to strike him with his pointed bill.
-Yarrell relates that a heron had once struck his sharp beak through
-the head of an eel, piercing both eyes, and that the eel--no doubt
-remembering that one good turn deserves another--had coiled itself so
-tightly round the neck of the heron as to stop the bird's respiration:
-both were dead.
-
-The London market is principally supplied with eels from Holland,
-a country where they abound. According to Mr. Mayhew, about ten
-millions of eels, amounting to a weight of 1,500,000 lbs., are
-annually sold in Billingsgate market. These figures show us at once
-that the multiplication of eels in our sluggish rivers, which only
-contain such fish as are comparatively speaking worthless, is a matter
-worth consideration, and powerfully pleads for the protection and
-transplantation of the elvers wherever they are likely to prosper.
-
-Eels are extremely susceptible of cold; none whatever are found in the
-Arctic regions, and at the approach of winter they bury themselves in
-the mud, where they remain in a state of torpidity until the genial
-warmth of spring recalls them to a more active state of existence.
-In this condition they are frequently taken by eel-spears, and in
-Somersetshire the people know how to find the holes in the banks of
-rivers in which eels are laid up, by the hoar-frost not lying over them
-as it does elsewhere, and dig them out in heaps. Though generally only
-from two to three feet long, eels sometimes acquire a much larger size.
-Specimens six feet long and fifteen pounds in weight are occasionally
-captured, and Yarrell saw at Cambridge the preserved skins of two which
-weighed together fifty pounds. They were taken on draining a fen-dyke at
-Wisbeach. As eels are but slow in growth, these sizes speak for a great
-longevity.
-
-[Illustration: Conger Eel.]
-
-The Conger is in its general appearance so nearly allied to the common
-eel that it might easily be mistaken for the same species. It, however,
-materially differs from it by its darker colour in the upper part, and
-its brighter hue beneath, by its dorsal fin beginning near the head, and
-by its snout generally projecting beyond the lower jaw.
-
-This marine giant of the eel tribe attains a length of ten feet, and a
-weight of 130 pounds, and is well known on all the rocky parts of the
-coast of the British Islands, though nowhere more abundant than on the
-Cornish coast, where, according to Mr. Couch, it is not uncommon for a
-boat with three men to bring on shore from five hundredweight to two
-tons. The fishing for congers is always performed at night, and not
-unattended with danger, as it is quite a common occurrence for a conger
-to attack the fishermen with open jaws, and so great is the strength of
-the large specimens that they have occasionally succeeded in pulling the
-fisherman quite out of his boat, if by any chance he has fastened the
-line to his arm. The congers that keep among rocks hide themselves in
-crevices, where they are not unfrequently left by the retiring tide; but
-in situations free from rocks, congers hide themselves by burrowing in
-the ground, where it is customary on some parts of the coast of France to
-employ dogs in their search. In spite of its tough flesh and exceedingly
-nauseous smell, the conger was highly esteemed by Greek epicures, and
-in England in the time of the Henrys considered an article of food fit
-for a king. Thus, the Prince and Poins, according to Falstaff's account,
-found amongst other reasons for their companionship this one: that both
-of them were fond of conger and fennel sauce. In our times its flesh,
-though banished from all aristocratic tables, meets a ready sale at a
-low price among the poorer classes. In the Isle of Man the conger may be
-said to take the place of the poor man's pig; it is his bacon, which he
-would find difficult to save if it were not for these large eels, which
-are caught in great abundance, and sold at the rate of 2_d._ or 3_d._ per
-lb. The Manx men split the congers, and then salt them and hang them up
-to dry on their cottage walls, where they do not exactly contribute to
-perfume the gale.
-
-The Murry or Muræna differs from the common eel by the want of pectoral
-fins, and its beautifully-marked skin. It is said to live with equal
-facility in fresh or salt water, though generally found at sea, and it
-is as common in the Pacific as it is in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.
-The only specimen on record as a British fish was caught by a fisherman
-of Polperro, October 8, 1834; its length was four feet four inches. The
-muræna has acquired a kind of historical celebrity from the strange
-fondness with which it was cherished by the Romans, who preserved large
-quantities of them in their numerous vivaria, as we do the lustrous
-gold-fish in the water-basins of our gardens. A certain Cajus Hirrius,
-who lived in the time of Julius Cæsar, was the first that introduced
-the fashion, which soon became a passion among the wealthy senators and
-knights of the imperial city, who used to deck their especial pets with
-all kinds of ornaments. The celebrated orator, Hortensius, the rival of
-Cicero, had a _piscina_ at Bauli, on the gulf of Baiæ, where he took
-great delight in a favourite murry that would come at his call and feed
-from his hand. When the creature died, he was unable to stop his tears;
-and another celebrated Roman, L. Licinius Crassus, appears to have had
-an equally tender heart, for he, too, wept at the death of his fishy
-darling. Vedius Pollio, a Roman knight, has even acquired through these
-fishes a scandalous renown, by causing now and then a slave that had
-been guilty of some slight offence to be cast alive and naked into their
-piscina, and amusing himself with the sight of the murrys lacerating and
-devouring the body. That this wretch was a friend of the Emperor Augustus
-harmonises but badly with the ideas of the urbanity of his court which
-we may have formed from the poems of Horace and Virgil. It is but fair,
-however, to the character of the emperor to state that he reprobated
-Pollio's cruelty, and ordered his fish-pond to be filled up.
-
-[Illustration: Ammodyte, or Launce.]
-
-The Launces are distinguished from the eels by their large gill openings,
-and their caudal fin being separated from their dorsal and anal fins. The
-common Sand Launce abounds on many parts of our shore. On account of its
-silvery brightness it is highly esteemed by the fishermen as bait for
-their hooks, and its remarkable habit of burrowing in the sand as the
-tide recedes affords easy means of capture. While underground, it most
-likely gets hold of many an unfortunate lob-worm, mollusc, or crustacean,
-but on emerging from its retreat it is in its turn preyed upon by the
-larger fishes. On a calm evening it is an interesting sight to see the
-surface of the water broken by the repeated plunges of the voracious
-mackerel as they burst upon the launces from beneath. On the sands at
-Portobello, near Edinburgh, people of all ages may be seen when the tide
-is out diligently searching for the sand launce, and raking them out with
-iron hooks. On the south coast of Devonshire, where the sand launces are
-extremely plentiful, the fishermen employ a small seine with a fine mesh,
-and are frequently so successful that six or seven bushels are taken
-at one haul. The usual length of the sand launce is from five to seven
-inches. In many localities it is prepared for table, and considered a
-great delicacy.
-
-Although the Lamprey essentially differs from the eel in the formation
-of its gills, the softness of its cartilaginous skeleton, and its
-funnel-shaped mouth provided with sharp teeth, disposed in circles, yet
-it resembles it closely in its outward form. Its colour is generally
-a dull brownish olive, clouded with yellowish-white variegations; the
-fins are tinged with dull orange, and the tail with blue. The Marine
-or Sea Lamprey inhabits the ocean, but ascends the rivers in spring.
-Though capable of swimming with considerable vigour and rapidity, it
-is more commonly seen attached by the mouth to some large stone or
-other substance, the body hanging at rest, or obeying the motion of the
-current. Its power of adhesion is so great that a weight of more than
-twelve pounds may be raised without forcing the fish to quit its hold.
-Like the eel, it is remarkably tenacious of life, the head strongly
-attaching itself for several hours to a stone, though by far the greater
-part of the body be cut away from it. The lamprey is still considered
-as a delicacy; every schoolboy knows that King Henry I. died of an
-indigestion caused by this favourite dish; and the town of Gloucester
-still sends every Christmas a lamprey-pie to Queen Victoria, such as it
-was wont to offer to its sovereign in the days of the Plantagenets and
-Tudors.
-
-[Illustration: Myxine.]
-
-The Myxine, Glutinous Hag, or Borer, bears a near resemblance to the
-lamprey, but stands upon a much inferior degree of organisation, having
-no eyes--(the sole example of blindness among fishes), and a still softer
-skeleton, so that, when boiled, it almost entirely dissolves into mucus.
-In the lamprey and myxine, the branchial cells, which admit water, are
-lined by the delicate membrane through which the blood is aërated. In the
-former, however, the external apertures of the branchial cells are placed
-on the side of the neck; while in the myxine, which feeds on the internal
-parts of its prey, and buries its head and part of its body in the
-flesh, the openings of the respiratory organs are removed sufficiently
-far back to admit of the respiration going on while the animal's head
-is so inserted. Thus, even in this lowest and meanest of all vertebrate
-animals, we find a remarkable adaptation of its construction to its
-wants, and the proof that it has been as well taken care of by its
-Creator as the highest organised creatures of its class.
-
-[Illustration: Porcupine-Fish--(Diodon hystrix.)]
-
-[Illustration: Globe-Fish.]
-
-[Illustration: Short Sun-Fish.--(Orthagoriscus Mola.)]
-
-[Illustration: Trunk-Fish.--(Ostracion triqueter.)]
-
-[Illustration: File-Fish.--(Balistes erythropterus.)]
-
-
-One of the most remarkable orders of fishes is that of the Plectognaths,
-which are distinguished by having the superior maxillary bones and
-the intermaxillaries soldered together so as to render the upper jaw
-immovable, or incapable of projection. Among the Plectognaths, we
-find among others the prickly Globe-fishes and sea-porcupines; the
-curiously-shaped Sun-fishes, all head and no body; the Ostracions
-or Trunk-fishes, clothed like the armadillos in a defensive coat of
-mail, leaving only the tail, fins, mouth, and a small portion of the
-gill-opening, capable of motion; and the gorgeous Balistæ or File-fishes,
-which owe their family-name to the peculiar structure of their first
-dorsal fin. The first and strongest spine of this organ is studded up
-the front with numerous small projections, which, under the microscope,
-look like so many points of enamel or pearl arising from the surface of
-the bone and giving it the appearance of a file. The second smaller spine
-has in the fore part of its base a projection which, when the spines are
-elevated, locks into a corresponding notch in the posterior base of the
-first spine, and fixes it like the trigger of a gun-lock; from which the
-fish is called in Italy _pesce balestra_, or the cross-bow fish. The
-strong spine cannot be forced down till the small one has been first
-depressed and the catch disengaged.
-
-The Plectognaths are mostly denizens of the warmer seas, but the
-pig-faced trigger-fish of the Mediterranean (_Balistes capriscus_) has
-been caught three times in the British waters since 1827, and the short
-sun-fish or molebut, though occurring but occasionally, may be said to
-have been taken from John o' Groat's to the Land's End. It grows to an
-immense size, often attaining the diameter of four feet, sometimes even
-double that size, and occasionally weighing from 300 to 500 pounds.
-When observed in our seas, the sun-fishes have generally appeared as
-though they were dead or dying, floating lazily along on one side and
-making little or no attempt to escape. It is to be presumed that in more
-congenial waters they evince a greater degree of liveliness.
-
-The order of the Lophobranchii is in many respects too curious and
-interesting to be passed over in silence. Here the gills, instead of
-being as usual ranged like the teeth of a comb, are clustered into
-small filamentous tufts placed by pairs along the branchial arches;
-the face projects into a long tubular snout, having the mouth either
-at its extremity, as in the Hippocampus and in the Pipe-fishes, or at
-its base, as in the Pegasus of the Indian seas; and the body is covered
-with shields or small plates, which often give it an angular form,
-and encase it as it were in jointed armour. But the most interesting
-feature of their economy is the pouches in which the males of the most
-characteristic genera carry the eggs until they are hatched. In the
-hippocampi this provision for the safety of the future generation, which
-strongly reminds one of the kangaroo or the opossum, forms a perfect
-sack, opening at its commencement only; in the pipe-fishes it is closed
-along its whole length by two soft flaps folding over each other. Another
-peculiarity of these interesting little fishes is the independent motion
-of their eyes, the one glancing hither and thither while its fellow
-remains motionless, or looks in different directions. This phenomenon of
-_double_ vision, which was long supposed to be peculiar to the chameleon,
-is, however, not confined to this singular reptile or to the hippocampi
-and pipe-fishes, but has been found by Mr. Gosse to exist likewise in
-the Little Weever (_Trachinus vipera_), in the Suckers (_Lepidogastri_),
-a small family remarkable for the power they possess of attaching
-themselves to stones or rocks by means of an adhesive disk on the under
-surface of their bodies, and in several other fishes.
-
-When imprisoned in an aquarium, few subjects of the deep display more
-intelligence or afford more entertainment than the little _Hippocampus
-brevirostris_, or Sea-Horse.
-
-[Illustration: Sea-Horse.]
-
-"While swimming about," says Mr. Lukis,[P] "it maintains a vertical
-position, but the tail, ready to grasp whatever meets it in the water,
-quickly entwines itself in any direction round the weeds, and, when
-fixed, the animal intently watches the surrounding objects, and darts
-at its prey with great dexterity. When two of them approach each other,
-they often twist their tails together, and struggle to separate or attach
-themselves to the weeds; this is done by the under part of their cheeks
-or chin, which is also used for raising the body when a new spot is
-wanted for the tail to fasten upon afresh."
-
-[Footnote P: Yarrell, "British Fishes," 3rd edition, vol. ii. p. 396.]
-
-"In captivity," says Mr. Gosse, "the manners of the Worm Pipe-Fish
-(_Syngnathus lambriciformis_), the smallest of our native species, are
-amusing and engaging. Its beautiful eyes move independently of each
-other, like those of the chameleon, and another point of resemblance to
-that animal our little pipe-fish presents in the prehensile character of
-its tail. It curves just the tip of this organ laterally round the stem
-or frond of some sea-weed and holds on by this half-inch or so, while
-the rest of its body roves to and fro, elevating and depressing the head
-and fore parts, and throwing the body into the most graceful curves. All
-the motions of the Pipe-fish manifest much intelligence. It is a timid
-little thing, retiring from the side of the glass at which it had been
-lying when one approaches, and hiding under the shadow of the sea-weeds,
-which I have put in, both to afford it shelter, and also to supply food
-in the numerous animalcules that inhabit these marine plants. Then it
-cautiously glides among their bushy fronds, and from under their shelter
-peeps with its brilliant eyes at the intruder as if wondering what he
-can be, drawing back gently at any alarming motion. In swimming, it is
-constantly throwing its body into elegant contortions and undulations;
-often it hangs nearly perpendicular with the tail near the surface; now
-and then it butts against the side of the vessel with reiterated blows of
-its nose, as if it could not make out why it should not go forward where
-it can see no impediment. Now it twists about as if it would tie its body
-into a love knot, then hangs motionless in some one of the 'lines of
-beauty' in which it has accidentally paused."
-
-The family of the Pleuronectidæ or Flat-fishes recommends itself to our
-notice as much by the singularity of its form as by its usefulness to
-man. "The want of symmetry," says Yarrell, "so unusual in vertebrated
-animals, is the most striking and distinctive character of these fishes:
-the twisted head with both eyes on the same side, one higher than the
-other, not in the same vertical line, and often unequal in size; the
-mouth cleft awry, and the frequent want of uniformity in those fins that
-are in pairs, the pectoral and ventral fins of the under side being
-generally smaller; and the whole of the colour of the fish confined
-to one side, while the other side remains white, produce a grotesque
-appearance: yet a little consideration will prove that these various and
-seemingly obvious anomalies are perfectly in harmony with that station in
-nature which an animal possessing such conformation is appointed to fill.
-
-"As birds are seen to occupy very different situations, some obtaining
-their food on the ground, others on trees, and not a few at various
-degrees of elevation in the air, so are fishes destined to reside in
-different depths of water. The flat-fishes and the various species of
-skate are, by their depressed form of body, admirably adapted to inhabit
-the lowest position, where they occupy the least space among their
-kindred fishes."
-
-"Preferring sandy or muddy shores, the place of the flat-fish is close
-to the ground; where, hiding their bodies horizontally in the loose soil
-at the bottom, with the head only slightly elevated, an eye on the under
-side of the head would be useless; but as both eyes are placed on the
-upper surface, an extensive range of view is afforded in those various
-directions in which they may either endeavour to find suitable food or
-avoid dangerous enemies. Light, one great cause of colour, strikes on the
-upper surface only; the under surface, like that of most other fishes,
-remains perfectly colourless. Having little or no means of defence,
-had their colour been placed only above the lateral line on each side,
-in whatever position they moved their piebald appearance would have
-rendered them conspicuous objects to all their enemies. When near the
-ground, they swim slowly, maintaining their horizontal position; and the
-smaller pectoral and ventral fins, on the under side, are advantageous
-where there is so much less room for their action than with the larger
-fins that are above. When suddenly disturbed, they sometimes make a rapid
-shoot, changing their position from horizontal to vertical; and, if the
-observer happens to be opposite the white side, they may be seen to pass
-with the rapidity and flash of a meteor. Soon, however, they sink down
-again, resuming their previous motionless horizontal position, and are
-then distinguished with difficulty, owing to their great similarity in
-colour to the surface on which they rest."
-
-The number of species of the flat-fishes diminishes as the degrees of
-northern latitude increase. In this country we have twenty-three species;
-at the parallel of Jutland there are thirteen; on the coast of Norway
-they are reduced to ten; in Iceland the number is but five, and in
-Greenland only three.
-
-[Illustration: Halibut.]
-
-Many of them attain a considerable size, particularly the Halibut
-(_Pleuronectes hippoglossus_). In April 1828 a specimen seven feet six
-inches long and three feet six inches broad was taken off the Isle of
-Man, and sent to Edinburgh market. Olafsen mentions that he saw one which
-measured five ells; and we are told by the Norwegian fishermen that a
-single halibut will sometimes cover a whole skiff. Let us, however,
-remember that these stories proceed from the country where monstrous
-krakens and sea-snakes are most frequently seen, and where the mists of
-the north seem to produce strange delusions of vision. At all events, the
-halibut is better entitled to the name of _maximus_ than its relation the
-Turbot, to which that epithet has been improperly applied by naturalists.
-The turbot, equally esteemed by the ancients and the moderns for the
-delicacy of its flesh, is often confounded in our markets with the
-halibut, but may be easily recognised by the large unequal and obtuse
-tubercles on its upper part.
-
-[Illustration: Turbot.]
-
-The number of turbot brought to Billingsgate within twelve months, up to
-a recent period, was 87,958. Though very considerable quantities of this
-fish are now taken on various parts of our own coasts, from the Orkneys
-to the Land's End, yet a preference is given to those caught by the Dutch
-fishermen, who are supposed to draw not less than 80,000_l._ for the
-supply of the London market alone. According to Mr. Low, it is rare along
-our most northern shores, but increases in numbers on proceeding to the
-south.
-
-[Illustration: Sole.]
-
-Next to the turbot, the Sole is reckoned the most delicate of the
-flat-fishes. It inhabits the sandy shore all round our coast, where it
-keeps close to the bottom, indiscriminately feeding on smaller testaceous
-animals, crustacea, annelides, radiata, and the spawn and fry of other
-fishes. It is found northward as far as the Baltic and the seas of
-Scandinavia, and southward along the shores of Spain, Portugal, and the
-Mediterranean. The consumption is enormous, for Mr. Bertram informs us
-that no less than 100,000,000 soles are annually brought to the London
-market.[Q] They seldom take any bait, and are caught almost entirely by
-trawling. The principal fishing-ground in England is along the south
-coast from Sussex to Devonshire, where the soles are much larger and
-considered otherwise superior to those of the north and east. On the
-Devonshire coast, the great fishing-station is at Brixham in Torbay,
-where the boats, using large trawling nets from thirty to thirty-six feet
-in beam, produce a continual supply.
-
-[Footnote Q: We are told by the same author ("Harvest of the Seas,"
-Murray, 1866) that 500,000 cod-fish, 25,000,000 mackerel, 35,000,000
-plaice, and 200,000,000 haddocks, &c., form the yearly supply of the
-metropolis, which, besides this immense number of white-fish, consumes
-50,000,000 red herrings and 1,600,000 dried cod. These, with the addition
-of Molluscous shell-fish (oysters, &c.) to the amount of 920,000,000,
-and a daily demand for 10,000 lobsters during the season, afford an
-instructive indication of what must be the requirement of the whole
-population of the United Kingdom as regards fish food.
-
-The Report of the Commissioners appointed in the year 1863 to enquire
-into the sea-fisheries of the United Kingdom gives us the gratifying
-intelligence that the number of fishermen in Great Britain has nearly
-doubled within the last twenty years, while the boats are increasing
-in number and size. No class of the population is said to be in a more
-flourishing condition; and this prosperity is no doubt mainly due to
-the railroads, which have opened throughout the whole kingdom a ready
-market for the produce of the seas. In Ireland, however, there has been
-a diminution of 10,583 boats and 52,127 men within the same time; a
-consequence of the famine of 1848, and subsequent emigration.]
-
-[Illustration: Plaice.]
-
-The Plaice and Flounder, though far inferior to the sole in quality, are
-still in great request as articles of food. On the English coast, the
-plaice are obtained in abundance on all sandy banks and muddy grounds,
-wherever either lines or trawl-nets can be used. On the sandy flats of
-the Solway Frith, they are taken by the fishermen and their families
-wading in the shoal water with bare feet. When a fish is felt, it is
-pressed by the foot firmly against the bottom until it can be secured by
-the hand and transferred to the basket. Long practice gives the dexterity
-which renders this kind of fishing successful.
-
-In some parts of the North of Europe, where from the rocky nature of
-the soil the sea is remarkably transparent, plaice and some other
-flat-fish of large size are taken by dropping down upon them from a boat
-a doubly-barbed short spear, heavily leaded, to carry it with velocity
-to the bottom, with a line attached to it, by which the fish, when
-transfixed, is hauled up.
-
-[Illustration: The Flounder.]
-
-The Flounder, one of the most common of the flat-fish, is found in
-the sea and near the mouths of large streams all round our coast,
-particularly where the bottom is soft, whether of sand, clay, or mud. It
-also ascends the rivers, and is caught in considerable quantities from
-Deptford to Richmond by Thames fishermen, who, with the assistance of an
-apprentice, use a net of a particular sort, called a tuck-sean. "One end
-of this net," says Yarrell, "is fixed for a short time by an anchor or
-grapple, and its situation marked by a floating buoy; the boat is then
-rowed or rather sculled by the apprentice in a circle, the fisherman near
-the stern handing out and clearing the net: when the circle is completed
-and a space enclosed, the net is hauled in near the starting-point in a
-direction across the fixed end."
-
-The Sail-fluke, a species of flat-fish common among the Orkneys, where it
-is highly prized as an article of food, its flesh being firm and white,
-is remarkable for its curious habit of coming ashore spontaneously, with
-its tail erected above the water, like a boat under sail, whence it has
-derived its name. This it does generally in calm weather, and on sandy
-shores, and the country people residing near such places train their dogs
-to catch it. In North Ronaldshay, the northernmost island of the group, a
-considerable supply is obtained in an original manner: thus described in
-a letter from a resident inserted in Yarrell's "British Fishes:" "In the
-winter and early spring, a pair of black-headed gulls take possession of
-the South Bay, drive away all interlopers, and may be seen at daybreak
-every morning, beating from side to side, on the wing, and never both in
-one place, except in the act of crossing as they pass. The sail-fluke
-skims the ridge of the wave towards the shore with its tail raised over
-its back, and when the wave recedes is left on the sand, into which
-it burrows so suddenly and completely that, though I have watched its
-approach, only once have I succeeded in finding its burrow.
-
-"The gull, however, has a surer eye, and casting like a hawk pounces on
-the fluke, from which, by one stroke of its bill, it extracts the liver.
-If not disturbed, the gull no sooner gorges the luscious morsel than
-it commences dragging the fish to some outlying rock, where he and his
-consort may discuss it at leisure. By robbing the black backs, I have
-had the house supplied daily with this excellent fish, in weather during
-which no fishing-boat could put to sea. Close to the beach of South Bay,
-a stone wall has been raised to shelter the crops from the sea-spray.
-Behind this we posted a smart lad, who kept his eye on the soaring gulls.
-The moment one of the birds made its well-known swoop, the boy rushed to
-the sea-strand shouting out with all his might. He was usually in time
-to scare the gull away and secure the fluke, but almost in every case
-with the liver torn out. If the gull by chance succeeded in carrying his
-prey off the rock, he and his partner set up a triumphant cackling, as if
-deriding the disappointed lad."
-
-[Illustration: Thornback.]
-
-The Rays resemble the side-swimmers by the flatness of their form, but
-differ widely from them in many other particulars. Like the sharks and
-sturgeons, they belong to the cartilaginous fishes, and as their branchiæ
-adhere to the cells, these respiratory membranes are not furnished with
-a gill-cover, but communicate freely with the water by means of five
-spiracles on either side. More unsightly fishes can hardly be conceived.
-The rhomboidal broad body, the long narrow tail frequently furnished with
-two and sometimes three small fins, and mostly armed with one or more
-rows of sharp spines along its whole length, the dirty colour, and the
-thick coat of slime with which it is covered, render them pre-eminently
-disgusting. Their mode of defending themselves is very effectual, and
-forms a striking contrast to the helplessness of the flat fish. The point
-of the nose and the base of the tail are bent upwards towards each other,
-and the upper surface of the body being then concave, the tail is lashed
-about in all directions over it, and the rows of sharp spines frequently
-inflict severe wounds.
-
-Eleven species of rays are found on the British coasts, some, like the
-skates, with a perfectly smooth skin; others, like the thornback, with
-an upper surface studded with spines, and some, like the sting-ray,
-with a tail still more powerfully armed with a long serrated spine: a
-formidable weapon, which the fish strikes with the swiftness of an arrow
-into its prey or enemy, when with its winding tail it makes the capture
-secure. The lacerations inflicted by the tropical sting-rays produce the
-most excruciating tortures. An Indian who accompanied Richard Schomburgk
-on his travels through Guiana, being hit by one of these fishes while
-fording a river, tottered to the bank, where he fell upon the ground and
-rolled about on the sand with compressed lips in an agony of pain. But no
-tear started from the eye, no cry of anguish issued from the breast, of
-the stoical savage. An Indian boy wounded in the some manner, but less
-able to master his emotions, howled fearfully, and flung himself upon the
-sand, biting it in the paroxysm of his anguish. Although both had been
-hit in the foot, they felt the severest pain in the loins, in the region
-of the heart, and in the arm-pits. A robust man, wounded by a sting-ray,
-died in Demarara under the most dreadful convulsions.
-
-The rays are very voracious; their food consists of any sort of fish,
-mollusc, annelide, or crustacean, that they can catch. So powerful are
-their muscles and jaws that they are able to crush the strong shell of a
-crab with the greatest ease. Even in our seas they attain a considerable
-size. Thomas Willoughby makes mention of a single skate of two hundred
-pounds' weight, which was sold in the fish market at Cambridge to the
-cook of St. John's College, and was found sufficient for the dinner of
-a society, consisting of more than a hundred and twenty persons. Dr. G.
-Johnston measured a sharp-nosed ray at Berwick, which was seven feet
-nine inches long and eight feet three inches broad. But our European
-rays are far from equalling the colossal dimensions of the sea-devil of
-the Pacific. This terrific monster swims fast, and often appears on the
-surface of the ocean, where its black unwieldy back looks like a huge
-stone projecting above the waters. It attains a breadth of twelve or
-fifteen feet, and Lesson was presented by a fisherman of Borabora with
-a tail five feet long. The Society Islanders catch the hideous animal
-with harpoons, and make use of its rough skin as rasps or files in the
-manufacture of their wooden utensils.
-
-Creatures so voracious and well armed as the rays would have attained
-a dangerous supremacy in the maritime domains had they equalled most
-other fishes in fecundity. Fortunately for their neighbours, they seldom
-produce more than one young at a time, which, as in the sharks, is
-enclosed in a four-cornered capsule ending in slender points, but not, as
-in the former, produced into long filaments.
-
-Thus nature has in this case set bounds to the increase of a race which
-else might have destroyed the balance of marine existence; in most
-fishes, however, she has been obliged to provide against the danger of
-extinction by a prodigal abundance of new germs. If the cod did not
-annually produce more than nine millions of eggs, and the sturgeon more
-than seven; if the flat-fish, mackerels, and herrings, did not multiply
-by hundreds of thousands, they could not possibly maintain themselves
-against the vast number of their enemies. "Not one egg too much," every
-one will say who considers that of all the myriads of germs which are
-deposited on the shallow sand-banks and shores to be quickened by the
-fructifying warmth of the sun, not one in a hundred comes to life, as
-fishes and molluscs, crabs and radiata, devour the spawn with equal
-voracity; that a thousand dangers await the young defenceless fry, since
-everywhere in the oceanic realms no other right is known than that of
-the stronger; and that, finally, the insatiable rapacity of man is
-continually extirpating millions on millions of the full-grown fishes.
-But if very few of this much-persecuted race die a natural death, a life
-of liberty makes them some amends for their violent end. The tortured
-cart-horse or the imprisoned nightingale would, if they could reflect,
-willingly exchange their hard lot and joyless existence for the free
-life of the independent fish, who, from the greater simplicity of his
-structure, his want of higher sensibilities, his excellent digestion,
-and the more equal temperature of the element in which he lives, remains
-unmolested by many of the diseases to which the warm-blooded and
-particularly the domestic animals are subject.
-
-[Illustration: Dory.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XIII.
-
-CRUSTACEA.
-
-CRABS--LOBSTERS.
-
-  How are they distinguished from the Insects?--Barnacles and
-  Acorn-shells.--Siphonostomata.--Entomostraca.--King-Crab.
-  --Edriophthalmia.--Sandhoppers.--Thoracostraca.--Compound
-  Eye of the higher Crustaceans.--Respiratory Apparatus of the
-  Decapods.--Digestive Organs.--Chelæ or Pincers.--Distribution
-  of Crabs.--Land Crabs.--The Calling Crab.--Modifications of the
-  Legs in different species.--The Pinna and Pinnotheres.--Hermit
-  Crabs.--The Lobster.--The Cocoa-nut Crab.--The Shrimp.--Moulting
-  Process.--Metamorphoses of Crabs.--Victims and Enemies of the
-  Crustaceans.--Their Fecundity.--Marine Spiders and Insects.
-
-[Illustration: Barnacle.]
-
-[Illustration: Balanus ovularis.]
-
-[Illustration: Development of Balanus balanoides.--(Acorn-shell.)
-
-A. Earliest form. B. Larva after second moult. C. Side view of the same.
-D. Stage immediately preceding the loss of activity. _a._ Stomach. _b._
-Nucleus of future attachment.]
-
-The Crustaceans were included by Linnæus among his insects, but their
-internal structure presents such numerous and important differences
-that modern naturalists have raised them to the dignity of a separate
-class. They have indeed, in common with the insects, an articulated body,
-generally cased with hard materials; they are like them provided with
-jointed legs, with antennæ or feelers, and their organs of mastication
-are similarly formed; but insects breathe atmospheric air through lateral
-pores or tracheæ, while the crustaceans, being either aquatic animals
-or constantly frequenting very damp places, have a branchial or a
-tegumentary respiration. The perfect insect undergoes no further change;
-the crustacean, on the contrary, increases in size with every successive
-year. The higher crustacean possesses a heart, which propels the blood,
-after it has been aërated in the gills, to every part of the body; in the
-insect the circulation of the blood is by no means so highly organised.
-On the other hand many of the insects are far superior in point of
-intelligence to even the best endowed crustaceans, for here we find no
-parental care, no mutual affection, no joint labours for the welfare of
-a large community, no traces of an amiable disposition, but frequent
-outbursts of an irascible and sanguinary temper. Though the whole of the
-Crustacea are formed after one and the same general type, and the same
-fundamental idea may be traced throughout all their tribes, yet the rings
-of which their body is composed, and the limbs or appendages attached to
-these segments, undergo such extensive modifications of structure in the
-various orders into which the class has been divided that even the eye
-of science has with difficulty made out the true nature of many of their
-lowest forms. Who, for instance, judging from outward appearances alone,
-would suppose that the Barnacles and Acorn-shells which he sees riveted
-to the rock or to a piece of floating timber were relations of the crab
-or lobster; but a view of their early forms at once points out their real
-character, for then they appear as active little animals possessing three
-pairs of legs and a pair of compound eyes, and having the body covered
-with an expanded shield like that of many of the lower crustaceans.
-After going through a series of metamorphoses, these larvæ, tired of a
-roaming life, attach themselves by their head, a portion of which becomes
-excessively elongated into the "peduncle" of the Barnacles, whilst in
-the Balani or acorn-shells it expands into a broad disk of adhesion. The
-multivalve shell is gradually formed, the eyes are cast away as being
-no longer needed, and the now useless feet are replaced by six pairs of
-extremely useful _cirrhi_, long, slender, many-jointed, tendril-like
-appendages fringed with delicate filaments and covered with vibratile
-cilia. These cirrhi, which resemble a plume of purple feathers, and from
-whose peculiar character the name of the group, Cirrhipoda, is derived,
-are constantly in motion as long as they are bathed in water, projecting
-outwards and expanding into an oval concave net, then retracting inwards,
-and closing upon whatever may have come within their reach. They are
-so judiciously placed that any small animal which becomes entangled
-within them can rarely escape, and is at once conveyed to the mouth. The
-currents produced in the water by their perpetual activity serve also to
-aërate the blood, so that these delicate organs act both as gills and
-as prehensile arms. In spite of their sessile condition, the Cirrhipeds
-have not been left without protection against hostile attacks, for at the
-approach of danger they shrink within their shell, and close its orifice
-against a host of hungry intruders.
-
-Their various families are widely spread over the seas. It is well known
-that the barnacles frequently attach themselves in such vast numbers to
-ships' bottoms as materially to obstruct their way, and the acorn-shells
-often line the coasts for miles and miles with their large white scurfy
-patches. The Coronulæ settle so profusely on the skin of the Greenland
-whale as often to hide the colour of its skin, while the Tubicinellæ
-exclusively occur on the huge cetaceans of the South Sea. Some of the
-larger sea-acorns are highly esteemed as articles of food. The Chinese,
-after eating the animal of _Balanus tintinnabulum_ with salt and vinegar,
-use the shell, which is about two or three inches high and an inch in
-diameter, as a lamp, and the flesh of _Balanus psittacus_ on the southern
-parts of the South American coast is said to equal in richness and
-delicacy that of the crab.
-
-While the Cirrhipeds grasp their prey as in a living net, the
-Siphonostomata lead a parasitic life chiefly upon fishes, sucking their
-juices with a bloodthirsty proboscis. Some (Argulus, Caligus) wander
-about freely on the body of their victims as grazing animals on their
-pasture grounds, or even make excursions in the water, where they will
-turn over and over several times in succession like mountebanks; others
-(Lerneæ), after having, like the barnacles, indulged in a vagabond
-existence in their first youth, remain ever after clinging to the spot
-on which they originally settled, and where their body undergoes such
-remarkable transformations that not a vestige of the crustacean structure
-which characterised their erratic life remains.
-
-As we continue to proceed from the lower to the higher forms, we find,
-on the next stage of crustacean life, the numerous families of the
-Entomostraca; some bristly-footed (Lophyropoda), with a small number
-of legs and with respiratory organs attached to the parts in the
-neighbourhood of the mouth, others gill-footed (Branchiopoda), with
-numerous foliaceous legs, serving both for respiration and swimming. Some
-of these creatures, which are generally of such minute size as to be only
-just visible to the naked eye, have an unprotected body (Branchipus),
-but generally they are enclosed within a horny or shelly casing, which
-sometimes closely resembles a bivalve shell in shape and in the mode
-of junction of its parts, whilst in other instances it forms a kind of
-buckler, an opening being left behind, through which the members project.
-
-[Illustration: King-Crab.]
-
-Though enjoying a royal title, the King-crabs, or Limuli, occupy in
-reality but a low rank among the crustaceans, and are hardly superior
-in organisation to the Entomostraca. They are of large size, sometimes
-attaining the length of two feet, and of a very singular structure, the
-bases of the legs performing the part of jaws. The best-known species
-comes from the Moluccas, where they are often seen slowly swimming in the
-sheltered bays, or still more slowly crawling along upon the sandy shores.
-
-[Illustration: Sandhopper.]
-
-In the Edriophthalmia are included the lower crustaceans that have
-no carapace, and whose thorax and abdomen are distinctly composed of
-articulated segments. The numerous legs are variously formed in the
-different genera for springing, walking, or swimming; and respiration
-is executed by certain portions of the extremities, modified for this
-purpose in their structure. To this order belong among others the
-saltatorial sandhoppers (Talitrus), which so frequently jump up before
-our feet when walking on the wet sea-sand; the ill-famed Cheluræ and
-Linnoriæ, whose devastations in submerged timber almost rival those of
-the ship-worm, and the parasitical Cyami, which gnaw deep holes into the
-skin of the whale. The sandhoppers are extremely frequent on the shores
-of the arctic seas, where they emulate the tropical ants in their speedy
-removal of decaying animal substances. Thus Captain Holböll relates that,
-having enclosed a piece of shark's flesh in a basket, and let it down to
-a depth of seventy-five fathoms, in the Greenland sea, he by this means
-caught within two hours six quarts of these little creatures, while a
-vast number still followed the basket as it was hauled up.
-
-
-[Illustration: Chelura terebrans.]
-
-[Illustration: Limnoria lignorum.]
-
-[Illustration: Square facets of Scyllarus.]
-
-[Illustration: Hexagonal facets of Squilla.]
-
-As the lower crustaceans offer but few points of interest to the general
-reader, they required but a few words of notice; but the highest order of
-the class, the Thoracostraca, thus named from the carapace which covers
-their thorax, so that only the abdomen presents an annular structure,
-may justly claim a more ample description. The preceding orders had
-either sessile eyes or none at all; here the movable eyes are fixed on
-stalks and of a compound structure like those of the insects; each ocular
-globe consisting of a number of distinct parallel columns, every one of
-which is provided with its own crystalline lens, receives its separate
-impression of light, and is thus in itself a perfect eye. Approaches to
-this structure are seen in some of the lower crustaceans; but here the
-"ocelli," as these minute individual eyes have been designated, are very
-numerous. They are at once recognised, under even a low magnifying power,
-by the facetted appearance of the surface of the compound eye, the facets
-being either square (Scyllari, &c.) or more commonly hexagonal (Paguri,
-Squillæ, &c). The auditory apparatus is likewise highly developed; the
-sense of smell is known to be very acute; and the antennæ are delicate
-organs of touch.
-
-The Thoracostraca are subdivided into the small group of the Stomatopoda,
-whose branchiæ are external and the feet prehensile or formed for
-swimming, and the far more numerous and important Decapods, which are
-either long-tailed like the scyllarus or short-tailed like the crab. In
-these the branchiæ no longer float in the water, but are enclosed in two
-chambers, situated one at each side of the under surface of the broad
-shelly plate which covers the back of the animal. Each of these chambers
-is provided with two apertures, one in the front near the jaws, the other
-behind.
-
-[Illustration: Scyllarus equinoxialis.]
-
-The disposition of the anterior or efferent orifice varies but little;
-but in the long-tailed species the afferent or posterior orifice is a
-wide slit at the basis of the feet, while in the short-tailed kinds it
-forms a small transverse aperture generally placed almost immediately
-in front of the first pair of ambulatory extremities. By means of this
-formation, the short-tailed decapods or crabs, like those fishes that
-are provided with a narrow opening to their gill covers, are enabled
-to exist much longer out of the water than the long-tailed lobsters.
-Some of them even spend most of their time on land; and, still better
-to adapt them for a terrestrial life, the internal surfaces of the
-branchial caverns are lined with a spongy texture, and the gill branches
-separated from each other by hard partitions, so as to prevent them from
-collapsing after a long penury of water and thus completely stopping the
-circulation. While in fishes the water that serves for respiration flows
-from the front backwards, so as not to impede their motions, we find
-in the interior of the branchial cavity of the decapods a large valve
-attached to the second pair of maxillary feet, which, continually falling
-and rising, occasions a rapid current from behind forwards in the water
-with which the cavity is filled, a structure perfectly harmonising with
-their retrograde or sidelong movements.
-
-The digestive apparatus of the decapods is of a very complicated
-structure. The mouth is here furnished with at least eight pieces or
-pairs of jaws, which pass the food through an extremely short gullet
-into a stomach of considerable size. This stomach is rendered curious
-by having within certain cartilaginous appendages, to which strong
-grinding-teeth are attached. These are placed at the outlet of the
-stomach, so that the aliment, after being subjected to the action of
-the jaws, is again more perfectly comminuted by the stomach-teeth
-before entering the digestive tube. The different pieces composing the
-masticatory apparatus of the stomach vary considerably in the different
-genera, and even in the several species of the same genus; but in every
-case they are always singularly in harmony with the kind of food taken
-and the general habits of the animal.
-
-To enable the decapods to seize their victims or to defend themselves
-against their enemies, their anterior thoracic extremities generally
-assume the form of "chelæ," claws, or pincers of considerable strength,
-armed with teeth or sharp hooks, which give them increased powers
-of prehension. This form results mainly from the state of extreme
-development in which the penultimate articulation frequently occurs,
-and its assumption of the shape of a finger by the prolongation of one
-of its inferior angles. Against the finger-like process thus produced,
-which is of great strength, and quite immovable, the last articulation
-can be brought to bear with immense force, as it is put into motion by
-a muscular mass of great size, and in relation with the extraordinary
-development of the penultimate articulation. In most cases only the
-first pair of legs is converted into these formidable weapons, but in
-the Dromiæ, which are very common in the warmer seas, we find the two
-posterior pairs of legs, which are of a much smaller size, and raised
-above the plane of the others, similarly armed. These posterior claws,
-however, are not intended for active warfare, but merely for strategical
-purposes, as they serve to hold fast the pieces of sponges, shells,
-medusæ, and other marine productions, under whose cover the wily robber
-approaches and entraps his prey.
-
-[Illustration: Dromia Vulgaris.]
-
-While the lower crustaceans abound in the polar seas, the crabs are
-completely wanting in those desolate regions; their number increases
-with the warmer temperature of the waters, and attains its maximum in
-the tropical zone. Here we find the most remarkable and various forms,
-here they attain a size unknown in our seas; and here they do not, as
-with us, inhabit solely the salt waters, but also people the brooks
-and rivers, or even constantly sojourn on land,--as, for instance, the
-_Thelphusæ_ and _Gecarcini_. There are even some species of land-crabs
-that suffocate when dipped into water. They breathe indeed through
-branchiæ, but the small quantity of oxygen dissolved in water does not
-suffice for the wants of their active respiration. They generally live
-in the shades of the damp forests, often at a great distance from the
-sea, concealing themselves in holes. At breeding time they generally seek
-the shore for the purpose of washing off their spawn, and depositing it
-in the sand, and no obstruction will then make them deviate from the
-straight path. They feed on vegetable substances, and are reckoned very
-excellent food. When taken, they will seize the person's finger with
-their claw, and endeavour to escape, leaving the claw behind, which for
-some time after it has been separated from the body, continues to give
-the finger a friendly squeeze. In the dusk of the evening they quit their
-holes, and may then be seen running about with great swiftness.
-
-[Illustration: Jamaica Land-Crab.]
-
-All sandy and muddy coasts of the tropical seas, affording sufficient
-protection against a heavy sea, swarm with crabs. In the East and West
-Indies the Gelasimi bore in every direction circular holes in the moist
-black soil of the coast. One of the claws of these remarkable creatures
-is much larger than the other, so as sometimes to surpass in size the
-whole remainder of the body. They make use of it as a door, to close the
-entrance of their dwelling, and when running swiftly along, carry it
-upright over the head, so that it seems to beckon like an outstretched
-hand. One might fancy the crab moved it as in derision of its pursuers,
-telling them by pantomimic signs, "Catch me if you can!"
-
-[Illustration: Large-Clawed Calling-Crab.]
-
-As soon as the ebbing flood lays bare the swampy grounds of the mangrove
-woods, myriads of animals are seen wallowing in the pestiferous mud. Here
-a fish jumps about, there a holothuria crawls, and crabs run along by
-thousands in every direction. The black mud along the coast of Borneo
-assumes quite a brilliant blue tinge, when, at low water, during the heat
-of the day, the cœrulean Gelasimi come forth to feed.
-
-[Illustration: Calling-Crab of Ceylon.]
-
-The Venetian lagoons also harbour a vast number of the common Shore-Crab
-(_Portunus Mænas_), the catching of which affords a profitable employment
-to the inhabitants of those swampy regions. Whole cargoes are sent to
-Istria, where they are used as bait for anchovies. The fishermen gather
-them a short time before they cast their shell, and preserve them in
-baskets, until the moulting process has been effected, when they are
-reckoned a delicacy even on the best tables. On attempting to seize this
-crab, it runs rapidly sideways, and conceals itself in the mud; but when
-unsuccessful, it raises itself with a menacing mien, beats its claws
-noisily together, as if in defiance of the enemy, and prepares for a
-valiant defence, like a true knight.
-
-The most valuable short-tailed crustacean of the North Sea is undoubtedly
-the Great Crab (_Cancer pagurus_), which attains a weight of from four to
-five pounds, and is consumed by thousands in the summer, when it is in
-season and heaviest. It is caught in wicker-baskets, arranged so as to
-permit an easy entrance, while egress is not to be thought of.
-
-The legs of the crabs are very differently formed in various species.
-In those which have been called sea-spiders they are very long, thin,
-and weak, so that the animal swims badly, and is a slow and uncertain
-pedestrian. For greater security it therefore generally seeks a greater
-depth, where, concealed among the sea-weeds, it wages war with annelides,
-planarias, and small mollusks. Sea-spiders are often found on the
-oyster-banks, and considered injurious by the fishermen, who unmercifully
-destroy them whenever they get hold of them.
-
-In other species the legs are short, muscular, and powerful, so as
-rapidly to carry along the comparatively light body. The tropical
-land-crabs and the genera _Ocypoda_ and _Grapsus_, which form the link
-between the former and the real sea-crabs, are particularly distinguished
-in this respect.
-
-The Rider or Racer (_Ocypoda cursor_), who is found on the coasts of
-Syria and Barbary, and abounds at Cape de Verde, owes his name to his
-swiftness, which is such that even a man on horseback is said not to
-be able to overtake him. The West Indian ocypodas dig holes three or
-four feet deep, immediately above high-water mark, and leave them after
-dusk. Towards the end of October they retire further inland, and bury
-themselves for the winter in similar holes, the opening of which they
-carefully conceal.
-
-[Illustration: American Sand-Crab.]
-
-In the Portuni, or true Sea-crabs, finally, we find the hind pair of legs
-flattened like fins, so that they would cut but a sorry figure on the
-land, but are all the better able to row about in their congenial element.
-
-[Illustration: Spotted Fin-Crab.]
-
-A strange peculiarity of many crabs is the quantity of parasites they
-carry along with them on their backs. Many marine productions, both
-of a vegetable and animal nature, have their birth and grow to beauty
-on the shell of the sea-spider. Corallines, sponges, zoophytes, algæ,
-may thus be found, and balani occasionally cover the entire upper
-surface of the body of the crab. "All the examples of the _Inachus
-Dorsettensis_ which I have taken," says the distinguished naturalist,
-Mr. W. Thompson of Belfast, "were invested with sponge, which generally
-covers over the body, arms, and legs; algæ and zoophytes likewise spring
-from it." In this extraneous matter some of the smaller zoophytes find
-shelter, and, together with the other objects, render the capture of
-the _Inachus Dorsettensis_ interesting far beyond its own acquisition.
-In Mr. Hyndman's collection, there is a sea-spider carrying on its back
-an oyster much larger than itself, and covered besides with numerous
-barnacles. Like Atlas, the poor creature groaned under a world.
-
-The extraneous matters which so many crabs carry along with them are,
-however, far from being always a useless burden; they are often a
-warlike stratagem, under cover of which the sly crustacean entraps many
-a choice morsel. Thus Bennett witnessed at Otaheite the proceedings of
-an interesting Hyas species, which disguised itself by investing its
-body with a covering of decayed vegetable substances and coral-sand. The
-better to ensnare its prey, the back was covered with rigid and incurved
-bristles, calculated to retain the extraneous substances, while the short
-and well concealed forceps-claws were ready for the attack, and the
-ophthalmic peduncles, curving upward to raise the eyes above the pile of
-materials, gave the wily crab the great advantage of seeing without being
-seen. As soon as an unfortunate mollusk, unsuspicious of evil, approached
-the lurking ruffian, he darted upon it like an arrow, and, ere it could
-recover its presence of mind, was busy tearing it to pieces.
-
-[Illustration: Pea-Crab.]
-
-If many crabs are burdened with small animals and plants, others live
-parasitically in the shells of mollusks. Thus the small _Pinnotheres
-veterum_ claims the hospitality of the Pinna, a large bivalve of the
-Mediterranean. The ancients supposed that this was a friendly connection,
-an _entente cordiale_, formed for mutual defence: that the Pinna,
-being destitute of eyes, and thus exposed when he opened his shell to
-the attacks of the cuttle-fish and other enemies, was warned of their
-approach by his little lodger, upon which he immediately closed his shell
-and both were safe. Unfortunately, there is not a word of truth in the
-whole story. The sole reason why the Pinnotheres takes up its abode under
-a stranger's roof is the softness of its own integuments, which otherwise
-would leave it utterly defenceless; nor does the Pinna show the least
-sign of affection for its guest, who, on returning from an excursion,
-often finds it very difficult to slip again into the shell.
-
-[Illustration: Pinna Augustana.]
-
-According to Mr. Thompson, the _Modiola vulgaris_, a species of mussel
-very common on the Irish coast, almost always harbours several parasitic
-crabs (_Pinnotheres pisum_). At Heligoland, Dr. Oetker, to whom we are
-indebted for the best work on that interesting island, scarce ever found
-a modiola without several guests of this description, while he never
-could find any in oysters, mussels, and other nearly related species.
-What may the reason be of either this predilection or that desertion?
-
-The numerous family of the Paguri, or Hermit crabs, is also condemned
-by its formation to lead a parasitic and robber-life. The fore part of
-the body is indeed, as in other crabs, armed with claws and covered with
-a shield, but ends in a long soft tail provided with one or two small
-hooks. How then are the poor creatures to help themselves? The hind part
-is not formed for swimming, and its weight prevents them from running.
-Thus nothing remains for them but to look about them for some shelter,
-and this is afforded them by several conchiform shells, _buccina_,
-_neritæ_, in which they so tenaciously insert their hooked tails, as if
-both were grown together. So long as they are young and feeble, they
-content themselves with such shells as they find empty on the strand, but
-when grown to maturity, they attack living specimens, seize with their
-sharp claws the snail, ere it can withdraw into its shell, and after
-devouring its flesh, creep without ceremony into the conquered dwelling,
-which fits them like a coat when they take a walk, and the mouth of which
-they close when at rest with their largest forceps, in the same manner
-as the original possessor used his operculum or lid. How remarkable that
-an animal should thus find in another creature belonging to a totally
-different class, the completion, as it were, of its being, and be
-indebted to it for the protecting cover which its own skin is unable to
-secrete!
-
-[Illustration: Diogenes Hermit Crab.]
-
-When the dwelling of the pagurus becomes inconveniently narrow, the
-remedy is easy, for appropriate sea-shells abound wherever hermit crabs
-exist. They are found on almost every coast, and every new scientific
-voyage makes us acquainted with new species. According to Quoy and
-Gaimard, they are particularly numerous at the Ladrones, New Guinea,
-and Timor. The strand of the small island of Kewa, in Coupang Bay, was
-entirely covered with them. In the heat of the day they seek the shade
-of the bushes; but as soon as the cool of evening approaches, they come
-forth by thousands. Although they make all large snail-houses answer
-their purposes, they seem in this locality to prefer the large Sea
-Nerites.
-
-The famous East Indian Cocoa-nut Crab (_Birgus latro_), a kind of
-intermediate link between the short and long tailed crabs, bears a
-great resemblance to the paguri. It is said to climb the palm-trees, for
-the sake of detaching the heavy nuts; but Mr. Darwin, who attentively
-observed the animal on the Keeling Islands, tells us that it merely
-lives upon those that spontaneously fall from the tree. To extract its
-nourishment from the hard case, it shows an ingenuity which is one of
-the most wonderful instances of animal instinct. It must first of all be
-remarked, that its front pair of legs is terminated by very strong and
-heavy pincers, the last pair by others, narrow and weak. After having
-selected a nut fit for its dinner, the crab begins its operations by
-tearing the husk, fibre by fibre, from that end under which the three
-eye-holes are situated; it then hammers upon one of them with its heavy
-claws, until an opening is made. Hereupon it turns round, and by the
-aid of its posterior pincers, extracts the white albuminous substance.
-It inhabits deep burrows, where it accumulates surprising quantities of
-picked fibres of cocoa-nut husks, on which it rests as on a bed. Its
-habits are diurnal; but every night it is said to pay a visit to the sea,
-no doubt for the purpose of moistening its branchiæ. It is very good to
-eat, living as it does on choice vegetable substances; and the great mass
-of fat, accumulated under the tail of the larger ones, sometimes yields,
-when melted, as much as a quart of limpid oil. Thus our taking possession
-of the Keeling Islands, as a coaling station for the steamers from
-Australia to Ceylon, bodes no good to the Birgus.
-
-The long tail, which the paguri sedulously conceal in shells, serves the
-shrimps and lobsters as their chief organ of locomotion, for although
-these creatures have well-formed legs, they make but slow work of it when
-they attempt to crawl. But nothing can equal the rapidity with which
-they dart backwards through the water, by suddenly contracting their
-tail. Thus the Lobster makes leaps of twenty feet at one single bound,
-and the little shrimp equals it fully in velocity in proportion to its
-size, and belongs unquestionably to the most active of the denizens of
-the ocean. It swarms in incalculable numbers on the sandy shores of the
-North Sea, where it is caught in nets attached to a long cross pole,
-which the fishermen, walking knee-deep in the water, push along before
-them. Boiled shrimps are a well known delicacy; and the _Squilla Mantis_
-of the Mediterranean, which resembles our common shrimp in outer form,
-but essentially differs from it in the formation of its branchiæ, which
-float freely in the water, attached to the abdominal legs, holds an equal
-rank in the estimation of the South Europeans.
-
-[Illustration: Crustaceans and Oysters.]
-
-[Illustration: Spotted Mantis Crab.]
-
-But of all crustaceans, none approaches the Lobster in delicacy of taste.
-This creature, the epicure's delight, loves to dwell in the deep clear
-waters along bold rocky shores, where it is taken in wicker baskets, or
-with small nets attached to iron hoops. About two millions of lobsters
-are annually imported from Norway, although they are also found in great
-abundance along the Scottish and Irish coasts. Thus, considering their
-high price, they form a considerable article of trade; and yet they
-are far from equalling in importance the minute Herring-crab (_Cancer
-halecum_), which, by forming the chief nourishment of that invaluable
-fish, renders in an indirect way incalculable services to man.
-
-The lobster breeds in the summer months, depositing many thousands of
-eggs in the sand, and leaving them there to be hatched by the sun. But
-few, as may easily be imagined, live to attain a size befitting them to
-appear in red livery on our tables. Like all crustaceans, the lobster
-casts its shell annually, and with such perfection, that the discarded
-garment, with all its appendages, perfectly resembles the living animal.
-The process is curious enough to deserve a few lines of description.
-
-When towards autumn, the time of casting the shell approaches, the
-lobster retires to a silent nook, like a pious hermit to his cell, and
-fasts several days. The shell thus detaches itself gradually from the
-emaciated body, and a new and tender cuticle forms underneath. The old
-dress seems now, however, to plague the lobster very much, to judge by
-the efforts he makes to sever all remaining connection with it. Soon
-the harness splits right through the back, like the cleft bark of a
-tree, or a ripe seed-husk, and opens a wide gate to liberty. After much
-tugging and wriggling, the legs, tail, and claws gradually follow the
-body. The claws give the lobster most trouble; but he is well aware that
-perseverance generally wins the day, and never ceases till the elastic
-mass, which can be drawn out like india-rubber, and instantly resumes
-its ordinary shape, has been forced through the narrow passage. It can
-easily be supposed that, after such a violent struggle for freedom, the
-lobster is not a little exhausted. Feeling his weakness, and the very
-insufficient protection afforded him by his soft covering, he bashfully
-retires from all society until his hardened case allows him to mix again
-with his friends on terms of equality, for he well knows how inclined
-they are to bite and devour a softer brother.
-
-The facility with which the crustacea cast off their legs, and even
-their heavy claws, when they have been wounded in one of these organs or
-alarmed at thunder, is most remarkable. Without the least appearance of
-pain, they then continue to run along upon their remaining legs. After
-some time a new limb grows out of the old stump, but never attains the
-size of the original limb.
-
-At the beginning of the chapter I have already briefly described the
-wonderful transformations of the barnacles, acorn-shells, and lerneæ, but
-the changes which the young crabs, lobsters, prawns, and shrimps, have to
-undergo ere they assume their perfect form are no less astonishing. Thus
-in the earliest state of the small edible crab (_Carcinus mœnas_) we find
-a creature with a preposterously large helmet-shaped head, ending behind
-in a long spine, and furnished in front with two monstrous sessile eyes
-like the windows of a lantern. By means of a long articulated tail the
-restless Chimera continually turns head over heels. Claws are wanting,
-and while the old crab is of course a perfect decapod, the young has only
-four bifid legs, armed at the extremity with four long bristles, that are
-continually pushing food towards the ciliated mouth. Who could imagine
-that a creature like this should ever change into a crab, to which it
-has not the least resemblance? But time does wonders. After the first
-change of skin the body assumes something like its permanent shape, the
-eyes become stalked, the claws are developed, and the legs resemble those
-of the crab, but the tail is still long, and the swimming habit has not
-yet been laid aside. At the next stage, while the little creature is
-still about the eighth of an inch in diameter, the crab form is at length
-completed, the abdomen folding in under the carapace. No wonder that
-these larvæ were long supposed to be distinct types, and described under
-the names of Zoëa and Megalops, until Mr. T. J. Thompson first discovered
-their real nature.
-
-[Illustration: Metamorphosis of Carcinus mœnas.
-
-A. First stage. B. Second stage. C. Third stage, in which it begins to
-assume the adult form. D. Perfect form.]
-
-[Illustration: Phyllosoma.]
-
-The life history of the Palinuri or spiny lobsters is equally curious.
-They frequently weigh ten or twelve pounds each, and are distinguished
-by the very large size of their lateral antennæ and by their feet
-being unarmed with pincers. Surely nothing can be more dissimilar than
-the glass crabs or _Phyllosomas_, thin as a leaf of paper, and so
-transparent that their blue eyes are their only visible parts while
-swimming in the water; and yet these flimsy creatures are nothing but the
-young of the large and bulky Palinuri.
-
-Though several of the lower crustaceans ascend into the regions of
-eternal snow, while others hide themselves in the perpetual night of
-subterranean grottoes; though many delight in the sweet waters of the
-river or the lake, or rapidly multiply in stagnant pools, yet the chief
-seat of their class, which altogether comprises about 1,600 known
-species, is in the ocean and its littoral zone, where their numbers,
-their voracity, and their powerful claws, render them the most formidable
-enemies of all the lower aquatic animals that are not swift or cunning
-enough to escape them. Even the fishes and cetaceans are, as we have
-seen, exposed to their attacks; and as the whale, the carp, the sturgeon,
-the shark, the perch, have each of them their peculiar crustacean
-parasites, it can easily be imagined how large the number of still
-unknown species must be which feast on that vast host of fishes that has
-never yet been accurately examined. On the other hand, the crustaceans
-constitute a great part of the food, as well of the sea-stars,
-sea-urchins, annelides, and many of the molluscs, as also of the fishes
-and sea-birds; and as they are found of all sizes, from microscopical
-minuteness to the gigantic proportions of the _Inachus Kæmpferi_ of
-Japan, the fore-arm of which measures four feet in length, and the others
-in proportion, so that it covers about 25 feet square of ground, they are
-able to satisfy the wants or the voracity of a vast number of enemies,
-from the rotifer or the polyp that feed on tiny entomostraca or the larvæ
-of the barnacle, to man, who selects a great variety of the fat and
-luscious decapods for his share of the feast.
-
-A great fecundity enables the crustaceans to bear up against all these
-persecutions. 12,000 eggs have been found on the lobster; 6,807 on the
-shrimp; 21,699 on the great crab (_Platycarcinus pagurus_). The lower
-orders are still more prolific, for such is the rapidity with which
-many of them come to maturity and begin to propagate that it has been
-calculated that a single female Cyclops may be the progenitor in one
-year of 4,442,189,120 young! Endowed with such powers, the crustaceans
-are not likely to be extirpated, nor to disappoint the hopes of their
-gastronomical admirers for many an age to come.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-When we hear of fishes wandering about on the dry land, we cannot wonder
-that some insects and arachnidans should depart so strangely from the
-usual habits of their class as to select the sea for their habitation.
-
-"There is a minute marine spider," says Mr. Gosse, "very common on most
-parts of the coast, crawling sluggishly upon the smaller sea-weeds, which
-seems, from its lack of centralisation, to realise our infant ideas of
-Mr. Nobody; but zoologists have designated him as _Nymphon gracile_.
-Widely different from the spiders of terra firma, in which an abdomen
-some ten times as bulky as all the rest of the animal put together is the
-most characteristic feature, the belly of our marine friend is reduced to
-an atom not so big as a single joint of one of his eight legs; though his
-thorax is more considerable, this is little more than the extended line
-formed by the successive points of union of the said legs. These latter,
-on the other hand, are long, stout, well-armed, and many-jointed; but,
-apparently from the lack of the centralising principle, they are moved
-heavily, sprawled hither and thither, and dragged about like the limbs
-of an unfortunate who is afflicted with the gout." This strange little
-creature has four eyes gleaming like diamonds, respires by the skin, and
-its stomach is prolonged into each of its eight legs, which are thus
-made the seats of digestion. Mr. Nobody and his marine relations, some
-of which also attach themselves to fishes, form the small group of the
-_Pycnogonida_ (πυκνος, _frequent_; γὁνυ _knee_) thus
-named from their many-jointed legs.
-
-It is a well-known fact that the winds will sometimes waft butterflies to
-an immense distance from the shore. Thus _Acherontia atropos_ has been
-found on the Atlantic a thousand miles from the nearest land; and while
-Mr. Darwin was in the bay of San Blas, in Patagonia, he saw thousands of
-butterflies hovering over the sea as far as the eye could reach. These
-insects, of course, are nothing but stray wanderers on an alien and
-hostile element; but _Leptopus longipes_, a species of bug, makes the
-salt water its home; the Halobates, another hemipterous insect, faces the
-tranquil mirror of the tropical seas as leisurely as our water-bugs sport
-on the glassy surface of our ponds, and the _Gyrinus marinus_, a beetle
-belonging to the family of the whirligigs, ambitiously seeks a wide
-expanse, and may be seen curvetting about on the surface of the sea, and
-darting down every now and then to seize its prey.
-
-[Illustration: Stenopus hispidus.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XIV.
-
-MARINE ANNELIDES.
-
-  The Annelides in general.--The Eunice sanguinea.--Beauty of the
-  Marine Annelides.--The Giant Nemertes.--The Food and Enemies of the
-  Annelides.--The Tubicole Annelides.--The Rotifera--Their Wonderful
-  Organisation.--The Synchæta Baltica.
-
-
-The class of the Annelides, or annulated worms--to which also our common
-earth-worm and the leech belong--peoples the seas with by far the greater
-number of its genera and species. All of them are distinguished by an
-elongated, and generally worm-like form of body, susceptible of great
-extension and contraction. The body consists of a series of rings, or
-segments, joined by a common elastic skin; and each ring, with the
-exception of the first or foremost, which forms the head, and the last
-which constitutes the tail, exactly resembles the others, only that
-the rings in the middle part of the body are larger than those at the
-extremities. The head is frequently provided with eyes, and more or less
-perfect feelers; the mouth is armed in many species with strong jaws, or
-incisive teeth. The blood is red, and circulates in a system of arteries
-and veins.
-
-[Illustration: Nervous Axis of an Annelidan.]
-
-With the idea of a worm we generally connect that of incompleteness;
-we are apt to consider them as beings equally uninteresting and ugly,
-and disdain to enquire into the wonders of their organisation. But a
-cursory examination of the _Eunice sanguinea_, a worm about two and a
-half feet long, and frequently occurring on our coasts, would alone
-suffice to give us a very different opinion of these despised, but far
-from despicable creatures. The whole body is divided into segments
-scarce a line and a half long, and ten or twelve lines broad, and
-thus consists of about three hundred rings. A brain and three hundred
-ganglions, from which about three thousand nervous branches proceed,
-regulate the movements, sensations, and vegetative functions of an
-Eunice. Two hundred and eighty stomachs digest its food, five hundred
-and fifty branchiæ refresh its blood, six hundred hearts distribute this
-vital fluid throughout the whole body, and thirty thousand muscles obey
-the will of the worm, and execute its snake-like movements. What an
-astonishing profusion of organs! Surely there is here but little occasion
-to commiserate want, or to scoff at poverty!
-
-And if we look to outward appearance, we shall find that many of the
-marine annelides may well be reckoned among the handsomest of creatures.
-They display the rainbow tints of the humming-birds, and the velvet,
-metallic brilliancy of the most lustrous beetles. The vagrant species
-that glide, serpent-like, through the crevices of the submarine rocks, or
-half creeping, half swimming conceal themselves in the sand or mud, are
-pre-eminently beautiful. The delighted naturalists have consequently given
-them the most flattering and charming names of Greek mythology,--Nereis,
-Euphrosyne, Eunice, Alciopa.
-
-[Illustration: Nereis.]
-
-"Talk no more of the violet as the emblem of modesty," exclaims De
-Quatrefages, "look rather at our annelides, that, possessed of every
-shining quality, hide themselves from our view, so that but few know of
-the secret wonders that are hidden under the tufts of algæ, or on the
-sandy bottom of the sea."
-
-[Illustration: Aphrodita, or Sea-Mouse.]
-
-In most of the wandering annelides, each segment is provided with
-variously formed appendages, more or less developed, serving for
-respiration and locomotion, or for aggression and defence; while in some
-of the least perfect of the class, not a trace of an external organ is
-to be found over the whole body. The great Band-worm (_Nemertes gigas_)
-is one of the most remarkable examples of this low type of annelism.
-It is from thirty to forty feet long, about half an inch broad, flat
-like a ribbon, of brown or violet colour, and smooth and shining like
-lackered leather. Among the loose stones, or in the hollows of the
-rocks, where he principally lives on Anomiæ,--minute shells that attach
-themselves to submarine bodies,--this giant worm forms a thousand
-seemingly inextricable knots, which he is continually unravelling and
-tying. When after having devoured all the food within his reach, or from
-some other cause, he desires to shift his quarters, he stretches out a
-long dark-coloured ribbon, surmounted by a head like that of a snake,
-but without its wide mouth or dangerous fangs. The eye of the observer
-sees no contraction of the muscles, no apparent cause or instrument
-of locomotion; but the microscope teaches us that the Nemertes glides
-along by help of the minute vibratory ciliæ with which his whole body is
-covered. He hesitates, he tries here and there, until at last, and often
-at a distance of fifteen or twenty feet, he finds a stone to his taste;
-whereupon he slowly unrolls his length to convey himself to his new
-resting place, and while the entangled folds are unravelling themselves
-at one end, they form a new Gordian knot at the other. All the organs
-of this worm are uncommonly simplified; the mouth is a scarce visible
-circular opening, and the intestinal canal ends in a blind sack.
-
-Nature has not in vain provided the more perfect annelides with the
-bristly feet, which have been denied to the Nemertes and the sand-worm.
-Almost all of them feed on a living prey,--Planarias and other minute
-creatures--which they enclasp and transpierce with those formidable
-weapons. Some, lying in wait, dart upon their victims as they heedlessly
-swim by, seize them with their jaws, and stifle them in their deadly
-embrace; others, of a more lively nature, seek them among the thickets
-of corallines, millepores and algæ, and arrest them quickly ere they can
-vanish in the sand.
-
-But the annelides also are liable to many persecutions. The fishes are
-perpetually at war with them; and when an imprudent annelide quits its
-hidden lurking-place, or is uncovered by the motion of the waves, it may
-reckon itself fortunate, indeed, if it escapes the greedy teeth of an
-eel or a flat-fish. It is even affirmed of the latter, as it is of the
-whelks, that they know perfectly well how to dig the annelides out of
-the sand. The sea-spiders, lobsters, and other crustacea are the more
-dangerous, as their hard shells render them perfectly invulnerable by the
-bristling weapons of the annelides.
-
-While the greater part of these worms lead a vagrant life, others, like
-secluded hermits, dwell in self-constructed retreats which they never
-leave. Their cells, which they begin to form very soon after having
-left the egg, and which they afterwards continue extending and widening
-according to the exigencies of their growth, generally consist of a
-hard calcareous mass; but sometimes they are leathery or parchment-like
-tubes, secreted by the skin of the animal, not however forming, as in the
-mollusks, an integral part of the body, but remaining quite unconnected
-with it. Thus these tubicole annelides spend their whole life within
-doors, only now and then peeping out of their prison with the front part
-of their head.
-
-As they lead so different a life from their roaming relations, their
-internal structure is very different, for where is the being whose
-organisation does not perfectly harmonise with his wants? Thus, we find
-here no bristling feet or lateral respiratory appendages; but instead of
-these organs, which in this case would be completely useless, we find
-the head surmounted by a beautiful crown of feathery tentaculæ, which
-equally serve for breathing and the seizing of a passing prey. Completely
-closed at the inferior extremity, the tube shows us at its upper end a
-round opening, the only window through which our hermit can peep into the
-world, seize his food, and refresh his blood by exposing his floating
-branchiæ to the vivifying influence of the water.
-
-Do not, therefore, reproach him with vanity or curiosity, if you see him
-so often protrude his magnificently decorated head; but rejoice rather
-that this habit, to which necessity obliges him, gives you a better
-opportunity for closer observation. Place only a shell or stone covered
-with _serpulas_ or _cymospiras_, into a vessel filled with sea-water, and
-you will soon see how, in every tube, a small round cover is cautiously
-raised, which hitherto hermetically closed the entrance, and prevented
-you from prying into the interior. The door is open, and soon the inmate
-makes his appearance. You now perceive small buds, here dark violet or
-carmine, there blue or orange, or variously striped. See how they grow,
-and gradually expand their splendid boughs! They are true flowers that
-open before your eye, but flowers much more perfect than those which
-adorn your garden, as they are endowed with voluntary motion and animal
-life.
-
-[Illustration: Serpula, attached to a Shell.]
-
-At the least shock, at the least vibration of the water, the splendid
-tufts contract, vanish with the rapidity of lightning, and hide
-themselves in their stony dwellings, where, under cover of the protecting
-lid, they bid defiance to their enemies.
-
-Not all the tubicole annelides form grottos or houses of so complete
-a structure as those I have just described. Many content themselves
-with agglutinating sand or small shell-fragments into the form of
-cylindrical tubes. But even in these inferior architectural labours of
-the _Sabellas_, _Terebellas_, _Amphitrites_, &c., we find an astonishing
-regularity and art; for these elegant little tubes, which we may often
-pick up on the strand, where they lie mixed with the shells and algæ
-cast out by the flood, consist of particles of almost equal size, so
-artistically glued together, that the delicate walls have everywhere
-an equal thickness. The form is cylindrical, or funnel-shaped, the
-tube gradually widening from the lower to the upper end. Some of these
-tubicoles live like solitary hermits, others love company; for instance,
-the _Sabella alveolaris_, which often covers wide surfaces of rock,
-near low-water mark with its aggregated tubes. When the flood recedes
-nothing is seen but the closed orifices; but when covered with the rising
-waters, the sandy surface transforms itself into a beautiful picture.
-From each aperture stretches forth a neck ornamented with concentric
-rings of golden hair, and terminating in a head embellished with a tiara
-of delicately feathered, rainbow-tinted tentacula. The whole looks like
-a garden-bed enamelled with gay flowers of elegant form and variegated
-colours.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-If size alone were a criterion of classification, the Rotifera would have
-to be ranked among the microscopic Protozoa, as they are scarcely visible
-to the naked eye; but a more complicated organisation separates them
-widely from these lowest members of the animal kingdom, and entitles them
-to be placed next to the worms.
-
-[Illustration: Ptygura mehcerta.--(A rotifer highly magnified.)
-
-  1. Partially expanded.
-  2. Completely expanded, the cilia in action causing currents
-       indicated by the arrows.
-  3. Contracted.  _a._ Contractile vesicle.
-       _b._ Situation of the anal orifice.
-]
-
-They are chiefly characterised by a remarkable rotatory or ciliary
-apparatus, whose vibrating motions, whirling the water about in swift
-circles or eddies, engulf in a fatal vortex their microscopic food, or
-enable them to swim from place to place. Such is the crystal transparency
-of these curious little creatures that their internal structure can be
-easily recognised. The mouth is placed immediately below the rotatory
-apparatus, and when once an unfortunate animalcule has been driven into
-its gaping portals, it is presently crushed between a pair of formidable
-sharp-toothed jaws, which are perpetually in motion, whether the animal
-is taking food or not. After having undergone the action of this lively
-apparatus, the aliment passes into a tubular stomach surrounded by a
-cushion-like mass of cells commonly coloured with the hue of the food,
-and, therefore, concluded to be connected with the digestive system.
-
-[Illustration: Conochilus volvox.--(Highly magnified.)
-
-  _a._ Jaws and teeth.  _b._ Papillæ.   _c._ Glands.   _d._ Ovarium.
-]
-
-The rotifera are either naked or covered with a sheath, and many
-inhabit a tube formed by themselves, attached by its lower end to some
-water-plant, and open at the summit, from which the animal protrudes
-when it would exercise its active instincts, and into which it retires
-for repose from labour or for refuge from alarm. The majority, however,
-have a furcated foot, which is often capable of contraction by a set of
-telescopic sheathings or false joints, and by which they are enabled
-to secure a hold of the minute stems of water-plants. This is their
-ordinary position when keeping their wheels in action for a supply of
-food or of water; but they have no difficulty in letting go their hold,
-and either creeping along by alternate contractions and extensions or
-swimming away in search of a new attachment. From the neck projects
-a telescopic spur, supposed to be an organ of respiration, and just
-below this are seen two minute red specks, supposed to be eyes. The
-first rotifer was discovered by Leeuwenhoek, in 1702; now more than 180
-species are known, and new discoveries are constantly adding to their
-numbers. They are chiefly found in sweet water, but some are inhabitants
-of the sea, as, for instance, the _Synchæta baltica_, remarkable for
-its luminous powers. It measures about 1/125 of an inch in length, and
-but 1/350 in width, so that it is invisible to the sharpest unassisted
-sight: but when viewed through a microscope, it appears as a beautiful
-and richly organised creature, clear as glass and perfectly colourless,
-except that its stomach is usually distended with yellow food, and that
-it carries a large red eye, which glitters like a ruby.
-
-[Illustration: Philodina roseola.--(Highly magnified.)
-
-  _a._ Respiratory tube.
-  _b._ Alimentary canal.
-  _c._ Cellular mass.
-  _d._ Terminal intestinal pouch.
-  _e._ Anal orifice.
-]
-
-"Its motions too," says Mr. Gosse, "are all vivacious and elegant. It
-shoots rapidly along or circles about in giddy dance, in company with its
-fellows, sometimes near the surface, at others just over the bottom of
-the vase in which it is kept. Occasionally the foot with the tiny toes
-is drawn up into the body and then suddenly thrown down, and bent up
-from side to side as a dog wags his tail. Sometimes the rotatory organs
-are brought forward and then spasmodically spring back to their ordinary
-position, when the little creature shoots forward with redoubled energy.
-In all its actions it displays vigour and precision, intelligence and
-will."
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XV.
-
-MOLLUSCS.
-
-  The Molluscs in general.--The Cephalopods.--Dibranchiates
-  and Tetrabranchiates.--Arms and Tentacles.--Suckers.--Hooked
-  Acetabula of the Onychoteuthis.--Mandibles.--Ink Bag.--Numbers
-  of the Cephalopods.--Their Habits.--Their Enemies.--Their Use to
-  Man.--Their Eggs.--Enormous size of several species.--The fabulous
-  Kraken.--The Argonaut.--The Nautili.--The Cephalopods of the
-  Primitive Ocean.--The Gasteropods.--Their Subdivisions.--Gills of the
-  Nudibranchiates.--The Pleurobranchus plumula.--The Sea-Hare.--The
-  Chitons.--The Patellæ.--The Haliotis or Sea-Ear.--The Carinariæ.--The
-  Pectinibranchiates.--Variety and Beauty of their Shells.--Their
-  Mode of Locomotion.--Foot of the Tornatella and Cyclostoma.--The
-  Ianthinæ.--Sedentary Gasteropods.--The Magilus.--Proboscis of the
-  Whelk.--Tongue of the Limpet.--Stomach of the Bulla, the Scyllæa,
-  and the Sea-Hare.--Organs of Sense in the Gasteropods.--Their
-  Caution.--Their Enemies.--Their Defences.--Their Use to
-  Man.--Shell-Cameos.--The Pteropods.--Their Organisation and Mode
-  of Life.--The Butterflies of the Ocean.--The Lamellibranchiate
-  Acephala.--Their Organisation.--Siphons.--The Pholades.--Foot of
-  the Lamellibranchiates.--The Razor-Shells.--The Byssus of the
-  Pinnæ.--Defences of the Bivalves.--Their Enemies.--The common
-  Mussel.--Mussel Gardens.--The Oyster.--Oyster Parks.--Oyster Rearing
-  in the Lago di Fusaro.--Formation of new Oyster Banks.--Pearl-fishing
-  in Ceylon.--How are Pearls formed?--The Tridacna gigas.--The Teredo
-  navalis.--The Brachiopods.--The Terebratulæ.--The Polyzoa.--The
-  Sea-Mats.--The Escharæ.--The Lepraliæ.--Bird's Head Processes.--The
-  Tunicata.--The Sea-Squirts.--The Chelyosoma.--The Botrylli.--The
-  Pyrosomes.--The Salpæ.--Interesting Points in the Organisation of the
-  Tunicata.
-
-
-Simple or compound, free or sessile, peopling the high seas or lining the
-shores, the marine Molluscs, branching out into more than ten thousand
-species, extend their reign as far as the waves of ocean roll. Though
-distinguished from all other sea-animals by the common character of a
-soft unarticulated body, possessing a complicated digestive apparatus,
-and covered by a flexible skin or mantle, under or over which a
-calcareous shell is generally formed by secretion, yet their habits are
-as various as their forms. Some dart rapidly through the waters, others
-creep slowly along, or are firmly bound to the rock; in some the senses
-are as highly developed as in the fishes, in others they are confined to
-the narrow perceptions of the polyp. Many are individually so small as
-to escape the naked eye, others of a size so formidable as to entitle
-them to rank among the giants of the sea; some are perfectly harmless and
-unarmed, others fully equipped for active warfare. It is evident that
-creatures so variously gifted, and consequently so widely dissimilar
-in structure, cannot possibly be grouped together in one description,
-and that each of the four orders, Cephalopoda, Gasteropoda, Pteropoda,
-and Acephala (Lamellibranchiates, Brachiopods, Polyzoa, and Tunicata),
-into which they have been subdivided, must be separately brought before
-the reader, in order to give him a clear and faithful picture of their
-organisation and mode of life.
-
-The Cephalopods are the most perfect specimens of the molluscan type,
-as the decapods are the first among the crustaceans. These remarkable
-creatures consist of two distinct parts: the trunk or body, which,
-in form of a sack, open to the front, encloses the branchiæ and
-digestive organs, and the well-developed head, provided with a pair of
-sharp-sighted eyes, and crowned with a number of fleshy processes, arms
-or feet, which encircle and more or less conceal the mouth. It is to this
-formation that the cephalopod owes its scientific name, for as the feet
-grow from the circumference of the mouth, it literally creeps upon its
-head.
-
-All the cephalopods are marine animals, and breathe through branchiæ or
-gills. These are concealed under the mantle, in a cave or hollow, which
-alternately expands and contracts, and communicates by two openings with
-the outer world. The one in form of a slit serves to receive the water;
-the other, which is tubular, is used for its expulsion.
-
-According to the different number of their gills, the cephalopods are
-divided into two groups. The first, to which the poulp and common
-cuttle-fish belong, and which comprises by far the majority of living
-species, has only two sets of gills; while the second, which, in the
-present epoch, is only represented by a few species of Nautilus, has
-four, two on each side, according to the number of their arms or
-feet--for these remarkable organs serve equally well for prehension
-or locomotion. The first group is again subdivided into two orders,
-Octopods and Decapods, the former having only eight sessile feet, while
-the latter possess an additional pair of elongated tentacles, which serve
-to seize a prey that may be beyond the reach of the ordinary feet, and
-also to act as anchors to moor them in safety during the agitations of a
-stormy sea.
-
-[Illustration: Poulp (Octopus).]
-
-Both the arms and tentacles are furnished with suckers disposed along
-the whole extent of the inner surface of the former, but generally
-confined to the widened extremities of the latter, where they are closely
-aggregated on the inner aspect.
-
-[Illustration: Calamary.]
-
-In all the octopods the suckers are soft and unarmed. Every sucker
-is composed of a circular adhesive disk, which has a thick fleshy
-circumference and bundles of muscular fibres radiating towards the
-circular orifice of an inner cavity.
-
-This widens as it descends, and contains a cone of soft substance, rising
-from the bottom of the cavity, like the piston of a syringe. When the
-sucker is applied to a surface for the purpose of adhesion, the piston,
-having previously been raised so as to fill the cavity, is retracted,
-and a vacuum produced, which may be still further increased by the
-retraction of the plicated central portion of the disk. So admirably are
-these air-pumps constructed, and so tenacious is their grasp, that, when
-they have once seized or fixed upon a prey, it cannot possibly disengage
-itself from their murderous embrace.
-
-In many of the decapods, who, generally seeking their prey in the deeper
-waters, have to contend with the agile, slippery, and mucus-clad fishes,
-more powerful organs of prehension have been superadded to the suckers.
-Thus, in the Calamary the base of the piston is enclosed by a horny
-hoop, the margin of which is developed into a series of sharp-pointed
-curved teeth; and in the still more formidable Onychoteuthis each hoop
-is produced into the form of a long, curved, and sharp-pointed claw
-(_f_), which the predacious mollusc presses firmly into the flesh of its
-struggling victim, and then withdraws by muscular contraction.
-
-[Illustration: Section of an arm and suckers of a Poulp.
-
-  _e._ Soft and tumid margin of the disk.
-  _g._ Circular aperture.
-]
-
-Besides the hooked acetabula, a cluster of small simple unarmed suckers
-may be observed at the base of the expanded part. These add greatly to
-the animal's prehensile powers, for when they are applied to one another
-(_e_), the tentacles are firmly locked together at that point, and the
-united strength of both the elongated peduncles can be applied to drag
-towards the mouth any resisting object which has been grappled by the
-terminal hooks. There is no mechanical contrivance which surpasses the
-admirable structure of this natural forceps.
-
-The size of the arms and the arrangement of the suckers differ
-considerably in the various species. In the octopods or poulps, which
-generally lead a more sedentary creeping life, and, hidden in the
-crevices of rocks, await the passing prey, the arms, in accordance
-with their wants, are with rare exceptions longer, more muscular,
-and stronger, than in the actively swimming decapods, where the two
-elongated tentacles or peduncles are the chief organs of prehension. In
-some species we find the arms distinct--in others they are united by a
-membrane. Some have a double row of suckers on each arm, others four
-rows, others again but one. So wonderful are the variations which nature,
-that consummate artist, plays upon a single theme--so inexhaustible are
-the modifications she introduces into the formation of numerous species,
-all constructed upon the same fundamental plan, and all equally perfect
-in their kind.
-
-[Illustration: Arms and Tentacles of an Onychoteuthis.
-
-  _e._ Parts joined together by the mutual
-  apposition of the armed suckers.
-
-  _f._ Terminal expanded portions bearing
-  the hooks.
-]
-
-Thus well provided with the means for seizing and overcoming the
-struggles of a living prey, the Cephalopods likewise possess adequate
-weapons for completing its destruction; for their mouth is most
-formidably armed with two horny or calcareous jaws, shaped like the
-mandibles of a parrot, playing vertically on each other, and enclosing a
-large fleshy tongue bristling with recurved horny spines. Hard, indeed,
-must be the crab which can resist this terrible beak; and when the
-cuttle-fish has once fixed on the back of a fish, though much larger
-and stronger than himself, it is in vain for the tortured victim to fly
-through the water: he carries his enemy with him till he sinks exhausted
-under his murderous fangs.
-
-Besides their arms, by help of which the Cephalopods either swim or
-creep, the forcible expulsion of the water through the respiratory tube
-or infundibulum serves them as a means of locomotion in a backward
-direction. By those which have an elongated body and comparatively strong
-muscles, this movement is performed with such violence that they shoot
-like arrows through the water, or even like the flying-fish perform a
-long curve through the air.
-
-Thus Sir James Ross tells us, that once a number of cuttle-fish not only
-fell upon the deck of his ship, which rose fifteen or sixteen feet above
-the water, and where more than fifty were gathered, but even bolted
-right over the entire breadth of the vessel, like a sportsman over a
-five-barred gate. Finally, the fin-like expansion of their mantle renders
-the nimble decapods good service in swimming. In the Sepias this finny
-membrane runs along the sides of the body, while in the Calamary it forms
-a kind of terminal paddle.
-
-[Illustration: Sepia.
-
-  _b._ Finny membrane running along the sides of the body.
-  _c._ Arms with four rows of suckers.
-  _d._ Elongated retractile tentacles.
-  _e._ Eyes.
-]
-
-It might be supposed that the dibranchiate cephalopods, by their
-swiftness, their arms, and their powerful jaws, were sufficiently
-provided with means of attack or defence; but it must be remembered
-that their body is soft and naked, and that, though well armed in
-front, they may readily be attacked in the rear. To afford them the
-additional protection they required, nature, ever ready to minister to
-the real wants of her children, has furnished them with an internal bag
-communicating with the respiratory tube, and secreting a large quantity
-of an inky fluid, which they can squirt out with force in the face of
-their foe, and which, mixing readily with the water, envelops them in
-an opaque cloud, and thus screens them from pursuit. But this inky
-fluid, thus useful to its owner, is often the cause of his destruction
-by man, who applies it to his own purpose, for the Italian pigment,
-called sepia, so invaluable to painters in water-colours, is prepared
-from the inspissated contents of the ink bag of a cuttle-fish. Such
-is the durability of this colour that even the inky fluid of fossil
-species has been found to retain its chromatic property. We are told that
-grains of wheat buried with Egyptian mummies three thousand years ago
-have germinated; but it is surely still more astonishing that an animal
-secretion, the origin of which is lost in the dark abyss of countless
-ages, should remain so long unaltered.
-
-The cephalopods are scattered in vast numbers over the whole ocean,
-from the ice-bound shores of Boothia Felix to the open main; they seem,
-however, to be most abundant in temperate latitudes. Some, like the
-common poulp, constantly frequent the coasts, creeping among the rocks
-and stones at the bottom; others, like the Cirroteuthis and Ommastrephes,
-roam about the high seas at a vast distance from the land.
-
-They are generally nocturnal or vespertine in their habits; they abound
-towards evening and at night on the surface of the seas, but sink to a
-greater depth, or retire into the crevices of the rocks, as soon as the
-sun rises above the horizon. Some are of a recluse disposition, and lead
-a solitary life in the anfractuosities of the littoral zone; others, of a
-more social temper, wander in large troops along the shores, or over the
-vast plains of ocean.
-
-Possessing the organs of sense, and the means of locomotion in a high
-degree of development, the cephalopods may naturally be expected to be
-far more active and intelligent than the inferior orders of the molluscs.
-On moonlight nights, among the islands of the Indian Archipelago,
-Mr. Adams frequently observed the Sepiæ and Octopi in full predatory
-activity, and had considerable difficulty and trouble in securing them,
-so great was their restless vivacity, and so vigorous their endeavours to
-escape. "They dart from side to side of the pools," says the naturalist
-in his entertaining and instructive account of his journey to those
-distant gems of the tropical sea, "or fix themselves so tenaciously to
-the surface of the stones by means of their suckers that it requires
-great force and strength to detach them. Even when removed and thrown
-upon the sand, they progress rapidly, in a sidelong shuffling manner,
-throwing about their long arms, ejecting their ink-like fluid in sudden
-violent jets, and staring about with their big shining eyes (which at
-night appear luminous, like a cat's) in a very grotesque and hideous
-manner."
-
-At the Cape de Verd islands, Mr. C. Darwin was also much amused by the
-various arts to escape detection used by a cuttle-fish, which seemed
-fully aware that he was watching it. Remaining for a time motionless, it
-would then stealthily advance an inch or two, like a cat after a mouse,
-and thus proceeded, till, having gained a deeper part, it darted away,
-leaving a dusky train of ink, to hide the hole into which it had crawled.
-
-All the cephalopods are extremely voracious; they destroy on shallow
-banks the hopes of the fishermen, devour along the coasts and on the
-high seas countless myriads of young fish and naked molluscs, and kill,
-like the tiger, for the mere love of carnage. Thus they would become
-dangerous to the equilibrium of the seas if nature, to counterbalance
-their destructive habits, had not provided a great number of enemies for
-the thinning of their ranks.
-
-They form the almost exclusive food of the sperm-whales, and the
-albatross and the petrels love to skim them from the surface of the
-ocean. Tunnies and bonitos devour them in vast numbers, the cod consumes
-whole shoals of squids, and man, as I have already mentioned, catches
-many millions to serve him as a bait for this valuable fish.
-
-At Teneriffe, in the Brazils, in Peru and Chili, in India and China,
-various species of cephalopods are used as food. Along the eastern shores
-of the Mediterranean, the common sepia constitutes now, as in ancient
-times, a valuable part of the food of the poor. "One of the most striking
-spectacles," says Edward Forbes, "is to see at night on the shores of the
-Ægean the numerous torches glancing along the shores, and reflected by
-the still and clear sea, borne by poor fishermen, paddling as silently
-as possible over the rocky shallows in search of the cuttle-fish, which,
-when seen lying beneath the water in wait for his prey, they dexterously
-spear, ere the creature has time to dart with the rapidity of an arrow
-from the weapon about to transfix his soft but firm body."
-
-Animals exposed to the attacks of so many enemies must necessarily
-multiply in an analogous ratio. Their numerous eggs are generally brought
-forth in the spring. In the species inhabiting the high seas, they float
-freely on the surface, carried along by the currents and winds, and form
-large gelatinous bunches or cylindrical rolls, sometimes as large as a
-man's leg.
-
-The eggs of the littoral cephalopods appear in the form of dark-coloured,
-roundish or spindle-shaped bodies, of the size and colour of grapes, and
-hanging together in clusters. They are soft to the touch, with a tough
-skin, resembling india-rubber; one end is attenuated into a sort of point
-or nipple, and the other prolonged into a pedicle, which coils round
-sea-weed or other floating objects, and serves to fix the berry-like bag
-in its place. At an early stage these "sea-grapes," as they are called
-by the fishermen, contain a white yolk enclosed in a clear albumen, and
-nearer maturity the young cuttle-fish may be found within in various
-stages of formation, until finally, hatched by the heat of the sun, it
-emerges from the husk perfectly formed, and launches forth into the water.
-
-[Illustration: Ova of the Cuttle-fish.]
-
-Some species of cephalopods are only about the size of a finger, while
-others attain an astonishing size. Banks and Solander, in Cook's first
-voyage, found the dead carcass of a gigantic cuttle-fish floating between
-Cape Horn and the Polynesian islands. It was surrounded by aquatic birds,
-which were feeding on its remains. From the parts of this specimen, which
-are still preserved in the Hunterian collection, and which have always
-strongly excited the attention of naturalists, it must have measured at
-least six feet from the end of the tail to the end of the tentacles.
-
-Near Van Diemen's Land, Péron saw a sepia about as big as a tun
-rolling about in the waters. Its enormous arms had the appearance of
-frightful snakes. Each of these organs was at least seven feet long, and
-measured seven or eight inches round the base. These well authenticated
-proportions are truly formidable, and fully justify the dread and
-abhorrence which the Polynesian divers entertain of those snake-armed
-monsters of the deep; but not satisfied with reality, some writers have
-magnified the size of the cephalopods to fabulous dimensions. Thus
-Pernetti mentions a colossal cuttle-fish, which, climbing up the rigging,
-overturned a three-masted ship; and Pliny notices a similar giant, with
-arms thirty feet long and a corresponding girth. But all this is nothing
-to the Norwegian kraken, a mass of a quarter of a mile in diameter, and a
-back covered with a thicket of sea-weeds. When it comes to the surface,
-which seems to be but rarely the case, it raises its arms mast-high into
-the air, and, having enjoyed for a time the lovely daylight, sinks slowly
-back again into abysmal darkness. Fishermen are said to have landed on
-a kraken, and to have kindled a fire upon the supposed island for the
-purpose of cooking their dinner. But even a kraken, thick-skinned as he
-may be, does not like his back to be converted into a hearth, and thus
-it happened that the treacherous ground gave way under the mistaken
-mariners, and overwhelmed them in the waters. Strange that the oriental
-tale of Sinbad the sailor should thus be re-echoed in the wild legends of
-the north.
-
-All the dibranchiate cephalopods are destitute of an outward shell, with
-the sole exception of the Spirula, a small species chiefly found in the
-South Sea, and of the far more renowned Argonaut, which poets, ancient
-and modern, have celebrated as the model from which man took the first
-idea of navigation. Its two sail-like arms expanding in the air, and the
-six others rowing in the water, the keel of its elegant shell is pictured
-as dividing the surface of the tranquil sea. But as soon as the wind
-rises, or the least danger appears, the cautious argonaut takes in his
-sails, draws back his oars, creeps into his shell, and sinks instantly
-into a securer depth. Unfortunately there is not a word of truth in
-this pleasing tale. Like the common octopus, the argonaut generally
-creeps about at the bottom of the sea, or when he swims, he places his
-sails close to his shell, stretches his oars right out before him, and
-shoots backwards like most of his class by expelling the water from his
-respiratory tube.
-
-[Illustration: Argonaut.]
-
-As he sits loosely in his shell, he was supposed by some naturalists
-to be a parasite enjoying the house of the unknown murdered owner; but
-this is perfectly erroneous, as the young in the egg already show the
-rudiments of the future shell, and the full-grown animal repairs by
-reproduction any injury that may have happened to it.
-
-[Illustration: Pearly Nautilus.]
-
-The tetrabranchiate cephalopods, or Nautili, are very differently
-constructed from their dibranchiate relations. Here, instead of mighty
-muscular arms, furnished with suckers or raptorial claws, we find a
-number of small, sheathed, and retractile tentacles (_f_), surrounding
-the mouth in successive series, and amounting to little short of a
-hundred. The head is further provided with a large muscular disk (_g_),
-which, besides acting as a defence to the opening of the shell, serves
-also in all probability as an organ for creeping along the ground,
-like the foot in the Gasteropods. The mandibles are strengthened by a
-dense calcareous substance fit to break up the defensive armour of the
-crustacean or shell-fish on which the animal feeds. There is no ink-bag,
-no organ of hearing, and the eyes (_h_) are pedunculated, and of a more
-simple structure. The handsome pearl-mother and spirally wound shell
-is divided by transverse partitions (_a_), perforated in the centre,
-into numerous chambers (_b_). The animal takes up its abode in the
-foremost and largest (_b′_), but sends a communicating tube or siphon
-(_c_) through all the holes of the partitions to the very extremity of
-the spirally wound shell. Though the empty conch was frequently found
-swimming on the waters of the Indian Ocean, or cast ashore on the
-Moluccas or New Guinea, yet it was only in 1829 that the animal was known
-with any certainty, one having been caught alive by Mr. George Bennett,
-near the New Hebrides, which, preserved in spirits, is now in the museum
-of the College of Surgeons. Since then three different species have been
-found to abound in the waters of the above-named archipelago, of New
-Caledonia, and of the Feejee and Solomon Islands, where they principally
-sojourn among the coral reefs at depths of from three to six fathoms.
-They usually remain at the bottom of the water, where they creep along
-rather quickly, supporting themselves upon their tentacula, with their
-head downwards and the shell raised above. After stormy weather, as it
-becomes more calm, they may be seen in great numbers floating upon the
-surface of the sea with the head protruded, and the tentacula resting
-upon the water, the shell at the same time being undermost; they remain,
-however, but a short time sailing in this manner, as they can easily
-return to their situation at the bottom of the sea, by merely drawing in
-their tentacles and upsetting the shell. They are caught in baskets by
-the natives, who eat them roasted as a great delicacy.
-
-What renders these animals peculiarly interesting is the circumstance
-that they are the only living representatives of a class which once
-filled in countless numbers the bosom of the primeval ocean, and whose
-fossil remains (Orthoceratites, Ammonites) furnish the naturalist with
-a series of historical documents, attesting the unmeasured age of our
-planet. What are the ruins, thirty or forty centuries old, that speak of
-the vanished glories of extinguished empires to these wonderful medals
-of creation that lead our thoughts through the dim vista of unnumbered
-centuries to the fathomless abyss of the past.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-In point of development of organisation the Gasteropods or snails
-rank immediately after the Cephalopods. They also have a head plainly
-distinguishable from the rest of the body, and to which two brilliant
-black eyes give an animated expression. But their nervous system is far
-less developed, and while the lively cephalopod is able to swim about,
-and rapidly to seize a distant prey, almost all the gasteropods creep
-slowly along upon a flat disk or foot situated below the digestive
-organs, a formation to which they owe their name of gasteropods or
-stomach-footers.
-
-The marine snails are divided into several groups according to the
-different position and arrangement of their gills. In some species these
-organs form naked or free-swimming tufts on the back (Nudibranchiata)
-but generally they are variously disposed either in special cavities or
-under the folds of the mantle. Thus in the Inferobranchiata they are
-arranged under its inferior border on both sides of the body, or upon
-one side only, while in the Tectibranchiata they are placed, as in the
-Nudibranchiata, upon the dorsal aspect of the body, but are protected by
-a fold of the skin. In the Cyclobranchiata they form a fringe round the
-margin of the body, between the edge of the mantle and the foot, and in
-the Scutibranchiata and Pectinibranchiata they are pectinated, or shaped
-like the teeth of a comb, and placed in a large hollow chamber, which
-opens externally at the side of the body or above the head.
-
-[Illustration: Tiara.]
-
-[Illustration: Glaucus.]
-
-[Illustration: Scyllæa.]
-
-Nothing can be more elegant or various than the form and arrangement of
-the gills in most of the nudibranchiate gasteropods. In the Glauci and
-Scyllææ, we see at each side of the elongated body long arms branching
-out into tufty filaments; in the Briarei a hundred furcated stems serve
-for the aëration of the blood. On the back of the Eolides the gills are
-arranged in rows; in the Dorides they form a wreath or garland round the
-posterior intestinal aperture.
-
-The beauty of these animals corresponds with their charming mythological
-names, for every part of them which is not sparkling like the purest
-crystal shines with the liveliest colours, red, yellow, or azure. Some
-inhabit the coasts, where they creep along upon a well-developed foot,
-others live in the deep waters, where they cling to the stems of floating
-sea-weed with a narrow and furrowed foot, or swim upon their back,
-using the borders of the mantle and of the branchiæ as oars. Though
-chiefly living in the warmer latitudes, they are found in every sea,
-and many interesting species inhabit the British waters: such as the
-Sea-lemon (_Doris tuberculata_), which, when its horns and starry wreath
-of branchiæ are concealed, bears a curious resemblance in size, form,
-colour, and warty surface to the half of a citron divided longitudinally;
-the exquisite _Eolis coronata_, whose crowded clusters of branchial
-papillæ are radiant with crimson and cerulean tints; and the crested
-Antiopa, whose transparent breathing organs are tipped with silvery white.
-
-[Illustration: Eolis.]
-
-Though they have no shell to cover them, the Nudibranchiata are not left
-defenceless to the mercy of their enemies. The transparency of their
-body is a cause of safety to many of them. Some conceal themselves under
-stones or among the branches of the madrepores, and some on contracting
-cast off a part of their mantle, which they leave in possession of their
-hungry foe, while they themselves make their escape.
-
-Among the British Inferobranchiata we find the rare golden or
-orange-coloured _Pleurobranchus plumula_, thus named from its branchiæ
-projecting like a plume from between the mantle and foot in crawling; and
-among the Tectibranchiata the common sea-hare (_Aplysia punctata_), which
-resembles a great naked snail; its back opening with two wide lobes,
-which can be expanded or closed over the opening at the animal's will.
-When open, they expose to view on the right side the finely fringed and
-lobed branchiæ, seated in a deep hollow beneath a fold of the mantle.
-The uncomely creature glides along over the stones upon its flat fleshy
-foot and up the slender stems of sea-weeds by bringing the borders of the
-same locomotive apparatus to meet around the stem, thus tightly grasping
-it as if enclosed in a tube. While progressing, the fore part is poked
-forward as a narrow neck furnished with two pair of tentacles, one pair
-of which, standing erect and being formed of thin laminæ, bent round so
-as to bring the edges nearly into contact, look like the ears of the
-timid quadruped, from which the Aplysia has derived its common name. The
-colour is a dark-brownish purple studded with rings and spots of white.
-On being disturbed, the sea-hare pours out from beneath the mantle-lobes
-a copious fluid of the richest purple hue, which however quickly fades,
-and is of no value in the arts.
-
-More than forty species of Aplysiæ are known, most of them inhabitants of
-the warmer seas. The acrid humour exuded by the depilatory aplysia, or
-_Aplysia depilans_, of the Mediterranean is still supposed by the Italian
-fishermen to occasion the loss of the hair, and was used by the ancient
-Romans in the composition of their venomous potions--though it is by no
-means poisonous. Such are the prejudices resulting from the propensity of
-man to associate evil qualities with an unprepossessing appearance.
-
-[Illustration: Chiton squamosus.]
-
-To the Cyclobranchiate order belong the Limpets and the Chitons. The
-latter, which are the only multivalve shells among the Gasteropods, are
-spread in more than two hundred species over every shore from Iceland to
-the Indies, but they are particularly abundant on the coasts of Peru and
-Chili. Some of the smaller species inhabit our coasts, where they may be
-found adhering to stones near low water mark. They are coated with eight
-transverse shelly plates, folding over each other at their edges like the
-plates of ancient armour, and inserted into a tough marginal band, so as
-to form a complete shield to the animal. Thus encased in coat of mail,
-the chitons have the power of baffling the voracity of their enemies by
-rolling themselves up into a ball like the wood-louse or the armadillo:
-they are also able to cling with such tenacity to the rock that it is
-difficult to detach them without tearing them to pieces. The Limpets, or
-Patellæ, likewise attach their shield-like shell so firmly to a hard body
-that it requires the introduction of a knife between the shell and the
-stone to detach them. It has been calculated that the larger species are
-thus able to produce a resistance equivalent to a weight of 150 pounds,
-which, considering the sharp angle of the shell, is more than sufficient
-to defy the strength of a man to raise them. They often congregate in
-large numbers in one place, and an old writer compares them to nail-heads
-struck into the rock. More than a hundred species are known; one of
-which, the _Patella cochlear_ of the Cape, is almost invariably found
-squatting upon the shell of another species of limpet. The finest and
-largest varieties abound on the shores of the Oriental seas and the
-coasts of the Mediterranean, but several of the smaller species are very
-numerous in our littoral or sub-littoral zone, where they either feast
-on the green sea-weeds that we find covering at ebb-tide the stones with
-a thin emerald layer, or upon the coarser olive-coloured algæ. Thus
-_Patella pellucida_ and _Patella lævis_, both remarkable for longitudinal
-streaks of iridescent colours on an olive-shell, may generally be found
-feeding either on the broad fronds or on the roots and stems of the
-Laminariæ, or Oar-weeds. To their labours may indeed be partly attributed
-the annual destruction of these gigantic algæ, for, eating into the lower
-part of the stems, and destroying the branches of the roots, they so far
-weaken the base that it is unable to support the weight of the frond, and
-thus the plant is detached and driven on shore by the waves.
-
-[Illustration: Limpet and Shell.]
-
-The beautiful Sea-ear, or Haliotis, is the chief representative of the
-scutibranchiate gasteropods. The flattened shell, perforated with small
-holes on one side, is characterised by a very wide mouth or aperture, the
-largest in any shell except the limpet. The outside is generally rough,
-or covered with marine substances; the inside presents the same enamelled
-appearance as mother-of-pearl, and exhibits the most beautiful colours.
-The holes with which the shell is perforated serve to admit water to the
-branchiæ, and are formed at regular intervals as it increases in size.
-The foot is very large, having the margin fringed all round, and is able,
-like that of the chiton or the limpet, to cling firmly to the rock. More
-than seventy species of Haliotis are known, the greater part occurring in
-the Pacific Ocean.
-
-[Illustration: Haliotis.
-
-  _c._ Series of perforations.
-  _d._ Eye peduncles.
-  _e._ Tentacles.
-  _g._ Foot.
-]
-
-[Illustration: Carinaria.]
-
-To the scutibranchiate gasteropods also belong the strangely formed
-Carinariæ, which seem to be made up of disjointed parts. The gills (_g_)
-project from under a thin vitreous shell (_f_), which projects from the
-dorsal surface, and has a form not unlike that of the Argonaut or of a
-Phrygian cap. The foot (_b_) is not formed for creeping, but constitutes
-a muscular vertical paddle or fin, that serves them for swimming on the
-back, and is furnished with a sucking disk (_c_), with which they are
-enabled to attach themselves to floating objects.
-
-The Pectinibranchiata comprise all the spiral univalve shells, and are by
-far the most numerous of all the gasteropods, as their species are not
-counted by hundreds, but by thousands. If their calcareous garment could
-be drawn out, it would be found to consist of a tube gradually widening
-from the apex to the base; but what an immense variety of form and
-ornaments, what a prodigality of splendid tints, has not Nature spread
-over this interminable host! The same fundamental idea appears to us in
-thousands of modifications, one yet more elegant and capricious than the
-other. Thus the passion of the shell collector is as conceivable as that
-of the lover of choice flowers, and when we read that rich tulip-amateurs
-have given thousands of florins for one single bulb, we cannot wonder
-that many of the Volutes, Cones, Mitres, and Harps, are worth several
-times their weight in gold; that more than a hundred pounds have been
-paid for a Chinese wentle-trap, and that the _Cypræa aurora_, which the
-Polynesian chiefs used to wear about the neck, is valued at thirty or
-forty guineas.
-
-[Illustration: Orange Cone-Shell.]
-
-[Illustration: Mitre-Shells.]
-
-[Illustration: Harp-shell.]
-
-The mode in which these beautifully painted structures are formed is very
-similar to what takes place among bivalve shells. They are secreted by
-the glandular margin of the mantle or soft skin which clothes the upper
-part of the body of the snail, and their form depends on the shape of the
-body they are destined to cover, while the outline of the border is alike
-regulated by that of the mantle. In the border of the mantle are placed
-the glands through which colouring matter is added to the lime of which
-the shell consists, and here also the whole of the outer coat of the
-shell is formed by constant annual additions to the lip. The after-growth
-of the shell proceeds, layer over layer, from the general surface of the
-mantle, so that the calcareous robe constantly increases in thickness
-with the age of the animal.
-
-[Illustration: Chinese Wentle-trap.--(Scalaria pretiosa.)]
-
-However different the form of a shell may be, its use is invariably
-the same, affording the soft-bodied animal a shield or retreat against
-external injuries. In this respect it is not uninteresting to remark that
-those species which inhabit the littoral zone, and are most exposed to
-the violence of the waves, have a stronger shell than those which live in
-greater depths, and that the fresh-water molluscs have generally a much
-more delicate and fragile coat than those which live in the ocean. The
-greater the necessity of protection the better has Nature provided for
-the want. Thus most of the gasteropods, besides possessing a stone-hard
-dwelling, are also furnished at the extremity of the foot with an
-operculum, or calcareous lid, which fits exactly upon the opening of
-their house, and closes it like a fortress against the outer world. But
-no animal exists that is safe against every attack, for the large birds
-sometimes carry the ponderous sea-snails, whose entrance they cannot
-force with their beaks, high up into the air, and let them fall upon the
-rocks, where they are dashed to pieces.
-
-The ordinary mode of locomotion of the testaceous sea-snails is by
-creeping along on their foot: those that have a very heavy house to
-carry, such as the Cassis or the Pteroceras, generally move along
-very slowly, while others, such as the Olivæ, that are possessed of a
-comparatively strong and broad foot, have rapid and lively movements,
-and quickly raise themselves again when they have been overturned. The
-Strombidæ and Rostellariæ place their powerful and elastic foot under
-the shell in a bent position, when suddenly by a muscular effort they
-straighten that organ and roll and leap over and over. The structure
-of the foot of the _Tornatella fasciata_, an inhabitant of our coast,
-is most remarkable: beaten incessantly by the waves, in the cavities
-of rocks which it frequents, nearly on a level with the surface of the
-sea, to the violence of which it is always exposed, it has need of
-additional powers for retaining its hold; its foot is therefore divided
-into two adhering portions, placed at each extremity, and separated by a
-wide interval; when it crawls, it fixes the posterior disc and advances
-the other, which it attaches firmly to the place of progression, and
-this being effected, the hinder sucker is detached and drawn forwards,
-locomotion being accomplished by the alternate adhesion of these two
-prehensile discs. In Cyclostoma the foot is likewise furnished with two
-longitudinal adhering lobes, which are advanced alternately. But the foot
-of the marine snails is not merely an instrument of progression on a
-solid surface, for in many species it is convertible at the will of the
-animal into a boat, by means of which the creature can suspend itself in
-an inverted position at the surface of the water, where by the aid of its
-mantle and tentacles it can row itself from place to place.
-
-[Illustration: Pteroceras scorpio.]
-
-[Illustration: Oliva hispidula.]
-
-[Illustration: Strombus pes pelicani.]
-
-[Illustration: Ianthina communis.]
-
-The Ianthinæ, or purple Sea-Snails, carry under their foot a vesicular
-organ like a congeries of foam-bubbles, that prevents creeping, but
-serves as a buoy to support them at the surface of the water.
-
-[Illustration: Murex haustellum.]
-
-When the sea is quiet, these little creatures,
-
-  Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,
-
-appear in vast shoals on the surface, but as soon as the wind ruffles
-the ocean, or an enemy approaches, they at once empty their air-cells,
-contract their float, and sink to the bottom, pouring out at the same
-time a darkened fluid like that of the Aplysia or the Murex, which no
-doubt serves them as a defence against their foes, and, according to
-Lesson, furnished the celebrated purple of the ancients. The Ianthinæ
-inhabit the Mediterranean and the warmer regions of the Atlantic, but
-especially towards the close of summer they are frequently drifted by the
-Gulf Stream to the west coast of Ireland.
-
-[Illustration: Magilus antiquus.]
-
-[Illustration: Worm-Shell.]
-
-While the vast majority of the gasteropods either creep or swim, some are
-doomed to the sedentary life of the oyster, and remain for ever fixed
-to the spot where they first attached themselves as small free-swimming
-larvæ. Thus the _Magilus antiquus_, which in its young state presents
-all the characters of a regular spiral univalve, establishes itself in
-the excavations of madrepores, and as the coral increases around it, the
-Magilus is obliged, in order to have its aperture on a level with the
-surrounding surface, to construct a tube, lengthening with the growth of
-the coral. As the tube goes on increasing, the animal abandons the spiral
-for the tubular part of the shell, and in the operation it leaves behind
-no partitions, but secretes a compact calcareous matter which reaches
-to the very summit of the spiral part, so that in an old specimen the
-posterior part of the shell presents a solid mass.
-
-The Siliquariæ are generally found embedded in a similar manner in
-sponges or other soft bodies, while the Vermetus, or Worm-Shell, usually
-attaches itself, like the Serpulæ, to rocks, coral-reefs, or shells.
-
-In these genera, which have been arranged by Cuvier in a separate order
-(Tubulibranchiata), the foot is naturally reduced to the state of an
-adhesive organ, its chief functions consisting in opening and closing the
-lid.
-
-The sea-snails are either predaceous or herbivorous; among the
-pectinibranchiates, those with circular mouths to the shell are vegetable
-feeders, while such as have an aperture ending in a canal are animal
-feeders. Considerable modifications of internal structure indicate this
-difference of food; and the external organs, particularly about the
-mouth, exhibit a corresponding variety of form. In those which feed on
-vegetables the mouth is generally a slit furnished with more or less
-perfect lips, armed with a simple cutting apparatus, which is often
-powerful enough to divide or dismember comparatively hard substances.
-
-In most animal feeders the mouth presents the appearance of a proboscis
-that can be protruded or shortened at the will of the animal, and
-which, grasping the food, conveys it to a spine-armed tongue, by the
-aid of which it is propelled into the gullet without mastication or any
-preparatory change.
-
-In the Whelk and its shell-boring allies, the alternate protrusion and
-retraction of the proboscis, which is here of a much more complicated
-structure, causes the sharp tongue to act as a rasp or auger, capable of
-drilling holes into the hardest shells. It is this circumstance which
-renders the whelk so formidable an enemy to mussel and oyster banks.
-During the erection of Bell Rock lighthouse, an attempt was made to plant
-a colony of mussels on the wave-beaten cliff, as they were likely to be
-of great use to the workmen, and especially to the light keepers, the
-future inhabitants of the rock; but the mussels were soon observed to
-open and die in great numbers. "For some time," says Mr. Stevenson in his
-interesting narrative, "this was ascribed to the effects of the violent
-surge of the sea, but the Buccinum lapillus having greatly increased,
-it was ascertained that it had proved a successful enemy to the mussel.
-The buccinum was observed to perforate a small hole in the shell, and
-thus to suck out the finer parts of the body of the mussel; the valves
-of course opened, and the remainder of the shell-fish was washed away
-by the sea. The perforated hole is generally upon the thinnest part of
-the shell, and is perfectly circular, of a champhered form, being wider
-towards the outward side, and so perfectly smooth and regular as to have
-all the appearance of the most beautiful work of an expert artist. It
-became a matter extremely desirable to preserve the mussel, and it seemed
-practicable to extirpate the buccinum. But after we had picked up and
-destroyed many barrels of them, their extirpation was at length given
-up as a hopeless task. The mussels were consequently abandoned as their
-prey; and, in the course of the third year's operations, so successful
-had the ravages of the buccinum been that not a single member of the
-imported mussel colony was to be found upon the rock." Thus the engineer,
-whose skill and perseverance had gained so proud a triumph over the waves
-of the stormy ocean, was defeated by an ignoble whelk.
-
-[Illustration: Limpet's tongue.]
-
-In the genera which have no proboscis, the tongue, acting as a prehensile
-and rasping or abrading organ, is frequently of considerable length;
-thus, in the Ear-shell, it is half as long as the body, and in the common
-Limpet even three times longer than the entire animal. From the two
-cartilaginous pieces (_b b_), placed on each side of its root, arise the
-short and powerful muscles which wield the organ. The surface of this
-curious piece of mechanism, a magnified view of which is given at B, is
-armed with minute, though strong, teeth, placed in transverse rows, and
-arranged in three series; each central group consists of four spines,
-while those on the sides contain but two a-piece. It is only at its
-anterior extremity (_d_), however, that the tongue, so armed, presents
-that horny hardness needful for the performance of its functions, the
-posterior part being comparatively soft; so that, probably in proportion
-as the anterior part is worn away, the parts behind it gradually assume
-the necessary firmness, and advance to supply its place. In the upper
-part of the circumference of the mouth, we find a semicircular horny
-plate, resembling an upper jaw, and the tongue, by triturating the food
-against this, gradually reduces substances however hard. On opening the
-limpet, the tongue is found doubled upon itself, and folded in a spiral
-manner beneath the viscera.
-
-Many of the Gasteropods which live on coarse and refractory materials are
-provided with several digestive cavities, resembling in some degree the
-stomachs of the ruminating quadrupeds; and frequently the triturating
-power of these organs is still further increased by their being armed
-with teeth variously disposed.
-
-[Illustration: Bulla.]
-
-In the Bulla, for instance, a genus belonging, like the sea-hares, to the
-tectibranchiate order, the gizzard, or second stomach, contains three
-plates of stony hardness attached to its walls, and so disposed that they
-perform the part of a most efficacious grinding mill.
-
-On opening the gizzard of the Scyllæa, it is found to be still more
-formidably armed, for in its muscular walls there are embedded no less
-than twelve horny plates (_e_), which are extremely hard and as sharp as
-the blades of a knife.
-
-[Illustration: Gizzard of Bulla.]
-
-[Illustration: Gizzard of Syllæa.]
-
-The Sea-hare, however, furnishes us with the most curious form of these
-stomachal teeth, for here we see not only the gizzard (_b_) armed with
-horny pyramidal plates, whose tuberculated apices, meeting in the centre
-of the organ, must necessarily bruise by their action whatever passes
-through that cavity, but the third stomach (_d_) is also studded with
-sharp-pointed hooks (_c_), resembling canine teeth, and admirably adapted
-to pierce and subdivide the tough leathery fronds of the olive sea-weeds
-on which the animal feeds. Thus these deformed and disgusting molluscs
-afford us one of the most interesting examples of the adaptation of
-organs to their functions, which an enlightened research is continually
-finding in creation.
-
-[Illustration: Compound stomach of Sea-Hare.]
-
-Though not so gifted as the cephalopods, many of the gasteropods possess
-all the organs of sense. Like them, they have an apparatus specially
-calculated to appreciate sonorous undulations, and consisting of a
-membranous vesicle attached to an auditive nerve, and containing either
-a single spherical otolithe or a larger number of similar smaller
-calcareous bodies, which by their vibrations communicate the impression
-of sound to the nerve. Their minute eyes are short-sighted, it is true,
-and frequently either entirely wanting or, as in the Nudibranchiates,
-scarcely able to distinguish light from darkness; but their inactive
-habits require no wide field of vision, and thus they see as much of the
-external world as is necessary for their humble sphere of existence. The
-organs of sight are generally situated either on a prominence at the base
-of the superior pair of tentacles or, as, for instance, in the Murex, at
-the extremity of these organs (_a_, _b_), a position which enables the
-animal to direct them readily to different objects.
-
-[Illustration: Tentacles and eye of Murex.
-
-_c._ Eye highly magnified.]
-
-Many of the Gasteropods are evidently capable of perceiving odours; thus,
-animal substances let down in a net to the bottom will attract thousands
-of Nassæ in one night. We also may infer that they are not deficient
-in taste from the presence of papillæ at the bottom of their mouth,
-analogous to those found on the tongue of other animals; but, of all
-their senses, that of touch is undoubtedly the most perfect. The whole
-soft surface of the body is indeed of exquisite sensibility, but more
-especially the vascular foot, and the tentacles, or horns, which vary
-both in number and in shape in different genera. Yet, in spite of this
-delicacy in the organisation of the skin, which makes it so sensible of
-contact, it appears to have been beneficently ordered that animals so
-helpless and exposed to injury from every quarter are but little sensible
-to pain. Although they are deprived of all higher instincts, we find
-among the Gasteropods a few examples of concealment under extraneous
-objects, which remind us of the masks and artifices frequently employed
-by the insects and crustaceans.
-
-The Agglutinating Top (_Trochus agglutinans_) covers itself with small
-stones and fragments of shells, and thus shielded from the view escapes
-the voracity of many an enemy but little suspecting the savoury morsel
-hidden under the mound of rubbish which he disdainfully passes by.
-
-In animals which are only provided with passive means of defence, we may
-naturally expect a considerable degree of caution, and in this respect
-the gasteropods might give many useful lessons to man. How carefully they
-protrude their tentacles as far as possible to sound every obstacle in
-their way, before they creep onwards, and how rapidly they withdraw into
-their shell at the least symptom of danger! What an example to so many of
-us that leap before they look, and frequently break their necks in the
-fall!
-
-Yet, in spite of all their prudence and of the protection of their
-stony dwellings, they serve as food to a host of powerful enemies. The
-sea-stars, their most dangerous foes, not only swallow the young fry but
-also seize with their long rays the full-grown gasteropods, and clasp
-them in a murderous embrace.
-
-They are preyed upon by fishes, crustaceans, and sea-birds, who pick them
-up along the shores; but it will sometimes happen that a crow, while
-endeavouring to detach a limpet for its food, is caught by the tip of its
-bill, and held there until drowned by the advancing tide.
-
-Man also consumes a vast number of sea-snails, for on every coast there
-are some edible species; and it may be said that, with the exception of
-very few that have a disagreeable taste, they are all of them used as
-food by the savage. The miserable inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego chiefly
-live upon a large limpet that abounds on the rocky shores of their
-inhospitable land, and but for this resource would most likely long since
-have been extirpated by hunger.
-
-Many of the univalve shells are, moreover, highly prized as objects of
-ornament or use both by savage and civilised nations. The South Sea
-Islander makes use of a Triton as a war conch; the Patagonian drinks
-out of the Magellanic volute, the Arab of the Red Sea employs a large
-Buccinum as a water-jug, and the _Cypræa moneta_ is well known in
-commerce as the current coin of the natives of many parts of Africa.
-In Europe the iridescent Haliotis is frequently used for the inlaying
-of tables or boxes, and various species of Helmet-shells and Strombi
-(_Cassis rufa madagascariensis_, _Strombus gigas_), peculiar as being
-formed of several differently coloured layers, placed side by side, are
-in great request for the cutting of cameos, as they are soft enough
-to be worked with ease, and hard enough to resist wear. More than two
-hundred thousand of these shells are annually imported into France,
-and the value of cameos produced in Paris alone amounts to more than a
-hundred thousand pounds. A large number are also cut in the small town of
-Oberstein on the Nahe (a river flowing into the Rhine at Bingen), which
-has long been famous for the manufactory of agate ornaments and trinkets,
-and has now added this new branch of industry to the more ancient sources
-of its prosperity.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The Pteropods, or Wing-footers, move about by means of two fin-like
-flaps, proceeding wing-like from the fore part of the body. They have no
-disk to walk upon, nor arms for the seizure of prey, like the cephalopods
-and gasteropods, but resemble them by the possession of a head distinct
-from the rest of the body, which some, like the Hyaleas and Cleodora,
-conceal in a thin transparent or translucent shell, in which they also
-hide their head and wings at the approach of danger, and immediately sink
-to the bottom; while others, like the blue and violet Clios, beautifully
-variegated with light red spots, are perfectly naked. They generally
-inhabit the high seas, and are but rarely drifted by storms or currents
-into the neighbourhood of the land. They mostly swim about freely,
-but sometimes also they are found clinging by their wings to floating
-sea-weeds. They are small creatures, but propagate so fast that the _Clio
-borealis_ and _Limacina arctica_ form the chief food of the colossal
-whale.
-
-[Illustration: Hyalea globulosa.]
-
-While these two little pteropods, in spite of their minute proportions,
-deserve to rank among the most important inhabitants of the northern
-seas, the Mediterranean species belong mainly to the genera Hyalea,
-Cleodora, and Criseis--forms wholly unknown to our own fauna except as
-waifs. Vast shoals of these animals frequent the deeper parts of that
-sea, leaving their remains strewed over its bed, between depths of from
-one hundred to two hundred fathoms; they are short-lived creatures, and
-have their seasons, being met with near the surface during spring and
-winter, sparkling in the water like needles of glass.
-
-"The pteropods are the winged insects of the sea," says M. Godwin-Austen,
-"reminding us, in their free circling movements and crepuscular habits,
-of the gnats and moths of the atmosphere; they shun the light, and if the
-sun is bright, you may look in vain for them during the life-long day--as
-days sometimes are at sea; a passing cloud, however, suffices to bring
-some Cleodoræ to the surface. It is only as day declines that their true
-time begins, and thence onwards the watches of the night may be kept by
-observing the contents of the towing-net, as the hours of a summer day
-may be by the floral dial. The Cleodoræ are the earliest risers; as the
-sun sets, _Hyalæa gibbosa_ appears, darting about as if it had not a
-moment to spare, and, indeed, its period is brief, lasting only for the
-Mediterranean twilight. Then it is that _Hyalæa trispinosa_ and _Cleodora
-subula_ come up; _Hyalæa tridentata_, though it does not venture out till
-dusk, retires early, whilst some species, such as _Cleodora pyramidata_,
-are to be met with only during the midnight hours and the darkest nights.
-This tribe, like a higher one, has its few irregular spirits, who manage
-to keep it up the whole night through. All, however, are back to their
-homes below before dawn surprises them."
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The lamellibranchiate Acephala, or headless molluscs with comb-like
-gills, are distinguished from the preceding orders of molluscs by a
-more simple organisation and the peculiar formation of their external
-coverings. They are all contained within a bivalve shell, articulated
-after the manner of a hinge, and to which some of their families are
-attached by one strong muscle (Monomyaria), others by two (Dimyaria).
-In this shell, which is secreted by two large flaps or folds of their
-skin or mantle, they generally lie concealed like a book in its binding,
-and bid defiance to many of their enemies. When danger menaces, the
-sea-snail withdraws its head and closes the entrance of its hermitage
-with a lid, but the bivalve shuts its folding-doors when it wishes to
-avoid a disagreeable intruder. A strong elastic ligament connects the
-two valves, and opens them wide as soon as the muscular contraction which
-closed them ceases to act.
-
-While the sea-snail creeps along upon a mighty foot, the bivalve is
-frequently doomed to a sedentary life, and the former protrudes from its
-shell a well-formed head, while the latter, like many a biped, has no
-head at all. The lamellibranchiate Acephala have, however, been treated
-by nature not quite so step-motherly as might be supposed from this
-deficiency, for many of them have eyes, or at least ocular spots, which
-enable them to distinguish light from darkness; and even auditory organs
-have been discovered in many of them. Their circulation is performed by
-a heart generally symmetrical, and their respiration by means of four
-branchial leaflets equal in size, and symmetrically arranged on either
-side of the body. The mouth is a simple orifice without any teeth,
-bordered by membranous lips, and placed at one end of the body between
-the two inner leaves of the branchiæ. The digestive apparatus consists of
-a stomach or intestine of different lengths, a liver, and several other
-accessory organs. A simple nervous system brings all the parts of the
-body into harmonious action.
-
-[Illustration: Bivalve deprived of shell, to show its various openings.]
-
-In many lamellibranchiates the folds of the mantle are disjoined, as, for
-instance, in the oyster, which, on opening its shell, at once admits the
-water to its delicately fringed branchiæ; in others they are more or less
-united, so as to form a closed sack with several openings, an anterior
-one (_h_) for the passage of the foot, and two posterior ones (_g_, _f_)
-for the ingress and egress of the water which the animal requires for
-respiration. These posterior openings are often prolonged into shorter
-or longer tubes or siphons, sometimes separate, and sometimes grown
-together so as to form a single elongated fleshy mass. The use of these
-prolongations becomes at once apparent when we consider that they are
-chiefly developed in those species which burrow in sand, mud, wood, or
-stone, and which therefore require to be specially guarded against the
-danger of suffocation. The interior of these siphonal canals is lined
-with innumerable vibratory cilia, by the action of which the water is
-drawn towards the branchial orifice and conveyed in a current through the
-canal over the surface of the gills; then, having been deprived of its
-oxygen, it is expelled by a similar mechanism through the other tube;
-and it is by the force of this anal current that the passage is kept
-free from the deposit of mud or other substances, which would otherwise
-soon choke it up. The cleaning action of the anal current is assisted by
-the faculty the burrowing molluscs possess of elongating and contracting
-their siphons, and the degree to which this may be accomplished depends
-on the depth of the cavity which the species is accustomed to make. Yet
-since many particles of matter float even in clear water, which from
-their form or other qualities might be injurious to the delicate tissue
-of the viscera to be traversed, how is the entrance of these to be
-guarded against in an indiscriminating current? A beautiful contrivance
-is provided for this necessity. The margin of the branchial siphon,
-and sometimes, though more rarely, of the anal one, is set round with
-a number of short tentacular processes, endowed with an exquisite
-sensibility and expanding like feathery leaves. In _Pholas dactylus_
-this apparatus, which is here confined to the oral tube, is of peculiar
-beauty, forming a network of exquisite tracery, through the interstices
-or meshes of which the water freely percolates, while they exclude
-all except the most minute floating atoms of extraneous matter. Thus
-admirably has the health and comfort of the lowly shell-fish been provided
-for that spend their whole life buried in sepulchres of stone or sand.
-
-[Illustration: Donax.
-
-_a_, _b_. Siphons.]
-
-The fragile shell of the pholades seems to have prompted them to seek
-a better protection in the hard rock; a similar necessity may have
-induced the ship-worm to drill a dwelling in wood. Its shells, which
-are only a few lines broad, are very small compared with the size of
-the vermiform body, and are therefore completely inadequate for its
-defence. For better security it bores deep passages in submerged timber,
-which it lines with a calcareous secretion, closing the opening with two
-small lids. Unfortunately, while thus taking care of itself, it causes
-considerable damage to the works of man. It is principally to guard
-against the attacks of this worm that ships are sheathed with copper,
-and the beams of submarine constructions closely studded with nails.
-During the last century, the Teredo caused such devastations in the dykes
-which guard a great part of Holland against the encroachments of an
-overwhelming ocean that the Dutch began to tremble for their safety; and
-thus a miserable worm struck terror in the hearts of a nation which had
-laughed to scorn the tyranny of Philip II., and bid defiance to the
-legions of Louis XIV.
-
-[Illustration: Pholas striata.]
-
-[Illustration: Ship-worm.--(Teredo navalis.)]
-
-But while blaming the teredo for its damages, justice bids us not pass
-over in silence the services which it renders to man. If it here and
-there destroys useful constructions, on the other hand, it removes the
-wrecks that would otherwise obstruct the entrance of rivers and harbours;
-and we may ask whether these services do not outweigh the harm it causes.
-The pholades also belong to the noxious animals; they perforate the
-walls and calcareous jetties which man opposes to the fury of the sea,
-or raises for the creation of artificial harbours and landing places,
-destroy their foundations, and gradually cause their destruction.
-
-[Illustration: Petunculus.
-
-_a._ Foot.]
-
-The foot of the lamellibranchiates presents a great variety of form,
-and is found in various degrees of development, gradually passing into
-a rudimentary state, until finally it is completely wanting in the
-oyster family. In most of those which live at large it is strong and
-muscular, serving either as an excellent spade for speedy concealment
-in the sand when an enemy approaches, or to dig a furrow into which
-the animal forces itself partially, and then advances slowly by making
-slight see-saw or balancing motions, or even to jump along with tolerable
-rapidity. Thus, the common Cockle protrudes its foot to its utmost
-length, bending it and fixing it strongly against the surface on which it
-stands; then by a sudden muscular spring it throws itself into the air,
-and, by repeating the process again and again, hops along at a pace one
-would hardly expect to meet with in a shell-bound mollusc.
-
-Even some of those which have but a very rudimentary foot, incapable of
-subserving locomotion, are able to move from place to place by the sudden
-opening or shutting of their valves. In this manner the scallop, which
-inhabits deep places, where it lies on a rocky or shelly bottom, swims or
-flies through the water with great rapidity, and the file or rasp mussel,
-a closely related genus, principally occurring in the Indian Ocean,
-glides so swiftly through the water that the French naturalists Quoy and
-Gaimard were hardly able to overtake it.
-
-[Illustration: Cockle.
-
-_a._ Foot.]
-
-In the stone or wood-boring bivalves the functions of the foot with
-regard to locomotion are much more limited than in the Cockle, or
-Tellina, as they merely consist in moving the animal up and down in the
-cavity where it has fixed its residence. In the Razor-Shells, which will
-sometimes burrow to the depth of two feet, and very rarely quit their
-holes, the cylindrical foot, no longer fit for horizontal locomotion,
-serves the animal for rising or sinking in the sand, for when about to
-bore, it attenuates it into a point, and afterwards contracts it into a
-rounded form so as to fix it by its enlargement when it desires to rise.
-
-In places where the razor-shells abound, they are sought after as bait
-for fish, and taken in spite of their mole-like facility of concealment,
-for when the tide is low, their retreat is easily recognised by the
-little jet of water they eject when alarmed by the motion of the
-fishermen above. Having thus detected their burrow, the wily enemy who
-is well aware that, though inhabiting the salt water, the Solen does not
-like too much of a good thing, merely throws some salt into the hole,
-which, sadly irritating the nerves of the poor creature, generally brings
-it to the surface. He must, however, be very quick in grasping it firmly,
-for should he fail, the animal speedily sinks again into the sand and
-will remain there, being either insensible to the additional irritation
-or its instinct of self-preservation teaching it to remain beneath.
-
-The pholades, which have very delicate milk-white valves, burrow holes in
-limestone or sandstone rocks, though occasionally they content themselves
-with houses of clay or turf. How creatures invested with shells as thin
-as paper and as brittle as glass are able to work their way through hard
-stone has long been a puzzle to naturalists, some of whom asserted that
-they attained their object by means of an acid solvent, others that
-they bored like an auger by revolving; but recent investigations have
-discovered that their short and truncated foot is the chief instrument
-they use in their mining operations, being provided at its base with a
-rough layer of sharp crystals of flint, which, when worn off, are soon
-replaced by others, and act as excellent files.
-
-[Illustration: Solen, or Razor-Shell.
-
-_a._ Foot.]
-
-In several of the sedentary genera the rudimentary foot, though incapable
-of locomotion, makes itself useful by spinning a bundle of silken
-threads, called _byssus_, or beard, which serve to anchor the animal to
-any solid submarine object as firmly as a ship in harbour. Generally
-the connection is permanent, but some species, among others the edible
-mussel, are able to detach the filaments from the glandular pedicle
-situated at the inferior base of the foot which originally secreted them,
-and then to seek another point of attachment.
-
-If the byssus be examined under a powerful lens, before any of the
-filaments are torn, it is easy to perceive that these are fixed to
-submarine bodies by means of a small disc-like expansion of their
-extremities of various extent, according to the genus and species.
-Certain genera are celebrated for the abundance and fineness of their
-byssus; that of the Pinnæ, or Wing-Shells, among others, which are very
-common in some parts of the Mediterranean, and attain a considerable
-size, is so long and firm that in Naples it is sometimes manufactured
-into gloves and other articles of dress, though more as an object of
-curiosity than for use.
-
-Thus we find in the same class of animals the same organ most variously
-modified in form and structure; now serving as a foot, now as a spade,
-or as a rasp, or as a spinning machine, and, throughout all these
-modifications, admirably adapted in every case to the mode of life of its
-possessor.
-
-[Illustration: Pinna.
-
-  _c._ Pedicle from which the filaments are detached.
-  _d._ Inferior base of the foot.
-]
-
-The whole construction, and generally the extremely restricted
-locomotion, of the bivalves tells us at once that they are unable
-to attack their prey, but must be satisfied with the food which the
-sea-currents bring to the door of their shells, or within the vortex
-of their branchial siphons. But they have as little reason to complain
-as the equally slow or sessile polyps, bryozoa, and ascidians, for the
-waters of the ocean harbour such incalculable multitudes of microscopic
-animals and plants that their moderate appetite never remains long
-unsatisfied. The same streams which aërate their blood also convey to
-their mouth all the food which they require.
-
-Deprived of more active weapons, most bivalves rely upon their shells
-as their best means of defence, and to answer this purpose, their stony
-covering must naturally increase in solidity the more its owner is
-exposed to injury. The pholades, lithodomes, and teredines, which scoop
-out their dwellings in stone or wood, and thus enjoy the protection of
-a retrenched camp, can do with a thin and brittle or even with a mere
-rudimentary shell. The solens, which at the least alarm bury themselves
-deeper and deeper in the sand, likewise require no closely-fitting
-valves; but the oysters or mussels, which have no external fortress to
-retire to, and are unable to move from the spot, would be badly off
-indeed if they could not entirely conceal themselves within their thick
-shells, and keep them closed by strong muscular contraction.
-
-Bernardin de St. Pierre, in his "Studies of Nature," points out another
-admirable provision for the safety of molluscs. Thus, those which crawl
-and travel, and can consequently choose their own asylums, are in general
-those of the richest colours. Such, among the Gasteropods, are the
-gaudily-tinted Nerites, and the polished marbled Cowries, the Olives,
-richly ornamented with three or four colours, and the Harps, which have
-tints as rich as the most beautiful tulips; while among the bivalves
-the vivacious Pectens, coloured scarlet and orange, and a host of other
-travelling shells, are impressed with the most lively colours. But those
-which do not swim, as the Oysters, which are adherent always to the
-same rocks, or those which are perpetually at anchor, as the Pinnas and
-Mussels, or those which repose on the bosom of Madrepores, such as the
-Arcs, or those which are entirely buried in the calcareous rocks, as the
-Lithodomi, or those which immovably, by reason of their weight, pave the
-surface of the reefs, as the Tridacna, are of the colour of the bottoms
-or floors which they respectively inhabit, in order, no doubt, that they
-shall be less perceived by their enemies.
-
-But even so the best guarded of the bivalves fall a prey to innumerable
-enemies, and when we see the strand covered for miles and miles with
-their débris, we may rest assured that but few of the quondam inmates
-of these fragmentary shells have died a natural death. Annelides
-and Sea-snails, crustaceans and star-fishes, strand birds and even
-quadrupeds, all fatten upon their delicate flesh, and man devours
-incalculable numbers.
-
-[Illustration: Edible Cockle.]
-
-In vain the Pholas buries itself in stone, or the cockle in the sand;
-their security was at an end as soon as man had found out that they
-were grateful to the palate. The former was reckoned a delicacy by the
-ancients, and the latter is preferred by some to the oyster itself. So
-much is certain, that, during the years of famine caused by the potato
-disease, it preserved the lives of many of the poor Shetlanders and
-Orcadians.
-
-The Razor-Shells, particularly when roasted, and the Clam-Mussels, which
-are not only a favourite repast of the Greenlander but also of the white
-bear and arctic fox, are equally reckoned among the most delicate of
-bivalves.
-
-The common Mussel (_Mytilus edulis_), which is found in the littoral
-zone on almost every rocky shore, is eaten in vast numbers by the coast
-inhabitants, and carried in enormous masses into the interior of the
-country; it furnishes an equally cheap and agreeable food, but is not
-easy of digestion, and sometimes produces symptoms of poisoning, which
-have been ascribed to the eggs of asterias, on which it feeds during the
-summer. In the northern countries it is also in great request as a bait
-for cod, ling, rays, and other large fishes that are caught by the line.
-In the Frith of Forth alone from thirty to forty millions of mussels are
-used for this purpose, and in many places they are enclosed in _gardens_,
-the ground of which is covered with large stones, to which they attach
-themselves by their byssus or beard.
-
-[Illustration: Edible Mussel.]
-
-It is a curious fact that the rearing of mussels should have been
-introduced into France as far back as the year 1235, by an Irishman
-of the name of Walton. This man, who had been shipwrecked in the Bay
-de l'Aiguillon, and gained a precarious living by catching sea-birds,
-observed that the mussels, which had attached themselves to the poles
-on which he spread his nets over the shallow waters, were far superior
-to those that naturally grow in the mud, and immediately made use
-of his discovery by founding the first "_bouchot_," or mussel-park,
-consisting of stakes and rudely interwoven branches. His example soon
-found imitators, and, strange to say, the method of construction adopted
-by Walton, six centuries ago, has been maintained unaltered to the
-present day. It may give some idea of the immense resources that might
-be obtained from so many utterly neglected lagunes when we hear that
-the fishermen of l'Aiguillon, although they sell three hundredweight of
-mussels for the very low sum of five francs, or four shillings, annually
-export or send them into the interior to the amount of a million or
-twelve hundred thousand francs.
-
-The praise which Pliny bestowed on the oyster, calling it the palm or
-glory of the table, is still re-echoed by thousands of enthusiastic
-admirers. We know that this king of the molluscs congregates in enormous
-banks, often extending for miles and miles, particularly on rocky ground,
-though it is also found on a sandy or even on a muddy bottom. Along the
-shallow alluvial shores of many tropical lands, great quantities of
-oysters are often found attached to the lower branches of the mangroves,
-where they are so situated as to be covered when the flood sets in, and
-to remain suspended in the air when it retires, swinging about as the
-wind agitates their movable support. The oyster inhabits all the European
-seas from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Westenfiord in Norway,
-where it finds its northern boundary, lat. 68° N., but the British
-waters may be considered as its headquarters, for nowhere is it found
-in greater abundance and of a richer flavour. After the ancient Romans
-had once tasted the oysters of Kent--the renowned _Rutupians_--they
-preferred them by far to those of the Lucrine lake, of Brindisi, and of
-Abydos, and Macrobius tells us that the Roman epicures in the fourth
-century never failed to have them at table. The "Pandores" of Edinburgh,
-and the "Carlingfords" of Dublin, are likewise celebrated for their
-delicious flavour; and if we turn to the Continent, we find the Bay
-of Biscay, and the coasts of Brittany and Normandy, of Holland and of
-Schleswig-Holstein, renowned for the excellence of their oysters.
-
-Three sorts of oysters are distinguished in the trade. The first
-comprises those which are dredged from the deeper banks. These are the
-largest-sized, but also the least valued. The second consists of those
-that are gathered on a more elevated situation. Being accustomed to
-the daily vicissitudes of ebb and flood, they retain their water much
-longer, and can therefore be transported to much greater distances than
-the former. Those are preferred that grow on a clear bottom near the
-estuaries of rivers. The third and most valued sort of oysters are those
-that are cleaned and fattened in artificial _parks_ or stews.
-
-This branch of industry was already known to the Romans, and Pliny
-tells us that Sergius Orata, a knight, was the first who established an
-artificial basin for the cultivation of oysters, and realised large sums
-of money by this ingenious invention. At present Harwich, Colchester,
-Whitstable, and many other sea-ports along our coast are famed for their
-oyster-stews, as are, in France and Belgium, Marennes, Havre, Dieppe,
-Tréport, and Ostend, where real British natives are cleaned and fattened
-for continental consumption.
-
-The renowned oyster-parks of Ostend, the oldest of which celebrated its
-hundredth anniversary in 1860, are extensive walled basins, communicating
-by sluices with the open sea, so that the water can be let in and out
-with every returning tide. As microscopic algæ and animalculæ are
-produced in much greater numbers in these tranquil reservoirs than in
-the boisterous sea, the oysters find here much more abundant food, and
-being detached one from the other, they can also open and close their
-shells with greater facility, so that nothing hinders their growth. Thus
-fostered and improved by constant attention, they are greatly superior
-in flavour to the rough children of nature that are sent without any
-further preparation to market and condemned to the knife soon after
-having been dragged forth from their submarine abode. The highly prized
-_green_ oysters owe their colour to the number of ulvæ, enteromorphæ, and
-microscopic infusoriæ, that are abundantly generated in the parks, and
-communicate their verdant tinge to the animal that swallows them.
-
-In spite of their high price, which unfortunately debars the poorer
-classes from their enjoyment, the consumption of oysters is immense; so
-that in a commercial point of view they are by far the most important of
-all the mollusc tribes. Of the quantities eaten in London alone, it is
-impossible to give even an approximate guess, as no reliable statistics
-can be arrived at. Exclusive of those bred in Essex and Kent, in the
-rivers Crouch, Blackwater, and Colne, and in the channel of the Swale and
-the Medway, vast numbers are brought from Jersey, Poole, and other places
-along the coast. The Channel Islands alone, which export about 100,000
-bushels a year, send a great part of their oysters to the metropolitan
-market.
-
-The luxurious tables of Paris likewise consume unnumbered millions, and
-when we consider that, thanks to the railroad, even the most distant
-inland towns of the Continent may now be supplied with Ostend oysters, we
-cannot wonder that their price has risen enormously with the constantly
-increasing demand.
-
-This great augmentation of value has naturally directed attention to
-the creation of new oyster-banks, and to the better management of those
-already existing, and fortunately the manner in which the mollusc
-propagates renders its culture in appropriate localities a by no means
-difficult task.
-
-The oyster spawns from June to September. Instead of immediately
-abandoning its eggs to their fate, as is the case with so many
-sea-animals, it keeps them for a time in the folds of its mantle, between
-the branchial lamellæ, and it is only after having thus acquired a more
-perfect development that the microscopic larvæ, furnished with a swimming
-apparatus and eyes, emerge from the shell, and are then driven about
-by the floods and currents, until they find some solid body to which
-they attach themselves for life. In this manner the oyster produces in
-one single summer a couple of millions of young, which, however, mostly
-perish during the first wandering stage of their existence. Thus we see
-what rich rewards may be gained by protecting and fixing the oyster-larvæ
-at an early date; and that this can be done in many places without any
-great outlay of capital is proved to us by successful examples both in
-ancient and modern times.
-
-Between the Lucrine Lake, the ruins of Cumæ, where of yore the Sibyl
-uttered her ambiguous oracles, and the promontory of Misenum, lies a
-small salt-water lake, about a league in circumference, generally from
-three to six feet deep, and reposing on a volcanic, black, and muddy
-bottom. This is the old Acheron of Virgil, the present Fusaro. Over
-its whole extent are spread from space to space great heaps of stones,
-that have been originally stocked with oysters brought from Tarentum.
-Round each of these artificial mounds stakes are driven into the ground,
-tolerably near each other, and projecting from the water, so as to be
-pulled up easily. Other stakes stand in long rows several feet apart,
-and are united by ropes, from which bundles of brushwood hang down into
-the water. All these arrangements are intended to fix the _oyster-dust_,
-that annually escapes from the parental shells, and to afford it a vast
-number of points to which it may attach itself. After two or three years
-the microscopic larvæ have grown into edible oysters. Then, at the proper
-season, the stakes and brushwood bundles are taken out of the water, and
-after the ripe berries of the marine vineyard have been plucked, they
-are again immersed into the lake, until a new generation brings a new
-harvest. Thus the indolent Neapolitans have for ages given an example
-which has but recently been imitated by the men of the North. In 1858
-a mason named Beef (a name which, if not misspelt, would seem to point
-out an English origin) inaugurated the modern era of oyster cultivation,
-at the island of Ré, near La Rochelle, by laying down a few bushels of
-growing oysters among a quantity of large stones on the fore shore. His
-success encouraged his neighbours to follow his example, so that now
-already upwards of 4,000 beds or _claires_ extend along the coast.
-
-Between March and May 1859 a quantity of oysters taken from different
-parts of the sea were distributed in ten longitudinal beds in the Bay of
-St. Brieux, on the coast of Brittany. The bottom was previously covered
-with old oyster-shells and boughs of trees arranged like fascines, which
-afford a capital holding-ground for the spat. In 1860 three of the
-fascines were taken up indiscriminately from one of the banks, and found
-to contain about 20,000 oysters each, of from one inch to two inches in
-diameter. The total expense for forming the above bank was 221 francs,
-and reckoning the number of oysters on each of the 300 fascines laid down
-on it at only 10,000, these sold at the low price of 20 francs a thousand
-would produce the sum of 60,000 francs, thus yielding a larger profit
-than any other known branch of industry.
-
-Encouraged by these successful examples, an English company has obtained
-a grant by Act of Parliament of a piece of fore shore lying between the
-Whitstable and Faversham Oyster Companies' beds, and thus admirably
-situated for receiving a large quantity of floating spawn from these
-establishments. There can be no doubt that oyster cultivation will
-spread further and further, and that ultimately all the worthless bays
-and lagunes along our coasts will be converted into rich oyster-fields,
-yielding a good profit to their owners and enjoyment to millions of
-consumers.
-
-A shell nearly related to the oyster produces the costly pearls of the
-East that have ever been as highly esteemed as the diamond itself.
-The most renowned pearl-fisheries are carried on at Bahrein, in the
-Persian Gulf, and in the Bay of Condatchy, in the island of Ceylon, on
-banks situated a few miles from the coast. Before the beginning of the
-fishery, the government causes the banks to be explored, and then lets
-them to the highest bidder, very wisely allowing only a part of them
-to be fished every year. The fishing begins in February, and ceases by
-the beginning of April. The boats employed for this purpose assemble in
-the bay, set off at night at the firing of a signal-gun, and reach the
-banks after sunrise, where fishing goes on till noon, when the sea-breeze
-which arises about that time warns them to return to the bay. As soon as
-they appear within sight, another gun is fired, to inform the anxious
-owners of their return. Each boat carries twenty men and a chief; ten
-of them row and hoist up the divers, who are let down by fives,--and
-thus alternately diving and resting keep their strength to the end of
-their day's work. The diver, when he is about to plunge, compresses his
-nostrils tightly with a small piece of horn, which keeps the water out,
-and stuffs his ears with bees'-wax for the same purpose. He then seizes
-with the toes of his right foot a rope to which a stone is attached, to
-accelerate the descent, while the other foot grasps a bag of network.
-With his right hand he lays hold of another rope, and in this manner
-rapidly reaches the bottom. He then hangs the net round his neck, and
-with much dexterity and all possible despatch collects as many oysters
-as he can while he is able to remain under water, which is usually about
-two minutes. He then resumes his former position, makes a signal to
-those above by pulling the rope in his right hand, and is immediately
-by this means hauled up into the boat, leaving the stone to be pulled
-up afterwards by the rope attached to it. Accustomed from infancy to
-their work, these divers do not fear descending repeatedly to depths of
-fifty or sixty feet. They plunge more than fifty times in a morning,
-and collect each time about a hundred shells. Sometimes, however, the
-exertion is so great that, upon being brought into the boat, they
-discharge blood from their mouth, ears, and nostrils.
-
-[Illustration: Ceylon Pearl-Oyster.]
-
-While the fishing goes on, a number of conjurors and priests are
-assembled on the coast, busily employed in protecting the divers by their
-incantations against the voracity of the sharks. These are the great
-terror of the divers, but they have such confidence in the skill or
-power of their conjurors that they neglect every other means of defence.
-The divers are paid in money, or receive a part of the oyster-shells in
-payment. Often, indeed, they try to add to their gains by swallowing
-here or there a pearl, but the sly merchant knows how to find the stolen
-property. The oysters, when safely landed, are piled up on mats, in
-places fenced round for the purpose. As soon as the animals are dead, the
-pearls can easily be sought for and extracted from the gaping shells.
-After the harvest has been gathered, the largest, thickest, and finest
-shells, which furnish mother-of-pearl, are sorted, and the remaining heap
-is left to pollute the air. Some poor Indians, however, often remain for
-weeks on the spot, stirring the putrid mass in the hopes of gleaning some
-forgotten pearls from the heap of rottenness. The pearls are drilled and
-stringed in Ceylon, a work which is performed with admirable dexterity
-and quickness. For cleaning, rounding, and polishing them, a powder of
-ground pearls is made use of.
-
-The Pacific also furnishes these costly ornaments to wealth and beauty,
-but the pearls of California and Tahiti are less prized than those of the
-Indian Ocean.
-
-Pearl-like excrescences likewise form on the inner surface of our oysters
-and mussels, and originate in the same manner as the true pearls.
-The formation of the pearl, however, is not yet quite satisfactorily
-accounted for. Some naturalists believe that the animal accumulates
-the pearl-like substance to give the shell a greater thickness and
-solidity in the places where it has been perforated by some annelide or
-gasteropod; and according to Mr. Philippi, an intestinal worm stimulates
-the exudation of the pearl-like mass, which, on hardening, encloses and
-renders it harmless.
-
-Brilliancy, size, and perfect regularity of form are the essential
-qualities of a beautiful pearl. Their union in a single specimen is rare,
-but it is of course still more difficult to find a number of pearls of
-equal size and beauty for a costly necklace or a princely tiara.
-
-Nature has given the bivalves the same beauty of colouring and wonderful
-variety of elegant or capricious forms as to the sea-snails; so that
-they are equally esteemed in the cabinets of wealthy amateurs. Among the
-most costly are reckoned the Spondyli, which are found in the tropical
-seas, where they grow attached to rocks. They are distinguished by
-the brilliancy of their colours, but particularly by the long thorny
-excrescences with which their shells are covered. A Parisian professor
-once pawned all his silver spoons and forks to make up the sum of six
-thousand francs which was asked for a _Royal Spondylus_; but on returning
-home was so _warmly_ received by his lady that, overwhelmed by the
-hurricane, he flung himself on a chair, when the terrific cracking of the
-box containing his treasure reminded him too late that he had concealed
-it in his skirt-pocket. Fortunately but two of the thorns had been broken
-off, and the damage was susceptible of being repaired; his despair,
-however, was so great that his wife had not the heart to continue her
-reproaches, and in her turn began to soothe the unfortunate collector.
-
-[Illustration: Tridacna gigas.]
-
-The gigantic Tridacna, which is now to be found in the shop of every
-dealer in shells, was formerly an object of such rarity and value that
-the Republic of Venice once made a present of one of them to Francis I.,
-who gave it to the Church of St. Sulpice in Paris, where it is still made
-use of as a basin for holy water. The tridacna attains a diameter of
-five feet, and a weight of five hundred pounds, the flesh alone weighing
-thirty. The muscular power is said to be so great as to be able to cut
-through a thick rope on closing the shell. It is found in the dead rocks
-on the coral reefs, where there are no growing lithophytes except small
-tufts. Generally only an inch or two in breadth of the ponderous shell
-is exposed to view, for the tridacna, like the pholas, has the power of
-sinking itself in the rock, by removing the lime about it. Without some
-means like this of security, its habitation would inevitably be destroyed
-by the roaring breakers. A tuft of byssus, however strong, would be a
-very imperfect security against the force of the sea for shells weighing
-from one to five hundred pounds. It is found in the Indian Ocean and the
-Pacific as far as the coral zone extends. The animal of the tridacna,
-and of the nearly related Hippopus, distinguishes itself by the beauty
-of its colours. The mantle of the _Tridacna safranea_, for instance,
-has a dark blue edge with emerald-green spots, gradually passing into a
-light violet. When a large number of these beautiful creatures expand the
-velvet brilliancy of their costly robes in the transparent waters, no
-flower-bed on earth can equal them in splendour.
-
-[Illustration: Hippopus maculatus.]
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Like the Lamellibranchiate Acephala, the Brachiopods are covered with
-a bivalve shell, but their internal organisation is very different.
-Instead of being disposed in separate gills, their respiratory system is
-combined with the ciliated mantle on which the vascular ramifications are
-distributed, but their most striking feature is the possession of spiral
-fringed arms or buccal appendages which serve to open the shell and
-occupy the greater part of its cavity. These curious organs are in some
-Brachiopods quite free, in others attached to a complicated cartilaginous
-or calcareous skeleton. None of the existing molluscs of this class are
-capable of changing place, but are either fixed to extraneous substances
-by the agglutination of one of their valves or by a muscular peduncle
-passing through a perforation of their shells. There are no more than
-forty-nine living species, chiefly belonging to the genera Terebratula
-and Crania, and generally found at great depths in the Southern Ocean;
-but the fossil remains of 1,370 species prove their importance in the
-primitive seas, where they rivalled the lamellibranchiates in numbers and
-variety. Though now so rare or so local in the British seas that ordinary
-collectors are not likely to meet with any, they abound in many of our
-oldest rocks. "A visit to the quarries at Dudley," says E. Forbes, "or
-an Irish lime-kiln, or an oolitic section on the Dorsetshire coast, or
-a green sand ravine in the Isle of Wight, will afford more information
-about the Brachiopods than an examination of the finest collection of the
-living species. In each of the above excursions a different set of forms
-would be collected, for many of the palæozoic genera have altogether
-disappeared when we rise among the secondary rocks, and in the latter
-we find forms which closely remind us of existing species, but which,
-though very near, are yet unquestionably distinct. In formations of all
-epochs, a few generic types are common, and the Lingulæ of the earliest
-sedimentary formations, presenting traces of organic life, strikingly
-remind us of the species of that curious group living in exotic seas at
-the present day."
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-[Illustration: Leaf-like Sea-Mat.]
-
-At the lower extremity of the great series of molluscous animals we find
-the Polyzoa (Bryozoa, or Sea-Mosses) and Tunicata. The former, which
-comprise the Sea-Mats (Flustræ, Escharæ), the Sea-Scurfs (Lepraliæ), the
-Retepores, the Cellulariæ, and several other families, were formerly
-reckoned among the polyps, whom they greatly resemble in appearance
-and mode of life, but far surpass by the complexity of their internal
-organisation. The Sea-Mats are among the commonest objects which the tide
-casts out upon our shores, for you will hardly ever walk upon the strand
-without finding their blanched skeletons among the relics of the retiring
-flood. Their flat leaf-like forms might easily cause them to be mistaken
-for dried sea-weeds, but a pocket-lens suffices to show that they are
-built up of innumerable little oblong cells, placed back to back like
-those of a honey-comb, and each crowned by four stout spines, which give
-their surface a peculiarly harsh feel when the finger is passed over it
-from the apex to the base. "The individual cells," says Mr. Gosse, "are
-shaped like a child's cradle, and if you will please to suppose some
-twenty thousand cradles stuck side to side in one plane, and then turned
-over, and twenty thousand more stuck on to these bottom to bottom, you
-will have an idea of the framework of a flustra. And do not think the
-number outrageous, for it is but an ordinary average. I count in an area
-of half an inch square sixty longitudinal rows, each of which contains
-about twenty-eight cells in that space; this gives 6,720 cells per square
-inch on each surface. Now a moderate-sized polyzoary contains an area
-of three square inches, i. e. six on both surfaces, which will give the
-high number of 40,320 cells on such a specimen. Many, however, are much
-larger."
-
-Before the stormy tide detached them from the bottom of the sea, and
-left them to perish on the shore, each of the cells contained a living
-creature whose mouth was surrounded by a coronet of filiform and ciliated
-tentacles, destined to produce a vortex in the water, and thus to provide
-the tiny owner with its food. The body was bent on itself somewhat like
-the letter V, the one branch (_a_) being the mouth and throat, the other
-(_b_) the rectum, opening by an anus, and the middle part (_c_) the
-stomach. Each of these tiny members of the flustra colony possessed a
-considerable number of muscles; each was furnished with a movable lip or
-lid to block up the entrance of his cell when he courted retirement; each
-had his individual nerves, and consequently his individual sensations,
-though feeling and moving simultaneously with his fellow citizens by the
-agency of a system of nerves common to the whole republic, and sending
-forth a delicate filament to the inmate of each cell.
-
-[Illustration: Flustra in its cell. (Highly magnified.)]
-
-Such are the wonders which but for the microscope would for ever have
-remained unknown to man.
-
-The Escharæ greatly resemble the Flustræ, for here also the cells
-are disposed side by side upon the same plane, so as to form a broad
-leaf-like polyzoary, which, however, is not of a horny or coriaceous
-texture, as in the latter genus, but completely calcified, so as to
-present something of the massiveness of the stony corals. The annexed
-wood-cuts, showing us _Eschara cervicornis_, first A, in its natural
-size; then B, a few cells magnified twenty diameters, and ultimately C,
-a single individual so highly magnified as to reveal some of the details
-of its otherwise invisible structure, give us a good idea of the truly
-remarkable organisation of the Polyzoa.
-
-In the Escharæ and Flustræ the cellular extension of the common stock
-or polyzoary is unbroken, and opening on both surfaces, while in the
-Retepores we find the cells opening only on one side, and the leaf-like
-expansion pierced like network.
-
-[Illustration: Eschara cervicornis. (Natural size.)]
-
-[Illustration: Portion of a branch of the polypary of Eschara cervicornis,
-  magnified twenty diameters, to show the form and arrangement of cells.]
-
-In cabinets of natural history, the species commonly called Neptune's
-ruffles will rarely be found wanting. It is a native of the
-Mediterranean, but individuals of a smaller size are also found in the
-British seas.
-
-[Illustration: An individual of Eschara cervicornis, highly magnified.
-
-  _a._ Tentacula
-  _b._ First digestive cavity.
-  _d._ Stomach.
-  _f._ Anus.
-]
-
-[Illustration: Retepora cellulosa. (Neptune's Ruffle.)]
-
-The Lepraliæ, or Sea-Scurfs, form thin calcareous crusts of a
-white-yellow or reddish colour on rocks, shells, and sea-weeds. To the
-naked eye they appear as rude unsightly eruptions, so as to justify
-their name derived from the hideous leprosy of the East, but, when
-magnified, their cells, generally disposed in regular concentric rows,
-exhibit a surprising diversity and elegance of structure. Forty species
-are found in the North Sea alone; hence we may judge how great the number
-of still unknown forms must be that spread their microscopic traceries
-over the algæ and shells of every zone.
-
-It would lead me too far were I minutely to describe the Cellulariæ with
-their cells disposed in alternating rows on narrow bifurcated branches;
-the Tubulipores, with their mouths at the termination of tubular cells
-without any movable appendage or lip; the Bowerbankias and Lagunculas,
-with their creeping stems and separate cells; suffice it to say that a
-wonderful exuberance of fancy displays itself in the structure of the
-numerous varieties of the Polyzoa.
-
-[Illustration: A. Portion of a Cellularia, magnified.
-
-B. A Bird's Head Process, more highly magnified, and seen in the act of
-grasping another.]
-
-But a closer inspection reveals still greater miracles to the marine
-microscopist, for most genera, and chiefly the Cellulariæ, possess
-very remarkable appendages, or processes, presenting the most striking
-resemblance to the head of a bird. Each of these processes, or
-"aviculariæ," as they have been named, has two "mandibles," of which one
-is fixed like the upper jaw of a bird, the other movable like its lower
-jaw; the latter is opened and closed by two sets of muscles, which are
-seen in the interior of the head, and between them is a peculiar body,
-furnished with a pencil of bristles, which is probably a tactile organ,
-being brought forwards when the mouth is open, so that the bristles
-project beyond it, and being drawn back when the mandible closes. During
-the life of the polyzoon, these tiny "vulture-heads," which are either
-sessile or pedunculated, keep up a continual motion, and it is most
-amusing to see them see-sawing and snapping and opening their jaws, and
-then sometimes in their incessant activity even closing upon the beaks of
-their neighbours.
-
-It is still very doubtful what is their precise function in the economy
-of the animal; whether it is to retain within reach of the ciliary
-current bodies that may serve as food, or whether it is like the
-pedicellariæ of the sea-urchins to remove extraneous particles that may
-be in contact with the surface of the polyzoary. The latter would seem to
-be the function of the "vibracula," which are likewise pretty generally
-distributed among the polyzoa. Each of these long bristle-shaped organs,
-springing at its base out of a sort of cup, that contains muscles by
-which it is kept in almost constant motion, sweeps slowly and carefully
-over the surface of the polyzoary, and removes what might be injurious
-to the delicate inhabitants of the cells, when their tentacles are
-protruded. So carefully have these lowly molluscs been provided for!
-
-The polyzoa can neither hear nor see, at least as far as we are able to
-ascertain, but the delicacy of their sense of touch is very great. "When
-left undisturbed in a glass of fresh sea-water," says Dr. Johnston,[R]
-"they push their tentacula beyond the mouth of the cell by straightening
-the body, and then expanding them in the form of a funnel or bell,
-they will often remain quiet and apparently immovable for a long time,
-presenting a very pretty and most interesting object to an observer of
-the 'minims of nature.' If, however, the water is agitated, they withdraw
-on the instant, probably by aid of the posterior ligament or muscle; the
-hinder part of the body is pushed aside up the cell, the whole is sunk
-deeper, and by this means the tentacula, gathered into a close column,
-are brought within the cell, the aperture of which is shut by the same
-series of actions. The polyzoa of the same polyzoary often protrude their
-thousand heads at the same time, or in quick but irregular succession,
-and retire simultaneously, or nearly so, but at other times I have often
-witnessed a few only to venture on the display of their glories, the
-rest remaining concealed, and if, when many are expanded, one is singled
-out and touched with a sharp instrument, it alone feels the injury, and
-retires, without any others being conscious of the danger, or of the
-hurt inflicted on their mate. The polyzoa propagate by gemmation and by
-ova or eggs, which, germinating on the inner surface, escape at a later
-period into the visceral cavity, and are finally discharged into the wide
-sea, so to fulfil their mission in creation, and people the shores of
-every clime with myriads of busy workers in horn and in lime, which, with
-subtle chemistry, they draw from a fluid quarry and build up in textures
-of admirable beauty and heaven-ordered designs."
-
-[Footnote R: "History of the British Zoophytes," 2nd edit. vol. i. p.
-259.]
-
-Each polyzoon begins with a single ovum. The original or seminal cell
-of a flustra or lepralia has no sooner fixed itself upon some stone,
-shell, or alga, than new buds begin to shoot forth, which in their turn
-produce others from their unattached margins, so as rapidly to augment
-the number of cells to a very large amount. Thus a common specimen of
-_Flustra carbasea_ presents more than 18,000 individual polyzoa, and as
-each of these has about twenty-two tentacula, which are again furnished
-with about a hundred ciliæ a piece, the entire polyzoary presents no less
-than 396,000 tentacula and 39,600,000 ciliæ. The Rev. David Landsborough
-calculated that a specimen of _Flustra membranacea_ five feet in length
-by eight inches in breadth had been the work and the habitation of above
-two millions of inmates, so that this single colony on a submarine island
-was about equal in number to the population of Scotland. As the tentacula
-are numerous in this species, four thousand millions of ciliæ must have
-provided for its wants, about four times the number of the inhabitants of
-this globe!
-
-[Illustration: Clavellina producta. Group of two adult and several young
-individuals, magnified about five times.
-
-  _c._ Branchial orifice.
-  _e._ Branchiæ.
-  _i._ Anal orifice.
-  _l._ Stomach.
-  _o._ Heart.
-  _u_, _u′_, _u″_. Reproductive
-  buds, springing from the abdomen of the adults.
-]
-
-[Illustration: Ascidia mammillata.
-
-  _a._ Branchial orifice, open.
-  _b._ Anal orifice, closed.
-]
-
-The Tunicata are so called because their soft parts are not enclosed in
-a calcified shell such as invests the majority of their class, but in a
-more or less coriaceous envelope or tunic which is either bag-shaped, and
-provided with two apertures, or tube-shaped, and open at the ends. They
-present a strong resemblance to the Polyzoa, not merely in their general
-plan of conformation, but also in their tendency to produce composite
-structures by gemmation; they may, however, be at once distinguished from
-them by the absence of the ciliated tentacula which form so conspicuous
-a feature in the external aspect of a flustra or a retepore. Their
-branchiæ, which have generally the form of ridges (_e_), occupy a large
-sac, forming, as it were, the antechamber of the alimentary canal, which
-is barely distinguishable into gullet, stomach, and intestine, and always
-convoluted or folded once on itself. The Tunicata are exclusively marine,
-and widely spread from the arctic to the tropical seas. All of them are
-free during the earlier parts of their existence; some remain permanently
-so (Pyrosomidæ, Salpæ), but the generality (Ascidiæ, Botrylli) become
-fixed to shells and other marine bodies; some exist as distinct
-individuals (Ascidiæ, Cynthia), whilst various degrees of combination are
-effected by others (Botryllus, Clavellina, Pyrosoma), and some are simple
-in one generation and combined in the next (Salpæ).
-
-Thus the whole family is divisible into two groups, the _simple_ and the
-_aggregate_; both branching out into numerous genera, of which my limits
-only allow me to mention some of the most remarkable. The simple Ascidiæ,
-or Sea-Squirts, are very common on our shores. "Rarely," says Forbes,
-"is the dredge drawn up from any sea-bed at all prolific in submarine
-creatures without containing few or many of their irregularly shaped
-leathery bodies, fixed to sea-weed, rock, or shell, by one extremity, or
-by one side, free at the other, and presenting two more or less prominent
-orifices, from which, on the slightest pressure, the sea-water is ejected
-with great force. On the sea-shore, when the tide is out, we find similar
-bodies attached to the under surface of rough stones. They are variously,
-often splendidly, coloured, but otherwise are unattractive or even
-repulsive in aspect. Some are of a large size, several inches in length.
-As may easily be imagined, they lead a very inactive life, except in the
-young state, when by means of a long tail they rapidly swim about, until
-finally settling in some convenient spot, they gradually assume the form
-and adopt the quiet life of the parent from which they sprang."
-
-[Illustration: Chelyosoma Macleayanum.
-
-  _a._ Branchial orifice.
-  _b._ Anal orifice.
-  _c._ Coriaceous envelope of the sides.
-  _d._ Stone to which the animal is fixed.
-]
-
-To the simple Tunicata belong also the Chelyosomata, whose coriaceous
-envelope, consisting of eight somewhat horny angular plates, reminds
-one of the carapace of the turtle. Their small and prominent orifices,
-perforating the plated surface, are each surrounded by six triangular
-valvules.
-
-Some species of simple Ascidians on the coasts of the Channel and the
-Mediterranean are valued as articles of food. At Cette sea-squirts
-are taken regularly to market, and _Cynthia microcosmus_, although so
-repulsive externally, furnishes a very delicate morsel.
-
-[Illustration: Botryllus violaceus. Two of the stems magnified.
-
-  _a._ Common test.
-  _b._ Some of the branchial orifices.
-  _c._ The common anal orifice of one of the systems.
-]
-
-[Illustration: Diazona violacea (magnified).]
-
-
-While in the Clavellinidæ the animals are connected by creeping tubular
-prolongations of the common tunic through which the blood circulates,
-the Botrylli form translucent jelly-like masses of various hues of
-orange, yellow, purple, blue, grey, and green; sometimes nearly uniform
-in tint, sometimes beautifully variegated, and very frequently pencilled
-as if with stars of gorgeous device; now encrusting the surface of the
-rock, now descending from it in icicle-like projections. They are also
-frequently attached to the broad-leaved fuci, investing the stalks, or
-clothing with a glairy coat the expanse of the fronds. "In examining
-their bodies," says the distinguished naturalist previously quoted,
-"we find that it is not a single animal which is before us, but a
-commonwealth of beings bound together by common and vital ties. Each star
-is a family, each group of stars a community. Individuals are linked
-together in systems, systems combined into masses. Few bodies among the
-forms of animal life exhibit such exquisite figures as those which we see
-displayed in the combinations of these compound Ascidians."
-
-In the genus Diazona, which has its chief seat in the Mediterranean, the
-animals, which are very prominent and arranged in concentric circles,
-form a single system expanded into a disc like that of a flower or of an
-Actinia. The anal orifices, it will be seen, are situated close to the
-branchial apertures at the free end of the single animals, while in the
-Botrylli they open into a central excretory cavity.
-
-[Illustration: A single individual of Pyrosoma giganteum, cut out of the
-common test and magnified.
-
-  _a._ Branchial or external orifice.
-  _b._ Anal or internal orifice.
-  _d._ Stomach.
-  _e._ Liver.
-  _f._ Branchiæ.
-]
-
-In the Pyrosomes we find large colonies of small individuals aggregated
-in the form of a cylinder open at one end. Their mouths or anterior
-extremities are situated on the exterior of this hollow body, which they
-bristle with large and longish tubercles (_a_), whilst the opposite or
-anal orifices (_b_) open into the cavity of the cylinder, whose smooth
-wall they perforate with numerous small holes. By a simultaneous action
-the central cavity is either narrowed or enlarged, and by this means the
-strange social republic glides slowly through the waters.
-
-The Pyrosomes inhabit the Mediterranean and the warmer parts of the
-ocean. In the former at times their abundance is a source of great
-annoyance to the fishermen, sometimes even completely clogging their
-nets, and on the high seas they are not seldom met with in almost
-incredible profusion. Their delicate and transparent forms, their
-elegant tints, and their unrivalled phosphorescence render them objects
-of admiration to the voyager, and entitle them to rank amongst the most
-resplendent living gems of the ocean.
-
-[Illustration: Salpa maxima.
-
-  _a._ Upper lip or posterior orifice.
-  _b._ Anterior orifice.
-  _c._ Prolongations of the test by which the
-  animal is adherent to its neighbours.
-]
-
-[Illustration: Salpæ, isolated and associated.
-
-  A. _Salpa runcinata_, solitary.
-  B. _Salpa runcinata_, associated.
-  C. _Salpa zonaria_, aggregated.
-]
-
-
-While the sessile Ascidiæ remind one of the polyps, the transparent
-Salpæ, freely swimming in the sea, bear a great resemblance to the
-pellucid jelly-fishes. Each resembles a crystalline tube, through
-which one can distinctly see the internal coloured parts. Sometimes
-these animals, which abound in the warmer seas, are found solitary,
-at other times associated in circular or lengthened groups, termed
-garlands, ribands, and chains; but, strange to say, these two forms so
-different in outward appearance are only the alternating generations
-of one and the same animal. The chained Salpæ produce only solitary
-ones, and the latter only chains, or, as Chamisso, to whom we owe the
-discovery of this interesting fact, expresses himself, "a salpa mother
-never resembles her daughter, or her own mother, but is always like her
-sister, her grand-daughter, or her grand-mother." When Chamisso first
-made known his discovery, he was laughed at as a fanciful visionary, but
-all later observations have not only fully confirmed his statement but
-also discovered similar or even more wonderful metamorphoses among the
-jelly-fish, polyps, crustacea, sea-urchins, and other marine animals.
-Thus Chamisso gave the first impulse to a whole series of highly
-interesting observations, and his rank is now as well established among
-naturalists as it has long been among the most distinguished poets of
-Germany. The Salpæ progress by the alternate contractions and dilatations
-of their tubular body. In this manner the chains, as if obeying a common
-impulse, glide along with a serpentine movement, and are often regarded
-by sailors as sea-snakes.
-
-[Illustration: Inner or under side of the superior plated surface of
-Chelyosoma Macleayanum.
-
-  _a._ Branchial orifice.
-  _b._ Anal orifice.
-  _c._ Muscles bordering the carapace-plates.
-  _d._ Central hexagonal plate.
-  _e._ Surrounding plates.
-  _f._ The nerve-ganglion and nerve-fibres.
-  _g_, _h_. Auditory apparatus.
-  _i._ Row of tentacles, anterior to the œsophagus.
-  _j._ Stomach.
-  _k._ Part of the intestine.
-]
-
-Before quitting the Tunicata, a few points of interest in their simple
-history remain to be noticed. Despite their humble organisation, they
-have a heart which, as may easily be ascertained in the transparent
-species, is subject to strange alternations of action. For after
-having received for a minute or two the blood _from_ the branchiæ, and
-propelled it _to_ the system at large, it will at once cease to pulsate
-for a moment or two, and then propel the blood _to_ the branchial sac,
-receiving it at the same time _from_ the system generally. After this
-reversed course has continued for some time, another pause occurs,
-and the first course is resumed. It is very probable that many of the
-Tunicata are able to hear and to see. In Chelyosoma, organs have been
-discovered whose structure seems to indicate that they are destined
-for the transmission of sound, and the Ascidiæ have frequently around
-the extremity of their tubes a row of coloured points similar to the
-imperfect organs of sight present in the majority of the bivalve
-Acephalans. Thus a closer examination of the lower animals is constantly
-bringing new faculties to light, and the further we penetrate into the
-secrets of their life the more we find occasion to admire the power and
-wisdom of their Maker!
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XVI.
-
-ECHINODERMATA.
-
-STAR-FISHES, SEA-URCHINS, AND SEA-CUCUMBERS.
-
-  The Star-Fishes.--Their Feet or Suckers.--Voracity of
-  the Asterias.--The Rosy Feather-Star.--Brittle and
-  Sand-Stars.--The real Sea-Stars of the British Waters.--The
-  Sea-Urchins.--The Pedicellariæ.--The Shell and the Dental
-  Apparatus of the Sea-Urchin.--The Sea-Cucumbers.--Their strange
-  Dismemberments.--Trepang-fishing on the Coast of North Australia.--In
-  the Feejee Islands.
-
-
-"As there are stars in the sky, so are there stars in the sea," is
-the poetical exordium of Link's treatise on Star-fishes, the first
-ever published on the subject; and James Montgomery tells us in rather
-bombastic style, that the seas are strewn with the images of the
-constellations with which the heavens are thronged.
-
-This is no doubt highly complimentary to the star-fishes, but is far
-from being merited by any particularly shining or radiant quality; as
-they occupy a very inferior grade among the denizens of the sea, and
-merely owe their stellar name to their form, which somewhat resembles the
-popular notion of a star.
-
-But if they are of an inferior rank to most marine animals; if even the
-stupid oyster boasts of a heart, which they do not possess; yet a closer
-inspection of their organisation shows us many wonderful peculiarities,
-and proves to us once more that nature has impressed the stamp of
-perfection as well upon her lowest and most simple creations, as upon
-those beings that rank highest in the scale of life.
-
-Every one knows the common Star-fish, with its lanceolate arms; its
-generally orange-coloured back, thickly set with tubercles, and the pale
-under-surface, with its rows of feet, feelers, or suckers, which serve
-both for locomotion and the seizure of food.
-
-When one of these creatures is placed on its back, in a plate filled
-with sea-water, it is exceedingly curious to watch the activity which
-those numberless sucking feet display. At first the star-fish is
-motionless; for, offended by the rough handling it has undergone, the
-feet have all shrunk into the body; but soon they are seen to emerge
-like so many little worms from their holes, and to grope backwards and
-forwards through the water, evidently seeking the nearest ground to lay
-hold of. Those that reach it first immediately affix their suckers, and,
-by contracting, draw a portion of the body after them, so as to enable
-others to attach themselves, until, pulley being added to pulley, their
-united power is sufficient to restore the star-fish to its natural
-position.
-
-[Illustration: Star-Fish.
-
-  The upper tuberculated surface is shown, with some of the spines of
-  the under surface projecting at the sides of the rays. At one of the
-  angles between the rays, on the right side, is seen the eccentric
-  calcareous plate, or madreporic tubercle, which indicates the
-  existence of a bilateral symmetry.]
-
-This act of volition is surely remarkable enough in so simple an animal,
-which scarcely possesses the rudiments of a nervous system, but the
-simple mechanism by which the suckers are put into motion is still more
-wonderful. Each of these little organs is tubular, and connected with
-a globular vesicle filled with an aqueous fluid, and contained within
-the body of the star-fish immediately beneath the hole from which the
-sucker issues. When the animal wishes to protrude its feet, each vesicle
-forcibly contracts, and, propelling the fluid into the corresponding
-sucker, causes its extension; and, when it desires to withdraw them,
-a contraction of the suckers drives back the fluid into the expanding
-vesicles. The internal walls of the suckers and their vessels are
-furnished with vibratory cilia, and by this simple means a continual
-circulation of the fluid they contain goes on within them.
-
-[Illustration: Lily-Encrinite.]
-
-Numerous species of star-fishes are so very common in our waters,
-that in many places the sea-bottom is literally paved with them. They
-likewise abounded in the primeval ocean, for deep beds of carboniferous
-limestone and vast strata of the triassic muschelkalk are often formed
-by the accumulation of little else than the skeletons of Encrinites and
-Pentacrinites, which, unlike the sea-stars which every storm drifts
-upon our shores, did not move about freely, but were affixed to a
-slender flexible stalk, composed of numerous calcareous joints connected
-together by a fleshy coat. The feathered bifurcated arms of the Crinoids
-are unprovided with suckers, which would have been perfectly useless
-to creatures not destined to pursue their game to any distance, but
-passively to receive the nutriment which the current of sea-water set
-in motion by their richly-ciliated pinnules conveys to the mouth. These
-beautiful creatures were formerly supposed to be nearly extinct, for up
-to within the last few years only two living stalked crinoids were known
-in the ocean of the present period, but the dredge has latterly brought
-up new and remarkably fine species from depths of more than 2000 fathoms,
-and there is every reason to believe that these animals still form an
-important element in the abyssal fauna.[S]
-
-[Footnote S: See page 420.]
-
-[Illustration: Portion of the Pentaorinus Briareus. (Fossil.)]
-
-Of freely-swimming Crinoids but one single representative is known in the
-northern seas, the Rosy Feather-star (_Comatula rosacea_), whose long
-and delicately fringed rays and deep rose colour dotted with brown may
-serve to give us an idea of the beauty of the submarine landscapes where
-_Pentacrinus Wyville-Thomsoni_ or _Bathycrinus gracilis_ abound. During
-the earlier stage of its existence, the comatula is attached to a stalk;
-a discovery for which science is indebted to Mr. T. V. Thompson, who in
-1823 dredged in the Cove of Cork a singular little pedunculated crinoid
-animal (_Pentacrinus europæus_), which he found attached to the stems
-of zoophytes. It measured about three-fourths of an inch in height, and
-resembled a minute _comatula_ mounted on the stalk of a _pentacrinus_.
-When this pygmy representative of the ancient lily-stars was first
-dragged up from its submarine haunts, it created a great sensation among
-naturalists, as it was the first recent animal of the encrinite kind
-which had ever been seen in the seas of Europe. At first it was supposed
-to be a distinct species, but Mr. Thompson, by carefully following it
-through all the stages of its growth, succeeded in proving that it was
-merely the hitherto unnoticed young of the rosy feather-star.
-
-This elegant crinoid is found all round our coasts, and its range
-extends from Norway to the shores of the Mediterranean. In swimming, the
-movements of its arms exactly resemble the alternating stroke given by
-the medusa to the liquid element, and have the same effect, causing the
-animal to raise itself from the bottom and to advance back foremost, even
-more rapidly than the medusa. When dying, either in fresh water or in
-spirits, it emits a most beautiful purple colour, which tinges the liquid
-in which it is killed.
-
-The _Ophiuridæ_, or _snake-stars_, are essentially distinguished from
-the true _star-fishes_ by the long serpent or worm-like arms, which are
-appended to their round, depressed, urchin-like bodies. They have no true
-suckers with which to walk, their progression being effected (and with
-great facility) by the twisting or wriggling of their arms, which are
-moreover in many species furnished with spines on the sides, assisting
-locomotion over a flat surface. These arms are very different from those
-of the true star-fishes, which are lobes of the animal's body, whereas
-the arms of the Ophiuridæ are mere processes attached or superadded to
-the body.
-
-These animals are very generally distributed through the seas of our
-earth, both of its northern and southern hemispheres, but are found
-largest in the tropical ocean. In our own waters they are very abundant,
-and are among the most curious and beautiful game pursued by the dredger.
-
-[Illustration: Sand-star.]
-
-The British Ophiuridæ belong to two generic types, that of the
-_Ophiuræ_ and that of the _Euryales_. The former, to which the sand and
-brittle-stars belong, have simple arms; the latter, arms ramifying into
-many processes.
-
-The rays of the Sand-stars have a whip-like or lizard-tail appearance,
-while those of the Brittle-stars look like so many centipedes or
-annelides attached at regular distances round a little sea-urchin. We
-have ten native brittle-stars, the most common of which (_Ophiocoma
-rosula_, Forbes) is also one of the handsomest, presenting every variety
-of variegation, and the most splendid displays of vivid hues arranged in
-beautiful patterns. Not often are two specimens found coloured alike. It
-is the most brittle of all brittle-stars, separating itself into pieces
-with wonderful quickness and ease. Touch it, and it flings away an arm;
-hold it, and in a moment not an arm remains attached to the body. "The
-common brittle-star," says Edward Forbes, "often congregates in great
-numbers on the edges of scallop-banks, and I have seen a large dredge
-come up completely filled with them; a most curious sight, for when the
-dredge was emptied, these little creatures, writhing with the strangest
-contortions, crept about in all directions, often flinging their arms in
-broken pieces around them; and their snake-like and threatening attitudes
-were by no means relished by the boatmen, who anxiously asked permission
-to shovel them overboard, superstitiously remarking that the things
-weren't altogether right."
-
-Fancy the naturalist's vexation, who has no other means of preserving a
-brittle-star entire than by quickly plunging it into cold fresh water,
-which acts as a poison on the Ophiuræ as well as on most other marine
-animals, and kills them so instantaneously that even the most brittle
-species have no time to make the contraction necessary to break off their
-rays.
-
-The _Ophiocoma rosula_ seems to be equally abundant on all parts of the
-coast of Britain and Ireland. It is fond of rocky places, and grows in
-Shetland to a much larger size than elsewhere. It is said to prey on
-little shells and crabs, and is greatly relished by the cod in its turn,
-great numbers being often found in the stomach of that voracious fish.
-
-[Illustration: Warted Euryale.]
-
-The Scotch or Shetland Argus (_Euryale verrucosum_, Lamarck), a very rare
-animal, of which the adjoining wood-cut represents a segment, is the only
-British _Euryale_. It measures a foot or more across, and its singular
-aspect has long excited admiration among naturalists. "So odd a creature
-as this," remarks Bradley in his "Works of Nature," "is well worth the
-contemplation of such curious persons as live near the sea, where every
-day they have subjects enow to employ their curiosity and improve their
-understanding." Grew says that "as he swims he spreads and stretches out
-all his branches to their full length, and so soon as he perceives his
-prey within his reach, he hooks them all in, and so takes it as it were
-in a net."
-
-The British species of true star-fishes may be arranged under four
-families. The _Urasters_ are distinguished from all others by having four
-rows of suckers in each of the avenues which groove the under surface of
-their rounded rays. In consequence of the great number of these singular
-organs, the under surface of a living cross-fish presents a sight
-truly curious and wonderful. Hundreds of worm-like suckers, extending
-and contracting, coiling and feeling about, each apparently acting
-independently of the others, give the idea rather of an assemblage of
-polypi than of essential parts of _one_ animal. They are sensitive in the
-extreme, for, if we touch one of those singular tubes when outstretched,
-all those in its neighbourhood are thrown into a state of agitation;
-and when it shrinks from our touch, changing from a lengthy fibre to a
-little shrunk tubercle, some of its neighbours, as if partaking in its
-fears, contract themselves in like manner.
-
-[Illustration: Common Cross-fish.]
-
-The common Cross-fish (_Uraster rubens_) abounds on most parts of our
-shores, so as in some places to be used for manure in large quantities.
-"It is a sworn enemy to oysters, and as it is frequently found with one
-or more of its rays broken off, the fishermen fancy that it loses them
-in consequence of its oyster-hunting propensities; that it insinuates an
-arm into the incautious oyster's gape, with the intent of whipping out
-its prey, but that sometimes the apathetic mollusk proves more than a
-match for its radiate enemy, and closing on him, holds him fast by the
-proffered finger; whereupon the cross-fish preferring amputation and
-freedom to captivity and dying of an oyster, like some defeated warrior
-flings his arms away, glad to purchase the safety of the remaining whole
-by the reparable loss of a part, as it has the power of reproducing the
-broken rays.
-
-"There is, however, reason to think that the cross-fish destroys his prey
-in a very different manner from that just narrated; for star-fishes are
-not unfrequently found feeding on shell-fish, enfolding their prey within
-their arms, and seeming to suck it out of its shell with their mouths,
-pouting out the lobes of the stomach, which they are able to project in
-the manner of a proboscis. Possibly the stomach secretes an acrid and
-poisonous fluid, which, by paralysing the shell-fish, opens the way to
-its soft and fleshy parts."--_Forbes's Star Fishes._
-
-The _Solasters_ are "suns in the system of sea-stars," and are entitled
-to this distinguished rank among the marine constellations by their many
-rays and brilliant hues. The _Solaster papposa_, or common Sun-star, with
-rays varying in number from twelve to fifteen, is one of the commonest,
-and at the same time handsomest, of all the British species. Sometimes
-the whole upper surface is deep purple, and frequently the disk is red,
-and the rays white tipped with red. It grows to a considerable size,
-having been found eleven inches broad.
-
-The Goniasters, or Cushion-stars, are distinguished from the allied
-species by their pentagonal form. One of the most singular of our native
-species is the Birdsfoot Sea-star (_Palmipes membranaceus_), being the
-thinnest and flattest of all its class. When alive it is flexible, like
-a piece of leather, and a person who had never seen it before would be
-apt to mistake it for the torn off dorsal integument of some gibbous
-goniaster. The colour is white, with a red centre and five red rays,
-proceeding one to each angle. The whole upper surface is covered with
-tufts of minute spines arranged in rows.
-
-The Asteriæ, with their stellate body and flat rays, are very different
-in aspect from the Goniasters. The Butt-thorn (_Asterias aurantiaca_)
-owes its name to one of those strange superstitions which originate in
-some inexplicable manner, and are handed down by one credulous generation
-to the next. "The first taken by the fishermen at Scarborough is
-carefully made a prisoner, and placed on a seat at the stern of the boat.
-When they hook a butt (halibut) they immediately give the poor star-fish
-its liberty and commit it to its native element; but if their fishery is
-unsuccessful it is left to perish, and may eventually enrich the cabinet
-of some industrious collector."
-
-To the family of the Asteriæ belongs also the Ling-thorn (_Luidia
-fragilissima_), the largest, and one of the most interesting of our
-British species. When full grown, it measures two feet across, and would
-appear to exceed that size occasionally, judging from fragments. The rays
-are from five to seven in number, quite flat, and generally five times
-as long as the disk is broad. The colour is brick-red above, varying in
-intensity, the under surface being straw-coloured. The wonderful power
-which the Luidia possesses, not merely of casting away its arms entire,
-but of breaking them voluntarily into little pieces with great rapidity,
-approximates it to the brittle-stars, and renders the preservation of a
-perfect specimen a very difficult matter.
-
-"The first time I ever took one of these creatures," says Edward Forbes,
-"I succeeded in getting it into the boat entire. Never having seen one
-before, and quite unconscious of its suicidal powers, I spread it out on
-a rowing-bench, the better to admire its form and colours. On attempting
-to move it for preservation, to my horror and disappointment I found
-only an assemblage of rejected members. My conservative endeavours
-were all neutralised by its destructive exertions, and it is now badly
-represented in my cabinet by an armless disk and a diskless arm. Next
-time I went to dredge on the same spot, determined not to be cheated out
-of a specimen in such a way a second time, I brought with me a bucket of
-cold fresh water, to which article star-fishes have a great antipathy.
-As I expected, a luidia came up in the dredge, a most gorgeous specimen.
-As it does not generally break up before it is raised above the surface
-of the sea, cautiously and anxiously I sunk my bucket to a level with
-the dredge's mouth, and proceeded in the most gentle manner to introduce
-luidia to the purer element. Whether the cold air was too much for him,
-or the sight of the bucket too terrific, I know not, but in a moment he
-proceeded to dissolve his corporation, and at every mesh of the dredge
-his fragments were seen escaping. In despair I grasped at the largest,
-and brought up the extremity of an arm with its terminating eye, the
-spinous eyelid of which opened and closed with something exceedingly like
-a wink of derision."
-
-[Illustration: Goniaster.]
-
-The Sea-star might be called a flattened sea-urchin, with radiated
-lobes, and the Sea-urchin, a contracted or condensed sea-star, so near
-is their relationship. In both we find the same radiating construction,
-in which the number five is so conspicuous, and in both also the rows
-of suckers, which, starting from a centre, are set into motion by a
-similar mechanism, and used for the same purpose. In all the sea-urchins
-finally, and in many of the sea-stars, we find the surface of the
-body covered with numerous exceedingly minute, two- or three-forked
-pincers, that perpetually move from side to side, and open and shut
-without intermission. These active little organs, which have been named
-_Pedicellariæ_, were formerly supposed to be parasites, working on their
-own account, but they are now almost universally recognised as organs
-subservient to the nutrition of the animal, and destined to seize the
-food floating by, and to convey it to the mouth, one passing it to
-the other. Even in their outward appearance, the sea-urchins are not
-so very different from the sea-stars as would be imagined on seeing a
-Butt-thorn near a globular urchin, for both orders approach each other
-by gradations; thus, the Goniasters, with their cushion-shaped disks and
-shortened rays, approximate very much in shape to the sea-urchins; and
-among the latter we also find a gradual progression from the flattened
-to the globular form. Still there are notable differences between the
-two classes. Thus in the sea-urchins the digestive organs form a tube
-with two openings, while in the true sea-stars they have but one single
-orifice. Their mode of life is, however, identical.
-
-[Illustration: Shell of Echinus, or Sea-Urchin.
-
-On the right side covered with spines, on the left the spines removed.]
-
-The Echinidæ move forward by means of the joint action of their suckers
-and spines, using the former in the manner of the true star-fishes, and
-the latter as the snake-stars. They also make use of the spines, which
-move in sockets, to bury themselves in the fine sand, where they find
-security against many enemies.
-
-Some species even entomb themselves pholas-like in stone, inhabiting
-cavities or depressions in rocks, corresponding to their size, and
-evidently formed by themselves. Bennett describes each cavity of the
-edible _Echinus lividus_ as circular, agreeing in form with the urchin
-within it, and so deep as to embrace more than two-thirds of the bulk of
-the inhabitant. It is large enough to admit of the creature's rising a
-little, but not of its coming out easily. The echinus adheres so firmly
-to this cavity by its suckers, as to be forced from it with extreme
-difficulty when alive. On the coasts of the county of Clare thousands
-may be seen lodged in the rock, their purple spines and regular forms
-presenting a most beautiful appearance on the bottoms of the grey
-limestone rock-pools. How the boring is performed has, like many other
-secrets, not yet been settled by naturalists. The first perforation is
-most likely effected by means of the teeth, and then the rock softened by
-some secreted solvent.
-
-[Illustration: Mammillated Sea-Urchin.]
-
-Sea-urchins are found in all seas, but as they are extremely difficult to
-preserve, and many of them have such long and delicate spines that it is
-almost impossible to procure perfect specimens, probably not one tithe of
-their species is known.
-
-On our coasts the common "egg-urchin" affords the poor a somewhat scanty
-repast; but, throughout the Mediterranean, its greater size, and also
-that of its allies, _Echinus melo_ and _E. sardicus_, render them, when
-"in egg," important articles of food. In Sicily these animals are in
-season about the full moon of March; there the _E. esculentus_ is still
-called the "King of Urchins;" whilst the larger melon-urchin is popularly
-considered to be its mother. The size and abundance of these edible
-species are among the striking peculiarities of the fish markets of the
-Mediterranean sea-board.
-
-[Illustration: Edible Sea-Urchin.]
-
-The calcareous shell of the "sea-urchin" seems, at first sight, to be
-composed of one simple crust, but proves, on nearer inspection, to be
-a masterpiece of mosaic consisting of several hundred parts, mostly
-pentagonal. These are so closely united that their junctions are hardly
-visible, but on allowing the shell to macerate for some days in fresh
-water, it falls to pieces. This complicated structure is by no means
-a mere architectural fancy, a useless exuberance of ornament, but
-essentially necessary to the requirements of the animal's growth. A
-simple hard crust would not have been capable of distension, whereas
-a complicated shell, such as the sea-urchin possesses, can grow in the
-same ratio as the internal parts, by continual deposits on the edges of
-the individual pieces. On closely examining a living sea-urchin, we find
-the whole surface of the shell and spines covered with a delicate skin,
-which, in spite of their close connexion, penetrates into the intervals
-of the several pieces. This membrane secretes the chalk of which the
-shell is composed, and deposits fresh layers on the edges of the plates,
-so that in this manner the shell continually widens until the animal has
-attained its perfect size. The spines are secreted in the same manner,
-and show under the microscope an admirable beauty and regularity of
-structure. So bountifully has the great Architect of worlds provided for
-the poor insignificant sea-urchin!
-
-[Illustration: Dental Apparatus of the Sea-urchin, viewed from above.]
-
-The dental apparatus of the animal--the so-called lantern of
-Aristotle--is another masterpiece in its way. Fancy five triangular
-bones or jaws, each provided with a long, projecting, movable tooth. A
-complicated muscular system sets the whole machinery going, and enables
-the jaws to play up and down, and across, so that a more effective
-grinding-mill can scarcely be imagined.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  A. Two sockets with teeth, of Echinus esculentus. B. Single socket
-  with its tooth viewed on the outside.]
-
-The _Holothuriæ_, or Sea-cucumbers, may be regarded in one light as
-soft sea-urchins, and in another as approximating to the Annelides or
-worms. Their suckers are similar to those of the true star-fishes and
-sea-urchins. Besides progression by means of these organs, they move,
-like annelides, by the extension and contraction of their bodies. The
-mouth is surrounded by plumose tentacula, the number of which, _when
-they are complete_, is always a multiple of five. They all have the power
-of changing their shapes in the strangest manner, sometimes elongating
-themselves like worms, sometimes contracting the middle of their bodies,
-so as to give themselves the shape of an hour-glass, and then again
-blowing themselves up with water, so as to be perfectly globular.
-
-[Illustration: Fierasfer.]
-
-The great Sea-cucumber is the largest of all the known European species,
-and probably one of the largest _Cucumeriæ_ in the world, measuring when
-at rest fully one foot, and capable of extending itself to the length
-of three. Under the influence of terror, it dismembers itself in the
-strangest manner. Having no arms or legs to throw off, like its relations
-the luidia and the brittle-star, it simply disgorges its viscera, and
-manages to live without a stomach; no doubt a much greater feat than
-if it contrived to live without a head. According to the late Sir
-James Dalyell, the lost parts are capable of regeneration, even if the
-process of disgorgement went so far as to leave but an empty sac behind.
-Considering the facility with which the sea-cucumber separates itself
-from its digestive organs, it is the more to be wondered how it tolerates
-the presence of a very remarkable parasite, a fish belonging to the genus
-_Fierasfer_, and about six inches long. This most impudent and intrusive
-comrade enters the mouth of the cucumber, and, as the stomach is too
-small for his reception, tears its sides, quartering himself without
-ceremony between the viscera and the outer skin. The reason for choosing
-this strange abode is as yet an enigma.
-
-[Illustration: Eatable Trepang.]
-
-The _Holothuriæ_, which in our part of the globe are very little noticed,
-play a much more important part in the Indian Ocean, where they are
-caught by millions, and, under the name of _Trepang_ or _Biche de mer_,
-brought to the markets of China and Cochin-China. Hundreds of praos are
-annually fitted out in the ports of the Sunda Islands for the gathering
-of trepang; and sailing with help of the western monsoon to the
-eastern parts of the Indian Archipelago, or along the northern coast of
-Australia, return home again by favour of the eastern monsoon. The bays
-of the inhospitable treeless shores of tropical New Holland, the abode
-of a few half-starved barbarians, are enlivened for a few months by the
-presence of the trepang fishers.
-
-"During my excursions round Raffles Bay," says Dumont d'Urville, ("Voyage
-to the South Pole,") "I had remarked here and there small heaps of
-stones surrounding a circular space. Their use remained a mystery until
-the Malayan fishers arrived. Scarce had their praos cast anchor, when
-without loss of time they landed large iron kettles, about three feet
-in diameter, and placed them on the stone heaps, the purpose of which
-at once became clear to me. Close to this extemporised kitchen they
-then erected a shed on four bamboo stakes, most likely for the purpose
-of drying the holothurias in case of bad weather. Towards evening,
-all preliminaries were finished, and the following morning we paid a
-visit to the fishermen, who gave us a friendly reception. Each prao had
-thirty-seven men on board, and carried six boats, which we found busily
-engaged in fishing. Seven or eight Malays, almost entirely naked, were
-diving near the ship, to look for trepang at the bottom of the sea. The
-skipper alone stood upright, and surveyed their labours with the keen eye
-of a master. A burning sun scorched the dripping heads of the divers,
-seemingly without incommoding them; no European would have been able
-to pursue the work for any length of time. It was about noon, and the
-skipper told us this was the best time for fishing, as the higher the
-sun, the more distinctly the diver is able to distinguish the trepang
-crawling at the bottom. Scarce had they thrown their booty into the boat
-when they disappeared again under the water, and as soon as a boat was
-sufficiently laden, it was instantly conveyed to the shore, and succeeded
-by another.
-
-"The holothuria of Raffles Bay is about six inches long, and two inches
-thick. It forms a large cylindrical fleshy mass, almost without any
-outward sign of an organ, and as it creeps very slowly along is easily
-caught. The essential qualities of a good fisherman are great expertness
-in diving, and a sharp eye to distinguish the holothurias from the
-similarly coloured sea-bottom.
-
-"The trepang is first thrown into a kettle filled with boiling sea-water.
-After a few minutes, it is taken out of its hot-bath and ripped open
-with a knife to cleanse it of its intestines. It is then thrown into a
-second kettle, where a small quantity of water and the torrefied rind of
-a mimosa produce dense vapours. This is done to smoke the trepang for
-better preservation. Finally, it is dried in the sun, or in case of bad
-weather under the above-mentioned shed. I tasted the trepang, and found
-it had some resemblance to lobster. In the China market the Malays sell
-it to the dealers for about fifteen rupees the picul of 125 pounds. From
-the earliest times, the Malays have possessed the monopoly of this trade
-in those parts, and Europeans will never be able to deprive them of
-it, as the economy of their outfit and the extreme moderation of their
-wants forbid all competition. About four in the afternoon the Malays had
-terminated their work. In less than half an hour the kettles and utensils
-were brought on board, and before night-fall we saw the praos vanish from
-our sight."
-
-The inhabitants of the island of Waigiou, to the north of New Guinea,
-prepare the trepang in the Malay manner, and barter it for cotton and
-woollen stuffs, which are brought to them by some Chinese junks. "In
-every hut," says Lesson, "we found great heaps of this dried leathery
-substance, which has no particular taste to recommend it, and is so
-highly esteemed by the Chinese for no other reason than because they
-ascribe to it,--as to some other gelatinous substances, as agar-agar,
-shark-fins, and edible bird's nests,--peculiar invigorating properties,
-by means of which their enervated bodies are rendered fit for new
-excesses."
-
-The Feejee islanders have the reputation of being the greatest cannibals
-and the most perfidious savages of the whole Pacific, yet the trepang
-fishery attracts many American and European speculators to that dangerous
-archipelago. Captain Wilkes, of the United States Exploring Expedition,
-found there a countryman, Captain Eagleston, who had been successful in
-more than one of these expeditions, and obligingly communicated to him
-all the particulars of his adventurous trade. There are six valuable
-sorts of biche de mer, or trepang; the most esteemed is found on the
-reefs one or two fathoms deep, where it is caught by diving. The inferior
-sorts occur on reefs which are dry, or nearly so, at low water, where
-they are picked up by the natives, who also fish the biche de mer on
-rocky coral bottoms by the light of the moon or of torches, as they come
-forth by night to feed. The most lucrative fisheries are on the northern
-side of Viti Levu. They require a large building for drying, with rows
-of double staging, on which reeds are placed. Slow fires are kept up by
-natives underneath, about fifteen hands being required to do the ordinary
-work of a house.
-
-Before beginning, the services of some chief must be secured, who
-undertakes the building of the house, and sets his dependants at work to
-fish. The usual price is a whale's tooth for a hogshead of the animals
-just as they are taken on the reef; but they are also bought with
-muskets, powder, balls, vermilion, blue beads, and cotton cloth of the
-same colour. When the animals are brought on shore, they are measured
-into bins containing about fifty hogsheads, where they remain until next
-day. They are then cut along the belly for a length of three or four
-inches, taking care not to cut too deep, as this would cause the fish to
-spread open, which would diminish its value. They are then thrown into
-boilers, two men attending each pot, and relieving each other, so that
-the work may go on night and day. No water need be added, as the fish
-itself yields moisture enough to prevent burning. After draining on a
-platform for about an hour, they are taken to the house and laid four
-inches deep upon the lower battens, and afterwards upon the upper ones,
-where they remain three or four days. Before being taken on board they
-are carefully picked, all damp pieces being removed. They are stowed
-in bulk, and sold in Manilla or Canton by the picul, which brings from
-fifteen to twenty-five dollars. In this manner Captain Eagleston had
-collected in the course of seven months, and at a trifling expense, a
-cargo of 1200 piculs, worth about 25,000 dollars. The outfit is small,
-but the risk is great, as no insurance can be effected; and it requires
-no small activity and enterprise to conduct this trade. A thorough
-knowledge of native character is essential to success, and the utmost
-vigilance and caution must always be observed to prevent surprise, or
-avoid difficulties.
-
-No large canoes should ever be allowed to remain alongside the vessel,
-and a chief of high rank should be kept on board as a hostage. That
-these precautions are by no means unnecessary, is proved by the frequent
-attempts of the savages to cut off small vessels trading on their
-coasts. One of the most frequent methods is to dive and lay hold of the
-cable; this, when the wind blows fresh to the shore, is cut, in order
-that the vessel may drift upon it, or in other cases a rope is attached
-to the cable by which the vessel may be dragged ashore. The time chosen
-is just before daylight. The moment the vessel touches the land, it is
-treated as a prize sent by the gods, and the crew murdered, roasted, and
-devoured.
-
-[Illustration: Sea-horse.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XVII.
-
-CŒLENTERATA.
-
-POLYPS AND JELLY-FISHES.
-
-  Thread-cells or Urticating
-  Organs.--Sertulariæ.--Campanulariadæ.--Hydrozoie
-  Acalephæ.--Medusidæ.--Lucernariadæ.--Calycophoridæ.--The
-  Velella.--The Portuguese Man-of-war.--Anecdote of a
-  Prussian Sailor.--Alternating Fixed and Free-swimming
-  Generations of Hydrozoa.--Actinozoa.--Ctenophora.--Their
-  Beautiful Construction.--Sea-anemones.--Dead Man's
-  Toes.--Sea-pens.--Sea-rods.--Red Coral.--Coral Fishery.--Isis
-  hippuris.--Tropical Lithophytes.--History of the Coral
-  Islands.--Darwin's Theory of their Formation.--The progress of their
-  Growth above the level of the Sea.
-
-
-Despite the low rank they occupy in the hierarchy of animal life, the
-Cœlenterata, comprising the numerous families of the Jelly-fishes and
-Polyps, play a most important part in the household of the ocean, for the
-sea is frequently covered for miles and miles with their incalculable
-hosts, and whole archipelagos and continents are fringed with the
-calcareous structures they raise from the bottom of the deep.
-
-Their organisation is more simple than that of the preceding classes,
-for they have neither the complex intestinal tube of the polyzoa or the
-sea-urchins nor the jointed rays or arms of the star-fishes; their whole
-digestive apparatus is but a simple sac, and their instincts are reduced
-to the mere prehension of the food that the currents bring within reach
-of their tentacles, or to the retraction of these organs when exposed to
-a hostile attack.
-
-But, simple as they are, they have been provided by Nature with a
-comparatively formidable weapon in those remarkable "thread-cells," or
-urticating organs, which are so constantly met with in their integuments,
-and chiefly in their tentacles.
-
-The thread-cells are composed of a double-walled sac having its open
-extremity produced into a short sheath terminating in a long thread.
-A number of barbs or hooks are sometimes disposed spirally around the
-sheath, the thread itself being often delicately serrated. Under pressure
-or irritation the thread-cell suddenly breaks, its fluid escapes, and the
-delicate thread is so rapidly projected that the eye is utterly unable to
-follow the process. The violent protrusion of this barbed missile, along
-with the acrid secretion of the cell, causes many a worm or crustacean
-of equal or superior strength, that might have gone forth as victor from
-the struggle of life, to succumb to the cœlenterate, and is even in
-many cases exceedingly irritating to the human skin. Besides enabling
-its possessor to derive his subsistence from animals whose activity, as
-compared with his own, might be supposed to have removed them altogether
-out of the reach of danger, these stings serve also as admirable weapons
-of defence, and many a rapacious crab or annelide that would willingly
-have feasted upon a sea-anemone is no doubt repelled by the venomous
-properties of its urticating tentacles.
-
-[Illustration: Urticating Organs of Cœlenterata.
-
-  _a_, _e_, _f_. Threads and thread-cells of _Caryophyllia Smithii_.
-  _b._ Thread-cell of _Corynactis Allmani_.
-  _c._ Peculiar receptacle of _Willsia stellata_, containing thread-cells.
-  _d._ A single thread-cell of the same.
-  _g._ Thread-cell of _Actinia crassicornis_.--(All magnified.)
-]
-
-The Cœlenterata have been subdivided into two great classes: the
-Hydrozoa, in which the wall of the digestive sac is not separated from
-that of the cavity of the body, and the Actinozoa, in which the stomach
-forms a distinct bag separated from the wall of the cavity of the body by
-an intervening space, subdivided into chambers by a series of vertical
-partitions. Each of these two classes comprises a number of families of
-various forms and habits of life. Thus among the Hydrozoa, with whom I
-begin my brief survey of cœlenterate life, some are of a compound nature
-(Sertularidæ, &c.), and, having once settled, remain permanently attached
-to the site of their future existence; while others (Rhizostomidæ, &c.)
-continue freely to roam through the water, and others again appear in
-the various stages of their development either as sessile polyps or as
-free-swimming Medusæ.
-
-The sertularian tribes are remarkable for the elegance of their forms,
-resembling feathers more or less stiff and angular, more or less flexible
-and plumose. Their bleached skeletons are among the commonest objects
-thrown out by the waves, and so plant-like is their appearance and manner
-of growth that, like the Flustræ, they might easily be mistaken for
-sea-weeds.
-
-[Illustration: Sertularia tricuspidata.
-
-  _a._ Skeleton (natural size).
-  _b._ Portion of the same, highly magnified.
-  _κ._ _Cœnosarc_, or common trunk.
-  _π′._ _Hydrotheca_, or protective envelope of individual polyp.
-  _ρ′._ _Gonoblastidium_, or reproductive germ or body.
-]
-
-Originally produced from a single ovulum, every species, by the evolution
-of a succession of buds, after an order peculiar to each, grows up to a
-populous colony, and simultaneously with its growth the fibres by which
-it is rooted extend, and at uncertain intervals give existence to similar
-bodies, whence new polypiferous shoots take their origin, for these root
-fibres are full of the same medullary substance with the rest of the
-body. Thus the graceful sea-fir (_Sertularia cupressina_), the largest
-of our native species, may attain a height of two or three feet, and bear
-on its branches no less than 100,000 distinct microscopical polypi, each
-with its own crown of tentacles, and each of these armed with numerous
-thread-cells, as formidable in their way as the crustacean's claw or
-the annelide's embrace. But though each polyp has a certain share of
-independence yet its body is continuous with the more fluid pulp that
-fills the branches and stem of the common trunk, and by this means all
-the polyps of it are connected together by a living thread, and made to
-constitute a family whose workings are all regulated by one harmonious
-instinct. Each of these plant-like structures may therefore be considered
-as one animal furnished with a multitude of armed heads and mouths, and
-in all the other compound cœlenterates we find a similar organisation.
-All the soft parts of a sertularian polypary are enclosed in a horny
-sheath (_hydrosoma_) which develops peculiar cup-shaped processes
-(_hydrothecæ_) for the protection of each individual polyp, and capsules
-for the reproductive bodies (_gonoblastidia_) in which the ova are
-produced. The various modifications of form and structure of the polyps,
-of their hydrothecæ and gonoblastidia, give rise to a number of families,
-genera, and species. Thus in the Sertulariæ the polypites are sessile,
-biserial, alternate, or paired; sessile and uniserial in the Plumulariæ,
-and stalked in the Campanulariadæ.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _a._ _Laomedea neglecta_, natural size.
-  _b._ Portion of the same, magnified.
-  _c._ Reproductive body of _Campanularia volubilis_.
-  _e._ Reproductive body of _C. syringa_.
-]
-
-The free-swimming Jelly-fishes, or Acalephæ, as they have been named by
-Aristotle on account of the stinging properties due to their urticating
-cells, are likewise among the commonest objects left upon our shores
-by the retreating tide. When stranded, they appear like gelatinous
-masses, disgusting to the sight; but these shapeless objects were
-beautiful while they moved along in their own element, and their simple
-organisation shows no less the masterhand of the Creator than the complex
-structure of the higher stages of animal existence. With the exception
-of the Ctenophora, they all belong to the hydrozoic class, and from the
-great diversity of their structure have been ranged under four orders,
-Medusidæ, Lucernaridæ, Calycophoridæ, and Physophoridæ.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _a._ Medusid seen in profile.
-  _b._ The same viewed from below.
-  _c._ Its polypite.
-  _d._ Part of its marginal canal, and other structures in
-         connection therewith.
-  ν. Disk or swimming organ.
-  π. Polypite.
-  ψ. Veil.
-  τ. Tentacle.
-  χ. Radiating canal.
-  χ′. Marginal canal.
-  ω. Reproductive organ.
-  ο′. Coloured spot.
-  ο″. Marginal vesicle.
-]
-
-The Medusidæ are distinguished by their globular or bell-shaped disc,
-which by its alternate contractions and expansions forces them forward
-through the water. By contracting the whole or only part of its disc,
-the medusa has it in its power to direct its movements, and while thus
-swimming along with the convex side of the disc directed forwards, and
-its oral lobes and tentacles following behind like "streamers long and
-gay," it may well rank among the most elegant children of the sea.
-
-From the roof of the disc a single polypite is suspended, whose mouth,
-generally produced into four lobes, though in some forms it is much
-more divided, passes into the central cavity (stomach) of the swimming
-organ, from which canals (either four in number, or multiples of four)
-radiate to join a circular vessel surrounding the margin of the bell.
-A shelf-like membrane or veil, extending around the margin, and highly
-contractile, assists locomotion by narrowing more or less the aperture
-of the bell, and thus concentrating its efforts upon a narrower space.
-More or less numerous tentacles generally depend from the margin, and
-around it are disposed two kinds of remarkable bodies--"vesicles" and
-"pigment spots," or "eye-specks"--which are supposed to be able to
-communicate the impressions of light and sound. This complexity of
-organisation in creatures which Réaumur contemptuously styled mere lumps
-of animated jelly is all the more wonderful when we consider that they
-consist almost entirely of water, and shrink to a mere nothing when
-abandoned by their vital power. Thus of a medusa originally weighing many
-pounds but few traces remain after death; the ground is covered with a
-light varnish; all the rest has been absorbed by the thirsty sands.
-
-[Illustration: Various forms of Medusidæ.
-
-  _a._ _Aequorea formosa_, seen in profile.
-  _b._ The same, viewed from above.
-  _c._ Upper view of _Willsia stellata_.
-  _d._ _Slabberia conica._
-  _e._ Portion of the marginal canal of _Tiaropsis Pattersonii_.
-  _f._ Polypite of _Bougainvillea dinema_.
-  _g._ Part of its marginal canal.
-  _h._ _Steenstrupia Owenii._ (_a_, _b_, and _d_ are about the natural
-         size; the others are magnified.)
-]
-
-The oceanic or free-swimming forms of the Lucernaridæ resemble the
-Medusidæ by their bell-shaped umbrella, but differ from them by their
-internal structure, by the absence of a marginal veil, by the nature of
-their canal system and marginal bodies, and by their mode of development.
-The radiating canals, never less than eight in number, send off numerous
-branches, which form a very intricate network, and the vesicles and
-pigment-spots, here united into a single organ, termed the lithocyst, are
-each protected externally by a sort of hood, whence these jelly-fishes
-have been named "Stegonophthalmia," or "covered-eyed," by Forbes, to
-distinguish them from the naked-eyed "Gymnophthalmia," or Medusidæ. The
-Pelagidæ (Chrysaora), which form one of the divisions of this group,
-are simple, and have their margin surrounded with tentacles like the
-Medusidæ, while the Rhizostomidæ have no marginal tentacles, and consist
-of numerous polyps studding the trunks of a dependent tree. These animals
-have consequently no central mouth, but hundreds of little mouths all
-active for the welfare of the community.
-
-[Illustration: Oceanic forms of Lucernaridæ.
-
-  _a._ _Rhizostoma pulmo._
-  _b._ _Chrysaora hysoscella._
-  _c._ Its lithocyst.--(All reduced.)
-]
-
-The sessile Lucernaridæ differ from the other members of the order by the
-narrow disc or stalk which serves to fix their body when at rest. Their
-quadrangular mouth is in the centre of the umbrella expansion, and round
-the margin of the cup arise a number of short tentacles, disposed in
-eight or nine tufts in Lucernaria, and forming one continuous series in
-Carduella.
-
-[Illustration: Lucernalia auricula. (Natural size.)]
-
-Though generally preferring to lie at anchor, the Lucernaridæ are able
-to detach themselves, and to swim in an inverted position by the slowly
-repeated movements of their cup-like umbrella. When in a state of
-expansion, few marine creatures exceed them in beauty and singularity
-of form; when contracted, they are shapeless, and easily overlooked.
-"Their mode of progression," says Mr. Couch, "differs under different
-circumstances. If intending to move to any great distance, they do so by
-loosening their attachments, and then, by various and active contortions,
-they waft themselves away till they meet with any obstruction, where they
-rest; and if the situation suits them, they fix themselves; if not, they
-move on in the same manner to some other spot. If the change be only for
-a short distance, as from one part of a leaf to another, they bend their
-campanulate rims, and bring the tentacula in contact with the jaws, and
-by them adhere to it. The foot-stalk is then loosened and thrown forward
-and twirled about till it meets with a place to suit it; it is then
-fixed, and the tentacula are loosened, and in this way they move from one
-spot to another. Sometimes they advance like the Actiniæ, by a gliding
-motion of the stalk. In taking their prey, they remain fixed with their
-tentacula expanded, and if any minute substance comes in contact with any
-of the tufts, that tuft contracts, and is turned to the mouth, while the
-others remain expanded watching for prey."
-
-The Calycophoridæ are distinguished by the cup-shaped swimming organs,
-which form the most prominent part of their body. Generally transparent
-like glass, their course upon distant inspection is only revealed by the
-bright tints of some of their appendages. In Diphyes, the type of the
-group, the two cups (ν, ν′′) fit into each other so as to form a
-more or less perfect close canal. The common stem of the numerous polyp
-colony freely glides up and down the chamber thus formed, into which it
-can be completely retracted, and along its sides are placed the several
-appendages of the compound creature, consisting chiefly of polypites
-(π), tentacles, and organs of reproduction. Large specimens of
-Diphyes attain, when fully extended, a length of several inches, the stem
-giving support to at least fifty different polypites. The other genera
-of the order exhibit a great variety in the form and arrangement of
-their various parts; thus, in Vogtia, each of the swimming organs (ν)
-is produced into five points, of which the three upper are much longer
-and stronger than the two lower. The individual polyps (π), large in
-size, but few in number, are congregated immediately under the swimming
-apparatus, and are provided with long and formidable tentacula.
-
-[Illustration: _a._ Diphyes appendiculata.]
-
-[Illustration: _b._ Vogtia pentacantha. (Natural size.)]
-
-In the Physophoridæ the basal end of the common polyp stem is modified
-so as to form a float or aëriform sac, which is, however, extremely
-different in shape, structure, and size in the various families. In
-the Velellæ, the float, whose under surface is studded, besides one
-larger central polypite, with numerous small nutritive, reproductive,
-and tentacular bodies, forms a horizontal disc traversed by a diagonal
-triangular crest, and divided into numerous hollow chambers. Thus
-equipped, the semi-transparent velella, beautifully tinged with
-ultramarine, sails on the surface of the warmer seas, but the currents
-of the Gulf Stream, and the westerly winds, frequently drift it to the
-coast of Ireland, where it is often found on the beach, entangled in
-masses of sea-weed. Of the vast numbers in which it sometimes occurs,
-Herr von Kittlitz relates an interesting instance in his "Travels to
-Russian America and Micronesia." "Having passed 30° N. lat. in the
-Pacific, the sea was suddenly found covered with myriads of Velellæ, of a
-size somewhat greater than the Atlantic species." Two days long the ship
-sailed through these floating masses, when suddenly the scene changed,
-and large clusters of barnacles appeared, which, having no doubt devoured
-the soft parts of the Velellæ, now invested their horny skeletons. As
-the ship advanced, the number of the barnacle clusters augmented, which,
-to judge from the various sizes of the individuals, must have taken
-some time for their formation, and were apparently destined to increase
-until the final destruction of the Velellæ hosts, into which, from their
-greater weight, they were continually drifting deeper and deeper by the
-action of the currents. Again two or three days elapsed, and as the
-surface of the sea occupied by both species of animals extended at the
-least over four degrees of latitude, a faint idea may be formed of their
-numbers. Shoals of dolphins and sperm-whales were busy exterminating
-the barnacles, as these had devoured the Velellæ. The whole scene was
-an example on the grandest scale of the destruction and regeneration
-perpetually going on in the wastes of the ocean.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _a_. _Velella spirans_, somewhat enlarged.
-  _b._ One of its smaller polypites, much magnified.
-  ν. Crest.
-  λ. Liver.
-  ο. Mouth of polypite.
-  δ. Its digestive cavity.
-  φ′. Rounded elevations, containing thread-cells.
-  ρ. Medusiform zoöids.
-]
-
-[Illustration: Physalia caravella.--(Considerably reduced.)
-
-  α. Pneumatophore, or float-bladder.
-  π. Polypites.
-  τ. Tentacles.
-]
-
-
-The Physaliæ, which far surpass the Velellæ in size and beauty, are
-also inhabitants of the warmer seas, where the _Physalia caravella_,
-or "Portuguese man-of-war," is the mariner's admiration. On a large
-float-bladder eight or nine inches long and three inches broad, whose
-transparent crystal shines in every shade of purple and azure, rises a
-vertical comb, the upper border of which sparkles with fiery red. This
-beautiful float has a small opening at either end, and strong muscular
-walls, so that by their contraction its cavity can be considerably
-diminished. And thus partly by the escape of air forced out through the
-openings, and partly by the compression of what remains, the specific
-gravity is so much altered as to admit of the animal's sinking into
-the deep when danger threatens. Numerous polyps proceed from the lower
-surface, accompanied by tentacles having a sac-like extension at their
-base, and hanging down in beautifully blue and violet coloured locks
-or streamers. When fully extended, these tentacles form fishing lines
-fifteen or sixteen feet long, which, as their thread-cells are uncommonly
-large, at once paralyse the resistance of the fish or cephalopod they
-meet with. Then rolling together, they convey the senseless prey to the
-numerous mouths of the compound animal, which, sucking like leeches, pump
-out its nutritious juices. In this manner the greedy physalia devours
-many a bonito or flying-fish of a size far superior to its own, and such
-is the corrosive power of its tentacles that even man is punished with
-excruciating pains when heedlessly or ignorantly he comes within their
-reach. "One day," says Dutertre in his "History of the Antilles," "as
-I was sailing in a small boat, I saw a physalia, and as I was anxious
-to examine it more closely, I tried to get hold of it. But scarcely
-had I stretched out my hand when it was suddenly enveloped by a net of
-tentacles, and after the first impression of cold (for the animal has a
-cold touch) it seemed as if my arm had been plunged up to the shoulder in
-a caldron of boiling oil, so that I screamed with pain." In his journey
-round the world, Dr. Meyen also relates the case of a sailor who jumped
-overboard to catch a physalia. But scarce had he come within reach of its
-tentacles when the excruciating pain almost deprived him of sensation,
-and he was with great difficulty hauled out of the water. A severe fever
-was the consequence, and his life was for some time despaired of.
-
-Several of the Physophoridæ are provided, besides the float, with
-swimming-bells (_nectocalyces_) and peculiar appendages or bracteæ
-(_hydrophyllia_), which, overlapping the polypites, serve for their
-protection. The graceful _Athorybia rosacea_ possesses from twenty to
-forty of these organs inserted in two or three circlets immediately below
-the pneumatocyst, and above a much smaller number of polypites.
-
-It has the power of alternately raising and depressing them so as to
-render them agents of propulsion.
-
-The Physophoræ have no hydrophyllia, but their swimming-bells are
-considerably developed, and serve as powerful instruments of locomotion.
-They are also provided with certain processes termed "hydrocysts," which
-some observers appear disposed to regard as organs of touch. Such are but
-a few of the numerous genera of the Physophoridæ.
-
-[Illustration: Physophora Philippii.
-
-  α. Pneumatophore.
-  ν. Swimming-bells.
-  φ. Hydrocysts.
-  π. Polypites.
-  τ. Tentacles.
-]
-
-Of the jelly-fishes in general it may be remarked that, though they are
-denizens of the frigid as well as of the temperate and tropical seas,
-their beauty increases on advancing towards the equator, for while the
-Medusæ in our latitudes are generally dull and obscure, those of the
-torrid zone appear in all the splendour of the azure, golden-yellow, or
-ruby-red tints which distinguish the birds and fishes of those sunny
-regions. They are indeed of no immediate use to man, but their indirect
-services are not to be despised. They partly nourish the colossal whale,
-and thus, converted into oil, attract thousands of hardy seamen to the
-icy seas; numberless Crustacea and molluscs also live upon their hosts,
-and are in their turn devoured by the mighty herring shoals, whose
-capture gives employment and wealth to whole nations of fishermen.
-
-[Illustration: Development of Chrysaora hysoscella.
-
-  _a._ Ova with gelatinous investment.
-  _b_ and _c_. Free ova.
-  _d._ Young Hydratuba developed therefrom.
-  _e._ The same with eight tentacles.
-  _f._ Hydratuba in its ordinary condition.
-  _g_, _h_. More advanced forms, with constrictions.
-  _i._ A specimen undergoing fission, in which the tentacles are seen
-         to arise from below the constricted portion, while its upper
-         segments separate and become free-swimming zoöids (_k_).
-]
-
-Armed with that wonderful instrument, the microscope, naturalists have
-been taught to disunite in many cases animals which from their external
-resemblance were formerly supposed to belong to the same class or family;
-and to join others to all appearances extremely dissimilar. Thus the
-Bryozoa have been detached from the polyps, in spite of their similitude
-of growth, while the roaming and fixed Hydrozoa have been found in many
-cases to be but alternating generations or various phases of development
-of the same animal. Take, for instance, _Chrysaora hysoscella_ (see
-preceding figure, page 351), one of our commonest jelly-fishes. The ova
-this free-swimming creature produces might naturally be supposed to
-develop themselves into equally free-swimming Chrysaoræ; but instead
-of this they soon become attached, and grow into a colony of sessile
-Hydratubæ, as, at this stage of their career, they have been termed.
-For years they may thus continue, but then the evolutions shown in the
-annexed illustration take place until free-swimming zoöids are detached,
-which eventually become similar to the huge Chrysaora, from one of whose
-ova the primitive hydratube was produced.
-
-[Illustration: Various forms of Coryniadæ.
-
-  _a_ and _b_. _Vorticlava humilis._
-  _c._ Four polypites of _Hydractinia echinata_, growing on
-         a piece of shell.
-  _d._ Portion of _Syncoryne Sarsii_, with medusiform zoöids (ρ),
-         budding from between the tentacles (τ) of the polypite (ο).
-  --(All, except _a_, magnified.)
-]
-
-In a similar manner the Coryniadæ, a family of hydrozoic polyps, which,
-unpossessed of the firm investment of the sertularians, are frequently
-found decking sea-weeds and stones with dense arborescent structures,
-give birth to detached medusiform zoöids. On the other hand, many medusid
-forms produce organisms directly resembling their parents, and many fixed
-Hydrozoa, such as the Sertularidæ, do not give birth to free-swimming
-medusoids, but to ciliated gemmules, which, escaping from the capsules
-in which they had been formed, soon evolve themselves into true polyps.
-A great part of this "strange eventful history" is still enveloped
-in darkness, as the life of comparatively but few Hydrozoa has been
-thoroughly investigated; so much is certain that future observations will
-bring many new interesting relationships to light, and add new links to
-the chain which binds together the various members of the hydrozoic class.
-
-Although the Ctenophora, thus named from the ciliated bands which
-constitute so obvious a feature in their physiognomy, closely resemble
-the Medusæ by their gelatinous consistence and their mode of life,
-yet a more complex organisation assigns them the highest rank among
-the Actinozoa, and approximates them to the sea-anemones. The elegant
-_Pleurobrachia pileus_, which in the summer so often appears on our
-coasts in countless multitudes, is the species that has been longest
-known. The melon-shaped body, from half an inch to nearly an inch
-in length, is clear as crystal, and divided by eight longitudinal
-equidistant ribs into eight equally large segments or fields. These
-ribs are covered with numberless flat paddles or ciliæ, placed one
-above another, and obeying the will of the animal. When it wishes to
-swim backwards or forwards, it sets all its paddles in motion, whose
-united power drives the living crystal rapidly and gracefully through
-the water; and when it wishes to turn, it merely stops their movements
-on one side. In sunlight, the ribs of the pleurobrachia sparkle with all
-the colours of the rainbow; in darkness they emit a beautiful cerulean
-phosphorescence.
-
-The prehensile apparatus of the elegant little creature is no less
-beautifully organised than its locomotive mechanism. It consists of two
-long tentacles emerging from the under part of the body, and capable
-of so wonderful a contraction as entirely to disappear within its
-cavity, where they are lodged in tubular sheaths. On one side they are
-provided at regular intervals with shorter and much thinner filaments,
-which roll together spirally when the chief tentacle contracts, and
-expand when it is stretched forth. On the secondary branches themselves
-still more minute threads are said to have been observed. Words are
-unable to express the beauty which the entire apparatus presents in the
-living animal, or the marvellous ease with which it can be alternately
-contracted, extended, and bent at an infinite variety of angles.
-
-Most of the Ctenophora are spheroidal or ovate, but in Cestum elongation
-takes place to an extraordinary extent, at right angles to the direction
-of the digestive track, a flat ribbon-shaped body, three or four feet in
-length, being the result. The Callianiræ are remarkable for having their
-ciliated ribs elevated on prominent wing-like appendages, and the Beroës,
-which have no tentacles, receive their nourishment through a widely
-gaping mouth, whose size makes them amends for the deficiency of other
-prehensile organs. Such are but a few of the varieties exhibited by the
-beautiful and interesting Ctenophora.
-
-In habit they resemble the oceanic Hydrozoa, like them swimming near
-the surface in calm weather, and again descending on the approach of a
-squall. Like them also, their delicate structures rapidly disappear when
-removed from the sea-water and exposed to the rays of the sun, an almost
-imperceptible film remaining the only trace of what was erewhile an
-active and beautiful organism. Yet in spite of their aqueous consistence
-the Ctenophora are very voracious, feeding on a number of floating marine
-animals, among which their own kindred seem especially to be preferred.
-The prey once swallowed is assimilated with a rapidity which to some may
-seem strange when the simple structure of the digestive apparatus is
-considered.
-
-[Illustration: Various forms of Ctenophora.
-
-  _a. Cestram Veneris._ _b. Eurhamphæa vexilligera._ _c. Beroë
-  rufescens._ _d. Callianira triploptera._ _e. Pleurobrachia pileus._
-  (_a_ is considerably reduced; _b_ slightly so; _c_ and _e_ are about
-  the natural size; the size of _d_ is uncertain.)
-]
-
-The land has its flowers; they bloom in our gardens, they adorn our
-meadows, they perfume the skirts of the forest, they brave the winds that
-blow round the high mountain peaks, they conceal themselves in the clefts
-of rocks, or spring forth out of ruins; wherever a plant can find room
-there Flora appears with her lovely gifts.
-
-But the ocean also has its large radiate anemones, whose lustrous petals,
-still more wonderful than those of the land, for they are endowed with
-animal life, form the chief ornament of the crystal tide-pools, or of the
-sheltered basins of our rock-bound shores.
-
-More than twenty species of these marine flowers, many of them displaying
-a gorgeous wreath of richly coloured tentacles, are denizens of the
-British waters; but the finest and largest are found along the margin of
-the equatorial ocean, where they occasionally measure a foot in diameter.
-Their tints are as various as the arrangement of their prehensile crown;
-fiery red and apple-green, yellow and white as driven snow. Sometimes the
-tentacles form a gorgon's head of long thick worms, clothed in satin and
-velvet, and sometimes a thicket of delicate filaments.
-
-Nothing seems more inoffensive than a sea-anemone expanding its disc in
-the tranquil waters, but woe to the wandering annelide, to the shrimp, or
-whelk, or nimble entomostracon, that comes within reach of its urticating
-tentacles, for, plunged into a fatal lethargy, it is soon hurried to
-the gaping mouth of its voracious enemy, ever ready to engulf it in a
-living tomb. The morsel thus swallowed is retained in the stomach for
-ten or twelve hours, when the undigested remains are regurgitated,
-enveloped in a glairy fluid, not unlike the white of an egg. The size of
-the prey is frequently in unseemly disproportion to the preyer, being
-often equal in bulk to itself. Thus Dr. Johnstone mentions a specimen of
-_Actinia crassicornis_, that might have been originally two inches in
-diameter, and that had somehow contrived to swallow a scallop-valve of
-the size of an ordinary saucer. The shell fixed within the stomach was
-so placed as to divide it completely into two halves, so that the body,
-stretched tensely over, had become thin and flattened like a pancake.
-All communication between the inferior portion of the stomach and the
-mouth was of course prevented; yet instead of emaciating and dying of an
-atrophy, the animal had availed itself of what undoubtedly had been a
-very untoward accident to increase its enjoyments and chances of double
-fare. A new mouth, furnished with two rows of numerous tentacula, was
-opened upon what had been the base, and led to the under stomach; the
-individual had indeed become a sort of Siamese twin, but with greater
-intimacy and extent in its unions.
-
-From this instance we may naturally infer that the Actiniæ are no mean
-adepts in the art of accommodating themselves to circumstances. They may
-be kept without food for upwards of a year; they may be immersed in water
-hot enough to blister their skins, or exposed to the frost, or placed
-within the exhausted receiver of the air-pump, and their hardy vital
-principle will triumph over all these ordeals. Their reproductive powers
-are truly astonishing. Cut off their tentacles, and new ones sprout
-forth; repeat the operation, and they germinate again. Divide their
-bodies transversely or perpendicularly through the middle, and each half
-will develop itself into a more or less perfect individual.
-
-But these apparently indestructible creatures die almost instantly when
-plunged into fresh water, which is for them, or for so many other marine
-animals, a poison no less fatal than prussic acid to man.
-
-Though generally firmly attached by means of a glutinous secretion from
-their enlarged base to rocks, shells, and other extraneous bodies,
-the sea-anemones can leave their hold, and remove to another station,
-whensoever it pleases them, either by gliding along with a slow and
-almost inperceptible movement or by reversing the body and using the
-tentacula as feet; or, lastly, inflating the body with water so as to
-diminish its specific weight, they detach themselves, and are driven to a
-distance by the random motion of the waves. They are extremely sensible
-not only to external irritations--the slightest touch causing them to
-shrink into a shrivelled shapeless mass--but also of atmospherical
-changes. They hide their crown under a glare of light; but in a calm
-and unclouded sky expand and disclose every beauty, while they remain
-contracted and veiled in cloudy or stormy weather. The Abbé Dicquemare
-has even found, from several experiments, that they foretell changes of
-the weather as certainly as the barometer. When they remain naturally
-closed there is reason to fear a storm, high wind, and a troubled sea;
-but a fair and calm season is to be anticipated when they lie relaxed
-with expanded tentacula. The ova of the Actiniæ are detained for some
-time after their separation in the interseptal spaces, or even in the
-stomach, and there hatched, as it were, into their lasting form. On
-emerging into the open ocean, they already resemble their full-grown
-relatives, the only difference consisting in a smaller number of
-tentacles and septa. The sea-anemones were consequently supposed to be
-viviparous, an error which more accurate observations have fully refuted.
-
-[Illustration: Alcyonidium elegans.
-
-  _a._ Branch to which the polypary is fixed.
-  _b._ Foot.
-  _c._ Trunk.
-  _d._ Polyp-bearing branches.
-  _e._ Polyps contracted within the foot.
-]
-
-Both the Ctenophora and the Sea-Anemones are single or solitary, but the
-vast majority of the Actinozoa consist of aggregated animals attached to
-one another by lateral appendages, or by their posterior extremity, and
-participating in a common life, while at the same time each member of the
-family enjoys its independent and individual existence. These compound
-polyps are all either _Alcyonarians_, in which each polyp is furnished
-with eight pinnately fringed tentacles, or _Zoantharians_, in which the
-tentacula are simple or variously modified, and generally disposed in
-multiples of five or six. The Alcyonarians are again subdivided into the
-four families of the Alcyonidæ, the Pennatulidæ, the Gorgonidæ, and the
-Tubiporidæ.
-
-The Alcyonidæ vary much in form, being either lobed, branched, rounded,
-or existing in a shapeless mass or crust, while the interior substance
-is of a spongy or cork-like nature, surrounded by tubular rays enclosed
-in a sort of tough fleshy membrane. The _Alcyonium digitatum_ is one of
-our most common marine productions, so that on many parts of the coast
-scarce a shell or stone can be dredged from the deep that does not
-support one or more specimens. As it lies on the shore, it certainly
-offers few inducements from its beauty to recommend it to further
-notice, and seems fully to warrant the more expressive than elegant
-names of "cow's paps," "dead man's toes," or "dead man's hands," which
-the fishermen have conferred on it. On putting one of these shapeless
-masses into a glass of sea-water, however, and allowing it to remain
-for a little time undisturbed, its real nature becomes apparent, and a
-series of most interesting phenomena present themselves. The dull orange
-mass, which was at first opaque and of a dense texture, slowly swells and
-becomes more diaphanous, apparently by the absorption of the surrounding
-water into its substance, until, having attained its full dimensions,
-numerous dimples appear, studding its entire surface, each of which, as
-it gradually expands, reveals itself to be a cell, the residence of a
-polyp, which, gradually protruding itself, pushes out a cylindrical body,
-clear as crystal, fluted like a column, and terminated by a coronet of
-eight delicately fringed tentacula. The unsightly aspect of the trunk,
-which reminded us of cadaverous fingers or toes, is now forgotten, just
-as we forget the uncouth branches of a cactus when we see it clothed with
-its gorgeous flowers. All the polyp-cells are connected by a complicated
-system of inosculating canals, bound together by a fibrous network,
-and lying imbedded in a transparent jelly, which forms the fleshy part
-of the compound animal. The eggs are lodged in the tubes, and at length
-discharged through the mouth.
-
-The Sea-Pens, or Pennatulæ, are remarkable from the circumstance that,
-although they possess an internal calcareous support, they are not
-permanently attached to foreign bodies. The lower portion of the stem,
-which strikingly resembles the barrel of a quill, is naked, and, when
-found in the bays upon our coast, is generally stuck into the mud at
-the bottom like a pen into an inkstand, whilst the upper two thirds of
-the stem are feathered with long closely set pinnæ, comparable to the
-barbs of a quill, from the margin of which are protruded the rows of
-polyps which minister to the support of the common body of the compound
-animal. The purple-red _Pennatula phosphorea_, which is found in great
-plenty sticking to the baits on the fishermen's lines, especially when
-they use muscles to bait their hooks, is one of the most singular
-and elegant of the British sea-pens. Some authors believe that it
-is capable of using its fin-like arms like oars, but observations
-are wanting in corroboration. The pale orange fawn _Virgularia
-mirabilis_, an allied species, has a more elongated slender form than
-the pennatula. Its rod-like body, from six to ten inches long, is
-furnished with short fin-like lobes of a crescent shape, which approach
-in pairs, but are not strictly opposite; they are about the eighth of
-an inch asunder, and are furnished along the margins with a row of
-urn-shaped polyp-cells. These very delicate and brittle animals seem
-to be confined to a small circumscribed part of the coast, which has a
-considerable depth and a muddy bottom, and the fishermen accustomed to
-dredge at that place believe from the cleanness of the Virgulariæ, when
-brought to the surface, that they stand erect at the bottom with one
-end fixed in the mud or clay.
-
-[Illustration: Grey Sea-Pen.]
-
-[Illustration: Virgularia mirabilis.]
-
-
-The Gorgonidæ (Gorgonia, Primnoa, Corallium, Isis, Mopsea) mainly differ
-from the Alcyonidæ in having an erect and branching stem, firmly rooted
-by its expanded base. A soft and fleshy crust, studded with numerous
-polyps, envelops a solid horny or calcareous axis, which serves as a
-support to the arborescent structure, and enables it to rise to a height
-of several feet, or even, if we are to credit the Norway fishermen, to
-rival our forest-trees in magnitude. This they conclude to be the case
-from their nets being sometimes entangled on the trunk or stem of the
-_Primnoa lepadifera_, as this large species of gorgon is called, when the
-united strength of several men is unable to free the nets. "They have
-even assured me," says Sir A. Capell de Brooke, "that the corals grow
-to the height of fifty or sixty feet, as they judge from the following
-circumstance, which seems clear and simple. The lines for the red-fish,
-which is found in the greatest plenty where the primnoa grows, are set in
-very deep water at the distance of about six feet from the bottom, and
-in the parts where it is flat and level, which they can tell from their
-soundings. On drawing up the lines at the distance of forty, fifty, or
-sixty feet, and sometimes even more from the bottom, they get entangled
-with some of the upper parts or branches of the gorgon, which are thus
-torn off, and hence they reasonably conclude that the animal rises to
-this height."
-
-The Gorgonidæ either branch away irregularly like shrubs, or else their
-branches inosculate and form a kind of net or fan, as in the _Flabellum
-Veneris_, a beautiful Indian species, which some naturalist of more than
-usual fancy has appropriated to the use of Venus.
-
-Four British species of Gorgonia are recorded. _G. verrucosa_, the
-commonest of these, abounds in deep water along the whole of the south
-coast of England. It is more than twelve inches in height, and fifteen or
-seventeen in breadth, and expands laterally in numerous cylindrical and
-warty branches. It is somewhat fan-shaped, but does not form a continuous
-network. Its coral has a dense black axis, with a snow-white pith in the
-centre, and is covered, while living, with a flesh-coloured crust. The
-flexible corneous stem of the Gorgonias enables them to bend beneath the
-passing current, and thus prevents their long and slender ramifications
-from breaking, while the hard calcareous branches of the valuable red
-coral (_Corallium nobile_) are sufficiently short and strong to resist
-the violence of the sea. This beautiful marine production, though also
-occurring in the Ethiopic Ocean and about Cape Negro, is chiefly found in
-the Mediterranean, on the shores of Provence, about the isles of Majorca
-and Minorca, on the south of Sicily, and on the coast of Africa. It grows
-on rocky bottoms, and frequently in an inverted position, or downwards
-from the under surface of stones, generally at a depth of several hundred
-feet.
-
-[Illustration: Red Coral.
-
-Gorgonia nobilis. (A small detached portion magnified.)]
-
-When alive, the soft rind which invests the valuable central stony axis
-is studded with snow-white polyps. The fishery is still carried on in
-the same way as it was described by Marsigli 150 years ago. The net is
-composed of two strong rafters of wood tied crosswise, with leads fixed
-to them; to these they fasten a quantity of hemp twisted loosely round
-and intermingled with some loose netting. This apparatus is let down, and
-while the boat is sailing or being rowed along, alternately raised and
-dropped so as to sweep a certain extent of the bottom and to entangle
-the corals in its coarse meshes. The labour, as may be imagined, is very
-great; frequently, after a long toil, the net is brought up empty, or
-filled only with other marine productions, which, however interesting
-they may be to the naturalist, are perfectly worthless in the eyes of the
-coral-fisher; and not seldom immense exertions are required to loosen it
-from the rocks, among which it has got entangled.
-
-The chief seat of the coral-fishery is at present along the coasts
-of Algeria and Tunis, where it is almost exclusively carried on by
-the Italians, who fit out more than 400 small ships, or "corallines,"
-of from five to sixteen tons, for this purpose. In spring this fleet
-of nut-shells leaves the ports of Torre del Greco, Sicily, Sardinia,
-and Genoa, and proceeds to its various points of destination, where
-it remains until the autumnal gales compel the fragile "corallines"
-to retire. Every month or fortnight the products of the fishery are
-delivered up to agents in Bona or La Calle, under whose direction the
-corals are sorted, packed in cases, and sent to Naples, Leghorn, or
-Genoa, where they are cut, polished, and manufactured into necklaces and
-other ornaments or trinkets. About 4,000 sailors are employed in the
-fishery, each man receiving an average pay of 380 franks for the season,
-which he almost entirely brings home with him, his trifling expenses on
-land being generally defrayed by the small pieces of coral he manages
-to conceal from the sharp eye of the "padrone." The average quantity of
-corals fished by each "coralline" amounts to about six hundredweight, and
-the total value of the fishery to more than 200,000_l._, without taking
-into account the produce of the fisheries at Stromboli, in the Straits of
-Messina, and other parts of the Italian coast.
-
-The manufactured articles sell of course for a much higher price, so
-that the "red coral" is a by no means inconsiderable article of trade.
-Great quantities are exported to India, and in Leghorn and Genoa several
-large manufactories work exclusively for that distant market, where the
-blood-red corals, whose colour harmonises with the dark complexion of the
-native ladies, are particularly in demand, while those of a roseate hue
-are preferred in Europe.
-
-The fishermen have a strange belief that the corals are by nature soft,
-but immediately turn into stone from terror when entangled by the net.
-There is also a legendary tale of an enchanted coral-tree, large and
-powerful as an oak, which is said to grow in a deep grotto at the foot of
-Mont Alban, on the Ligurian coast. It extends its arms when no danger is
-nigh, but immediately withdraws them, like a cuttle-fish, at the approach
-of an insidious enemy. This superstition is so firmly rooted that, while
-Professor Vogt was at Villafranca in 1865, a "coralline" arrived from
-Torre del Greco for the purpose of fishing for this imaginary prey.
-The "padrone" swore he would not leave the neighbourhood before he had
-secured his prize, hoping to enrich himself with the spoils, but doomed,
-no doubt, to a grievous disappointment, and a considerable loss, on a
-coast where but few ordinary corals are found.
-
-[Illustration: Isis hippuris.]
-
-In the elegant _Isis hippuris_, which grows in the Indian Ocean, and is
-frequently found in cabinets of natural history, the horny and calcareous
-matter of the axis is disposed in alternate joints, so as to unite
-flexibility with firmness. A similar structure of alternately disposed
-calcareous and horny segments occurs in Mopsea. In Isis branches are
-developed from the calcareous, in Mopsea from the horny segments of the
-axis.
-
-[Illustration: Tubipora Musica.]
-
-The Tubiporidæ are confined to the narrow limits of a single genus
-containing but few species. Here the polypary is composed of distinct
-calcareous tubes rising from a fleshy or membranaceous basis, and
-arranged in successive stages. These tubes are separated from each
-other by considerable intervals, but mutually support each other by the
-interposition of external horizontal plates, formed of the same dense
-substance as themselves, by which they are united together, so that
-a mass of these tubes exhibits an arrangement something like that of
-the pipes in an organ, whence the beautiful Indian species, _Tubipora
-musica_, has derived its name. From the upper ends of the tubes the
-polyps are protruded, and being, when alive, of a bright grass-green
-colour, they contrast very beautifully with the rich crimson of the tubes
-they inhabit.
-
-[Illustration: Caryophyllia.]
-
-In our seas, the coralligenous Zoophytarians, distinguished by the hard
-calcareous skeletons they deposit within their tissues are but feebly
-represented by a few straggling Caryophylliæ, but in the tropical
-ocean they branch out into numerous families, genera, and species, and
-play a highly important part in the economy of the maritime domain.
-Originally proceeding from single ova, which at first freely move by
-means of vibratile ciliæ, and become fixed after a short period of
-erratic existence, they multiply by gemmation, and grow into an immense
-variety of forms, of which the following description by one who has
-long and attentively studied them in their native haunts may serve to
-give an idea. "Trees of coral," says Professor Dana, "are well known;
-and although not emulating in size the oaks of our forests--for they do
-not exceed six or eight feet in height--they are gracefully branched,
-and the whole surface blooms with coral polyps in place of leaves and
-flowers. Shrubbery, tufts of rushes, beds of pinks, and feathery mosses,
-are most exactly imitated. Many species spread out in broad leaves or
-folia, and resemble some large-leaved plant just unfolding; when alive,
-the surface of each leaf is covered with polyp-flowers. The cactus, the
-lichen clinging to the rock, and the fungus in all its varieties, have
-their numerous representatives. Besides these forms imitating vegetation,
-there are gracefully modelled vases, some of which are three or four feet
-in diameter, made up of a network of branches and branchlets, and sprigs
-of flowers. There are also solid coral hemispheres like domes among the
-vases and shrubbery, occasionally ten or even twenty feet in diameter,
-whose symmetrical surface is gorgeously decked with polyp-stars of purple
-and emerald-green."
-
-Under such aspects appear the living organisms whose combined efforts
-have mainly constructed those reefs and islands of coral origin which
-now lie scattered far and wide over the surface of the equatorial ocean.
-Words are inadequate to express the splendour of the submarine gardens
-with which the lithophytes clothe the rocky shores of the tropical seas.
-
-"There are few things more beautiful to look at," says Captain Basil
-Hall, "than these corallines when viewed through two or three fathoms
-of clear and still water. It is hardly an exaggeration to assert that
-the colours of the rainbow are put to shame on a bright sunny day by
-what meets the view on looking into the sea in those fairy regions." And
-Ehrenberg was so struck with the magnificent spectacle presented by the
-living polyparia in the Red Sea that he exclaimed with enthusiasm, "Where
-is the paradise of flowers that can rival, in variety and beauty, these
-living wonders of the ocean!"
-
-Besides the charms of their own growth, the tropical coral gardens afford
-a refuge or a dwelling-place to numberless animals clothed in gorgeous
-apparel. Fishes attired in azure, scarlet, and gold, crustaceans,
-sea-urchins, sea-stars, sea anemones, annelides, of a brilliancy of
-colour unknown in the northern seas, glide or swim along through their
-tangled shrubberies; and frequently the gigantic tridacna, embedded in
-their calcareous parterres, discloses, on opening her ponderous valves,
-her violet mantle tinted with emerald-green. The enchanted naturalist
-lingers for hours over the magnificent spectacle, and forgets the lapse
-of time, as wonders upon wonders crowd on his enraptured gaze.
-
-But the tropical coral-gardens serve not only as a harbour of refuge
-to the numberless creatures that frequent their labyrinthine recesses,
-for many annelides, crustaceans, asterias, and even fishes, feed upon
-their animal flowrets. Among these, the Scari are provided with a very
-remarkable dental apparatus to protect their mandibles from injury
-while biting the calcareous corals. These fishes have their jaws,
-which resemble the beak of a parrot (whence they receive their usual
-appellation "parrot fishes"), covered externally with a kind of pavement
-of teeth, answering the same purpose as the horny investment of the
-mandibles of the bird. The teeth that form this pavement are perpetually
-in progress of development towards the base of the jaw, whence they
-advance forward, when completed, to replace those which become worn away
-in front by the constant attrition to which they are subjected. Thus
-armed, the Scari browse without difficulty on the newest layers of the
-stony corals, digesting the animal matter therein contained, and setting
-free the carbonate of lime in a chalky state. Many of the Diodons,
-Chætodons, and Balistæ or file-fishes, of which Kittlitz saw some new
-species, one still more splendid than the other, in every lagoon-island
-he visited in the long range of the Carolines, likewise feed upon corals,
-and possess a dental apparatus fit for masticating their refractory
-aliment. The Diodons have grooved teeth, excellently adapted to crush and
-bruise, and the Balistæ have eight strong conical teeth in every jaw,
-with which they easily nip off the shoots of the coral bushes.
-
-Of the reef-building corals it may well be said that they build for
-eternity. The bones of the higher animals vanish after a few years, but
-the stony skeleton of the polyp remains attached to the spot of its
-formation, and serves as a basement or stage for new generations to
-build upon. Life and death are here in concurrent or parallel progress;
-generally the whole interior of a corallum is dead. The large domes of
-the astræas are in most species covered with a hemispherical living
-shell, about half an inch thick; and in some porites of the same size the
-whole mass is lifeless, except the exterior for a sixth of an inch in
-depth.
-
-[Illustration: Astræa.]
-
-We are astonished when travellers tell us of the vast extent of certain
-ancient ruins; but how utterly insignificant are the greatest of these
-when compared with the piles of stone accumulated in the course of ages
-by these minute, and individually so puny architects! The history of
-the formation of coral-reefs is no less wonderful than their extent.
-They have been divided, according to their geological character, into
-three classes. The first fringes the shores of continents or islands
-(shore-reefs); the second, rising from a deep ocean, at a greater
-distance from the land, encircles an island, or stretches like a barrier
-along the coast (encircling-reefs, barrier-reefs); the third, enclosing
-a lagoon, forms a ring or annular breakwater round an interior lake
-(atolls, or lagoon-islands).
-
-[Illustration: Stone Corals.]
-
-Many of the high rocky islands of the Pacific lie, like a picture in
-its frame, in the middle of a lagoon encircled by a reef. A fringe of
-low alluvial land in these cases generally surrounds the base of the
-mountains; a girdle of palm-trees, backed by abrupt heights, and fronted
-by a lake of smooth water, only separated from the deep blue ocean by
-the breakers roaring against the encircling reef; such, for instance, is
-the scenery of Tahiti, so justly named "the queen of islands." But the
-encircling reefs are often at a much greater distance from the shore.
-Thus in New Caledonia they extend no less than 140 miles beyond the
-island.
-
-As an example of barrier-reefs, I shall cite that which fronts the
-north-east coast of Australia. It is described by Flinders as having a
-length of nearly a thousand miles, and as running parallel to the shore
-at a distance of between twenty and thirty miles from it, and in some
-parts even of fifty and seventy. The great arm of the sea thus inclosed,
-has a usual depth of between ten and twenty fathoms. This probably is
-both the grandest and most extraordinary reef now existing in any part of
-the world.
-
-[Illustration: Stone Corals.]
-
-The atolls, or lagoon-islands, are numerously scattered over the face
-of the tropical ocean. The Marshall and Caroline islands, the Paumotic
-group, the Maldives and Lacadives, and many other groups or solitary
-islets of the Pacific or Indian Ocean, are entirely built up of coral;
-every single atom, from the smallest particle to large fragments of
-rock, bearing the stamp of having been subjected to the power of organic
-arrangement. A narrow rim of coral-reef, generally but a few hundred
-yards wide, stretches around the enclosed waters. When a lagoon-island
-is first seen from the deck of a vessel, only a series of dark points is
-descried just above the horizon. Shortly after, the points enlarge into
-the plumed tops of cocoa-nut trees, and a line of green, interrupted at
-intervals, is traced along the water's surface.
-
-The long swell produced by the gentle but steady action of the trade
-wind, always blowing in one direction over a wide area, causes breakers
-which even exceed in violence those of our temperate regions, and which
-never cease to rage. It is impossible to behold these waves without
-feeling a conviction that a low island, though built of the hardest rock,
-would ultimately yield, and be demolished by such irresistible forces.
-Yet the insignificant coral-islets stand and are victorious; for here
-another power, antagonistic to the former, takes part in the contest.
-The organic forces separate the atoms of carbonate of lime one by one
-from the foaming breakers, and unite them in a symmetrical structure. Let
-the hurricane tear up its thousand huge fragments, yet what will this
-tell against the accumulated labours of myriads of architects at work
-night and day, month after month. Thus do we see the soft and gelatinous
-body of a polyp, through the agency of vital laws, conquering the great
-mechanical power of the waves of an ocean, which neither the art of man
-nor the inanimate works of nature could successfully resist.
-
-The reef-building corals, so hardy in this respect, are extremely
-sensitive and delicate in others. They absolutely require warmth for
-their existence, and only inhabit seas the temperature of which never
-sinks below 60° Fahr. They also require clear and transparent waters.
-Wherever streams or currents are moving or transporting sediment, there
-no corals grow, and for the same reason we find no living zoophytes upon
-sandy or muddy shores.
-
-As within one cast of the lead coral-reefs rise suddenly like walls from
-the depths of ocean, it was formerly supposed that the polyps raised
-their structures out of the profound abysses of the sea; but this opinion
-could no longer be maintained, after Mr. C. Darwin and other naturalists
-had proved that the lithophytes cannot live at greater depths than twenty
-or at most thirty fathoms.
-
-Hereupon Quoy and Gaimard broached the theory that corals construct their
-colonies on the summits of mountain ridges, or the circular crests of
-submarine craters, and thus accounted both for the great depths from
-which the coral-walls suddenly rise, and the annular form of lagoon
-islands. Yet this theory, ingenious as it was, could not stand the test
-of a closer examination: for no crater ever had such dimensions as, for
-instance, one of the Radack Islands, which is fifty-two miles long by
-twenty broad; and no chain of mountains has its summits so equally high,
-as must have been the case with the numerous reef-bearing submarine
-rocks, considering the small depth from which the lithophytes build.
-Another seemingly inexplicable fact was, that, although corals hardly
-exist above low-water mark, reefs are found at Tongatabu or Eua, for
-instance, at elevations of forty and even three hundred feet above the
-level of the ocean.
-
-Mr. Charles Darwin was the first to give a satisfactory explanation
-of all the phenomena of coral formations, by ascribing them to the
-oscillations of the sea bottom, to its partial upheaving or subsidence.
-
-It is now perfectly well known that large portions of the continent of
-South America, Scandinavia, North Greenland, and many other coasts, are
-slowly rising, and that other terrestrial or maritime areas are gradually
-subsiding. Thus on every side of the lagoon of the Keeling Islands, in
-which the water is as tranquil as in the most sheltered lake, Mr. Darwin
-saw old cocoa-nut trees undermined and falling. The foundation-posts of
-a store-house on the beach, which, the inhabitants said, had stood seven
-years before just above high water, were now daily washed by the tide.
-
-Supposing on one of these subsiding areas an island-mountain fringed with
-corals, the lithophytes, keeping pace with the gradual sinking of their
-basis, soon raise again their solid masses to the level of the water; but
-not so with the land, each inch of which is irreclaimably gone. Thus the
-fringing reef will gradually become an encircling one; and, if we suppose
-the sinking to continue, it must by the submergence of the central land,
-but upward growth of the ring of coral, be ultimately converted into a
-lagoon-island.
-
-The numerous _atolls_ of the Pacific and Indian Ocean give us a far
-insight into the past, and exhibit these seas overspread with lofty lands
-where there are now only humble monumental reefs dotted with verdant
-islets. Had there been no growing coral, the whole would have passed
-away without a record; while, from the actual extent of the coral-reefs
-and islands, we know that the entire amount of the high land lost to
-the Pacific was at least 50,000 square miles. But as other lands may
-have subsided too rapidly for the corals to maintain themselves at the
-surface, it is obvious that the estimate is far below the truth.
-
-As living coral-reefs do not grow above low-water mark, it may well be
-asked how habitable islands can form upon their crests. The breakers
-are here the agents of construction. They rend fragments and blocks
-from the outer border of the reef and throw them upon the surface.
-Corals and shells are pulverised by their crushing grinding power,
-and gradually fill up the interstices. In this manner the pile rises
-higher and higher, till at last even the spring tides can no longer wash
-over it into the lagoon, on the border of which the fine coral sand
-accumulates undisturbed. The seeds which the ocean-currents often carry
-with them from distant continents find here a congenial soil, and begin
-to deck the white chalk with an emerald carpet. Trees, drifting from the
-primeval forest, where they have been uprooted by the swelling of the
-river on whose banks they grew, are also conveyed by the same agency to
-the new-formed shore, and bring along with them small animals, insects,
-or lizards, as its first inhabitants. Before the stately palm extends
-its feathery fronds sea-birds assemble on this new resting-place, and
-land-birds, driven by storms from their usual haunts, enjoy the shade
-of the rising shrubbery. At last, after vegetation has completed its
-work, man appears on the scene, builds his hut on the fruitful soil
-which falling leaves and decaying herbs have gradually enriched, and
-calls himself the master of this little world. In this manner all the
-coral-reefs and islands of the tropical seas have gradually become
-verdant and habitable; thus has arisen the kingdom of the Maldives, whose
-sultan, Ibrahim, glories in the title of sultan of the thirteen atolls
-and twelve thousand isles. May his shadow never be less!
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XVIII.
-
-PROTOZOA.
-
-  The Foraminifera.--The Amœbæ--Their Wonderful Simplicity of
-  Structure.--The Polycystina.--Marine Infusoria.--Sponges--Their
-  Pores--Fibres and Spiculæ--The Common Sponge of Commerce.
-
-
-Think not, reader, that the life of the ocean ends with the innumerable
-hosts of fishes, molluscs, crustacea, medusæ, and polyps we have
-reviewed, and that the waters of the sea or the sands of the shore have
-now no further marvels for us to admire. The naked eye indeed may have
-attained the limits of life, but the microscope will soon reveal a new
-and wonderful world of animated beings.
-
-Take only, for instance, while wandering on the beach, a handful of
-drift-sand, and examine it through a magnifying glass. You will then not
-seldom find, among the coarser grains of inorganic silica, a number of
-the most elegant shells; some formed like ancient amphoræ, others wound
-like the nautilus, but all shaped in their minuteness with a perfection
-which no human artist could hope to equal in the largest size.
-
-[Illustration: Nummulina discoidalis.
-
-  _a._ Natural size.
-  _b._, _c._ The same, highly magnified.
-]
-
-The knowledge of these charming little marine productions is of modern
-date, for they were first observed in the sand of the Adriatic by
-Beccaria in 1731, and for some time believed to belong exclusively to
-that gulf. At a later period some species were discovered here and there
-in England and France, but their universality and importance in the
-economy of the ocean were first pointed out in 1825, by the distinguished
-French naturalist Alcide d'Orbigny.
-
-The sand of many sea-coasts is so mixed with Foraminifera, as they have
-been called from the openings with which their shells are pierced, that
-they often form no less than half its bulk. Plancus counted 6000 in an
-ounce of sand from the Adriatic, and d'Orbigny reckoned no less than
-3,849,000 in a pound of sand from the Antilles. Along the whole Atlantic
-coast of the United States, the plummet constantly brings up masses
-of foraminiferous shells from a depth of ninety fathoms, so that the
-vast extent of ocean-bottom, which itself forms but a small part of the
-domains they occupy, is literally covered with their exuviæ.
-
-Thus their numbers surpass all human conception, nor can any other series
-of beings be compared to them in this respect; not even the minute
-crustaceans which colour thousands of square miles on the surface of the
-sea, and, according to Scoresby, form almost exclusively the food of
-the huge Greenland whale; nor the infusory animals of the fresh-water,
-whose shields compose the Bilin slate quarries in Bohemia; for these are
-limited in their distribution, whereas the Foraminifera occur in all
-parts of the world.
-
-[Illustration: Amœba.]
-
-[Illustration: Amœba, showing the extemporaneous feet formed by
-evanescent projections of the general plastic mass of the animal.]
-
-The resemblance of the Foraminifera to the nautili and ammonites at first
-led naturalists to suppose that they formed part of the same class, which
-in a long course of centuries had dwindled down in less congenial seas
-to almost invisible dimensions; but a closer investigation proved them
-to belong to a much lower order of beings, nearly related to the Amœbæ,
-which likewise occur all over the ocean. Other animals excite our wonder
-by their complicated structure, but the amœba raises our astonishment by
-the excessive simplicity of its organisation. The amœba is nothing more
-than a living globule of mucus, a transparent, colourless, contractile
-substance, or plastic mass, the individual life of which shows itself in
-manifold changes of form, bearing the character of voluntary motion. When
-an amœba approaches another minute animal or plant unable to move out of
-its reach, it sends out extemporaneous feet, which soon clasp the prey
-on all sides, and the prisoner lies embedded in the living mucus until
-all his soluble parts have been absorbed. There is absolutely no trace of
-particular organs in the amœba; all its constituent particles may be used
-for any purpose, all equally move and digest, and each can at any time
-perform the organic functions pertaining to the whole.
-
-[Illustration: A Compound Foraminiferous Protozoon, magnified.
-
-The shell is perforated with holes, through which the different lobes
-of the animal communicate, and thread-like portions are protruded
-externally.]
-
-In their internal simplicity the Foraminifera are on a par with the
-amœbæ, and differ from them only in respect of their outward form. The
-amœbæ are naked, while the Foraminifera are covered with a shell, out
-of which, through one or numerous openings, the animal protrudes the
-processes which it requires for creeping or seizing its prey. These
-processes or filaments of mucus frequently ramify, closing as they
-spread, and sometimes covering an area of several lines in diameter, in
-the centre of which the animal inclosed in its shell waits for its prey,
-like a spider in its net.
-
-The extended filaments appear to have something venomous about them;
-for Dr. Schultze, to whom we owe an interesting monograph on the
-Foraminifera, frequently saw small and sprightly parameciæ, colpodes, and
-other infusoria drop down paralysed as soon as they touched the net.
-
-[Illustration: Various forms of Foraminifera.
-
-  _a. Lagena striata._
-  _a′. Nodosaria rugosa._
-  _b. Marginulina raphanus._
-  _b′._ Longitudinal section of shell of ditto.
-  _c. Polystomella crispa_, with its pseudopodia protruded.
-  _d. Nummulites lenticularis_, shown in horizontal section.
-  _e. Cassidulina lævigata._
-  _f. Textularia globulosa._
-  _g. Miliolina seminulum._
-  _g′._ Animal of Miliolina removed from its shell.
-]
-
-The amazing variety of form of the Foraminifera is no less remarkable
-than the elegance of their delicately chiselled shells, and may well be
-called immense, as no less than 2,400 living and fossil species have
-already been distinguished by naturalists, and a far greater number is
-probably still nameless and unknown. Though generally so minute that the
-diameter of the pores through which they protrude their filaments usually
-only ranges from 1/3000 to 1/10000 of an inch yet the diminutive world
-of the Foraminifera has also its giants, particularly among the fossil
-species, such as the Nummulites, which occur in such prodigious numbers
-in the limestone of the Egyptian pyramids, and whose flattened lenticular
-coin-like forms (d) attain the comparatively gigantic diameter of several
-inches. Thus the material with which the proud Pharaohs of the Nile
-constructed their colossal tombs was originally piled up at the bottom of
-the sea by countless generations of shell-cased Protozoa.
-
-The Foraminifera are among the oldest inhabitants of our globe,[T] and
-as the present ocean contains them in countless multitudes, thus have
-they swarmed in the waters of the primeval seas from the first dawn of
-creation, and piled up the monuments of their existence in vast strata
-of limestone. A great part of the rocky belt from Rügen to the Danish
-isles, the white chalk cliffs which, beginning in England, extend through
-France as far as Southern Spain, are chiefly composed of the shells
-of Foraminifera, and the zone of Nummulite limestone, which served to
-build the huge quadrilateral monument of Cheops, forms a band, often
-1,800 miles in breadth, and frequently of enormous thickness, from the
-Atlantic shores of Europe and Africa through Western Asia up to North
-India and China; enough to satisfy the most extravagant architectural
-folly of millions of despots. So important is the part which these
-beings, individually so minute, have performed and still perform in the
-geological annals of the globe.
-
-[Footnote T: The _Eozoon canadense_, the oldest of known organic remains,
-found in the Upper Laurentian series, which preceded the Cambrian
-formation, is a Foraminifer. Millions of years must have passed since it
-first felt and moved.]
-
-Many of these "minims of nature" consist of only one chamber, and
-hence are called unilocular or monothalamous; but a vast proportion
-consist of several chambers, and hence are called multilocular or
-polythalamous. The latter, however numerous their chambers or seemingly
-complex their structure, always originate as a single shell. The
-primitive jelly-sphere, or first sarcode segment, secretes around itself
-its appropriate calcareous envelope. Having grown too large for its
-habitation, it protrudes a portion of itself without, and thus forms
-a second segment. If by a process of spontaneous fission this segment
-becomes quite detached from its parent, and repeats the life and method
-of reproduction of the latter, a series of monothalamous shells will be
-formed. But if by means of a sarcode band the primitive segment maintains
-its connection with its immediate offspring, and this, repeating the
-reproductive process, does the same, a compound shell will, of course, be
-the result.
-
-Among the microscopic denizens of the ocean, the Polycystina rival the
-Foraminifera both by their number and their wonderful elegance of form
-and structure. Their body consists of the same viscid homogeneous plastic
-mass, termed "sarcode" by the naturalists; like them they are capable of
-protruding it through the foramina with which their shell is pierced,
-and consequently they are ranked with them among the Rhizopods, or
-root-footed animalcules, that form the lowest order of the Protozoa, the
-lowest class of the animal world.
-
-[Illustration: Polycystina.
-
-_a. Podocyrtis Schomburgkii. b. Haliomma Humboldtii._]
-
-It is a peculiar feature of these beautiful little shells (whose delicate
-sculpture frequently reminds the observer of the finest specimens of
-the hollow ivory balls carved by the Chinese) that they are usually
-surmounted by a number of spine-like projections, very frequently having
-a radiate disposition. Some have an oblong shape (Podocyrtis), others a
-discoid form (Haliomma), from the circumference of which the silicious
-spines project at regular intervals, so as to give them a star-like
-aspect. They are generally of a smaller size than even the Foraminifera,
-appear to be almost as widely diffused, and have also largely contributed
-to the structure of the earth-rind. They were first discovered by
-Professor Ehrenberg at Cuxhaven, on the North Sea; they were afterwards
-found by him in collections made in the antarctic seas, and have been
-brought up by the sounding lead from the bottom of the Atlantic at depths
-of from 1,000 to 2,000 fathoms.
-
-The term Infusoria, which formerly comprised a most heterogeneous
-assemblage of minute plants and animals, is now confined to the highest
-order of the Protozoa, distinguished from the Rhizopods by the possession
-of a mouth and of ciliary filaments, whose vibrations serve them both
-for progression through the water and for drawing alimentary particles
-into the interior of their body. Though most of the Infusoria live in
-ponds, morasses, pools, wells, or cisterns, yet many are marine, as, for
-instance, the _Carchesium polypinum_, which is frequently found attached
-to corallines, and the _Vaginicola valvata_, which from its sheath and
-valve strongly reminds one of a tubicolar annelide.
-
-[Illustration: Marine Infusoria.
-
-  _a._ _Vaginicola valvata_, showing animal extended, and
-         valve (φ) raised.
-  _a′._ The same, showing animal contracted within its sheath, and
-         valve (φ′) shut down.
-  _b._ _Lagotia viridis_, showing rotatory organ (ξ).
-  _b′._ Young animal of preceding.
-]
-
-The wide diffusion both in time and space of the marine Protozoa, and
-chiefly of the Foraminifera and Polycystina, is a sufficient proof of
-their vast importance in the household of the seas. Along with the
-Diatoms and other microscopical forms of vegetation on which their own
-existence depends, they evidently constitute the basis on which the
-superstructure of all the higher orders of the animal life of the ocean
-reposes. Hosts of minute crustaceans, annelides, acalephæ, and molluscs,
-feed upon their inexhaustible legions, and serve in their turn to sustain
-creatures of a larger and still larger size until finally Man is enabled
-to feast on the abundance of the seas.
-
-The Porifera, or Sponges, were formerly supposed to belong to the
-vegetable kingdom, but their animal nature is now fully ascertained, for
-modern researches have proved that the soft glairy substance with which
-their skeleton is invested during life consists of "sarcode," similar to
-that which forms the soft parts of the Foraminifera and Polycystina. It
-is by this animated or organic gelatine, which can generally be pressed
-out with the finger, and in some species is copious even to nauseousness,
-that the solid parts of the sponge are deposited, and from it the whole
-growth of the mass proceeds. The framework or skeleton of the Porifera is
-usually composed of horny fibres of unequal thickness, which ramify and
-interlace in every possible direction, anastomosing with each other so as
-to form innumerable continuous cells and intricate canals, the walls of
-which in the recent sponge are crusted over with the gelatinous living
-cortex.
-
-[Illustration: Single interspace or open cell, and surrounding finer
-meshwork of the skeleton of a sponge.]
-
-[Illustration: Needle-like and starred spicula of a Tethea. (Highly
-magnified.)]
-
-Generally this fibrous mass is interwoven with numerous mineral spicules
-of a wonderful elegance and variety of forms, for their shapes are not
-only strictly determinate for each species of sponge but each part of
-the sponge, it is believed, has spiculæ of a character peculiar to
-itself. Sometimes they are pointed at both ends, sometimes at one only,
-or one or both ends may be furnished with a head like that of a pin, or
-may carry three or more diverging points, which sometimes curve back
-so as to form hooks. Sometimes they are triradiate, sometimes stellar;
-in some cases smooth, in others beset with smaller spinous projections
-like the lance of the saw-fish. In many species they are embedded in the
-horny framework; in others, as, for instance, in Tethea Cranium, or in
-Halichondria, they project from its surface like a tiny forest of spears.
-They are generally composed of silex or flint, but in the genus Grantia
-they consist of carbonate of lime. Though the skeleton of most sponges is
-formed both of horny fibres and of mineral spicules yet the proportions
-of these two component parts vary considerably in different species. In
-the common sponge, for instance, the fibrous skeleton is almost entirely
-destitute of spicules, a circumstance to which it owes the flexibility
-and softness that render it so useful to man, while they predominate
-in the Halichondriæ, and sometimes even, as in the Grantiæ, completely
-supersede the horny fabric.
-
-[Illustration: Minute portion of the surface of Tethea Cranium,
-magnified, spicula projecting beyond the surface.]
-
-[Illustration: Halina papillaris.
-
-Currents passing inwards through the pores (_a a_), traversing the
-internal canals (b), and escaping by the larger vents (_c_, _d_).]
-
-On examining a sponge, the holes with which the substance is everywhere
-pierced may be seen to be of two kinds; one of larger size than the rest,
-few in number, and opening into wide channels and tunnels which pierce
-the sponge through its centre; the other minute, extremely numerous,
-covering the wide surface, and communicating with the innumerable
-branching passages which make up the body of the skeleton. Through the
-smaller openings or pores the circumambient water freely enters the
-body of the sponge, passes through the smaller canals, and, ultimately
-reaching the larger set of vessels, is evolved through the larger
-apertures or oscula. Thus by a still mysterious agency (for the presence
-of cilia has as yet been detected but in one genus of full-grown marine
-sponges) a constant circulation is kept up, providing the sponge with
-nourishing particles and oxygen, and enabling its system of channels
-to perform the functions both of an alimentary tube and a respiratory
-apparatus.
-
-Dr. Grant describes in glowing terms his first discovery of this highly
-interesting phenomenon: "Having put a small branch of sponge with some
-sea-water into a watch-glass, in order to examine it with the microscope,
-and bringing one of the apertures on the side of the sponge fully into
-view, I beheld for the first time the spectacle of this living fountain,
-vomiting forth from a circular cavity an impetuous torrent of liquid
-matter, and hurling along in rapid succession opaque masses, which it
-strewed everywhere around. The beauty and novelty of such a scene in the
-animal kingdom long arrested my attention, but after twenty-five minutes
-of constant observation, I was obliged to withdraw my eye from fatigue,
-without having seen the torrent for one instant change its direction or
-diminish in the slightest degree the rapidity of its course. I continued
-to watch the same orifice at short intervals for five hours, sometimes
-observing it for a quarter of an hour at a time, but still the stream
-rolled on with a constant and equal velocity."
-
-Subsequent observations have proved that the living sponge has the power
-of opening and closing at pleasure its oscula, which are capable of
-acting independently of each other, thus fully establishing the animal
-nature of these simple organisations, in whom latterly even traces of
-sensibility have been detected, such as one would hardly expect to meet
-with in a sponge. For these creatures, as we are entitled to call them,
-are able to protrude from their oscula the gelatinous membrane which
-clothes their channels, and on touching these protruded parts with a
-needle, they were seen by Mr. Gosse to shrink immediately--a proof that
-the sponge, however low it may rank in the animal world, is yet far from
-being so totally inert or lifeless as was formerly imagined.
-
-The propagation of the sponges is provided for in a no less wonderful
-manner than their respiration and nourishment. Minute globular particles
-of sarcode sprout forth as little protuberances from the interior of
-the canals. As they increase in size, they are gradually clothed with
-vibratile cilia, and, finally detaching themselves, are cast out through
-the oscula into the world of waters. Here their wanderings continue for
-a short time, until, if they be not devoured on the way, they reach some
-rock or submarine body on which, tired of their brief erratic existence,
-they fix themselves for ever, and, bidding adieu to all further rambles,
-lead henceforth the quiet sedentary life of their parents. In this manner
-the sponges, which otherwise would have been confined to narrow limits,
-spread like a living carpet over the bottom of the seas, and in spite of
-their being utterly defenceless, maintain their existence from age to
-age. At the same time they serve to feed a vast number of other marine
-animals, for the waters frequently swarm with their eggs, and these
-afford many a welcome repast to myriads of sessile molluscs, annelides,
-polyps, and other creatures small or abstemious enough to be satisfied
-with feasting on atoms.
-
-Sponges inhabit every sea and shore, and differ very much in habit of
-growth. For whilst some can only be obtained by dredging at considerable
-depths, others live near the surface, and others, again, attach
-themselves to the surfaces of rocks and shells between the tide marks.
-Like the corals, they revel in every variety of shape and tint, imitate
-like them every form of vegetation, and adorn like them the submarine
-grounds with their fantastic shrubberies. The fine collection of West
-Indian sponges exhibited in the Crystal Palace, but to which fancy must
-add the additional ornament of colour, may serve to give some idea of
-their prodigal versatility of growth. More than sixty different species
-have been discovered in the British waters alone, and as they go on
-increasing in numbers, size, and beauty, until they attain their highest
-development along the shores of the tropical ocean, they no doubt hold
-a conspicuous rank among the living wonders of the sea. The branched
-sponges, with a compact feltred tissue, are more common than others in
-the colder maritime domains, where the species of a loose texture, which
-grow in large massive forms, either do not exist or are very rare. Many
-sponges are of considerable size, such as the vase-like tropical species
-known under the name of Neptune's cup; others are almost microscopical;
-and while by far the greater number grow superficially from a solid base,
-some penetrate like destructive parasites into the texture of other
-animals. Thus the _Halichondria celata_ establishes itself in the small
-holes which some of the smaller annelides drill in the shell of the
-oyster, eat further and further into the unfortunate mollusc's vitals,
-causing the softer parts of the shell to rot away, and spread through
-its whole substance, like the dry-rot fungus through a solid beam of
-timber, until, sinking under the weight of his misery, the poor victim
-perishes, and his loosened shell is cast to the mercy of the waves. On
-the other hand, some marine Acorn-shells nestle habitually in a sponge,
-the normal construction of the base of the shell being altered to suit
-the peculiarities of its habitation, so that in this instance, as in many
-others, there is a foreseen relation between two very dissimilar animals.
-Amongst the reticulated fibres of its spongy dwelling, the Acorn-shell
-finds a secure refuge in its infant state, and is soon enclosed by the
-growing fabric of the sponge-animal, except a small opening, which is
-kept clear by the vortex occasioned by the constant motion of its feelers
-or tentacula.
-
-But very few of the manifold species of sponges are of any use to man.
-The common sponge of commerce (_Spongia communis_), so serviceable in
-our households, is most abundant in the Lycian seas, where it is found
-attached to rocks at various depths between three fathoms and thirty.
-When alive, it is of a dull bluish black above, and dirty white beneath.
-There are several qualities, possibly indicating as many distinct species.
-
-"The most valued kinds," says Edward Forbes, "are sought for about the
-Gulf of Macri, along the Carian coast, and round the opposite islands.
-The species which live immediately along the shore near the water's edge,
-though often large, are worthless. These are of many colours; some of
-the brightest scarlet or clear yellow form a crust over the faces of
-submarine rocks; others are large and tubular, resembling holothuriæ
-in form and of a gamboge colour, which soon turns to dirty brown when
-taken out of the water; others are again lobed or palmate, studded with
-prickly points, and perforated at intervals with oscula. These grow to
-a considerable size, but, like the former, are useless, since their
-substance is full of needles of flint."
-
-Large quantities of excellent sponge (_Spongia usitatissima_) are
-likewise imported from the West Indies.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XIX.
-
-MARINE PLANTS.
-
-  The Algæ.--Zostera marina.--The Ulvæ and Enteromorphæ.--The Fuci.--The
-  Laminariæ.--Macrocystis pyrifera.--Description of the Submarine
-  Thickets at Tierra del Fuego.--Nereocystis lutkeana.--The Sargasso
-  Sea.--The Gathering of edible Birds'-nests in the marine Caves of
-  Java.--Agar-Agar.--The Florideæ.--The Diatomaceæ.--Their importance in
-  the economy of the Seas.
-
-
-The dry land develops the most exuberant vegetation on the lowest
-grounds, the plains and deep valleys, and the size and multiplicity of
-plants gradually diminish as we ascend the higher mountain regions, until
-at last merely naked or snow-covered rocks raise their barren pinnacles
-to the skies: but the contrary takes place in the realms of ocean; for
-here the greater depths are completely denuded of vegetation, and it
-is only within 600 or 800 feet from the surface that the calcareous
-nullipores begin to cover the sea-bottom, as mosses and lichens clothe
-the lofty mountain-tops. Gradually corallines and a few algæ associate
-with them, until finally about 80 or 100 feet from the surface begins the
-rich vegetable zone which encircles the margin of the sea. The plants
-of which it is composed do not indeed attain the same high degree of
-development as those of the dry land, being deprived of the beauties of
-flower and fruit: but as the earth at different heights and latitudes
-constantly changes her verdant robe, and raises our highest admiration
-by the endless diversity of her ornaments, thus also the forms of the
-sea-plants change, whether we descend from the brink of ocean to a
-greater depth, or wander along the coast from one sea to another; and
-their delicate fronds are as remarkable for beauty of colour and elegance
-of outline, as the leaves of terrestrial vegetation.
-
-The difference of the mediums in which land- and sea-plants exist
-naturally requires a different mode of nourishment, the former
-principally using their roots to extract from a varying soil the
-substances necessary for their perfect growth, while the latter absorb
-nourishment through their entire surface from the surrounding waters, and
-use their roots chiefly as holdfasts.
-
-The constituent parts of the soil are of the greatest importance to
-land-plants, to whose organisation they are made to contribute; while to
-the sea-plant it is generally indifferent whether the ground to which it
-is attached be granite, chalk, slate, or sandstone, provided only its
-roots find a safe anchorage against the unruly waters.
-
-Flat rocky coasts, not too much exposed to the swell of the waves, and
-interspersed with deep pools in which the water is constantly retained,
-are thus the favourite abode of most algæ, while a loose sandy sea-bottom
-is generally as poor in vegetation as the Arabian desert.
-
-But even on sandy shores extensive submarine meadows are frequently
-formed by the Grass Wrack (_Zostera marina_), whose creeping stems,
-rooting at the joints and extending to a considerable depth in the sand,
-are admirably adapted for seeming a firm position on the loose ground.
-Its long riband-like leaves, of a brilliant and glossy green, wave freely
-in the water, and afford shelter and nourishment to numerous marine
-animals and plants. In the tropical seas it forms the submarine meadows
-on which the turtles graze, and in the North of Europe it is used for the
-manufacture of cheap bedding. It also furnishes an excellent material for
-packing brittle ware.
-
-Sea-weeds are usually classed in three great groups, green,
-olive-coloured, and red; and these again are subdivided into numerous
-families, genera, and species.
-
-On the British coasts alone about 400 different species are found,
-and hence we may form some idea of the riches of the submarine flora.
-Thousands of algæ are known and classified, but no doubt as many more at
-least still wait for their botanical names, and have never yet been seen
-by human eye.
-
-The _Green_ sea-weeds, or Chlorospermeæ, generally occur near high-water
-mark, and love to lead an amphibious life, half in the air and half in
-salt-water. The delicate Enteromorphæ, similar to threads of fine silk,
-and the broad brilliant Ulvæ, which frequently cover the smooth boulders
-with a glossy vesture of lively green, belong to this class. Many of them
-are remarkable for their wide geographical distribution. Thus the _Ulva
-latissima_ and the _Erderomorpha compressa_ of our shores thrive also
-in the cold waters of the Arctic Sea, fringe the shores of the tropical
-ocean, and project into the southern hemisphere as far as the desolate
-head-lands of Tierra del Fuego. But few animals or plants possess so
-pliable a nature, and such adaptability to the most various climates.
-
-The _Olive-coloured_ group of sea-weeds, or Melanospermeæ, plays a much
-more considerable part in the economy of the ocean. The common fuci,
-which on the ebbing of the tide impart to the shore cliffs their peculiar
-dingy colour, belong to this class; as well as the mighty Laminariæ,
-which about the level of ordinary low water, and one or two fathoms
-below that limit, fringe the rocky shore with a broad belt of luxuriant
-vegetation.
-
-The first olive-coloured sea-weed we meet with on the receding of the
-flood is the small and slender _Fucus canaliculatus_, easily known by
-its narrow grooved stems and branches, and the absence of air-vessels.
-Then follows _Fucus nodosus_, a large species, with tough thong-like
-stems, expanding at intervals into knob-like air-vessels, and covered
-in winter and spring with bright yellow berries. Along with it we find
-the gregarious _Fucus vesiculosus_, with its forked leaf traversed by a
-midrib, and covered with numerous air-vessels situated in pairs at each
-side of the rib. Finally, about the level of half-tide, a fourth species
-of fucus appears, _Fucus serratus_, distinguished from all the rest by
-its toothed margin and the absence of air-vessels.
-
-These four species generally occupy the littoral zone of our sea-girt
-isle, being found in greatest abundance on flat rocky shores,
-particularly on the western coasts of Scotland and Ireland, where they
-used formerly to be burnt in large quantities for the manufacture of kelp
-or carbonate of soda, which is now obtained by a less expensive process.
-In Orcadia alone more than 20,000 persons were employed during the whole
-summer in the collection and incineration of sea-weeds, a valuable
-resource for the poverty-stricken islanders, of which they have been
-deprived by the progress of chemical science.
-
-The fuci are, however, still largely used, either burnt or in a fermented
-state, as a valuable manure for green crops. Thus every year several
-small vessels are sent from Jersey to the coast of Brittany, to fetch
-cargoes of sea-weeds for the farmers of that island.
-
-
-A RUSSIAN OFFICIAL, ATTENDED BY A SOLDIER, COLLECTING ALGÆ ON THE SHORES
-OF THE NORTH PACIFIC.
-
-  The annexed plate is taken from the frontispiece of the magnificent
-  folio volume by Messrs. Ruprecht and Postels, on the Algæ of the North
-  Pacific. This work, in which even the largest of the marine plants of
-  that region are represented of their natural size, was published at
-  the expense of the Russian Government, and copies were presented to
-  some of the principal libraries of Europe.
-
-  In the middle distance, a Russian official belonging to one of the
-  settlements is seen gathering algæ, attended by a soldier.
-
-  In the front of the picture the water is supposed to be so clear as to
-  show distinctly the growth of sea-weeds of various kinds, which clothe
-  the submarine rocks in that region. Some species of these have been
-  added to the number shown in the original composition.
-
-  In the centre, with the light fully upon them, are streaming plants
-  of a gigantic _Alaria_, whose fronds sometimes extend to a length
-  of 40 feet. Immediately beneath it, to the right, is the curiously
-  perforated _Agarium Gmelini_, the singular perforations of which are
-  indicated by small white patches.
-
-  To the right is the curious "flower-bearing" sea-weed known as the
-  Sea Rose, _Constantinea Rosa marina_, the flower-like growth of
-  which, combined with the pink colour of its seeming flowers, is very
-  remarkable.
-
-  In front, and rather to the right of the last, is a dark mass of the
-  splendid _Iridæa Mertensiana_, the dark velvety masses of which, of a
-  deep crimson colour, are often more than a foot across.
-
-  To the right of the last, in the corner, is one of the most beautiful
-  of the ulvæ, _Ulva fenestrata_, a name which may be popularised as the
-  "windowed" ulva, in allusion to its extremely perforated character,
-  the openings being of considerable size, and often separated from
-  each other only by the slenderest divisions, thus forming a kind of
-  vegetable lace-work.
-
-[Illustration: A RUSSIAN OFFICIAL ATTENDED BY A SOLDIER COLLECTING ALGÆ
-ON THE SHORES OF THE NORTH PACIFIC.]
-
-The largest of indigenous sea-weeds are the _Laminaria saccharina_ and
-_digitata_, or the sugary and fingered oar-weeds. Their stout woody
-stems, and broad tough glossy leaves of dark olive-green, often twelve
-or fourteen feet long, must be familiar to every one who has sojourned
-on the coast. When gliding over their submerged groves in a boat, their
-great fronds floating like streamers in the water afford the interesting
-spectacle of a dense submarine thicket, through whose palm-like tops the
-fishes swim in and out, emulating in activity the birds of our forests.
-
-But our native oar-weeds, large as they seem with regard to the other
-fuci among which they grow, are mere pygmies when compared with the
-gigantic species which occur in the colder seas.
-
-None of the members of this family grow in the tropical waters, but
-they extend to the utmost polar limits, and seem to increase in size
-and multiplicity of form as they advance to the higher latitudes. The
-northern hemisphere has generally different genera from the southern. To
-the former belong the gigantic Alarias with their often forty feet long
-and several feet broad fronds, the singularly perforated Thalassophyta,
-and the far-spreading Nereocystis, which is only found in the Northern
-Pacific; while the genera Macrocystis and Lessonia are denizens of the
-Southern Ocean.
-
-In the numerous channels and bays of Tierra del Fuego, the enormous and
-singular _Macrocystis pyrifera_ is found in such incredible masses as
-to excite the astonishment of every traveller. "On every rock," says
-Mr. Darwin, perhaps the best observer of nature that ever visited those
-dreary regions, and certainly their most poetical describer, "the plant
-grows from low-water mark to a great depth, both on the outer coast and
-within the channels. I believe, during the voyages of the Adventure
-and Beagle, not one rock near the surface was discovered which was not
-buoyed by this floating weed. The good service it thus affords to vessels
-navigating near this stormy land is evident, and it certainly has saved
-many a one from being wrecked. I know few things more surprising than
-to see this plant growing and flourishing amidst those great breakers
-of the western ocean, which no mass of rock, let it be ever so hard,
-can long resist. The stem is round, slimy, and smooth, and seldom has a
-diameter of so much as an inch. A few taken together are sufficiently
-strong to support the weight of the large loose stones to which in the
-inland channels they grow attached; and some of these stones are so
-heavy, that when drawn to the surface they can scarcely be lifted into a
-boat by one person."
-
-"Captain Cook, in his second voyage says, that 'at Kerguelen's Land
-some of this weed is of most enormous length, though the stem is not
-much thicker than a man's thumb. I have mentioned that, on some of
-these shoals on which it grows, we did not strike ground with a line
-of twenty-four fathoms; the depth of water, therefore, must have been
-greater. And as this weed does not grow in a perpendicular direction,
-but makes a very acute angle with the bottom, and much of it afterwards
-spreads many fathoms on the surface of the sea, I am well warranted to
-say that some of it grows to the length of sixty fathoms and upwards.'
-
-"Certainly at the Falkland Islands, and about Tierra del Fuego, extensive
-beds frequently spring up from ten and fifteen fathoms water. I do
-not suppose the stem of any other plant attains so great a length as
-360 feet, as stated by Captain Cook. Its geographical range is very
-considerable; it is found from the extreme southern islets near Cape
-Horn, as far north on the eastern coast as lat. 43°, and on the western
-it was tolerably abundant, but far from luxuriant, at Chiloe, in lat.
-42°. It may possibly extend a little further northward, but is soon
-succeeded by a different species.
-
-"We thus have a range of 15° in latitude, and as Cook, who must have been
-well acquainted with the species, found it at Kerguelen's Land, no less
-than 140° in longitude.
-
-"The number of living creatures, of all orders, whose existence
-intimately depends on the kelp, is wonderful. A large volume might be
-written, describing the inhabitants of one of these beds of sea-weed.
-Almost every leaf, except those that float on the surface, is so thickly
-incrusted with corallines as to be of a white colour. We find exquisitely
-delicate structures, some inhabited by simple hydra-like polypi, others
-by more organised kinds and beautiful compound ascidiæ. On the flat
-surfaces of the leaves, various patelliform shells, trochi, uncovered
-mollusks, and some bivalves are attached. Innumerable crustacea frequent
-every part of the plant. On shaking the great entangled roots, a pile
-of small fish, shells, cuttle-fish, crabs of all orders, sea-eggs,
-star-fish, beautiful holothuriæ (some taking the external form of the
-nudibranch mollusks), planariæ, and crawling nereidous animals of a
-multitude of forms, all fall out together. Often as I recurred to a
-branch of the kelp, I never failed to discover animals of new and curious
-structure. In Chiloe, where, as I have said, the kelp did not thrive very
-well, the numerous shells, corallines, and Crustacea were absent, but
-there yet remained a few of the Flustraceæ, and some compound ascidiæ;
-the latter, however, were of different species from those in Tierra del
-Fuego. We here see the fucus possessing a wider range than the animals
-which use it as an abode.
-
-"I can only compare these great aquatic forests of the southern
-hemisphere with the terrestrial ones in the intertropical regions. Yet,
-if the latter should be destroyed in any country, I do not believe nearly
-so many species of animals would perish, as under similar circumstances
-would happen with the kelp. Amidst the leaves of this plant numerous
-species of fish live, which nowhere else would find food or shelter; with
-their destruction the many cormorants, divers, and other fishing-birds,
-the otters, seals, and porpoises, would soon perish also; and lastly the
-Fuegian savage, the miserable lord of this miserable land, would redouble
-his cannibal feast, decrease in numbers, and perhaps cease to exist."
-
-For many a day's sail before reaching Cape Horn, large bundles of the
-macrocystis detached by the storm announce to the navigator that he is
-approaching the desolate coasts of Tierra del Fuego.
-
-"We succeeded," says Professor Meyen, in his _Reise um die Welt_,
-"in getting hold of one of these floating islands, which, amid loud
-acclamations, was hauled upon deck by the exertions of five men. It was
-quite impossible to disentangle the enormous mass; we could only detach,
-to the length of about sixty feet, what we considered to be the chief
-stem; the branches were from thirty to forty feet long, and as thick
-as the principal trunk from which they sprang. We estimated the total
-length of the plant at about two hundred feet; the pear-shaped air
-vessels at the basis of the leaves were often six or seven inches long,
-and the leaves themselves measured seven or eight feet. On these swimming
-fucus-islands lived a vast multitude of various animals; thousands upon
-thousands of barnacles and sertulariæ, of crustaceans and annelides.
-
-"The admiration which the gigantic sea-weeds of Tierra del Fuego excited
-in our minds equalled that which had been raised by the exuberant
-vegetation of the virgin forests of Brazil. One single plant of the
-_Macrocystis pyrifera_ would suffice, like one of the mammoth-trees of
-those luxuriant woods, to cover a large space of land with its leaf-like
-substance. The quantity of small algæ, of sertularias, cellarias, and
-other minute animals dwelling on these swimming islands, surpasses in
-variety the multitude of parasitical plants bedecking the trees in a
-tropical forest. It seems as if, in these desolate and dreary regions,
-the generative powers of the planet were solely confined to the gigantic
-growth of submarine vegetation."
-
-On the rocky coasts of the Falkland Islands are found no less
-astonishing masses of enormous sea-weeds, chiefly belonging to the
-genera Macrocystis, Lessonia, and Durvillea. Rent from the rocks to
-which they were attached, and cast ashore, they are rolled by the heavy
-surf into prodigious vegetable cables, much thicker than a man's body
-and several hundred feet long. Many of the rarest and most beautiful
-algæ may be here discovered, which have either been wrenched from
-inaccessible rocks far out at sea, along with the larger species, or have
-attached themselves parasitically to their stems and fronds. Many of
-them remind the botanist, by some similarity of form, of the sea-weeds
-of his distant home, while others tell him at once that he is far away
-in another hemisphere. The gigantic lessonias particularly abound about
-these islands. Their growth resembles that of a tree. The stem attains
-a height of from eight to ten feet, the thickness of a man's thigh, and
-terminates in a crown of leaves two or three feet long, and drooping like
-the branches of a weeping-willow. They form large submerged forests, and,
-like the thickets of the macrocystis, afford a refuge and a dwelling to
-countless sea animals.
-
-A similar abundance of colossal algæ is found in the Northern Pacific,
-about the Kurile and Aleutic Islands, and along the deeply indented and
-channel-furrowed north-west coast of America.
-
-Thus the _Nereocystis lutkeana_ forms dense forests in Norfolk Bay and
-all about Sitcha. Its stem, resembling whipcord, and often above 300
-feet long, terminates in a large air-vessel, six or seven feet long, and
-crowned with a bunch of dichotomous leaves, each thirty or forty feet in
-length. Dr. Mertens assures us that the sea-otter, when fishing, loves
-to rest upon the colossal air-vessels of this giant among the sea-weeds,
-while the long tenacious stems furnish the rude fishermen of the coast
-with excellent tackle. The growth of the nereocystis must be uncommonly
-rapid, as it is an annual plant, and consequently develops its whole
-gigantic proportions during the course of one brief summer.
-
-Before proceeding to the third chief group of marine plants, the red
-sea-weeds, or Rhodosperms, I must mention the enormous fucus banks, or
-floating meadows of the Atlantic, which form undoubtedly one of the
-greatest wonders of the ocean.
-
-We know that the mighty Gulf Stream, which rolls its indigo-blue floods
-from America to the opposite coasts of the Old World, flows partly
-southwards in the neighbourhood of Azores, and is ultimately driven
-back again to America. In the midst of these circuitous streams, from
-22° to 36° N. lat., and from 35° to 65° W. long., extends a sea without
-any other currents than those resulting from the temporary action of
-the winds. This comparatively tranquil part of the ocean, the surface
-of which surpasses at least twenty times that of the British Isles, is
-found more or less densely covered with floating masses of _Sargassum
-bacciferum_. Often the sea-weed surrounds the ship sailing through these
-savannas of the sea, in such quantities as to retard its progress, and
-then again hours may pass when not a single fucus appears. While Columbus
-was boldly steering through the hitherto unknown fields of the Sargasso
-Sea, the fears of his timorous associates were increased by this singular
-phenomenon, as they believed they had now reached the bounds of the
-navigable ocean, and must inevitably strike against some hidden rock, if
-their commander persevered in his audacious course.
-
-It is an interesting fact that the Sargasso Sea affords the most
-remarkable example of an aggregation of plants belonging to one single
-species. Nowhere else, according to Humboldt, neither in the savannas
-of America, nor on the heaths or in the pine forests of Northern Europe,
-is such a uniformity of vegetation found as in those boundless maritime
-meadows.
-
-"The masses of sea-weeds," says Meyen, "covering so vast an extent
-of ocean have ever since the time of Columbus been the object of
-astonishment and inquiry. Some navigators believe, that they are driven
-together by the Gulf Stream, and that the same species of Sargassum
-plentifully occurs in the Mexican Sea; this is however perfectly
-erroneous.
-
-"Humboldt was of opinion that this marine plant originally grows on
-submarine banks, from which it is torn by various forces; I for my part
-have examined many thousands of specimens, and venture to affirm that
-they never have been attached to any solid body. Freely floating in the
-water, they have developed their young germs, and sent forth on all sides
-roots and leaves, both of the same nature."
-
-Thus the Sargassum seems to be the indigenous production of the sea where
-it appears, and to have floated there from time immemorial. Its swimming
-islands afford an abode and nourishment to a prodigious amount of animal
-life. They are generally covered with elegant sertularias, coloured
-vorticellas, and other strange forms of marine existence. Various naked
-or nudibranchiate mollusks and annelides attach themselves to the fronds,
-and afford nourishment to hosts of fishes and crustaceans, the beasts of
-prey of this little world.
-
-Similar aggregations of sea-weeds are also met with in the Indian and
-Pacific Oceans, in the comparatively tranquil spaces encircled by
-rotatory currents. Their rare occurrence on the surface of the sea may
-serve as a proof of the restless motion of its waters. Were the ocean not
-everywhere intersected by currents, it would most likely be covered with
-sea-weeds, opposing serious, if not invincible obstacles to navigation.
-
-The _Red_ sea-weeds, Rhodosperms or Florideæ, are by far the most
-numerous in species, and undoubtedly the most beautiful and perfect of
-all the algæ. They love neither light nor motion, and generally seek the
-shade of larger plants on the perpendicular sides of deep tide-pools
-removed from the influences of the tides and gales. They mostly grow
-close to low-water mark, and are to be seen only for an hour or two at
-the spring-tides, during which, as is well known, the deepest ebbs take
-place. To this group belong the wonderfully delicate polysiphonias,
-callithamnias, plocamias, and delesserias, whose elegant rosy scarlet
-or purple leaves are the amateur's delight, and when laid out on paper
-resemble the finest tracery, defying the painter's art to do justice to
-their beauty. It likewise numbers among its genera the chalky corallines
-and nullipores, which on account of the hardness of their substance were
-formerly considered to be polyps, but whose true nature becomes apparent
-on examining their internal structure.
-
-The _Chondrus crispus_, or Carrigeen, which grows in such vast quantities
-on the coasts of the British Isles, also belongs to the rhodosperms,
-though when growing, as it frequently does, in shallow tide-pools,
-exposed to full sunlight, its dark purple colour fades into green or
-even yellowish white. When boiled it almost entirely dissolves in the
-water, and forms on cooling a colourless and almost tasteless jelly,
-which of late years has been largely used in medicine as a substitute
-for Iceland moss. Similar nutritious gelatines, which also serve for the
-manufacture of strong glues, are yielded by other species of rhodosperms,
-among others by the _Gracillaria spinosa_ of the Indian Ocean, which the
-Salangana (_Hirundo esculenta_), a bird allied to the swallow, is said
-principally to use for the construction of her edible nest.
-
-The steep sea-walls along the south coast of Java are clothed to the very
-brink with luxuriant woods, and screw-pines strike everywhere their roots
-into their precipitous sides, or look down by thousands from the margin
-of the rock upon the unruly sea below. The surf of incalculable years has
-worn deep caves into the chalk cliffs, and here the Salangana builds her
-nest. Where the sea is most agitated whole swarms are observed flying
-about, and purposely seeking the thickest wave-foam. From a projecting
-cape, on looking down upon the play of waters, may be seen the mouth of
-the cave of Gua Rongkop, sometimes completely hidden under the waves, and
-then again opening its black recesses, into which the swallows vanish, or
-from which they dart forth with the rapidity of lightning. While at some
-distance from the coast the blue ocean sleeps in undisturbed repose, it
-never ceases to fret and foam against the foot of the mural rocks, where
-the most beautiful rainbows glisten in the eternally rising vapours.
-
-Who can explain the instinct which prompts the birds to glue their
-nests to the high dark vaults of those deep, and apparently so
-inaccessible, caverns? Did they expect to find them a safe retreat from
-the persecutions of man? Then surely their hopes were vain, for where is
-the refuge to which his insatiable avidity cannot find the way? At the
-cavern of Gua-gede, the brink of the precipitous coast lies eighty feet
-above the level of the sea at ebb-tide; the wall first bends inwards,
-and then, at a height of twenty-five feet from the sea, throws out a
-projecting ledge which is of great use to the nest-gatherers, serving
-as a support for a rotang ladder let down from the cliff. The roof of
-the cavern's mouth lies only ten feet above the sea, which, even at
-ebb-tide, completely covers the floor of the cave, while at flood-tide
-the opening of the vast marine grotto is entirely closed by every wave
-that rolls against it. To penetrate into the interior is thus only
-possible at low water, and during very tranquil weather; and even then it
-could not be done, if the rugged roof were not perforated and jagged in
-every direction. The boldest and strongest of the nest-gatherers wedges
-himself firmly in the hollows, or clings to the projecting stones, while
-he fastens rotang ropes to them, which then depend four or five feet
-from the roof. To the lower ends of these ropes long rotang cables are
-attached, so that the whole forms a kind of suspension bridge throughout
-the entire length of the cavern, alternately falling and rising with
-its inequalities. The cave is 100 feet broad and 150 long as far as
-its deepest recesses. If we justly admire the intrepidity of the St.
-Kildans, who, let down by a rope from the high level of their rocky
-birthplace, remain suspended over a boisterous sea, we must needs also
-pay a tribute of praise to the boldness of the Javanese nest-gatherers.
-Before preparing their ladders for the plucking of the birds' nests,
-they first offer solemn prayers to the goddess of the south-coast, and
-sometimes deposit gifts on the tomb where the first discoverer of the
-caverns and their treasures is said to repose. Thus in all zones and in
-every stage of civilisation, man is directed by an inward voice to seek
-the protection of the invisible powers when about to engage in a great
-and perilous undertaking.
-
-As I have already mentioned, the Salangana builds her nest of sea-weeds,
-which she softens in her stomach and then disgorges. During its
-construction new layers, which soon grow hard in the air, are continually
-deposited on the margin, until it has attained the proper size. When
-gathering time approaches, some of the pluckers daily visit the cavern
-to examine the state of the brood. As soon as they find that most of
-the young are beginning to be provided with feathers, their operations
-commence. These nests form the first quality; those in which the young
-are still completely naked, the second; while those which only contain
-eggs, and are consequently not yet ripe, rank third. The nests with
-young whose feathers are completely developed are over-ripe, black, and
-good for nothing. All the young and eggs are thrown into the sea. The
-gathering takes place three times a year; the birds breed four times
-a year. In spite of these wholesale devastations their numbers do not
-diminish; as many of the young have no doubt flown away before the day of
-execution, or other swallows from still unexplored caverns may fill up
-the void. In this manner about 50 piculs are annually collected, which
-the Chinese pay for at the rate of 4000 or 5000 guilders the picul. Each
-picul contains on an average 10,000 nests. Dividing these 500,000 nests
-among three gatherings, and reckoning two birds to each nest, we find
-that more than 333,000 swallows inhabit at the same time the Javanese
-coast caverns.
-
-In the interior of the island, in the chalkstone grottos of Bandong, the
-Salangana also breeds, but in far inferior numbers, as here the annual
-collection amounts on an average to no more than 14,000 nests. In these
-inland caves swallows and bats reside together, but without disturbing
-each other, as the former when not breeding leave their caverns at
-sunrise, disappear in the distance, and only return late in the evening,
-when the bats are already enjoying their vespertine or nocturnal flight.
-
-In Sumatra and some other islands of the Indian archipelago, birds'-nests
-are likewise collected, but nowhere in such numbers as in Java. They are
-brought to the Chinese market, where they are carefully cleaned before
-being offered for sale to the consumer. The addition of costly spices
-renders them one of the greatest delicacies of Chinese cookery, but as
-for themselves they are nothing better than a fine sort of gelatine.
-
-The Japanese have long been aware that these costly birds' nests are
-in fact merely softened algæ. They consequently pulverise the proper
-species of sea-weeds, which are abundantly found on their own coasts,
-boil them to a thick jelly, and bring them to market under the name of
-_Dschin-schan_, as artificial birds'-nests. The Dutch call it Agar-agar,
-and make great use of it; simple boiling sufficing to convert the dried
-substance into a thick uniform jelly, which is both nourishing and easy
-of digestion. Thus we see that the algæ, which the Romans considered
-so perfectly worthless that, when they wished to express their utter
-contempt of an object, they declared it to be still viler than the vile
-sea-weed, are by no means deserving of so hard a sentence. Man himself
-might be much more justly reproached for neglecting the abundant stores
-of nourishment which nature has gratuitously provided for him on all flat
-and rocky coasts. For not only the species I have mentioned are eatable,
-but also some of the commonest fuci of our seas (_Fucus nodosus_, _F.
-vesiculosus_, _Laminaria saccharina_), as well as the gigantic alarias
-and durvilleas of the colder oceanic regions. And yet how rare is their
-use, notwithstanding the increasing wants of a rapidly growing population!
-
-[Illustration: Surirella constricta.
-
-A. Front view. B. Binary subdivision.--(Highly magnified.)]
-
-Besides the larger forms of vegetation, the ocean contains a vast
-number of microscopical plants. Among these the most remarkable are
-the Diatomaceæ, simple vegetable cells enclosed in a flinty envelope,
-consisting of two plates closely applied to each other like the two
-valves of a mussel. The forms of these minute organisms are no less
-curious than those of the Foraminifera, for they exhibit regular
-mathematical figures, and their surface is often most delicately
-sculptured. Multiplying by spontaneous fissure, many of the Diatoms are
-met with entirely free after the process of duplicative subdivision
-has once been completed, while others, such as the Licmophora, or
-Fan-bearer, an elegant native species, habitually remain coherent one to
-another, producing clusters or filaments of various shapes, connected
-by a gelatinous investment or by a stalk-like appendage, which serves
-to attach them to other plants or to stones and to pieces of wood.
-Though individually invisible to the naked eye, they appear, when thus
-congregated, as patches of a green or brownish slimy mass, or as little
-glittering tufts a line or two in height. Some of their numerous species
-are natives of fresh water, but by far the majority are denizens of
-the sea, where they are found from the equator to the poles. The brown
-scum floating upon the surface of the antarctic waters near the mighty
-ice barrier which arrested Sir James Ross's progress to the south pole
-was found to consist almost solely of Diatomaceæ, and they are equally
-abundant in the Arctic Ocean.
-
-It is remarked by Dr. Hooker that the universal presence of this
-invisible vegetation throughout the South Polar Seas is a most important
-feature, since there is a marked deficiency in this region of higher
-forms of vegetation, so that without the Diatoms there would neither be
-food for aquatic animals nor (if it were possible for these to maintain
-themselves by preying on one another) could the ocean waters be purified
-of the carbonic acid which animal respiration would be continually
-imparting to it. Thus it is not in vain that they abound in the most
-inhospitable seas, where but for them no sea-bird would flap its wings,
-and no dolphin dart through the desert waters.
-
-[Illustration: Licmophora flabellata. (Highly magnified.)]
-
-From the indestructible nature of their flinty coverings the Diatoms play
-a no less conspicuous part in the geological history of our globe than
-the calcareous Foraminifera.
-
-Extensive rocky strata, chains of hills, beds of marl--once deposited
-at the bottom of the ocean, and raised by subsequent changes of level
-from the depth of the waters--contain the remains of these little
-plants in greater or less abundance. No country is destitute of such
-monuments, and in some they constitute the leading features in the
-structure of the soil. Under the whole city of Richmond, in Virginia,
-and far beyond its limits, over an area of unknown extent, they form a
-stratum of eighteen feet in thickness, and similar deposits are found
-to alternate in the neighbourhood of the Mediterranean with calcareous
-strata chiefly composed of Foraminifera. At first sight it may seem a
-gross exaggeration to attribute so vast an agency to beings individually
-so minute, but when we recollect how quickly they multiply by division,
-and how their activity dates from the first dawn of organic creation,
-their architectural powers no longer seem incredible. In forty-eight
-hours a single diatom may multiply to 8,000,000, and in four days to
-140,000,000,000,000, when the silicious coverings of its enormous
-progeny will already suffice to fill up a space of two cubic feet. No
-wonder, then, that during the course of ages these microscopic plants
-have been able to form prodigious strata wherever circumstances favoured
-their propagation. In no case is the power of numbers more forcibly
-exemplified, for where can we find results more vast, proceeding from
-the infinite multiplication of the smallest individuals, than that whole
-tracts of country should literally be built up of the skeletons of
-Foraminifera and Diatomaceæ?
-
-[Illustration: Hooded Merganser.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XX.
-
-THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF MARINE LIFE.
-
-  The Dependence of all created Beings upon Space and Time.--The
-  Influences which regulate the Distribution of Marine Life.--The
-  four Bathymetrical Zones of Marine Life on the British Coasts,
-  according to the late Professor Edward Forbes of Edinburgh.--Abyssal
-  Animals.--_Bathybius Haeckelii._--Deep-Sea Sponges and
-  Shell-Fish.--Vivid Phosphorescence of Deep-Sea Animals.--Deep-Sea
-  Shark Fishery.--The "Challenger."
-
-
-The wanderer to distant lands sees himself gradually surrounded by a new
-world of animals and plants. On crossing the Alps, for instance, the
-well-known vegetable forms of our native country leave us one after the
-other; the beech, the fir, the oak, no longer meet the eye, or appear
-but rarely, and of more stunted growth, while in their stead citron and
-olive-trees decorate the landscape; and finally, on the shores of the
-Mediterranean the world of palms begins to disclose its beauties.
-
-Thus during a long journey our early companions drop off one after the
-other, until at last we see ourselves surrounded by a crowd of new
-associates, who were strangers to us at the beginning of our pilgrimage.
-
-We may cross the earth from pole to pole, or follow the sun in his
-diurnal course; in all directions, from north to south and from east to
-west, Nature will be found to change her garments as we proceed, and
-never to resume again those she has once cast off. The plants and animals
-of the temperate and cold regions of the north are different from those
-of the analogous regions in the southern hemisphere; and in the tropical
-zone each part of the world nourishes its peculiar inhabitants.
-
-Similar changes meet our eye on ascending from the plains to the
-summits of high mountains. At the foot of Etna flourishes the luxuriant
-vegetation of a warmer sky, the palmetto (_Chamærops humilis_) and
-the pomegranate, even the cotton shrub and the sugar-cane; higher up,
-the cool shade of magnificent chestnut woods refreshes our path; then
-follows the stately oak; until finally we attain the dreary height where
-all vegetation ceases in the dreadful cold of an eternal winter. With
-every thousand feet we rise above the level of the sea, we seem to have
-advanced nearer and nearer to the pole.
-
-This wonderful change of form, which decorates the various regions of the
-earth with such an endless variety of organised existence, alike prevails
-in the realms of ocean. Here we find every larger sea-basin nourishing
-its peculiar inhabitants, and discover at various vertical distances
-beneath the surface of the sea, changes in organic nature similar to
-those we observed at different distances above its level.
-
-Thousands of extinct animal and vegetable forms, which have successively
-flourished and disappeared, teach us the important lesson, that all
-created beings are made but for a season. It is only during a determined
-epoch of planetary life that each genus or species finds that combination
-of outward circumstances, under which it is able to attain its highest
-perfection. But imperceptibly, in the course of ages, the external world
-modifies its nature; families once flourishing in a different atmosphere
-decline and wither; they are no longer able to maintain themselves
-against new forms of life starting up in all the vigour of youth, and
-disappear from the scene, supplanted by races which must one day vanish
-in their turn.
-
-Organic life is no less dependent on place than it is on time. Of the
-numberless animal and vegetable forms that people the earth, each
-finds in only one spot the scene of its greatest size and its greatest
-profusion. Some endowed with a more pliable or energetic nature occupy a
-large space upon the surface of the globe; we find them in the enjoyment
-of healthy existence scattered far and wide over whole hemispheres, while
-others are obliged to content themselves with the narrowest birthplace,
-and are not seldom confined to a single bay, or a single mountain side.
-
-A great part of the magic charm of nature is owing no doubt to this
-deep and mysterious connexion between the soil and its productions.
-Here all is harmony; we feel it in our hearts; and our eye delights in
-the consonance of forms and colours, as our ear in the concord of sweet
-sounds. And where is the mortal artist whose paintings could rival the
-ever-changing panorama which the Master of all worlds unfolds through all
-zones, from pole to pole? His pictures constantly fade away; but they
-are perpetually succeeded by new creations of equal beauty. Happy the
-man whose eye is open to their charms! Every ramble through the woods and
-fields is to him a banquet of pure and inexhaustible delight.
-
-The causes which confine the life of animals and plants to circumscribed
-localities are in many cases easily to be traced. The warmth or coldness
-of the sea, resulting from currents, geographical position, and depth;
-tranquil or disturbed, pure or troubled waters; abundance or scarcity
-of food, solidity or softness of the ground, sufficiently explain why
-many species of marine animals appear in some places in considerable
-numbers, while in others they are totally wanting. A superficial view of
-their organisation often shows us at once the physical properties their
-_habitat_ must necessarily possess. By looking at a fucus we immediately
-see whether it requires the protection of tranquil waters, or is able to
-bid defiance to the floods; whether it is made to anchor upon the rock,
-or to sink its roots into a more yielding soil.
-
-In many cases, however, the causes which regulate the distribution of the
-sea-animals are still enveloped in darkness, and we no more know why the
-tropical seas bring forth in some places numerous coral-reefs, and none
-at all in other to all appearance just as favourably situated localities,
-than we do why the tea-plant is confined to a small corner of Asia, or
-the Peruvian cinchonas to a narrow girdle on the Andes.
-
-Evidently, besides the influences known to us, there are many other
-hidden ones at work, whose conflicting powers draw round every living
-creature a mysterious circle, whose bounds it is unable to transgress.
-Their discovery belongs to the future, and certainly forms one of the
-most interesting subjects for the naturalist's inquiries.
-
-The geographical distribution of the terrestrial plants and animals is
-undoubtedly much easier to be ascertained than that of the denizens of
-the ocean. The naturalist is able to climb the highest mountains beyond
-the extreme limit of vegetation, and far above their most towering peaks
-his eye, piercing the transparent atmosphere, sees the condor soar in
-solitary majesty; he can wander through the deepest glens, or even,
-penetrating into the bowels of the earth, examine and collect the forms
-of the subterranean flora; but it has not been given him to perambulate
-the submarine meads, or to force his way leisurely through dense thickets
-of algæ, and explore their hidden wonders.
-
-Yet, in spite of these natural impediments, his inventive genius, fired
-by his insatiable avidity of knowledge, has given him the means of
-interrogating the abyss, and partly raising the veil behind which marine
-life conceals its secret operations. Armed with a dredge, he fetches from
-the bottom of the sea plants, polypi, mollusks, and annelides, and learns
-to distinguish the various depths assigned for their abode; or he puts on
-the helmet of the submarine diver, and passes whole hours in collecting
-and observing beneath the clear waters of the sea; or he drops the
-plummet hundreds of fathoms deep into the ocean, and draws it up again
-coated with specimens of corals or Foraminifera.
-
-To the late Professor Edward Forbes of Edinburgh science is indebted for
-the first investigations of this nature that have been undertaken on a
-greater scale; and, to give the reader some idea of the causes which
-regulate the distribution of marine life, I cannot do better than cite a
-few of the general results of that eminent naturalist's researches.[U]
-
-[Footnote U: Natural History of the European Seas, by the late Professor
-E. Forbes. Edited by R. Godwin Austen, 1859.]
-
-As the animals and plants of the land are grouped together into distinct
-zoological and botanical provinces, so likewise is the population of the
-sea gathered into geographical groups, which, though well marked in their
-more central and most developed portions, imperceptibly merge at their
-margins into those of neighbouring realms. "These submarine provinces
-have a more or less direct correspondence with those of the neighbouring
-lands, though sometimes they differ very considerably from the latter in
-their extent; since the physical features which may constitute boundaries
-in the one, may not be sufficiently extended or developed in the other
-to impede the spread of peculiar species of animals or plants. Marine
-creatures, owing to their organisation and the transporting powers of
-the element in which they live, are much more capable of diffusion, as
-a whole, than the terrestrial organisms; hence we should expect to find
-the regions they respectively inhabit, beneath the waves, of much vaster
-dimensions than those occupied by similar geographical assemblages
-of their terrestrial brethren; and such is to a great extent true.
-Nevertheless, the inequalities of the sea-bed, the modifications of the
-temperature of the ocean produced by currents pouring through it like
-mighty rivers, the projection of promontories, and the more important
-interruptions caused by the great gulfs and abysses of the deep, or by
-vast and comparatively desert tracts of unprolific sand, which in many
-places are spread out in extensive shallows, are all-powerful influences,
-determining their diffusion within certain and more or less defined
-limits."
-
-The _structure of the coast_, as far as the mineral character of its
-rocks is concerned, may seriously affect the distribution of particular
-tribes. Since many shell-fish, for instance, bore only in limestone or
-rocks containing abundance of lime, a very ordinary difference in the
-nature of the strata must necessarily determine their presence or absence.
-
-The _outline of a coast_ has also great influence in regulating the
-diffusion of species. A much indented region is very favourable to
-submarine life; a straight coast-line, exposed to the full rolling of the
-surf, is usually unfavourable, though there are a few creatures which
-delight in the dash of the waves, and hardily, though some of them are
-small and exceedingly delicate, brave the full force of the ocean storms,
-reminding us, as Mr. Godwin Austen quaintly remarks, "of those sturdy
-people, not uncommon in this stormy life, who thrive best in troubles,
-and feel happiest under conditions that make most men miserable."
-
-The _nature of the sea-bottom_, according as it consists of mud, sand,
-gravel, nullipore, broken shells, loose stones, or rock, determines, to a
-great extent, the presence or absence of peculiar forms of shell-fish and
-other invertebrata, and of fish also, since the distribution of the food
-regulates that of the devourers.
-
-The _rise and fall of the tides_ are most important in determining the
-presence or absence of the species inhabiting the littoral zone. The
-_currents_, besides their agency as modifiers of climate, act as means
-of transport, by carrying the germs and larvæ of numerous creatures from
-region to region.
-
-The _influence of climate_ is conspicuously manifested in the diminution
-of the number of genera and species as we proceed northwards to the Icy
-Ocean.
-
-The _composition of the waters_ has also a most important effect on the
-distribution of aquatic animals, as the degree of saltness or freshness
-determines the presence or absence of numerous forms of both fishes and
-invertebrate animals; and last, not least, the _influence of depth_, in
-which _pressure_ and the _diminution of light_ are doubtless important
-elements, is everywhere manifest over the ocean, "for everywhere we
-find creatures, whether animal or vegetable, distributed in successive
-belts or regions, from high-water mark down to the deepest abysses from
-which living beings have been drawn up. Peculiar types inhabit each of
-the zones, and are confined within their destined limits, whilst others
-are common to two or more, and not a few appear capable of braving all
-bathymetrical conditions. Nevertheless, so marked is the appearance
-of the inhabitants of any given region of depth, that the sight of a
-sufficient assemblage of them from any one locality will enable the
-naturalist at once to declare the soundings within certain limits, and
-without the aid of line or plummet."
-
-In the British seas _four_ distinct and well-marked zones of life succeed
-each other in vertical extension. The first of these is the _littoral
-zone_, equivalent to the tract between tide-marks, but quite as manifest
-in those portions of the coast-line where the tides have a fall of only
-a foot or two, or even less, as in districts where the fall is very
-great. This important belt, which again forms four subdivisions, and is
-inhabited by animals and plants capable of enduring periodical exposure
-to the air, to the glare of light, the heat of the sun, the pelting of
-rain, and often to being more or less flooded with fresh water when the
-tide has receded, claims many genera as well as species peculiar to
-itself. "The verge of continual air is generally distinguished by the
-abundant presence of _Fucus canaliculatus_, among whose roots may be
-found crowds of small varieties of the periwinkle, called _Littorina
-rudis_, which indeed range out of the water considerably, and may be
-found adhering to rocks many feet above high-water mark." The second
-sub-region is marked by the abundance of a small dark rigid sea-weed,
-called _Lichina_, painting the rock sides as if with a dingy stripe.
-With it we find the larger forms of _Littorina rudis_, abundance of the
-common limpet (_Patella vulgata_), the common mussel (_Mytilus edulis_),
-and myriads of small seaside barnacles, often striping the sea-wall in
-a broad white band. "Where the shore shelves a little, and rocky ledges
-decline gradually into the sea, the common mussel delights to live,
-firmly anchored by its byssal cable in the crevices of rocks or among
-masses of gravel, the pebbles of which are tied together by its silky
-filaments." The rock sides and the floors of transparent pools are here
-often thickly coated with a nullipore, forming a hard pale red crust.
-The region of half-tide forms a third subdivision of the littoral zone,
-and is exceedingly prolific in marine animals and plants. "Here we find
-_Fucus articulatus_, with its graceful even-edged rich brown fronds,
-mingled occasionally with the less elegant _Fucus nodosus_. Here limpets
-throng, and dog-periwinkles (_Purpura lapillus_) crawl observantly,
-seeking to bore more passive mollusks and extract their juicy substance.
-This is the home of the best of periwinkles, the large black _Littorina
-littorea_, gathered in thousands for the London market. On our western
-coasts we find it in company with the purple-striped top-shell (_Trochus
-umbilicatus_), and towards the south with the larger _Trochus crassus_.
-Here also sea-anemones love to expand their many-armed disks, often
-glowing with the most brilliant colours." A fourth sub-region succeeds,
-the lowest belt above low-water mark, and is distinguished by the
-presence of the black saw-toothed sea-weed (_Fucus serratus_), so much
-used in the packing of lobsters for market. On its fronds creeps the
-lowest in grade of the periwinkles, the variously tinted _Littorina
-neritoides_, exhibiting every colour in its obtuse and thickened shell.
-
-[Illustration: Limpet.]
-
-[Illustration: Periwinkle.]
-
-"At the verge of low-water mark, immediately below it, wherever the coast
-is rocky, there are all round the British shores, within a space of a few
-inches, a remarkable series of more or less distinctly defined belts,
-each consisting of a different species of sea-weed. These in succession
-are, the _Laurencia pinnatifida_ uppermost; then the green _Conferva
-rupestris_; then the elegant and firm, often iridescent, fronds of
-_Chondrus crispus_; and, lowermost, the thong-weed or _Himanthalia
-lorea_."
-
-Succeeding the shore-band, or littoral zone, we have the _region of
-the great laminaria or tangle forests_, or in sandy places the waving
-meadows of zostera, or grass-wrack. It extends from the edge of low
-water to a depth varying in different localities, but seldom exceeding
-fifteen fathoms, and is itself divided into sub-regions, marked by
-belts of differently tinted algæ. This zone above all others swarms
-with life, and is the chief residence of fishes, mollusks, crustaceans,
-and invertebrata of all classes, remarkable for brightness and variety
-of colouring. "Here," says Mr. Godwin Austen, "is the chosen haunt of
-the nudibranchiate mollusks, animals of exceedingly delicate texture,
-extraordinary shapes, elegance of organs, and vividness of painting.
-Their bodies exhibit hues of a brilliancy and intensity such as can match
-the most gorgeous setting of a painter's palette. Vermilion red, intense
-crimson, pale rose, golden yellow, luscious orange, rich purple, the
-deepest and the brightest blues, even vivid greens and densest blacks,
-are common tints, separate or combined, disposed in infinite varieties
-of elegant patterns, in this singular tribe. Our handsomest fishes
-are congregated here, the wrasses especially, some of which are truly
-gorgeous in their painting. Here are gobies and more curious blennies,
-swimming playfully among these submarine groves. Strange worms crawl
-serpent-like about their roots, and formidable crustacea are the wild
-beasts who prowl amid their intricacies. The old stalks, and the surfaces
-of the rocky or stony ground on which they usually grow, are incrusted
-like the trunks of ancient trees or faces of barren rocks with lichenous
-investments. But whereas in the air these living crusts are chiefly if
-not all of vegetable origin, in the sea they are more often constructed
-out of animal organisms. Some of them are sponges, others are true
-zoophytes, others polyzoa or bryozoa, beings that have proved to belong
-to the class of mollusks, however unlike they may seem to shell-fish.
-
-"In the middle and lower part of the Laminarian region around our shores
-the tangles become less plentiful as we descend, and at last become
-exceptional and disappear. But other sea-weeds are very abundant,
-especially those that delight in red or purple hues. Tender sea-mosses,
-exquisitely delicate in form and colouring, abound. Where none of these
-are very plentiful, we often find the coral-weed or nullipore in vast
-quantities, and assuming many strange modifications of form. Among these
-vegetable corals numbers of shells and articulate animals delight to
-live, and probably not a few feed upon their stony fronds. The Lima, a
-shell-fish related to the scallop, gathers the broken branches by means
-of prehensile tentacles, and constructs for itself a comfortable nest
-lined with a woven cloth of byssal threads. Numerous fishes resort to
-these rugged pastures in order to deposit their spawn among the gnarled
-branchlets."
-
-To the laminarian succeeds the _coralline zone_, extending in most
-places some thirty fathoms or more. Plants, indeed, are rare, but here
-the horny plant-like sertularias love to rear their graceful feathery
-branches, and form miniature gardens of fairy-like delicacy and beauty;
-and here carnivorous mollusks, whelks above all, prowl in great numbers.
-Bivalves of remarkable elegance, especially clams and scallops, are
-found buried in multitudes beneath its gravels and muddy sands; and no
-less plentifully congregate the spider-crabs, with many other peculiar
-crustaceans. As a natural consequence of this well-furnished table,
-fishes abound, and many of our deep sea and white fisheries owe their
-value to the zoological features of the coralline zone.
-
-Last and lowest of our regions of submarine existence is that of
-_deep-sea corals_, so named on account of the great stony zoophytes
-characteristic of it in the oceanic seas of Europe. Many sea-stars and
-sea-urchins are likewise found in this region, in the depths of which the
-number of peculiar creatures is few, yet sufficient to give it a marked
-character.
-
-[Illustration: Whelk.]
-
-[Illustration: Gurnard.]
-
-The aspect of the British submarine fauna is in general more remarkable
-for elegance of form and neat simplicity than for glaring or vivid hues.
-"The smaller kinds of sponges are not seldom brilliantly dyed, but the
-more conspicuous kinds are tawny or brownish. The sea-anemones are
-elegantly variegated with rich colours, but the majority of zoophytes are
-not strikingly tinted. The star-fishes, as a group, are most remarkable
-among the invertebrata for gorgeous painting, but our sea-urchins
-are sombre when compared with their relatives from warmer seas. The
-jelly-fish are occasionally tinged with delicate hues, and some of the
-smaller kinds even showily ornamented; but those which most figure in
-our waters are not conspicuous on account of colour, however elegant in
-their contours. Our marine shells, though often pretty, are not gaudy or
-attractive, except in rare instances. The same may be said with almost
-equal truth of our marine crustaceans, though, on close inspection,
-the elegance of device on the carapaces of many species is exceedingly
-admirable."
-
-Our fishes are not distinguished by brilliancy of colour. "Their hues
-are quaker-like, though sufficiently lustrous for sober tinting. The
-cod and flounder tribes are among the most characteristic, and such of
-the more common fishes as belong to families of which we have but few
-representatives are in most instances clothed in sober grey and silver.
-Beauty of no mean description may, however, be displayed by these modest
-vestments; as, for instance, in the mackerel and the herring. Our
-gorgeously decorated wrasses form the chief exception to the general
-rule, but these belong to a family more characteristic of the southern
-seas. A like deficiency in the numbers of the gurnard and mackerel tribes
-seriously affects the aspect of our piscine fauna when compared with
-denizens of the Mediterranean." The sharks and rays too are comparatively
-deficient, although a few species, as we have seen in a former chapter,
-are, to the great annoyance of our fishermen, over-abundant. The sea-eels
-are also few, though in the common conger and the larger sand-eel
-(_Ammodytes lancea_) we have two very conspicuous species.
-
-[Illustration: Sand-Eel.]
-
-[Illustration: Grey Mullet.]
-
-[Illustration: Red Mullet.]
-
-[Illustration: Salmon.]
-
-As the surface of the British islands exhibits a transition as it were
-from a northern to a southern character, from the firs of Scotland to the
-free-growing myrtles of the Devon coast, so the inhabitants of our seas
-pass through a great variety of form, from a northern to a southern type.
-While the rorqual of the Frozen Ocean not seldom strands on our northern
-and eastern coasts; the flying-fish of the equinoctial seas sometimes
-appears within view of our southern shores; and it is this peculiar
-position of our insular empire, fronting the colder and the warmer seas,
-which enriches its waters with such a variety of marine life. "Several
-characteristic boreal forms find their southern limit within the northern
-half of our waters, and there some of the most striking and abundant
-kinds are chiefly developed in numbers, such as the cat-fish or sea-wolf
-(_Anarhicas lupus_), the scythe (_Merlangus carbonarius_), the ling
-(_Lota molva_), the cod (_Gadus morrhua_), the lump-sucker (_Cyclopterus
-lumpus_), and even the herring (_Clupea harengus_). On the other hand,
-along the southern shores of England we find fishes becoming frequent
-which are distinctly of a southern type, such as the grey and red mullets
-(_Mugil cephalus_ and _Mullus barbatus_), the sea-bream, and, far more
-plentifully, the John Dory (_Zeus aper_) and the pilchard (_Clupea
-pilchardus_)."[V]
-
-[Footnote V: Godwin Austen, Natural History of the European Seas, pp.
-103, 104.]
-
-Although very inferior in beauty to the tropical fishes, our finny
-tribes are far superior in flavour, and may well challenge the world to
-produce their equals for the table. The turbot, cod, whiting, herring,
-whitebait, mackerel, sole, and even the salmon, though it belongs rather
-to fluviatile history than to the chronicles of the sea, may fairly be
-cited to testify to the truth of this assertion; so that surely we have
-no reason to complain of having been but indifferently provided for in
-the geographical distribution of fishes, which of all marine productions
-are the most important to man.
-
-The researches of Forbes led him to believe that "as we descend deeper
-and deeper, the denizens of the sea become fewer and fewer, indicating
-our approach towards a silent and desolate abyss, where life is either
-extinguished or exhibits but faint glimmerings to mark its lingering
-presence;" but subsequent deep-sea soundings, performed with improved
-dredging apparatuses, have led to the surprising result that the bottom
-of the ocean, even in its abyssal depths, far from being a dreary void,
-as was formerly imagined, is in reality a busy scene, absolutely teeming
-with life. And in this case, as in so many others, we have a fine
-instance of the truth of the observation that every new invention or
-discovery casts a new light upon some other province of human knowledge;
-for to the submarine telegraph we are indebted for the first certain
-proof of the existence of highly organised animals living at abyssal
-depths.
-
-In 1860 the submarine cable between Sardinia and Bona, on the coast of
-Africa, having completely failed, was picked up from a depth exceeding
-one thousand fathoms, and found encrusted with various shells and corals.
-All previous observations with reference to the existence of living
-creatures at extreme depths had been liable to doubt from two sources. In
-the first place the methods of deep-sea soundings were still so imperfect
-that there was always a possibility, from the action of deep currents
-upon the sounding-line or from other causes, of a greater depth being
-indicated than really existed; and, secondly, there was no absolute
-certainty that the animals entangled on the sounding instrument had
-actually come up from the bottom. They might have been caught on the way.
-
-But now all doubt was removed. A submarine cable lies on the ground
-throughout its whole length. Before laying it, its course is carefully
-surveyed and the real depth accurately ascertained. Fishing it up is a
-delicate and difficult operation, and during its progress the depth is
-checked again and again. When, therefore, as in this case, the animals
-dragged up with a cable from depths of upwards of one thousand fathoms
-are found, not sticking loosely to it, but moulded upon its outer
-surface, or cemented to it by horny or calcareous excretions, it is
-evident that they must have lived and grown upon it at the bottom of the
-deep sea.
-
-The subsequent dredging cruises of H.M.SS. "Porcupine" and "Lightning" in
-1868, 1869, and 1870, under the scientific direction of Dr. Carpenter,
-Professor Wyville Thomson, and Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys, afforded additional
-and convincing proofs that life abounds in the abyssal regions of the
-ocean. During these several cruises 57 hauls of the dredge were taken at
-depths beyond 500 fathoms, and 16 at depths beyond 1,000 fathoms, and
-in all cases life was abundant. In 1869 two casts were taken in depths
-greater than 2,000 fathoms, and proved equally successful in bringing up
-specimens of deep-sea life. With the deepest cast, 2,435 fathoms, off
-the mouth of the Bay of Biscay, living, well-marked, and characteristic
-specimens of all the five invertebrate sub-kingdoms were taken. "And
-thus," says Professor Wyville Thomson,[W] "the question of the existence
-of abundant animal life at the bottom of the sea has been finally
-settled, and for all depths, for there is no reason to suppose that the
-depth anywhere exceeds between three and four thousand fathoms; and if
-there be nothing in the conditions of a depth of 2,500 fathoms to prevent
-the full development of a varied fauna, it is impossible to suppose that
-even an additional 1,000 fathoms would make any great difference."
-
-[Footnote W: The Depths of the Sea. London, 1873.]
-
-It may be asked how the deep-sea animals bear the enormous pressure at
-these great depths, which seems at first sight alone sufficient to put
-any idea of life out of the question? There was a curious popular notion
-that on descending deeper and deeper the sea water became gradually,
-under the pressure, heavier and heavier, so that at last it became more
-weighty than molten gold. But water is, in fact, almost incompressible;
-so that its density at 2,000 fathoms is scarcely appreciably increased.
-Any free air suspended in the water, or contained in any compressible
-tissue of an animal at 2,000 fathoms, would of course be reduced to a
-mere fraction of its bulk; but the animals subject to the pressure of
-the deep seas, being permeated throughout their whole organisation by
-incompressible fluids at the same pressure, are consequently as capable
-of bearing it as we do the pressure of the atmosphere. The absence of
-light seemed another circumstance incompatible with the existence of
-animal life at abyssal depths, as all plants depend upon light for
-their growth, and their absence apparently involves that of vegetable
-food, which, as we all know, forms everywhere the substratum of animal
-existence. We have as yet very little exact knowledge as to the distance
-to which the sun's light penetrates into the water of the sea. According
-to some recent experiments it would appear that the rays capable of
-affecting a delicate photographic film are very rapidly cut off, their
-effect being imperceptible at the depth of only a few fathoms; and though
-probably some portions of the sun's light possessing certain properties
-may penetrate to a much greater distance, it is certain that, beyond the
-first fifty fathoms, plants to whose existence light is essential are
-barely represented, and after two hundred fathoms entirely absent.
-
-But though plant-life is thus limited to the more superficial parts of
-the ocean, the analysis of sea water, taken in all localities and at all
-depths, has shown that it everywhere contains a very appreciable and very
-uniform quantity of organic matter in solution and in suspension. It
-is thus quite intelligible that numberless protozoa--whose distinctive
-character is that they are capable of being supported by the absorption
-of organic matter through the surface of their bodies--are able to exist
-in the dark abysses of the sea, and in their turn afford nourishment to
-more highly organised animals.
-
-After these general remarks on the creatures of the deep, I will now give
-a brief account of their various groups.
-
-Over an enormous extent the abyssal ocean bottom is found covered with a
-sheet of almost formless beings, absolutely devoid of internal structure,
-and consisting merely of living and moving expansions of jelly-like
-matter. Whether this form of life, still more simple than the Amœba,[X]
-to which Professor Huxley has given the name of _Bathybius Haeckelii_, be
-continuous in one vast sheet or broken up into circumscribed individual
-particles, it is equally an object of wonder; and as no living thing,
-however slowly it may live, is ever perfectly at rest, it shows us that
-the bottom of the sea is, like its surface, the theatre of perpetual
-change.
-
-[Footnote X: See Chapter XVIII., p. 380.]
-
-Living among and upon this Bathybius we find a multitude of other
-protozoa, foraminifera and other rhizopods, radiolarians, and sponges.
-
-Such is the countless number of the Foraminifera inhabiting the deep
-seas, that their remains form the chief mass of the soft oozy bottom of
-the ocean. In the surface layer of the deposit the shells of _Globigerina
-bulloides_, the prevailing species, are found fresh, whole, and living,
-and in the lower layers dead and gradually crumbling down by the
-decomposition of their organic cement and by the pressure of the layers
-above. Countless generations are thus piled one upon the other; and each
-successive stratum, weighing upon those of older date, is laying the
-foundation of future rocks, which subsequent revolutions may perhaps
-heave out of the deep and raise in towering pinnacles to the skies.
-
-Sponges[Y] of wonderful beauty and lustre appear to extend in endless
-variety over the whole of the bottom of the sea. Some (_Holtenia
-Carpenteri_) anchor in the ooze by means of a perfect maze of delicate
-glassy filaments, like fine white hair, spreading out in all directions
-through the sea's fluid mud; while others (_Hyalonema_) send right down
-a coiled whisp of strong spicules, each as thick as a knitting-needle,
-which open out into a brush as the bed gets firmer, and fix the sponge
-in its place somewhat on the principle of a screw-pile. "A very singular
-sponge, from deep water off the Loffoden Islands, spreads into a thin
-circular cake, and adds to its surface by sending out a flat border of
-silky spicules, like a fringe of white floss silk round a little yellow
-mat; and the lovely Euplectella, whose beauty is imbedded up to its
-fretted lid in the grey mud of the seas of the Philippines, is supported
-by a frill of spicules standing up round it like Queen Elizabeth's
-ruff."[Z]
-
-[Footnote Y: Ibid. pp. 385-389.]
-
-[Footnote Z: The Depths of the Sea, p. 73.]
-
-The stalked sea-stars, which, as the fossil pentacrinites and encrinites
-testify, abounded in the past periods of the earth's history, were, until
-now, supposed to be on the verge of extinction; but when we consider
-that the first few scrapes of the dredge at great depths have brought
-new species to light, we are entitled to believe that they constitute an
-important element in the abyssal fauna, and probably pave large tracts
-of the sea-bottom with a carpet of animated flowers. Freely-moving
-sea-stars and sea-urchins have likewise been hauled up in great numbers
-from abyssal depths; crustaceans have not been found wanting, and the
-captured shell-fish have shown that the deep-sea molluscs are by no means
-deficient in colour, though as a rule they are paler than those from
-shallow water.
-
-_Dacrydium vitreum_, dredged from 2,435 fathoms, a curious little
-mytiloïd shell-fish, which makes and inhabits a delicate flask-shaped
-tube of foraminifera and other foreign bodies cemented together
-by organic matter and lined by a delicate membrane, is of a fine
-reddish-brown colour dashed with green, and the animals of one or two
-species of Lima from extreme depths are of the usual vivid orange scarlet.
-
-Some of the abyssal molluscs have even been found provided with organs
-of sight. A new species of Pleurotoma, from 2,090 fathoms, had a pair
-of well-developed eyes on short foot-stalks, and a Fusus from 1,207
-fathoms was similarly provided. The presence of organs of sight at these
-great depths leaves little room to doubt that light must reach even
-these abysses from some source, and as from many considerations it can
-scarcely be sunlight, Professor Wyville Thomson throws out the suggestion
-"that the whole of the light beyond a certain depth may be due to
-phosphorescence, which is certainly very general, particularly among the
-larvæ and young of deep-sea animals."
-
-Thus many of the creatures dredged in the Northern Atlantic, off the
-west coast of Ireland,[AA] in depths varying from 557 to 584 fathoms,
-were most brilliantly phosphorescent. In some places nearly everything
-brought up seemed to emit light, and the mud itself was perfectly
-full of luminous specks. The alcyonarians, the brittle-stars, and
-some annelids were the most brilliant. The Pennatidæ, the Virgulariæ,
-and the Gorgoniæ shone with a lambent white light, so bright that it
-showed quite distinctly the hour on a watch, while the light from
-_Ophiacantha spinulosa_ was of a brilliant green, coruscating from the
-centre of the disk, now along one arm, now along another, and sometimes
-vividly illuminating the whole outline of the star-fish. While the
-Ophiacantha shines like a star of the most vivid uranium green, the
-sea-pen (_Pavonaria quadrangularis_) is resplendent with a pale lilac
-phosphorescence like the flame of cyanogen gas, not scintillating like
-the green light of Ophiacantha, but almost constant, sometimes flashing
-out at one point more vividly, and then dying gradually into comparative
-dimness, but still sufficiently bright to make every portion of the polyp
-visible.
-
-[Footnote AA: Ibid., Chapter III. Cruise of the "Porcupine," pp. 98-149.]
-
-Such numbers of the Pavonaria were brought up at one haul of the dredge
-in the Sound of Skye, that the "Porcupine" had evidently passed over a
-forest of them. While the darkness of winter frowns over the surface
-of the Northern Atlantic, the animated shrubs at its bottom are thus
-glowing with light, and a kind of magical day prevails in depths which
-were supposed to be shrouded with perpetual night. But it might have been
-better for many of the luminous denizens of the abyss if a more obscure
-existence had been their lot; for in a sea swarming with predaceous
-crustaceans with great bright eyes phosphorescence must surely be a fatal
-gift.
-
-Off the coast of Portugal there is a great fishery of sharks
-(_Centroscymnus Cœlolepis_), carried on at a depth of 500 fathoms. If an
-animal so highly organised as a shark can thus bear without inconvenience
-the enormous pressure of more than half a ton on the square inch existing
-at that depth, it is a sufficient proof that the pressure is applied
-under circumstances which prevent its affecting it to its prejudice,
-and there seems to be no reason why it should not tolerate equally well
-a pressure of one or two tons, or why many other fishes--though the
-dredge, in consequence of their facility of locomotion, will hardly ever
-be able to bring them to light--should not abound in the still waters of
-the abyssal deep.
-
-The "Challenger" Exploring Expedition will no doubt reveal to us still
-many an unknown wonder of those interesting regions, and make us
-acquainted with a world of new animals which even the profundity of the
-ocean vainly strives to hide from the curiosity of man.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XXI.
-
-THE PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE SEA.
-
-  Its Causes.--Noctiluca miliaris.--Phosphorescent Annelides and
-  Beroës.--Intense Phosphorescence of the Pyrosoma atlantica.--Luminous
-  Pholades.--The luminous Shark.--Phosphorescent Algæ.--Citations from
-  Byron, Coleridge, and Crabbe.
-
-
-He who still lingers on the shore after the shades of evening have
-descended, not seldom enjoys a most magnificent spectacle; for lucid
-flashes burst from the bosom of the waters, as if the sea were anxious
-to restore to the darkened heavens the light it had received from them
-during the day. On approaching the margin of the rising flood to examine
-more closely the sparkling of the breaking wave, the spreading waters
-seem to cover the beach with a sheet of fire. Each footstep over the
-moist sands elicits luminous star-like points, and a splash in the water
-resembles the awakening of slumbering flames.
-
-The same wonderful and beauteous aspect frequently gladdens the eye of
-the navigator who ploughs his way through the wide deserts of ocean,
-particularly if his course leads him through the tropical seas.
-
-"When a vessel," says Humboldt, "driven along by a fresh wind, divides
-the foaming waters, one never wearies of the lovely spectacle their
-agitation affords; for, whenever a wave makes the ship incline sideways,
-bluish or reddish flames seem to shoot upwards from the keel. Beautiful
-beyond description is the sight of a troop of dolphins gambolling in the
-phosphorescent sea. Every furrow they draw through the waters is marked
-by streaks of intense light. In the Gulf of Cariaco, between Cumana and
-the peninsula of Maniquarez, this scene has often delighted me for hours."
-
-But even in the colder oceanic regions the brilliant phenomenon appears
-from time to time in its full glory. During a dark and stormy September
-night, on the way from the Sea-lion island, Saint George, to Unalaschka,
-Chamisso admired as beautiful a phosphorescence of the ocean as he
-had ever witnessed in the tropical seas. Sparks of light, remaining
-attached to the sails that had been wetted by the spray, continued to
-glow in another element. Near the south point of Kamtschatka, at a
-water-temperature hardly above freezing point, Ermann saw the sea no less
-luminous than during a seven months' sojourn in the tropical ocean. This
-distinguished traveller positively denies that warmth decidedly favours
-the luminosity of the sea.
-
-At Cape Colborn, one of the desolate promontories of the desolate
-Victoria Land, the phosphoric gleaming of the waves on the 6th September,
-when darkness closed in, was so intense that Simpson assures us he had
-seldom seen anything more brilliant. The boats seemed to cleave a flood
-of molten silver, and the spray dashed from their bows, before the fresh
-breeze, fell back in glittering showers into the deep.
-
-Mr. Charles Darwin paints in vivid colours the magnificent spectacle
-presented by the sea, while sailing in the latitudes of Cape Horn on a
-very dark night.
-
-There was a fresh breeze, and every part of the surface, which during
-the day is seen as foam, now glowed with a pale light. The vessel drove
-before her bows two billows of liquid phosphorus, and in her wake she was
-followed by a milky train. As far as the eye reached, the crest of every
-wave was bright, and the sky above the horizon, from the reflected glare
-of these livid flames, was not so utterly obscure as over the rest of the
-heavens.
-
-While "La Venus" was at anchor before Simon's Town, the breaking of the
-waves produced so strong a light that the room in which the naturalists
-of the expedition were seated was illumined as by sudden flashes of
-lightning. Although more than fifty paces from the beach where the
-phenomenon took place, they tried to read by this wondrous oceanic light,
-but the successive glimpses were of too short duration to gratify their
-wishes.
-
-Thus we see the same nocturnal splendour which shines forth in the
-tropical seas, and gleams along our shores, burst forth from the arctic
-waters, and from the waves that bathe the southern promontories of the
-old and the new worlds.
-
-But what is the cause of the beautiful phenomenon so widely spread over
-the face of ocean? How comes it that at certain times flames issue from
-the bosom of an element generally so hostile to their appearance?
-
-Without troubling the reader with the groundless surmises of ancient
-naturalists, or repeating the useless tales of the past, I shall at
-once place myself with him on the stage of our actual knowledge of this
-interesting and mysterious subject. It is now no longer a matter of doubt
-that many of the inferior marine animals possess the faculty of secreting
-a luminous matter, and thus adding their mite to the grand phenomenon.
-When we consider their countless multitudes, we shall no longer wonder
-at such magnificent effects being produced by creatures individually so
-insignificant.
-
-[Illustration: Noctiluca miliaris. (Highly magnified.)]
-
-In our seas it is chiefly a minute gelatinous animal, the _Noctiluca
-miliaris_, most probably an aberrant member of the infusorial group,
-which, as it were, repeats the splendid spectacle of the starry heavens
-on the surface of the ocean. In form it is nearly globular, presenting
-on one side a groove, from the anterior extremity of which issues a
-peculiar curved stalk or appendage, marked by transverse lines, which
-might seem to be made use of as an organ of locomotion. Near the base
-of this tentacle is placed the mouth, which passes into a dilatable
-digestive cavity, leading, according to Mr. Huxley, to a distinct
-anal orifice. From the rather firm external coat proceed thread-like
-prolongations through the softer mass of the body, so as to divide it
-into irregular chambers. This little creature, which is just large enough
-to be discerned by the naked eye when the water in which it may be
-swimming is contained in a glass jar exposed to the light, seems to feed
-on diatoms, as their loricæ may frequently be detected in its interior.
-It multiplies by spontaneous fission, and the rapidity of this process
-may be inferred from the immensity of its numbers. A single bucket of
-luminous sea-water will often contain thousands, while for miles and
-miles every wave breaking on the shore expands in a sheet of living
-flame. It was first described by Forster in the Pacific Ocean; it occurs
-on all the shores of the Atlantic, and the Polar Seas are illuminated by
-its fairy light. "The nature of its luminosity," says Dr. Carpenter, "is
-found by microscopic examination to be very peculiar; for what appears to
-the eye to be a uniform glow is resolvable under a sufficient magnifying
-power into a multitude of evanescent scintillations, and these are given
-forth with increased intensity whenever the body of the animal receives
-any mechanical shock."
-
-The power of emitting a phosphorescent light is widely diffused both
-among the free-swimming and the sessile Cœlenterata. Many of the
-Physophoridæ are remarkable for its manifestation, and a great number of
-the jelly-fishes are luminous. Our own _Thaumantias lucifera_, a small
-and by no means rare medusid, displays the phenomenon in a very beautiful
-manner, for, when irritated by contact of fresh water, it marks its
-position by a vivid circlet of tiny stars, each shining from the base of
-a tentacle. A remarkable greenish light, like that of burning silver,
-may also be seen to glow from many of our Sertularians, becoming much
-brighter under various modes of excitation.
-
-Among the Ctenophora the large _Cestum Veneris_ of the Mediterranean is
-specially distinguished for its luminosity, and while moving beneath the
-surface of the water gleams at night like a brilliant band of flame.
-
-The Sea-pens are eminently phosphorescent, shining at night with a
-golden-green light of a most wonderful softness. When touched, every
-branchlet above the shock emits a phosphoric glow, while all the polyps
-beneath remain in darkness. When thrown into fresh water or alcohol, they
-scatter sparks about in all directions, a most beautiful sight; dying, as
-it were, in a halo of glory.
-
-But of all the marine animals the Pyrosomas, doing full justice to their
-name (fire-bodies) seem to emit the most vivid coruscations. Bibra
-relates in his "Travels to Chili" that he once caught half a dozen
-of these remarkable light-bearers, by whose phosphorescence he could
-distinctly read their own description in a naturalist's vade-mecum.
-Although completely dark when at rest the slightest touch sufficed to
-elicit their clear blue-green light. During a voyage to India, Mr.
-Bennett had occasion to admire the magnificent spectacle afforded
-by whole shoals of Pyrosomas. The ship, proceeding at a rapid rate,
-continued during an entire night to pass through distinct but extensive
-fields of these molluscs, floating and glowing as they floated on all
-sides of her course. Enveloped in a flame of bright phosphorescent
-light, and gleaming with a greenish lustre, the Pyrosomes, in vast
-sheets, upwards of a mile in breadth, and stretching out till lost in the
-distance, presented a sight, the glory of which may be easily imagined.
-The vessel, as it cleaved the gleaming mass, threw up strong flashes of
-light, as if ploughing through liquid fire, which illuminated the hull,
-the sails, and the ropes, with a strange unearthly radiance.
-
-In his memoir on the Pyrosoma, M. Péron describes with lively colours
-the circumstances under which he first made its discovery, during a
-dark and stormy night, in the tropical Atlantic. "The sky," says this
-distinguished naturalist, "was on all sides loaded with heavy clouds;
-all around the obscurity was profound; the wind blew violently, and the
-ship cut her way with rapidity. Suddenly we discovered at some distance
-a great phosphorescent band stretched across the waves, and occupying
-an immense tract in advance of the ship. Heightened by the surrounding
-circumstances, the effect of this spectacle was romantic, imposing,
-sublime, rivetting the attention of all on board. Soon we reached the
-illuminated tract, and perceived that the prodigious brightness was
-certainly and only attributable to the presence of an innumerable
-multitude of largish animals floating with the waves. From their swimming
-at different depths they took apparently different forms: those at the
-greatest depth were very indefinite, presenting much the appearance
-of great masses of fire, or rather of enormous red-hot cannon balls;
-whilst those more distinctly seen near the surface perfectly resembled
-incandescent cylinders of iron.
-
-"Taken from the water, these animals entirely resembled each other in
-form, colour, substance, and the property of phosphorescence, differing
-only in their sizes, which varied from three to seven inches. The
-large, longish tubercles with which the exterior of the Pyrosomes was
-bristled were of a firmer substance, and more transparent than the rest
-of the body, and were brilliant and polished like diamonds. These were
-the principal scene of phosphorescence. Between these large tubercles,
-smaller ones, shorter and more obtuse, could be distinguished; these
-also were phosphorescent. Lastly, in the interior of the substance of
-the animal, could be seen, by the aid of the transparency, a number of
-little, elongated, narrow bodies (viscera), which also participated in a
-high degree in the possession of the phosphoric light."
-
-In the Pholades or Lithodomes, that bore their dwellings in the hard
-stone, as other shell-fish do in the loose sands, the whole mass
-of the body is permeated with light. Pliny gives us a short but
-animated description of the phenomenon in the edible date-shell of the
-Mediterranean (_Pholas dactylus_):--
-
-"It is in the nature of the pholades to shine in the darkness with
-their own light, which is the more intense as the animal is more juicy.
-While eating them, they shine in the mouth and on the hands, nay, even
-the drops falling from them upon the ground continue to emit light, a
-sure proof that the luminosity we admire in them is associated with
-their juice." Milne-Edwards found this observation perfectly correct,
-for wishing to place some living pholades in alcohol, he saw a luminous
-matter exude from their bodies, which on account of its weight sank
-in the liquid, covering the bottom of the vessel, and there forming a
-deposit as shining as when it was in contact with the air.
-
-Several kinds of fishes likewise possess the luminous faculty. The
-sun-fish, that strange deformity, emits a phosphoric gleam; and a species
-of Gurnard (_Trigla lucerna_) is said to sparkle in the night, so as to
-form fiery streams through the water.
-
-[Illustration: Short Sun-Fish.]
-
-With regard to the luminosity of the larger marine animals, Ermann,
-however, remarks that he so often saw small luminous crustacea in the
-abdominal cavity of the transparent _Salpa pinnata_, that it may well
-be asked whether the phosphorescence of the larger creatures is not in
-reality owing to that of their smaller companions.
-
-According to Mr. Bennett, "Whaling Voyage round the Globe," a species
-of shark first discovered by himself is distinguished by an uncommonly
-strong emission of light. When the specimen, taken at night, was removed
-into a dark apartment, it afforded a very interesting spectacle. The
-entire inferior surface of the body and head emitted a vivid and greenish
-phosphorescent gleam, imparting to the creature by its own light a truly
-ghastly and terrific appearance. The luminous effect was constant, and
-not perceptibly increased by agitation or friction. When the shark
-expired, (which was not until it had been out of the water more than
-three hours,) the luminous appearance faded entirely from the abdomen,
-and more gradually from other parts; lingering longest around the jaws
-and on the fins.
-
-The only part of the under surface of the animal which was free from
-luminosity was the black collar round the throat; and while the inferior
-surface of the pectoral, anal, and caudal fins shone with splendour,
-their superior surface (including the upper lobe of the tail fin) was in
-darkness, as were also the dorsal fins, and the back and summit of the
-head.
-
-Mr. Bennett is inclined to believe that the luminous power of this
-shark resides in a peculiar secretion from the skin. It was his first
-impression that the fish had accidentally contracted some phosphorescent
-matter from the sea, or from the net in which it was captured; but the
-most rigid investigation did not confirm this suspicion, while the
-uniformity with which the luminous gleam occupied certain portions of the
-body and fins, its permanence during life, and decline and cessation upon
-the approach and occurrence of death, did not leave a doubt in his mind
-but that it was a vital principle essential to the economy of the animal.
-The small size of the fins would appear to denote that this fish is not
-active in swimming; and, since it is highly predaceous and evidently of
-nocturnal habits, we may perhaps indulge in the hypothesis, that the
-phosphorescent power it possesses is of use to attract its prey, upon the
-same principle as the Polynesian islanders and others employ torches in
-night-fishing.
-
-Some of the lower sea-plants also appear to be luminous. Thus, over a
-space of more than 600 miles (between lat. 8° N. and 2° S.), Meyen saw
-the ocean covered with phosphorescent Oscillatoria, grouped together
-into small balls or globules, from the size of a poppy-seed to that of a
-lentil.
-
-But if the luminosity of the ocean generally proceeds from living
-creatures, it sometimes also arises from putrefying organic fibres
-and membranes, resulting from the decomposition of those living
-light-bearers. "Sometimes," says Humboldt, "even a high magnifying power
-is unable to discover any animals in the phosphorescent water, and yet
-light gleams forth wherever a wave strikes against a hard body and
-dissolves in foam. The cause of this phenomenon lies then most likely in
-the putrefying fibres of dead mollusks, which are mixed with the waters
-in countless numbers."
-
-Summing up the foregoing in a few words, it is thus an indisputable fact,
-that the phosphorescence of the sea is by no means an electrical or
-magnetic property of the water, but exclusively bound to organic matter,
-living or dead. But although thus much has been ascertained, we have as
-yet only advanced one step towards the unravelling of the mystery, and
-its proximate cause remains an open question. Unfortunately, science
-is still unable to give a positive answer, and we are obliged to be
-contented with a more or less plausible hypothesis. When we consider that
-the phosphorescence most commonly resides only in the outward mucous
-covering of the body, in which a number of particles cast off by the skin
-are continually undergoing decomposition, the phenomenon seems to be a
-simple chemical process, during which more or less phosphorus may be
-disengaged, which by agitation or friction gives rise to the emission of
-light. It is more difficult to explain those cases in which the entire
-mass of the body is luminous (as in Pholas), or the muscular substance
-(as in some Annelides), or the vibratory cilia (as in the Beroës); and
-here we do better to confess our entire ignorance, than to resort to the
-hypothesis of electrical discharges, extremely improbable in an element
-which is so excellent an electrical conductor, and particularly when we
-consider that no emission of light takes place in the few and powerful
-electrical fishes we are acquainted with.
-
-We know as little of what utility marine phosphorescence may be. Why do
-the countless myriads of Mammariæ gleam and sparkle along our coasts? Is
-it to signify their presence to other animals, and direct them to the
-spot where they may find abundance of food? So much is certain, that so
-grand and wide-spread a phenomenon must necessarily serve some end equally
-grand and important.
-
-As the phosphorescence of the sea is owing to living creatures, it must
-naturally show itself in its greatest brilliancy when the ocean is at
-rest; for during the daytime we find the surface of the waters most
-peopled with various animals when only a slight zephyr glides over the
-sea. In stormy weather, the fragile or gelatinous world of the lower
-marine creatures generally seeks a greater depth, until the elementary
-strife has ceased, when it again loves to sport in the warmer or more
-cheerful superficial waters.
-
-In the tropical zone, Humboldt saw the sea most brilliantly luminous
-before a storm, when the air was sultry, and the sky covered with clouds.
-In the North Sea we observe the phenomenon most commonly during fine
-tranquil autumnal nights; but it may be seen at every season of the year,
-even when the cold is most intense. Its appearance is, however, extremely
-capricious; for, under seemingly unaltered circumstances, the sea may one
-night be very luminous, and the next quite dark. Often months, or even
-years, pass by without witnessing it in full perfection. Does this result
-from a peculiar state of the atmosphere, or do the little animals love to
-migrate from one part of the coast to another?
-
-It is remarkable that the ancients should have taken so little notice of
-oceanic phosphorescence. The "Periplus" of Hanno contains perhaps the
-only passage in which the phenomenon is described. To the south of Cerne
-the Carthaginian navigator saw the sea burn, as it were, with streams
-of fire. Pliny, in whom the miracle (_miraculum_, as he calls it) of
-the date-shell excited so lively an admiration, and who must often have
-seen the sea gleam with phosphoric light, as the passage proves where he
-mentions in a few dry words the luminous gurnard (_lucerna_) stretching
-out a fiery tongue, has no exclamation of delight for one of the most
-beautiful sights in nature. Homer also, who has given us so many charming
-descriptions of the sea in its ever-changing aspects, and who so often
-leads us with long-suffering Ulysses through the nocturnal floods, never
-once makes them blaze or sparkle in his immortal hexameters.
-
-Even modern poets mention the phenomenon but rarely. Camoens himself,
-whom Humboldt, on account of his beautiful oceanic descriptions, calls,
-above all others, the "poet of the sea," forgets to sing it in his
-Lusiad. Byron in his "Corsair" has a few lines on the subject:
-
-  "Flash'd the dipt oars, and, sparkling with the stroke,
-   Around the waves phosphoric brightness broke;"
-
-but contents himself, as we see, with coldly mentioning a phenomenon so
-worthy of all a poet's enthusiasm. In Coleridge's wondrous ballad of
-"The ancient Mariner" we find a warmer description:
-
-  "Beyond the shadow of the ship
-     I watch'd the water-snakes:
-   They moved in tracks of shining white,
-   And, when they rear'd, the elfish light
-     Fell off in hoary flakes.
-
-  "Within the shadow of the ship
-     I watch'd their rich attire--
-   Blue, glossy green, and velvet black:
-   They coiled and swam, and every track
-     Was a flash of golden fire."
-
-These indeed are lines whose brilliancy emulates the splendour of the
-phenomenon they depict, but even they are hardly more beautiful than
-Crabbe's admirable description:
-
-  "And now your view upon the ocean turn,
-   And there the splendour of the waves discern;
-   Cast but a stone, or strike them with an oar,
-   And you shall flames within the deep explore;
-   Or scoop the stream phosphoric as you stand,
-   And the cold flames shall flash along your hand;
-   When, lost in wonder, you shall walk and gaze
-   On weeds that sparkle, and on waves that blaze."
-
-Or than the graphic numbers of Sir Walter Scott:
-
-  "Awak'd before the rushing prow,
-   The mimic fires of ocean glow,
-     Those lightnings of the wave;
-   Wild sparkles crest the broken tides.
-   And flashing round, the vessel's sides
-     With elfish lustre lave;
-   While, far behind, their livid light
-   To the dark billows of the night
-     A blooming splendour gave."
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XXII.
-
-THE PRIMITIVE OCEAN.
-
-  The Giant-Book of the Earth-rind.--The Sea of Fire.--Formation of a
-  solid Earth-crust by cooling.--The Primitive Waters.--First awakening
-  of Life in the Bosom of the Ocean.--The Reign of the Saurians.--The
-  future Ocean.
-
-
-The greatest of all histories, traced in mighty characters by the
-Almighty himself, is that of the earth-rind. The leaves of this giant
-volume are the strata which have been successively deposited in the
-bosom of the sea, or raised by volcanic powers from the depths of the
-earth; the wars which it relates are the Titanic conflicts of two hostile
-elements, water and fire, each anxious to destroy the formations of its
-opponent; and the historic documents which bear witness to that ancient
-strife lie before us in the petrified or carbonified remains of extinct
-forms of organic existence--the medals of creation.
-
-It is only since yesterday that science has attempted to unriddle the
-hieroglyphics in which the past history of our planet reveals itself to
-man, and it stands to reason that in so difficult a study truth must
-often be obscured by error; but although the geologist is still a mere
-scholar, endeavouring to decipher the first chapters of a voluminous
-work, yet even now the study of the physical revolutions of our globe
-distinctly points out a period when the molten earth wandered, a ball
-of liquid fire, through the desert realms of space. In those times,
-so distant from ours that even the wildest flight of imagination is
-unable to carry us over the intervening abyss, the waters of the ocean
-were as yet mixed with the air, and formed a thick and hazy atmosphere
-through which no radiant sunbeam, no soft lunar light, ever penetrated
-to the fiery billows of molten rock, which at that time covered the
-whole surface of the earth. What pictures of desolation rise before our
-fancy, at the idea of yon boundless ocean of fluid stone, which rolled
-from pole to pole without meeting on its wide way anything but itself.
-Ever and ever in the dark-red clouds shone the reflection of that vast
-conflagration, witnessed only by the eye of the Almighty, for organic
-life could not exist on a globe which exclusively obeyed the physical and
-chemical laws of inorganic nature.
-
-But while the fiery mass with its surrounding atmosphere was circling
-through the icy regions of ethereal space (the temperature of which is
-computed to be lower than 60° R. below freezing point), it gradually
-cooled, and its hitherto fluid surface began to harden to a solid crust.
-Who can tell how many countless ages may have dropped one after the other
-into the abyss of the past, ere thus much was accomplished; for the dense
-atmosphere constantly threw back again upon the fiery earth-ball the heat
-radiating from its surface, and the caloric of the vast body could escape
-but very slowly into vacant space?
-
-Thus millions of years may have gone by before the aqueous vapours, now
-no longer obstinately repelled by the cooling earth-rind, condensed
-into rain, and, falling in showers, gave birth to an incipient ocean.
-But it must not be supposed that the waters obtained at once a tranquil
-and undisturbed possession of their new domain, for, as soon as they
-descended upon the earth, those endless elementary wars began, which,
-with various fortunes, have continued to the present day.
-
-As soon as the cooling earth-rind began to harden, it naturally
-contracted, like all solid bodies when no longer subject to the influence
-of expanding heat, and thus in the thin crust enormous fissures and
-rents were formed, through which the fluid masses below gushed forth,
-and, spreading in wide sheets over the surface, once more converted into
-vapours the waters they met with in their fiery path.
-
-But after all these revolutions and vicissitudes which opposed the birth
-of ocean, perpetually destroying its perpetually renewed formation,
-we come at last to a period when, in consequence of the constantly
-decreasing temperature of the earth-rind, and its increasing thickness,
-the waters at last conquered a permanent abode on its surface, and the
-oceanic empire was definitively founded.
-
-The scene has now changed; the sea of fire has disappeared, and water
-covers the face of the earth. The rind is still too thin, and the
-eruptions from below are still too fluid to form higher elevations above
-the general surface: all is flat and even, and land nowhere rises above
-the mirror of a boundless ocean.
-
-This new state of things still affords the same spectacle of dreary
-uniformity and solitude in all its horrors. The temperature of the waters
-is yet too high, and they contain too many extraneous substances, too
-many noxious vapours arise from the clefts of the earth-rind, the dense
-atmosphere is still too much impregnated with poisons, to allow the
-hidden germs of life anywhere to awaken. A strange and awful primitive
-ocean rises and falls, rolls and rages, but nowhere does it beat against
-a coast; no animal, no plant, grows and thrives in its bosom; no bird
-flies over its expanse.
-
-But meanwhile the hidden agency of Providence is unremittingly active in
-preparing a new order of things. The earth-rind increases in thickness,
-the crevices become narrower, and the fluid or semi-fluid masses escaping
-through the clefts ascend to a more considerable height.
-
-Thus the first islands are formed, and the first separation between the
-dry land and the waters takes place. At the same time no less remarkable
-changes occur, as well in the constitution of the waters as in that of
-the atmosphere. The farther the glowing internal heat of the planet
-retires from the surface, the greater is the quantity of water which
-precipitates itself upon it. The ocean, obliged to relinquish part of its
-surface to the dry land, makes up for the loss of extent by an increase
-of depth, and the clearer atmosphere allows the enlivening sunbeam to
-gild here the crest of a wave, there a naked rock.
-
-And now also life awakens in the seas, but how often has it changed its
-forms, and how often has Neptune displaced his boundaries since that
-primordial dawn. Alternately rising or subsiding, what was once the
-bottom of the ocean now forms the mountain crest, and whole islands and
-continents have been gradually worn away and whelmed beneath the waves of
-the sea, to arise and to be whelmed again. In every part of the world we
-are able to trace these repeated changes in the fossil remains embedded
-in the strata that have successively been deposited in the sea, and
-then again raised above its level by volcanic agencies, and thus, by a
-wonderful transposition, the history of the primitive ocean is revealed
-to us by the tablets of the dry land. The indefatigable zeal of the
-geologists has discovered no less than thirty-nine distinct fossiliferous
-strata of different ages, and as many of these are again subdivided into
-successive layers, frequently of a thickness of several thousand feet,
-and each of them characterised by its peculiar organic remains, we may
-form some idea of the vast spaces of time required for their formation.
-
-[Illustration: Trilobite.]
-
-The annals of the human race speak of the rise and downfall of nations
-and dynasties, and stamp a couple of thousand years with the mark of high
-antiquity; but each stratum or each leaf in the records of our globe has
-witnessed the birth and the extinction of numerous families, genera, and
-species of plants and animals, and shows us organic Nature as changeable
-in time as she appears to us in space. As, when we sail to the southern
-hemisphere, the stars of the northern firmament gradually sink below the
-horizon, until finally entirely new constellations blaze upon us from the
-nightly heavens; thus in the organic vestiges of the palæozoic seas we
-find no form of life resembling those of the actual times, but every class
-
-        "Seems to have undergone a change
-  Into something new and strange."
-
-Then spiral-armed Brachiopods were the chief representatives of the
-molluscs; then crinoid star-fishes paved the bottom of the ocean; then the
-fishes, covered with large thick rhomboidal scales, were buckler-headed
-like the Cephalaspis, or furnished with wing-like appendages like the
-Pterichthys; and then the Trilobites, a crustacean tribe, thus named from
-its three lobed skeleton, swarmed in the shallow littoral waters where
-the lesser sea-fry afforded them an abundant food. From a comparison of
-their structure with recent analogies, it is supposed that these strange
-creatures swam in an inverted position close beneath the surface of
-the water, the belly upwards, and that they made use of their power of
-rolling themselves into a ball as a defence against attacks from above.
-The remains of seventeen families of Trilobites, including forty-five
-genera and 477 species, some of the size of a pea, others two feet long,
-testify the once flourishing condition of these remarkable crustaceans,
-yet but few of their petrified remains, so numerous in the Silurian and
-Devonian strata, are found in the carboniferous or mountain limestone,
-and none whatever in formations of more recent date. Thus, long before
-the wind ever moaned through the dense fronds of the tree ferns and
-calamites which once covered the swampy lowlands of our isle, and long
-before that rich vegetation began, to which we are indebted for our
-inexhaustible coal-fields, now frequently buried thousands of feet below
-the surface on which they originally grew, the Trilobites belonged
-already to the things of the past!
-
-[Illustration: Ammonites, or Snake-Stones.]
-
-In the seas of the mesozoic or mediæval period, new forms of life appear
-upon the scene. A remarkable change has taken place in the cephalopods;
-for the chambered and straightened Orthoceratites and many other families
-of the order have passed away, and the spiral Ammonites, branching
-out into numerous genera, and more than 600 species, now flourish in
-the seas, so that in some places the rocks seem, as it were, composed
-of them alone. Some are of small dimensions, others upwards of three
-feet in diameter. They are met with in the Alps, and have been found
-in the Himalaya Mountains, at elevations of 16,000 feet, as eloquent
-witnesses of the vast revolutions of which our earth has been the scene.
-Carnivorous, and resembling in habits the Nautili, their small and feeble
-representatives of the present day, their immense multiplication proves
-how numerous must have been the molluscs, crustaceans, and annelides, on
-which they fed, all like them widely different from those of the present
-day.
-
-[Illustration: Belemnites.
-
-  _a._ B. acutus.
-  _b._ Belemnite (restored).
-]
-
-Then also flourished the Belemnites (Thunder-stones), supposed by the
-ancients to be the thunderbolts of Jove, but now known to be the
-petrified internal bones of a race of voracious ten-armed cuttle-fishes,
-whose importance in the oolitic or cretaceous seas may be judged of
-by the frequency of their remains, and the 120 species that have been
-hitherto discovered. Belemnites two feet long have been found, so that,
-to judge by analogies, the animals to which they belonged as cuttle-bones
-must have measured eighteen or twenty feet from end to end, a size which
-reduces the rapacious Onychoteuthis of the present seas to dwarfish
-dimensions.
-
-[Illustration: Ichthyosaurus communis.]
-
-But of all the denizens of the mesozoic seas none were more formidable
-than the gigantic Saurians, whose approach put even the voracious sharks
-to flight. The first of these monsters that raises its frightful head
-above the waters is the dreadful Ichthyosaurus, a creature thirty or
-even fifty feet long, half fish, half lizard, and combining in strange
-assemblage the snout of the porpoise, the teeth of the crocodile, and the
-paddles of the whale. Singular above all is the enormous eye, in size
-surpassing a man's head. Woe to the fish that meets its appalling glance!
-No rapidity of flight, no weapon, be it sword or saw, avails, for the
-long-tailed gigantic saurian darts like lightning through the water, and
-its dense harness bids defiance to every attack. Not only have fifteen
-distinct species of Ichthyosauri been distinguished, but the remains of
-crushed and partially digested fish-bones and scales, which are found
-within their skeleton, indicate the precise nature of their food. Their
-fossil remains abound along the whole extent of the lias formation, from
-the coasts of Dorset, through Somerset and Leicestershire to the coast of
-Yorkshire, but the largest specimens have been found in Franconia.
-
-[Illustration: Plesiosaurus.]
-
-Along with this monster, another and still more singular deformity makes
-its appearance, the Plesiosaurus, in which the fabulous chimæras and
-hydras of antiquity seem to start into existence. Fancy a crocodile
-twenty-seven feet long, with the fins of a whale, the long and flexible
-neck of a swan, and a comparatively small head. With the appearance of
-this new tyrant, the last hope of escape is taken from the trembling
-fishes; for into the shallow waters, inaccessible to the more bulky
-Ichthyosaurus, the slender Plesiosaurus penetrates with ease.
-
-A race of such colossal powers seemed destined for an immortal reign, for
-where was the visible enemy that could put an end to its tyranny? But
-even the giant strength of the saurians was obliged to succumb to the
-still more formidable power of all-changing time, which slowly but surely
-modified the circumstances under which they were called into being, and
-gave birth to higher and more beautiful forms.
-
-In the tertiary period, the dreadful reptiles of the mesozoic seas have
-long since vanished from the bosom of the ocean, and cetaceans, walruses,
-and seals, unknown in the primitive deep, now wander through the waters
-or bask on the sunny cliffs. With them begins a new era in the life of
-the sea. Hitherto it has only brought forth creatures of base or brutal
-instinct, but now the Divine spark of parental affection begins to
-ennoble its more perfect inhabitants, and to point out the dim outlines
-of the spiritual world.
-
-During all these successive changes the surface of the earth has
-gradually cooled to its present temperature, and many plants and animals
-that formerly enjoyed the widest range must now rest satisfied with
-narrower limits. The sea-animals of the north find themselves for ever
-severed from their brethren of the south, by the impassable zone of
-the tropical ocean; and all the fishes, molluscs, and zoophytes, whose
-organisation requires a greater warmth, confine themselves to the
-equatorial regions.
-
-As the tertiary period advances towards the present epoch, the species
-which flourished in its prime become extinct, like the numberless races
-which preceded them; new modifications of life, more and more similar to
-those of the present day, start into existence; and, finally, creation
-appears with increasing beauty in her present rich attire.
-
-Thus old Ocean, after having devoured so many of his children, has
-transformed himself at last into our contemporaneous seas, with their
-currents and floods, and the various animals and plants growing and
-thriving in their bosom.
-
-Who can tell when the last great revolutions of the earth-rind took
-place, which, by the upheaving of mighty mountains or the disruption of
-isthmuses, drew the present boundaries of land and sea? or who can pierce
-the deep mystery which veils the future duration of the existing phase of
-planetary life?
-
-So much is certain, that the ocean of the present day will be transformed
-as the seas of the past have been, and that "all that it inhabit" are
-doomed to perish like the long line of animal and vegetable forms which
-preceded them.
-
-We know by too many signs that our earth is slowly but unceasingly
-working out changes in her external form. Here lands are rising, while
-other areas are gradually sinking; here the breakers perpetually gnaw
-the cliffs, and hollow out their sides, while in other places alluvial
-deposits encroach upon the sea's domain.
-
-However slowly these changes may be going on, they point to a time when
-a new ocean will encircle new lands, and new animal and vegetable forms
-arise within its bosom. Of what nature and how gifted these races yet
-slumbering in the lap of time may be, He only knows whose eye penetrates
-through all eternity; but we cannot doubt that they will be superior to
-the present denizens of the ocean.
-
-Hitherto the annals of the earth-rind have shown us uninterrupted
-progress; why, then, should the future be ruled by different laws? At
-first the sea only produces weeds, shells, crustacea; then the fishes and
-reptiles appear; and the cetaceans close the vista. But is this the last
-word, the last manifestation of oceanic life, or is it not to be expected
-that the future seas will be peopled with beings ranking as high above
-the whale or dolphin as these rank above the giant saurians of the past?
-
-
-
-
-PART III.
-
-THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XXIII.
-
-  Maritime Discoveries of the Phœnicians.--Expedition of
-  Hanno.--Circumnavigation of Africa under the Pharaoh
-  Necho.--Colæus of Samos.--Pytheas of Massilia.--Expedition of
-  Nearchus.--Circumnavigation of Hindostan under the Ptolemies.--Voyages
-  of Discovery of the Romans.--Consequences of the Fall of the Roman
-  Empire.--Amalfi.--Pisa.--Venice.--Genoa.--Resumption of Maritime
-  Intercourse between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.--Discovery of
-  the Mariner's Compass.--Marco Polo.
-
-
-Among the nations of antiquity, navigation, as may well be supposed,
-was in a very rude and imperfect state. Unacquainted with the mariner's
-compass, which during the darkest and most tempestuous nights safely
-leads the modern seaman over the pathless ocean, the sparkling
-constellations of a serene sky, or the position of the sun, were the only
-guides of the ancient navigator. He therefore rarely ventured to lose
-sight of land, but cautiously steering his little bark along the shore,
-was subject to all the delays and dangers of coast navigation. Even under
-the mild sky and in the calm waters of the Mediterranean, it was only
-during the summer months that he dared to leave the port; to brave the
-fury of the wintry winds was a boldness he never could have thought of.
-Under such adverse circumstances, it is surely far less astonishing that
-the geographical knowledge of the ancients was so extremely limited when
-compared with ours, than that with means so scanty they yet should have
-known so much of the boundaries of ocean.
-
-But the spirit of commercial enterprise triumphs over every difficulty.
-Stimulated by the love of gain, and the hope of discovering new sources
-of wealth, the Phœnicians, the first great maritime nation mentioned in
-history, were continually enlarging the limits of the known earth, until
-the fatal moment when the sword of the conqueror destroyed their cities,
-and extinguished their power for ever.
-
-The first periods of Phœnician greatness are veiled in the mysterious
-darkness of an unknown past, yet so much is certain, that their date
-must have been very remote; as, according to the accounts which Herodotus
-received from the priests, the foundation of Tyre took place thirty
-centuries before the Christian era.
-
-Long before the expedition of the Argonauts, the Phœnicians had already
-founded colonies on the Bithynian coast of the Black Sea (Pronectus,
-Bithynium); and that at a very early time they must have steered through
-the Straits of Grades into the Atlantic is proved by the fact, that, as
-far back as the eleventh century before Christ, they founded the towns of
-Grades and Tartessus on the western coast of Southern Spain. Penetrating
-farther and farther to the north, they discovered Britain, where they
-established their chief station on the Scilly Isles, at present so
-insignificant and obscure, and even visited the barbarous shores of the
-Baltic in quest of the costly amber. They planted their colonies along
-the north-west coast of Africa, even beyond the tropic; and, 2000 years
-before Vasco de Gama, Phœnician mariners are said to have circumnavigated
-that continent, for Herodotus relates that a Tyrian fleet, fitted out by
-Necho II., Pharaoh of Egypt (611-595 B.C.), sailed from a port in the Red
-Sea, doubled the southern promontory of Africa, and, after a voyage of
-three years, returned through the Straits of Grades to the mouth of the
-Nile.
-
-Less wonderful, but resting on better historical proof, is the celebrated
-voyage of discovery to the south which Hanno performed by command of the
-senate of Carthage, the greatest of all Phœnician colonies, eclipsing
-even the fame of Tyre itself. Sailing from Cerne, the principal Phœnician
-settlement on the western coast of Africa, and which was probably
-situated on the present island of Arguin, he reached, after a navigation
-of seventeen days, a promontory which he called the West Horn (probably
-Cape Palmas), and then advanced to another cape, to which he gave the
-name of South Horn, and which is manifestly Cape de Tres Puntas, only
-5° north of the line. During daytime the deepest silence reigned along
-the newly discovered coast, but after sunset countless fires were seen
-burning along the banks of the rivers, and the air resounded with music
-and song, the black natives spending, as they still do now, the hours
-of the cool night in festive joy. Most likely the Canary Islands were
-also known to the Phœnicians, as the summit of the Peak of Teneriffe is
-visible from the heights of Cape Bojador.
-
-The progress of the great mariners of old in the Indian Ocean was no
-less remarkable than the extension of their Atlantic discoveries. Far
-beyond Bab-el-Mandeb their fleets sailed to Ophir or Supara, and returned
-with rich cargoes of gold, silver, sandal-wood, jewels, ivory, apes,
-and peacocks, to the ports of Elath and Ezion-Geber at the head of the
-Red Sea. These costly productions of the south were then transported
-across the Isthmus of Suez to Rhinocolura, the nearest port on the
-Mediterranean, and thence to Tyre, which ultimately distributed them over
-the whole of the known world.
-
-The true position of Ophir is an enigma which no learned Œdipus will
-ever solve. While some authorities place it on the east coast of Africa,
-others fix its situation somewhere on the west coast of the Indian
-peninsula; and Humboldt is even of opinion that the name had only a
-general signification, and that a voyage to Ophir meant nothing more
-than a commercial expedition to any part of the Indian Ocean, just as at
-present we speak of a voyage to the Levant or the West Indies.
-
-But whatever Ophir may have been, it is certain that the Phœnicians
-carried on a considerable trade with the lands and nations beyond the
-Gates of the Red Sea. Their trade in the direction of the Persian Gulf
-was no less extensive. Through the Syrian desert, where Palmyra, their
-chief station or emporium, proudly rose above the surrounding sands,
-their caravans slowly wandered to the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates,
-to provide Nineveh and Babylon with the costly merchandise of Sidon
-and Tyre. Following the course of the great Mesopotamian streams, they
-reached the shores of the Persian Gulf, where they owned the ports of
-Tylos and Aradus and the rich pearl islands of Bahrein, and, having
-loaded their empty camels with the produce of Iran and Arabia, returned
-by the same way to the shores of the Mediterranean. How far their ships
-may have ventured beyond the mouth of the Persian Gulf is unknown, but
-the researches of the learned orientalists, Gesenius, Benfey, and Lassen,
-render it extremely probable, that, taking advantage of the regularly
-changing monsoons, they sailed through the Straits of Ormus to the coast
-of Malabar.
-
-The progress of the Phœnician race in the technical arts, as well as in
-the astronomical and mathematical sciences so highly important for the
-improvement of their navigation, was no less remarkable for the age in
-which they lived, than the vast extension of a commercial intercourse
-which reached from Britain to the Indus, and from the Black Sea to the
-Senegal. They wove the finest linen, and knew how to dye it with the most
-splendid purple. They were unsurpassed in the workmanship of metals, and
-possessed the secret of manufacturing white and coloured glass, which
-their caravans and ships exchanged for the produce of the north and of
-the south. By the invention of the alphabet, which with many other useful
-sciences and arts, they communicated to the Greeks and other nations with
-whom they traded, they no less contributed to the progress of mankind
-than by the humanising influence of commerce.
-
-Thus when we consider the services which these merchant-princes of
-antiquity rendered to their contemporaries, wherever their flag was seen
-or their caravans appeared, the annihilation of the maritime power of
-Tyre by Alexander (332 B.C.), and the destruction of Carthage by the
-Romans (146 B.C.), must strike us as events calamitous to the whole human
-race. Had the Carthaginians, so distinguished by their commercial spirit
-and ardour for discovery, triumphed over the semi-barbarous Romans, who,
-then at least, had not yet learned to imitate the arts of plundered
-Greece, there is every probability that some Punic Columbus would have
-discovered America at least a thousand years sooner, and the world at
-this day be in possession of many secrets still unknown, and destined to
-contribute to the comforts or enjoyments of our descendants.
-
-In the times of Homer, when the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic had long
-been known to the Phœnicians, the geographical knowledge of the Greeks
-was still circumscribed by the narrow limits of the Eastern Mediterranean
-and part of the Euxine, and many a century elapsed ere their ships
-ventured beyond the Straits of Gades. Colæus of Samos (639 B.C.) is said
-to have been the first seafarer of Hellenic race who sailed forth into
-the Atlantic, compelled by adverse winds, and was able on his return
-from his involuntary voyage to tell his astonished countrymen of the
-wondrous rising and falling of the oceanic tides. It was seventy years
-later before the Phoceans of Massilia, the present Marseilles, ventured
-to follow the path he had traced out, and to visit the Atlantic port of
-Tartessus.
-
-The town of Massilia had the additional honour of reckoning among her
-sons the great traveller Pytheas, the Marco Polo of antiquity. This
-far-wandering philosopher, who lived about 330 years before Christ, had
-visited all the coasts of Europe, from the mouths of the Tanais or Don to
-the shores of Ultima Thule, which, according to Leopold von Buch, was not
-Iceland, nor Feroë, nor Orcadia, but the Norwegian coast. His narrative
-first made the Greeks acquainted with North-western Europe, and remained
-for a long time their only geographical guide to those hyperborean lands.
-
-While the horizon of the Greeks was thus considerably expanding towards
-the regions of the setting sun, the conquests of Alexander opened to them
-a new world in the distant Orient. Greek navigators now for the first
-time unfurled their sails on the Indian Ocean. The Macedonian, desirous
-not only of subduing Asia but of firmly attaching it to the nations of
-the Mediterranean by the bonds of mutual interest, and hoping by this
-means to consolidate his vast conquests, sent a fleet under the command
-of Nearchus, from the mouths of the Indus to the head of the Persian
-Gulf, to establish if possible a new road for a regular commercial
-intercourse between India and Mesopotamia. The performance of this voyage
-was reckoned by the conqueror one of the most glorious events of his
-reign, but it may serve as a proof of the slowness of ancient navigation,
-that Nearchus took ten months to perform a journey which one of our
-steamers might easily accomplish in five days.
-
-After the disruption of the Macedonian empire, the circle of the Greek
-discoveries in the Indian Ocean was widened by the enterprising spirit of
-the Seleucidæ and Ptolemies. Seleucus Nicator is said to have penetrated
-to the mouths of the Ganges, and the fleets of the Egyptian kings sailed
-round the peninsula of Hindostan and discovered the coasts of Taprobane
-or Ceylon, the spicy odours of whose cinnamon-groves are said to be
-wafted far out to sea, so that--
-
-                          "for many a league,
-  Pleased with the grateful scent, old Ocean smiles."
-
-But now came the time when earth-ruling Rome called the whole civilised
-world her own, and her victorious eagles expanded their triumphant wings
-from the Red Sea to the coasts of the Northern Ocean. What discoveries
-might not have been expected from such a power, if the Romans had
-possessed but one tithe of the maritime spirit of conquered Carthage?
-But even this military empire contributed something to the enlargement
-of maritime knowledge. Under the reign of Augustus a Roman fleet sailed
-round the promontory of Skagen, discovered about sixteen years after the
-birth of Christ the Island of Fionia or Fünen, and is even supposed to
-have reached the entrance of the Gulf of Finland. In the year 84 A.C.
-Julius Agricola, the conqueror of Britain, sailed for the first time
-round Scotland, and discovered the Orcadian Isles.
-
-In Pliny's time the real magnitude of the earth was still so imperfectly
-known that, according to the calculations of that great though rather
-over-credulous naturalist, Europe occupied the third part, Asia only the
-fourth, and Africa about the fifth, of its whole extent.
-
-The geographer Ptolemy, who lived about the middle of the second century,
-under the reigns of Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius, describes the limits
-of the earth as far as they were known in his time. To the west, the
-coast of Africa had been explored as far as Cape Juby; and the Fortunate
-Islands or Hesperides, the present Canaries, rose from the ocean as the
-last lands towards the setting sun.
-
-To the north discovery had reached as far as the Shetland Isles, and
-the promontory Perispa at the entrance of the Gulf of Finland; while
-on the east coast of Africa Cape Brava formed the ultimate boundary of
-the known world. Soon after Ptolemy's time the whole coast of Malacca
-(_Aurea Chersonesus_) and the Siamese Sea, as far as the Cape of Cambogia
-(_Notium promontorium_), was explored, and the Romans even appear to have
-had some knowledge of the great islands of the Indian archipelago, Java,
-Sumatra, and Borneo.
-
-And yet, notwithstanding all this progress towards the East, it may well
-be asked whether the Phœnicians had not embraced a wider horizon than the
-Romans in the full zenith of their fortunes. Even though we reject the
-circumnavigation of Africa under Necho, and the discovery of America by
-Punic navigators, as not fully proved or fabulous, it is quite certain
-that they had explored the west coast of Africa to a much greater extent
-than the Romans, and extremely probable that they knew at least as much
-of the lands which bound the Indian Ocean. But, as from a narrow-minded
-mercantile policy they kept many of their discoveries profoundly secret,
-all knowledge of them perished with their ruin. In ancient times, when
-the defeat of a people too often led to its complete destruction,
-or at least to the extinction of its peculiar civilisation, and the
-difficulties of intercourse rendered the diffusion of knowledge extremely
-difficult and slow, it not unfrequently happened that useful discoveries
-were erased from the memory of mankind, a danger which, thanks to the
-printing-press and the steam-engine, is now no longer to be feared.
-
-Thus a darkening or eclipse of intellectual life took place to a vast
-extent when the western Roman Empire succumbed to the barbarians of
-the North, and the bands which for centuries had united the cities of
-the east and west were violently sundered. Under that fatal blight
-Civilisation vanished from the lands which had so long been her chosen
-seat, only to dawn again after a long and obscure night. Commercial
-intercourse ceased between the sea-ports of the Mediterranean, all
-communication with distant countries was cut off, and the boundaries
-of the known earth became more and more narrow, as the ignorance of a
-barbarous age increased.
-
-It is not before the beginning of the ninth century that we perceive the
-first glimpses of a better day in the rising fortunes of some Italian
-sea-ports, where favourable circumstances had given birth to liberal
-institutions. As early as the year 840 Amalfi possessed a considerable
-number of trading-vessels, and carried on a lucrative commerce with
-the Levant. The maritime code of this little republic regulated the
-commercial transactions of all the Mediterranean sea-ports; as in a later
-century the law-book of Wisby served as a guide to the merchants of the
-Baltic. A few years after its submission in 1131 to the arms of King
-Roger of Sicily, Amalfi was plundered by the Pisanese and almost entirely
-destroyed. The neglected harbour was gradually choked with sand, and the
-little town, which now numbers no more than 3000 inhabitants, has nothing
-to console it for its actual poverty but the remembrance of a glorious
-past. Along with Amalfi, Gaëta, Naples, and Pisa, rose to considerable
-eminence in commerce, though far from equalling the power and splendour
-of Genoa and Venice, the great republics of northern Italy.
-
-As far back as the beginning of the sixth century, the city of the
-lagunes fits out a small fleet to purge the Adriatic of Istrian pirates.
-By a prudent course of policy she renders herself indispensable to the
-Byzantine court, and acquires great privileges in Constantinople. It is
-here she purchases the costly productions of the East, with which during
-the ninth and tenth centuries, she provides Northern Italy and a great
-part of Germany. About the beginning of the eleventh century her trade
-with Egypt and Syria begins to flourish, and soon raises her to the
-pinnacle of her power and wealth. In the year 1080 she extends her rule
-over Croatia and Dalmatia, and gains in 1204 considerable advantages by
-assisting the western crusaders in the conquest of Constantinople. Pera,
-numerous coast towns from the Hellespont to the Ionian Sea, a great part
-of the Morea, Corfu, and Candia fall to the winged lion's share, and
-requite the services of "blind old Dandolo." The silk manufacture is
-transported, as a valuable fruit of conquest, from the Morea to Venice,
-and becomes a new source of wealth to the Adriatic Tyre. The Euxine opens
-her ports to the Venetian seamen, treaties of commerce are concluded with
-Trebizond and Armenia, and a factory is established at Tana, at the mouth
-of the Don.
-
-While thus the power of Venice rises more and more in the East, Genoa,
-which already in the tenth century carried on a flourishing trade,
-acquires by degrees the supremacy in the Western Mediterranean.
-The aid afforded by the republic to the Greek emperor Michael
-Palæologus contributes largely to the overthrow of the Latin throne
-of Constantinople, and opens the Bosphorus and the Black Sea to the
-enterprise of her merchants. The grandeur of Genoa now reaches its
-height; she holds fortified possession of Pera and Galata, and covers the
-coasts of the Crimea with her strong-holds and castles.
-
-At a later period the Florentines appear on the scene, and assume the
-rank formerly held by Pisa in Mediterranean commerce. The acquisition of
-the sea-port of Leghorn (1421) opens the barriers of the ocean to the
-birthplace of Dante and Galileo.
-
-After their deliverance from the Moorish yoke in the ninth century, a
-fresh and vigorous spirit begins also to animate the Catalans. They
-conclude treaties of commerce with Genoa and Pisa, and towards the end of
-the thirteenth century the ships of Barcelona are found visiting all the
-ports of the Mediterranean.
-
-But in spite of the growth of trade and navigation in Italy and Spain,
-many years had yet to elapse after the fall of the Roman empire ere the
-gates of the Atlantic were once more opened to the navigators of the
-Mediterranean. It was not before the middle of the thirteenth century,
-after Seville and a great part of the Andalusian coast had been wrested
-from the Moors by Ferdinand of Castile, that the Italian and Catalonian
-seafarers, encouraged by privileges and remissions of duties, began to
-visit the port of Cadiz, where they met with merchants from Portugal and
-Biscay. Soon after, and most probably in consequence of the connexions
-thus formed, we find Italian ships visiting the ports of England and the
-Netherlands. About 1316, Genoese vessels began to carry goods to England;
-and somewhat later the Venetians, whose visits are not mentioned by the
-chroniclers before 1323.
-
-Thus after a long interruption we see the seamen of the Mediterranean at
-length resuming the track to the Atlantic ports that had been struck out
-more than thirty centuries before by their predecessors the Phœnicians.
-But their voyages to the western ocean took place under circumstances
-much more favourable than those which had attended the men of Tyre
-and Carthage in their adventurous expeditions. Not only the better
-construction of their ships, but still more the use of the mariner's
-compass, for which Europe is probably indebted to the Arabs, who in
-their turn owed its knowledge to the Chinese, enabled them to steer more
-boldly into the open sea, and regardless of the bendings of the coasts
-to reach their journey's end by a less circuitous route. The period when
-the magnetic needle was first made use of by the Mediterranean navigators
-is not exactly known, but so much is certain that it did good service
-long before the time of Flavio Gioja (1302), to whom its discovery has
-been erroneously ascribed, though he may have introduced some improvement
-in the arrangement of the compass. Humboldt tells us in his "Cosmos,"
-that in the satirical poem of Guyot de Provens, "La Bible" (1190), and
-in the description of Palestine by Jaques de Vitry, bishop of Ptolemais
-(1204-1215), the sea-compass is mentioned as a well-known instrument.
-Dante also speaks of the needle which points to the stars (Paradise, xii.
-29); and in a nautical work by Raimundus Lullus of Majorca, written in
-the year 1286, we find another proof of a much earlier knowledge of the
-compass than before the beginning of the fourteenth century, since its
-use by the mariners of his time is expressly mentioned by that author.
-
-Confidently following this unerring guide, the Catalonians sailed at
-an early period to the north coast of Scotland, and even preceded the
-Portuguese in their discoveries on the west coast of Africa, since
-Don Jayme Ferrer penetrated to the mouth of the Rio de Ouro as early
-as August 1346. About the same time the long-forgotten Canary Islands
-were rediscovered by the Spaniards; and at a later period (1402-1405)
-conquered and depopulated by some Norman adventurers, the Bethencourts.
-
-While thus the South-European navigators unfurled their sails on the
-Atlantic, and gave the first impulse to the glorious discoveries that
-in the following century were destined to open up the ocean, and reveal
-its hitherto unknown greatness to mankind, the Indian Sea still remained
-closed to their enterprise; for though the Venetians by this time
-rivalled, if they did not surpass the ancient maritime greatness of the
-Tyrians in the Mediterranean, they did not, like them, directly fetch the
-rich produce of the South in their own ships from the East-African and
-Indian ports, but received them at second hand from the Arabian masters
-of Syria and Egypt.
-
-But though no ship of theirs was ever seen in the Indian seas, through
-them the knowledge of the Arabian discoveries in those parts penetrated
-to Europe, and widely extended the knowledge of the ocean. For when the
-Arabs, fired by the prophetic ardour of Mahomet, suddenly emerged from
-the obscurity of pastoral life, and appeared as conquerors before the
-astonished world, the trade of the Indian Ocean fell into the hands of
-these new masters of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, who soon learnt to
-pursue it with an energy which the Romans and Persians had never known.
-The town of Bassora was founded by the caliph Omar on the western shore
-of the great stream formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates,
-and soon emulated Alexandria herself in the greatness of its commerce.
-From Bassora the Arabs sailed far beyond the Siamese Gulf, which had
-formerly bounded European navigation. They visited the unknown ports of
-the Indian archipelago, and established so active a trade with Canton,
-that the Chinese emperor granted them the use of their own laws in that
-city.
-
-This progress of the Arabs, and the vast treasures accruing to Venice
-from the overland Indian trade, could not fail to excite the envy of
-the other seafaring powers, and to call forth an increasing desire
-of discovering a new maritime route to the wealth-teeming regions of
-Southern Asia.
-
-The wonderful narratives of the first travellers who wandered by land to
-the distant East likewise contributed in no small degree to foment the
-ardour of discovery. The most celebrated of these geographical pioneers
-was Marco Polo, a noble Venetian who had resided many years at the court
-of the Mongol ruler, Kublai Khan, and visited the most remote regions
-of Asia. He was the first European that ever sailed along the western
-shores of the Pacific, the first that told his astonished countrymen of
-the magnificence of Cambalu or Peking, the capital of the great kingdom
-of Cathay, and of the splendour of Zipanga or Japan situated on the
-confines of a vast ocean extending to the east. He also made more than
-one sea-voyage in the Indian Ocean, and to him Europe owed her first
-knowledge of the Moluccas, the east coast of Africa, and the island of
-Madagascar.
-
-This greatest of all the mediæval travellers, who without exaggeration
-may be said to have enlarged the boundaries of the known earth as much as
-Alexander the Great, was followed by Oderich of Portenau, who travelled
-as far as India and China (1320-1330); by Sir John Mandeville, who
-visited almost all the lands described by Marco Polo; by Schildberger
-of Munich, who accompanied the barbarous Tamerlane on his locust
-expeditions; and finally by Clavigo, sent in the year 1403 by the Spanish
-court on an embassy to Samarcand. The truths which these bold travellers
-communicated to their countrymen about the riches and the commerce of the
-nations they had visited, as well as the fables in which their credulity
-or their extravagant fancy indulged, made an enormous impression on the
-European mind, and raised to a feverish heat the longing after those
-sunny lands and isles which imagination adorned with all the charms of an
-earthly paradise.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XXIV.
-
-  Prince Henry of Portugal.--Discovery of Porto Santo and
-  Madeira.--Doubling of Cape Bojador.--Discovery of the Cape Verde
-  Islands.--Bartholomew Diaz.--Vasco de Gama.--Columbus.--His
-  Predecessors.--Discovery of Greenland by Günnbjorn.--Bjorne
-  Herjulfson.--Leif.--John Vaz Cortereal.--John and Sebastian
-  Cabot.--Retrospective View of the Beginnings of English
-  Navigation.--Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci.--Vincent Yañez
-  Pinson.--Cortez.--Verazzani.--Cartier.--The Portuguese in the Indian
-  Ocean.
-
-
-The reigning idea of a century finds always one or more eminent spirits,
-in whom and through whose agency the desires and hopes of thousands ripen
-into deeds, and are changed from dreams into realities. One of these
-rare and highly gifted men was Prince Henry of Portugal, a son of King
-John I., who made it the chief aim of his life to extend the boundaries
-of maritime discovery, and devoted with glowing ardour all the powers
-of his energetic mind, and all the influence of rank and riches to the
-attainment of this noble object. From the castle of Sagres near Cape St.
-Vincent, where, far from the court, he had fixed his residence in order
-to be less disturbed in his favourite studies, his eye glanced over
-the Atlantic, which constantly reminded him of the unknown lands which
-held out such brilliant prospects to the navigator who should venture
-to steer southwards along the African coast. The experienced seamen and
-learned geographers that surrounded him confirmed him in his hopes, and
-encouraged him to attempt the realisation of his generous ideas.
-
-Fortunately all outward circumstances combined to favour the prince's
-projects. At that time Portugal was not plunged, as at present, in a
-state of slothful lethargy, but full of the bold and enterprising spirit
-which the expulsion of the Moors and long intestine wars had called to
-life. The geographical position of the country, bounded on every side by
-the dominions of a mightier neighbour, forbade all extension by land, and
-pointed to the ocean as the only field in which a comparatively small
-but spirited people could hope to reap a rich harvest of wealth and glory.
-
-The first two ships which Prince Henry sent out on a voyage of discovery
-along the African coast (1412) did not reach farther than Cape Bojador,
-whose rocky cliffs stretching far out into the Atlantic intimidated their
-inexperienced commanders. Six years later (1418) Juan Gonsalez Zarco and
-Tristan Vaz Tejeira were intrusted with a new expedition, and sailed with
-express commands to double that ill-famed promontory; but a terrible gale
-drove them out to sea, and forced them to seek a refuge on an unknown
-island, to which they thankfully gave the name of Porto Santo. This
-discovery, though extremely unimportant in itself, served to confirm the
-prince in his projects, and encouraged him to send out in the following
-year a new expedition under the same commander, to take possession of the
-island.
-
-This led to a more important discovery, for on landing on Porto Santo
-the attention of the Portuguese was struck by a black and prominent
-spot, rising above the southern horizon. To this they now directed their
-course, and were equally delighted and surprised to see it swell out as
-they approached to the ample proportions of a large island; to which,
-on account of the dense forests which at that time covered its verdant
-hill-slopes up to the very top, they gave the name of Madeira. Prince
-Henry immediately equipped a considerable fleet to carry a colony of his
-countrymen to the new land of promise, and furnished them with the vine
-of Cyprus, and the sugar-cane of Sicily, which throve so well on the
-Atlantic isle, that after a few years the produce of Madeira began to be
-of consequence in the trade of the mother country.
-
-Thus the first undertakings of Prince Henry were not left unrewarded;
-but, besides the commercial advantages arising from the possession of
-Madeira, it encouraged the Portuguese navigators no longer servilely to
-creep along the coasts, but boldly to steer into the open sea. Thus Don
-Gilianez, by avoiding the shore-currents, succeeded at last in doubling
-the dreaded Cape Bojador (1433), and opening a new sphere to navigation.
-One discovery now rapidly followed another. Gonsalez and Nuño Tristan
-(1440-1442) penetrated as far as the Senegal; Cape de Verd was reached in
-1446; and three years later, the limits of the known earth were extended
-as far as the islands of the same name and the Azores, those advanced
-sentinels in the bosom of the Atlantic. It may easily be imagined how
-much these successes contributed to encourage the universal ardour for
-discovery. Adventurers from all countries hastened to Portugal, hoping to
-gratify their ambition or avarice under the auspices of a prince who had
-already achieved so much; and even many Venetians and Genoese, who were
-at that time superior to all other nations in naval science, reckoned it
-as an honour to serve under a flag which might justly be considered as
-the high school of the seaman. Thus before Prince Henry closed his eyes
-(1463) the aim of his glorious life had been attained; for, though he did
-not live to see his countrymen penetrate into the Indian Ocean, yet he
-witnessed the mighty impulse which in a short time was to lead to that
-important result.
-
-In the year 1471 the line was crossed for the first time, and the
-Portuguese thus detected the error of the ancients, who believed that
-the intolerable heat of a vertical sun rendered the equatorial regions
-uninhabitable by man.
-
-Under John the Second a mighty fleet discovered the kingdoms of Benin and
-Congo (1484), followed the coast above 1500 miles beyond the equator, and
-revealed to Europe the constellations of another hemisphere.
-
-The farther their ships penetrated to the south, the higher rose the
-flood tide of their hopes. As the African continent appeared sensibly
-to contract itself, and to bend towards the East as they proceeded,
-they no longer doubted that the way to the Indian Ocean would now soon
-be found, and give them the exclusive possession of a trade which had
-enriched Venice, and made that city the envy of the world. The ancient
-long-forgotten tale of the Phœnician circumnavigation of Africa now
-found belief, and Bartholomew Diaz sailed from Lisbon for the purpose
-of solving the important problem. The storms of an unknown ocean, the
-famine caused by the loss of his store-ship, and the frequent mutinies of
-a dispirited crew, could not stop the progress of this intrepid mariner,
-who, boldly advancing in the face of a thousand difficulties, at length
-discovered the high promontory which forms the southern extremity of
-Africa. But, as his weather-beaten ships were no longer able to confront
-the mountain-billows and furious gales foaming or roaring round that
-stormy headland, he was obliged, sore against his will, to give up the
-attempt to double the Cape of Tempests, Cabo tormentoso, as he called
-it, but to which the king gave the more inviting name of the Cape of
-Good Hope. Yet before Vasco de Gama set sail from Lisbon to accomplish
-the great work (1498) and win the prize to which so many navigators had
-gradually paved the way, the astounding intelligence had flashed through
-Europe that on the 12th of October, 1492, Columbus had discovered a new
-world in the west. The history of this most famous, and most important
-in its results, of all sea-voyages, is so well known that I may well
-refrain from entering into any details on the subject: at all events the
-reader will be much more interested by a short account of the intrepid
-navigators who, long before the great Genoese, found their way to the
-shores of the new continent.
-
-While Tropical America is separated from Europe and Africa by a vast
-tract of intervening ocean, and even the advanced posts of the Azores
-and Cape de Verd Islands are far distant from the western shores of the
-Atlantic, Iceland and Greenland appear to us in the north as stations
-linking at comparatively easy distances the Old World and the New. It is,
-therefore, by no means surprising that the discovery of Iceland by the
-Norwegian _Viking_ or pirate Nadod, and the somewhat later colonisation
-of the island by Ingolf, in the year 875, should in the following century
-have led the Norsemen to the discovery of America, particularly when we
-consider that no people ever equalled them in daring and romantic love of
-adventure:
-
-  "Kings of the main their leaders brave,
-   Their barks the dragons of the wave."
-
-Greenland, discovered by Günnbjorn in the year 876 or 877, was indeed not
-colonised by the Icelanders before 983; a delay excusable enough when
-we consider the uninviting climate of that dreary peninsula or island,
-but three years after the latter date, we already find Bjorne Herjulfson
-undertaking a cruise from the new settlement to the south-west, and
-successively discovering Nantucket, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, though
-without making any attempts to land. Bjorne was followed about the
-year 1000 by Leif, a son of Erick the Red, the founder of the Greenland
-colony; who, sailing along the American coast as far as 41-1/2° north
-lat. discovered the _good Winland_, which received its name from the
-wild vines which Tyrker, a German who accompanied the expedition,
-found growing there in abundance. The fertility and mild climate of
-this coast, when compared with that of Labrador and Greenland, induced
-the discoverers to settle, and to found the first European colony on
-the American continent. Frequent wars with the Eskimos or Skrelingers
-(dwarfs), who at that time, as I have already mentioned in the fourth
-chapter, extended far more to the south than at present, soon however
-destroyed the colony; and the last account of Norman America we find in
-the old Scandinavian records is the mention of a ship which, in the year
-1347, had sailed from Greenland to Markland (Nova Scotia) to gather wood,
-and was driven by a storm to Stamfjord on the west coast of Iceland.
-About this time also the colonies in Greenland, which until then had
-enjoyed a tolerable state of prosperity, decayed and ultimately perished
-under the blighting influence of commercial monopolies, of wars with the
-aborigines, and above all of the _black death_ (1347-1351), that horrible
-plague of the fourteenth century, which, after having depopulated Europe,
-vented its fury even upon those remote wilds. Thus the knowledge of the
-Norman discovery of America gradually faded from the memory of man,
-and thus also it happened that the names and deeds of Leif and Bjorne
-Herjulfson remained totally unknown to the southern navigators, who at
-that time moreover, had little intercourse with the nations of Northern
-Europe.
-
-Besides his well-authenticated Norman predecessors, Columbus may possibly
-have had others. Traces of early Irish and Welsh discoveries are pointed
-out by the Northern historians, and John Vaz Cortereal, a Portuguese
-navigator, is said to have visited the coasts of Newfoundland some time
-previous to the voyages of Columbus and Cabot.
-
-If before the first voyage of the great Genoese navigator a mighty
-longing to penetrate to distant countries pervaded the public mind of
-Europe, it may be imagined to what a feverish glow this reigning idea
-of the century was excited, when the wonderful accounts of the gold
-and enchanting beauty of Haiti spread from land to land. As in former
-times, half Europe had thrown itself upon the Orient to liberate the
-tomb of our Saviour from the tyranny of the Moslem; so now one flood of
-adventurers followed another to the new land of promise, which held out
-such glittering prospects of wealth and enjoyment. Obeying the mighty
-impulse, England and France now entered upon the path on which Portugal
-and Spain had so gloriously preceded them, and, as the fruit of this
-general emulation, we see after a few years the whole western shore of
-the great Atlantic basin drawn into the circle of the known earth.
-
-If Columbus was undoubtedly the first discoverer of the West Indian
-islands (the Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, 1492; Lesser Antilles, 1493; Jamaica,
-1494), the honour of having preceded him on the American continent
-belongs to John Cabot, a Venetian merchant settled in Bristol, and to
-the youthful energy of his son Sebastian, since they landed on the coast
-of Labrador (24th June, 1497) seventeen months before the continent of
-Tropical America, in the delta of the Orinoco, was discovered by Columbus
-on his third voyage.
-
-Thus Genoa and Venice, the great Mediterranean rivals, divide the glory
-of having revealed a new world to mankind, but it was ordained that
-the laurels of their sons should bloom under a foreign flag, and the
-fruits of their endeavours be reaped by other nations. For as Columbus
-steered into the western ocean in the service of the Spanish monarch, the
-Cabots were sent by Henry the Seventh of England across the Atlantic to
-discover a north-western passage to India. This, of course, they did not
-accomplish, but the discovery of Newfoundland and of the coast of America
-from Labrador to Virginia rewarded their efforts, and laid the foundation
-of Britain's colonial greatness. Their voyage is also remarkable as
-having been the first expedition of the kind that ever left the shores of
-England, which at that time held a very inferior rank among the maritime
-nations, and gave but taint indications of her future naval supremacy. On
-this occasion it may not be uninteresting to cast a retrospective glance
-on the modest beginnings of British navigation. In the year 1217 the
-first treaty of commerce was concluded with Norway, and in the beginning
-of the fourteenth century Bergen was the most distant port to which
-English vessels resorted. Soon afterwards they ventured into the Baltic,
-and it was not before the middle of the following century that they began
-to frequent some of the Castilian and Portuguese ports. Towards the end
-of the fifteenth century the English flag was still a stranger to the
-Mediterranean, and direct intercourse with the Levant only began with the
-sixteenth. Edward the Second, preparing for his great Scottish war, was
-obliged to hire five galleys from Genoa, the same town whence a few years
-back our giant steamers transported a whole Sardinian army to the shores
-of the Crimea, where centuries before the Genoese had been established
-as lords and masters. Such are the changes in the relative position of
-nations that have been brought about by the power of time!
-
-After this short digression I return to America, where, in 1499, Ojeda
-and Amerigo Vespucci were the first to sail along the coast of Paria.
-The following year was uncommonly rich in voyages of discovery, as
-well in the south as in the north. In the western ocean the line was
-first crossed by Vincent Yañez Pinson, who doubled Cape Saint Augustin,
-discovered the mouths of the Amazon river, and thence sailed northwards
-along the coast as far as the island of Trinidad, which Columbus had
-discovered two years before. About the same time a Portuguese fleet,
-sailing under the command of Pedro Alvarez Cabral to the Indian Ocean,
-was driven by adverse winds to the coast of the Brazils; so that, if the
-genius of Columbus had not evoked, as it were, America out of the waves,
-chance would have effected her discovery a few years later.
-
-A third voyage, which renders the year 1500 remarkable in maritime
-annals, is that of Gaspar Cortereal, a son of John Vaz Cortereal whom I
-have already mentioned as one of the doubtful precursors of Columbus.
-
-Hoping to realise the dream of a north-west passage to the riches of
-India, Gaspar appeared on the inhospitable shores of Labrador, and
-penetrated into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Storms and ice-drifts forced
-him to retreat, but firmly resolved to prosecute his design, he again set
-sail in the following year with two small vessels. It is supposed that on
-this second voyage he penetrated into Frobisher Bay, but here floating
-ice-masses and violent gales separated him from his companion ship,
-which returned alone to Portugal.
-
-As in our times the uncertain fate of Franklin has called forth a series
-of heroic deeds, so the doubtful destiny of the Portuguese explorer
-allowed his brother Miguel no rest, whom in the following spring we
-find hastening with three ships on the traces of the lost Gaspar. But
-Miguel also disappeared for ever among the ice-fields of the north. A
-third brother of this high-minded family yet remained, who earnestly
-implored the king that he also might be allowed to go forth and seek for
-his missing kindred. But Emanuel steadfastly refused permission, saying
-that these deplorable enterprises had already cost him two of his most
-valuable servants, and he could afford to lose no more.
-
-In the year 1501 Rodrigo de Bastidas sailed to the coast of Paria, and
-discovered the whole shore-line from Cape de Vela to the Gulf of Darien.
-In the year 1502 the aged Columbus, entering with youthful ardour upon
-his fourth and last voyage, set sail with four wretched vessels, the
-largest of which was only seventy tons burthen, and discovered the coast
-of the American continent from Cape Gracias á Dios to Porto-Bello. The
-east coast of Yucatan was explored in the year 1508 by Juan Diaz de Solis
-and Vincent Yañez Pinson, and the island of Cuba circumnavigated for the
-first time by Sebastian de Ocampo.
-
-In 1512 Juan Ponce de Leon is led by his evil star to Florida, where,
-instead of finding as he hoped the fountain of eternal youth, he is
-doomed to a miserable end; and in 1517 the above-mentioned Solis sails
-along the coasts of the Brazils to the mouth of the Rio de la Plata,
-where he is killed in a conflict with the Indians. In 1518 Cordova makes
-his countrymen acquainted with the north and west coasts of Yucatan, and
-in the same year Grijalva discovers the Mexican coast from Tabasco to San
-Juan de Ulloa. In 1518 he is followed by the great Cortez, who lands at
-Vera Cruz, overthrows the empire of Montezuma after a series of exploits
-unparalleled in history, and renders the whole coast of Mexico far to the
-north subject to the Spanish crown.
-
-The voyages of Verazzani (1523) who sailed along the coast of the United
-States, and of Jacques Cartier (1524) who investigated the Bay of
-St. Lawrence, did not indeed widely extend geographical knowledge, as
-these navigators, who had been sent out by Francis I., did no more than
-examine more closely the previous discoveries of Cabot and Cortereal;
-their explorations however had the result of giving France possession of
-Canada, and of entitling her to a share in the fisheries of Newfoundland.
-Thus within half a century after the ever memorable day when Columbus
-first landed on Guanahani, we find almost the whole eastern coast of
-America rising into light from the deep darkness of an unknown past.
-
-But while the western shores of the Atlantic were thus unrolling
-themselves before the wondering gaze of mankind, the Indian Ocean was
-the scene of no less remarkable events; for in the same year (1498) that
-Columbus first visited the American continent, Vasco de Gama doubled
-the Cape of Good Hope, which thus fully justified its auspicious name,
-crossed the Eastern Ocean, and on the 22nd of May landed at Calicut on
-the coast of Malabar, ten months and two days after leaving the port of
-Lisbon.
-
-And now, as if by magic, the great revolution in commerce took place
-which the Venetians long had feared and the Portuguese had no less
-anxiously hoped for; for the latter lost no time in reaping the golden
-fruits of the glorious discoveries of Gama and his predecessors. In less
-than twenty years their flag waved in all the harbours of the Indian
-Ocean, from the east coast of Africa to Canton; and over this whole
-immense expanse a row of fortified stations secured to them the dominion
-of the seas. Their settlements in Diu and Goa awed the whole coast of
-Malabar, and cut off the intercourse of Egypt with India by way of
-the Red Sea. They took possession of the small island of Ormus, which
-commands the entrance of the Persian Gulf, and rendered this important
-commercial highway likewise tributary to their power. In the centre of
-the East-Indian world rose their chief emporium, Malacca, and even in
-distant China Macao obeyed their laws. The discovery of the Molucca
-Islands gave them the monopoly of the lucrative spice trade, which was
-destined at a later period, and more permanently, to enrich the thrifty
-Dutchman.
-
-What vast changes had taken place since Prince Henry's first expeditions
-to the coast of Africa! How had old Ocean enlarged his bounds! He who as
-a child had still known the earth with her old and narrow confines might,
-before his hair grew white, have seen the Atlantic assume a definite
-form; Africa project like an enormous peninsula into the boundless world
-of waters, and one single ocean bathe all the coasts from Canton to the
-West Indies.
-
-Yet a few years and the Pacific opens its gates, and all the discoveries
-of Columbus and Vasco seem small when compared with the vast regions
-which Magellan reveals to man.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XXV.
-
-  Vasco Nuñez de Balboa.--His Discovery of the Pacific, and
-  subsequent Fate.--Ferdinand Magellan.--Sebastian el Cano, the
-  first Circumnavigator of the Globe.--Discoveries of Pizarro and
-  Cortez.--Urdaneta.--Juan Fernandez.--Mendoza.--Drake.--Discoveries
-  of the Portuguese and Dutch in the Western Pacific.--Attempts
-  of the Dutch and English to discover North-East and
-  North-West Passages to India.--Sir Hugh Willoughby and
-  Chancellor.--Frobisher.--Davis.--Barentz.--His Wintering in
-  Nova Zembla.--Quiros.--Torres.--Schouten.--Le Maire.--Abel
-  Tasman.--Hudson.--Baffin.--Dampier.--Anson.--Byron.--Wallis and
-  Carteret.--Bougainville.
-
-
-The riches which the Indian trade had poured into the lap of Venice, and
-which at a later period fell to the share of the Portuguese, formed the
-chief incitement to the great maritime discoveries which illustrated the
-end of the fifteenth and the first half of the sixteenth century.
-
-The hope to discover a new road to India had not only animated the
-Portuguese navigators, but also led Columbus and Cabot across the
-Atlantic. It caused the unfortunate Cortereal to sail into the Gulf of
-St. Lawrence, induced Juan de Solis to penetrate into the mouth of the
-Rio de la Plata, and was finally the chief end and aim of the wondrous
-expedition of Magellan. The time is now come when the barriers of
-the Pacific are to fall, but before crossing its vast bosom with the
-illustrious navigator who first traversed it from end to end, I shall
-detain the reader a few moments on the shores of the Gulf of Darien,
-where the wretched remains of the colony of Santa Maria el Antigua,
-founded by Ojeda in 1509, had, after the departure of that unfortunate
-adventurer, freely elected Vasco Nuñez de Balboa to be their governor.
-This great man, who would have emulated the fame of a Cortez or Pizarro
-if his good fortune had been equal to his merit, omitted no opportunity
-of justifying the choice of his comrades by the unremitting zeal he
-displayed for their welfare. Making up for the scantiness of his
-resources by unceasing activity, he subdued the neighbouring caciques,
-and collected a great quantity of gold, which abounded more in that part
-of the continent than in the islands.
-
-It happened during one of his frequent excursions that a young Cacique,
-witnessing a very angry dispute among the Spaniards about a few grains of
-gold, asked them in a contemptuous tone why they quarrelled about such
-a trifle; and added, that, if they set such an exorbitant value upon a
-metal comparatively worthless in his eyes, he could gratify their utmost
-wishes by pointing out to them a land where gold was so plentiful that
-even common utensils were made of it. And when Balboa eagerly asked where
-that happy country was situated, "Six days' journey to the south," was
-the answer, "will bring you to another ocean along whose coast it lies!"
-
-This was the first time the Spaniards ever heard of the Pacific and of
-gold-teeming Peru, and the intelligence was well calculated to inflame
-the enterprising spirit of their leader. Balboa immediately concluded
-that this sea must be that which Columbus and so many other navigators
-had vainly sought for, and that its discovery would beyond all doubt
-open the way to India, which, according to the geographical error of the
-times, was supposed to be far less distant from America than it really is.
-
-The most brilliant prospects rose before his fancy, and he would
-immediately have gone forth to realise them, if prudence had not
-warned him first to provide all the means necessary to insure success.
-He therefore endeavoured before all to gain the good-will of the
-neighbouring Indian chiefs, and sent some trustworthy agents to
-Hispaniola with a considerable quantity of gold, whereby many adventurers
-were induced to flock to his standard. Having thus reinforced himself, he
-thought he might now safely undertake his important expedition.
-
-The Isthmus of Darien, over which he had to force his way, is not above
-sixty miles broad, but this short distance was rendered difficult, or
-rather impervious, by the innumerable obstacles of a tropical wilderness.
-The high mountains running along the neck of land were covered with
-dense forests, and the low grounds beneath filled with deep swamps, from
-which arose exhalations deadly to a European constitution. Wild torrents
-rushed down the ravines, and often forced them to retrace their steps. A
-march through a country like this, thinly peopled by a few savages, and
-without any other guides than some Indians of doubtful fidelity, was an
-enterprise worthy of all the energies of a Balboa.
-
-On the 1st of September, 1513, after the end of the rainy season, he set
-out with a small but well chosen band of 190 Spaniards, accompanied by
-1000 Indian carriers. As long as he remained on the territories of the
-friendly Caciques his progress was comparatively easy, but scarce had
-he penetrated into the interior, when, besides the almost invincible
-obstacles of nature--forests, swamps, and swollen torrents,--he had to
-encounter the deadly enmity of the Indians. As he approached, some of
-the Caciques fled to the mountains, after having destroyed or carried
-along with them all that might have been of use to the hated strangers;
-while others, of more determined hostility, opposed his progress by force
-of arms. Although the Spaniards had been led to expect that a six days'
-march would bring them to their journey's end, they had already spent no
-less than twenty-five days in forcing their way through the wilderness,
-amidst incessant attacks and hardships. The greater part of them were
-rapidly giving way under fatigues almost surpassing the limits of mortal
-endurance, and even the strongest felt that they could not hold out much
-longer. But Balboa, ever the foremost to face danger or difficulty,
-whose spirits no reverse could damp, and whose fiery eloquence painted
-in glowing colours the glorious reward of their present privations,
-knew how to inspire his men with his own unconquerable spirit, so that
-without a murmur they kept toiling on through swamp and forest. At length
-the Indian guides pointed out to them a mountain-crest from which they
-promised them the view of the longed-for ocean. Filled with new ardour
-they climbed up the steep ascent, but before they reached the summit
-Balboa ordered them to halt, that he might be the first to enjoy the
-glorious prospect. As soon as he saw the Pacific stretch out in endless
-majesty along the verge of the distant horizon, he fell on his knees and
-poured forth his rapturous thanks to heaven for having awarded him so
-grand a discovery. And now also his impatient companions hurried on, and
-soon the primeval forest--accustomed only to the howlings of the brute
-or the eagle's scream--resounded with the loud exclamations of their
-astonishment, gratitude, and joy.
-
-It was from the small mountain-chain of Quarequa, on the 25th of
-September, 1513, that the Spaniards first saw the sea-horizon, but they
-had still several days to march before they reached the Gulf of San
-Miguel. Here Alonzo Martin de Don Benito was the first white man that
-ever floated in a canoe on the Eastern Pacific, even before Balboa, armed
-with sword and shield, descended into the water to take possession of the
-newly discovered ocean in the name of the king his master.
-
-Although the subsequent fortunes of this great man are foreign to my
-subject, yet it may not be uninteresting to the reader to be informed
-how his important services were requited. Unfortunately the ingratitude
-of the Spanish court, which so scandalously embittered the declining
-years of Columbus and Cortez, reached its lowest depth in the case of
-Balboa. Those great men had at least in the beginning enjoyed some show
-of favour, but the discoverer of the Pacific was treated throughout with
-the basest indignity. The governorship of Darien, to which his splendid
-achievements had given him so undeniable a claim, was conferred upon
-a certain Pedrarias Davila, a wretch who, after having persecuted and
-thwarted the hero in every possible way, caused him at length to be
-beheaded, under a false accusation of high treason.
-
-Six years after Balboa had first seen the Pacific, two years after his
-execution, Ferdinand of Magellan made his appearance in that great
-ocean. A Portuguese of noble birth, this eminent navigator had served
-with distinction under Albuquerque, the conqueror of Malacca. His plan
-of seeking a new road to India across the Atlantic being but coldly
-received in his native country, he transferred his services to Spain,
-where his distinguished merit found better judges in Cardinal Ximenes,
-and his youthful master, Charles V. With five ships, the largest of which
-did not carry more than 120 tons, and with a crew of 236 men, partly
-the sweepings of the jails, he sailed on the 20th of September, 1519,
-from the port of San Lucar, and spent the following summer (the winter
-of the southern hemisphere) on the dreary coast of Patagonia. In this
-uncomfortable station he lost one of his squadron; and the Spaniards
-suffered so much from the excessive rigour of the climate, that the crews
-of three of his ships, headed by their officers, rose in open mutiny,
-and insisted on relinquishing the visionary project of a desperate
-adventurer, and returning directly to Spain. This dangerous insurrection
-Magellan suppressed by an effort of courage no less prompt than intrepid,
-and inflicted exemplary punishment on the ringleaders.
-
-He now continued his journey to the south, and reached, near 53° south
-lat., the celebrated straits which bear his name. Here again he had to
-exert his full authority to induce his reluctant followers to accompany
-him into the unknown channel that was to lead them to an equally unknown
-ocean. One of his ships immediately deserted him and returned to Europe,
-but the others remained true to their commander, and, after having spent
-twenty days in winding through those dangerous straits, they at last,
-on the 27th of November, 1521, emerged into the open ocean, the sight
-of which amply repaid Magellan for all the anxieties and troubles he
-had undergone. They now pursued their way across the wide expanse of
-waters, of whose enormous extent they had no conception, and soon had
-to endure all the miseries of hunger and disease. But the continuous
-beauty of the weather, and the steady easterly wind, which, swelling the
-sails of Magellan, drove him straight onwards to the goal, kept up his
-courage; and induced him to give to the ocean which greeted him with
-such a friendly welcome the name of the Pacific, which it still, though
-undeservedly, retains. During three months and twenty days he sailed to
-the north-west, and, by a singular mischance, without seeing any land
-in those isle-teeming seas, except only two uninhabited rocks which he
-called the "Desventuradas," or the "Wretched." At last, after the longest
-journey ever made by man through the deserts of the ocean, he discovered
-the small but fruitful group of the Ladrones (March 6, 1521), which
-afforded him refreshments in such abundance, that the vigour and health
-of his emaciated crew was soon reestablished. From these isles, to which
-his gratitude might have given a more friendly name, he proceeded on his
-voyage, and soon made the more important discovery of the islands now
-known as the _Philippines_. In one of these he got into an unfortunate
-quarrel with the natives, who attacked him in great numbers and
-well-armed; and, while he fought at the head of his men with his usual
-valour, he fell by the hands of those barbarians, together with several
-of his principal officers.
-
-Thus Magellan lost the glory of accomplishing the first circumnavigation
-of the globe; the performance of which now fell to the share of his
-companion, Sebastian El Cano, who returned to San Lucar in the "Victoria"
-by the Cape of Good Hope, having sailed round the globe in the space of
-three years and twenty-eight days.
-
-But although Magellan did not live fully to achieve his glorious
-undertaking, the astonishing perseverance and ability with which he
-performed the chief and most difficult part of his arduous task have
-secured him an immortal renown. Nor has posterity been unmindful of his
-services, having awarded his name an imperishable place in the memory of
-man, both in the straits, the portal of his grand discovery, and in the
-"Magellanic clouds," those dense clusters of stars and nebulæ which so
-beautifully stud the firmament of the southern hemisphere.
-
-After Magellan, Pizarro, the conqueror of Peru, shines as a discoverer
-in the South Sea. The history of his memorable feats by land does not
-belong to this narrative, but I may well accompany him on his adventurous
-navigation along the unknown coast of South America, and relate the
-hardships he had to endure before he was enabled to reap the rewards of
-victory.
-
-Soon after the execution, or rather the murder, of Balboa, Pedrarias
-Davila obtained permission to transfer the colony of Darien to Panama,
-which, although equally unhealthy, yet from its situation on the Pacific
-afforded greater facilities for the prosecution of discovery on the
-south-west coast, to which now all the hopes and plans of the Spanish
-gold-seekers were directed. Several expeditions left the new colony in
-rapid succession, but all proved unsuccessful. Their timorous leaders,
-none of whom had ventured beyond the dreary coasts of _Tierra firme_,
-gave such dismal accounts of their hardships and the wretched aspect
-of the countries they had seen, that the ardour for discovery was
-considerably damped, and the opinion began to gain ground that Balboa
-must have founded chimerical hopes on the idle tales of an ignorant or
-deceitful savage.
-
-But there were three men in Panama, Francisco Pizarro, Diego de Almagro,
-and Hernando Luque, who, far from sharing the general opinion, remained
-fully determined to seek the unknown gold-land. Pizarro and Almagro
-were soldiers, Luque was a priest. They formed an association approved
-of by the governor, each agreeing to devote all his energies to the
-common interest. Pizarro, the poorest of the three, took upon himself
-the greater part of the hardships and dangers of the enterprise, and
-volunteered to command the first expedition that should be fitted out;
-Almagro engaged to follow him with the necessary reinforcements; and
-Luque, the man of peace, promised to watch in Panama over the interests
-of the association.
-
-On the 14th of November, 1524, Pizarro sailed from Panama with 112 men,
-closely packed together in one small vessel. Unfortunately he had chosen
-the worst season of the year for his departure, as the periodical winds
-raging at the time blew quite contrary to the course he intended to
-pursue, and thus it happened that after seventy days he had advanced
-no farther to the south-east than an experienced navigator will now
-traverse in as many hours. During this tedious journey he landed in
-different parts of the coast of Tierra firme, but, finding all the
-previous descriptions of its inhospitable nature fully confirmed, he
-saw himself obliged to await the promised reinforcements in Chuchama,
-opposite to the Pearl Islands. Here he was soon joined by Almagro, who
-had suffered similar hardships, and moreover lost an eye in a fight with
-the Indians. But, as he had advanced farther to the south, where the
-country and people wore a more favourable aspect, this slight glimpse of
-hope encouraged the adventurers to persevere in spite of all the miseries
-they had endured. Almagro returned to Panama, where with the greatest
-difficulty he could levy fourscore men, his sufferings and those of his
-companions having given his countrymen a very unfavourable idea of the
-service.
-
-With this small reinforcement the associates did not hesitate to renew
-their enterprise, and at length, after a passage no less tedious than the
-first, reached the Bay of Saint Matthew on the coast of Quito (1526). In
-Tecumez, to the south of the Emerald River, they were delighted with the
-aspect of a fine well-cultivated country, inhabited by a people whose
-clothing and dwellings indicated a higher degree of civilisation and
-wealth. But, not venturing to attempt its conquest with a handful of men
-enfeebled by fatigue and disease, they retired to the small island of
-Gallo, where Pizarro waited, while Almagro once more returned to Panama,
-hoping that the better accounts he could give of their second journey
-would procure reinforcements large enough for the conquest of the newly
-discovered countries.
-
-But the new governor of Panama, Pedro de los Rios, interdicted all
-further volunteering for an enterprise he considered chimerical, and
-even sent a vessel to the island of Gallo to bring back Pizarro and his
-companions. The associates, on the other hand, were less inclined than
-ever to give up their enterprise, now that better prospects had opened,
-so that Pizarro peremptorily refused to obey the governor's commands, and
-used all his eloquence in persuading his men not to abandon him. But the
-hardships they had endured, and the prospect of soon revisiting their
-families and friends, pleaded so strongly against him, that when he drew
-a line with his sword upon the sand, and told those that wished to leave
-him to pass over it, only thirteen of his veterans remained true to his
-fortunes.
-
-With this select band of heroes Pizarro now retired to the desert island
-of Gorgona, where, as it lay further from the coast, he could await
-with greater security the reinforcements which he trusted the zeal of
-his associates would soon be able to procure. Nor was he deceived, for
-Almagro and Luque, by their repeated solicitations, at length prevailed
-upon the governor to send out a small vessel to his assistance, though
-without one landsman on board, that he might not be encouraged to any
-new enterprise. Meanwhile Pizarro and his faithful "thirteen" had spent
-five long months on their wretched island, their eyes constantly turned
-to the north, until, heart-sick and despairing from hope deferred, they
-resolved to intrust themselves to the inconstant waves upon a miserable
-raft, rather than remain any longer in that dreadful wilderness. But now
-at last the vessel from Panama appeared, and raised them so thoroughly
-from the deepest despondency to the most extravagant hopes, that Pizarro
-easily induced not only his old friends, but also the crew of the vessel,
-to sail farther to the south instead of returning at once to Panama.
-
-This time the winds were favourable, and after a voyage of twenty days
-they at length reached the town of Tumbez on the coast of Peru, where
-the magnificent temple of the sun and the palace of the Incas, with its
-costly golden vases, exceeded their most sanguine expectations. But
-once more Pizarro, too weak to attempt invasion, was obliged to content
-himself with the view of the riches he one day hoped to possess, and
-returned to Panama after an absence of three years.
-
-Amidst interminable delays and difficulties, which, although not to be
-compared to those he had endured, would still have totally discouraged a
-mind of a less iron mould, five years more elapsed before the matchless
-perseverance of Pizarro met with its reward. On the 14th of April, 1531,
-he landed in Peru for the second time, and in a few months the empire of
-the Incas lay prostrate at his feet. The poor adventurer of Gorgona was
-now one of the richest men on earth.
-
-From this time the stream of conquest and discovery continuously rolled
-on to the south, so that after a few years the whole coast of Peru and
-Chili, as far as the wilds of Patagonia, was either known or subject to
-the Spaniards.
-
-But while Pizarro and his comrades were thus opening the south-west
-coast of America to the knowledge of mankind, the conqueror of Mexico
-was no less anxious to add to his laurels the glory of discovery in the
-Northern Pacific, whose shores his warriors had reached in 1521, soon
-after the fall of the Aztec capital. Desirous of opening a new passage to
-the East Indies, he fitted out a fleet (1526), which, under the command
-of his kinsman Alvaro de Saavedra, was to sail to the Moluccas, and most
-likely discovered part of the Radack and Ralick Archipelago, visited and
-described three centuries later by Kotzebue and Chamisso.
-
-In the year 1536 Cortez himself undertook a maritime expedition to
-the north, discovered the peninsula of California, and explored the
-greater part of the long and narrow bay which separates it from the
-mainland. After the return of this great man to Spain, where, loaded with
-ingratitude, he died in 1547, Rodriguez Cabrillo (1543) sailed as far
-as Monterey, and subsequently the pilot of the expedition, Bartholomew
-Ferreto, reached 43° N. lat., where Vancouver's Cape Oxford is situated.
-
-In the year 1542 Villalobos made the first attempt to establish a colony
-on the Philippine Islands with settlers from Mexico, but, having failed,
-the colonisation did not take place before 1565. The intelligence of
-this success was brought to America by the pilot and monk, Fray Andreas
-Urdaneta, who sailed on the 1st of June from Manilla and arrived on the
-3rd of October in the Mexican port of Acapulco. All previous attempts
-to sail from Asia to America had failed, on account of the opposing
-trade-winds; but Urdaneta sailed northward till he encountered the
-favourable west wind, which carried him to the New World across the
-wide bosom of the Pacific. The discovery of this new ocean route was of
-considerable importance to the Spaniards, and, to perpetuate the memory
-of Urdaneta's nautical ability, they continued to call the passage by his
-name.
-
-About the same time another Spanish pilot, Juan Fernandez, discovered the
-proper sea route from Callao to Chili, by first sailing far out to sea,
-and thus avoiding the coast-currents from the south. He also discovered
-the island which still bears his name, and has become so celebrated by
-the adventures of Alexander Selkirk, and the immortal tale of Daniel
-Defoe.
-
-In the year 1567 an expedition sailed from Callao under Alvaro Mendana,
-which discovered the Solomon Islands; and in 1595 the group of the
-Marquesas de Mendoza was first brought to light by the same navigator.
-Before the last expedition of Mendana, Drake, the first circumnavigator
-of the globe (1577-1580) after Magellan and El Cano, penetrated into the
-Pacific, by rounding Cape Horn, and subsequently discovered the coasts of
-New Albion as far as 48° N. lat.
-
-After having thus rapidly followed the course of the discoveries which
-during the sixteenth century made Europe acquainted with the whole
-western coast of America, from Cape Pillares in Tierra del Fuego to the
-mouth of the Columbia River, I return to the Indian Ocean, where in the
-beginning of the century we left the Portuguese in the full bloom of
-their power, and, to judge by the progress already made, likely to add
-largely to the stock of geographical knowledge. But whether the masters
-of the Indian Ocean had no desire to extend still farther the circle of
-their conquests, or the fiery spirit of enterprise which had animated
-Vasco de Gama and Diaz was prematurely extinguished, the discoveries of
-the Portuguese in the Pacific by no means corresponded to the gigantic
-flight which in less than a quarter of a century had led them from Cape
-de Verde to the extremity of the Malayan Archipelago. New Guinea was
-indeed discovered by Don Jorge de Menezes (1526) and Alvaro de Saavedra
-(1528), and some old maps prove that before 1542 a part of the coast of
-New Holland was known to the Portuguese, who had penetrated to the north
-as far as Formosa and Japan, yet at the end of the sixteenth century the
-western boundaries of the Pacific were only known from 40° N. lat. to 10°
-S. lat., and all beyond was enveloped in darkness. As little was known
-of the innumerable South Sea islands, for although some of the groups had
-been seen or visited by the Spaniards, their existence was kept secret
-lest other seafaring nations should be tempted to explore the wastes of
-the Pacific.
-
-I have already mentioned that the desire to find a shorter route to the
-wealth of India was the chief inducement which led to the discoveries of
-Vasco de Gama, Columbus, and Magellan; this same motive also called forth
-the first attempts of the Dutch and English to find a northern passage to
-the southern seas.
-
-In the year 1553 Sir Hugh Willoughby and Chancellor left England on their
-memorable voyage of Arctic discovery, and steered to the north-east.
-In a stormy night they parted company, never to meet again. For a long
-time nothing was heard of Willoughby, until some Russian sailors found
-on the dreary coast of Lapland two wrecks tenanted only by the dead.
-A note, dated January 1554, proved that then at least some of the
-unfortunate navigators were still alive; but this was the last and only
-memorial of the mysterious end of the first Britons that ever ventured
-into the frozen seas. Chancellor was more fortunate. After having for
-a long time been driven about by storms, he discovered the White Sea,
-and on landing heard for the first time of Russia and her sovereign the
-Czar Ivan Vasiliovitch, who resided in a great town called Moscow. This
-unknown potentate the indefatigable seaman resolved to visit in his
-capital, where he was graciously received, and obtained permission for
-his countrymen to frequent the port of Archangel. Soon after his return
-to England he was sent back to Russia by Queen Mary, for the purpose
-of settling the terms of a treaty of commerce between the two nations;
-and, having satisfactorily accomplished his mission, once more set sail
-from the White Sea, accompanied by a Muscovite ambassador. But this time
-the return voyage was extremely unfortunate; two of the ships, richly
-laden with Russian commodities, ran ashore on the coast of Norway, and
-Chancellor's own vessel was driven by a dreadful storm as far as Pitsligo
-in Scotland, in which bay it was wrecked. Chancellor endeavoured to save
-the ambassador and himself in a boat, but the small pinnace was upset,
-and, although the Russian reached the strand, the Englishman, after
-having escaped so many dangers in the Arctic Ocean, was doomed to an
-untimely end within sight of his native shores.
-
-Twenty years afterwards, Martin Frobisher set sail with three small
-vessels of thirty-five, thirty, and ten tons, on no less an errand than
-the discovery of a north-west passage to Asia. With these wretched
-nut-shells he reached the coasts of Greenland and Labrador, but was
-prevented by the ice from effecting a landing.
-
-This first voyage was little remarkable in itself, but its accidental
-results tended much to the advancement of northern research, for
-Frobisher brought home some glittering stones, the lustre of which was
-erroneously attributed to gold; a circumstance which, as may well be
-imagined, greatly contributed to pave the way for a second expedition
-to "Meta Incognita." This time Frobisher sailed with three ships, of a
-much larger size, that they might be able to hold more of the anticipated
-treasure; and, besides securing 200 tons of the imaginary gold,
-discovered the entrance of the strait which bears his name.
-
-His geographical knowledge may be inferred from the fact that he firmly
-believed the land on one side of this channel to be Asia, and on the
-other America; and, though we may be tempted to smile at his ignorance,
-yet the lion-hearted seaman is not the less to be admired, who with such
-inadequate means ventured to brave the unknown terrors of the Frozen
-Ocean.
-
-The gales and floating ice which greeted Frobisher as he endeavoured to
-force a passage through the strait put a stop to all farther progress
-to India; but, as the gold delusion still continued, the expedition was
-considered eminently successful. A large squadron of fifteen vessels was
-consequently fitted out for the summer of 1578, and commissioned not
-only to bring back an untold amount of treasure, but also to take out
-materials and men to establish a colony on those desolate shores.
-
-But this grand expedition, which sailed forth with such extravagant
-hopes, was doomed to end in disappointment. One of the largest vessels
-was crushed by an iceberg at the entrance of the strait, and the others
-were so beaten about by storms and obstructed by fogs, that the whole
-summer elapsed, and they were fain to return to England without having
-done anything for the advancement of geographical knowledge.
-
-The utter worthlessness of the glittering stones having meanwhile been
-discovered, Frobisher relinquished all further attempts to push his
-fortunes in the northern regions, and sought new laurels in a sunnier
-clime. He accompanied Drake to the West Indies, commanded subsequently
-one of the largest vessels opposed to the Spanish Armada, and ended his
-heroic life while attacking a small French fort on behalf of Henry IV.,
-during the war with the League. He was one of those adventurous spirits
-always thirsting for action, and too uneasy ever to enjoy repose.
-
-In the year 1585, John Davis, with the ships "Sunshine" and "Moonshine,"
-carrying besides their more necessary equipments a band of music "to
-cheer and recreate the spirits of the natives," made his first voyage in
-quest of the north-west passage, and discovered the broad strait which
-leads into the icy deserts of Baffin's Bay. But neither in this attempt
-nor in his two following ones was he able to effect the object for
-which he strove; and these repeated failures cooled for a long time the
-national ardour for northern discovery.
-
-In the year 1594 the Dutch appear upon the scene. This persevering and
-industrious people, which in the following century was destined to play
-so important a part in the politics of Europe, had just then succeeded in
-casting off the Spanish yoke, and was laudably endeavouring to gain by
-maritime enterprise a position among the neighbouring states, which the
-smallness of its territory seemed to deny to its ambition. All the known
-roads to the treasures of the south were at that time too well guarded by
-the jealous fleets of Spain and Portugal to admit of any rivalry; but,
-if fortune should favour them in finding the yet unexplored northern
-passage to India, they might still hope to secure a lion's share in that
-most lucrative of trades. Animated by the bold spirit of adventure which
-the dawn of independence always calls forth in a nation, a company of
-Amsterdam merchants fitted out an expedition of northern discovery, which
-it intrusted to the superintendence and pilotage of William Barentz, one
-of the most experienced seamen of the day.
-
-Barentz left the Texel on the 6th of June, 1594, reached the northern
-extremity of Nova Zembla, and returned to Holland. Meanwhile his
-associate, penetrating through a strait to which he gave the very
-appropriate name of Waigats or "Wind-hole," battled against the floating
-ice of the Sea of Kara, until, rounding a promontory, he saw a blue
-and open sea extending before him, and the Russian coast trending away
-towards the south-east. He now no longer doubted that he had sailed round
-the famous cape "Tabis" of Pliny, an imaginary promontory which according
-to that erroneous guide formed the northern extremity of Asia, and whence
-the voyage was supposed to be short and easy to its eastern and southern
-shores. He had only reached the Gulf of Obi, and within the Arctic
-Circle the continent of Asia still stretched 120 degrees to the east;
-but this was then unknown, and the Dutchman, satisfied with the prospect
-of success, did not press onward to test its reality, but started in
-full sail for Holland, to rouse the sluggish fancy of his phlegmatic
-countrymen with chimerical hopes and golden visions.
-
-On the receipt of this glad intelligence six large vessels were
-immediately fitted out, and richly laden with goods suited to the taste
-of the Indians. A small swift-sailing yacht was added to the squadron
-to bear it company as far as the imaginary promontory of Tabis, and
-thence to return with the good news that it had safely performed what was
-supposed to be the most perilous part of the voyage, and had been left
-steering with a favourable wind right off to India.
-
-But, as may well be imagined, these sanguine hopes were destined to
-meet with a woeful disappointment, for the Wind-hole Strait, doing
-full justice to its name, did not allow them to pass; and, after many
-fruitless endeavours to force their way through the mighty ice-blocks
-that obstructed that inhospitable channel, they returned dejected and
-crest-fallen to the port whence they had sailed a few months before,
-elated with such brilliant expectations.
-
-Although great disappointment was felt at this failure, the scheme
-however was not abandoned, and on the 16th of May, 1596, Heemskerk,
-Barentz, and Cornelis Ryp once more started for the north-east. Bear
-Island and Spitzbergen were discovered, whereupon the ships separated;
-Cornelis and Heemskerk returning to Holland, while Barentz, enclosed by
-the ice, was obliged to spend a long and dreary winter in the dreadful
-solitudes of Nova Zembla. Fortunately a quantity of drift-wood was found
-on the strand, which served the Dutchmen both for the construction of
-a small hut and for fuel. At the same time it raised their courage, as
-they now no longer doubted that Providence, which had sent them this
-unexpected succour in the wilderness, would guide them safely through all
-their difficulties. And indeed they stood in need of this consolatory
-belief, for as early as September the ground was frozen so hard that
-they tried in vain to dig a grave for a dead comrade, and their cramped
-fingers could hardly proceed with the building of the hut.
-
-The attacks of the white bears also gave them great trouble. One day
-Barentz, from the deck of the vessel, seeing three bears stealthily
-approaching a party of his men who were labouring at the hut, shouted
-loudly to warn them of their peril, and the men, startled at the near
-approach of danger, sought safety in flight. One of the party, in his
-haste and perturbation, fell into a cleft in the ice; but the hungry
-animals fortunately overlooked him, and continued their pursuit of the
-main body. These gained the vessel and began to congratulate themselves
-on their safety, when, to their horror, they perceived that their foes,
-instead of retreating from a hopeless pursuit, were actually scaling
-the ship's sides, evidently determined to have their meal. Matters now
-became serious. One of the sailors was despatched for a light, but in
-his hurry and agitation could not get the match to take fire (Enfields
-and revolvers were then unknown), and the muskets being thus rendered
-useless, the sailors in despair kept their enemies off by pelting
-them with whatever articles came first to hand. This unequal conflict
-continued for some time, until a well-directed blow on the snout of the
-largest bear caused the _barking_[AB] monster to retire from the field
-followed by his two companions,
-
-            "who, seeing Hector flee,
-  No longer dared to face the enemy."
-
-[Footnote AB: "I did not hear them roar as ours do, but they only
-bark."--_Marten's Voyage to Spitzbergen._]
-
-By the middle of October the hut was completed; and though the
-accommodations it afforded were extremely scanty, they were glad to take
-up their abode in it at once.
-
-And now began the long, dreary, three months' night of the 77th degree
-of latitude, during which snow-drifts and impetuous winds confined them
-to their miserable dwelling. "We looked pitifully one upon the other,"
-says Gerret De Veer, the simple narrator of the sufferings of that Arctic
-winter, "being in great fear that if the extremity of the cold grew to
-be more and more, we should all die there of cold; for that what fire
-soever we made would not warm us." The ice was now two inches thick upon
-the walls and even on the sides of their sleeping-cots, and the very
-clothes they wore were whitened with frost, so that as they sat together
-in their hut they "were all as white as the countrymen used to be when
-they came in at the gates of the towns in Holland with their sleads, and
-have gone all night."
-
-Yet in the midst of all their sufferings these hardy men maintained brave
-and cheerful hearts, and so great was their elasticity of spirit that,
-remembering the 5th of January was "Twelfth Even," they determined to
-celebrate it as best they might. "And then," says the old chronicler, "we
-prayed our maister that we might be merry that night, and said that we
-were content to spend some of the wine that night which we had spared,
-and which was our share (one glass) every second day; and so that night
-we made merry and drew for king. And therewith we had two pounds of
-meale, whereof we made pancakes with oyle, and every man had a white
-biscuit, which we sopt in the wine. And so, supposing that we were in our
-own country, and amongst our friends, it comforted as well as if we had
-made a great banket in our owne house." Blessed Content! arising from a
-simple heart and a life of honest and healthful toil, never didst thou
-celebrate a greater triumph, or more forcibly show thy power, than in
-that dreary hut on Nova Zembla!
-
-Some weeks afterwards the sun appeared once more above the horizon; and
-the glorious sight, though it soon vanished again into darkness, was a
-joyful one indeed, full of delightful images of a return to friends and
-home. Now, also, the furious gales and snow-storms ceased; and, though
-the severity of the cold continued unabated, they were able to brave the
-outer air and recruit their strength by exercise.
-
-When summer came, it was found impossible to disengage the ice-bound
-vessel, and the only hopes of escaping from their dreary prison now
-rested on two small boats, in which they ventured on the capricious
-ocean. On the fourth day of their voyage, their fragile barks became
-surrounded by immense quantities of floating ice, which so crushed and
-injured them, that the crews, giving up all hope, took a solemn leave
-of each other. But in this desperate crisis they owed their lives to
-the presence of mind and agility of De Veer, who with a well-secured
-rope leaped from one fragment of ice to another till he gained a firm
-field, on which first the sick, then the stores, the crews, and finally
-the boats themselves, were safely landed. Here they were obliged to
-remain while the boats underwent the necessary repairs, and during this
-detention upon a floating ice-field the gallant Barentz closed the
-eventful voyage of his life. He died as he had lived, calmly and bravely,
-thinking less of himself than of the safety of his crew, for his last
-words were directions as to the course in which they were to steer.
-Even the joyful prospect of a return to their families and home could
-not console his surviving comrades for the loss of their leader, whom
-they loved and revered as a friend and father. After a most tedious and
-dangerous passage, they at length arrived at Kola in Russian Lapland,
-where to their glad surprise they found their old comrade, John Cornelis,
-who received them on board his vessel and conveyed them to Amsterdam.
-
-During the seventeenth century the most remarkable maritime discoveries
-were made by the English, Dutch, and Spaniards, though by the latter
-only at its commencement. In the year 1605 Quiros sailed from Callao,
-discovered the island of Sagittaria, since so renowned under the name of
-Otaheite, and the archipelago of Espiritu Santo, or the New Hebrides of
-Cook. On this journey he was accompanied by Torres, the bold seaman who
-some years after gave his name to the strait which separates New Guinea
-from Australia.
-
-While the declining sun of Spain was thus gilding with its last rays the
-northern shore of New Holland, the meridian splendour of the Batavian
-republic cast forth bright beams of light over the wide Pacific.
-
-Schouten and Le Maire, penetrating through the strait which is still
-named after the latter, sailed in the year 1616 round Tierra del Fuego;
-and about the same time Hartog discovered Eendragt's Land, on the west
-coast of Australia. The successive voyages of Jan Edel (1619), Peter
-Nuyts (1627), and Peter Carpenter (1628), brought to light the northern
-and southern shores of the vast island, which thus began to assume a
-rude shape on the map of the geographer. In the year 1642, Abel Tasman,
-the greatest of the Dutch navigators, drew a mighty furrow through the
-South Sea, discovered Van Diemen's Land, which posterity desirous of
-perpetuating his fame has called Tasmania, saw the northern extremity of
-New Zealand emerge from the ocean, and finally unveiled to the world the
-hidden beauties of Tonga.
-
-While the Dutch navigators were thus dissipating the darkness of
-Australia, Hudson and Baffin were immortalising their names in the Arctic
-Ocean.
-
-In the year 1627 Henry Hudson made the first attempt to steer right on to
-the pole, and to cross to India over the axis of the globe. He reached
-the northern extremity of Spitzbergen, but all his attempts to penetrate
-deeper into the polar ocean were baffled by the mighty ice-fields that
-opposed his progress. But though he failed in his undertaking to sail
-through the region of eternal winter to the spicy groves of India,
-yet the numerous morses and seals he had seen basking on the coast of
-Spitzbergen opened such cheering prospects of future profit, that the
-"Muscovy Company," which had fitted out the expedition, was by no means
-discontented with the issue of his voyage.
-
-Three years after we find the gallant Hudson once more attempting
-to discover the north-west passage in a vessel of fifty-five tons,
-provisioned for six months. The crew which he commanded was unfortunately
-utterly unworthy of such a leader, and quailed as soon as they had to
-encounter the fog and ice-fields of the Frozen Ocean.
-
-  "And now there came both mist and snow,
-     And it grew wondrous cold;
-   And ice mast-high came floating by,
-     As green as emerald.
-
-   And through the drifts the snowy clifts
-     Did send a dismal sheen,
-   Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken,
-     The ice was all between."
-
-But, in spite of the murmurs and repinings of his faint-hearted
-followers, the dauntless commander pressed on through the strait which
-bears his name, until at last his little bark emerged into a boundless
-deep blue sea. Hudson's Bay lay before him, but the delighted discoverer
-was happy in the belief that the grand object of his voyage was attained,
-and the shortest road to India laid open to the mariners of England. It
-was about the beginning of August, and the spiritless crew considering
-the passage accomplished, urged an immediate return; but Hudson was
-determined on completing the adventure, and wintering if possible on the
-sunny shores of India.
-
-Three months long he continued tracking the coasts of that vast northern
-Mediterranean, now for the first time explored by civilised man, vainly
-hoping to see a new channel opening to the west, until at length November
-came and imprisoned his small vessel in adamantine fetters. A long
-and dreary winter awaited the ice-bound seamen, with almost exhausted
-provisions, and unfortunately without that heroic patience and serene
-concord which had sustained the sufferings of Barentz and his companions.
-It must indeed have been a melancholy winter for poor Hudson, solitary
-and friendless among scowling ruffians, hating him as the cause of their
-bitter misery; but spring came at last with its consolatory sunshine, and
-hope once more dawned in his tortured breast. The ship is again afloat,
-and on the 21st of June, 1611, the captain comes forth from his cabin,
-refreshed by the sleep of a quiet conscience, and strong in body and
-mind to meet the duties of the day. But as he steps on deck his arms are
-suddenly pinioned, and he finds himself in the power of a mutinous crew.
-He looks around for some trace of sympathy, but hatred meets him in every
-eye. Inquiry, remonstrance, entreaty, command, all alike fail to move
-their stubborn resolution, and now Hudson resigns himself bravely to his
-fate, with all the quiet dignity of a noble nature, and looks calmly at
-the ominous preparations going forward. A small open boat is in waiting,
-and into this he is lowered, some powder and shot and the carpenter's box
-come next, followed by the carpenter himself, a strong brave fellow, the
-captain's _one_ devoted adherent among the rebellious crew; the sick and
-infirm complete the unfortunate cargo. A signal is given, the boat is
-cast adrift, and soon the last faint cry for mercy expires in the breeze
-which carries the vessel onwards on its homeward course.
-
-Thus perished the high-minded Hudson, without further tiding or trace,
-on the scene of his glory; but the vengeance of heaven soon overtook
-the ringleaders of that dark conspiracy. Some fell in a fight with the
-Eskimos, and others died on the homeward voyage, which was performed
-under the extremity of famine. Whatever horrors may have attended the
-last moments of Hudson, his sufferings were less, for his conscience was
-undefiled by guilt.
-
-In the year 1616 Baffin sailed round the enormous bay to which his name
-has been given, but without attempting to penetrate through any one of
-those wide sounds that have led the Arctic navigators of our days to so
-many glorious discoveries.
-
-From the times of Tasman, whose bold voyage through the wastes of
-the Southern Pacific has already been mentioned, to those of our own
-immortal Cook, but very little was done for the progress of geography,
-as if, after so many heroic endeavours, the spirit of maritime discovery
-had required a long repose to recruit its energies, ere the greatest
-navigator of modern times was destined to unveil the mysterious darkness
-which still concealed one half of the vast Pacific from the knowledge of
-mankind. The voyages most worthy of remark during this period were those
-of the Cossack Semen Deshnew (1654), who sailed from the mouth of the
-Kolyma River round the eastern promontory of Asia, and must be considered
-as the discoverer of Behring's Straits; of the adventurous Dampier
-(1689-1691), that strange combination of the buccaneer, the author,
-and the naturalist, who first discovered the strait which separates
-New Guinea from New Ireland; of the Dutchman Roggewein (1721-23), who
-made known some islands in the Pacific; of the brothers Laptew and of
-Prontschitschew (1734-1743), who unveiled the greatest part of the
-Siberian coast; of Commodore Anson (1740-1744), whose heroic sufferings
-and successes in the Pacific still live in the memory of his countrymen;
-and of the unfortunate Behring (1730-1741), who terminated his second
-unsuccessful exploring expedition by a miserable death on a desert island.
-
-After the peace of Aix la Chapelle England felt that the dominion of
-the seas imposed upon her the obligation of extending the bounds of
-geographical knowledge, and thus in rapid succession Byron (1764) and
-Wallis and Carteret (1766-1768) were sent forth to discover unknown
-shores, while France made a simultaneous effort to refresh the somewhat
-meagre laurels she had reaped by the voyages of Verazzani and Cartier.
-The consequences of this emulation were not unimportant. Bougainville
-(1766-1768) completed the discovery of the Solomon Islands, which Mendana
-had only partly seen; Wallis made the world acquainted with the beauties
-of Tahiti, and Byron explored the unvisited coasts of Patagonia. But the
-fame of these worthy mariners was soon eclipsed by a greater renown, for,
-in the same year that Wallis returned from his expedition, Cook sailed
-from the port of Plymouth on his first voyage round the world.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XXVI.
-
-  What had Cook's Predecessors left him to discover?--His first
-  Voyage.--Discovery of the Society Islands, and of the East Coast
-  of New Holland.--His second Voyage.--Discovery of the Hervey
-  Group.--Researches in the South Sea.--The New Hebrides.--Discovery of
-  New Caledonia and of South Georgia.--His third Voyage.--The Sandwich
-  Islands.--New Albion.--West Georgia.--Cook's Murder.--Vancouver.--La
-  Peyrouse.
-
-
-To form a correct estimate of Cook's discoveries, it is necessary that,
-before following the track of that great seaman, we should glance
-over the vast regions of the Pacific previously unknown to man. Many
-navigators indeed, since Magellan, had traversed that immense ocean, but
-the greater part of its expanse still lay buried in obscurity.
-
-To the north of the line, the Spaniards, sailing from Manilla to
-Acapulco, still servilely followed the route which Urdaneta had pointed
-out, and all beyond was unexplored.
-
-The regions to the south of the line were better known, but here also
-maritime discoverers, with the sole exception of Tasman, had confined
-themselves to the tropical waters. No one had yet tried to sail through
-the boundless space which to the south of the 25th degree of latitude
-extended between New Zealand and America. Of Australia only the western
-coast was known; the existence of Torres' Strait had long since been
-forgotten, and New Guinea and New Holland were supposed to form one
-connected land. To the south no one knew whether Australia and Van
-Diemen's Land were joined together, or severed by a channel; and the
-eastern coast of the fifth part of the world still awaited a discoverer.
-The boundaries of New Zealand were buried in the same obscurity. Tasman
-had only visited the west coast of the northern island, which, as
-far as was then known, might have extended a thousand miles farther
-on towards Chili. In one word, the great geographical problem of an
-enormous southern continent, the existence of which was formerly supposed
-necessary to form the counterpoise of the northern lands, still remained
-unsolved. The discoveries already made had indeed narrowed the limits
-which during the sixteenth century were still assigned to that imaginary
-continent, but in the unexplored bosom of the South Sea there yet was
-room enough for lands surpassing the whole of Europe in extent. Many of
-the South Sea islands moreover, though discovered before Cook's voyages,
-had vanished again from the memory of the world, or, according to
-Humboldt's expression, "wavered, as if badly rooted on the map, for want
-of exact astronomical measurements." Thus two hundred and fifty years
-after Magellan the Pacific still offered an enormous field for discovery,
-and when Cook set sail on the 30th of July, 1768, on his first voyage of
-circumnavigation, nearly one half of the globe lay open to his researches.
-
-The first service he rendered on this voyage was the discovery that the
-route to the Pacific through the Strait of Le Maire and round Cape Horn
-was preferable to that which until then had been followed, through the
-Straits of Magellan.
-
-After having observed at Otaheite the transit of Venus across the sun,
-which was one of the chief objects of the expedition, he soon after
-landed on the shores of Huaheine, Ulietea, and Borabora, which had never
-yet been visited by a European mariner, and gave to the whole group the
-name of the Society Islands, on account of their close vicinity to each
-other. Thence he sailed to New Zealand, which he was the first to find
-consisted of two large islands, separated by the strait which bears his
-name. With unwearied industry he spent no less than six months on the
-accurate survey of the New Zealand group, and then sailed to New Holland,
-the eastern coast of which he first discovered, and closely examined
-in its full length of 2000 miles. He also found that the continent of
-Australia was separated from New Guinea by a channel which he called
-"Endeavour Strait," but to which the justice of posterity has restored
-or awarded the name of Torres, its first explorer. This whole sea is so
-full of dangerous reefs and shoals that for months the sounding line was
-scarce ever laid aside, and any less experienced and prudent navigator
-must inevitably have been wrecked during these constant cruises in such
-perilous waters. Even Cook owed more than once his preservation to what
-may well be called a miraculous interposition of Providence, of which I
-shall cite a remarkable example. It was on the 10th of June, 1770, in
-the latitude of Trinity Bay. The vessel sailed, under a fresh breeze
-and by clear moonlight, through a sea the depth of which the plummet
-constantly indicated at 20 to 21 fathoms, so that not the least danger
-was apprehended. But suddenly the depth diminished to four fathoms, and
-before the lead could be heaved again the vessel struck and remained
-immoveable, except as far as she was heaved up and down and dashed
-against the rocks by the surge. The general anxiety may be imagined,
-and indeed the situation was such as to warrant the most serious
-apprehensions. It was found that the ship had been lifted over the ledge
-of a rock and lay in a hollow, inside of the reef, where the water in
-some places was three or four fathoms deep and in others hardly as many
-feet. The sheathing boards were knocked off and floating round the ship
-in great numbers, and at last the false keel also was destroyed, while
-the constant grating of the vessel against the rock seemed to announce
-its speedy disruption. It was now necessary to lighten the vessel as much
-as possible, and soon more than 50 tons' weight was thrown overboard.
-
-On the following morning land was seen at the distance of eight miles;
-but no islet lay between, on which, in case the vessel went to pieces, a
-speedy refuge might be found. To add to their distress, the vessel drew
-so much water that three pumps could hardly master it; and, finally,
-it was found that even the rising of the flood, on which they mainly
-reckoned, was unavailing to extricate them from their perilous position.
-All that could possibly be spared was now therefore cast into the sea,
-still more to lighten the vessel, and thus the next tide was patiently
-expected, when, after incredible exertion, the ship righted, and they got
-her over the ledge of the rock into deep water.
-
-But the men were by this time so much exhausted by their uninterrupted
-labour that they could not stand to the pumps more than five or six
-minutes at a time, after which they threw themselves flat on the
-streaming deck, where they lay till others exhausted like themselves
-took their places, on which they started up again and renewed their
-exertions. In this desperate situation one of the midshipmen, named
-Monkhouse, bethought himself of a means by which a ship, having sprung
-a leak admitting more than four feet of water in an hour, had yet been
-able to perform the whole journey from Virginia to London. He took a
-lower studding-sail, and, having mixed a large quantity of oakum and wool
-together, stitched them down by handfuls as lightly as possible. The sail
-was then hauled under the ship's bottom by means of ropes which kept it
-extended. When it came under the leak, the wool and oakum, with part of
-the sail, were forced inwards by the pressure of the water, which thus
-prevented its own ingress in such an effectual manner that one pump,
-instead of three, was now sufficient to keep it under. In this way they
-got the ship into a convenient port on the coast of New Holland, where
-they repaired the injury. Here it was found that their preservation was
-not entirely owing to that ingenious expedient, for one of the holes in
-the ship's bottom was almost entirely plugged by a piece of rock which
-had broken off and stuck in it; and this hole was so large, that, had it
-not been filled up in this truly extraordinary manner, the vessel must
-undoubtedly have sunk. Some persons, leading a tranquil life unvexed by
-storm or wave, might perhaps be inclined to ascribe so miraculous an
-escape to chance, but the seaman, who has had death before his eyes, will
-always in such a case recognise the hand of an Almighty protector: and
-who can doubt that a thrill of intense gratitude flashed through the soul
-of Cook on the discovery of the cause to which he owed the preservation
-of his life?
-
-With a vessel thus shattered, and a crew thus worn with fatigue, further
-discoveries were no more to be thought of, and Cook hastened to return by
-way of Batavia and the Cape to England, where he arrived on the 11th of
-June, 1771.
-
-The object of his second voyage (1772-1775) was to determine finally the
-question of the existence of a great southern continent, and to extend
-the geography of that part of the globe to its utmost limits. Sir Joseph
-Banks and Dr. Solander had accompanied him on his first voyage, this time
-John Reinhold Forster and his son George were engaged by government to
-explore and collect the natural history of the countries through which
-they should pass.
-
-On the 13th of July, 1772, Cook sailed from Plymouth, and reached the
-Cape without having a single man sick. Well aware how much cleanliness
-and pure air contribute to health, he had neglected none of the means
-necessary to insure it. Every day the beds were aired, the linen of the
-sailors was frequently washed, and in rainy weather fire often made
-between decks, to dispel unwholesome damps and effluvia.
-
-He now sailed to the south far into a desert and unknown sea, crossed
-it in various directions, and after having spent 117 days on the ocean,
-mostly among floating ice-fields, and without having once seen land, he
-steered northwards to the well-known coast of New Zealand, where on the
-25th of January, 1773, he cast anchor in Dusky Bay. The feelings of the
-seaman may be imagined, when, after long wanderings over the waste of
-waters, he sees land, mountains, forests, and green plains rise above
-the horizon, when singing-birds take the place of the wild sea-mew, and
-friendly faces greet him on the strand. A beneficent mind is ever anxious
-to do good, and thus before sailing farther on to Otaheite, Cook caused
-a little garden to be planted, in which European vegetable seeds were
-sown and confided with proper instructions to the care of the intelligent
-savages, who were moreover presented with goats and pigs.
-
-On the return voyage from Tahiti to New Zealand, where he intended to
-provide himself with fire-wood and provisions, before advancing once
-more into the high southern latitudes, he was pleased with the discovery
-of the small but lovely Harvey Islands, whose green girdle of cocoa-nut
-palms mirrors itself in the dark blue waters.
-
-And now again he cruised in all directions through the icy sea, over an
-extent of 65° of longitude and as far as the 71st degree of southern
-latitude, without having seen any land; and having thus satisfied
-himself of the non-existence of a southern continent, or at least of its
-circumscription within bounds which must ever render it perfectly useless
-to man, he left those dreary regions of eternal winter, to continue his
-discoveries under a less inclement sky.
-
-He first visited Easter Island and the Marquesas, where a new discovery
-received the name of Hood's Island, and on the way thence to Tahiti
-added the Palisser Group to the map of the world. We now follow him to
-the extensive archipelago of Espiritu Santo, first seen by Quiros in
-1606, who took it for a part of the imaginary southern continent. Since
-then it had only been visited by Bougainville (1768), who however had
-contented himself with landing on the Isle of Lepers, and ascertaining
-the fact that it did not form part of a continent but of a considerable
-group of islands. Cook on his part examined the whole archipelago in such
-an accurate manner, ascertaining the situation of many of the islands
-and discovering such numbers of new ones, that he justly thought he had
-acquired the right to rebaptize them under the name of the New Hebrides.
-
-From these islands he sailed for the third time to New Zealand, and
-discovered on his passage New Caledonia and the romantic Norfolk Island.
-
-Leaving New Zealand on the 10th of November, 1774, once more to search
-for the southern continent, he traversed a vast extent of sea for 17
-days, from 43° to 55° 48′ S. lat., when he gave up all thoughts of
-finding any more land in that part of the ocean, and determined to steer
-directly for the west entrance of the Straits of Magellan, with a design
-of coasting the southern part of Tierra del Fuego, quite round Cape Horn
-to Le Maire's Straits. Those wild, deeply indented, rocky coasts, the
-region of eternal storms and fogs, form the most striking contrast to
-the smiling shores of the South Sea islands. But, if in the latter the
-splendour of tropical vegetation enchants the eye of the spectator, the
-exuberance of animal life in the Magellanic Archipelago may well raise
-his astonishment. In one of the small islands near Staaten Land Cook
-admired the remarkable harmony reigning among the different species of
-mammifera and birds. The sea-lions occupied the greatest part of the
-sea-coast, the bears the inland; the shags were posted on the highest
-cliffs, the penguins in such places as had the best access to the sea;
-and the other birds chose more retired places. Occasionally, however,
-all these animals were seen to mix together like domestic cattle and
-poultry in a farmyard, without one attempting to hurt the other in the
-least. Even the eagles and the vultures were frequently observed sitting
-together on the hills among the shags, while none of the latter, either
-old or young, appeared to be disturbed at their presence. No doubt the
-poor fishes had to pay for the touching union of this "happy family."
-
-Having fully explored the southern extremity of America, we once more see
-the indefatigable navigator steer forth into the deserts of the southern
-Polar Ocean, where he discovers some snow-clad isles, Bird Island, South
-Georgia, Sandwich Land, the southern Thule; and finally returns to
-England (30th July, 1775) after an absence of three years and seventeen
-days.
-
-His third voyage (1776) was undertaken for the purpose of exploring the
-Northern Pacific, and casting the same broad light over those unvisited
-waters as over the southern part of that vast ocean. To the south-east of
-the Cape of Good Hope he discovered Prince Edward's Islands, and thence
-proceeded to explore Kerguelen's Land, discovered six years previously
-by the Frenchman of that name. This wintry island bears neither tree nor
-shrub, but in the bays the gigantic sea-weeds form submarine forests, and
-countless penguins make the dreary shores resound with their deep braying
-voice.
-
-Van Diemen's Land, New Zealand, and the Friendly and Society Isles were
-now visited for the last time. Steering to the north, Cook discovered
-in the last days of the year 1777 the Sandwich Islands, most likely
-previously known to the Spaniards, but kept secret from the world; and
-reached on the 7th of March, 1778, the mountainous forest-girt coast of
-New Albion, along which two centuries before Drake had sailed as far as
-48° N. lat. Penetrating farther and farther to the north, he at length
-reached the most westerly point of the American continent, Cape Prince
-of Wales, which, stretching far out into the Straits of Behring, is only
-thirty-nine miles distant from the east coast of Siberia. Both pillars of
-this water-gate, according to Chamisso's description, are high mountains
-within sight of each other, rising abruptly from the sea on the Asiatic
-side, while on the American their foot is bordered by a low alluvial
-plain. On the Asiatic side the sea has its greatest depth, and the
-current, which sets from the south into the channel with a rapidity of
-two or three knots an hour, its greatest strength. Whales and numberless
-herds of walruses are seen only on the Asiatic side.
-
-Through these famous straits, which Deshnew had first passed, and
-which Behring most likely never saw, Cook penetrated into the Arctic
-Ocean, examined a part of the Siberian coast, and then sailed to the
-opposite shores of America, where he discovered and explored the coast
-of West Georgia as far as 70° 44′ N. lat., until fields of ice opposed
-an impenetrable barrier to his progress.
-
-After having thus illumined with the torch of science the farthest
-extremities of the earth, Cook once more steered to the south and
-discovered Hawaii, the largest of the Sandwich Islands. But better had it
-been for him if the glory of this discovery had fallen to the share of
-some other navigator, for it was here that the illustrious seaman, who
-had thrice circumnavigated the globe, was doomed to fall by the club of a
-barbarous savage.
-
-No navigator has ever made so many important discoveries at such
-distances from each other as Cook, or done more for the progress of
-geographical knowledge. The wide Pacific he so thoroughly explored,
-that his successors found only single ears to glean where he had reaped
-the richest harvest. With the firm resolution and the indomitable
-perseverance of the ancient mariners who preceded him on that vast ocean,
-he combined a scientific knowledge they never possessed. What they
-had only flightily observed, or imperfectly described, he in reality
-discovered, and indelibly marked upon the map of the globe. Indefatigable
-with the astrolabe and the plummet, he neglected no opportunity of
-pointing out to his successors both the dangers they would have to avoid,
-and the harbours in which they might find a refuge against storms, and a
-supply of fresh water and provisions. His excellent method of preserving
-the health of seamen from the murderous attacks of the scurvy, secures
-him a lasting place among the benefactors of mankind. But he not only
-anxiously watched over the welfare of his companions--his humanity
-extended a no less salutary influence over the savages with whom he
-came in contact. He everywhere sought to better their condition, made
-them presents of useful animals and seeds, and pointed out to them the
-advantages of peace and agriculture. But his chief praise remains yet to
-be told, and this is, that he owed the high position he acquired in life
-exclusively to himself. He whose fame reached as far as the limits of
-the civilised world, and whose death was mourned as a national calamity,
-was the son of a poor labourer, and had commenced his career as a common
-sailor.
-
-The most celebrated navigators during the last quarter of the eighteenth
-century were Vancouver and La Peyrouse.
-
-Vancouver, who had accompanied Cook on his last and fatal voyage, gained
-his chief laurels (1790) by thoroughly exploring the north-west coast
-of America, which his illustrious friend had merely sketched in its
-most important outlines, having been prevented by his untimely end
-from investigating it more fully on a second visit. Vancouver began
-his hydrographical labours at Cape Mendocino, examined the Straits of
-Juan de Fuca, and, having convinced himself of the non-existence of a
-passage to the eastward, accurately investigated the labyrinth of bays,
-isles, sounds, and inlets, extending between 50° and 60° N. lat., thus
-establishing the important fact of the uninterrupted continuation of the
-American continent in these parts. Vancouver's Island will transmit his
-name to the latest posterity, and British Columbia remember him as the
-first navigator that accurately mapped her shores.
-
-The fame of La Peyrouse is owing more to his misfortunes than to his
-eminent services. After having distinguished himself as a naval officer,
-he was sent by the equally unfortunate Louis XVI. on the voyage of
-discovery from which he was never to return. On the coast of Tartary
-and in the Japanese seas he examined a part of the world which hitherto
-no European had visited, and after having rectified many geographical
-errors sailed to Botany Bay, whence he forwarded his last despatches (7th
-Feb. 1788) to Europe. With the design of sailing through Torres' Straits
-to the Gulf of Carpentaria, he left the new-born English colony, but
-disappeared in the trackless ocean, and years and years passed on without
-solving the mystery of his fate.
-
-At length, in 1826, Captain Dillon, an Englishman, was informed by
-Martin Bushart, a Prussian sailor whom he found settled on the Island
-of Tikopia, that many years since two large ships had been wrecked on
-the neighbouring Island of Vanikoro. Having brought this intelligence to
-Calcutta, he was sent out by the East India Company in the "Research" to
-make further inquiries on the scene of the catastrophe. On the 13th of
-Sept., 1827, Dillon anchored at Vanikoro, and, having collected the most
-interesting relics of the shipwreck, left it after a few weeks.
-
-These facts became known at Hobart Town to the French circumnavigator
-Dumont d'Urville, who immediately resolved to sail to Vanikoro. He
-arrived there on the 22nd Feb., 1828, but at first found it very
-difficult to persuade the suspicious natives to point out to him the
-remains of the wrecked ship, until the offer of a piece of red cloth
-effectually overcame their scruples. One of the boldest immediately
-jumped into a boat and offered to guide them on condition of receiving
-the proffered reward. The bargain was gladly struck, and the Frenchmen,
-piloted by the negro, eagerly pushed off from shore.
-
-The coral reef which forms an enormous girdle round Vanikoro approaches
-the land opposite to the village of Paiou, so that the distance between
-them is hardly a mile. There, in a channel dividing the breakers, the
-savage caused the boat to stop, and made signs to the Frenchmen to look
-down to the bottom, where they saw anchors, cannons, and other objects
-scattered about and overgrown with corals. No doubt now remained, and
-with deep emotion they gazed on these last memorials of the unfortunate
-expedition of La Peyrouse. Metal alone had been able to resist the tooth
-of time, the rolling waters, or the gnawing ship-worm; all wood-work was
-gone.
-
-I have already stated that on d'Urville's arrival he found the natives
-extremely distrustful and shy, answering all his questions by negations.
-It was evident that their conduct towards La Peyrouse had been anything
-but hospitable, and that they now feared the tardy vengeance of the white
-men. But, finding themselves treated with invariable kindness, their
-fears gradually gave way, and thus it became possible to gather some
-information about the catastrophe from some old men who had witnessed it,
-and from the most intelligent of the chiefs.
-
-After a dark and stormy night the islanders saw early on the following
-morning an enormous _pirogue_ stranded on the coral reef on the south
-side of the island. The surf soon destroyed the ship, and but a small
-number of the crew reached the shore in a boat. On the following day a
-second large _pirogue_ stranded opposite Paiou. But this wreck lying on
-the lee-side of the island, less exposed to the surf, and resting on a
-more even ground, remained a longer time without going to pieces. The
-whole of the crew escaped in the boats to Paiou, where they built a small
-vessel, and after a stay of five months once more embarked, and were
-never heard of since. Most likely they had steered towards New Ireland,
-with the intention of ultimately reaching the Moluccas or the Philippine
-Islands, and perished on some unknown reef. The unhealthy condition of
-d'Urville's crew prevented him from extending his researches any further
-along the western coasts of the Solomon Islands. That the stranded
-vessels were those of La Peyrouse is beyond all doubt; for years before
-and after no other large vessels had been lost in those seas. The heavy
-cannons could only have belonged to ships of war such as La Peyrouse
-commanded, and several of the instruments collected by Captain Dillon
-evidently belonged to a scientific expedition.
-
-Before d'Urville left Vanikoro he resolved to raise a simple monument to
-the memory of his unfortunate countrymen, a four-sided pyramid resting on
-a square base. Neither nails nor iron clasps fastened the coral blocks
-together, for fear of awakening the cupidity of the savages; and, if they
-have kept their word to honour the _Papalangi_ monument as they would a
-temple erected to their own gods, it still reminds the navigator whom
-chance may lead to that secluded island, of the renown and tragical end
-of the ill-fated La Peyrouse.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XXVII.
-
-  Scoresby.--The Arctic Navigators.--Ross.--Parry.--Sufferings
-  of Franklin and his Companions on his Overland Expedition
-  in 1821.--Parry's Sledge-journey to the North Pole.--Sir
-  John Franklin.--M'Clure.--Kane.--M'Clintock.--South Polar
-  Expeditions.--Billinghausen.--Weddell.--Biscoe.--Balleny.--Dumont
-  d'Urville.--Wilkes.--Sir James Ross.--Recent scientific Voyages of
-  Circumnavigation.
-
-
-Although the undaunted courage and indomitable perseverance of the great
-navigators whom I have named in the preceding chapters had gradually
-circumscribed the bounds of discovery, and no vast ocean remained to be
-explored by some future Cook or Magellan, yet at the beginning of this
-century many secrets of the sea still remained unrevealed to man.
-
-The north coast of America and the Arctic Ocean beyond were still plunged
-in mysterious darkness; and although Cook in several places had advanced
-far into the Antarctic seas, yet here also a wide field still lay open to
-the adventurous seaman.
-
-Many coasts, many groups of islands scattered over the vast bosom of
-the ocean, awaited a more accurate survey, and would no doubt have
-remained unexplored, if gold, as in former times, had still been the sole
-magnet which attracted the seafarer to distant parts of the world. But
-fortunately science had now become a power which induced man, without
-any prospect of immediate profit, to spare no expense and to shrink from
-no danger, that he might become better and better acquainted with his
-dwelling-place the earth.
-
-It cannot be denied that our century has laboured at the solution of all
-these various geographical questions with an energy and perseverance
-unexampled in the history of civilisation; and the prominent part she
-has taken in their investigation is undoubtedly one of the great glories
-of England. At no other time have more voyages of discovery and more
-scientific expeditions been undertaken; never have more courageous
-Argonauts gone forth to conquer the golden fleece of knowledge. It
-will be the pleasing task of this closing chapter to follow these noble
-mariners in their adventurous course; and, to avoid confusion, I shall
-begin with a short history of Arctic discovery up to the present day,
-and afterwards treat of the efforts made to extend our knowledge towards
-the South Pole. In spite of the unsuccessful efforts of a Frobisher, a
-Davis, a Hudson, and a Baffin, England had never given up the hope of
-discovering a northern passage to India, either direct across the Pole,
-or round the north coast of America. It had been one of the chief objects
-of Cook's third voyage to find a sea-path from Behring's Straits to
-Baffin's or Hudson's Bay; and some years before, while the illustrious
-navigator was busy exploring the Southern Pacific, we see Captain Phipps
-renewing the old attempt to sail direct to the Pole (1773). But, like his
-predecessor Hudson, he reached no farther than the northern extremity of
-Spitzbergen, where his vessel, surrounded by mighty ice-blocks, would
-have perished but for a timely change of wind. This repulse damped for a
-time the spirit of discovery; but hope revived again when it became known
-that Scoresby, on a whaling expedition in the Greenland seas (1806), had
-attained 81° N. lat. and thus approached the Pole to within 540 miles.
-No one before him had ever reached so far to the north, and an open sea
-tempted him mightily to proceed, but as the object of his voyage was
-strictly commercial, and he himself answerable to the owners of his
-vessel, Scoresby felt obliged to sacrifice his inclinations to his duty
-and to steer again to the south.
-
-During the continental war, England indeed had little leisure to
-prosecute discoveries in the Arctic Ocean; but not long after the
-conclusion of peace (1818) two expeditions were sent out for that purpose.
-
-Captain Buchan, with the ships "Dorothea" and "Trent," sailed with
-instructions to proceed in a direction as due north as might be
-practicable through the Spitzbergen Sea; but, having after much
-difficulty gained lat. 80° 34′ north in that polar archipelago, he was
-obliged speedily to withdraw and try his fortune off the western edge of
-the pack. Here however a tremendous gale, threatening every moment to
-crush the ships between the large ice-blocks heaving and sinking in the
-roaring billows, induced the bold experiment of dashing right into the
-body of the ice; a practice which has been resorted to by whalers in
-extreme cases, as their only chance of escaping destruction.
-
-"While we were yet a few fathoms from the ice," says Admiral Beechey, the
-eloquent eye-witness and narrator of the dreadful scene, "we searched
-with much anxiety for a place that was more open than the general line of
-the pack, but in vain; all parts appeared to be equally impenetrable, and
-to present one unbroken line of furious breakers, in which immense pieces
-of ice were heaving and subsiding with the waves.
-
-"No language, I am convinced, can convey an adequate idea of the terrific
-grandeur of the effect now produced by the collision of the ice and
-the tempestuous ocean. The sea violently agitated, and rolling its
-mountainous waves against an opposing body, is at all times a sublime and
-awful sight; but when, in addition, it encounters immense masses, which
-it has set in motion with a violence equal to its own, its effect is
-prodigiously increased. At one moment it bursts upon these icy fragments,
-and buries them many feet beneath its wave, and the next, as the buoyancy
-of the depressed body struggles for reascendency, the water rushes in
-foaming cataracts over its edges; whilst every individual mass, rocking
-and labouring in its bed, grinds against and contends with its opponent
-until one is either split with the shock or upheaved upon the surface of
-the other. Nor is this collision confined to one particular spot, it is
-going on as far as the sight can reach; and when, from this convulsive
-scene below, the eye is turned to the extraordinary appearance of the
-blink in the sky above, where the unnatural clearness of a calm and
-silvery atmosphere presents itself bounded by a dark hard line of stormy
-clouds, such as at this moment lowered over our masts, as if to mark the
-confines within which the efforts of man would be of no avail, the reader
-may imagine the sensation of awe which must accompany that of grandeur in
-the mind of the beholder.
-
-"At this instant, when we were about to put the strength of our little
-vessel in competition with that of the great icy continent, and when it
-seemed almost presumption to reckon on the possibility of her surviving
-the unequal conflict, it was gratifying in the extreme to observe in all
-our crew the greatest calmness and resolution. If ever the fortitude of
-seamen was fairly tried, it was on this occasion; and I will not conceal
-the pride I felt in witnessing the bold and decisive tone in which the
-orders were issued by the commander of our little vessel (the since so
-far-famed and lamented Franklin), and the promptitude and steadiness with
-which they were executed by the crew.
-
-"We were now so near the scene of danger as to render necessary the
-immediate execution of our plan, and in an instant the labouring vessel
-flew before the gale. Each person instinctively secured his own hold
-and with his eyes fixed upon the masts, awaited in breathless anxiety
-the moment of concussion. It soon arrived; the brig, cutting her way
-through the light ice, came in violent contact with the main body. In an
-instant we all lost our footing, the masts bent with the impetus, and the
-cracking timbers from below bespoke a pressure which was calculated to
-awaken our serious apprehensions. The vessel staggered under the shock,
-and for a moment seemed to recoil; but the next wave, curling up under
-her counter, drove her about her own length within the margin of the ice,
-where she gave one roll and was immediately thrown broadside to the wind
-by the succeeding wave. This unfortunate occurrence prevented the vessel
-from penetrating sufficiently far into the ice to escape the effect of
-the gale, and placed her in a situation where she was assailed on all
-sides by battering rams, if I may use the expression, every one of which
-contested the small space, which she occupied, and dealt such unrelenting
-blows that there appeared to be scarcely any possibility of saving her
-from foundering. Literally tossed from piece to piece, we had nothing
-left but patiently to abide the issue, for we could scarcely keep our
-feet, much less render any assistance to the vessel. The motion indeed
-was so great, that the ship's bell, which in the heaviest gale of wind
-had never struck of itself, now tolled so continually that it was ordered
-to be muffled, for the purpose of escaping the unpleasant association it
-was calculated to produce."
-
-By setting more head-sail, though at the risk of the masts, already
-tottering with the pressure of that which was spread, the vessels,
-splitting the ice and thus effecting a passage between the pieces, were
-at length released from their perilous situation, but the "Dorothea" was
-found to be completely disabled. A short time at Fairhaven in Spitsbergen
-was spent in necessary repairs, and even then she was unfit for any
-farther service than the voyage to England. Franklin volunteered to
-prosecute the enterprise with the "Trent" alone, but the Admiralty Orders
-opposed such a proceeding, and the vessels returned home in company.
-
-Meanwhile Captain John Ross, with the "Isabella" and "Alexander," had
-proceeded to Baffin's Bay, but instead of exploring Smith's, Jones's, and
-Lancaster Sounds, which recent voyages have proved to be each and all
-grand open channels to the Polar Sea, he contented himself with Baffin's
-assertion that they were enclosed by land, and, after having thus
-fruitlessly accomplished the circuit of the bay, returned to England.
-
-With Parry's first expedition, which took place in the following year
-(1819), the epoch of modern discoveries in the Arctic Ocean, may properly
-be said to begin. Sailing right through Lancaster Sound, he discovered
-Prince Regent Inlet, Wellington Channel, and Melville Island. Willingly
-would he have proceeded farther to the west, but the ice was now rapidly
-gathering, the vessels were soon beset, and, after getting free with
-great difficulty, Parry was only too glad to turn back, and settle down
-in Winter Harbour. It was no easy task to attain this dreary port, as a
-canal two miles and a third in length had first to be cut through solid
-ice of seven inches average thickness, yet such was the energy of that
-splendid expedition, that the Herculean labour was accomplished in three
-days. The two vessels were immediately put in winter trim, the decks
-housed over, heating apparatus arranged, and everything done to make the
-ten months' imprisonment in those Arctic solitudes as comfortable as
-possible.
-
-It was not before the 1st of August that the ships were able to leave
-Winter Harbour, when Parry once more stood boldly for the west, but no
-amount of skill or patience could penetrate the obstinate masses of
-ice, or insure the safety of the vessels under the repeated shocks they
-sustained. Finding the barriers absolutely invincible he gave way, and,
-steering homeward, reached London on Nov. 3, 1820, where, as may well be
-imagined, his reception was most enthusiastic and cordial.
-
-While this wonderful voyage was performing, Franklin, Richardson, and
-Back, with two English sailors and a troop of Canadians and Indians, were
-penetrating by land to the mouth of the Coppermine River, whence they
-intended to make a boat-voyage of discovery along the coasts of the Icy
-Ocean. An idea of the difficulties of this undertaking may be formed,
-when I mention that the travellers started from Fort York, in Hudson's
-Bay, on the 30th of August, 1819, and after a voyage of 700 miles up the
-Saskatchewan, reached Fort Cumberland, where they spent the first winter.
-The next found them 700 miles further on their journey, established
-during the extreme cold at Fort Enterprise. During the summer of 1821
-they accomplished the remaining 334 miles, and on the 21st of July
-commenced their exploration of the Polar Sea in two birch-bark canoes.
-In these frail shallops they skirted the desolate coast of the American
-continent, 555 miles to the east of the Coppermine, as far as Point
-Turnagain, when the rapid decrease of their provisions and the shattered
-state of the canoes imperatively compelled their return. And now began a
-dreadful land-journey of two months, accompanied by all the horrors of
-famine. A lichen, called by the Canadians _tripe de roche_ (rock-tripe),
-afforded them for some time a wretched subsistence, and, that failing,
-they were glad to satisfy their hunger with scraps of roasted leather or
-burnt bones, from prey which the wolves might have abandoned. On reaching
-the Coppermine a raft had to be framed, a task accomplished with the
-utmost difficulty by the exhausted party. One or two of the Canadians
-had already fallen behind, and never rejoined their comrades, and now
-three or four sank down, and could proceed no farther. Back, with the
-most vigorous of the men, had already pushed on to send help from Fort
-Enterprise; and Richardson, Hood, and Hepburn volunteered to remain with
-the disabled men, near a supply of the rock-tripe, while Franklin pursued
-his journey with the others capable of bearing him company. On reaching
-Fort Enterprise this last party found that wretched tenement completely
-deserted, and a note from Back stating that he had gone in pursuit of the
-Indians. Some cast-off deer-skins and a heap of bones, provisions worthy
-of the place, sustained their flickering life-flame, and after eighteen
-miserable days, they were joined in their dreary quarters by Richardson
-and Hepburn, the sole survivors of _their_ party. At length, when on
-the point of sinking under their sufferings, three Indians sent by Back
-brought them timely succour. After a while they were able to join this
-valuable friend, and the following year brought them safely back to
-England.
-
-I pass over Parry's second and third voyages, undertaken in the years
-1821 and 1824, which were consumed in fruitless endeavours to penetrate
-westward; the first through some unknown channel to the north of Hudson's
-Bay, the second through Prince Regent's Inlet; but his last attempt to
-reach the North Pole, by boat and sledge-travelling over the ice, is
-of too novel and daring a character to remain unnoticed. His hopes of
-success were founded on Scoresby's descriptions, who had seen ice-fields
-so free from either fissure or hummock, that, had they not been covered
-with snow, a coach might have been driven many leagues over them in a
-direct line, without obstruction or danger; but when Parry reached the
-ice-fields to the north of Spitzbergen he found them of a very different
-nature, composed of loose rugged masses, which rendered travelling over
-them extremely irksome and slow.
-
-The strong flat-bottomed boats--amphibious constructions, half sledge,
-half canoe,--expressly built for an amphibious journey over a region
-where solid ice was expected to alternate with pools of water, had thus
-frequently to be unloaded, in order to be raised over the intervening
-blocks or mounds, and repeated journeys backward and forward over the
-same ground were the necessary consequences. In some places the ice took
-the form of sharp pointed crystals, which cut the boots like penknives;
-in others, sixteen or eighteen inches of soft snow made the work of
-boat-dragging both fatiguing and tedious. Sometimes the men were obliged,
-in dragging the boats, to crawl on all-fours, to make any progress at
-all, and one day, when heavy rain melted the surface of the ice, four
-hours of vigorous effort accomplished only half a mile.
-
-Yet in spite of all these obstacles they toiled cheerfully on and on,
-until at length the discovery was made, that while they were apparently
-advancing towards the Pole, the ice-field on which they journeyed was
-moving to the south, and thus rendering all their exertions fruitless.
-Yet though disappointed in his great hope of planting his country's
-standard on that unattainable goal, Parry had the glory of reaching the
-highest latitude (82° 45′) ever attained by man.
-
-Before this adventurous voyage, Franklin, Richardson, and Back,
-forgetful of their long life and death struggle with famine (1819), had
-once more (1825) with heroic perseverance bent their steps to the north.
-This time they chose the mouths of the Mackenzie for the starting-point
-of their discoveries, and having separated into two parties, proceeded to
-the east and west, and explored 4000 miles of unknown coast.
-
-In 1829 Captain John Ross, having for a long time vainly solicited
-government to send him out once more on an Arctic expedition, was
-enabled by the munificence of a private individual, Mr. Felix Booth, to
-accomplish his wishes, and to purchase a small steamer, to which the
-rather presumptuous name of "Victory" was given. The selection of the
-vessel was no doubt unlucky enough: for can anything be conceived more
-unpractical than paddle-boxes among ice-blocks; but, to make amends for
-this error, the veteran commander was fortunate in being accompanied by
-his illustrious nephew, James Ross, who with every quality of the seaman
-united the ardour and knowledge of the most zealous naturalist.
-
-He it was who discovered the peninsula which in compliment to the patron
-of the expedition was named Boothia Felix; to him also we owe the
-discovery of the Magnetic Pole; but the voyage is far less remarkable for
-these after all not very important successes, than for its unexampled
-protraction during a space of five years.
-
-The first season had a fortunate termination. On the 10th of August,
-1829, the "Victory" attained Prince Regent's Inlet, and reached on the
-13th the spot where Parry on his third voyage had been obliged to abandon
-the "Fury." Of the ship itself no traces remained; but the provisions
-which had providently been stored up on land were found untouched. The
-solid tin boxes had effectually preserved them from the voracity of the
-white bears; and the flour, bread, wine, rum, and sugar were found as
-good after four years, as on the day when the expedition started.
-
-It was to this discovery, to this "manna in the wilderness," that Ross
-owed his subsequent preservation; for how else could he have passed
-four winters in the Arctic waste? Never was the hand of Providence more
-distinctly visible than here.
-
-On the 15th of August Cape Garry was attained, the most southern point
-of the inlet which Parry had reached on his third voyage. Fogs and
-drift-ice considerably retarded the progress of the expedition; but
-Ross, though slowly, moved on, so that about the middle of September
-the map of the northern regions was enriched by some 500 miles of newly
-discovered coast. But now winter broke in with all its Arctic severity,
-and the "Victory" was obliged to seek refuge in Felix Harbour, where the
-useless steam-engine was thrown overboard as a nuisance, and the usual
-preparations made for spending the cold season as agreeably as possible.
-
-The following spring, from the 17th of May to the 13th of June, was
-employed by James Ross on a sledge journey, which led to the discovery
-of King William's Sound and King William's Land; and during which that
-courageous mariner penetrated so far to the west, that he had only ten
-days' provisions, scantily measured out, for a return voyage of 200 miles
-through an empty wilderness.
-
-After an imprisonment of full twelve months the "Victory" was set free on
-the 17th of September, 1830, and proceeded once more on her discoveries.
-But the period of her liberty was short indeed, short like that of
-revolted slaves between two despotisms; for, after advancing three miles
-in one continual battle against the currents and the drift-ice, she again
-froze fast on the 27th of the same month.
-
-In the following spring we again see the indefatigable James Ross, ever
-active in the cause of science, extending the circle of his excursions
-and planting the British flag upon the site of the Northern Magnetic
-Pole, which, however, is not invariably fixed to one spot, as was then
-believed, but moves from place to place within the glacial zone.
-
-On the 28th of August, 1831, the "Victory," after a second imprisonment
-of eleven months, was warped into open water, and, after having spent a
-whole month to advance _four_ English miles, was again enclosed by the
-ice on the 27th of September.
-
-But seven miles in two long years! According to this measure, there
-was but little hope indeed of ever seeing Old England again: the only
-chance left was to abandon the vessel, and endeavour by means of the
-boats left among the "Fury's" stores to reach Baffin's Bay, and get a
-homeward passage in some whaler. Accordingly the colours were nailed to
-the mast-head of the "Victory," and then officers and crew took leave of
-the ill-fated little vessel, on the 23rd of April, 1832. Captain Ross
-was deeply moved on this occasion; for, after having served forty-two
-years in thirty-five different ships, this was the first he had ever been
-obliged to abandon as a wreck.
-
-Provisions and boats had now to be transported over long tracts of rugged
-ice, and as their great weight rendered it impossible to carry all at
-once, the same ground had to be traversed several times. Terrific snow
-storms retarded the progress of the wanderers, and invincible obstacles
-forced them to make long circuits. Thus it happened that during the first
-month of their pilgrimage through the wilderness, although they had
-travelled 329 miles, they only gained thirty in a direct line.
-
-On the 9th of June, James Ross, the leading spirit of the expedition,
-accompanied by two men and with a fortnight's provisions, left the main
-body to ascertain the state of the boats and supplies at Fury Beach.
-Returning, they met their comrades on the 25th of June, and gratified
-them with the intelligence, that, though they had found three of the
-boats washed away, enough still remained for their purpose, and that all
-the provisions were in good condition.
-
-On the 1st of July the whole party arrived at Fury Beach, whence, after
-having repaired the weather-worn boats, they set out again on the 1st of
-August, and, after much buffeting among the ice in their frail shallops,
-reached the mouth of the inlet by the end of the month. But here they
-were doomed to disappointment; for, after several fruitless attempts to
-run along Barrow's Strait, the obstructions from the ice obliged them to
-haul the boats on shore and pitch their tents.
-
-Barrow's Strait was found from repeated surveys to be one impenetrable
-mass of ice. After lingering here till the third week in September, it
-was unanimously agreed that their only resource was to fall back again on
-the stores at Fury Beach, and spend their fourth winter in that dreary
-solitude. Here they sheltered their canvass tent with a wall of snow, and
-setting up an extra stove made themselves tolerably comfortable until the
-increasing severity of the winter, and the rigour of the cold, added to
-the tempestuous weather, made them perfect prisoners, and sorely tried
-their patience. Scurvy now began to appear, and several of the men fell
-victims to the scourge. At the same time cares for the future darkened
-the gloom of their situation, for, if they were not liberated in the
-ensuing summer, their diminishing food gave them but little hope of
-surviving another year.
-
-It may be imagined how anxiously the aspect of the sea was watched during
-the ensuing summer, and with what beating hearts they at length embarked
-on the 15th of August. The spot which the year before they had attained
-after the most strenuous exertions was soon passed, and slowly winding
-their way through the ice-blocks with which the inlet was encumbered,
-they now saw the wide expanse of Barrow's Strait open before them. With
-spirits invigorated by hope they push on, alternately rowing and sailing,
-and on the night of the 25th rest in a good harbour on the eastern shore
-of Navy Board Inlet. "A ship in sight!" is the joyful sound that awakens
-them early on the following morning; and never have men more hurriedly
-and energetically set out, never have oars been more indefatigably
-plied. But the elements are against them, calms and currents conspire
-against their hopes, and to their inexpressible disappointment the ship
-disappears in the distant haze.
-
-But after a few hours of suspense the sight of another vessel lying to in
-a calm relieves their despair. This time their exertions are crowned with
-success; and, wonderful! the vessel which receives them on board is the
-same "Isabella" in which Ross made his first voyage to these seas.
-
-They told him of his own death, and could hardly be persuaded that it was
-really he and his party who now stood before them. But when all doubts
-were cleared away, you should have heard their thrice-repeated thundering
-hurrahs!
-
-The scene that now followed cannot better be told than in Ross's own
-words:--
-
-"Every man was hungry, and was to be fed; all were ragged, and were to be
-clothed; there was not one to whom washing was not indispensable; nor one
-whom his beard did not deprive of all human semblance. All, everything,
-too was to be done at once. It was washing, dressing, shaving, eating,
-all intermingled; it was all the materials of each jumbled together;
-while in the midst of all there were interminable questions to be asked
-and answered on both sides; the adventures of the "Victory," our own
-escapes, the politics of England, and the news, which was now four years
-old.
-
-"But all subsided into peace at last. The sick were accommodated, the
-seamen disposed of, and all was done for us which care and kindness could
-perform.
-
-"Night at length brought quiet and serious thoughts; and I trust there
-was not a man among us who did not then express, where it was due, his
-gratitude for that interposition which had raised us all from a despair
-which none could now forget, and had brought us from the very borders
-of a most distant grave to life and friends and civilisation. Long
-accustomed, however, to a cold bed on the hard snow or the bare rock,
-few could sleep amid the comfort of our accommodations. I was myself
-compelled to leave the bed which had been kindly assigned me, and take
-my abode in a chair for the night, nor did it fare much better with the
-rest. It was for time to reconcile us to this sudden and violent change,
-to break through what had become habit, and to inure us once more to the
-usages of our former days."
-
-I have no time to relate how Ross was received in England, and what
-honours were heaped upon him; honours conferred with all the better
-grace that the nation had not forgotten him during his long-protracted
-absence, and had no cause to blush for culpable neglect. For Britain has
-ever considered it her duty to help and assist the men who venture their
-lives in the cause of science and for the advancement of her glory; nor
-will she allow the officer who carries her standard into unknown lands,
-and there falls a victim to nature or to man, to perish without feeling
-his last moments gladdened by the conviction, that, however distant his
-grave, the eye of his country rests upon him.
-
-Thus when Back, that noble Paladin of Arctic research, volunteered to
-lead a relief expedition in quest of Ross, £4000 were immediately raised
-by public subscription to defray the expenses of the undertaking. While
-deep in the American wilds Back was gratified with the intelligence that
-the object of his search had safely arrived in England, but, instead of
-returning home, the indefatigable explorer resolved to trace the unknown
-course of the Thlu-it-scho, or Great Fish River, down to the distant
-outlet where it pours its waters into the polar seas. It would take
-a volume to recount his adventures in this wonderful expedition, the
-numberless falls, cascades, and rapids that obstructed his progress; the
-storms and snow-drifts that vainly conspired to repel him; the horrors
-of that iron-ribbed desert, without a single tree on the whole line of
-his passage; and how heroically he persevered to the very last, and added
-Back's River, as the Thlu-it-scho has most deservedly been called, to the
-geographical conquests of which England may well be proud.
-
-The present is not a detailed account of Arctic discovery, a complete
-historical narrative of how step by step those dreary regions, the refuse
-of the earth, have grown into distinctness on the map; so passing over
-Simpson's wonderful boat-voyage along the northern shores of America,
-which led to the discovery of 1600 miles of coast (1837-1839), and Rae's
-important researches on Melville Peninsula (1846, 1847), I proceed to
-the last expedition of Sir John Franklin. We all know how the veteran
-seaman left England in the sixtieth year of his age, once more to try
-the north-western passage; how since his last despatches, dated from the
-Whalefish Islands, Baffin's Bay, July 12th, 1845, months and months,
-and then years and years, elapsed without bringing any tidings of his
-fate; how Collinson and M'Clure, Penny and Inglefield, Kane and Bellot,
-and so many other worthies, went out to search for the "Erebus" and
-"Terror," and how in spite of all their efforts mystery still overhung
-the ill-fated expedition, until M'Clintock raised the veil and informed
-us how miserably most of the gallant seamen perished in those dreary
-wastes, but how their commander had been spared the pangs of protracted
-suffering, and gone to his eternal rest even before his country began to
-feel concerned about his loss.
-
-The search for Franklin is a page in history of which a nation may
-well be proud, more noble than a hundred battles and grander than the
-conquest of an empire. These are no blood-stained laurels, but palms of
-glory gained by matchless energy and perseverance over the horrors of a
-nature inimical to man, a theme which some future Homer will delight to
-sing. Had Franklin been ever so successful, he could not possibly have
-achieved so much for Arctic discovery as his loss gave rise to; for to
-the disasters of his voyage we owe the knowledge of all the coasts of
-that intricate conglomeration of islands which faces the Pole, and of
-the channels, which opening far to the north, lead to its profoundest,
-and seemingly impenetrable depths. All these discoveries are of little
-commercial value, it is true, for no trading vessel will ever plough
-those desert seas; but it is no small advantage to a nation to have to
-register such pages in her annals, and to leave them as a legacy and an
-example to future generations.
-
-The series of modern South Polar expeditions was opened in 1819 by
-Smith's casual discovery of New South Shetland. Soon afterwards a Russian
-expedition under Lazareff and Bellinghausen discovered (January, 1821),
-in 69° 3′ south lat., the islands Paul the First and Alexander, the most
-southern lands that had ever been visited by man.
-
-The year after, Captain Weddell, a sealer, penetrated into the icy sea
-as far as 74° 15′ south lat. three degrees nearer to the pole than had
-been attained by the indomitable perseverance of Cook. Swarms of petrels
-animated the sea, and no ice impeded his progress, but as the season was
-far advanced, and Weddell apprehended the dangers of the return voyage,
-he steered again to the north. In 1831 Biscoe discovered Enderby Land,
-and soon afterwards Graham's Land, to which the gratitude of geographers
-has since given the discoverer's name.
-
-Then follows Balleny who in 1839 revealed the existence of the group of
-islands called after him, and of Sabrina Land (69° south lat.).
-
-About the same time three considerable expeditions appear in the southern
-seas, sent out by France, the United States, and England.
-
-Dumont d'Urville discovered _Terre Louis Philippe_ (63° 30′ south lat.)
-in February, 1838, and _Terre Adélie_ (66° 67′ south lat.) on the 21st
-of January, 1840.
-
-Almost on the same day, Wilkes, the commander of the United States
-exploring expedition reached a coast which he followed for a length of
-1500 miles, and which has been called Wilkes' Land, to commemorate the
-discoverer's name. But of all the explorers of the southern frozen ocean,
-the palm unquestionably belongs to Sir James Ross, who penetrated farther
-towards the Pole than any other navigator before or after, and followed
-up to 79° south lat. a steep coast, whose enormous glaciers stretched
-far out into the sea. In 77° 5′ south lat. he witnessed a magnificent
-eruption of Mount Erebus, the Etna of the extreme south. The enormous
-columns of flame and smoke rising two thousand feet above the mouth of
-the crater, which is elevated 12,000 feet above the level of the sea,
-combined, with the snow-white mountain-chain and the deep blue ocean,
-to form a scene, the magnificence of which seemed to be enhanced by the
-reflection that no human eye had ever witnessed its beauty, as most
-likely none will ever witness it again. As all the efforts of the gallant
-leader to penetrate still farther to the south were baffled by a mighty
-ice-barrier, forming an uninterrupted mural precipice for the length of
-several hundred miles, he yielded to the invincible obstacles of nature,
-and returned to more genial climes. It is worthy of notice, that Sir
-James Clark Ross had accompanied Parry on his sledge-expedition to the
-North Pole, and thus acquired the unique distinction of having approached
-_both_ poles nearer than any other man.
-
-Whether the lands discovered by Wilkes, d'Urville, Biscoe, Balleny, and
-Ross form a continuous continent, or belong to a large group of islands
-behind which an open sea extends to the very Pole, is a question which
-most likely will never be solved, as its determination can never be of
-the least use to mankind.
-
-The numerous scientific voyages of circumnavigation achieved during the
-course of the present century are far more important, with regard to the
-welfare and progress of humanity, than the researches which have been
-made in the icy wildernesses of the north and south. New lands and isles
-of great extent have indeed not been discovered by these expeditions, but
-they have contributed not less largely to the advancement of geography
-and the natural sciences.
-
-The wonders of oceanic life have first been shown in a more distinct
-light by the labours of Chamisso, Meyen, Lesson, Darwin, Gray, Hooker,
-Robinson, Dana, &c., who accompanied Kotzebue, Freycinet, Fitzroy, Ross,
-&c., on their world-encircling course; and numerous coasts and groups of
-islands, situated in the remotest seas, and formerly only superficially
-known, have been accurately measured and traced on the map by the
-distinguished hydrographers who took part in those far-famed voyages.
-
-
-
-
-INDEX
-
-
-INDEX.
-
-
-  Aar glacier, formation and dissolution of the, 75
-  Acalephæ, 348. _See_ Jelly-fishes
-  Acephala, their organisation, 299
-  -- their food, 305
-  -- their enemies, 305, 306
-  Acorn-shell, the, 244
-  Actiniæ, 361
-  Actinozoa, 363
-  Adriatic, depth of the, 8
-  -- tides of the, 43
-  Africa, length of coast-line of, 4
-  -- circumnavigated by the Phœnicians, 444
-  -- Hanno's discoveries on the west coast of, 444
-  Agar-agar, or artificial edible birds'-nests of Java, 402
-  Agricola, Julius, sails round Scotland, 422
-  Air-bladder of fishes, 189
-  Air-currents. _See_ Winds
-  Albatross, 163
-  Albion, New, discovery of, 467
-  Alcyonarians, 363
-  Alexander the Great, maritime discoveries resulting from the
-    conquests of, 447
-  Alexandria, the Pharus or lighthouse of, 89
-  Algæ, 390
-  -- changes produced by, in the colour of the sea, 19
-  -- Russian official collecting, 392
-  Alligators, 172
-  Amalfi, maritime trade of, 449
-  -- decline of, 449
-  Amazon river, tides of the, 43
-  -- -- quantity of water which it pours into the ocean, 75
-  -- -- discovery of the river, 460
-  America, length of coast-line of, 4
-  -- salmon of Russian America, 221
-  -- discovery of, by Columbus, 457
-  -- account of early navigation along the shores of, 457
-  Amerigo Vespucci, his discoveries, 460
-  Ammodyte, or launce, 230
-  Ammonites, 437
-  Amœbæ, 379
-  -- simplicity of their structure, 380
-  Anabas of the dry tanks, 193
-  Anchovy, 214
-  Angler, or sea-devil, 203
-  Annelides, marine, 262
-  -- general remarks on the, 262
-  -- their beauty, 263
-  -- their food, 264
-  -- their enemies, 265
-  -- tubicole, 266
-  Anson, Commodore, his maritime discoveries, 483
-  Aphrodita, or sea-mouse, 264
-  Arab commerce and maritime discovery, 452
-  Arctic discovery, 474, 496
-  -- winter passed by Barentz, 478
-  Argand, his improvement in marine illumination, 90
-  Argonaut, 280
-  Argus, Scotch or Shetland, 333
-  Ascidia mammillata, 322
-  Asia, length of coast-line of, 4
-  Asteriæ, 335
-  Astræa, 373
-  Atlantic Ocean, depth of the, according to Maury, 7
-  -- -- temperature of the, 14
-  -- -- fury of the Atlantic surge, 28, 29
-  -- -- enormous fucus banks, or floating meadows of the, 397
-  Atolls, or lagoon islands, 374
-  Auburn, site of the village of, 29
-  Auks, 151, 168
-  Australia, length of coast-line of, 4
-  -- discoveries in, 480, 486
-  Avosets, 143, 144, 146
-  Azores, discovery of the, 456
-
-
-  Back's arctic voyages, 507
-  Baffin, his maritime discoveries, 483
-  Baffin's Bay, discovery of, 483
-  Balani, 244
-  Balanus ovularis, 244
-  -- balanoides, 244
-  Balboa, Vasco Nuñez de, sketch of him and his discoveries, 464
-  Baleen of the whale, 98
-  Balleny, his discoveries, 509
-  Baltic, depth of the, 8
-  Band-worm, the great, 264
-  Barentz, William, his maritime discoveries, 476
-  Barnacles, 244
-  -- their attacks on the whale, 17
-  Barnacle goose, 146
-  Barrow's Straits, discovery of, 505
-  Basaltic pillars of Fingal's Cave, 46
-  Bassora, foundation of the town of, 452
-  Bastidas, Roderigo de, his maritime discoveries, 461
-  Beachy Head, 5
-  Bear, white, said to attack the whale, 100
-  -- organisation of the polar bear, 10
-  -- attacks Barentz's men, 478
-  Bear Islands, discovery of, 477
-  Behring, his maritime discoveries and death, 484
-  Belemnites, 437
-  Bellrock lighthouse, 28, 86
-  -- -- height of the waves at the, 28
-  -- -- in the storm of 1807, 29
-  Benin, discovery of, 456
-  Bermudas, depth of the sea near the, 7
-  Bird Island, discovery of, 490
-  Bird's-foot sea-star, 335
-  Birds'-nests, edible, of Java, 399
-  -- mode of gathering them, 399
-  -- agar-agar, or artificial birds'-nests, 402
-  Birds of passage, 171
-  Birkenhead, the Great Float at, 91
-  Biscoe, his discoveries, 509
-  Bivalves, or acephalous mollusca. _See_ Acephala
-  Black-skimmer, or cut-water, the, 144
-  Blocks, erratic, of Greenland and Spitzbergen, 76
-  Bojador, Cape, doubling of, for the first time, 455
-  Bonito, the, 223, 224
-  Booth, Mr. Felix, 503
-  Boothia Felix, discovery of, 503
-  Borda, his improvements in marine illumination, 90
-  Borer, the, 231
-  Botallack, submarine mine, 91
-  Botrylli, 324
-  Bougainville, his maritime discoveries, 483
-  Boundaries of the ocean. _See_ Limits of the ocean
-  Brachiopods, 315
-  Brazils, discovery of the, 460
-  Breakwater of Cherbourg, 90
-  -- of Plymouth, 90
-  -- moles of Portland, Holyhead, ind Alderney, 90
-  Bream, sea, 415
-  Bristol Channel, high tides of the, 38
-  -- -- marine fauna, 414
-  Britannia Tubular Bridge, 91
-  Bryozoa, 316
-  Buchan, Captain, his arctic discoveries, 497
-  Buffadero, the marine cave of the, 52
-  Bullhead, river, its parental affection, 195
-  Burgomaster-bird, 159
-  Butthorn, the, 335
-  Byron, Commodore, his maritime discoveries, 483
-
-
-  Cabot, John and Sebastian, their discoveries, 459
-  Cachalot, or sperm-whale, its organisation, 102-104
-  -- its food, 104
-  Ca'ing whale, the, 115
-  Calamary, 272
-  Caledonia, New, discovery of, 490
-  California, discovery of, 472
-  Callao, colour of the sea near, 20
-  Calling crabs, 250, 251
-  Calms, or doldrums, causes of, 67
-  Calycophoridæ, 352
-  Canada acquired by France, 461
-  Canary Islands probably known to the Phœnicians, 444
-  Cano, Sebastian el, first performs the circumnavigation of
-    the globe, 469
-  Cape de Verd Islands, depth of the sea near the, 7
-  Capelins, 162
-  Capri, 'azure cave' at, 18, 49
-  Carcinas mænas, metamorphosis of, 258
-  Caribbean Sea, crystalline clearness of the, 21
-  Carinaria, 287
-  Carrigeen (Chondrus crispus), 399
-  Carteret, his maritime discoveries, 483
-  Cartier, Jacques, voyages of, 461
-  Caryophyllia, 370
-  Cat-fish, or sea-wolf, 415
-  Catalonians, their maritime discoveries, 452
-  Caves, marine, 45
-  -- Fingal's Cave, 45-48
-  -- azure cave of Capri, 18, 49
-  -- the Antro di Nettuno, 49
-  -- the Cave of Hunga, 49-51
-  -- cave of the Skerries, 51
-  -- the Souffleur, or Blower, 52
-  -- the Buffadero, 53
-  Caviar, 217
-  Cellulariæ, 319
-  Cephalopods, their organisation, 271
-  -- their locomotion, 274
-  -- their food, 277
-  -- their enemies, 277
-  -- their great size in some cases, 379
-  -- the Norwegian kraken, 279
-  -- the argonaut, 280
-  -- the nautilus, 281
-  -- the cephalopods of the primitive ocean, 282
-  Cessart, De, his breakwater at Cherbourg, 90
-  Cetaceans, general remarks on the organisation of the, 95
-  -- food of whales, 98
-  -- their enemies, 99
-  -- large Greenland whale, 101
-  -- the rorqual, or fin-back, 101
-  -- the antarctic smooth-back, 102
-  -- sperm-whale, 102
-  -- the narwhal, or unicorn-fish, 106
-  -- the dolphin, 107
-  -- the porpoise, 108
-  -- the grampus, 108
-  -- history of the whale-fishery, 109
-  -- the ca'ing whale, 115
-  Cetochilus australis, banks of the, in the Pacific, 21
-  Ceylon, or Taprobane, discovery of, 447
-  Chætodon rostratus, 203
-  Chancellor's discovery of the White Sea, 474
-  -- his death, 475
-  Charybdis, vortex of, 41
-  Chelura tenebrans, 247
-  Chelyosoma, 323
-  Chepstow, high tides at, 38
-  Cherbourg, breakwater of, 90
-  Chili, upheaving of the coast of, 10
-  Chincha Islands, statistics of the guano trade of the, 169
-  Chiton squamosa, 285
-  Chlorospermeæ, or green sea-weeds, 391
-  Chondrus crispus, or carrigeen, 399
-  Circumnavigation of the globe first performed by Sebastian el Cano, 469
-  Clavellina producta, 322
-  Climate, influence of the Gulf Stream on that of the west European
-    coasts, 51
-  -- variety of climates in similar latitudes, 52
-  -- Peruvian cold stream, 53
-  -- Japanese stream, 54
-  -- influence of forests on climates, 78
-  -- power of man over climate, 78
-  Climbing fishes, 193
-  Clio borealis, 298
-  Clouds, formation of, 71, 72
-  Coast-line of the sea, length of, 4
-  Coasts, different formation of, 5
-  -- destructive power of the sea on all, 29
-  Cockle, the, 303, 306
-  Cocoa-nut crab of the East Indies, 254
-  Cod, the, 415
-  -- curing the cod, 216
-  -- cod-liver oil, 216
-  Cœlenterata, 345, 357
-  Colæus of Samos, his maritime discoveries, 446
-  Colour of the sea, 17
-  -- the azure cave at Capri, 18
-  -- changes produced by algæ and sea-worms, 19
-  Columbus, his discovery of America, 457
-  Compass, mariner's, invention of the, 451
-  Composition of sea-water, 12
-  Cone-shell, orange, 288
-  Conger-eels, 222
-  Congo, discovery of, 456
-  Constructions, marine, 80-91
-  Cook, Captain, his voyages and discoveries, 485
-  -- his first voyage, 486
-  -- discovery of the Society Islands, 486
-  -- of the east coast of New Holland, 486
-  -- his second voyage, and discoveries, 492
-  -- his third voyage, 491
-  -- his death, 462
-  Cook's Strait, discovery of, 486
-  Conochilus volvox, 268
-  Coral, spotted, of the Indian Ocean, 21
-  Coral, 366
-  -- deep sea, 367
-  -- fishing of the Mediterranean, 367
-  Coral-reefs, 374
-  -- barrier-reef of Australia, 374
-  -- how they become habitable for man, 375, 376
-  Coralline zone, 413
-  Cordova, his discoveries, 491
-  Cormorants, 154, 155
-  Cortereal, Gaspar, his maritime discoveries, 460
-  Cortereal, John Vaez, his discoveries, 458
-  Cortereal, Miguel, 461
-  Cortes, his conquest of Mexico, 461
-  Coryniadæ, 358
-  Crabs, 246
-  -- legs of crabs, 251
-  -- larvæ of crabs, 258
-  Cross-fish, the common, 334
-  Crustacea, by what are they distinguished from the insects and
-    spiders? 243
-  -- their respiratory organs, 244
-  Ctenophora, 358
-  Cuba discovered, 459
-  -- circumnavigated for the first time, 461
-  Curlew, the, 143
-  Currents, ocean, 54
-  -- causes of, 54, 55
-  -- the equatorial stream, 56
-  -- the Gulf Stream, 57
-  -- influence of the Gulf Stream, 60
-  -- the cold Peruvian stream, 62
-  -- the Japanese stream, 63
-  -- beneficial influence of the ocean currents, 64
-  Cushion star-fishes, 335
-  Cuttle-fish, 275
-  -- ova of the, 278
-  Cuvier's classification of fishes, 188
-  Cyclobranchiata, 285
-  Cyclones, causes of, 68
-  Cymospiras, 266
-
-
-  Dampier, his maritime discoveries, 483
-  Darien, Gulf of, discovered, 461
-  Darwin's theory of the formation of lagoon islands, 375
-  Davis, John, his maritime discoveries, 476
-  Depth of the sea, 6
-  -- of the Atlantic, according to Maury, 7
-  -- American mode of sounding in deep water, 6
-  -- telegraphic plateau between Newfoundland and Ireland, 7
-  -- measurement of depth by the rapidity of tide-wave, 8
-  Dew, formation of, 68
-  Diatomaceæ, 402
-  -- their importance in reference to the existence of animal life in
-    high latitudes, 403
-  Diaz, Bartholomew, his discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, 476
-  Diazona violacea, 324
-  Diodons, 178
-  Diogenes hermit-crab, 254
-  Diphyes, 352
-  Discovery, maritime, progress of, 441. _See_ Maritime Discovery
-  Diu, Portuguese settlement of, 462
-  Divers, 150
-  Docks of London and Liverpool, 91
-  Dogfish, 200
-  Dolphins, 107
-  Donax, 301
-  Dory, 242
-  Dragon-weever, 204
-  Drake, Sir Francis, his discoveries, 473
-  Duck family, 146
-  Dugong, 117
-  -- skeleton of the, 118
-  -- female dugong of Ceylon, 119
-  Dunes, formation of, 5
-  Dunwich, destruction of the coast at, 30
-  d'Urville, Dumont, his discoveries, 509
-  Dusky Bay, discovery of, 487
-  Dutch, their attempts to discover a North-West passage to
-    India, 474, 476
-
-
-  Earth-rind, the giant book of the, 432
-  -- formation of a solid earth-crust by cooling, 432
-  Echinus, or sea-urchin, 337
-  -- mammillated, 338
-  -- edible, 338
-  -- dental apparatus of sea-urchins, 339
-  Eddystone lighthouse, the, 81
-  -- Winstanley's structure, 81
-  -- Rudyerd's, 82
-  -- Smeaton's, 83
-  Edward's Island, Prince, discovery of, 491
-  -- Land, 415
-  Eel, the common, 225
-  -- conger, 228
-  -- the murry, or muræna, 229
-  Eendragt's Land, discovery of, 480
-  Eider-duck, 146
-  Electric eel, 202
-  Endeavour Strait, discovery of, 486
-  Enderby Land, discovery of, 509
-  English navigation, retrospective view of, 459
-  -- attempts to discover the North-West passage, 474
-  Enteromorphæ, 391
-  Eolis coronata, 284
-  Eozoon canadense, 381 _note_
-  Equatorial ocean-current, 57
-  Equinoctial line crossed for the first time, 456
-  Erebus, Mount, discovery of, 509
-  Escharæ, 317
-  Espiritu Santo, discovery of the Archipelago of, 480, 490
-  Esquimaux in his kayak, 120
-  Euripus, phenomenon produced by the tides of the, 44
-  Europe, length of coast-line of, 4
-  Euryale, warted, 333
-  Evaporation, movement of the waters through, 65
-  Extent of the ocean, 1
-
-
-  Falkland Islands, sea-weeds at, 396
-  Fan-bearer, 402, 403
-  Feather-star, the rosy, 330
-  Fernandez, Juan, his discoveries, 473
-  Fierasfer, 340
-  File-fish, 232
-  Fin-crab, spotted, 252
-  Fin-fish, or northern rorqual, 101
-  Fingal's Cave, 45-48
-  -- -- popular belief as to its workmanship, 48
-  -- -- Sir W. Scott's description of it, 48
-  Fire, sea of, 434
-  Fish, consumption of, in London, 237 _note_
-  Fish River, Great, course of, traced, 507
-  Fishes, general remarks on, 186
-  -- their locomotive organs, 187
-  -- Cuvier's classification of fishes, 188 _note_
-  -- fins, 188
-  -- air-bladder, 189
-  -- skin of, 190
-  -- beauty of tropical, 191
-  -- gills of, 191
-  -- circulation of the blood of, 191, 192
-  -- climbing, 193
-  -- parental affection of, 194
-  -- organs of sense, 196
-  -- offensive weapons of, 198
-  -- numerous enemies of, 207
-  -- luminous, 422
-  Flamingoes, 142
-  Flat-fishes, 235
-  Florence, its commercial grandeur, 450
-  Flounder, 238
-  Flying-fishes, 156, 205, 224
-  Flying-gurnard, 206
-  Foraminifera, 378
-  -- their immense numbers, 378
-  -- simplicity of their structure, 380
-  -- various forms of Foraminifera, 381
-  Forbes, Professor Edward, on the four zones of marine life on the
-    British coasts, 408
-  Forests, influence of, on the formation and retention of atmospherical
-    precipitations, 76
-  -- formation of, 77
-  -- influence of, on climates, 78
-  Franklin, Sir John, his arctic voyages, 501
-  -- his last voyage, 508
-  Fresnel, his improvements in marine illumination, 90
-  Frigate-bird, 155
-  Frobisher, Martin, his maritime discoveries, 475
-  Frog-fish, 193, 194
-  Fuci, 392
-  -- fucus banks, or floating meadows, of the Atlantic 397
-  Fulmar, the, 195
-
-
-  Gades, Phœnician town of, 444
-  Gaëta, maritime trade of, 451
-  Gama, Vasco de, doubles the Cape of Good Hope, 462
-  Gannet, or soland goose, 156
-  Gar-fish, 223
-  Garry, Cape, discovery of, 503
-  Gasteropods, 282
-  -- respiratory apparatus, 283
-  -- growth of their shells, 289
-  -- mode of locomotion, 289
-  -- their food, 294
-  -- organs of sense, 295
-  -- their enemies, 297
-  -- their use to man, 296
-  Genoa, maritime grandeur of, 450
-  Geographical distribution of marine life, 405
-  Georgia, South, discovery of, 490
-  Germany, its climate at the time of the Romans and at the present
-    time, 78
-  Glaciers, formation and dissolution of, 75
-  -- the Aar glacier, 75
-  -- of Greenland and Spitzbergen, 76
-  Glaucus, 283
-  Globe-fish, 232
-  Goa, Portuguese settlement of, 462
-  Goby, the black, 194
-  Goniaster, 335, 336
-  Good Hope, Cape of, discovery of, 457
-  -- -- first doubled, 462
-  Goodwin Sands, 9
-  Goose, sea, various kinds of, 146
-  Gorgonidæ, 365
-  Grampus, the, 108
-  -- -- anecdote of one, 109
-  Grass wrack (Zostera marina), 391
-  Great crab, 251
-  Grebes, the, 150
-  Greenland, depression of the coast of, 10
-  -- olive colour of the water of the Greenland seas, 20
-  -- glaciers of, 76
-  -- whale-fishery of, 110
-  -- discovery of, 457
-  Grijalva, his maritime discoveries, 461
-  Guano of the Chincha Islands, 169
-  -- statistics of the trade of, 170
-  Guillemot, black, 165, 167
-  Guinea, New, discovery of, 473
-  Gulf Stream, the, 57, 58
-  -- -- its influence on the climate of the west European coasts, 59
-  Gulls, sea, 157
-  Günnbjorn, his discovery of Greenland, 457
-  Gurnard, 414
-
-
-  Haddock, 215
-  Hag. glutinous, 231
-  Haiti discovered, 459
-  Halibut, 236
-  Hanno, the Carthaginian, his voyage, 444
-  Harp-shell, 288
-  Hartburn, site of the village of, 29
-  Hartog, his maritime discoveries, 480
-  Hassar, land journeys of the, 194
-  Hawaii, discovery of the island of, 492
-  Hebrides, New, discovery of the, 480, 490
-  Henry, Prince, of Portugal, his maritime discoveries, 453
-  Hermit-crabs, 254
-  Herrings, 208, 415
-  Herring-crab, 256
-  Herring-fishery, 208
-  -- history of the, 209
-  -- statistics of the, 210
-  Herring-gull, 158
-  Hervey's Islands, discovery of, 487
-  Hindustan, circumnavigation of, 447
-  Hippocamp, 129, 234
-  Hippopus, 315
-  Hoar-frost, causes of, 72
-  Hogg, James, his experiments with salmon, 219
-  Holland, devastations caused by storm-tides on the coast of, 35
-  Holland, New, discoveries of, 473
-  -- -- Cook's discoveries in, 486
-  Holothuriæ, 339
-  Homer, his picture of the breaking of the waves against the shore, 27
-  Hood's Island, discovery of, 489
-  Hooded seal of northern seas, 125
-  Huatulco, sea-cave of, 52, 53
-  Hudson, Henry, his maritime discoveries, 481
-  -- his unfortunate end, 482
-  Hudson's Bay, discovery of, 481
-  Hump-back whales, 102
-  Hunga, cave of, 49-51
-  Hyalæa, 298
-  Hyde, site of the village of, 29
-
-
-  Ianthinæ, 290
-  Ice-bear, 100, 134
-  Icebergs, formation of, 76
-  -- erratic blocks carried away by, 76
-  Iceland, salmon of, 220
-  -- discovery and colonisation of, 361
-  Ichthyosaurus, 438
-  Inachus Kæmpferi of Japan, 259
-  India, Portuguese discovery in, 462
-  Indian Ocean, spotted corals in the, 21
-  Indus, sudden rising of the spring-tide at the mouth of the, 42
-  Inferobranchiata, 284
-  Infusoria, marine, 383
-  Insects, marine, 261
-  Isinglass, 216
-  Isis hippuris, 369
-  Ivory of the walrus, 132
-
-
-  Jamaica discovered, 459
-  Japanese ocean-stream, the, 63
-  Java, gathering of edible birds'-nests on the south coast of, 399
-  Jelly-fishes, 345
-  -- their anatomical structure, 345
-  -- their size and colours, 356
-  -- their indirect use to man, 357
-  -- their phosphorescence, 420
-  -- the Velella, 353
-  -- the Portuguese man-of-war, 354
-  John Dory, 415
-
-
-  Kamtschatka, salmon of, 220
-  Keeling Island, subsidence of the coast at, 10
-  Kerguelen's Land, discovery of, 491
-  Kilda, St., bird-catching on, 164
-  King-crab, 246
-  Kittiwake, or tarrock, the, 158
-  Kraken, the Norwegian, 279
-
-
-  Labrador, discovery of, 459
-  Ladrone Islands, discovery of the, 468
-  Lagoon islands, 374
-  -- -- Darwin's theory of the formation of, 375
-  -- -- how they became habitable for man, 376
-  Lamantins of the Atlantic Ocean, 117
-  Laminaria, region of the great, or tangle forests, 393
-  Laminariæ, 393
-  Lampreys, 230, 231
-  Land-crabs, 250
-  Landscapes, submarine, 21
-  -- in the Caribbean Sea, 21
-  -- on the coast of Sicily, 21
-  La Perouse, his maritime discoveries, 493
-  -- -- his fate, 493
-  Launces, 230
-  Le Maire, his maritime discoveries, 480
-  Lepraliæ, 318
-  Lessonias, of the Falkland Islands, 396
-  Level of the ocean, does it remain unchanged, and every where the
-    same? 11
-  Licmophora, or fan-bearer, 402
-  Life, marine, geographical distribution of, 405
-  -- dependence of all created beings upon space and time, 406
-  -- influences which regulate the distribution of marine life, 407
-  -- the four bathymetrical zones of marine life on the British coasts,
-    according to the late Professor Edward Forbes, of Edinburgh, 408
-  -- first wakening of life in the bosom of the ocean, 435
-  Lighthouses, 80
-  -- the Eddystone lighthouse, 81
-  -- the Bellrock, or Inchcape, lighthouse, 85
-  -- the Skerryvore lighthouse, 85-89
-  -- the Pharus of Alexandria, 89
-  -- progress of marine illumination, 90
-  Lily encrinites, 340
-  Limacina arctica, 298
-  Limits of the ocean, progressive changes in the, 9
-  -- Goodwin Sands, 10
-  -- alluvial deposits, 10
-  -- upheaving of coasts, 10
-  -- subsidence, 10
-  -- temple of Serapis, 11
-  -- level of the sea everywhere the same, 11
-  Limnoriæ, 247
-  Limpet, 285, 294
-  Limuli, or king-crabs, 246
-  Ling, 215, 415
-  Ling-thorn, 335
-  Lithophytes, 373
-  Liverpool Docks, 91
-  Lizards of the sea, 173, 181
-  -- serpent-lizard, 435
-  Lobsters, 256, 257
-  Loggerheaded duck or goose, 148
-  London Docks, 91
-  Long-tailed duck, 148
-  Lophobranchii, the, 233
-  Louse, whale, 101
-  Lucernaridæ, 350
-  Luminous marine animals, 418
-  Lump-sucker, 415
-
-
-  Mackerel, 222
-  Macrocystis pyrifera, 393
-  -- -- Mr. Darwin's description of it at Tierra del Fuego, 393, 396
-  Madeira, depth of the sea near, 1
-  -- discovery of, 505
-  Maelstrom, the, 41
-  Magellan, Ferdinand, his discoveries, 467, 468
-  Magellan's Straits, discovery of, 468
-  -- -- harmony of animal life in the islands of, 490
-  Magilus antiquus, 291
-  Malacca Islands, discovery of the, 462
-  Malo, St., high tides of, 38
-  Mammaria scintillans, 275
-  Manatee, the, 116
-  Mantis crab, spotted, 256
-  Marco Polo, his travels and discoveries, 453
-  Maritime discovery, progress of, 441
-  -- discoveries of the Phœnicians, 443
-  -- expedition of Hanno, 444
-  -- circumnavigation of Africa, under Pharaoh Necho II., 444
-  -- Ophir, 339
-  -- Colæus of Samos and Pytheas of Massilia, 340
-  -- expedition of Nearchus, 447
-  -- circumnavigation of Hindostan, under the Ptolemies, 447
-  -- voyages of discovery of the Romans, 453
-  -- consequences of the fall of the Roman empire, 448
-  -- Amalfi, 449
-  -- Pisa, Venice, and Genoa, 449
-  -- resumption of maritime intercourse between the Mediterranean and
-    the Atlantic, 451
-  -- discovery of the compass, 451
-  -- Marco Polo, 453
-  -- other discoveries, 453
-  -- Prince Henry of Portugal, 454
-  -- discovery of Porto Santo and Madeira, 455
-  -- doubling of Cape Bojador, 455
-  -- discovery of the Azores, 456
-  -- the line crossed for the first time, 456
-  -- Benin and Congo discovered, 456
-  -- and the Cape of Good Hope, 457
-  -- discovery of America, 457
-  -- and of Iceland, 457
-  -- Greenland, 457
-  -- discoveries of John and Sebastian Cabot, 459
-  -- retrospective view of the beginnings of English navigation, 461
-  -- Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci, 460
-  -- Vincent Yañez Pinson, 460
-  -- Cortes, 461
-  -- Verazzani, 461
-  -- Jacques Cartier, 461
-  -- the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean, 462
-  -- Balboa's discovery of the Pacific Ocean, 466
-  -- Magellan, 467
-  -- Sebastian el Cano, the first circumnavigator of the globe, 469
-  -- Pizarro and Cortes, 470
-  -- Urdaneta, 472
-  -- Juan Fernandez, 473
-  -- Mendoza, 473
-  -- Drake, 473
-  -- Willoughby and Chancellor, 474
-  -- Martin Frobisher, 475
-  -- Davis, 476
-  -- Barentz, 476
-  -- Quiros, 480
-  -- Torres, 480
-  -- Schouten, Le Maire, and others, 480
-  -- Tasman, 480
-  -- Henry Hudson, and his unfortunate end, 481
-  -- Baffin, 481
-  -- Dampier, 483
-  -- Anson, Behring, Byron, Wallis, Carteret, and Bougainville, 483
-  -- Cook's voyages, 485-492
-  -- arctic discovery, 496
-  Marquesas de Mendoza Islands, discovery of the, 473
-  Mauritius, sea-cave on the, 52
-  Mediterranean Sea, depth of the, 8
-  -- -- height of the, 12
-  -- -- temperature of the, 14
-  -- -- colour of the, 18
-  -- -- sides of the, 43
-  -- -- Phœnician trade in the, 443
-  -- -- decline of trade in the, 33
-  -- -- resumption of maritime intercourse between the Mediterranean and
-    the Adriatic, 449
-  Medusidæ, 349, 350
-  Melanospermeæ, or olive-coloured sea-weeds, 392
-  Melville Island, discovery of, 500
-  Mendana, Alvaro, his discoveries, 473
-  Menezes, Don Jorge de, his discoveries, 473
-  Merganser, 149, 404
-  Mexico, discovery of the coast of, 461
-  -- conquest of, by Cortes, 461, 472
-  Microscopic life of the ocean, 378
-  Mines, submarine, 91
-  Mitre shells, 288
-  Mollusca, 270
-  -- general remarks on, 270
-  Monsoons, north-east, 68
-  -- south-west, 68
-  Moon, influence of the, on the tides, 446
-  Mother-of-pearl, 313
-  Mullet, grey, 415
-  Murex haustellum, 291
-  Murry, or muræna, 229
-  Mussels, edible, 307
-  -- history of, 307
-  -- 'bouchots,' or mussel-parks, 307
-  Myxine, the, 231
-
-
-  Naples, maritime trade of, 449
-  Narwhal, or unicorn-fish, 106
-  Nautilus, 280
-  -- the pearly, 281
-  Nearchus, voyage of, 447
-  Necho II., Pharaoh, of Egypt, his maritime discoveries, 444
-  Nelson, Horatio, pursuing a polar bear, 138
-  Neptune's ruffles, 318
-  Nereis, the, 263
-  Nereocystis lutkeana, the, of Norfolk Bay and Sitcha, 397
-  Nettuno, Antro di, 49
-  Newfoundland, discovery of, 459
-  Noctiluca miliaris, 419
-  Norfolk, rapid destruction of the cliffs of, 29
-  Norfolk Island, discovery of, 490
-  North Sea, depth of the, 8
-  -- -- colour of the, 18
-  North-West Passage, attempts of the Dutch and English to discover
-    the, 474
-  Norway, treaty of commerce concluded with, 459
-  Nova Zembla, 476, 477
-  -- -- sufferings of Barentz and his crew during a winter at, 478
-  Nudibranchiata, 284
-  Nummulina discoidalis, 378
-
-
-  Oar-weeds, 393
-  Ocean, the primitive, 433
-  Ojeda, discoveries of, 460
-  Oliva hispidula, 290
-  Onychoteuthis, arms and tentacles of an, 274
-  Ophir, the, of the Phœnicians, 445
-  Ophiuridæ, or snake-stars, 331
-  Orkney Islands, whirlpools among the, 42
-  Ormus, taken by the Portuguese, 462
-  Ostend, oyster-parks of, 309
-  Otarian seals, 126
-  Oyster, 307
-  -- account of the oyster-trade, 308
-  -- catchers, 143
-  -- oyster-dust, 310
-  -- pearl, 311
-
-
-  Pacific Ocean, depth of the, 7
-  -- -- height of the, 12
-  -- -- discovery of the, 466
-  -- -- Cook's voyages in, 492
-  Paguri, 254
-  Palisser Islands, discovery of the, 489
-  Palmas, Cape, colour of the sea near, 20
-  Palmyra, 445
-  Parrot-fishes, 372
-  Parry, Sir John, his arctic discoveries, 500
-  Patagonia, discovery of, 484
-  Pea-crab, 253
-  Pearl-oyster, 311
-  Pearls, 311, 312
-  Pectinibranchiata, 288
-  Pectunculus, 302
-  Pegasus, swimming, 207
-  Pelamid, 224
-  Pelamys bicolor, 183
-  Pelicans, 116, 154
-  Penguins, 142, 152
-  -- species of, 153
-  Pentacrinus briareus, 330
-  Periwinkle, 411
-  Peru, visited by Pizarro, 471
-  -- conquered by him, 472
-  Peruvian ocean-current, the, 62
-  Petrels, 160
-  -- stormy, 162
-  Philippine Islands, discovery of the, 468
-  Philodina roseola, 269
-  Phœnicians, maritime discoveries of the, 443
-  -- their progress in the arts and sciences, 445
-  Pholades, 304
-  Pholas dactylus, 301
-  -- Pliny's accounts of its phosphorescence, 431
-  -- striata, 302
-  Phosphorescence of the sea, causes of, 418
-  -- of various marine animals, 418
-  Phyllosoma, 258
-  Physaliæ, the, 354
-  Physophoridæ, 353
-  Pilchards, 212, 415
-  Pilot-fish, 225
-  Pinnæ of the Mediterranean, 253, 304, 305
-  Pinson, his discoveries, 460
-  Pipe-fishes, 233, 234
-  Pisa, maritime trade of, 449
-  Pizarro, sketch of him and his companions, 469
-  Plaice, 238
-  Plants, marine, 390
-  Plectognaths, 232
-  Plesiosaurus, the, 438
-  Pleuronectidæ, or flat-fishes, 235
-  Pliny, his geographical knowledge, 448
-  Plover, the, 144
-  Plymouth breakwater, in the great storm of 1824, 29
-  Polycystina, 382, 383
-  Polynesia, length of coast-line of, 4
-  Polyps, 345
-  Polyzoa, 316, 320
-  Porcupine-fish, 232
-  Porpoise, 108
-  Portland, destructive action of the sea at, 31
-  Porto Santo, discovery of, 455
-  Portuguese man-of-war, 354
-  Poulp, 272, 273
-  Prontzchitschew, his maritime discoveries, 483
-  Protozoa, 378
-  Pteroceras, 290
-  Pteropods, their organisation and mode of life, 298
-  -- the butterflies of the ocean, 299
-  Ptolemies, maritime discoveries of the, 447
-  Ptolemy, the geographer, his knowledge of the globe, 449
-  Ptygura melicerta, 267
-  Puffins, 165, 167
-  Purbeck, destruction of the cliffs at, 31
-  Pyrosoma atlantica, its phosphorescence, 420
-  Pyrosomes, 325
-  Pytheas of Massilia, his maritime discoveries, 446
-
-
-  Quantity of the waters contained within the bosom of the ocean, 8
-  Quiros, his maritime discoveries, 480
-  Quito, coast of, discovery of, 470
-
-
-  Racer, or rider-crab, the, 251
-  Rain, formation of, 72
-  -- inequality of, 72
-  -- its return to the sea, 73
-  Rays, 240
-  Razor-shell, 303-306
-  Ré, oyster-trade of, 311
-  Reculver, destruction of the coast at, 30
-  Red Sea, height of the, 12
-  -- -- red algæ of the, 20
-  -- -- Phœnician trade on the, 445
-  Reef-building corals, 374
-  Regent Inlet, Prince, discovery of, 500
-  Reptiles of the sea, 172
-  Rhodosperms, Florideæ, or red sea-weeds, 398
-  -- their habitat, 398
-  Richardson, Sir John, his arctic voyages, 501
-  Rivers, phenomena presented by the mixture of salt and fresh
-    water in, 16
-  -- quantities of water which rivers pour into the ocean, 75
-  Rock-goose, 149
-  Roggewein, his maritime discoveries, 483
-  Rome, ancient, maritime discoveries of, 448
-  Rorqual, northern, or fin-fish, 101
-  -- its food, 102
-  Ross, Sir James, on the height of waves, 28
-  -- -- -- his discoveries, 509
-  -- -- John, his arctic discoveries, 500, 503
-  Rotifera, the, 267
-  Rudyerd, Mr., his lighthouse on the Eddystone rocks, 82
-
-
-  Saavedra, Alvaro de, his discoveries, 473
-  Sabrina Land, discovery of, 509
-  Sagittaria, discovery of the island of, 480
-  Sail-fluke, 239
-  Salangana caves in Java, 399
-  Salmon, 217, 324
-  -- trade, 220
-  -- salmon-spearing, 219
-  -- growth of the salmon, 219
-  -- abundance of salmon, 220
-  -- introduced into Australia and New Zealand, 221
-  Salmon-leaps, 218
-  Salpæ, 325
-  -- their alternating generations, 327
-  Salts of the sea, 12
-  Sand-crab, American, 252
-  Sandhopper, 246
-  Sand-stars, 332
-  Sandwich Land, discovery of, 490
-  -- Islands, discovery of, 490
-  Sardinia, stalactite caves of the island of, 49
-  Sargasso Sea, the, 397
-  Saurians of the past seas, 172, 438
-  Scari, or parrot-fishes, 372
-  Schouten, his maritime discoveries, 480
-  Scissor-bill, 144
-  Scoopers, 143
-  Scoresby, his arctic voyages, 497
-  Scyllæa, 283
-  Scythe, the, 415
-  Sea-anemones, 361
-  Sea-bear, 117, 126
-  Sea-birds, 128, 142
-  -- their vast numbers, 142
-  Sea-cask, 142
-  Sea-cucumbers, 339
-  Sea-devil of the Pacific, 241
-  Sea-ear, 286, 287
-  Sea-elephant, 125
-  Sea-fox, 99
-  Sea-hare, 284, 295
-  Sea-horse, 129, 234
-  Sea-lemon, 284
-  Sea-lion, 128
-  Sea-mat, leaf-like, 316
-  Sea-mew, 157
-  Sea-otter, 139
-  -- chase of the, 139
-  Sea-pen, 364
-  -- its phosphorescence, 426
-  Sea-pie, the, 144
-  Sea-pinks, 391
-  Sea-scurfs, 318
-  Sea-snail, purple, 290
-  Sea-snakes, 183
-  Sea-squirts, 323
-  Sea-swallows, 157
-  Sea-urchin, 337
-  Sea-weeds, 391
-  -- luminous, 423
-  Sea-wolf, 197
-  Seals and walruses, 117
-  -- food of, 120
-  -- statistics of seal-fishery, 121
-  -- various kinds of, 123
-  Seine, sudden rising of the spring-tides at the mouth of the, 42
-  Seleucidæ, maritime discoveries of the, 42
-  Seleucus Nicator, his circumnavigation of Hindostan, and discovery
-    of Taprobane, or Ceylon, 447
-  Semen Deshnew, the Cossack, his maritime discoveries, 483
-  Sepia. _See_ Cuttle-fish
-  Serapis, temple of, 11
-  Serpents of the seas, 183
-  Serpulas, 266
-  Sertularia, 347
-  Shakspeare's Cliff, destructive action of the sea on, 30
-  Sharks, 198
-  -- Greenland shark, an enemy of the whale, 99
-  -- luminous, 330
-  Sheldrake, or burrow duck, 148
-  Sheppey, Isle of, rapid decay of the coast of the, 30
-  Sherringham, ravages of the sea on the coast at, 29
-  Shetland Islands, fury of the Atlantic waves at the, 28
-  Shetland, New South, discovery of, 509
-  Ship-worm (teredo), 302
-  Shore-crab, 251
-  Siberia, Cook's visits to the coasts of, 492
-  Sicily, submarine landscapes of the coast of, 21
-  Siphonostomata, 245
-  Skerries, cave in the, 51
-  Skerryvore lighthouse, 85
-  Skimmer, 169
-  Sledge-journey, arctic, 502
-  Sly, 202
-  Smeaton, John, his lighthouse on the Eddystone rocks, 83
-  Smooth-back whale, the antarctic, 102
-  Snake-stars, 437
-  Snow-goose, 146
-  Society Islands, discovery of the, 486
-  Soland goose, 156
-  Solasters, 334
-  Sole, 237
-  -- skin of the, 190
-  Solen, or razor-shell, 304
-  Solis, Juan de, his discoveries, 461
-  -- -- -- his death, 461
-  Solomon Islands, discovery of the, 473, 483
-  Souffleur, or blower, the marine cave of the, 52
-  Soundings, American method of taking, in deep water, 6
-  South Sea Islands, discovery of the, 474
-  Speckled diver, 145
-  Sperm-whale, or cachalot, 102
-  Spiders, marine, 260
-  Spitzbergen, discovery of, 477
-  Spondylus, royal, 314
-  Sponge-crab, 249
-  Sponges, 385
-  -- their remarkable growth, 385
-  -- habitat of the common sponge, 388
-  Sprat, the, 214
-  Springs, origin of, 73
-  -- mineral waters, 74
-  Springs of fresh water in the bottom of the sea, 17
-  Staffa, island of, 46
-  Stalactite caves of the island of Sardinia, 49
-  Star-fishes, 328
-  -- their organisation, 328
-  Star-gazer fish, 202
-  Sterlet of the Volga, 217
-  Stevenson, Mr. Alan, his Skerryvore lighthouse, 86
-  Stevenson, Mr. Robert, his lighthouse on the Bell Rock, 85
-  Stickleback, parental affection of the, 195
-  Stone-corals, 373
-  Storm, the great, of 1703, 82
-  Storm-tides, 34
-  -- devastations of, on flat coasts, 34, 35
-  Strand-birds, 143
-  -- migration of, 144
-  -- food of, 144
-  Strombus pes pelicani, 290
-  Sturgeons, 216, 217
-  -- caviar, 217
-  Sucking-fish, 203
-  Suffolk, rapid decay of the cliffs of, 29
-  Sun-fish, 232, 233
-  -- its luminousness, 422
-  Sun, his influence on the tides, 37
-  Sun-star fish, 334
-  Surgeon-fish, the, 205
-  Sweden, gradual upheaving of the coast of, 10
-  Sword-fish, an enemy of the whale, 99
-  -- his weapon, 201
-  Synchæta baltica, 269
-
-
-  Tahiti, discovery of, 484
-  Tailor-bird, the, 143
-  Taprobane, or Ceylon, discovery of, 447
-  Tartessus, Phœnician town of, 444
-  Tasman, Abel, his maritime discoveries, 480
-  Tasmania, discovery of, 481
-  Tectibranchiata, 284
-  Temperature of the sea, 13
-  -- at various parts of the surface of the globe, 14
-  Teredo navalis, 302
-  Thames, progress of the tide-wave in the, 43
-  Thornbacks, 240
-  Thresher, or sea-fox, an enemy of the whale, 99
-  Thunder-stones, 437
-  Tide-wave, measurement of the depth of the sea by the rapidity of the, 8
-  -- progress and course of the, 40, 43
-  Tides, the, 32
-  -- description of the phenomenon, 32
-  -- devastations of storm-floods on flat coasts, 34, 35
-  -- knowledge of the ancients respecting the tides, 35
-  -- fundamental causes of the tides revealed by Kepler and Newton, 36, 37
-  Tides, height of the, at various places, 38
-  -- vortices caused by the: the Maelstrom, Charybdis, &c., 41
-  -- the phenomena of the Euripus, 44
-  Tierra del Fuego, masses of sea-weed at, 394
-  -- -- -- rounded by Schouten and Le Maire, 480
-  Tonga, discovery of, 481
-  Top, agglutinating, 296
-  Tornadoes, causes of, 68
-  Tornatella fasciata, 290
-  Torpedo, the, 201
-  Torres, his maritime discoveries, 480
-  Torso Rock, the, 9
-  Tortoise-shell, 180
-  Tortoises, 176
-  Trade-winds, the, 67
-  Transparency of the sea at Capri, 18
-  -- -- -- -- in the Indian Ocean, 21
-  -- -- -- -- in the Caribbean, 21
-  Trepang, or Biche de Mer, 340
-  -- mode of curing, 340
-  -- the fishery in the Feejee Islands, 342
-  Tridacna, the gigantic, 314
-  Trigger-fish, 233
-  Trilobites, 436
-  Trunk-fish, 232
-  Tubiporidæ, 370
-  Tubulibranchiata, 292
-  Tunicata, 316, 321
-  Tunny, the, 221
-  -- stripe-bellied, 224
-  Turbot, the, 236, 237
-  Turn-stone bird, 144
-  Turtles, 173
-  -- catching turtles in the island of St. Thomas, 172
-  Tynemouth Castle, destruction of the coast near, 29
-  Typhoons, causes of, 68
-  Tyrian dye, 446
-
-
-  Ulvæ, 391
-  Unicorn-fish, or narwhal, 106
-  Urasters, 334
-  Urdaneta, first reaches Acapulco from Manilla, 472
-
-
-  Vancouver's discoveries, 472
-  Van Diemen's Land, discovery of, 480
-  Vanikoro, island of, 493
-  Velellæ, the, 353
-  Venice, maritime grandeur of, 450
-  Verazzani, voyage of, 461
-  Vermetus, 291
-  Virgularia mirabilis, 365
-  Vogtia pentacantha, 353
-
-
-  Wales, Cape Prince of, discovery of, 491
-  Wallis, his maritime discoveries, 483
-  Walrus, or morse, 117, 129, 135
-  -- anecdote of a fight with, 130
-  -- ivory of the, 132
-  Walton, his mussel-beds in France, 307
-  Water-snakes, 183
-  Water-spouts, causes of, 68
-  Waves of the ocean, 24
-  -- wave-motion as distinct from water motion, 25
-  -- height and velocity of storm-waves, 26-28
-  -- Homer's picture of the breaking of the waves against the shore, 26
-  -- Scoresby on the height of waves in the open sea, 27
-  -- force and height of the waves on rocky coasts, 28
-  -- instances of the destructive action of the tidal waves on
-    coast-lines, 28-31
-  Weddell, Captain, his voyages, 509
-  Weevers, 204
-  Wellington Channel, discovery of, 500
-  Wentle-trap, Chinese, 289
-  Whalebone, 96
-  Whale-fishery, history of the, 109
-  Whales. _See_ Cetaceans
-  Whelks, 292
-  Wilkes, Captain, on the height of waves, 28
-  Wilkes, his explorations, 509
-  Willoughby, Sir Hugh, his unfortunate arctic voyage, 474
-  Winds, origin of, 66
-  -- trade-winds, 67
-  -- calms, or doldrums, 67
-  -- monsoons, 68
-  -- typhoons, tornadoes, &c., 68
-  -- water-spouts, 68
-  Wing-shells, 304
-  Winstanley, Mr., his lighthouse on the Eddystone rocks, 81
-  Winter Harbour, discovery of, 500
-  Wolf-fish, 197
-  Wolstenholme Sound, elevation of the coast at, 10
-  Worm-shell, 291
-
-
-  Yorkshire, wearing away of the coast of, 29
-  Yucatan, first exploration of, 461
-
-
-  Zostera marina, 391
-
-
-  PRINTED BY
-  SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
-  LONDON
-
-
-
-Transcriber's Note
-
-
-Minor typos have been corrected. Most words that sometimes have
-hyphenations and other times non-hyphenated were left as written.
-Illustrations were repositioned to not split paragraphs. An assumed
-missing end quotation was added on page 353.
-
-
-
-
-
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-
-End of Project Gutenberg's The Sea and its Living Wonders, by George Hartwig
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-<pre>
-
-Project Gutenberg's The Sea and its Living Wonders, by George Hartwig
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll
-have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using
-this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: The Sea and its Living Wonders
-       A Popular Account of the Marvels of the Deep and of the
-              Progress of Martime Discovery from the Earliest Ages to
-              the Present Time
-
-Author: George Hartwig
-
-Release Date: May 3, 2020 [EBook #62011]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEA AND ITS LIVING WONDERS ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Chris Curnow, Sharon Joiner, Tom Cosmas and
-the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
-https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
-generously made available by The Internet Archive)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-</pre>
-
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 295px;">
-<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="295" height="445" alt="cover" />
-</div>
-
-
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 536px;"><a id="frontispiece" name="frontispiece"></a>
-<a href="images/frontispiecelg.png"><img src="images/frontispiece.png" width="418" height="603" alt="" /></a>
-<div class="fig_caption">ARCTIC SLEDGE-JOURNEY.<br />
-<span class="smaller">Click on image to view larger version.</span></div>
-</div>
-
-
-
-
-<h1>THE SEA<br />
-
-<span class="vsmall">AND</span><br />
-
-<span class="gesspert">ITS LIVING WONDERS</span><br />
-
-<span class="vsmall">A POPULAR ACCOUNT OF</span><br />
-
-<span class="smaller">THE MARVELS OF THE DEEP</span><br />
-
-<span class="vsmall">AND OF THE</span><br />
-
-<span class="smaller">PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY<br />
-FROM THE EARLIEST AGES TO THE PRESENT TIME</span></h1>
-
-<p class="center">BY</p>
-
-<h2 class="pmb2">DR. G. HARTWIG<br /><br />
-
-<span class="vsmall">AUTHOR OF "THE TROPICAL WORLD" "THE HARMONIES OF NATURE"<br />
-"THE POLAR WORLD" AND "THE SUBTERRANEAN WORLD"</span></h2>
-
-<p class="center smaller pmt2">SEVENTH EDITION</p>
-
-<p class="center smaller pmt4"><i>WITH NUMEROUS WOODCUTS AND PLATES</i></p>
-
-<p class="center pmb4"><span class="smaller">LONDON</span><br />
-<span class="gesspert">LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.</span><br />
-<span class="smaller">AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST 16<sup>th</sup> STREET<br />
-1892</span><br />
-</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-<h2><a name="NOTICE" id="NOTICE">NOTICE</a></h2>
-
-
-<p><i>The right of translation into French is reserved by the Author. All necessary
-steps for securing the Copyright have been taken.</i></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">� v �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2>PREFACE<br />
-
-<span style="font-size:0.5em;">TO</span><br />
-
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">THE THIRD AND FOURTH EDITIONS.</span></h2>
-
-
-<p>Nothing can be more agreeable to an author anxious to
-merit the suffrages of the public, than the opportunity
-afforded him, by a new edition, of correcting past errors
-or adding improvements to his work. Should any one of
-my readers think it worth his while to compare 'The
-Sea,' such as it now is, with what it formerly was, I have
-no doubt he will do me the justice to say that I have
-conscientiously striven to deserve his approbation.</p>
-
-<p>Two new chapters&mdash;one on Marine Constructions, the
-other on Marine Caves&mdash;have been added; those on the
-Molluscs and C&#339;lenterata (Jelly-fishes, Polyps) almost
-entirely re-written; and those on Fishes, Crustaceans,
-Microscopic Animals, the Geographical Distribution of
-Marine Life, and the Phosphorescence of the Sea, considerably
-enlarged; not to mention a number of minor
-improvements dispersed throughout the volume.</p>
-
-<p>Great attention has also been paid to the Illustrations,
-many of questionable value having been omitted in the
-present edition, to make room for a number of others,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">� vi �</a></span>
-which will be found of great use for the better understanding
-of the text.</p>
-
-<p>In one word, I have done my best to raise my work
-to the standard of the actual state of science, and to
-render it, as far as my humble abilities go, a complete
-epitome of all that the <i>general</i> reader <i>cares</i> to know
-about the marvels of the deep.</p>
-
-<p class="tdr">
-<span class="smcap">G. Hartwig.</span><br />
-</p>
-
-<p class="p0">
-<span class="smcap">Salon Villas, Ludwigsburg</span>:<br />
-<span class="tdl2"><i>June 30, 1873</i>.</span><br />
-</p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2>PREFACE<br />
-
-<span style="font-size:0.5em;">TO</span><br />
-
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">THE FIRST TWO EDITIONS.</span></h2>
-
-
-<p>For years my daily walks have been upon the beach, and
-I have learnt to love the ocean as the Swiss mountaineer
-loves his native Alps, or the Highlander the heath-covered
-hills of Caledonia. May these feelings have imparted
-some warmth to the following pages, and serve to render
-the reader more indulgent to their faults!</p>
-
-<p class="tdr">
-<span class="smcap">G. Hartwig.</span><br />
-</p>
-
-<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">G�ttingen</span>: <i>July 17, 1860</i>.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">� vii �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS.</a></h2>
-
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#PART_I">PART I.</a><br />
-<br />
-THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.</h2>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 90px;">
-<img src="images/bar_diamond.png" width="90" height="9" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">THE MAGNITUDE OF THE SEA.</span><br />
-</h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td></td>
-  <td class="tdr"><span class="smaller">Page</span></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">Extent of the Ocean.&mdash;Length of its Coast-Line.&mdash;Mural, Rocky, and Flat Coasts.&mdash;How
-deep is the Sea?&mdash;Average Depth of the Atlantic Ocean.&mdash;The Telegraphic
-Plateau between Newfoundland and Ireland.&mdash;Measurement of Depth
-by the Rapidity of the Tide-Wave.&mdash;Progressive Changes in the Limits of the
-Ocean.&mdash;Alluvial Deposits.&mdash;Upheaving.&mdash;Subsidence.&mdash;Does the Level of the
-Sea remain unchanged, and is it everywhere the same?&mdash;Composition and
-Temperature of Sea-Water.&mdash;Its intrinsic Colour.&mdash;The Azure Grotto at Capri.&mdash;Modification
-of Colour owing to Animals and Plants.&mdash;Submarine Landscapes
-viewed through the Clear Waters</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_II">CHAPTER II.</a><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">THE WAVES OF THE OCEAN.</span></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">Waves and the Mode of their Formation.&mdash;Height and Velocity of Storm-Waves,
-on the High Seas, according to the Calculations of Scoresby, Arago, Sir James
-Ross, and Wilkes.&mdash;Their Height and Power on Coasts.&mdash;Their Destructive
-Effects along the British Shore.&mdash;Dunwich.&mdash;Reculver.&mdash;Shakspeare's Cliff.</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_III">CHAPTER III.</a><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">THE TIDES.</span></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">Description of the Phenomenon.&mdash;Devastation of Storm-Floods on Flat Coasts.&mdash;What
-did the Ancients know of the Tides?&mdash;Their Fundamental Causes revealed
-by Kepler and Newton.&mdash;Development of their Theory by La Place, Euler, and
-Whewell.&mdash;Vortices caused by the Tides.&mdash;The Maelstrom.&mdash;Charybdis.&mdash;The
-<i>Barre</i> at the mouth of the Seine.&mdash;The Euripus</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">� viii �</a></span></p>
-
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">MARINE CAVES.</span></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">Effects of the Sea on Rocky Shores.&mdash;Fingal's Cave.&mdash;Beautiful Lines of Sir
-Walter Scott.&mdash;The Antro di Nettuno.&mdash;The Cave of Hunga.&mdash;Legend of its
-Discovery.&mdash;Marine Fountains.&mdash;The Skerries.&mdash;The Souffleur in Mauritius.&mdash;The
-Buffadero on the Mexican Coast</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_45">45</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_V">CHAPTER V.</a><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">OCEAN CURRENTS.</span></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">Causes of the Oceanic Currents.&mdash;The Equatorial Stream.&mdash;The Gulf Stream.&mdash;Its
-Influence on the Climate of the West European Coasts.&mdash;The Cold Peruvian
-Stream.&mdash;The Japanese Stream</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">THE A�RIAL AND TERRESTRIAL MIGRATIONS OF THE WATERS.</span></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">Movements of the Waters through Evaporation.&mdash;Origin of Winds.&mdash;Trade-Winds.&mdash;Calms.&mdash;Monsoons.&mdash;Typhoons.&mdash;Tornadoes.&mdash;Water-Spouts.&mdash;The Formation
-of Atmospherical Precipitations.&mdash;Dew.&mdash;Its Origin.&mdash;Fog.&mdash;Clouds.&mdash;Rain.&mdash;Snow.&mdash;Hail.&mdash;Sources.&mdash;The
-Quantities of Water which the Rivers pour into
-the Ocean.&mdash;Glaciers and their Progress.&mdash;Icebergs.&mdash;Erratic Blocks.&mdash;Influence
-of Forests on the Formation and Retention of Atmospherical Precipitations.&mdash;Consequences
-of their excessive Destruction.&mdash;The Power of Man over Climate.&mdash;How
-has it been used as yet?</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">MARINE CONSTRUCTIONS.</span></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">Lighthouses.&mdash;The Eddystone.&mdash;Winstanley's Lighthouse, 1696.&mdash;The Storm of
-1703.&mdash;Rudyerd's Lighthouse destroyed by Fire in 1755.&mdash;Singular Death of
-one of the Lighthouse Men.&mdash;Anecdote of Louis XIV.&mdash;Smeaton.&mdash;Bell Rock
-Lighthouse.&mdash;History of the Erection of Skerryvore Lighthouse.&mdash;Illumination
-of Lighthouses.&mdash;The Breakwater at Cherbourg.&mdash;Liverpool Docks.&mdash;The
-Tubular Bridge over the Menai Straits.&mdash;The Sub-oceanic Mine of Botallack.</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#PART_II">PART II.</a><br />
-<br />
-THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.</h2>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">THE CETACEANS.</span></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">General Remarks on the Organisation of the Cetaceans.&mdash;The Large Greenland
-Whale.&mdash;His Food and Enemies.&mdash;The Fin-Back or Rorqual.&mdash;The Antarctic
-Whale.&mdash;The Sperm-Whale.&mdash;The Unicorn Fish.&mdash;The Dolphin.&mdash;Truth and
-Fable.&mdash;The Porpoise.&mdash;The Grampus.&mdash;History of the Whale Fishery</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">� ix �</a></span></p>
-
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">SEALS AND WALRUSES.</span></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">The Manatees and the Dugongs.&mdash;The Seals and the Esquimaux.&mdash;King Menelaus
-in a Seal's Skin.&mdash;Barbarous Persecutions of the Seals in Behring's Sea and the
-Pacific.&mdash;Adventures of a Sealer from Geneva.&mdash;The Sea Calf.&mdash;The Sea Bear.&mdash;His
-Parental Affection.&mdash;The Sea Lions.&mdash;The Sea Elephant.&mdash;The Arctic
-Walrus.&mdash;The Boats of the "Trent" fighting with a Herd of Walruses.&mdash;The
-White Bear.&mdash;Touching Example of its Love for its Young.&mdash;Chase of the Sea
-Otter</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_X">CHAPTER X.</a><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">SEA-BIRDS.</span></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">Their Vast Numbers.&mdash;Strand-Birds.&mdash;Artifices of the Sea-Lark to protect its
-Young.&mdash;Migrations of the Strand-Birds.&mdash;The Sea-Birds in General.&mdash;The
-Anatid&aelig;.&mdash;The Eider Duck.&mdash;The Sheldrake.&mdash;The Loggerheaded Duck.&mdash;Auks
-and Penguins.&mdash;The Cormorant.&mdash;Its Use by the Chinese for Fish-catching.&mdash;The
-Frigate Bird.&mdash;The Soland Goose.&mdash;The Gulls.&mdash;The Petrels.&mdash;The
-Albatross.&mdash;Bird-catching on St. Kilda.&mdash;The Guano of the Chincha
-Islands</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_142">142</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">THE REPTILES OF THE OCEAN.</span></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">The Saurians of the Past Seas.&mdash;The Anatomical Structure of the Turtles.&mdash;Their
-Size.&mdash;Their Visits to the Shores.&mdash;The Dangers that await their Young.&mdash;Turtles
-on the Brazilian Coast.&mdash;Prince Maximilian of Neuwied and the
-Turtle.&mdash;Conflicts of the Turtles with Wild Dogs and Tigers on the Coast
-of Java.&mdash;Turtle-catching on Ascension Island.&mdash;Tortoise-shell.&mdash;The Amblyrhynchus
-cristatus.&mdash;Marine Snakes.&mdash;The Great Sea-Snake</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_172">172</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">THE MARINE FISHES.</span></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">General Observations on Fishes.&mdash;Their Locomotive Organs.&mdash;Tail.&mdash;Fins.&mdash;Classification
-of Fishes by Cuvier.&mdash;Air-Bladder.&mdash;Scales.&mdash;Beauty of the
-Tropical Fishes.&mdash;The Gills.&mdash;Terrestrial Voyages of the Anabas and the
-Hassar.&mdash;Examples of Parental Affection.&mdash;Organs of Sense.&mdash;Offensive
-Weapons of Fishes.&mdash;The Sea-Wolf.&mdash;The Shark.&mdash;The Saw-Fish.&mdash;The Sword-Fish.&mdash;The
-Torpedo.&mdash;The Star-Gazer.&mdash;The Angler.&mdash;The Ch&aelig;todon Rostratus.&mdash;The
-Remora, used for catching Turtles.&mdash;Defensive Weapons of
-Fishes.&mdash;The Weever.&mdash;The Stickleback.&mdash;The Sun-Fish.&mdash;The Flying-Fish.&mdash;The
-numerous Enemies of the Fishes.&mdash;Importance and History of the Herring
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">� x �</a></span>
-Fishery.&mdash;The Pilchard.&mdash;The Sprat.&mdash;The Anchovy.&mdash;The Cod.&mdash;The Sturgeons.&mdash;The
-Salmon.&mdash;The Tunny.&mdash;The Mackerel Family.&mdash;The Eel.&mdash;The
-Murey.&mdash;The Conger.&mdash;The Sand-Launce.&mdash;The Plectognaths.&mdash;The Sea-Horse.&mdash;The
-Pipe-Fish.&mdash;The Flat-Fishes.&mdash;The Rays.&mdash;The Fecundity of
-Fishes</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_186">186</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">CRUSTACEA.</span><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.5em;">CRABS&mdash;LOBSTERS.</span></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">How are they distinguished from the Insects?&mdash;Barnacles and Acorn-shells.&mdash;Siphonostomata.&mdash;Entomostraca.&mdash;King-Crab.&mdash;Edriophthalmia.&mdash;Sandhoppers.&mdash;Thoracostraca.&mdash;Compound
-Eye of the higher Crustaceans.&mdash;Respiratory
-Apparatus of the Decapods.&mdash;Digestive Organs.&mdash;Chel&aelig; or Pincers.&mdash;Distribution
-of Crabs.&mdash;Land Crabs.&mdash;The Calling Crab.&mdash;Modifications of the Legs in
-different species.&mdash;The Pinna and Pinnotheres.&mdash;Hermit Crabs.&mdash;The Lobster.&mdash;The
-Cocoa-nut Crab.&mdash;The Shrimp.&mdash;Moulting Process.&mdash;Metamorphoses of
-Crabs.&mdash;Victims and Enemies of the Crustaceans.&mdash;Their Fecundity.&mdash;Marine
-Spiders and Insects</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_243">243</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">MARINE ANNELIDES.</span></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">The Annelides in general.&mdash;The Eunice sanguinea.&mdash;Beauty of the Marine Annelides.&mdash;The
-Giant Nemertes.&mdash;The Food and Enemies of the Annelides.&mdash;The
-Tubicole Annelides.&mdash;The Rotifera.&mdash;Their Wonderful Organisation.&mdash;The
-Synch&aelig;ta Baltica</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_262">262</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">MOLLUSCS.</span></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">The Molluscs in general.&mdash;The Cephalopods.&mdash;Dibranchiates and Tetrabranchiates&mdash;Arms
-and Tentacles.&mdash;Suckers.&mdash;Hooked Acetabula of the Onychoteuthis.&mdash;Mandibles.&mdash;Ink
-Bag.&mdash;Numbers of the Cephalopods.&mdash;Their Habits.&mdash;Their
-Enemies.&mdash;Their Use to Man.&mdash;Their Eggs.&mdash;Enormous size of several species.&mdash;The
-fabulous Kraken.&mdash;The Argonaut.&mdash;The Nautili.&mdash;The Cephalopods of
-the Primitive Ocean.&mdash;The Gasteropods.&mdash;Their Subdivisions.&mdash;Gills of the
-Nudibranchiates.&mdash;The Pleurobranchus plumula.&mdash;The Sea-Hare.&mdash;The Chitons.&mdash;The
-Patell&aelig;.&mdash;The Haliotis or Sea-Ear.&mdash;The Carinari&aelig;.&mdash;The Pectinibranchiates.&mdash;Variety
-and Beauty of their Shells.&mdash;Their Mode of Locomotion.&mdash;Foot
-of the Tornatella and Cyelostoma.&mdash;The Ianthin&aelig;.&mdash;Sedentary Gasteropods.&mdash;The
-Magilus.&mdash;Proboscis of the Whelk.&mdash;Tongue of the Limpet.&mdash;Stomach
-of the Bulla, the Scyll&aelig;a, and the Sea-Hare.&mdash;Organs of Sense in the
-Gasteropods.&mdash;Their Caution.&mdash;Their Enemies.&mdash;Their Defences.&mdash;Their Use to
-Man.&mdash;Shell-Cameos.&mdash;The Pteropods.&mdash;Their Organisation and Mode of Life.&mdash;The
-Butterflies of the Ocean.&mdash;The Lamellibranchiate Acephala.&mdash;Their
-Organisation.&mdash;Siphons.&mdash;The Pholades.&mdash;Foot of the Lamellibranchiates.&mdash;The
-Razor-Shells.&mdash;The Byssus of the Pinn&aelig;.&mdash;Defences of the Bivalves.&mdash;Their
-Enemies.&mdash;The common Mussel.&mdash;Mussel Gardens.&mdash;The Oyster.&mdash;Oyster
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">� xi �</a></span>
-Parks.&mdash;Oyster Rearing in the Lago di Fusaro.&mdash;Formation of new
-Oyster Banks.&mdash;Pearl-fishing in Ceylon.&mdash;How are Pearls formed?&mdash;The
-Tridacna gigas.&mdash;The Teredo navalis.&mdash;The Brachiopods.&mdash;The Terebratul&aelig;.&mdash;The
-Polyzoa.&mdash;The Sea-Mats.&mdash;The Eschar&aelig;.&mdash;The Leprali&aelig;.&mdash;Bird's Head
-Processes.&mdash;The Tunicata.&mdash;The Sea-Squirts.&mdash;The Chelyosoma.&mdash;The Botrylli.&mdash;The
-Pyrosomes.&mdash;The Salp&aelig;.&mdash;Interesting Points in the Organisation of the
-Tunicata</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_270">270</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">ECHINODERMATA.</span><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.5em;">STAR-FISHES, SEA-URCHINS, AND SEA-CUCUMBERS.</span></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">The Star-Fishes.&mdash;Their Feet or Suckers.&mdash;Voracity of the Asterias.&mdash;The Rosy
-Feather-Star.&mdash;Brittle and Sand-Stars.&mdash;The real Sea-Stars of the British
-Waters.&mdash;The Sea-Urchins.&mdash;The Pedicellari&aelig;.&mdash;The Shell and the Dental Apparatus
-of the Sea-Urchins.&mdash;The Sea-Cucumbers.&mdash;Their strange Dismemberments.&mdash;Trepang-fishing
-on the Coast of North Australia.&mdash;In the Feejee<br />
-Islands</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_328">328</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">C&#338;LENTERATA.</span><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.5em;">POLYPS AND JELLY-FISHES.</span></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">Thread-cells or Urticating Organs.&mdash;Sertulari&aelig;.&mdash;Campanulariad&aelig;.&mdash;Hydrozoic
-Acaleph&aelig;.&mdash;Medusid&aelig;.&mdash;Lucernariad&aelig;.&mdash;Calycophorid&aelig;.&mdash;The Velella.&mdash;The
-Portuguese Man-of-war.&mdash;Anecdote of a Prussian Sailor.&mdash;Alternating Fixed
-and Free-swimming Generations of Hydrozoa.&mdash;Actinozoa.&mdash;Ctenophora.&mdash;Their
-Beautiful Construction.&mdash;Sea-anemones.&mdash;Dead Man's Toes.&mdash;Sea-pens.&mdash;Sea-rods.&mdash;Red
-Coral.&mdash;Coral Fishery.&mdash;Isis hippuris.&mdash;Tropical Lithophytes.&mdash;History
-of the Coral Islands.&mdash;Darwin's Theory of their Formation.&mdash;The
-progress of their Growth above the level of the Sea</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_345">345</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">PROTOZOA.</span></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">The Foraminifera.&mdash;The Am&#339;b&aelig;.&mdash;Their Wonderful Simplicity of Structure.&mdash;The
-Polycystina.&mdash;Marine Infusoria.&mdash;Sponges.&mdash;Their Pores.&mdash;Fibres and Spicul&aelig;.&mdash;The
-Common Sponge of Commerce</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_378">378</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">MARINE PLANTS.</span></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">The Alg&aelig;.&mdash;Zostera marina.&mdash;The Ulv&aelig; and Enteromorph&aelig;.&mdash;The Fuci.&mdash;The
-Laminari&aelig;.&mdash;Macrocystis pyrifera.&mdash;Description of the Submarine Thickets at
-Tierra del Fuego.&mdash;Nereocystis lutkeana.&mdash;The Sargasso Sea.&mdash;The Gathering
-of edible Birds'-nests in the marine Caves of Java.&mdash;Agar-Agar.&mdash;The Floride&aelig;.&mdash;The
-Diatomace&aelig;.&mdash;Their importance in the economy of the Seas</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_390">390</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">� xii �</a></span></p>
-
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_XX">CHAPTER XX.</a><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF MARINE LIFE.</span></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">The Dependence of all created Beings upon Space and Time.&mdash;The Influences
-which regulate the Distribution of Marine Life.&mdash;The four Bathymetrical Zones
-of Marine Life on the British Coasts, according to the late Professor Edward
-Forbes of Edinburgh.&mdash;Abyssal Animals.&mdash;<i>Bathybius Haeckelii.</i>&mdash;Deep-Sea
-Sponges and Shell-Fish.&mdash;Vivid Phosphorescence of Deep-Sea Animals.&mdash;Deep-Sea
-Shark Fishery&mdash;The "Challenger."</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_405">405</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.</a><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">THE PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE SEA.</span></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">Its Causes.&mdash;Noctiluca miliaris.&mdash;Phosphorescent Annelides and Bero�s.&mdash;Intense
-Phosphorescence of the Pyrosoma atlantica.&mdash;Luminous Pholades.&mdash;The
-luminous Shark.&mdash;Phosphorescent Alg&aelig;.&mdash;Citations from Byron, Coleridge,
-Crabbe, and Scott.</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_423">423</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.</a><br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">THE PRIMITIVE OCEAN.</span></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">The Giant-Book of the Earth-rind.&mdash;The Sea of Fire.&mdash;Formation of a solid
-Earth-crust by cooling.&mdash;The Primitive Waters.&mdash;First awakening of Life
-in the Bosom of the Ocean.&mdash;The Reign of the Saurians.&mdash;The future
-Ocean.</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_433">433</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#PART_III">PART III.</a><br />
-<br />
-THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.</h2>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.</a></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">Maritime Discoveries of the Ph&#339;nicians.&mdash;Expedition of Hanno.&mdash;Circumnavigation
-of Africa under the Pharaoh Necho.&mdash;Col&aelig;us of Samos.&mdash;Pytheas of
-Massilia.&mdash;Expedition of Nearchus.&mdash;Circumnavigation of Hindostan under
-the Ptolemies.&mdash;Voyages of Discovery of the Romans.&mdash;Consequences of the
-Fall of the Roman Empire.&mdash;Amalfi.&mdash;Pisa.&mdash;Venice.&mdash;Genoa.&mdash;Resumption
-of Maritime Intercourse between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.&mdash;Discovery
-of the Mariner's Compass.&mdash;Marco Polo</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_443">443</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV.</a></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">Prince Henry of Portugal.&mdash;Discovery of Porto Santo and Madeira.&mdash;Doubling of
-Cape Bojador.&mdash;Discovery of the Cape Verde Islands.&mdash;Bartholomew Diaz.&mdash;Vasco
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">� xiii �</a></span>
-de Gama.&mdash;Columbus.&mdash;His Predecessors.&mdash;Discovery of Greenland by
-G�nnbjorn.&mdash;Bjorne Herjulfson.&mdash;Leif.&mdash;John Vaz Cortereal.&mdash;John and
-Sebastian Cabot.&mdash;Retrospective View of the Beginnings of English Navigation.&mdash;Ojeda
-and Amerigo Vespucci.&mdash;Vincent Ya�ez Pinson.&mdash;Cortez.&mdash;Verazzani.&mdash;Cartier.&mdash;The
-Portuguese in the Indian Ocean</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_454">454</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_XXV">CHAPTER XXV.</a></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">Vasco Nu�ez de Balboa.&mdash;His Discovery of the Pacific, and subsequent Fate.&mdash;Ferdinand
-Magellan.&mdash;Sebastian el Cano, the first Circumnavigator of the
-Globe.&mdash;Discoveries of Pizarro and Cortez.&mdash;Urdaneta.&mdash;Juan Fernandez.&mdash;Mendoza.&mdash;Drake.&mdash;Discoveries
-of the Portuguese and Dutch in the Western
-Pacific.&mdash;Attempts of the Dutch and English to discover North-East and North-West
-Passages to India.&mdash;Sir Hugh Willoughby and Chancellor.&mdash;Frobisher.&mdash;Davis.&mdash;Barentz.&mdash;His
-Wintering in Nova Zembla.&mdash;Quiros.&mdash;Torres.&mdash;Schouten.&mdash;Le
-Maire.&mdash;Abel Tasman.&mdash;Hudson.&mdash;Baffin.&mdash;Dampier.&mdash;Anson.&mdash;Byron.&mdash;Wallis
-and Carteret.&mdash;Bougainville</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_464">464</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI.</a></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">What had Cook's Predecessors left him to discover?&mdash;His first Voyage.&mdash;Discovery
-of the Society Islands, and of the East Coast of New Holland.&mdash;His second
-Voyage.&mdash;Discovery of the Hervey Group.&mdash;Researches in the South Sea.&mdash;The
-New Hebrides.&mdash;Discovery of New Caledonia and of South Georgia.&mdash;His
-third Voyage.&mdash;The Sandwich Islands.&mdash;New Albion.&mdash;West Georgia.&mdash;Cook's
-Murder.&mdash;Vancouver.&mdash;La Peyrouse</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_485">485</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<h2>
-<a href="#CHAP_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII.</a></h2>
-
-<table summary="Chapter">
-<tr>
-  <td class="hanging">Scoresby.&mdash;The Arctic Navigators.&mdash;Ross.&mdash;Parry.&mdash;Sufferings of Franklin and
-his Companions on his Overland Expedition in 1821.&mdash;Parry's Sledge-journey
-to the North Pole.&mdash;Sir John Franklin.&mdash;M'Clure.&mdash;Kane.&mdash;M'Clintock.&mdash;South
-Polar Expeditions.&mdash;Bellinghausen.&mdash;Weddell.&mdash;Biscoe.&mdash;Balleny.&mdash;Dumont
-d'Urville.&mdash;Wilkes.&mdash;Sir James Ross.&mdash;Recent Scientific Voyages of
-Circumnavigation</td>
-  <td class="tdr vtop"><a href="#Page_496">496</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">� xiv �</a><br /><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">� xv �</a></span></p>
-
-
-<p class="caption3"><span class="smcap">Description of the Frontispiece.</span></p>
-
-<p class="caption2">ARCTIC SLEDGE-JOURNEY.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">The sledge plays a very conspicuous part in the history of arctic discovery, as it
-enables the bold investigators of the icy wildernesses of the North to penetrate to
-many places, impervious to navigation, to establish d�p�ts of provisions for future
-emergencies, or even becomes the means of saving their lives when their ship has
-been lost or hopelessly blocked up. Whenever dogs can be had, these useful
-animals are made use of for the transport. Our plate represents one of these
-sledging parties threading its way through blocks of ice, and gives a good idea of
-the difficulties they have to encounter.</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">� xvi �</a><br /><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">� xvii �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</a></h2>
-
-
-<p class="caption3">PLATES.</p>
-
-<table summary="Plates">
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Arctic Sledge-Journey</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#frontispiece"><i>Frontispiece.</i></a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td>&nbsp;</td>
-  <td></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td></td>
-  <td class="tdr"><span class="smaller">FACING PAGE</span></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">The Souffleur Rock, Mauritius</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#FPage_52">52</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Lighthouse and Waterspout</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#FPage_65">65</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Australian Sea-Bears</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#FPage_117">117</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">The Boats of H.M.S. "Trent" attacked by Walruses</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#FPage_131">131</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Penguins</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#FPage_142">142</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Subaqueous Life&mdash;Sticklebacks and Nest</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#FPage_195">195</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Russian Official collecting Alg&aelig;</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#FPage_392">392</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-
-<p class="caption3">MAP.</p>
-
-<p class="center p0">Map of the Globe, showing the direction of the Ocean Currents, Cotidal Lines, &amp;c.
-<i>facing <a href="#Page_2">page 3</a></i>.</p>
-
-
-<p class="caption3">WOODCUTS.</p>
-
-<table summary="Plates">
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Annelidans:&mdash;</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Aphrodita, or Sea-Mouse,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_264">264</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Nereis,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_263">263</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Serpula, attached to a Shell,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_266">266</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Beachy Head,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Bell Rock Lighthouse,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Birds:&mdash;</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Albatross, Wandering,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_163">163</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Auk,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_168">168</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl4">Great,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_151">151</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Avoset,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_144">144</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Barnacle Goose,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_146">146</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Cormorant, common,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_154">155</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Curlew,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_143">143</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Eider Duck,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_146">146</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Flamingo,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_142">142</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Gannet, common,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_156">156</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Great Crested Grebe,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_150">150</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Guillemot, Black,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_165">165</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl4">(winter plumage),</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_167">167</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Herring Gulls,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_158">158</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Hooded Merganser,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_404">404</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Pelican,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Penguins,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_152">152</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Petrel, Broad-billed,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_160">160</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl4">Fork-tailed,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_160">160</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl4">Stormy,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_162">162</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Plover,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_144">144</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Puffins,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Red-breasted Merganser,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_149">149</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Scissor-bill (Rhynchops nigra),</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_144">144</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Sheldrake,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_148">148</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Skimmer, Black,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_144">144</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Snow Goose,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">� xviii �</a></span></td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_146">146</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Speckled Diver,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_145">145</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Tailor-bird,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_143">143</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Birds of Passage,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Bones of the Anterior Fin of a Whale,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_96">96</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">C&#339;lenterata:&mdash;</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Alcyonidium elegans,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_363">363</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Astr&aelig;a,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_373">373</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Caryophyllia,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_370">370</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Chrysaora hysoscella,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_357">357</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Coryniad&aelig;,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_358">358</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Ctenophora,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_360">360</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Diphyes appendiculata,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_353">353</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Grey Sea-Pen,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_365">365</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Isis hippuris,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_369">369</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Jelly Fishes,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Lucernalia auricula,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_352">352</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Medus&aelig;,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Physalia caravella,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_355">355</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Physophora Philippii,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_356">356</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Red Coral,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_367">367</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Sertularia tricuspidata, </td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_347">347</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Stone Corals,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_373">373</a>, <a href="#Page_374">374</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Tubipora Musica,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_370">370</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Velella,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_354">354</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Virgularia mirabilis,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_365">365</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Vogtia pentacantha,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_353">353</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Compound Foraminiferous Protozoon, magnified,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_380">380</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Crustaceans:&mdash;</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">American Sand-Crab,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_252">252</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Balanus ovularis, and group of, 2</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_244">244</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Barnacle,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Calling-Crab of Ceylon,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_251">251</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Chelura tenebrans,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_247">247</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Diogenes Hermit-Crab,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_254">254</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Dromia vulgaris,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_249">249</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Jamaica Land-Crab,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_250">250</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">King Crab,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_246">246</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Large-clawed Calling-Crab,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_250">250</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Limnoria lignorum,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_247">247</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Metamorphosis of Carcinus M&#339;nas,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_258">258</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Pea-Crab,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_253">253</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Phyllosoma,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_258">258</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Pinna Augustana,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_253">253</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Sandhopper,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_246">246</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Seyllarus equinoxialis,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_248">248</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl4">square facets of,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_247">247</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Spotted Fin-Crab,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_252">252</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Spotted Mantis-Crab,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_256">256</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Stenopus hispidus,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_261">261</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Whale-Louse,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Crustaceans and Oysters,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_256">256</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Dental Apparatus of the Sea-Urchin, viewed from above,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_339">339</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Ear, Human,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_196">196</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Ear of the Perch,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_196">196</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Echinodermata:&mdash;</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Cross-Fish, common,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_334">334</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Eatable Trepang,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_340">340</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Goniaster,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_336">336</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Lily-Encrinite,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_330">330</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Sand-Star,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_332">332</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Sea-Urchin,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_337">337</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl4">Edible,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_338">338</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl4">Mammillated,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_338">338</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Warted Euryale,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_333">333</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Eddystone Lighthouse,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_84">84</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Esquimaux in his Kayak,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_120">120</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Fingal's Cave,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_47">47</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Fishes:&mdash;</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Ammodyte, or Launce,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_230">230</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Anabas of the dry tanks,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_192">192</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Anchovy,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_214">214</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Angler,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_203">203</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Bonito,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_223">223</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Cod,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_215">215</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Conger Eel,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_228">228</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Diodon,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_205">205</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Dory,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_242">242</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Electric Eel,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_202">202</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">European Sly,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_203">203</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Fierasfer,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_340">340</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">File-Fish,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_232">232</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Flounder,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_238">238</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Flying Fish,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Frog-Fish,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_192">192</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Gar-Fish,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_223">223</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Globe-Fish,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_232">232</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Gurnard,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Haddock,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_215">215</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Halibut,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_236">236</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Herring,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Lamprey,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_231">231</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Ling,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_215">215</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Mackerel,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_222">222</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Mullet, Grey,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_415">415</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl4">Red,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Myxine,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_231">231</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Perch, internal ear of the,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_196">196</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Picked Dog-Fish,
-     <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">� xix �</a></span></td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_200">200</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Pilchard,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_212">212</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Pilot-Fish,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_225">225</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Plaice,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_238">238</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Porcupine-Fish,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_232">232</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Salmo Rossii,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_220">220</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Salmon,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_415">415</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Sand-Eel,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_415">415</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Saw-Fish,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_201">201</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Sea-Horse,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Shark, Blue,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_200">200</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Hammer-headed,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_199">199</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl4">White,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_198">198</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Short Sun-Fish,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_422">422</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Sole,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_237">237</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl4">portion of skin of, highly magnified,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_190">190</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Sturgeon, common,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_217">217</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Surgeon-Fish,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_205">205</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Swimming Pegasus,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_207">207</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Sword-Fish,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Thornback,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_240">240</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Torpedo,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_201">201</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Toxotes Jaculator,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_203">203</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Trunk-Fish,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_232">232</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Tunny,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_221">221</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Turbot,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_237">237</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Wolf-Fish,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_197">197</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Foraminifera, various forms of,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_381">381</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Fossils:&mdash;</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Ammonite,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_437">437</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Belemnite,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_437">437</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Ichthyosaurus communis,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_438">438</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Pentacrinus Briareus, portion of,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_330">330</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Plesiosaurus,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_438">438</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Trilobite,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_436">436</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Hill at the Rapid on Bear Lake River (North-West Territory, North America),</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">H.M.S. "Resolute" lying to in the North Atlantic,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Ice-Bear approaching the "Dorothea" and "Trent",</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_137">137</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Japan Junks,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Licmophora flabellata,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_403">403</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Mammals:&mdash;</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Dolphin,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_107">107</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Dugong,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl4">female, of Ceylon,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Manatee,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus),</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_134">134</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Porpoise,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Rorqual,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Sea-Otter,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_140">140</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Seal,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl4">Greenland,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Walrus, 129,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_135">135</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Whale, common,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Whale, Spermaceti,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Mollusks:&mdash;</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Argonaut,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_280">280</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Ascidia mammillata,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_322">322</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Banded Dipper,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_141">141</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Bivalve deprived of its shell, to show its various openings,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_300">300</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Botryllus,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_324">324</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Bulla,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_294">294</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Calamary,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_272">272</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Carinaria,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_287">287</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Cellularia,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_319">319</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Chelyosoma Macleayanum,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Chinese Wentle-trap (Scalaria pretiosa),</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_289">289</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Chiton squamosus,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_285">285</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Clavellina producta,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_322">322</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Clio borealis,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_98">98</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Cockle, common,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Cuttle-Fish (Sepia),</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Diazona violacea,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_324">324</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Donax,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_301">301</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Edible Mussel,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_307">307</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Edible Oyster,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_308">308</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Eolis,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_284">284</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Eschara cervicornis,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_318">318</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Gorgeous Doris,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_235">235</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Haliotis,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_287">287</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Harp-shell,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_288">288</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Hippopus maculatus,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_315">315</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Ianthina communis,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_290">290</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Leaf-like Sea-mat,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Limpet and Shell,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Magilus antiquus,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_291">291</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Mitre-shells,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_288">288</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Murex haustellum,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Oliva hispidula,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_290">290</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Onychoteuthis,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_273">274</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Orange Cone-shell,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_288">288</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Pearl-Oyster,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_312">312</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Pearly Nautilus,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_280">280</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Periwinkle,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_411">411</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Petunculus,
-    <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx">� xx �</a></span></td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_302">302</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Pholas striata,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_302">302</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Pinna,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_305">305</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Poulp (Octopus),</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_271">272</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Pteroceras scorpio,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_290">290</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Retepora cellularis,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_318">318</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Salpa,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_326">326</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Scyll&aelig;a,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_283">283</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Sea-Hare, compound stomach of,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_295">295</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Sepia,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Solen, or Razor-Shell,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_304">304</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Strombus pes pelicani,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_290">290</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Syll&aelig;a, gizzard of,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_294">294</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Tiara,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_283">283</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Tridacna gigas,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_314">314</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Whelk,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_413">413</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Worm-shell,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_291">291</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Muscles and Electric Batteries of the Torpedo,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_202">202</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Nervous Axis of an Annelidan,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_262">262</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Noctiluca miliaris,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_425">425</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Ova of the Cuttle-Fish,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_278">278</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Protozoa:&mdash;</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Am&#339;ba,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_379">379</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Foraminifera,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_381">381</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Halina papillaris,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_386">386</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Infusoria, marine,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_384">384</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Nummulina discoidalis,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_378">378</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Polycistina,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_383">383</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Sponges,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_385">385</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Tethea,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Reptiles:&mdash;</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Alligator Lucius,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_173">173</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Tortoise,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_174">174</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Turtle, Green,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_170">170</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Hawk's Bill,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_180">180</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Loggerhead,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_176">176</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Water-Snake,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_183">183</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Rocky Mountains at the bend of the Bear Lake River,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Rotifera:&mdash;</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Conochilus volvox,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_268">268</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Philodina roseola,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_269">269</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">Ptygura melicerta,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_267">267</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Saw of the Saw-Fish,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_100">100</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Sea-Fowl Shooting,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_168">168</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Skeleton of the Dugong,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_118">118</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">of the Perch,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_188">188</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">of the Seal,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2">of the Tortoise,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_174">174</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Skerryvore Lighthouse,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Skull and Head of Walrus,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_129">129</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Skull of Whale, with the Baleen,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_98">98</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Sockets with teeth, of Echinus esculentus,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_339">339</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Surirella constricta,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_402">402</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Theoretic representation of the Circulation in Fishes,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_192">192</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Theoretic representation of the Circulation in Mammals and Birds,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_175">175</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Theoretic representation of the Circulation in Reptiles,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_175">175</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Torso Rock, near Point Deas Thomson, in the Arctic Ocean,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Urticating organs of C&#339;lenterata,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_346">346</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Water-Sports,</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">� 1 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-<h2>
-<a id="PART_I"></a>PART I.<br />
-<br />
-<span style="font-size:0.5em;">THE</span><br />
-PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.<br />
-</h2>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">� 2 �</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 678px;">
-<a href="images/world_map_lg.png"><img src="images/world_map_sm.png" width="600" height="360" alt="" /></a><br />
-<span class="smaller">Click on image to view larger version.</span>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">� 3 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a><br />
-
-THE MAGNITUDE OF THE SEA.</h2>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">>Extent of the Ocean.&mdash;Length of its Coast-Line.&mdash;Mural, Rocky, and Flat Coasts.&mdash;How
-deep is the Sea?&mdash;Average Depth of the Atlantic Ocean.&mdash;The Telegraphic
-Plateau between Newfoundland and Ireland.&mdash;Measurement of Depth
-by the Rapidity of the Tide-Wave.&mdash;Progressive Changes in the Limits of the
-Ocean.&mdash;Alluvial Deposits.&mdash;Upheaving.&mdash;Subsidence.&mdash;Does the Level of the
-Sea remain unchanged, and is it everywhere the same?&mdash;Composition and
-Temperature of Sea-Water.&mdash;Its intrinsic Colour.&mdash;The Azure Grotto at Capri.&mdash;Modification
-of Colour owing to Animals and Plants.&mdash;Submarine Landscapes
-viewed through the Clear Waters.</div>
-
-
-<p>Of all the gods that divide the empire of the earth, Neptune
-rules over the widest realms. If a giant-hand were to uproot the
-Andes and cast them into the sea, they would be engulphed in
-the abyss, and scarcely raise the general level of the waters.</p>
-
-<p>The South American Pampas, bounded on the north by
-tropical palm-trees, and on the south by wintry firs, are no
-doubt of magnificent dimensions, yet these vast deserts seem
-insignificant when compared with the boundless plains of earth-encircling
-ocean. Nay! a whole continent, even America or
-Asia, appears small against the immensity of the sea, which
-covers with its rolling waves nearly three-fourths of the entire
-surface of the globe.</p>
-
-<p>A single glance over the map shows us at once how very unequally
-water and land are distributed. In one part we see
-continents and islands closely grouped together, while in another
-the sea widely spreads in one unbroken plain; here vast peninsulas
-stretch far away into the domains of ocean, while there
-immense gulfs plunge deeply into the bosom of the land. At
-first sight it might appear as if blind chance had presided over
-this distribution, but a nearer view convinces us that providential
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">� 4 �</a></span>
-laws have established the existing relations between the
-solid and fluid surfaces of the earth. If the sea had been much
-smaller, or if the greatest mass of land had been concentrated
-in the tropical zone, all the meteorological phenomena on which
-the existence of actual organic life depends would have been so
-different, that it is <i>doubtful</i> whether man could then have
-existed, and <i>certain</i> that, under those altered circumstances,
-he never would have attained his present state of civilisation.
-The dependence of our intellectual development upon the existing
-configuration of the earth, convinces us that Divine wisdom
-and not chaotic anarchy has from all eternity presided over the
-destinies of our planet.</p>
-
-<p>The length of all the coasts which form the boundary between
-sea and land can only be roughly estimated, for who has
-accurately measured the numberless windings of so many
-shores? The entire coast line of deeply indented Europe and
-her larger isles measures about 21,600 miles, equal to the circumference
-of the earth; while the shores of compact Africa
-extend to a length of only 14,000 miles. I need hardly point out
-how greatly Europe's irregular outlines have contributed to the
-early development of her superior civilisation and political predominance.
-The coasts of America measure about 45,000 miles,
-those of Asia 40,000, while those of Australia and Polynesia
-may safely be estimated at 16,000. Thus the entire coast-line
-of the globe amounts to about 136,000 miles, which it would
-take the best pedestrian full twenty-five years to traverse from
-end to end.</p>
-
-<p>How different is the aspect of these shores along which
-the ever-restless sea continually rises or falls! Here steep
-rock-walls tower up from the deep, while there a low sandy
-beach extends its flat profile as far as the eye can reach. While
-some coasts are scorched by the vertical sunbeam, others are
-perpetually blocked up with ice. Here the safe harbour bids
-welcome to the weather-beaten sailor, the lighthouse greets him
-from afar with friendly ray; the experienced pilot hastens to guide
-him to the port, and all along the smiling margin of the land
-rise the peaceful dwellings of civilised man. There, on the contrary,
-the roaring breakers burst upon the shore of some dreary
-wilderness, the domain of the savage or the brute. What a
-wonderful variety of scenes unrolls itself before our fancy as it
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">� 5 �</a></span>
-roams along the coasts of ocean from zone to zone! what
-changes, as it wanders from the palm-girt coral island of the
-tropical seas to the melancholy strands where, verging towards
-the poles, all vegetable life expires! and how magnificently grand
-does the idea of ocean swell out in our imagination, when we
-consider that its various shores witness at one and the same
-time the rising and the setting of the sun, the darkness of night
-and the full blaze of day, the rigour of winter and the smiling
-cheerfulness of spring!</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 451px;">
-<img src="images/005.png" width="451" height="285" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Beachy Head.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The different formation of sea-coasts has necessarily a great
-influence on commercial intercourse. Bold mural coasts, rising
-precipitously from the deep sea, generally possess the best
-harbours. Rocky shores also afford many good ports, but
-most frequently only for smaller vessels, and of difficult access,
-on account of the many isolated cliffs and reefs which characterise
-this species of coast formation.</p>
-
-<p>In places where high lands reach down to the coast, the immediate
-depth of the sea is proportionably great; but wherever
-the surface rises gently landwards, the sea-bed continues with a
-corresponding slope downwards. On these flat coasts the tides
-roll over a sandy or shingly beach; and here the aid of human
-industry is frequently required to create artificial ports, or to
-prevent those already existing from being choked with sand.</p>
-
-<p>On many flat coasts the drift-sand has raised <i>dunes</i>, wearying
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">� 6 �</a></span>
-the eye by their monotonous uniformity; on others, where these
-natural bulwarks are wanting, artificial embankments, or dykes
-protect the lowlands against the encroachments of the sea, or else
-the latter forms vast salt-marshes and lagunes. On some coasts
-these submerged or half-drowned lands have been transformed
-by the industry of man into fertile meadows and fields, of which
-the Dutch Netherlands afford the most celebrated example; while
-in other countries, such as Egypt, large tracts of land once cultivated
-have been lost to the sea, in consequence of long misrule
-and tyranny.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>How deep is the sea? How is its bottom formed? Does
-life still exist in its abyssal depths? These mysteries of ocean,
-which no doubt floated indistinctly before the mind of many an
-inquisitive mariner and philosopher of ancient times, have only
-recently been subjected to a more accurate investigation. Their
-solution is of the highest importance, both to the physical
-geographer, whose knowledge must necessarily remain incomplete
-until he can fully trace the deep-sea path of oceanic
-currents, and to the zoologist, to whom it affords a wider insight
-into the laws which govern the development of the
-innumerable forms of life with which our globe is peopled.</p>
-
-<p>The ordinary system of sounding by means of a weight attached
-to a graduated line, and "armed" at its lower end with
-a thick coating of soft tallow, so as to bring up evidence of its
-having reached the bottom in a sample of mud, shells, sand,
-gravel, or ooze, answers perfectly well for comparatively shallow
-water, and for the ordinary purposes of navigation, but it
-breaks down for depths much over 1000 fathoms. The weight
-is not sufficient to carry the line rapidly and vertically to the
-bottom; and if a heavier weight be used, ordinary sounding
-line is unable to draw up its own weight along with that of the
-lead from great depths, and gives way, so that by this means no
-information can be gained as to the nature of the sea-bottom.
-To obviate this difficulty, several ingenious instruments have
-been invented, such as the "Bull-dog" sounding machine, which
-is so contrived that on touching the bottom the weight becomes
-detached, while at the same time a pair of scoops, closing upon
-one another scissorwise on a hinge, and permanently attached
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">� 7 �</a></span>
-to the sounding-line, retain and are able to bring up a sample
-of the bottom.</p>
-
-<p>With the aid of steam, dredging has also been successfully
-carried down to 2,435 fathoms, so that the ocean bed may become
-in time as well known to us as the bed of the Mersey or
-the Thames.</p>
-
-<p>Both sounding and dredging at great depths are, however,
-difficult and laborious tasks, which can only be performed under
-very favourable circumstances, and require a vessel specially
-fitted at considerable expense.</p>
-
-<p>Many of the early deep soundings in the Atlantic, which
-reported the astonishing depths of 46,000 or even 50,000 feet,
-are now known to have been greatly exaggerated. In some
-cases bights of the line seem to be carried along by submarine
-currents, and in others it is found that the line has been
-running out by its own weight only, and coiling itself in a
-tangled mass directly over the lead. These sources of error
-vitiate very deep soundings; and consequently, in the last chart
-of the North Atlantic, published on the authority of Rear-Admiral
-Richards in November 1870, none are entered beyond
-4000 fathoms, and very few beyond 3000.</p>
-
-<p>"The general result," says Professor Wyville Thomson,<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> "to
-which we are led by the careful and systematic deep-sea soundings
-which have been undertaken of late years is that the depth
-of the sea is not so great as was at one time supposed, and does
-not appear to average more than 2000 fathoms (12,000 feet),
-about equal to the mean height of the elevated table-lands of
-Asia.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> "The Depths of the Sea," p. 228.</p></div>
-
-<p>"The thin shell of water which covers so much of the face of
-the earth occupies all the broad general depressions in its crust,
-and it is only limited by the more abrupt prominences which
-project above its surface, as masses of land with their crowning
-plateaux and mountain ranges. The Atlantic Ocean covers
-30,000,000 of square miles, and the Arctic Sea 3,000,000, and
-taken together they almost exactly equal the united areas of
-Europe, Asia, and Africa&mdash;the whole of the Old World&mdash;and yet
-there seem to be few depressions on its bed to a greater depth
-than 15,000 or 20,000 feet&mdash;a little more than the height of
-Mont Blanc; and, except in the neighbourhood of the shores,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">� 8 �</a></span>
-there is only one very marked mass of mountains, the volcanic
-group of the A�ores."</p>
-
-<p>Accurate soundings are as yet much too distant to justify
-a detailed description of the bed of the Atlantic. I will merely
-state that after sloping gradually to a depth of 500 fathoms to
-the westward of the coast of Ireland, in lat. 52� N., the bottom
-suddenly dips to 1700 fathoms, at the rate of from about 15 to
-19 feet in the 100. From this point to within about 200
-miles of the coast of Newfoundland, where it begins to shoal
-again, there is a vast undulating plain averaging about 2000
-fathoms in depth below the surface&mdash;the "telegraph plateau"
-on which now rest the cables through which the electric power
-transmits its marvellous messages from one world to another.</p>
-
-<p>Our information about the beds of the Indian, the Antarctic,
-and the Pacific Oceans is still more incomplete, but the few
-trustworthy observations which have hitherto been made seem
-to indicate that neither the depth nor the nature of the bottom
-of these seas differs greatly from what we find nearer home.</p>
-
-<p>The inclosed and land-locked European seas are very shallow
-when compared with the high ocean: the Mediterranean, however,
-has in some parts a depth of more than 6000 feet; and
-even in the Black Sea, the plummet sometimes descends to
-more than 3000 feet; while the waters of the Adriatic everywhere
-roll over a shallow bed.</p>
-
-<p>The researches of Mr. Russell on the swiftness of the tide-wave,
-showing that the rapidity of its progress increases with the
-depth of the waters over which it passes, afford us another means,
-besides the sounding line, of determining approximately the
-distance of the sea-bottom from its surface. According to this
-method, the depth of the Channel between Plymouth and
-Boulogne has been calculated at 180 feet; and the enormous
-rapidity of the flood wave over the great open seas (300 miles
-an hour and more) gives us for the mean depth of the Atlantic
-14,400 feet, and for that of the Pacific 19,500.</p>
-
-<p>Natural philosophers have endeavoured to calculate the
-quantity of the waters contained within the vast bosom of the
-ocean; but as we are still very far from accurately knowing the
-mean depth of the sea, such estimates are evidently based upon
-a very unsubstantial foundation.</p>
-
-<p>So much at least is certain, that the volume of the waters of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">� 9 �</a></span>
-the ocean as much surpasses all conception, as the number of
-their inhabitants, or of the sands that line their shores.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 471px;">
-<img src="images/009.png" width="471" height="321" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Torso Rock, near Point Deas Thomson, in the Arctic Ocean.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The boundaries of the ocean are not invariable; while in
-some parts it encroaches upon the land, in others it retreats
-from the expanding coast. In many places we find the sea
-perpetually gnawing and undermining cliffs and rocks; and
-sometimes swelling with sudden rage, it devours a broad expanse
-of plain, and changes fertile meads into a dreary waste of
-waters. The Goodwin Sands, notorious for the loss of many a
-noble vessel, were once a large tract of low ground belonging to
-Earl Goodwin, father of Harold, the last of our Saxon kings; and
-being afterwards enjoyed by the monastery of St. Augustine at
-Canterbury, the whole surface was drowned by the abbot's
-neglect to repair the wall which defended it from the sea. In
-spite of the endeavours of the Dutch to protect their flat land
-by dykes against the inundatory waters, the storm-flood has
-more than once burst through these artificial boundaries, and
-converted large districts into inland seas.</p>
-
-<p>But the spaces which in this manner the dry land has gradually
-or suddenly lost, or still loses, to the chafing ocean are
-largely compensated for in other places, by the vast accumulations
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">� 10 �</a></span>
-of mud and sand, which so many rivers continually carry along
-with them into the sea. Thus at the mouths of the Nile, of the
-Ganges, and of the Mississippi, large alluvial plains have been
-deposited, which now form some of the most fruitful portions of
-the globe. The whole Delta of Egypt, Bengal, and Louisiana,
-have thus gradually emerged from the waters.</p>
-
-<p>The volcanic powers, which once caused the highest mountain
-chains to rise from the glowing bosom of the earth, are still
-uninterruptedly active in changing its surface, and are gradually
-displacing the present boundaries of sea and land, upheaving
-some parts and causing others to subside.</p>
-
-<p>On the coast of Sweden, it has been ascertained that iron
-rings fixed to rocks which formerly served for the fastening of
-boats are at present much too high. Flat cliffs on which, according
-to ancient documents, seals used to be clubbed while
-enjoying the warm sunbeam, are now quite out of the reach of
-these amphibious animals. In the years 1731, 1752, and 1755,
-marks were hewn in some conspicuous rocks, which after the
-lapse of half a century were found to have risen about two feet
-higher above the level of the sea. This phenomenon is confined
-to part of the coast, so that it is clearly the result of a local and
-slowly progressive upheaving.</p>
-
-<p>Whilst a great part of Scandinavia is thus slowly but steadily
-rising, the shores of Chili have been found to rise convulsively
-under the influence of mighty volcanic shocks. Thus after the
-great earthquake of 1822, the whole coast, for the length of a
-hundred miles, was found to be three or four feet higher than
-before, and a further elevation was observed after the earthquake
-of Feb. 21st, 1835.</p>
-
-<p>While to the north of Wolstenholme Sound, Kane remarked
-signs of elevation, a converse depression was observed as he
-proceeded southwards along the coast of Greenland, Esquimaux
-huts being seen washed by the sea. The axis of oscillation
-must be somewhere about 77� N. lat.</p>
-
-<p>At Keeling Island, in the Indian Ocean, Mr. Darwin found
-evidence of subsidence. On every side of the lagoon, in which
-the water is as tranquil as in the most sheltered lake, old cocoa-nut
-trees were undermined and falling. The foundation-posts
-of a store-house on the beach, which the inhabitants had said
-stood seven years before just above high-water mark, were now
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">� 11 �</a></span>
-daily washed by the tide. Earthquakes had been repeatedly
-remarked by the inhabitants, so that Darwin no longer doubted
-concerning the cause which made the trees to fall, and the
-store-house to be washed by the daily tide.</p>
-
-<p>On the columns of the temple of Serapis, near Puzzuoli, the
-astonished naturalist sees holes scooped out by Pholades and
-Lithodomas, twenty-four feet above the present level of the sea.
-These animals are marine testacea, that have the power of
-burying themselves in stone, and cannot live beyond the reach
-of low-water. How then have they been able to scoop out those
-hieroglyphic marks so far above the level of their usual abodes?
-for surely marble originally defective was never used for the
-construction of so proud an edifice. Alternate depressions and
-elevations of the soil afford us the only key to the enigma.
-Earthquakes and oscillations, so frequent in that volcanic region,
-must first have lowered the temple into the sea, where it was
-acted upon by the sacrilegious molluscs, and then again their
-upheaving powers must have raised it to its present elevation.
-Thus, even the solid earth changes its features, and reminds
-us of the mutability of all created things.</p>
-
-<p>There can be no doubt that, in consequence of the perpetual
-increase of alluvial deposits, and of the volcanic processes I have
-mentioned, the present boundaries of ocean must undergo great
-alterations in the course of centuries, and the general level of
-the sea must either rise or fall; but the evidence of history proves
-to us that, for the last 2000 years at least, there has been no
-notable change in this respect.</p>
-
-<p>The baths hewn out in the rocks of Alexandria, and the stones
-of its harbour, have remained unaltered ever since the foundation
-of the city by the Macedonian conqueror; and the ancient
-port of Marseilles shows no more signs of a change of level than the
-old sea-walls of Cadiz. Thus, all the elevations and depressions
-that have occurred in the bed of ocean, or along its margin,
-and all the mud and sand that thousands of rivers continually
-carry along with them into the sea, have left its general level
-unaltered, at least within the historic ages. However great their
-effects may appear to the eye that confines itself to local changes,
-their influence, as far as the evidence of history reaches, has
-been but slight upon the immensity of the sea.</p>
-
-<p>Geodesical operations have proved that the level of the ocean,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">� 12 �</a></span>
-with the exception of certain enclosed seas of limited extent,
-is everywhere the same. The accurate measurements of Corab&#339;uf
-and Delcros show no perceptible difference between the
-level of the Channel and that of the Mediterranean. In the
-course of the operations for measuring the meridian in France,
-M. Delambre calculated the height of Rodez above the level
-of the Mediterranean at Barcelona, and its height above the ocean
-which washes the foot of the tower of Dunkirk, and found the
-difference to be equal to a fraction of a yard.</p>
-
-<p>The measurements which, at Humboldt's suggestion, General
-Bolivar caused to be executed by Messrs. Lloyd and Filmore,
-prove that the Pacific is, at the utmost, only a few feet higher
-than the Caribbean Sea, and even that the relative height of the
-two seas changes with the tides.</p>
-
-<p>The long and narrow inlet of the Red Sea, which, according
-to former measurements, was said to be twenty-four or thirty
-feet higher than the Mediterranean seems, from more recent and
-accurate investigations, to be of the same level, and thus to
-form no exception to the general rule.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>The salts contained in sea water, and to which it owes its peculiar
-bitter and unpleasant taste, form about three and a half per cent.
-of its weight, and consist principally of common table salt (chloride
-of sodium), and the sulphates and carbonates of magnesia and
-lime. But, besides these chief ingredients, there is scarcely a
-single elementary body of which traces are not to be found in
-that universal solvent. Wilson has pointed out fluoric combinations
-in sea water, and Malaguti and Durocher (Annales de
-Chimie, 1851) detected lead, copper, and silver in its composition.
-Tons of this precious metal are dissolved in the vast
-volume of the ocean, and it contains arsenic sufficient to poison
-every living thing.</p>
-
-<p>Animal mucus, the product of numberless creatures, is mixed
-up with the sea water, and it constantly absorbs carbonic acid
-and atmospheric air, which are as indispensable to the marine
-animals and plants as to the denizens of the atmospheric
-ocean.</p>
-
-<p>In inclosed seas, communicating with the ocean only by
-narrow straits, the quantity of saline particles varies from that
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">� 13 �</a></span>
-of the high seas. Thus the Mediterranean, when evaporation is
-favoured by heat, contains about one half per cent. more salt
-than the ocean; while the Baltic, which, on account of its
-northern position, is not liable to so great a loss, and receives
-vast volumes of fresh water from a number of considerable
-rivers, is scarcely half so salt as the neighbouring North Sea.</p>
-
-<p>In the open ocean, the perpetual circulation of the waters
-produces an admirable equality of composition: yet Dr. Lenz,
-who accompanied Kotzebue in his second voyage round the
-world, and devoted great attention to the subject, found that
-the Atlantic, particularly in its western part, contains a somewhat
-larger proportion of salts than the Pacific; and that the
-Indian Ocean, which connects those vast volumes of water, is
-more salt towards the former than towards the latter.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>As water is a bad conductor of caloric, the temperature of the
-seas is in general more constant than that of the air.</p>
-
-<p>The equinoctial ocean seldom attains the maximum warmth of
-83�, and has never been known to rise above 87�; while the surface
-of the land between the tropics is frequently heated to
-129�. In the neighbourhood of the line, the temperature of the
-surface-water oscillates all the year round only between 82� and
-85�, and scarce any difference is perceptible at different times of
-the day.</p>
-
-<p>The wonderful sameness and equability of the temperature of
-the tropical ocean over spaces covering thousands of square
-miles, particularly between 10� N. and 10� S. lat., far from the
-coasts, and where it is not intersected by pelagic streams,
-affords, according to Arago, the best means of solving a very
-important, and as yet unanswered question, concerning the
-physics of the globe. "Without troubling itself," says that
-great natural philosopher, "about mere local influences, each
-century might leave to succeeding generations, by a few easy
-thermometrical measurements, the means of ascertaining whether
-the sun, at present almost the only source of warmth upon the
-surface of the earth, changes his physical constitution, and varies
-in his splendour like most stars, or whether he has attained a
-permanent condition. Great and lasting revolutions in his
-shining orb would reflect themselves more accurately in the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">� 14 �</a></span>
-altered mean temperature of those ocean plains than in the
-changed medium warmth of the dry land."</p>
-
-<p>The warmest part of the ocean does not coincide with the
-Equator, but seems to form two not quite parallel bands to the
-north and south.</p>
-
-<p>In the northern Atlantic, the line of greatest temperature (87�
-F.) which on the African coast is found but a little to the north of
-the Equator, rises on the north coast of South America as high
-as 12� N. lat., and in the Gulf of Mexico ranges even beyond the
-tropic. The influence of the warmth-radiating land on inclosed
-waters is still more remarkable in the Mediterranean (between
-30� and 44� N. lat.) where during the summer months a temperature
-of 84� and 85� is found, three degrees higher than the
-medium warmth of the open tropical seas.</p>
-
-<p>While in the torrid zone the temperature of the ocean is
-generally inferior to that of the atmosphere, the contrary takes
-place in the Polar seas. Near Spitzbergen, even under 80� N.
-lat., Gaimard never found the temperature of the water below
-+33�. Between Norway and Spitzbergen the mean warmth of
-the water in summer was +39�, while that of the air only
-attained +37�.</p>
-
-<p>In the enclosed seas of the Arctic Ocean, the enormous accumulation
-of ice, which the warmth of a short summer is unable
-totally to dissolve, naturally produces a very low temperature of
-the waters. Thus, in Baffin's Bay, Sir John Ross found during
-the summer months only thirty-one days on which the temperature
-of the water rose above freezing point.</p>
-
-<p>In the depths of the sea, even in the tropical zone, the water
-is found of a frigid temperature, and this circumstance first led
-to the knowledge of the submarine polar ocean currents; "for
-without these, the deep sea temperature in the tropics could
-never have been lower than the maximum of cold, which the
-heat-radiating particles attain at the surface."<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a></p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> Humboldt's "Kosmos."</p></div>
-
-<p>It was formerly believed that while the surface temperature&mdash;which
-depended upon direct solar radiation, the direction of
-currents, the temperature of winds, and other temporary causes&mdash;might
-vary to any amount, at a certain depth the temperature
-was permanent at 4� C., the temperature of the greatest density
-of fresh water. Late investigations, however, have led to the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">� 15 �</a></span>
-conclusion that instead of there being a permanent deep layer
-of water at 4� C., the average temperature of the deep sea in
-temperate and tropical regions is about 0� C., the freezing point
-of fresh water.</p>
-
-<p>In the atmospheric ocean, aeronauts not seldom meet with
-warm air currents flowing above others of a colder temperature;
-while, according to a general law, the warmth of the air constantly
-diminishes as its elevation above the surface of the sea
-increases.</p>
-
-<p>Similar exceptions to the general rule are met with in the
-ocean. In moderate depths sometimes the whole mass of water
-from the surface to the bottom is abnormally warm, owing to
-the movement in a certain direction of a great body of warm
-water, as in the "warm area" to the north-west of the Hebrides,
-where, at a depth of 500 fathoms, the minimum temperature was
-found to be 6� C. On the other hand, the whole body of
-water is sometimes abnormally cold, as in the "cold area," between
-Scotland and Faeroe, where, at a depth of 500 fathoms,
-the bottom temperature is found to average -1� C.<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> The only
-feasible explanation of these enormous differences of temperature,
-amounting to nearly 13� F. in two areas freely communicating
-with one another, and in close proximity, is that in the area
-to the north-west of the Hebrides a body of water warmed even
-above the normal temperature of the latitude flows northwards
-from some southern source, and occupies the whole depth of that
-comparatively shallow portion of the Atlantic, while an arctic
-stream of frigid water creeps from the north-eastward into the
-trough between Faeroe and the Shetland Islands, and fills its
-deeper part in consequence of its higher specific gravity. There
-can be no doubt that similar phenomena occur in various parts
-of the ocean, and that the deep seas are frequently intersected
-by streams differing in temperature from the surrounding
-waters.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> "The Depths of the Sea," by Professor Wyville Thomson, p. 307.</p></div>
-
-<p>In some places, owing to the conformation of the neighbouring
-land or of the sea-bottom, superficial warm and cold currents
-are circumscribed and localised, thereby occasioning the
-singular phenomenon of a patch or stripe of warm and a patch
-of cold sea meeting in an invisible but well-defined line.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">� 16 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The temperature of the sea apparently never sinks at any
-depth below -3�5� C. This is about the temperature of the
-maximum density of sea water, which contracts steadily till just
-above its freezing point (-3�67� C.), when kept perfectly still.</p>
-
-<p>If we include in the tropical seas all that part of the ocean
-where the surface temperature never falls below 68� F., and
-where consequently living coral reefs may occur, we find that it
-nearly equals in size the temperate and cold ocean-regions
-added together. This distribution of the waters over the surface
-of the globe is of the highest importance to mankind; for the
-immense extent of the tropical ocean, where, of course, the
-strongest evaporation takes place, furnishes our temperate zone
-with the necessary quantity of rain, and tends by its cooling
-influence to diminish the otherwise unbearable heat of the
-equatorial lands.</p>
-
-<p>The circumstance of ice being lighter than water also contributes
-to the habitability of our earth. Ice is a bad conductor
-of heat; consequently it shields the subjacent waters
-from the influence of frost, and prevents its penetrating to
-considerable depths. If ice had been heavier than water,
-the sea-bottom, in higher latitudes, would have been covered
-with solid crystal at the very beginning of the cold season;
-and during the whole length of the polar winter, the perpetually
-consolidating surface-waters would have been constantly
-precipitated, till finally the whole sea, far within the
-present temperate zone, would have formed one solid mass of
-ice. The sun would have been as powerless to melt this prodigious
-body, as it is to dissolve the glaciers of the Alps, and
-the cold radiating from its surface would have rendered all the
-neighbouring lands uninhabitable.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>The mixture of the water of rivers with that of the sea presents
-some hydrostatic phenomena which it is curious enough
-to observe. Fresh water being lighter, ought to keep at the
-surface, while the salt water, from its weight, should form the
-deepest strata. This, in fact, is what Mr. Stephenson observed
-in 1818 in the harbour of Aberdeen at the mouth of the Dee,
-and also in the Thames near London and Woolwich. By taking
-up water from different depths with an instrument invented for
-the purpose, Mr. Stephenson found that at a certain distance
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">� 17 �</a></span>
-from the mouth the water is fresh in the whole depth, even
-during the flow of the tide, but that a little nearer the sea fresh
-water is found on the surface, while the lower strata consist of
-sea water. According to his observations it is between London
-and Woolwich that the saltness of the bottom begins to be perceptible.
-Thus, below Woolwich the Thames, instead of flowing
-over a solid bed, in reality flows upon a liquid bottom formed
-by the water of the sea, with which no doubt it is more or less
-mixed.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Stephenson is of opinion that, at the flow of the tide, the
-fresh water is raised as it were in a single mass by the salt water
-which flows in, and which ascends the bed of the river, while
-the fresh water continues to flow towards the sea.</p>
-
-<p>Where the Amazon, the La Plata, the Orinoco, and other
-giant streams pour out their vast volumes of water into
-the ocean, the surface of the sea is fresh for many miles from
-the shore; but this is only superficial, for below, even in the bed
-of the rivers, the bitterness of salt water is found.</p>
-
-<p>It is a curious fact, that in many parts of the ocean, fresh-water
-springs burst from the bottom of the sea. Thus, in the
-Gulf of Spezzia, and in the port of Syracuse, large jets of fresh
-water mingle with the brine; and Humboldt mentions a still
-more remarkable submarine fountain on the southern coast of
-Cuba, in the Gulf of Xagua, a couple of sea miles from the shore,
-which gushes through the salt water with such vehemence, that
-boats approaching the spot are obliged to use great caution.
-Trading vessels are said sometimes to visit this spring, in order
-to provide themselves in the midst of the ocean with a supply
-of fresh water.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>The sea is not colourless; its crystal mirror not only reflects
-the bright sky or the passing cloud, but naturally possesses a pure
-bluish tint, which is only rendered visible to the eye when the
-light penetrates through a stratum of water of considerable
-depth. This may be easily ascertained by experiment. Take a
-glass tube, two inches wide and two yards long, blacken it internally
-with lamp-black and wax to within half an inch of the end,
-the latter being closed by a cork. Throw a few pieces of white
-porcelain into this tube, which, after being filled with pure
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">� 18 �</a></span>
-sea-water, must be set vertically on a white plate, and then,
-looking through the open end, you will see the white of the
-porcelain changed into a light blue tint.</p>
-
-<p>In the Gulf of Naples, we find the inherent colour of the
-water exhibited to us by Nature on a most magnificent scale.
-The splendid "Azure cave," at Capri, might almost be said to
-have been created for the purpose. For many centuries its
-beauties had been veiled from man, as the narrow entrance is
-only a few feet above the level of the sea, and it was only
-discovered in the year 1826, by two Prussian artists accidentally
-swimming in the neighbourhood. Having passed the portal,
-the cave widens to grand proportions, 125 feet long, and 145
-feet broad, and except a small landing place on a projecting rock
-at the farther end, its precipitous walls are on all sides bathed
-by the influx of the waters, which in that sea are most remarkably
-clear, so that the smallest objects may be distinctly seen on the
-light bottom at a depth of several hundred feet. All the light
-that enters the grotto must penetrate the whole depth of the
-waters, probably several hundred feet, before it can be reflected
-into the cave from the clear bottom, and it thus
-acquires so deep a tinge from the vast body of water through
-which it has passed, that the dark walls of the cavern are
-illumined by a radiance of the purest azure, and the most
-differently coloured objects below the surface of the water are
-made to appear bright blue. Had Byron known of the existence
-of this magic cave, Childe Harold would surely have sung
-its beauties in some of his most brilliant stanzas.</p>
-
-<p>All profound and clear seas are more or less of a deep blue
-colour, while, according to seamen, a green colour indicates
-soundings. The bright blue of the Mediterranean, so often
-vaunted by poets, is found all over the deep pure ocean, not
-only in the tropical and temperate zones, but also in the regions
-of eternal frost. Scoresby speaks with enthusiasm of the splendid
-blue of the Greenland seas, and all along the great ice-barrier
-which under 77� S. lat. obstructed the progress of Sir James
-Ross towards the pole, that illustrious navigator found the waters
-of as deep a blue as in the classical Mediterranean. The North
-Sea is green, partly from its water not being so clear, and partly
-from the reflection of its sandy bottom mixing with the essentially
-blue tint of the water.   In the Bay of Loanga the sea has
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">� 19 �</a></span>
-the colour of blood, and Captain Tuckey discovered that this
-results from the reflection of the red ground-soil.</p>
-
-<p>But the essential colour of the sea undergoes much more
-frequent changes over large spaces, from enormous masses of
-minute <i>alg&aelig;</i>, and countless hosts of small sea-worms, floating
-or swimming on its surface.</p>
-
-<p>"A few days after leaving Bahia," says Mr. Darwin, "not far
-from the Abrolhos islets, the whole surface of the water, as it
-appeared under a weak lens, seemed as if covered by chipped
-bits of hay with their ends jagged. Each bundle consisted of
-from twenty to sixty filaments, divided at regular intervals by
-transverse septa, containing a brownish-green flocculent matter.
-The ship passed several bands of them, one of which was about
-ten yards wide, and, judging from the mud-like colour of the
-water, at least two and a half miles long. Similar masses of floating
-vegetable matter are a very common appearance near Australia.
-During two days preceding our arrival at the Keeling Islands,
-I saw in many parts masses of flocculent matter of a brownish
-green colour, floating in the ocean. They were from half to
-three inches square, and consisted of two kinds of microscopical
-conferv&aelig;. Minute cylindrical bodies, conical at each extremity,
-were involved in large numbers in a mass of fine threads."</p>
-
-<p>"On the coast of Chili," says the same author, "a few leagues
-north of Conception, the 'Beagle' one day passed through great
-bands of muddy water; and again, a degree south of Valparaiso,
-the same appearance was still more extensive. Mr. Sulivan,
-having drawn up some water in a glass, distinguished by the
-aid of a lens moving points. The water was slightly stained, as
-if by red dust, and after leaving it for sometime quiet, a cloud
-collected at the bottom. With a slightly magnifying lens, small
-hyaline points could be seen darting about with great rapidity,
-and frequently exploding. Examined with a much higher
-power, their shape was found to be oval, and contracted by a
-ring round the middle, from which line curved little set&aelig; proceeded
-on all sides, and these were the organs of motion. Their
-minuteness was such that they were individually quite invisible
-to the naked eye, each covering a space equal only to the one-thousandth
-of an inch, and their number was infinite, for the
-smallest drop of water contained very many. In one day we
-passed through two spaces of water thus stained, one of which
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">� 20 �</a></span>
-alone must have extended over several square miles. The
-colour of the water was like that of a river which has flowed
-through a red clay district, and a strictly defined line separated
-the red stream from the blue water."</p>
-
-<p>In the neighbourhood of Callao, the Pacific has an olive-green
-colour, owing to a greenish matter which is also found at the
-bottom of the sea, in a depth of 800 feet. In its natural state
-it has no smell, but when cast on the fire, it emits the odour of
-burnt animal substances.</p>
-
-<p>Near Cape Palmas, on the coast of Guinea, Captain Tuckey's
-ship seemed to sail through milk, a phenomenon which was
-owing to an immense number of little white animals swimming on
-the surface, and concealing the natural tint of the water.</p>
-
-<p>The peculiar colouring of the Red Sea, from which it has
-derived its name, is owing to the presence of a microscopic alga,
-<i>sui generis</i>, floating at the surface of the sea and even less
-remarkable for its beautiful red colour than for its prodigious
-fecundity.</p>
-
-<p>I could add many more examples, where, either from minute
-alg&aelig; or from small animals, the deep blue sea suddenly appeared
-in stripes of white, yellow, green, brown, orange or red. For
-fear, however, of tiring the reader's patience, I shall merely
-mention the <i>olive-green</i> water, which covers a considerable part
-of the Greenland seas. It is found between 74� and 80� N. lat.,
-but its position varies with the currents, often forming isolated
-stripes, and sometimes spreading over two or three degrees of
-latitude. Small yellowish Medus&aelig;, of from one-thirtieth to one-twentieth
-of an inch in diameter are the principal agents that
-change the pure ultramarine of the Arctic Ocean into a muddy
-green. According to Scoresby, they are about one-fourth of
-an inch asunder, and in this proportion a cubic inch of
-water must contain 64, a cubic foot 110,592, a cubic fathom
-23,887,872, and a cubic mile nearly twenty-four thousand
-billions! From soundings made in the situation where these
-animals were found, the sea is probably more than a mile deep;
-but whether these substances occupy the whole depth is uncertain.
-Provided, however, the depth to which they extend
-be about 250 fathoms, the immense number of one species
-mentioned above may occur in a space of two miles square;
-and what a stupendous idea must we form of the infinitude of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">� 21 �</a></span>
-marine life, when we consider that those vast numbers, beyond
-all human conception, occupy after all only a small part of the
-green-coloured ocean which extends over twenty or thirty
-thousand square miles! It is here that the giant whale of the
-north finds his richest pasture-grounds, which at the same time
-invite man to follow on his track. A small red crustacean
-(<i>Cetochilus australis</i>) which forms very extensive banks in the
-Pacific, and in the middle of the Atlantic about 40� S. lat., affords
-a similar supply of food to the whales frequenting those seas,
-and exposes them to the same dangers.</p>
-
-<p>When the sea is perfectly clear and transparent, it allows the
-eye to distinguish objects at a very great depth. Near Mindora,
-in the Indian Ocean, the spotted corals are plainly visible under
-twenty-five fathoms of water. The crystalline clearness of the
-Caribbean sea excited the admiration of Columbus, who in the
-pursuit of his great discoveries ever retained an open eye for
-the beauties of nature. "In passing over these splendidly adorned
-grounds," says Sch�pf, "where marine life shows itself in an
-endless variety of forms, the boat, suspended over the purest
-crystal, seems to float in the air, so that a person unaccustomed
-to the scene easily becomes giddy. On the clear sandy bottom
-appear thousands of sea-stars, sea-urchins, molluscs, and fishes
-of a brilliancy of colour unknown in our temperate seas. Fiery
-red, intense blue, lively green, and golden yellow perpetually
-vary; the spectator floats over groves of sea-plants, gorgonias,
-corals, alcyoniums, flabellums, and sponges, that afford no less
-delight to the eye, and are no less gently agitated by the heaving
-waters, than the most beautiful garden on earth when a gentle
-breeze passes through the waving boughs."</p>
-
-<p>With equal enthusiasm De Quatrefages expatiates on the
-beauties of the submarine landscapes on the coast of Sicily.
-"The surface of the waters, smooth and even like a mirror,
-enabled the eye to penetrate to an incredible depth, and to
-recognise the smallest objects. Deceived by this wonderful
-transparency, it often occurred during my first excursions, that I
-wished to seize some annelide or medusa, which seemed to swim
-but a few inches from the surface. Then the boatman smiled,
-took a net fastened to a long pole, and, to my great astonishment,
-plunged it deep into the water before it could attain the object
-which I had supposed to be within my reach. The admirable
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">� 22 �</a></span>
-clearness of the waters produced another deception of a most
-agreeable kind. Leaning over the boat, we glided over plains,
-dales, and hillocks, which, in some places naked and in others
-carpeted with green or with brownish shrubbery, reminded us of
-the prospects of the land. Our eye distinguished the smallest
-inequalities of the piled-up rocks, plunged more than a hundred
-feet deep into their cavernous hollows, and everywhere the
-undulations of the sand, the abrupt edges of the stone-blocks,
-and the tufts of alg&aelig; were so sharply defined, that the wonderful
-illusion made us forget the reality of the scene. Between us
-and those lovely pictures we saw no more the intervening
-waters that enveloped them as in an atmosphere and carried our
-boat upon their bosom. It was as if we were hanging in a
-vacant space, or looking down like birds hovering in the air
-upon a charming prospect. Strangely formed animals peopled
-these submarine regions, and lent them a peculiar character.
-Fishes, sometimes isolated like the sparrows of our groves, or
-uniting in flocks like our pigeons or swallows, roamed among
-the crags, wandered through the thickets of the sea-plants,
-and shot away like arrows as our boat passed over them.
-Caryophyllias, Gorgonias, and a thousand other zoophytes
-unfolded their sensitive petals, and could hardly be distinguished
-from the real plants with whose fronds their branches intertwined.
-Enormous dark blue Holothurias crept along upon the sandy
-bottom, or slowly climbed the rocks, on which crimson sea-stars
-spread out immoveably their long radiating arms. Molluscs
-dragged themselves lazily along, while crabs, resembling huge
-spiders, ran against them in their oblique and rapid progress, or
-attacked them with their formidable claws. Other crustaceans,
-analogous to our lobsters or shrimps, gambolled among the fuci,
-sought for a moment the surface waters to enjoy the light of
-heaven, and then by one mighty stroke of their muscular tail,
-instantly disappeared again in the obscure recesses of the deep.
-Among these animals whose shapes reminded us of familiar
-forms appeared other species, belonging to types unknown in
-our colder latitudes: <i>Salp&aelig;</i>, strange molluscs of glassy transparency,
-that, linked together, form swimming chains; great
-<i>Bero�s</i>, similar to living enamel; <i>Diphy&aelig;</i> hardly to be distinguished
-from the pure element in which they move, and
-finally, <i>Stephanomi&aelig;</i>, animated garlands woven of crystal and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">� 23 �</a></span>
-flowers, and which, still more delicate than the latter, disappear
-as they wither, and do not even leave a cloud behind them
-in the vase, which a few moments before their glassy bodies had
-nearly entirely filled."</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 472px;">
-<img src="images/023.png" width="472" height="303" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Hill at the Rapid on Bear Lake River. (North-West Territory,
-North America.)</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">� 24 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_II" id="CHAP_II">CHAP. II.</a></h2>
-
-<p class="caption2">THE WAVES OF THE OCEAN.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">Waves and the Mode of their Formation.&mdash;Height and Velocity of Storm-Waves,
-on the High Seas, according to the Calculations of Scoresby, Arago, Sir James
-Ross, and Wilkes.&mdash;Their Height and Power on Coasts.&mdash;Their Destructive
-Effects along the British Shore.&mdash;Dunwich.&mdash;Reculver.&mdash;Shakspeare's Cliff.</div>
-
-
-<p>After having admired the sea in the grandeur of its expanse,
-and the profundity of its depths, I shall, in this and the two
-following chapters, examine in what manner the perpetual circulation
-of its waters is maintained.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 460px;">
-<img src="images/024.png" width="460" height="366" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">H.M.S. "Resolute" lying to in the North Atlantic.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"The movements of the sea," says Humboldt, "are of a three-fold
-description: partly irregular and transitory, depending
-upon the winds, and occasioning waves; partly regular and
-periodical, resulting from the attraction of the sun and the moon
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">� 25 �</a></span>
-(ebb and flood); and partly permanent, though of unequal
-strength and rapidity at different periods (oceanic currents)."</p>
-
-<p>Who has ever sojourned on the coast, or crossed the seas, and
-has not been delighted by the aspect of the waves, so graceful
-when a light breeze curls the surface of the waters, so sublime
-when a raging storm disturbs the depths of the ocean?</p>
-
-<p>But it is easier to admire the beauty of a wave than clearly
-to explain its nature, so as to convey an accurate or sufficiently
-general conception of its formation to the reader's mind. Those
-who are placed for the first time on a stormy sea, discover with
-wonder that the large waves which they see rushing along with
-a velocity of many miles an hour do not carry the floating body
-along with them, but seem to pass under the bottom of the ship
-with scarcely a perceptible effect in carrying the vessel out of
-its course.</p>
-
-<p>In like manner, the observer near the shore perceives that
-floating pieces of wood are not carried towards the shore with
-the rapidity of the waves, but are left nearly in the same place
-after the wave has passed them as before. Nay, if the tide be
-ebbing, the waves may even be observed rushing with great
-velocity towards the shore, while the body of water is actually
-receding, and any object floating in it is carried in the opposite
-direction to the waves out to sea.</p>
-
-<p>What, then, is wave-motion as distinct from water-motion?
-The force of the wind, pushing a given mass of water out of its
-place into another, dislodges the original occupant, which is
-again pushed forward on the occupant of the next place, and
-so on. As the water-particles crowd upon one another, in the
-act of going out of their old places into the new, the crowd
-forms a temporary heap visible on the surface of the fluid, and
-as each successive mass is displacing the one before it, the undulation
-or oscillatory movement spreads farther and farther
-over the waters. Wave-motion is, in fact, the transference of
-motion without the transference of matter: of form without the
-substance, of force without the agent.</p>
-
-<p>The strongest storm cannot suddenly raise high waves, they
-require time for their development. Fancy the wind blowing
-over an even sea, and it will set water-particles in motion
-all over the surface, and thus give the first impulse to the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">� 26 �</a></span>
-formation of small waves. Numberless oscillations unite their
-efforts, and create visible elevations and depressions. Meanwhile,
-the wind is constantly setting new particles in motion;
-long before the first oscillations have lost their effect, countless
-others are perpetually arising, and thus the sum of the propelling
-powers is constantly increasing, and gradually raising
-mountain-waves, until their growth is finally limited by the
-counterbalancing power of the earth's attraction.</p>
-
-<p>As the strength of the waves only gradually rises, it also loses
-itself only by degrees, and many hours after the tornado has
-ceased to rage, mighty billows continue to remind the mariner
-of its extinguished fury. The turmoil of waters awakened by
-the storm propagates itself hundreds of miles beyond the space
-where its howling voice was heard, and often, during the most
-tranquil weather, the agitated sea proclaims the distant war of
-the elements.</p>
-
-<p>The velocity of waves depends not only on the power of the
-impulse, but also on the depth of the subjacent waters, as I have
-already mentioned in the preceding chapter.</p>
-
-<p>For this reason, as increased velocity augments the power of
-the impulse, the waves in the Atlantic or Pacific, the mean
-depth of which may be estimated at 12,000 or 18,000 feet,
-attain a much greater height than in the comparatively shallow
-North Sea.</p>
-
-<p>The breaking of the waves against the shore arises from their
-velocity diminishing with their depth. As the small flat wave
-rolls up the beach, its front part, retarded by the friction of
-the ground, is soon overtaken by its back, moving in swifter
-progression, and thus arises its graceful swelling, the toppling
-of its snow-white crest, and finally its pleasant prattle among
-the shingles of the strand. This is one of those pictures of
-nature which Homer describes with such inimitable truth in
-various places of his immortal poems: he paints with admirable
-colours the slow rising of the advancing wave, how it bends
-forward with a graceful curve, and, crowning itself with a
-diadem of foam, spreads like a white veil over the beach,
-leaving sea-weeds and shells behind, as it rustles back again
-into the sea.</p>
-
-<p>The height which waves may attain on the open sea has
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">� 27 �</a></span>
-been accurately investigated by the late Rev. Dr. Scoresby,
-during two passages across the Atlantic in 1847 and 1848.</p>
-
-<p>"In the afternoon of March 5th, 1848," says that eminent
-philosopher, "I stood during a hard gale upon the cuddy-roof
-or saloon deck of the 'Hibernia:' a height, with the addition of
-that of the eye, of 23 feet 3 inches above the line of flotation
-(the ship's course being similar to that of the waves). I am not
-aware that I ever saw the sea more terribly magnificent; the
-great majority of the rolling masses of water was more than 24
-feet high, (including depression as well as altitude, or reckoning
-above the mean-level, more than 12 feet). I then went to the
-larboard paddle-box, about 7 feet higher (30 feet 2 inches up
-to the eye), and found that one half of the waves rose above
-the level of the view obtained.</p>
-
-<p>"Frequently I observed long ranges (200 yards), which rose so
-high above the visible horizon, as to form an angle estimated at
-two or three degrees when the distance of the wave's summit was
-about 100 yards from the observer. This would add near 13
-feet to the level of the eye, and at least one in half-a-dozen
-waves attained this altitude. Sometimes peaks or crests of
-breaking seas would shoot upward, at least 10 or 15 feet higher.</p>
-
-<p>"The average wave was, I believe, fully equal to that of my
-sight on the paddle-box, or more than 15 feet, and the <i>mean
-highest waves</i>, not including the broken or acuminated crests,
-rose about 43 feet above the level of the hollow occupied at the
-moment by the ship. It was a grand storm-scene, and nothing
-could exceed the pictorial effect of the partial sunbeams breaking
-through the heavy masses of clouds." From the time
-taken by a regular wave to pass from stern to stem, Dr. Scoresby
-calculated its velocity at 2875 feet in each minute, or 32�67
-English statute miles in an hour. The mean length of the
-wave-ridges, was from a quarter to a third of a mile.</p>
-
-<p>To those who might be inclined to doubt the accuracy of these
-measurements, the remark may suffice that our celebrated
-countryman had been for years engaged in the northern whale-fishery,
-where he had ample opportunities for practising his eye
-in measuring distances. Besides, the conclusions of many other
-trustworthy observers coincide with the evaluations of Dr.
-Scoresby.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">� 28 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Thus Captain Wilkes, commander of the U. S. Exploring
-Expedition, found the height of the waves near Orange Harbour,
-where they rose higher and more regular than at any
-other time during the cruise, to be thirty-two feet (depression
-and altitude), and their apparent progressive motion about
-twenty-six and a half miles in an hour.</p>
-
-<p>Sir James Ross calculated the height of the waves on a strongly
-agitated sea at twenty-two feet, and, according to the French
-naturalists who sailed in the frigate "La Venus," on her voyage
-round the world, the highest waves they met with never exceeded
-that measure.</p>
-
-<p>Thus, according to the joint testimony of the most eminent
-nautical authorities, the waves in the open sea never attain the
-mountain-height ascribed to them by the exuberant fancy of
-poets or exaggerating travellers. But when the tempest surge
-beats against steep crags or rocky coasts it rises to a much
-more considerable height. The lighthouse of Bell Rock, though
-112 feet high, is literally buried in foam and spray to the very
-top during ground-swells, even when there is no wind. On the
-20th November, 1827, the spray rose to the height of 117 feet
-above the foundation or low-water mark, which, deducting
-eleven feet for the tide that day, leaves 106 feet for the height
-of the wave. The strength of that remarkable edifice may be
-estimated from the fact, that the power of such a giant billow
-is equivalent to a pressure of three tons per square foot.</p>
-
-<p>In the Shetland Islands, which are continually exposed to the
-full fury of the Atlantic surge (for no land intervenes between
-their western shores and America), every year witnesses the
-removal of huge blocks of stone from their native beds by the
-terrific action of the waves. "In the winter of 1802," says
-Dr. Hibbert, in his description of that northern archipelago, "a
-tabular-shaped mass, eight feet two inches by seven feet, was
-dislodged from its bed and removed to a distance of from
-eighty to ninety feet. I measured the recent bed from which a
-block had been carried away the preceding winter (<span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1818),
-and found it to be seventeen feet and a half by seven feet, and
-the depth two feet eight inches. The removed mass had been
-borne to a distance of thirty feet, when it was shivered into
-thirteen or more lesser fragments, some of which were carried
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">� 29 �</a></span>
-still farther from 30 to 120 feet. A block nine feet two inches
-by six feet and a half, and four feet thick, was hurried up the
-acclivity to a distance of 150 feet."</p>
-
-<p>The great storm of 1824, which carried away part of the
-breakwater at Plymouth, lifted huge masses of rock, from two
-to five tons in weight, from the bottom of the weatherside and
-rolled them fairly to the top of the pile. One block of limestone
-weighing seven tons was washed round the western extremity
-of the breakwater, and swept to a distance of 150 feet.
-In 1807, during the erection of the Bell Rock lighthouse, six
-large blocks of granite which had been landed on the reef were
-removed by the force of the sea and thrown over a rising
-ledge to the distance of twelve or fifteen paces, and an anchor
-weighing about twenty-two hundredweight was cast upon the
-surface of the rock.</p>
-
-<p>With such examples before our eyes, we cannot wonder that
-in the course of centuries all shores exposed to the full shock
-of the waves, lashing against them with every returning tide,
-should gradually be wasted and worn away. One kind of stone
-stands the brunt of the elements longer than another, but
-ultimately even the hardest rock must yield to the rage of the
-billows, which when provoked by wintry gales, batter against
-them with all the force of artillery.</p>
-
-<p>Thus, all along our coasts we find innumerable instances of
-their destructive power. Tynemouth Castle now overhangs the
-sea, although formerly separated from it by a strip of land, and
-in the old maps of Yorkshire we find spots, now sand-banks in
-the sea, marked as the ancient sites of the towns and villages
-of Auburn, Hartburn, and Hyde. The cliffs of Norfolk and
-Suffolk are subject to incessant and rapid decay. At Sherringham,
-Sir Charles Lyell ascertained, in 1829, some facts which
-throw light on the rate at which the sea gains upon the land.
-There was then a depth of twenty feet (sufficient to float a
-frigate) at one point in the harbour of that port, where only
-forty-eight years ago there stood a cliff fifty feet high with
-houses upon it! "If once in half a century," remarks the great
-geologist, "an equal amount of change were produced suddenly
-by the momentary shock of an earthquake, history would be
-filled with records of such wonderful revolutions of the earth's
-surface; but if the conversion of high land into deep sea be
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">� 30 �</a></span>
-gradual, it excites only local attention." On the same coast,
-the ancient villages of Shipden, Wimpwell, and Eccles have
-disappeared, several manors and large portions of neighbouring
-parishes having gradually been swallowed up; nor has
-there been any intermission, from time immemorial, in the
-ravages of the sea along a line of coast twenty miles in
-length in which these places stood. Dunwich, once the most
-considerable sea-port on the coast of Suffolk, is now but a
-small village with about one hundred inhabitants. From the
-time of Edward the Confessor, the ocean has devoured, piece
-after piece, a monastery, seven churches, the high road, the
-town-hall, the gaol, and many other buildings. In the sixteenth
-century not one-fourth of the ancient town was left standing,
-yet, the inhabitants retreating inland, the name has been preserved,&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i1">"Stat magni nominis umbra,"&mdash;<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p class="p0">as has been the case with many other ports, when their ancient
-site has been blotted out.</p>
-
-<p>The Isle of Sheppey is subject to such rapid decay, that the
-church at Minster, now near the coast, is said to have been in
-the middle of the island fifty years ago, and it has been conjectured
-that at the present rate of destruction, the whole isle
-will be annihilated before the end of the century.</p>
-
-<p>Another remarkable instance of the destructive action of
-the tidal surge is that of Reculver, on the Kentish coast, an
-important military station in the time of the Romans, now
-nothing but a ruin and a name. So late as the reign of
-Henry VIII., Reculver was still a mile distant from the sea;
-but, in 1780, the encroaching waves had already reached the
-site of the ancient camp, the walls of which, cemented as they
-were into one solid mass by the unrivalled masonry of the
-Romans, continued for several years after they were undermined
-to overhang the sea. In 1804, part of the churchyard
-with the adjoining houses was washed away, and then the
-ancient church with its two lofty spires, a well-known landmark,
-was dismantled and abandoned as a place of worship.</p>
-
-<p>Shakspeare's Cliff at Dover has also suffered greatly from the
-waves, and continually diminishes in height, the slope of the
-hill being towards the land. About the year 1810, there was
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">� 31 �</a></span>
-an immense landslip from this cliff, by which Dover was shaken
-as if by an earthquake, and a still greater one in 1772.</p>
-
-<p>Thus the fame of the poet is likely to outlive for many
-centuries the proud rock, the memory of which will always
-be entwined with his immortal verse:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i1"><span style="margin-left: 9em;">"How</span> fearful,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">And dizzy 'tis to cast one's eyes so low!<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">The crows, and choughs, that wing the midway air,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Show scarce so gross as beetles: half way down<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Hangs one that gathers samphire; dreadful trade!<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Methinks, he seems no bigger than his head.<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">The fishermen, that walk upon the beach,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Appear like mice; and yon tall anchoring bark,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Diminish'd to her cock; her cock, a buoy<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">That on th' unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Cannot be heard so high."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The peninsulas of Purbeck and Portland, the cliffs of Devonshire
-and Cornwall, the coasts of Pembroke and Cardigan, the
-stormy Hebrides, Shetland and Orcadia, all tell similar tales of
-destruction, a mere summary of which would swell into a
-volume.</p>
-
-<p>During the most violent gales the bottom of the sea is said
-by different authors to be disturbed to a depth of 300, 350, or
-even 500 feet, and Sir Henry de la B�che remarks that when
-the depth is fifteen fathoms, the water is very evidently discoloured
-by the action of the waves on the mud and sand of
-the bottom. But in the deep caves of ocean all is tranquil, all
-is still, and the most dreadful hurricanes that rage over the
-surface leave those mysterious recesses undisturbed.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">� 32 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_III" id="CHAP_III">CHAP. III.</a></h2>
-
-<p class="caption2">THE TIDES.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">Description of the Phenomenon.&mdash;Devastations of Storm-Floods on Flat Coasts.&mdash;What
-did the Ancients know of the Tides?&mdash;Their Fundamental Causes revealed
-by Kepler and Newton.&mdash;Development of their Theory by La Place, Euler, and
-Whewell.&mdash;Vortices caused by the Tides.&mdash;The Maelstrom.&mdash;Charybdis.&mdash;The
-<i>Barre</i> at the mouth of the Seine.&mdash;The Euripus.</div>
-
-
-<p>Living on the sea-coast would undoubtedly be deprived of one of
-its greatest attractions, without the phenomenon of the tides,
-which, although of daily recurrence, never loses the charm of
-novelty, and gives constant occupation to the fancy by the life,
-movement, and perpetual change it brings along with it. How
-wonderful to see the sandy plain on which, but a few hours ago,
-we enjoyed a delightful walk, transformed into a vast sheet of
-water through which large vessels plough their way! How
-agreeable to trace the margin of the rising flood, and listen to
-its murmurs! Those of the rustling grove or waving cornfield
-are not more melodious. And then the variety of interesting
-objects which the reflux of the tide leaves behind it on the
-beach&mdash;the elegantly formed shell, the feathery sertularia, the
-delicate fucoid, and so many other strange or beautiful marine
-productions, that may well challenge the attention of the most
-listless lounger.</p>
-
-<p>But the spectacle of the tides is not merely pleasing to the
-eye, or attractive to the imagination; it serves also to rouse the
-spirit of scientific inquiry. It is indeed hardly possible to witness
-their regular succession without feeling curious to know by
-what causes they are produced, and when we learn that they are
-governed by the attraction of distant celestial bodies, and that
-their mysteries have been so completely solved by man, that he
-is able to calculate their movements for months and years to
-come, then indeed the pleasure and admiration we feel at their
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">� 33 �</a></span>
-aspect must increase, for we cannot walk upon the beach without
-being constantly reminded that all the shining worlds that
-stud the heavens are linked together by one Almighty power,
-and that our spirit, which has been made capable of unveiling
-and comprehending so many of the secrets of creation, must
-surely possess something of a divine nature!</p>
-
-<p>On all maritime coasts, except such as belong to mediterranean
-seas not communicating freely with the ocean, the waters
-are observed to be constantly changing their level. They regularly
-rise during about six hours, remain stationary for a few
-minutes, and then again descend during an equal period of time,
-when after having fallen to the lowest ebb, they are shortly
-after seen to rise again, and so on in regular and endless succession.
-In this manner twelve hours twenty-four minutes elapse
-on an average from one flood to another, so that the sea twice
-rises and falls in the course of a day, or rather twice during the
-time from one passage of the moon through the meridian to the
-next, a period equivalent on an average to 1-35/1000 day, or nearly
-twenty-five hours. Thus the tides retard from one day to
-another; least at new and full moon, when our more active satellite
-accomplishes her apparent diurnal motion round the earth
-in twenty-four hours, thirty-seven minutes; and most at half-moon,
-when, sailing more leisurely through the skies, she takes
-full twenty-five hours and twenty-seven minutes to perform her
-daily journey.</p>
-
-<p>As the retarding of the tides regularly corresponds with the
-retarding of the moon, they always return at the same hour
-after the lapse of fourteen days, so that at the end of each of
-her monthly revolutions, the moon always finds them in the
-same position. The knowledge of this fact is extremely useful
-to navigators, as it is easy to calculate the time of any tide in a
-port by knowing when it is high-water on the days of new and
-full moon.</p>
-
-<p>The height of the tides in the same place is as unequal and
-changing as the period of their intervals, and is equally dependent
-on the phases of the moon, increasing with her growth, and
-diminishing with her decrease. New and full moon always
-cause a higher rising of the flood (spring-tide), followed by a
-deeper ebb, while at half-moon the change of level is much less
-considerable (neap-tide). Thus in Plymouth, for instance, the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">� 34 �</a></span>
-neap-tides are only twelve feet high, while the ordinary spring-tides
-rise to more than twenty feet.</p>
-
-<p>The highest tides take place during the equinoxes; and
-eclipses of the sun and moon are also invariably accompanied
-by considerable floods, a circumstance which cannot fail to add
-to the terror of the ignorant and superstitious when a mysterious
-obscurity suddenly veils the great luminaries of the sky. It
-has also been remarked that the tides are stronger or weaker,
-according as the moon is at a greater or smaller distance from
-the earth.</p>
-
-<p>Thus as the height of the floods is always regulated by the
-relative position of the sun and moon, and the movements of
-these heavenly bodies can be calculated a long time beforehand,
-our nautical calendars are able to tell us the days when the
-highest spring-tides may be expected.</p>
-
-<p>This however can only be foretold to a certain extent, as the
-tidal height not only depends upon the attraction of the heavenly
-bodies, but also upon the casual influences of the wind, which
-defies all calculation, and of the pressure of the air. Thus Mr.
-Walker observed on the coasts of Cornwall and Devonshire that
-when the barometer falls an inch, the level of the sea rises
-sixteen inches higher than would otherwise have been the case.</p>
-
-<p>When a strong and continuous wind blows in an opposite
-direction to the tide-wave, and at the same time the barometer
-is high, the curious spectators will therefore be deceived in their
-expectations, however promising the position of the attracting
-luminaries may be; while an ordinary spring-tide, favoured by
-a low state of the barometer and chased by a violent storm
-against the coast, may attain more than double the usual
-height. When all favourable circumstances combine, an event
-which fortunately but rarely occurs, those dreadful <i>storm-tides</i>
-take place, as menacing to the flat coasts of the Netherlands as
-an eruption of Etna to the towns and hamlets scattered along
-its base, for here also a vast elementary power is let loose
-which bids defiance to human weakness. It is then that the
-rebel sea affords a spectacle of appalling magnificence. The
-whole surface seethes and boils in endless confusion. Gigantic
-waves rear their monstrous heads like mighty Titans, and hurl
-their whole colossal power against the dunes and dykes, as if,
-impelled by a wild lust of conquest, they were burning to devour
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">� 35 �</a></span>
-the rich alluvial plains which once belonged to their domain.
-Far inland, the terrified peasant hears the roar of the tumultuous
-waters, and well may he tremble when the mountain-waves
-come thundering against the artificial barriers, that separate his
-fields from the raging floods, for the annals of his country relate
-many sad examples of their fury, and tell him that numerous
-villages and extensive meads, once flourishing and fertile, now
-lie buried fathom-deep under the waters of the sea.</p>
-
-<p>Thus, on the first of November, 1170, the storm-flood, bursting
-through the dykes, submerged all the land between the Texel,
-Medenblik, and Stavoren, formed the island of Wieringen, and
-enlarged the openings by which the Zuiderzee communicated
-with the ocean. The inundations of 1232 and 1242 caused, each
-of them, the death of more than 100,000 persons, and that of
-1287 swept away more than 80,000 victims in Friesland alone.
-The irruption of 1395 considerably widened the channels between
-the Flie and the Texel, and allowed large vessels to sail as far
-as Amsterdam and Enkhuizen, which had not been the case
-before. Whilst reading these accounts, we are led to compare
-the inhabitants of the Dutch lowlands with those of the fertile
-fields and vineyards that clothe the sides of Vesuvius: both
-exposed to sudden and irretrievable ruin from the rage of
-two different elements, and yet both contented and careless
-of the future; the first behind the dykes that have often given
-way to the ocean, the latter on the very brink of a menacing
-volcano.</p>
-
-<p>The tides which sometimes cause such dreadful devastations
-on the shores of the North Sea are, as is well known, inconsiderable,
-or even hardly perceptible in the Mediterranean, and
-thus many years passed ere the Greeks and Romans first witnessed
-the grand phenomenon. The Ph&#339;nicians, the merchant
-princes of antiquity, who at a very early period of history
-visited the isolated Britons,&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">"Penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos,"&mdash;<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>and sailed far away into the Indian Ocean, were of course well
-acquainted with it; but it first became known to the Greeks
-through the voyage of Col&aelig;us, a mariner of Samos, who, according
-to Herodotus, was driven by a storm through the Straits of
-Hercules into the wide Atlantic 600 years before Christ.   About
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">� 36 �</a></span>
-seventy years after this involuntary discovery, the Phoceans of
-Massilia, or Marseilles, first ventured to follow on the track of
-Col&aelig;us for the purpose of trading with Tartessus, the present
-Cadiz; and from that time remained in constant commercial
-intercourse with that ancient Ph&#339;nician colony.</p>
-
-<p>With what eager attention may their countrymen have
-listened to the wondrous tale of the alternate rising and sinking
-of the ocean! Such must have been the astonishment of our
-forefathers when the first Arctic voyagers told them of the
-floating icebergs, and of the perpetually circling sun of the
-high northern summer.</p>
-
-<p>Thus the tides became known to the Massilians about five
-centuries before Christ, but in those times of limited international
-intercourse, knowledge travelled but slowly from place to
-place; so that it was not before the conquests of Alexander,
-which first opened the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf to Grecian
-trade, that the great marine phenomenon began to attract the
-general attention of philosophers and naturalists.</p>
-
-<p>The flux and reflux of the sea is evidently so closely connected
-with the movements and changes of the moon, that the intimate
-relations between both could not possibly escape the penetrating
-sagacity of the Greeks. Thus we read in Plutarch, that Pytheas
-of Marseilles, the great traveller who sailed to the north as far as
-the Ultima Thule, and lived in the times of Alexander the Great,
-ascribed to the moon an influence over the tides. Aristotle expressed
-the same opinion, and C&aelig;sar says positively (Commentaries,
-<i>De Bel. Gal.</i> book iv. 29,) that the full-moon causes
-the tides of the ocean to swell to their utmost height. Strabo
-distinguishes a three-fold periodicity of the tides according to
-the daily, monthly, and annual position of the moon, and Pliny
-expresses himself still more to the point, by saying that the
-waters move as if obeying the thirsty orb which causes them
-to follow its course.</p>
-
-<p>This vague notion of obedience or servitude was first raised
-by Kepler to the clear and well defined idea of an attractive
-power. According to this great and self-taught genius, all
-bodies strive to unite in proportion to their masses. "The earth
-and moon would mutually approach and meet together at a
-point, so much nearer to the earth as her mass is superior to
-that of the moon, if their motion did not prevent it. The moon
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">� 37 �</a></span>
-attracts the ocean, and thus tides arise in the larger seas. If
-the earth ceased to attract the waters, they would rise and flow
-up to the moon."</p>
-
-<p>The general notion of a mutual attraction, however, did no
-more than point out the way for the solution of the problem,
-and it was reserved to our great Newton to accomplish the
-prophecy of his great predecessor, "that the discovery of the true
-laws of gravitation would be accomplished in a future generation,
-when it should please the Almighty Creator of nature to reveal
-her mysteries to man."</p>
-
-<p>Newton was the first who proved that the tide-generating
-power of a celestial body arises from the difference of the attraction
-it exerts on the centre and the surface of the earth.
-Thus it was at once made clear how the water not only rises on
-the surface facing the moon, but also on the opposite side of the
-earth, as in the latter case the moon acts more strongly on the
-mass of the earth than on the waters which cover the hemisphere
-most distant from her. The evident consequence is that the
-earth <i>sinks</i> (so to say), on the surface turned from the moon,
-whereby a deepening of the waters, or, in other words, a rising of
-the tide, is occasioned.</p>
-
-<p>It now also became clear how the moon, whose attractive
-power upon the earth is 160 times smaller than that of the
-sun, is yet able to occasion a stronger tide, since, from her
-proximity to the earth, she attracts the surface more forcibly
-than the centre with the thirtieth part of her power, while the
-distant sun occasions a difference of attraction on these two
-points equal only to one twelve-thousandth part of her attractive
-force.</p>
-
-<p>Now also a full explanation was first given why the highest
-tides take place at new and full moon: that is, when the moon
-stands between the sun and the earth; or the latter between the
-sun and the moon; as then the two celestial bodies unite their
-powers; while at half-moon the solar tide corresponding with
-the lunar ebb, or the lunar tide with the solar ebb, counteract
-each other.</p>
-
-<p>But even Newton explained the true theory of the tides only
-in its more prominent and general features, and the labours of
-other mathematicians, such as MacLaurin, Bernoulli, Euler,
-La Place, and Whewell, were required for its further development,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">� 38 �</a></span>
-so as fully to explain all the particulars of the sublime phenomenon.</p>
-
-<p>The reproach has often been made to science, that she
-banishes poetry from nature, and disenchants the forest and
-the field; but this surely is not the case in the present instance,
-for what poetical fiction can fill the soul with a grander image
-than that of the eternal restlessly-progressing tide-wave, which,
-following the triumphant march of the sun and moon, began as
-soon as the primeval ocean was formed, and shall last uninterruptedly
-as long as our solar system exists!</p>
-
-<p>Were the whole earth covered with one sea of equal depth,
-the tides would regularly move onwards from east to west, and
-everywhere attain the same height under the same latitude.
-But the direction and the force of the tide-wave are modified by
-many obstacles on its way, such as coast-lines and groups of
-islands, and it has to traverse seas of very unequal depth and
-form. Flat coasts impede its current by friction, while it rolls
-faster along deep mural coasts. From all these causes the
-strength of the tides is very unequal in different places.</p>
-
-<p>They are generally low on the wide and open ocean. Thus
-the highest tides at Otaheiti do not exceed eleven inches, three
-feet at St. Helena, one foot and a half at Porto Rico.</p>
-
-<p>But when considerable obstructions oppose the progress of the
-tide-waves, such as vast promontories, long and narrow channels,
-or bays of diminishing width, and mouths of rivers directly facing
-its swell, it rises to a very great height. Thus, at the bottom of
-Fundy Bay, which stretches its long arm between Nova Scotia
-and New Brunswick, the spring-tides rise to sixty, seventy, or
-even one hundred feet, while at its entrance they do not exceed
-nine feet, and their swell is so rapid as frequently to sweep
-away cattle feeding on the shore.</p>
-
-<p>The Bristol Channel and the bay of St. Malo in Brittany, are
-also renowned for their high tides. Near Chepstow, the flux
-is said sometimes to reach the surprising height of seventy feet,
-and at St. Malo the floods frequently rise to forty and fifty feet.
-When the water is low, this small sea-port town appears surrounded
-on all sides by fantastically shaped cliffs covered with sea-weeds
-and barnacles. Pools of salt water interspersed here and
-there among the hollowed stones, or on the even ground between
-them, and harbouring many curious varieties of marine animals,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">� 39 �</a></span>
-are the only visible signs of the vicinity of the ocean, whose hoarse
-murmurs are heard resounding from afar. But an astonishing
-change takes place a few hours after, when the town, surrounded
-by the sea, would be a complete island, but for a long, narrow
-causeway called "<i>the Sillon</i>," which connects it with the mainland.
-On the side fronting the open sea, the tide breaks with
-tremendous rage against the strong buttresses that have been
-raised to oppose its fury, rises foamingly to a height of thirty or
-forty feet, and threatens the tardy wanderer as he loiters on the
-narrow causeway. The cliffs that erewhile were seen to surround
-the town are now hidden under the waters, some few
-excepted, that raise their rugged heads like minute islands above
-the circumambient floods. The opposite side of the causeway
-is also washed by the sea: but here its motions are less
-tumultuous, for after having broken against numberless rocks and
-made a vast circuit, it scarce retains a vestige of its primitive
-strength. On this side lies the vast, but deserted harbour of
-St. Malo, completely dry at ebb-tide; a wide sea during the
-flood.</p>
-
-<p>Two eminent French authors, Chateaubriand and Lamennais,
-were born at St. Malo, and there can be no doubt that the
-imposing spectacle I have briefly described must have greatly
-contributed to the widening of their intellectual horizon. Daily
-witnesses from their early childhood of one of the grandest phenomena
-of nature in all its wild sublimity, the boundless and
-the infinite soon grew familiar to their mind, enriching it with
-splendid imagery and bold conceptions.</p>
-
-<p>Although the sun and the moon exert some attraction upon
-the smaller and inclosed seas, yet the development of a powerful
-flood-wave necessarily requires that the moon should act
-upon a sufficiently wide and deep expanse of ocean. Even the
-Atlantic is not broad enough for this purpose, as its equatorial
-width measures no more than one eighth of the earth's circumference:
-and the Pacific itself, notwithstanding its vast area, is
-so studded with islands and shallows, that it presents a much
-more obstructed basin for the action of the tide-wave than
-might be expected, from its apparent dimensions and equatorial
-position.</p>
-
-<p>Thus it is in the Southern Ocean, where the greatest uninterrupted
-surface of deep water is exposed to the influence
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">� 40 �</a></span>
-of the moon, that we must look for the "<i>chief cradle of the
-tides</i>." From this starting point they flow on all sides to the
-northward, progressing like any other wave that arises on a
-small scale in a pond from a gust of wind, the throwing of
-a stone, or any other cause capable of producing an undulating
-movement on the surface of the waters.</p>
-
-<p>The tide-wave, which ultimately reaches our shores, arrives
-at the Cape of Good Hope thirteen hours after it has left
-Van Diemen's Land, and thence rolls onward in fourteen or
-fifteen hours to the coasts of Spain, France, and Ireland. It
-penetrates into the North Sea by two different ways. One of
-its ramifications turns round Scotland and thence flows onwards
-to the south, taking nineteen or twenty hours for the passage
-from Galway to the mouth of the Thames. A tide-wave, for
-instance, which appears at five in the afternoon on the west
-coast of Ireland, arrives at eight near the Shetland Islands,
-reaches Aberdeen at midnight, Hull at five in the morning, and
-Margate at noon.</p>
-
-<p>The other ramification of the same tide-wave, taking the
-shorter route through the Channel, had meanwhile preceded
-it by twelve hours, having reached Brest about five o'clock of
-the afternoon (at the same time that the northern branch
-appeared at Galway), Cherbourg at seven, Brighton at nine,
-Calais at eleven, and the mouth of the Thames at midnight.</p>
-
-<p>Thus, in this southern corner of the North Sea, two tide-waves
-unite that belong to two successive floods; the Scotch
-branch having started twelve hours sooner from the great
-Southern Ocean than the Channel branch, which thus results
-from the next following tide. The meeting of the two branches
-naturally gives rise to a more considerable rising of the waters,
-so that this circumstance, by allowing large ships to sail up
-the Thames, may be considered as one of the fundamental
-causes of the grandeur of London.</p>
-
-<p>In other parts of the North Sea, where the two tide-waves
-appear at different times, the contrary takes place, for the
-ebb of the one coinciding with the rising of the other, they
-naturally weaken or even neutralise each other. This occasions
-the low tides on the coast of Jutland, in Denmark, where they
-are scarcely higher than in the Mediterranean, and explains
-the otherwise startling fact of there being a space in the North
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">� 41 �</a></span>
-Sea where no periodical rise and fall of the waters whatsoever
-takes place.</p>
-
-<p>Thus we see that the relations of the tides in the North Sea,
-with regard to height and time, are of a somewhat complicated
-nature, which could only be explained after the numerous
-observations (amounting to more than 40,000) made by order
-of the British Government in all parts of the world, under
-the direction of Professor Whewell, had proved that all the
-floods of the seas chiefly proceed from the great tide-wave of
-the Southern Ocean, which, by its numerous ramifications in
-narrow seas or through groups of islands and by the unequal
-rapidity of its progress, according to the depth or shallowness
-of the waters it traverses, occasions all the seeming anomalies
-which were quite inexplicable by the simple Newtonian theory.</p>
-
-<p>As every twelve hours a new tidal-wave originates in the
-Southern Ocean which regularly follows in the same track as
-its predecessor, the tides everywhere succeed each other in
-regular and equal periods, and can thus everywhere be calculated
-beforehand.</p>
-
-<p>In narrow straits or in the intricate channels which wind
-through clusters of islands, different tidal-waves meeting from
-opposite directions give rise to more or less dangerous whirlpools.
-One of the most famous of these vortices, though inconsiderable
-in itself, is the renowned Charybdis, which gave so
-much trouble to Ulysses on his passing through the strait
-which separates Sicily from Italy, but is at present an object
-of fear scarcely even to the poor fisherman's boat.</p>
-
-<p>A much grander whirlpool, owing its celebrity, not to the
-fictions of poetry, but to the magnificent scale on which it has
-been constructed by nature, is the renowned Maelstrom, situated
-on the Norwegian coast in 68� N. lat., and near the island of
-Moskoe, from whence it also takes the name of Moskoestrom.
-It is four geographical miles in diameter, and in tempestuous
-weather its roar, like that of Niagara, is said to be heard several
-miles off. John Ramus gives us a terrible description of its
-fury, and mentions that in the year 1645 it raged with such
-noise and impetuosity, that on the island of Moskoe, the very
-stones of the houses fell to the ground. He tells us also that
-whales frequently come too near the stream, and, notwithstanding
-their giant strength, are overpowered by its violence,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">� 42 �</a></span>
-but, unfortunately adds, that it is impossible to describe their
-howlings and bellowings in their fruitless struggles to disengage
-themselves&mdash;impossible, no doubt, as whales happen to
-have no voice at all!</p>
-
-<p>According to more modern travellers, such as the celebrated
-geologist Leopold von Buch, the Maelstrom is far from being
-so terrible as depicted by Ramus and other friends of the
-marvellous; so that, except during storms and spring-tides,
-large ships may constantly cross it without danger. The
-Norwegian fishermen are even said frequently to assemble on
-the field of the Maelstrom on account of the great abundance
-of fishes congregating in those troubled waters, and fearlessly
-to pursue their avocations, while the whirlpool moves their
-boats in a circular direction.</p>
-
-<p>Sir Robert Sibbald describes a very remarkable marine whirlpool
-among the Orkney islands, which would prove dangerous
-to strangers, though it is of no consequence to the people who
-are used to it. It is not fixed to any particular place, but arises
-in various parts of the limits of the sea among these islands.
-Wherever it appears, it is very furious, and boats would inevitably
-be drawn in and perish with it, but the people who
-navigate them are prepared for it and always carry a bundle of
-straw or some such matter in the boat with them. This they
-fling into the vortex which immediately swallows it up, and,
-seemingly pleased with this propitiatory offering, subsides into
-smoothness, but soon after re-appears in another place.</p>
-
-<p>A remarkable and sudden rising of the spring-tide takes
-place at the mouth of several rivers, for instance, the Indus
-(where the surprising phenomenon nearly caused the destruction
-of the fleet of Alexander the Great), the Hooghly, the Dordogne,
-&amp;c. In the Seine it is observed on a scale of great magnitude.
-While the tide gradually rises near Havre and Harfleur, a giant
-wave is suddenly seen to surge near Quilleb&#339;uf, spanning the
-whole width of the river (from 30,000 to 36,000 feet). After
-this mighty billow has struck against the quay of Quilleb&#339;uf,
-it enters a more narrow bed and flows stream-upwards with
-the rapidity of a race horse, overflowing the banks on both
-sides, and not seldom causing considerable loss of property by
-its unexpected appearance. The astonishment it causes is increased
-when it takes place during serene weather, and without
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">� 43 �</a></span>
-any signs of wind or storm. A deafening noise announces and
-accompanies this sudden swelling of the waters, which owes its
-first origin to the silent action of gravitation, and is the result
-of the diminishing velocity of the tide-wave over a shallow
-bottom.</p>
-
-<p>While the tide-wave advances over the deep and open seas
-with an astonishing rapidity, its progress up the channel of a
-river is comparatively very slow, partly on account of the reason
-just mentioned, and partly from its meeting a current flowing
-in an opposite direction.</p>
-
-<p>Thus, the tide takes no less than twelve hours for its progress
-from the mouth of the Thames to London, about the time it
-requires to travel all the way from Van Diemen's Land to
-the Cape of Good Hope. Consequently, when it is high-water
-at the mouth of the Thames at three o'clock in the afternoon,
-for instance, we have not high-water at London Bridge before
-three o'clock in the following morning, when it is again high
-water at the Nore. But, in the mean time, there has been low
-water at the Nore and high water about half-way to London,
-and while the high water is proceeding to London, it is ebbing
-at the intermediate places, and is low water there when it is
-high water at London and at the Nore. If the tide extended
-as far beyond London as London is from the Nore, we should
-have three high waters with two low waters interposed. The
-most remarkable instance of this kind is afforded by the gigantic
-river of the Amazons, as it appears by the observations
-of Condamine and others, that, between Para, at the mouth of
-the colossal stream, and the conflux of the Madera and Mara�on,
-there are no less than seven simultaneous high waters with six
-low waters between them. Thus, four days after the tide-wave
-was first raised in the Southern Ocean, its last undulations
-expire deep in the bosom of the South American wilds.</p>
-
-<p>The Mediterranean is generally supposed to be tideless, but
-this opinion is erroneous; and in the Adriatic, the flux of the
-sea is far from being inconsiderable, for, at Venice, the difference
-between high and low water is sometimes no less than
-six or even nine feet. Mr. W. Trevelyan, during a summer
-residence in the old port of Antium, on the Roman coast, found
-from a series of accurate observations, that the tides regularly
-succeed each other and attain a height of fourteen inches.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">� 44 �</a></span>
-In the eastern Mediterranean new measurements have proved
-that they are still more considerable, while in the western part
-of that inclosed sea they are almost imperceptible.</p>
-
-<p>The differences of level caused by the Mediterranean tides,
-are indeed too inconsiderable to attract the general notice of the
-inhabitants on the coast, but in the famed Euripus, the narrow
-channel which separates the island of Eub&#339;a or Negropont from
-continental Greece, the tide produces the striking phenomenon
-of very irregular fluctuations of the waters, from one end of the
-channel to the other.</p>
-
-<p>This phenomenon was of course completely inexplicable to
-the ancient philosophers, and Aristotle is even said to have
-drowned himself in the Euripus in a fit of despair, since, with
-all his prodigious sagacity, he could not possibly solve the
-mystery. For us, who know that peculiar formations of the
-sea-bed and coasts are capable of considerably augmenting the
-force of the floods, and that tidal waves rushing into a narrow
-channel in opposite directions, and at different times, must
-necessarily produce irregular fluctuations of the waters, the
-phenomenon of the Euripus has ceased to be a mystery.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">� 45 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_IV" id="CHAP_IV">CHAP. IV.</a></h2>
-
-<p class="caption2">MARINE CAVES.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">Effects of the Sea on Rocky Shores.&mdash;Fingal's Cave.&mdash;Beautiful Lines of Sir
-Walter Scott.&mdash;The Antro di Nettuno.&mdash;The Cave of Hunga.&mdash;Legend of its
-Discovery.&mdash;Marine Fountains.&mdash;The Skerries.&mdash;The Souffleur in Mauritius.&mdash;The
-Buffadero on the Mexican Coast.</div>
-
-
-<p>Whoever has only observed the swelling of the tide on the flat
-coasts of the North Sea, has but a faint idea of the Titanic
-power which it develops on the rocky shores of the wide ocean.
-Even in fair weather, the growing flood, oscillating over the
-boundless expanse of waters, rises in tremendous breakers, so
-that it is impossible to behold their fury without feeling a conviction
-that the hardest rock must ultimately be ground to
-atoms by such irresistible forces.</p>
-
-<p>Day after day, year after year, they renew their fierce attacks,
-and as in the high Alpine valleys the tumultuous torrents rushing
-from the glaciers tear deep furrows in the flanks of the
-mountains, thus it is here the sea which stamps the seal of its
-might on the vanquished rocks, corrodes them into fantastic
-shapes, scoops out wide portals in their projecting promontories,
-and hollows out deep caverns in their bosoms.</p>
-
-<p>Here, also, water appears as the beautifying element, decorating
-inanimate nature with picturesque forms, and the sea
-nowhere exhibits more romantic scenes than on the rocky shores
-against which her waves have been beating for many a millennium.
-How manifold the shapes into which the rocky shores
-are worn! how numberless the changes which each varying
-season, nay, every hour of the day with its constant alternations
-of ebb and flood, of cloud and sunshine, of storm or calm,
-produces in their physiognomy! Our coasts abound in beauties
-such as these; but pre-eminent above all other specimens of
-Ocean's fantastic architecture is Fingal's Cave, which may well
-challenge the world to show its equal.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">� 46 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>From afar, the small island of Staffa, rising precipitously from
-the sea, seems destitute of all romantic interest, but on approaching,
-the traveller is struck with the remarkable basaltic
-columns of which it is chiefly composed. Most of them rest
-upon a substratum of solid shapeless rock, and generally form
-colonnades upwards of fifty feet high, following the contours of
-the inlets or promontories, and overtopped with smaller hillocks.
-Along the west coast of the island they are tolerably irregular,
-but on the south side Staffa appears as an immense Gothic
-edifice, or rather as a forest of gigantic pillars seemingly arranged
-with all the regularity of art. The admiration they
-cause is, however, soon effaced when the vast cave to which the
-remote islet owes its world-wide celebrity bursts upon the view.
-Fancy a grotto measuring 250 feet in length by 53 in width at
-the entrance, and spanned by an arch 117 feet high, which,
-though gradually sloping towards the interior, still maintains a
-height of 70 feet at the farthest end of the cavern! The walls
-consist of rows of huge hexagonal basaltic pillars, which seem
-regularly to diminish according to the rules of perspective.
-The roof of the vault is formed of the remnants of similar
-columns, whose shafts have beyond a doubt been torn away by
-the sea, which, destroying them one after the other, has gradually
-excavated this magnificent temple of Nature. All their
-interstices, like those of the pillars, are cemented with a kind of
-pale yellow spar, which brings out all the angles and sides of
-their surfaces, and forms a pleasing contrast with the dark
-purple colour of the basalt.</p>
-
-<p>The whole floor of the cave is occupied by the sea, the depth
-of which, even at its farthest end, is above six feet, during ebb-tide;
-but it is only in perfectly calm weather that a boat is able
-to venture into the interior, for when the sea is any way turbulent
-(and this is generally the case among the stormy Hebrides)
-it is in danger of being hurled against the walls of the grot and
-dashed to pieces. Under these circumstances, the only access
-into the cave is by a narrow dyke or ledge running along its
-eastern wall, about fifteen feet above the water. It is formed of
-truncated basaltic pillars, over which it is necessary to clamber
-with great caution and dexterity, as they are always moist and
-slippery from the dashing spray. Frequently there is only
-room enough for one foot, and while the left hand grasps that
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">� 47 �</a></span>
-of the guide, it is necessary to hold fast with the right to a
-pillar of the wall. As this difficult path is most dangerous in
-the darkest part of the cave, but few tourists are bold enough
-to trust themselves to it, for the least false step must infallibly
-precipitate the adventurous explorer into the seething caldron
-below. Sometimes a cormorant, fearless of any accident of this
-kind, has built his nest upon the top of one of the truncated
-pillars, which form the pavement of the pathway, and betrays
-by a peevish hissing his ill humour at being disturbed in his
-solitary retreat by the intrusion of man.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 509px;">
-<img src="images/047.png" width="509" height="516" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Fingal's Cave.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The narrow path ultimately widens into a more roomy and
-slanting space formed of the remains of more than a thousand
-perpendicular truncated shafts. The back wall consists of a
-range of unequally sized pillars, arranged somewhat like the
-tubes of an organ.   When the waves rush with tumultuous fury
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">� 48 �</a></span>
-into the cave and dash their flakes of snow-white foam against
-its wall, it seems as if the gigantic instrument, touched by an
-invisible hand, were loudly singing the triumphs of ocean.</p>
-
-<p>Among the beauties of this matchless cave, the clear light
-must not be forgotten, which, penetrating through the wide
-portal, produces an agreeable chiaro-oscuro even at its farthest
-end, so that the eye is able to seize at one glance the full
-majesty of the splendid hall; nor the pure air which, constantly
-renewed by the perpetual alternations of the tides, is very
-different from the chilly dampness which generally reigns in
-subterranean caverns.</p>
-
-<p>When we consider the resemblance which from its regularity
-this magnificent work of nature bears to a production of human
-art, we cannot wonder at its having been ascribed to mortal
-architecture. But as men of ordinary stature seemed too weak
-for so colossal an enterprise, it was attributed to a race of
-giants, who constructed it for their chief and leader, Fingal,
-so renowned in Gaelic mythology. This belief still lingers
-among the primitive people of the neighbourhood, though
-some, being averse to pagan Goliahs, ascribe its workmanship
-to St. Columban.</p>
-
-<p>The patriotic muse of Walter Scott, who visited the cave in
-1810, rises to more than ordinary warmth while describing</p>
-
-<div class="poem" style="width:400px;"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2" style="margin-left: 9em;">"That wondrous dome,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Where, as to shame the temples deck'd<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">By skill of earthly architect,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Nature herself, it seemed, would raise<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">A minster to her Maker's praise!<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Not for a meaner use ascend<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Her columns, or her arches bend;<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Nor of a theme less solemn, tells<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">That mighty surge that ebbs and swells,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">And still between each awful pause<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">From the high vault an answer draws<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">In varied tones, prolonged and high,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">That mocks the organ's melody.<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Nor doth its entrance front in vain<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">To old Iona's holy fane,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">That Nature's voice might seem to say,<br /></span>
-<span class="i1">'Well hast thou done, frail child of clay,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Thy humble powers that stately shrine<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Task'd high and hard&mdash;but witness mine!'"<br /></span>
-</div>
-
-<p class="tdr"><i>Lord of the Isles</i>, canto iv. stanza 10.<br /></p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">� 49 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The Mediterranean has likewise its marine grottoes of world-wide
-celebrity, its azure cave of Capri,<a name="FNanchor_4" id="FNanchor_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a> which I have previously
-described, and its Antro di Nettuno, in the island of Sardinia,
-about twelve miles from the small sea-port of Alghero. Unfortunately
-this superb grotto is very difficult of access, for any wind
-between the north-west and the south prevents an entry, so that
-the Algherese assert that 300 out of the 365 days it is impossible
-to enter it. The first vaulted cavern, forming an antechamber
-about thirty feet high, has no peculiar beauty, but on crossing a
-second cavern, in which are about twenty feet of beautifully clear
-water, and then turning to the left, one finds oneself in an
-intricate navigation among stalactites with surrounding walls
-and passages of stalagmites of considerable height. Having
-passed them and proceeding westerly, one reaches another
-cavern with a natural column in its centre, the shaft and capital
-of which, supporting the immense and beautifully fretted roof,
-reminds one of those in the chapter-house of the cathedral at
-Wells, and the staircase of the hall at Christ Church, Oxford.
-It stands, the growing monument of centuries, in all its massive
-and elegant simplicity with comparatively speaking few other
-stalagmites to destroy the effects of its noble solitude. In
-parts of the grotto are corridors and galleries, some 300 and
-400 feet long, reminding one of the Moorish architecture of the
-Alhambra. One of them terminates abruptly in a deep cavern
-into which it is impossible to descend; but among many other
-interesting objects is a small chamber the access to which is
-through a very narrow aperture. After climbing and scrambling
-through it, one finds oneself in a room the ceiling of
-which is entirely covered with delicate stalactites, and the sides
-with fretted open work, so fantastical that one might almost
-imagine that it was a boudoir of the Oceanides, where they
-amused themselves with making lime lace. Some of the
-columns in different parts of the grotto are from seventy to
-eighty feet in circumference, and the masses of drapery drooping
-in exquisite elegance are of equally grand proportions.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> Chap. i. <a href="#Page_18">p. 18</a>.</p></div>
-
-<p>If a rare chance was required to discover the narrow opening
-in the cliffs of Capri, behind which one of the loveliest spectacles
-of nature lies concealed, we well may wonder how the
-famous cave of Hunga in the Tonga Archipelago ever became
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">� 50 �</a></span>
-known, as its entrance even at low water is completely hidden
-under the surface of the sea. Mariner, to whom we owe our
-first knowledge of this wonderful play of nature, relates that
-while he was one day <i>rat-hunting</i><a name="FNanchor_5" id="FNanchor_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[E]</a> in the island of Hunga with
-king Finow, who at that time reigned over Tonga, the barbarian
-monarch took a fancy to drink his <i>kawa</i><a name="FNanchor_6" id="FNanchor_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[F]</a> in the cave. Mariner,
-who had absented himself for a few moments from the company,
-was very much astonished when, returning to the strand, he saw
-one chieftain after another dive and disappear. He had but
-just time to ask the last of them what they were about.
-"Follow me," answered the chieftain, "and I will show thee a
-place where thou hast never been before, and where Finow and
-his chieftains are at present assembled." Mariner immediately
-guessed that this must be the celebrated cave of which he had
-frequently heard, and, anxious to see it, he immediately followed
-the diving chieftain, and swimming close after him under the
-water, safely reached the opening in the rock through which he
-emerged into the cave. On ascending to the surface, he immediately
-heard the voices of the company, and still following his
-guide, climbed upon a projecting ledge on which he sat down.
-All the light of the cave was reflected from the sea beneath,
-but yet it was sufficient, as soon as the eye had become accustomed
-to the twilight, to distinguish the surrounding objects.
-A clearer light being, however, desirable, Mariner once more
-dived, swam to the strand, fetched his pistol, poured a good
-quantity of powder on the pan, wrapped it carefully up in tapa-cloth
-and leaves, and, providing himself with a torch, returned
-as quickly as possible to the cave. Here he removed the cloth,
-a great part of which was still quite dry, and igniting it by the
-flame of the powder made use of it to light his torch. This
-was probably the very first time since its creation that the cave
-had ever been illumined by artificial light. Its chief compartment,
-which on one side branched out into two smaller cavities,
-seemed to be about forty feet wide and the mean height above
-the water amounted to as much. The roof was ornamented in
-a remarkable manner by stalactites resembling the arches and
-fantastic ornaments of a Gothic hall. According to a popular
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">� 51 �</a></span>
-tradition, the chieftain who first discovered this remarkable cave
-while diving after a turtle, used it subsequently as a place of
-refuge for his mistress to screen her from the persecutions of
-the reigning despot. The sea faithfully guarded his secret:
-after a few weeks of seclusion, he fled with his beloved to the
-Feejee Islands, and on his returning to his native home after
-the death of the tyrant, his countrymen heard with astonishment
-of the wonderful asylum that had been revealed to him
-by the beneficent sea-gods. Lord Byron adopted this graceful
-tale as the subject of his poem "The Island, or Christian and
-his Comrades," and has thus described the cave, no doubt
-largely adorning it from the stores of his brilliant fancy:</p>
-
-<div class="poem" style="width:400px;"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i1">"Around she pointed to a spacious cave,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Whose only portal was the keyless wave<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">(A hollow archway, by the sun unseen,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Save through the billows' glassy veil of green,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">On some transparent ocean holiday,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">When all the finny people are at play).<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2" style="margin-left: 9em;">"Wide it was and high;<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">And showed a self-born Gothic canopy.<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">The arch upreared by Nature's architect,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">The architrave some earthquake might erect;<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">The buttress from some mountain's bosom hurl'd,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">When the poles crash'd and water was the world;<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Or harden'd from some earth-absorbing fire,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">While yet the globe reek'd from its funeral pyre.<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">The fretted pinnacle, the aisle, the nave,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Were there, all scoop'd by darkness from her cave.<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">There, with a little tinge of fantasy,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Fantastic faces mopp'd and mow'd on high;<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">And then a mitre or a shrine would fix<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">The eye upon its seeming crucifix.<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Thus Nature played with the stalactites,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">And built herself a chapel of the seas."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_5" id="Footnote_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5"><span class="label">[E]</span></a> A favourite pastime of the Polynesian chiefs.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_6" id="Footnote_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6"><span class="label">[F]</span></a> An intoxicating beverage extracted from the Piper methysticum, a species of
-pepper plant.</p></div>
-
-<p>On many rocky shores the ocean has worn out subterraneous
-channels in the cliffs against which it has been beating for ages,
-and then frequently emerges in water-spouts or fountains from
-the opposite end. Thus, in the Skerries, one of the Shetland
-Islands, a deep chasm or inlet, which is open overhead, is continued
-under ground and then again opens to the sky in the
-middle of the island. When the water is high, the waves rise
-up through this aperture like the blowing of a whale in noise
-and appearance.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">� 52 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>A similar phenomenon is exhibited on the south side of the
-Mauritius, at a point called "The Souffleur," or "The Blower."
-"A large mass of rock," says Lieutenant Taylor,<a name="FNanchor_7" id="FNanchor_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[G]</a> "runs out
-into the sea from the mainland, to which it is joined by a neck
-of rock not two feet broad. The constant beating of the tremendous
-swell, which rolls in, has undermined it in every direction,
-till it has exactly the appearance of a Gothic building with
-a number of arches. In the centre of the rock, which is about
-thirty-five or forty feet above the sea, the water has forced two
-passages vertically upwards, which are worn as smooth and
-cylindrical as if cut by a chisel. When a heavy sea rolls in,
-it of course fills in an instant the hollow caverns underneath,
-and finding no other egress, and being borne in with tremendous
-violence, it rushes up these chimneys and flies, roaring
-furiously, to a height of full sixty feet. The moment the wave
-recedes, the vacuum beneath causes the wind to rush into the
-two apertures with a loud humming noise, which is heard at
-a considerable distance. My companion and I arrived there
-before high water, and, having climbed across the neck of rock,
-we seated ourselves close to the chimneys, where I proposed
-making a sketch, and had just begun when in came a thundering
-sea, which broke right over the rock itself and drove us
-back much alarmed.</p>
-
-<p>"Our negro guide now informed us that we must make haste
-to recross our narrow bridge, as the sea would get up as the
-tide rose. We lost no time and got back dry enough; and I
-was obliged to make my sketches from the mainland. In about
-three-quarters of an hour the sight was truly magnificent. I
-do not exaggerate in the least when I say that the waves rolled
-in, long and unbroken, full twenty-five feet high, till, meeting the
-headland, they broke clear over it, sending the spray flying over
-to the mainland; while from the centre of this mass of foam,
-the Souffleur shot up with a noise, which we afterwards heard
-distinctly between two and three miles. Standing on the main
-cliff, more than a hundred feet above the sea, we were quite
-wet. All we wanted to complete the picture was a large ship
-going ashore."</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_7" id="Footnote_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7"><span class="label">[G]</span></a> Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, vol. iii. 1833.</p></div>
-
-<p class="caption2"><a name="FPage_52" id="FPage_52">THE SOUFFLEUR.</a></p>
-
-<div class="blockquot1">
-
-<p>This plate shows the sea beating against some hollow rocks on the coast of the
-Mauritius, and producing the remarkable phenomenon called "The Souffleur," or
-"The Blower," water-spouts issuing from the wave-worn cavities of the cliff to a
-considerable height, and with a noise distinctly audible at a distance of three
-miles.</p></div>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 577px;">
-<a href="images/052fplg.png"><img src="images/052fp.png" width="577" height="390" alt="" /></a>
-<div class="fig_caption">THE SOUFFLEUR ROCK, MAURITIUS.<br />
-<span class="smaller">Click on image to view larger version.</span></div>
-</div>
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">� 53 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>A similar phenomenon, on a still more grand and majestic
-scale, occurs near Huatulco, a small Mexican village on the
-coast of the Pacific. On sailing into the bay one hears a distant
-noise, which might be taken for the spouting of a gigantic
-whale, or the dying groans of a bull struck by the sharp steel
-of the matador, or the rolling of thunder. Anxious to know
-the cause, "It is the Buffadero," answer the boatmen, pointing
-to a fantastically-shaped rock towards which they are rowing.
-On approaching, a truly magnificent spectacle reveals itself; for
-a colossal fountain springs from an aperture in the rock to a
-height of 150 feet, and after having dissolved in myriads of gems,
-returns to the foaming element which gave it birth. This
-beautiful sight renews itself as often as the breakers rush
-against the rock, and must be of unequalled splendour when a
-tornado sweeps across the ocean and rolls its giant billows into
-the hollowed bosom of the cliff.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">� 54 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_V" id="CHAP_V">CHAP. V.</a></h2>
-
-<p class="caption2">OCEAN CURRENTS.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">Causes of the Oceanic Currents.&mdash;The Equatorial Stream.&mdash;The Gulf Stream.&mdash;Its
-Influence on the Climate of the West European Coasts.&mdash;The Cold Peruvian
-Stream.&mdash;The Japanese Stream.</div>
-
-
-<p>Perpetual motion and change is the grand law, to which the
-whole of the created universe is subject, and immutable stability
-is nowhere to be found, but in the Eternal mind that rules and
-governs all things. The stars, which were supposed to be <i>fixed</i>
-to the canopy of heaven, are restless wanderers through the
-illimitable regions of space. The hardest rocks melt away
-under the corroding influence of time, for the elements never
-cease gnawing at their surface, and dislocating the atoms of
-which they are composed. Our body appears to us unchanged
-since yesterday, and yet how many of the particles which formed
-its substance, have within these few short hours, been cast off
-and replaced by others. We fancy ourselves at rest, and yet a
-torrent of blood, propelled by an indefatigable heart, is constantly
-flowing through all our arteries and veins.</p>
-
-<p>A similar external appearance of tranquillity might deceive
-the superficial observer, when sailing over the vast expanse of
-ocean, at a time when the winds are asleep, and its surface is
-unruffled by a wave. But how great would be his error! For
-every atom of the boundless sea is constantly moving and
-changing its place; from the depth to the surface, or from the
-surface to the depth; from the frozen pole to the burning
-equator, or from the torrid zone to the arctic ocean; now rising
-in the air in the form of invisible vapours, and then again descending
-upon our fields in fertilising showers.</p>
-
-<p>The waters are, in fact, the greatest travellers on earth; they
-know all the secrets of the submarine world; climb the peaks
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">� 55 �</a></span>
-of inaccessible mountains, shame the flight of the condor as he
-towers over the summit of the Andes, and penetrate deeper into
-the bowels of the earth than the miner has ever sunk his shaft.</p>
-
-<p>Leaving their wanderings through the regions of air to the
-next chapter, I shall now describe the principal ocean currents,
-the simple, but powerful agencies by which they are set in
-motion, their importance in the economy of nature, and their
-influence on the climate of different countries.</p>
-
-<p>Even in the torrid zone, the waters of the ocean, like a false
-friend, are warm merely on the surface, and of an almost icy coldness
-at a considerable depth. This low temperature cannot be
-owing to any refrigerating influence at the bottom of the sea,
-as the internal warmth of the earth increases in proportion to its
-depth, and the waters of profound lakes, in a southern climate,
-never show the same degree of cold as those of the vast ocean.</p>
-
-<p>The phenomenon can thus only arise from a constant submarine
-current of cold water from the poles to the line, and
-strange as it may seem, its primary cause is to be sought for in
-the <i>warming</i> rays of the <i>sun</i>, which, as we all know, distributes
-heat in a very unequal manner over the surface of the globe.</p>
-
-<p>Heat expands all liquid bodies, and renders them lighter;
-cold increases their weight by condensation. In consequence of
-this physical law, the waters of the tropical seas, rendered
-buoyant by the heat of a vertical sun, must necessarily rise and
-spread over the surface of the ocean to the north and south,
-whilst colder and heavier streams from the higher latitudes
-flow towards the equator along the bottom of the ocean, to replace
-them as they ascend.</p>
-
-<p>In this manner, the unequal action of the sun calls forth a
-general and constant movement of the waters from the poles to
-the equator, and from the equator to the poles; and this perpetual
-migration is one of the chief causes by which their purity
-is maintained. These opposite currents would necessarily flow
-direct to the north or south, were they not deflected from their
-course by the rotation of the earth, which gradually gives them
-a westerly or easterly direction.</p>
-
-<p>The unequal influence of the sun in different parts of the
-globe, and the rotation of the earth, are, however, not the only
-causes by which the course of ocean-currents is determined.</p>
-
-<p>Violent storms move the waters to a considerable depth, and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">� 56 �</a></span>
-retard the flow of rivers, and thus it is to be expected that continuous
-winds, even of moderate strength, must have a tendency
-to impel the waters in the same direction.</p>
-
-<p>The steady trade-winds of the tropical zone, and the prevailing
-westerly winds in higher latitudes, consequently unite their
-influence with that of the above mentioned causes, in driving
-the waters of the tropical seas to the west, and those of the
-temperate zones to the east.</p>
-
-<p>The tides also, which on the high seas generally move from
-east to west, promote the flow of the ocean in the same
-direction, and thus contribute to the westerly current of the
-tropical seas.</p>
-
-<p>Nor must we forget that the obstacles which the ocean-currents
-meet on their way; such as intervening lines of coast,
-sand banks, submarine ridges, or mountain chains, have a great
-influence upon their course, and may even give them a diametrically
-opposite direction to that which they would otherwise
-have followed.</p>
-
-<p>Having thus briefly mentioned the origin and causes of the
-currents, which intersect the seas like huge rivers, I shall now
-describe such of them as are most important and interesting in
-a geographical point of view.</p>
-
-<p>In the northern part of the Atlantic, between Europe, North
-Africa, and the New World, the waters are constantly performing
-a vast circular or rotatory movement. Under the tropics
-they proceed like the trade-winds from east to west, assisting
-the progress of the ships that sail from the Canaries to South
-America, and rendering navigation in a straight line from Carthagena
-de Indias to Cumana (stream upwards) next to impossible.
-This westerly current receives a considerable addition
-from the <i>Mozambique</i> stream, which, flowing from north to
-south between Madagascar and the coast of Caffraria, proceeds
-round the southern extremity of Africa, and after rapidly advancing
-to the north, along the western coast of that continent,
-as far as the island of St. Thomas, unites its waters with those
-of the equatorial current, and continues its course right across
-the Atlantic. In this manner the combined tropical streams
-reach the eastern extremity of South America (Cape Roque),
-where they divide into two arms. The one flowing to the south
-follows the south-eastern coast, and gradually takes a south-easterly
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">� 57 �</a></span>
-direction, between the tropic of Capricorn and the
-mouth of the La Plata river, beyond the limits of the trade-winds.
-Its traces show themselves to the south-east of the Cape
-of Good Hope, and are finally lost far in the Indian Ocean.</p>
-
-<p>The northern arm of the equatorial stream flows along the
-north-eastern coast of South America; constantly raising its
-temperature under the influence of a tropical sun, and progressing
-with a rapidity of a hundred miles in twenty-four hours (six
-feet and a half in a second), after having been joined by the
-waters of the Amazon river. Thus it continues to flow to the
-east, until the continent of Central America opposes an invincible
-barrier to its farther progress in this direction, and
-compels it to follow the windings of the coast of Costa Rica,
-Mosquitos, Campeche, and Tabasco. It then performs a vast
-circuit along the shores of the Mexican Gulf, and finally
-emerges through the Straits of Bahama into the open ocean.</p>
-
-<p>Here it assumes a new name, and forms what navigators call
-the <i>Gulf-stream</i>, a rapid current of tepid water, which, flowing
-in a diagonal direction, recedes farther and farther from the
-coast of North America as it advances to the north-east. Under
-the forty-first degree of latitude it suddenly bends to the east,
-gradually diminishing in swiftness, and at the same time increasing
-in width.</p>
-
-<p>Thus it flows across the Atlantic, to the south of the great
-bank of Newfoundland, where Humboldt found the temperature
-of its stream several degrees higher than that of the neighbouring
-and tranquil waters, which form, as it were, the banks of the
-warm oceanic current. Ere it reaches the western Azores, it
-divides into two arms, one of which is driven, partly by the
-natural impulse of its stream, but principally by the prevailing
-westerly and north-westerly winds, towards the coasts of
-Europe; while the other, flowing towards the Canary Islands and
-the western coast of Africa, finally returns into the equatorial
-current.</p>
-
-<p>In this manner the waters are brought back to the point from
-which they came, after having performed a vast circuit of 20,000
-miles, which it took them nearly three years to accomplish.
-According to Humboldt's calculations, a boat left to the current,
-and moving along without any other assistance, would require
-about thirteen months to float from the Canary Islands to the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">� 58 �</a></span>
-Caribbean Sea as far as Caraccas. From Caraccas to the
-Straits of Florida, it would remain another ten months on the
-way, for though the direct distance is but short, the current has
-to perform an enormous circuit of 2500 miles, and flows but
-slowly in those confined seas. But the accumulated waters
-having now to force their passage through the narrow channel
-between Cuba and the Bahama Islands on one side, and Florida
-on the other, attain so considerable a velocity, that the whole
-distance from the Havannah to the Bank of Newfoundland, is
-traversed in forty days. During this passage the Gulf-stream
-particularly deserves its name, and is easily distinguished from
-the surrounding waters by its higher temperature and its vivid
-dark blue colour. Numerous marine animals of the tropical
-seas,&mdash;the flying fish, the neat velella, the purple ianthina, the
-crosier nautilus, accompany it to latitudes which otherwise would
-prove fatal to their existence; and, trusting its tepid stream,
-float or swim along to the north or the north-east.</p>
-
-<p>At the extremity of the Bank of Newfoundland, it becomes
-broader, wavers more or less in its course, according to the
-prevailing winds, and at the same time decreases in rapidity, so
-that the boat would most likely still require from ten to eleven
-months for this last station of its journey, ere it once more
-reached the Canary Islands.</p>
-
-<p>The direction of the Gulf-stream explains to us how the productions
-of tropical America are so frequently found on the
-shores of the Eastern Atlantic. Humboldt relates that the
-main-mast of the "Tilbury," a ship of the line, wrecked during
-the seven years' war on the coast of San Domingo, was carried
-by the Gulf-stream to the North of Scotland; and cites the still
-more remarkable fact, that casks of palm oil belonging to the
-cargo of an English vessel, which foundered on a rock near Cape
-Lopez, likewise found their way to Scotland, having thus twice
-traversed the wide Atlantic; first borne from east to west by the
-equatorial current, and then carried from west to east, between
-45� and 55� N. latitude, by means of the Gulf-stream.</p>
-
-<p>Major Rennell ("Investigation of Currents") relates the peregrinations
-of a bottle, thrown overboard from the "Newcastle,"
-on the 20th of January, 1819, in lat. 38� 52&#8243;, and long. 66� 20&#8243;,
-and ultimately found on the 2nd of June, 1820, on the shore
-of the Island of Arran.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">� 59 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>On the 16th of April, 1853, another bottle cast into the
-waters in the vicinity of the Bank of Newfoundland, on the
-15th of March, 1852, was found near Bayonne, not far from the
-mouth of the Adour.</p>
-
-<p>On the coasts of Orcadia, a sort of fruit, commonly known by
-the name of <i>Molucca</i>, or Orkney beans, are found in large
-quantities, particularly after storms of westerly wind.</p>
-
-<p>These beans are the produce of West Indian trees (<i>Anacardium
-occidentale</i>), and find their way from the woods of Cuba
-and Jamaica, to the Ultima Thule of the ancients, by means of
-the Gulf-stream.</p>
-
-<p>Large quantities of American drift-wood are transported by
-the same current to the dreary shores of Iceland,&mdash;a welcome gift
-to the inhabitants of a region where the highest tree is but a
-dwarfish shrub, and cabbages of the size of an apple are raised,
-as a great rarity, in the governor's garden.</p>
-
-<p>A short time before Humboldt visited the island of Teneriffe,
-the sea had thrown out the trunk of a North American cedar-tree
-(<i>Cedrela odorata</i>), covered with the mosses and lichens that had
-grown upon it in the virgin forest.</p>
-
-<p>The Gulf-stream has even contributed to the discovery of
-America, for it is well known that Columbus was strengthened
-in his belief in the existence of a western continent, by the
-stranding on the Azores of bamboos of an enormous size, of
-artificially carved pieces of wood, of trunks of a species of
-Mexican pine, and of the dead bodies of two men, whose features,
-resembling neither those of the inhabitants of Europe nor of
-Africa, indicated a hitherto unknown race. But not only lifeless
-and inanimate objects find their way across the wide Atlantic
-by means of the Gulf-stream and its spreading waters;
-the living aborigines of the distant regions of America have also
-sometimes been driven towards the coasts of Europe by the
-combined action of the currents and the winds. Thus, James
-Wallace tells us that, in the year 1682, a Greenlander in his
-boat was seen by many people near the south point of the
-island of Eda, but escaped pursuit. In 1684 another Greenland
-fisherman appeared near the island of Wistram. An Esquimaux
-canoe, which the current and the storm had cast ashore,
-is still to be seen in the church of Burra. In Cardinal Bembo's
-"History of Venice," it is related that, in the year 1508, a small
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">� 60 �</a></span>
-boat with seven strange-featured men, was captured by a French
-vessel in the North Sea. The description given of them corresponds
-exactly with the appearance of the Esquimaux; they
-were of a middle-size, of a dark colour, and had a broad face with
-spreading features, marked with a violet scar. No one understood
-their language. They were clothed in seal-skins. They
-ate raw flesh, and drank blood as we do wine. Six of these
-men died on the journey; the seventh, a youth, was presented
-to the King of France, who at that time was residing at Orleans.</p>
-
-<p>The appearance of so-called Indians on the coast of the
-German Sea, under the Othos and Frederic Barbarossa, or even,
-as Cornelius Nepos, Pomponius Melas, and Pliny relate, at the
-time when Quintus Metellus Celer was proconsul in Gaul,
-may be explained by similar effects of the current and continuous
-north-easterly winds. A king of the Boians made a present
-of the stranded dark-coloured men to Metellus Celer. Gomara,
-in his "General History of the Indies," expresses a belief that
-these Indians were natives of Labrador, which would be doubly
-interesting as the first instance recorded in history of the natives
-of the Old and the New World having been brought into contact
-with each other. We can easily account for the appearance of
-Esquimaux on the North European coasts in former times; as
-during the eleventh and twelve centuries, their race was much
-more numerous than at present, and extended, as we know,
-from the researches of Rask and Finn Magnussen, from Labrador
-to the good Winland, or the shores of the present State of
-Massachusetts and Connecticut.</p>
-
-<p>If we compare the climates on the opposite coasts of the
-Northern Atlantic, we find a remarkable difference in favour of
-the Old World. The frozen regions of Labrador, lie under the
-same degree of latitude as Plymouth, where the myrtle and
-laurel remain perpetually verdant in the open air. In New
-York, which has a more southern situation than Rome, the
-winter is colder than at Bergen in Norway, which lies 20�
-farther to the north. While on the northern coasts of the old
-continent, the waters remain open a great part of the year,
-even beyond the latitude of 80�, the ice never completely thaws
-on the opposite shores of Greenland. What a contrast between
-the Fero� islands, where the harbours are never frozen, where
-fertile meadows afford pasturage to numerous flocks of sheep,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">� 61 �</a></span>
-and even crops of barley reward the labours of the husbandman,
-and the frightful wildernesses on the shores of Hudson's Straits!&mdash;and
-yet both are situated under the same latitude of 62�.</p>
-
-<p>The milder winter and earlier spring which characterise the
-north-west coast of Europe, are due, in some measure, to the
-prevailing westerly winds; but there can be no doubt that they
-are mainly owing to the influence of the Gulf-stream, which, as
-we have seen, conveys the heated waters of the Mexican Gulf
-far to the north-east, and thus imparts warmth to the climate
-of our native isle. In both seas, on the contrary, which bound
-the peninsula or island of Greenland, icy currents descend, and
-continue their course to the south, along the coasts of North
-America. Near Newfoundland their temperature, in May, is
-found to be 14� lower than that of the air, and even in spring
-and the early summer they carry along with them immense ice-blocks,
-which are frequently drifted as far south as the latitude
-of New York, and finally disappear in the Gulf-stream.</p>
-
-<p>It is evident that the cold of winter must be increased, and
-the spring retarded along the North American coasts by these
-cold streams, just as the coasts of Europe are favoured by
-streams of a contrary nature; and thus the ocean-currents go a
-great way to explain the remarkable differences of climate
-between the opposite shores of the Northern Atlantic.</p>
-
-<p>On this occasion I cannot omit directing the reader's attention
-to the influence which the far-distant barrier of Central
-America has upon the climate of Great Britain. Supposing yon
-narrow belt of land to be suddenly whelmed under the ocean,
-then instead of circuitously winding round the Gulf of Mexico,
-the heated waters of the equatorial current would naturally
-flow into the Pacific, and the Gulf-stream no longer exist. We
-should not only lose the benefit of its warm current, but cold
-polar streams, descending farther to the south would take its
-place, and be ultimately driven by the westerly winds against
-our coasts. Our climate would then resemble that of Newfoundland,
-and our ports be blocked up during many months,
-by enormous masses of ice. Under these altered circumstances,
-England would no longer be the grand emporium of trade and
-industry, and would finally dwindle down from her imperial
-station to an insignificant dependency of some other country
-more favoured by Nature.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">� 62 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>On examining other coast-lands, in different parts of the
-globe, we shall everywhere find the influence of the reigning
-currents producing analogous effects to those I have already
-mentioned.</p>
-
-<p>The Southern Atlantic is not warmed like the European seas
-by tepid streams, it is exposed on all sides to the free afflux of
-the cold waters of the Antarctic Ocean, and during the summer
-months to the influence of drift ice. Thus, the southern extremity
-of America, Terra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands,
-South Georgia, Sandwich Land, and other isles of the southern
-ocean, have a much colder climate than the European coasts
-and islands situated under the same latitude.</p>
-
-<p>Let us for instance compare the temperature of the Falkland
-Islands and of Port Famine in the Straits of Magellan, with
-that of Dublin, which is situated at an equal distance from the
-line.</p>
-
-<table summary="temps">
-<tr>
-  <td rowspan="2"></td>
-  <td></td>
-  <td colspan="6">Mean Temperature.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl2" style="width:6em;">Latitude.</td>
-  <td style="width:4em;" colspan="2">Winter.</td>
-  <td style="width:4em;" colspan="2">Summer.</td>
-  <td style="width:4em;" colspan="2">Annual.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Dublin</td>
-  <td class="tdl2">53� 21&#8242; N.</td>
-  <td class="tdr">+4�</td>
-  <td class="tdl">0� R.</td>
-  <td class="tdr">15�</td>
-  <td class="tdl">3�</td>
-  <td class="tdr">9�</td>
-  <td class="tdl">6�</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Port Famine</td>
-  <td class="tdl2">53� 38&#8242; S.</td>
-  <td class="tdr">+0�</td>
-  <td class="tdl">6</td>
-  <td class="tdr">10�</td>
-  <td class="tdl">0</td>
-  <td class="tdr">5�</td>
-  <td class="tdl">3</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Falkland Islands</td>
-  <td class="tdl2">52� &nbsp;0&#8242; S.</td>
-  <td class="tdr">4�</td>
-  <td class="tdl">36</td>
-  <td class="tdr">11�</td>
-  <td class="tdl">8</td>
-  <td class="tdr">8�</td>
-  <td class="tdl">24</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Fero� Islands</td>
-  <td class="tdl2">62� &nbsp;2&#8242; N.</td>
-  <td class="tdr">3�</td>
-  <td class="tdl">9</td>
-  <td class="tdr">11�</td>
-  <td class="tdl">6</td>
-  <td class="tdr">7�</td>
-  <td class="tdl">1</td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<p>Thus the climate of the Falkland Islands is, as we see, not
-very different from that of the Fero� Islands, although the
-latter lie ten degrees farther from the equator.</p>
-
-<p>In the Pacific Ocean, as well as in the Atlantic, we find a
-westerly current filling the whole breadth of the tropical zone,
-from the coast of America to that of Australia and the Indian
-Archipelago. The best known of its affluxes is the cold Peruvian
-stream, which, emerging from the Polar Sea, flows with
-great rapidity along the shores of Chili and Peru, and does not
-take a westerly direction, before reaching the neighbourhood of
-the line. It has everywhere a remarkably low temperature,
-comparatively to the latitude, and this sufficiently accounts for
-the equal and temperate climate on the coasts of Chili and Peru.
-Thus, the mean temperature of Callao (12� S. lat.) is only 20� R.
-while in Rio Janeiro (23� S. lat.), though so much farther from
-the line, the annual warmth rises to 23�2� R.</p>
-
-<p>In the beginning of November, Humboldt found at Callao
-the temperature of the sea within the current not higher than
-15�5�, while outside the stream it rose to 26� or even 28�5� R.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">� 63 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Even in the vicinity of the equator, after the current has
-already assumed a westerly direction, its mean temperature does
-not exceed 20�5�. But as it advances towards the west, its temperature
-gradually rises to 27� or 28�.</p>
-
-<p>On the western banks of the Pacific the equatorial stream
-divides into several branches. Part of its waters flow to the
-south, a greater quantity penetrates through the channels of
-the south Asiatic Archipelago into the Indian Ocean, the remainder
-turns to the north-east, on the confines of the Chinese
-Sea, leaves the eastern coast of the Japanese Islands, and then
-spreads its warm waters under the influence of north-westerly
-winds over the northern part of the Pacific. Thus the Japanese
-stream plays here the same part as the Gulf-stream in the
-Atlantic, and exerts a similar, though less mighty influence
-over the climate of the west coast of America, as it is neither so
-large nor so warm, and, having to traverse a wider ocean, in
-higher latitudes, naturally loses more of its heat during the
-passage.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 432px;">
-<img src="images/063.png" width="432" height="298" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Japan Junks.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>It is owing to this stream that Sitcha enjoys a mean annual
-temperature of +7� R., while Nain in Labrador, situated under
-the same latitude, is indebted to the Greenland current for a
-summer of +7�8�, a winter of -18�5�, and a miserable annual
-temperature of -3�6�. On the west coast of North America
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">� 64 �</a></span>
-the analogous trees grow 3� or 4� nearer to the pole, and the
-aboriginal tribes go naked as far to the north as 52�, a simplicity
-of toilet that would but ill suit the Esquimaux of Labrador.</p>
-
-<p>Besides their beneficial influence on different climates the
-ocean-currents tend to equalise, or to maintain the equilibrium
-of the saline composition of sea-water, and thus secure the
-existence of numberless marine animals. Their movements
-also contribute to the formation of sand-banks, where at certain
-seasons legions of fishes deposit their spawn and invite the persecutions
-of man.</p>
-
-<p>The rapidity of currents is very different, but always important
-enough to be taken into account by navigators. The well-informed
-seaman makes use of them to traverse wide spaces
-with greater rapidity, and, after an apparently circuitous course,
-arrives sooner and more safely at his journey's end than the
-ignorant steersman, who vainly endeavours to strive against
-their power.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 167px;">
-<img src="images/064.png" width="167" height="168" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Pavonia lactuca, with Polypes
-in Natural Position.</div>
-</div>
-
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 389px;">
-<a href="images/065fplg.png"><img src="images/065fp.png" width="343" height="500" alt="" /></a>
-<div class="fig_caption">LIGHTHOUSE AND WATER-SPOUTS.<br />
-<span class="smaller">Click on image to view larger version.</span></div>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="caption2"><a name="FPage_65" id="FPage_65">LIGHTHOUSE AND WATER-SPOUTS.</a></p>
-
-<div class="blockquot1">
-
-<p>A Lighthouse on a rocky shore is represented as just lighted, the twilight
-having become darkened by a sudden storm, during which the phenomena of
-"water-spouts" occur, which are represented to the left of the Lighthouse.</p></div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">� 65 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_VI" id="CHAP_VI">CHAP. VI.</a></h2>
-
-<p class="caption2">THE A�RIAL AND TERRESTRIAL MIGRATIONS OF THE WATERS.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">Movements of the Waters through Evaporation.&mdash;Origin of Winds.&mdash;Trade-Winds.&mdash;Calms.&mdash;Monsoons.&mdash;Typhoons.&mdash;Tornadoes.&mdash;Water-Spouts.&mdash;The
-Formation
-of Atmospherical Precipitations.&mdash;Dew.&mdash;Its Origin.&mdash;Fog.&mdash;Clouds.&mdash;Rain.&mdash;Snow.&mdash;Hail
-Sources.&mdash;The Quantities of Water which the Rivers pour into the
-Ocean.&mdash;Glaciers and their Progress.&mdash;Icebergs.&mdash;Erratic Blocks.&mdash;Influence of
-Forests on the Formation and Retention of Atmospherical Precipitations.&mdash;Consequences
-of their excessive Destruction.&mdash;The Power of Man over Climate.&mdash;How
-has it been used as yet?</div>
-
-
-<p>Neither storms nor ocean-currents, nor ebb and flood, however
-great their influence, cause such considerable movements of the
-waters, or force them to wander so restlessly from place to place
-as the silent and imperceptible action of the warming sunbeam.
-In every zone evaporation is constantly active in impregnating
-the atmosphere with moisture, but the chief seat of its power is
-evidently in the equatorial regions, where the vertical rays of
-the great parent of light and heat plunge, day after day, into
-the bosom of ocean, and perpetually saturate the burning air
-with aqueous vapours.</p>
-
-<p>In this chapter I intend following these invisible agents of
-fertility and life, as they lightly ascend from the tropical seas,
-and accompanying them in their various transformations, until
-they once more return to the bosom of their great parent. A
-cursory view of the benefits they confer on the vegetable
-and animal world, as they wander over the surface of the land,
-will, I hope, agreeably occupy the reader, and serve to increase
-his admiration for that deep and dark blue ocean without
-which all organic life would soon be extinct upon earth.</p>
-
-<p>I begin with a few words on the winged carriers of marine exhalations,
-the <i>winds</i>, which, although now and then detrimental or
-fatal to individuals by their violence, largely compensate for these
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">� 66 �</a></span>
-local injuries, by the constant and inestimable benefits they
-confer on the whole body of mankind.</p>
-
-<p>On taking a comprehensive view of their origin, we find
-that, like the oceanic currents, they are chiefly caused by the
-unequal influence of solar warmth upon the atmosphere under
-the line and at the poles. In the torrid zone, the air, rarefied
-by intense heat, ascends in perpendicular columns high above
-the surface of the earth, and there flows off towards the poles, in
-the same manner as in a vase filled with cold water and placed
-over the flame of a lamp, the warmed liquid rises from the
-bottom and spreads over the surface.</p>
-
-<p>But cold air-currents must naturally come flowing in an
-opposite direction from the poles to the equator to fill up the
-void, as in the example I have cited, colder and consequently
-heavier water comes streaming down the sides of the vase to
-replace the liquid which is rising in the centre under the
-influence of heat.</p>
-
-<p>Thus the unequal distribution of solar warmth over the
-surface of the earth evidently generates a constant circulation
-of air from the equator to the poles, and from the icy regions to
-the tropics, and by this means the purity of the atmosphere is
-chiefly maintained. The sun is not only the great fountain of
-warmth, he is also the universal ventilator; he not only calls
-forth animal life, but at the same time, by a simple and admirable
-mechanism, provides for its health by constantly renewing the air,
-which is essential to its existence.</p>
-
-<p>If caloric were the sole agent which influences the direction
-of the winds, or if the earth were one uniform plain, the opposite
-air-currents I have mentioned would naturally flow straight to the
-north and south; but their course is modified or diverted in the
-same manner as that of the ocean-currents by the rotation of
-the globe. Thus, the cold air-current (polar-stream) which
-comes rushing upon us from the Arctic regions, is felt in our
-latitude as the biting east or north-east wind, so trying to our
-nerves and organs of respiration, while we enjoy the warm
-air-current from the tropics as the mild western or south-western
-breeze.</p>
-
-<p>But besides the rotation of the earth, there are many other
-local influences by which the winds are deflected from their
-course, or by whose agency partial air-currents are called forth.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">� 67 �</a></span>
-Among these we particularly notice high chains of mountains,
-the unequal capacity of sea and land in absorbing and retaining
-heat, which gives rise to sea and land breezes; the
-increasing or diminishing power of the sun in different seasons
-by which the equilibrium of the air is modified in many countries,
-the difference of radiation from a sandy desert or a forest,
-electrical discharges from clouds, &amp;c. &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p>Although subject to many of these local disturbances, the
-winds generally blow with an astonishing regularity in the
-tropical zone; while in our variable climate the polar and
-equatorial stream are engaged in a perpetual strife, now bringing
-us warmth and moisture from the south and west, now cold
-and dryness from the north and east.</p>
-
-<p>Thus, in the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean we find the trade-winds
-perpetually blowing from the east, the north-east trade-wind
-between 9� and 27� N. lat., and the south-east trade-wind
-between 3� N. lat. and 25� S. lat. It was by their assistance that
-Columbus was enabled to discover America, and that the wretched
-barks of Magellan traversed the wide deserts of the Pacific from
-end to end.</p>
-
-<p>Between these two regions of the trade-winds lies the dreaded
-zone or girdle of the equatorial calms (doldrums), where long
-calms alternate with dreadful storms, and the sultry air weighs
-heavily upon the spirits.</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i1">"Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down,<br /></span>
-<span class="i4">'Twas sad as sad could be;<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">And we did speak, only to break<br /></span>
-<span class="i4">The silence of the sea.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i1">"Day after day, day after day,<br /></span>
-<span class="i4">We stuck, nor breath, nor motion,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">As idle as a painted ship<br /></span>
-<span class="i4">Upon a painted ocean."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>On their polar limits, the trade-wind zones are again girdled
-with calm belts, the <i>horse latitudes</i>, whose mean breadth is
-from ten to twelve degrees. The boundaries of these alternating
-regions of winds and calms are not invariably the same, on the
-contrary, they are perpetually moving to the north or south,
-according to the position of the sun.</p>
-
-<p>From 40� N. lat. to the pole, westerly winds begin to be
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">� 68 �</a></span>
-prevalent, and in the Atlantic Ocean their proportion to the
-easterly winds is as two to one.</p>
-
-<p>In the Northern Indian Ocean and in the Chinese Sea we also
-find the trade-wind, which is there called the <i>north-east monsoon</i>;
-here, however, it only blows from October to April, as during
-the summer terrestrial influences prevail which completely divert
-it from its course.</p>
-
-<p>From the wide plains of central Asia glowing with the
-rays of a perpetually unclouded sun, the rarefied air rises
-into the higher regions. Other columns of air rush from the
-equator to fill up the void, and cause the trade-wind to vary
-its course, and change into the <i>south-western monsoons</i> of the
-Indian Ocean, which blow from May to September. The
-regularly alternating monsoons materially contributed to the
-early development of navigation in the Indian seas, and conducted
-the Greeks and Romans as far as Ceylon, Malacca, and
-the Gulf of Siam. Similar monsoons, or deflections from the
-ordinary course of the trade-winds, occur also in the Mexican
-Gulf, in the Gulf of Guinea, and in that part of the Pacific
-which borders on Central America, through the influence of
-the heated plains of Africa, Utah, Texas, and New Mexico.</p>
-
-<p>The passage from one monsoon to the other is of course only
-gradual, since the land also is only gradually heated and cooled.
-Thus at the change of the monsoon, an atmospheric war of
-several weeks' continuance occurs, during which the trade-wind
-and the monsoon measure their strength, and calms alternate
-with dreadful storms (typhoons, cyclones, tornadoes).</p>
-
-<p>According to the researches and observations of Franklin,
-Cooper, Redfield, Reid, &amp;c. &amp;c., these storms are great rotatory
-winds, that move along a curved line in increasing circles. In
-the northern hemisphere, the rotatory movement follows a direction
-contrary to that of the hands of a clock; while the opposite
-takes place in the southern hemisphere. The knowledge of the
-laws which regulate the movements of storms is of great importance
-to the mariner, since it points out to him the direction he
-has to give his ship to gain the external limits of the tornado,
-and thus to remove it from danger.</p>
-
-<p><i>Water-spouts</i> are formed by two winds blowing in opposite
-directions, and raising or sucking up the water in their vortex.
-They generally form a double cone; the superior part with its
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">� 69 �</a></span>
-apex downwards, consisting of a dense cloud, while the inferior
-cone, the apex of which is turned upwards, consists of water,
-which is thus sometimes raised to a height of several hundred
-feet.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 380px;">
-<img src="images/069a.png" width="380" height="325" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 375px;">
-<img src="images/069b.png" width="375" height="312" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Water-spouts seldom last longer than half-an-hour. Their
-course and movements are irregular; straight forwards; in zig-zag
-lines; alternately rising and falling; stationary; slow; or
-progressing with the rapidity of thirty miles an hour. The rotatory
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">� 70 �</a></span>
-movement is also variable; its power is often very great,
-but sometimes water-spouts pass over small vessels without injuring
-them. They are more frequent near the coast than on
-the high seas; and are more commonly seen in warm climates.
-They seem to occur particularly in regions where calms frequently
-alternate with storms, which is not to be wondered at, since they
-owe their origin to miniature storms or whirlwinds.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 427px;">
-<img src="images/070.png" width="427" height="330" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<p>How do the aqueous vapours with which evaporation impregnates
-the atmosphere, again descend upon the surface of the
-earth?</p>
-
-<p>Everybody knows that when in summer a bottle filled with
-cold water is brought into the room, it soon gets covered with
-thick dew-drops, which presently trickle down its sides, although
-it was perfectly dry on entering. Whence does this moisture
-come from? Not from the inside of the bottle as ignorant
-people might imagine, but from the surrounding atmosphere; in
-consequence of the capacity of the air to absorb and retain moisture,
-increasing or diminishing, as its temperature grows warmer
-or colder.</p>
-
-<p>Thus when the cold bottle is introduced into the room, the
-warm sheet of air, which is in immediate contact with its surface,
-immediately cools, and being no longer able to retain all the
-moisture with which it was impregnated, is obliged to deposit it
-on the sides of the vessel. This familiar example suffices to
-explain the formation of dew, rain, hail, snow, hoar-frost, and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">� 71 �</a></span>
-all other atmospherical precipitations. They all result from the
-influence of some refrigerating cause upon the air; such as the
-passage of a warm current into a cooler region; the influx of a
-cold wind; a cold-radiating chain of high mountains; a forest,
-and so forth.</p>
-
-<p>The very name of dew is refreshing, and calls forth a host of
-pleasing ideas, associated as it is with the memory of serene skies
-and sunny mornings. How beautiful are its diamonds glittering
-in all the colours of the rainbow, on verdant meads, or on the
-blushing petals of the rose. How suggestive of all that is lovely,
-pure, and innocent!</p>
-
-<p>Poetry is of older date than prose, and bards have sung long
-before philosophers inquired. Thus, although the children of
-song from Homer and Theocritus to Byron and Wordsworth so
-frequently mention dew in their immortal strains, it is only in
-our time that its formation has been fully explained by
-Dr. Wells, who in a very ingenious and masterly essay on this
-subject, first proved that it results from the ground radiating or
-projecting heat into free space, and consequently becoming
-colder than the neighbouring air. During calm and clear
-nights, the upper surfaces of grass-blades, for instance, radiate
-their caloric into the serene sky, from which they receive
-none in return. The lower parts of the plant, being slow
-conductors of heat, can only transmit to them a small portion
-of terrestrial warmth, and their temperature consequently
-falling below that of the circumambient atmosphere, they condense
-its aqueous vapours. Clouds on the contrary compensate
-for the loss of heat the grass sustains from radiation, by reflecting
-or throwing back again upon the terrestrial surface, the
-caloric which would else have been dissipated in a clear sky, and
-this is the reason why dew does not fall, or but slightly falls
-during clouded nights. It is easy to conceive why none is formed
-in windy weather, as then the air in contact with the ground is
-constantly removed ere it has time to cool so far as to compel it
-to part with its moisture. We can also understand why dew is
-more abundant in autumn and spring than at any other season;
-as then very cold nights frequently follow upon warm days; and
-why it is most copious in the torrid zone, as in those sultry regions
-the air is more saturated with moisture than anywhere else, and
-the comparatively cold nights are almost constantly serene and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">� 72 �</a></span>
-calm. Hoar-frost is nothing but congealed dew, and owes its
-formation to the same causes.</p>
-
-<p>When warmer air-currents are cooled by being transported
-into colder regions, or from any other refrigerating cause, a great
-part of their moisture generally condenses into small vesicles,
-but very little heavier than the surrounding atmosphere,
-which then becomes visible under the form of clouds, those
-great beautifiers of our changing skies, that frequently trace
-such picturesque, gorgeous, or singular groups and landscapes
-in the a�rial regions. The inhabitants of countries where the
-heavens are monotonously serene, may well envy us the charms
-of a phenomenon which in some measure affords us compensation
-for so many disagreeable vicissitudes of the weather. Who
-that has admired at sunset the light clouds so beautifully fringed
-with silver and gold, or glowing with the richest purple, and
-loves to follow them in all their wonderful and fantastic transformations,
-will deny that they are the poesy and life of the skies,
-the awakeners of pleasing fancies and delightful reveries?</p>
-
-<p>Thin wreaths of clouds have been observed, by travellers that
-have ascended the most elevated mountains, floating high above
-the peak of Chimborazo or Dhawalagiri, and thus shows us to
-what an amazing altitude the emanations of ocean are carried
-by the ascending air-current.</p>
-
-<p>Sometimes when light clouds pass into a warmer atmosphere,
-they gradually dissolve and vanish; more frequently the accumulating
-moisture, too heavy to continue floating in the air, or
-condensed by electrical explosions, descends upon the earth in
-rain, which, with few exceptions, visits every part of the globe,
-either in its liquid form or congealed to snow or hail. But the
-quantity of rain which annually falls in different regions is very
-unequal, and strange to say, it is not most considerable in those
-countries whose climate enjoys an unenviable notoriety for its
-clouded atmosphere and the great number of its rainy days.
-In the tropical regions it is generally only about the time of the
-summer solstice that abundant showers of rain fall regularly every
-afternoon, while the rest of the year, the sky is uninterruptedly
-serene; but during the short period of the rainy season, a far
-greater quantity of water is precipitated upon the earth, than
-in the temperate zones.</p>
-
-<p>While on the island of Guadaloupe, the annual quantity of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">� 73 �</a></span>
-rain amounts to 274�2 French inches, and to 283�3 at Mahabuleshwar,
-on the western declivity of the Ghauts, which, as far
-as has hitherto been ascertained, is the place where most rain
-descends; only from 35 to 40 inches fall on the western coast
-of England, where the skies are chronically weeping.</p>
-
-<p>It is a remarkable circumstance that the annual quantity of
-rain which falls in the same place remains about the same from
-year to year; so that by an admirable balancing of conflicting
-influences, nature seems to have provided for stability in a province
-which of all others might be supposed most open to the
-caprices of chance.</p>
-
-<p>Having thus followed the exhalations of ocean to the end of
-what may be called the first stage of their journey, and seen
-them descend in a condensed form upon the surface of the dry
-land, I will now accompany them in their ulterior progress to
-the bosom of the seas. A great part of them have many transformations
-and changes to undergo ere they can accomplish
-their return; repeatedly rising in vapours from the solid earth,
-and falling in showers upon its surface; or circulating through
-the tissues of organic life: but after all these intermediate stages
-and delays, they ultimately find their way into rivulets or
-streams, which after many a meander restore them to the vast
-reservoir from which they arose.</p>
-
-<p>The waters that descend upon solid rocks, or fall in large
-quantities upon abrupt declivities, immediately flow into the
-brooks or rivers; but when they gently and gradually alight
-upon a porous soil, they are absorbed by the earth, and, displacing
-in virtue of capillary attraction, and of their superior
-weight, the air which fills the interstices between its solid
-particles, sink deeper and deeper until they meet with a solid
-and impenetrable stratum. If this forms a hollow basin, they
-naturally settle in the cavity; whence they are slowly displaced
-by fresh accessions and evaporation; but if its deepest declivity
-lies somewhere near the surface, they gradually gush forth
-under the form of sources or springs, having unequal distances
-to perform before they can reach the orifice. If no fresh supply
-of water falls, ere the most distant particles have reached their
-journey's end, the source dries up: but if new atmospheric
-precipitations continually take place, the source is perennial,
-although naturally of unequal strength at different times.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">� 74 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The temperature of springs varies from icy coldness to boiling
-heat. Cold springs arise when the waters, by which they are
-fed, descend from high mountains or do not penetrate a great
-way into the bowels of the earth; but if the filtering waters
-reach a depth which is constantly of a higher temperature, they
-then gush forth in the form of warm or even boiling springs.</p>
-
-<p>A crowd of agreeable associations attaches itself to the idea
-of sources and springs, for they are generally both pleasing and
-useful to man. How we long in summer for the refreshing
-waters of the cool fountain issuing from the mountain side, and
-murmuring through the woods. The lover of nature spends
-hours near some solitary spring, and forgets the flow of time, as
-he observes the bubbling and listens to the sweet music of its
-crystal waters. A luxuriant vegetation marks their progress,
-though all around be burnt up by the scorching sun. Along
-their margin many a wild flower blooms, and herbs and shrubs
-and trees rejoice in a more vivid green, and statelier growth.
-There also congregate such members of the finny race, as
-delight in cooler streams of untainted purity, and birds love to
-build their nests among the sheltering foliage. Thus a little
-world forms around the gushing spring, and shows on a diminutive
-scale, how all that lives and breathes depends upon the
-liquid element for its existence.</p>
-
-<p>While the waters filter through the earth they naturally
-dissolve a variety of substances, and all springs are more or
-less mixed with extraneous particles. But many of them, particularly
-such as are of a higher temperature and consequently
-arise from deeper strata, contain either a larger quantity or
-so peculiar a combination of mineral substances as to acquire
-medicinal virtues of the highest order, and to become objects
-of importance to a large portion of mankind. Numberless
-invalids annually flock to the hygeian fountains which nature
-unceasingly pours forth from her mysterious laboratory, and
-are by them restored to the enjoyments of a pleasurable existence.</p>
-
-<p>How truly wonderful is the chain of processes which first
-raises vapours from the deep, and eventually causes them to
-gush forth from the entrails of the earth, laden with blessings
-and enriched with treasures more inestimable than those the
-miner toils for!</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">� 75 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Although a river generally has its source in mountainous
-regions, it must be remembered that all the waters that descend
-upon the territory of which it forms the lowest level, gradually
-find their way into its current. Thus, the monarch of all
-streams, the Amazon River, is the natural drain of a territory
-thirty times larger than England. Thousands of rivulets and
-brooks, fed by the waters which descend from the slopes of
-thousands of glens and valleys, or filter through the vast forest-plains
-that rise but a few feet above their surface, all contribute
-to swell the majesty of its current. Its sources are in reality
-wherever, on that vast extent of land, water descends and drains
-into any one of its innumerable affluents. When we hear that
-on an average the river of the Amazons alone restores every
-minute half a million of tons of water to the ocean, and then
-consider the countless number of streams all alike active, that
-are scattered over the globe, we may form a faint idea of the
-vast quantity of vapours which are constantly rising from the
-deep, and of the magnitude of these silent operations of nature.
-Yet such is the immensity of ocean, that supposing all the waters
-it constantly loses, never to return again into its bosom, it
-would require thousands of years of evaporation to exhaust the
-immensity of its reservoirs!</p>
-
-<p>It might be supposed that the waters which congeal on the
-sides of mountains covered with perennial snow, or fill
-Alpine valleys in the form of glaciers, were eternally fixed on
-earth&mdash;but there also we are deceived by delusive appearances
-of immobility. Every year the glacier slowly but restlessly
-makes a step forwards into the valley, and while its lower end
-dissolves, new supplies of snow constantly feed it from above.
-It has been calculated by Agassiz that the ice masses of the
-Aar glacier require 133 years to perform their descent from its
-summit to its inferior extremity&mdash;a distance of ten miles&mdash;so
-that their sojourn in that chilled valley far surpasses that of the
-oldest patriarch of the mountains. How great must be their
-delight when they at last are liberated from the spell which so
-long enchained them, and freely bound along on their way to
-Ocean! How they must shudder at the idea of once more
-returning to their desolate prison, and long for the perpetual
-warmth of spicy groves and tropical gardens!</p>
-
-<p>In the colder regions of the earth, in Greenland or Spitzbergen,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">� 76 �</a></span>
-immense glaciers frequently fill the valleys that open on
-the sea, descend even beyond the water's edge, and, as they
-move along, their overhanging masses separate from their base
-and plunge into the deep with a crash louder than thunder.
-The icebergs that drift about the Arctic seas, and are annually
-conveyed by the currents into lower latitudes, are formed in
-this manner. Huge blocks of granite, detached by atmospherical
-vicissitudes from the higher mountains and precipitated
-on the surface of the glaciers, frequently float on the broad back
-of an iceberg far away from the spot where they seemed rooted
-for eternity. As their crystal support melts away in its progress
-to warmer climes, these rocky fragments, which have been
-appropriately named <i>erratic blocks</i>, fall to the bottom of the sea
-hundreds or even thousands of miles from the starting point of
-their journey. Thus the great bank of Newfoundland is covered
-with stones from distant Greenland, raised high in the air by
-volcanic power myriads of years ago, and now condemned to an
-equally long repose below the surface of ocean. When will
-they rise again above the waters, and what further changes will
-they have to undergo ere their compacted atoms resolve themselves
-into dust and assume new forms? But, however remote
-their dissolution, it will inevitably come, for Time is all-powerful,
-and has an eternity to work out his changes.</p>
-
-<p>The large blocks of stone that so wonderfully migrate on the
-wandering iceberg form but a small and insignificant portion of
-the terrestrial spoils which are transported to ocean by the
-returning waters. Every river is more or less laden with
-earthy particles which its current carries onwards to the sea
-and deposits at its mouth. In course of time their accumulation,
-as I have already mentioned, forms large tracts of fertile
-territory encroaching upon the maritime domains.</p>
-
-<p>I shall end with a few words on the influence of forests in
-attracting or retaining the atmospherical moisture, as it is a
-subject of great importance in the economy of nations, and
-shows us how much it is in the power of man to improve or to
-defeat the provisions of nature in his favour.</p>
-
-<p>Forests always cool the neighbouring atmosphere, for their
-foliage offers an immense warmth-radiating surface, so that the
-vapours readily condense above them and descend in frequent
-showers.   At the same time their roots loosen the soil, and the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">� 77 �</a></span>
-successive falling of their leaves forms a thick layer of humus,
-which has an uncommon power in attracting and retaining
-moisture. Their thick canopy of verdure also prevents the
-rays of the sun from penetrating to the ground, and absorbing
-its humidity. Thus the soil on which forests stand is constantly
-saturated with water, and becomes the parent of perennial
-sources and rills, that spread fertility and plenty far from the
-spot where they originated.</p>
-
-<p>The rain-attractive influence of forests did not escape the attention
-of Columbus, who ascribed the frequent showers which
-refreshed and cooled the air, as he sailed along the coasts of
-Jamaica, to the vast extent and density of the woods that
-covered the mountains of that island. On this occasion he
-mentions in his journal that formerly rain had been equally
-abundant on Madeira, the Canaries, and the Azores, before their
-shady forests were felled or burnt by the improvident settlers.</p>
-
-<p>The wanton destruction of woods has entailed barrenness on
-countries renowned in former times for their fertility. The
-mountains of Greece were covered with trees during the great
-epoch of her history, and the well-watered land bore abundant
-fruits, and sustained a numerous population. But man recklessly
-laid waste the sources of his prosperity. Along with the
-woods, many brooks and rivulets disappeared, and ceased to
-water the parched plains. The rain gradually washed the
-vegetable earth from the sides of the naked hills, and condemned
-them to sterility. When the snow of the mountains began to thaw
-under the warm breath of spring, it was now no longer retained
-by the spongy soil of the forests, and gradually dissolved under
-their cover; but, rapidly melting, filled with its impetuous
-torrents the bed of the rivers, and overflowing their banks,
-spread ruin and devastation far around.</p>
-
-<p>Unfortunately, forests when once destroyed are not so easily
-restored, and it requires many centuries ere the bared mountain
-side reassumes its pristine vesture of shady woods. First
-lichens, mosses, and other thrifty herbs, content to feed upon
-nothing, have to prepare a scanty humus for the reception of
-more pretentious guests. In course of time some small stunted
-shrub makes its appearance here and there in some peculiarly
-favoured spot, and after all requires vast powers of endurance
-to maintain itself on the niggard soil, exposed to the full enmity
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">� 78 �</a></span>
-of wind and weather. This paves the way for a more vigorous
-and fortunate offspring; and as every year adds something to
-the vegetation on the mountain's side, and opposes increasing
-obstacles to the winds, the falling leaves and decaying herbage
-accumulate more and more, until dwarfish trees first find a
-sufficiency of soil to root upon, and finally, the proud monarch
-of the forest spreads out his powerful arms and raises his
-majestic summit to the skies.</p>
-
-<p>While Greece and Asia Minor have seen their fertility decrease
-or vanish with the trees that once covered their hills,
-other countries have improved as their vast woods have been
-thinned by the axe of the husbandman. In the time of the
-Romans all Germany formed one vast and continuous forest,
-and its climate was consequently much more rigorous than it
-is at present. All the low grounds were covered with impervious
-morasses, and the winter is described by historians in
-terms like those we should employ to paint the cold of Siberia.</p>
-
-<p>But the scene gradually changed as tillage usurped the sylvan
-domain. The excessive humidity of the soil diminished, the swamps
-disappeared, and the heat of the sea, penetrating into the bosom of
-the earth, developed its productive powers. Thus the chestnut
-and the vine now thrive and ripen their fruits on the banks of
-the Rhine and the Danube, where 2000 years ago they could not
-possibly have existed. But Germany would also see her fertility
-decline, if the destruction of the forests which still crown the
-brow of many of her hills should continue in a considerable
-degree. Numerous rivulets would then be dried up during the
-warm season, in consequence of the more rapid descent and
-thaw of vernal rains and wintry snows, and most likely, refreshing
-summer showers would be far less frequent. Even now
-the inundations which almost annually desolate the banks of
-the Elbe, the Oder, and the Rhine, are ascribed by competent
-judges to the excessive clearing of the forests in the mountainous
-countries where those rivers originate. These few examples
-suffice to prove to us the power of man in modifying the climates
-of the earth, and the vast importance of the study of terrestrial
-physics. By planting or destroying woods, he is able to compel
-nature to a more equitable distribution of her gifts. In marshy
-and low countries, he may remove the superfluous waters by
-drainage, and increase the productiveness of arid plains by
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">� 79 �</a></span>
-judicious irrigation. Thus man is the lord and master of the
-earth; but hitherto he has done but little to reap all the advantages
-he might have obtained from his dominion, or even used
-it to his own detriment. Drainage, irrigation, and a judicious
-management of forest-lands, are only beginning to be understood
-even among the most enlightened nations. A great part
-of our damp island still remains undrained, and we allow the
-rivers of India to pour their waters into the sea, instead of
-diverting them upon her thirsty plains. But there can be no
-doubt that as knowledge increases, man will gradually learn to
-provide every soil with the exact measure of humidity that is
-requisite to make it bring forth its fruits in the greatest abundance.
-Views such as these teach us, that, far from having attained
-the summit of civilisation, we are still on the threshold
-of her temple, and that most likely our descendants will look
-down upon our present condition as we do upon that of our
-barbarous ancestors.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 485px;">
-<img src="images/079.png" width="485" height="335" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Rocky Mountains at the bend of Bear Lake River.</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">� 80 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_VII" id="CHAP_VII">CHAP. VII.</a></h2>
-
-<p class="caption2">MARINE CONSTRUCTIONS.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">Lighthouses.&mdash;The Eddystone.&mdash;Winstanley's Lighthouse, 1696.&mdash;The Storm of
-1703.&mdash;Rudyerd's Lighthouse destroyed by Fire in 1755.&mdash;Singular Death of
-one of the Lighthouse Men.&mdash;Anecdote of Louis XIV.&mdash;Smeaton.&mdash;Bell Rock
-Lighthouse.&mdash;History of the Erection of Skerryvore Lighthouse.&mdash;Illumination
-Lighthouses.&mdash;The Breakwater at Cherbourg.&mdash;Liverpool Docks.&mdash;The Tubular
-Bridge over the Menai Straits.&mdash;The Sub-oceanic Mine of Botallack.</div>
-
-
-<p>In one of the finest passages of "Childe Harold," Byron contrasts
-the gigantic power of the sea with the weakness of man. He
-describes the resistless billows contemptuously playing with the
-impotent mariner&mdash;now heaving him to the skies, now whelming
-him deep in the bosom of the tumultuous waters; he mocks
-the vain pride of our armadas, which are but the playthings of
-ocean, and points with a bitter sneer at the wrecks with which he
-strews his shores. A less misanthropic mood or a more truthful
-view of things might have prompted the wayward poet to celebrate
-the triumphs of man over the brute strength of the winds and
-waves; how, guided by the compass, he boldly steers through
-the vast waste of waters, how he excavates the artificial harbour,
-or piles up the breakwater to protect his bark against the destructive
-agencies of the billow and the storm, or how he erects the
-lighthouse to point out the neighbourhood of dangerous shoals
-or the entrance of the friendly port.</p>
-
-<p>The various constructions planned and executed by man to
-disarm the turbulent or perfidious seas of a great part of their
-terrors, are indeed among the noblest monuments of his architectural
-genius, nor are any more deserving of universal applause
-and gratitude. Who has ever performed a winter voyage
-homewards over the wide Atlantic and not felt a thrill of delight
-when the first bright flash of light beamed over the dark waters
-and welcomed him back to his native isle? or what generous
-mind has ever experienced this feeling without devoting the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">� 81 �</a></span>
-tribute of its thanks to the wise and beneficent men whose
-energy and perseverance have succeeded in lighting every headland
-or estuary of our rugged coast? So completely has this
-been done, that in the dark and stormy night, almost as well
-as in the brightest day, the homeward-bound ship need not
-approach danger without receiving friendly warning, for her
-pathway is illuminated by gigantic fire-beacons so thickly set
-that when one fades to the sight a new one rises to the view.</p>
-
-<p>Among the numerous lighthouses with which the genius of
-humanity has encircled our native shores, the Eddystone, the
-Bell Rock, and the Skerryvore, are pre-eminent for the vast difficulties
-that had to be surmounted in their construction, situated
-as they are upon solitary rocks, exposed to the full fury of the
-insurgent waves; and should by some revolution all other monuments
-erected by man be swept away from the surface of our
-land, and these alone remain, they would suffice to testify to
-future ages that these islands were once inhabited by a highly
-civilised and energetic race, one well worthy to lay claim to the
-dominion of the seas.</p>
-
-<p>At the distance of about twelve miles and a half from Plymouth
-Sound, and intercepting, as it were, the entrance of the Channel,
-the Eddystone rocks had been for ages a perpetual menace to
-the mariner. The number of vessels wrecked on these perfidious
-shoals must have been terrible indeed, it being even now a common
-thing in foggy weather for homeward-bound ships to make
-the Eddystone Lighthouse as the first point of land of Great
-Britain, so that in the night and nearly at high water, when the
-whole range of the rocks is covered, the most careful pilot might
-run his ship upon them, if nothing was placed there by way of
-warning. As the trade of England increased, the number of
-fatal accidents naturally augmented, rendering it more and more
-desirable to crest the Eddystone with a tutelary beacon; yet years
-elapsed before an architect appeared bold enough to undertake
-the task. At length, in 1696, Mr. Winstanley, a country gentleman
-and amateur engineer, made the first attempt of raising a
-lighthouse on those sea-beaten rocks, but as he was possessed
-of more enterprise than solid knowledge, the structure he erected
-was deficient in every element of stability. Yet such was the
-presumption of the man that he was known to express a wish
-that the fiercest storm that ever blew might arise to test the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">� 82 �</a></span>
-solidity of the fabric. The elements took him at his word, for
-while on a visit of inspection to his lighthouse the dreadful
-storm of November 26, 1703, arose, the only storm which in
-our latitude has equalled the rage of a tropical hurricane.
-"No other tempest," says Macaulay in his Essay on Addison,
-"was ever in this country the occasion of a Parliamentary
-address or of a public fast. Whole fleets had been cast away.
-Large mansions had been blown down. One Prelate had been
-buried beneath the ruins of his palace. London and Bristol had
-presented the appearance of cities just sacked. Hundreds of
-families were still in mourning. The prostrate trunks of large
-trees and the ruins of houses still attested in all the southern
-counties the fury of the blast." No wonder that a tempest
-like this swept away the ill-constructed lighthouse like the
-"unsubstantial fabric of a vision," and that neither poor Mr.
-Winstanley nor any of his companions survived to recount the
-terrors of that dreadful night.</p>
-
-<p>Strange to say, the task of rebuilding the Eddystone lighthouse,
-which was now felt as a national necessity, once more
-devolved, not upon a professed architect, but upon a Mr.
-Rudyerd, a linendraper of Ludgate Hill, the son of a Cornish
-vagrant, who had raised himself by his talents and industry from
-rags and mendicancy to a station of honourable competence.
-The choice, however, was not ill made, for, with the assistance of
-two competent shipwrights, the London tradesman constructed
-an edifice which, though mainly of timber, was so firmly bolted
-to the rock with iron branches that for nearly half a century it
-resisted the fury of the billows, and might have withstood them
-for many a year to come had it not been rapidly and completely
-destroyed by fire. This catastrophe, which happened on
-December 2, 1755, was marked by a strange accident, for while
-one of the light-keepers was engaged in throwing up water
-four yards higher than himself, a quantity of lead, dissolved
-by the heat of the flames, suddenly rushed like a torrent from
-the roof, and falling upon his head, face, and shoulders,
-burnt him in a dreadful manner. Having been conveyed
-to the hospital at Plymouth, he invariably told the surgeon
-who attended him, that he had swallowed part of the lead
-while looking upward; the reality of the assertion seemed
-quite incredible, for who could suppose it possible that any
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">� 83 �</a></span>
-human being could exist after receiving melted lead into the
-stomach, much less that he should afterwards be able to bear the
-hardships and inconvenience from the length of time he was
-in getting on shore before any remedies could be applied. On
-the twelfth day, however, the man died, and having been opened
-a solid piece of lead, which weighed above seven ounces, was
-found in his stomach.<a name="FNanchor_8" id="FNanchor_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[H]</a></p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_8" id="Footnote_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8"><span class="label">[H]</span></a> A full account of this extraordinary circumstance was sent to the Royal
-Society, and printed in vol. xlix. of their Transactions, p. 477.</p></div>
-
-<p>Another interesting anecdote is attached to the history of
-Rudyerd's lighthouse. Louis XIV. being at war with England
-while it was being built, a French privateer took the men at
-work upon it and carried them to France, expecting, no doubt, a
-good reward for the achievement. His hopes, however, were
-doomed to a grievous disappointment, for while the captives
-lay in prison, the transaction reached the ears of the monarch,
-who immediately ordered them to be released and the captors
-to be put in their place; declaring that though he was at war
-with England, he was not at war with mankind. He therefore
-directed the men to be sent back to their work with presents;
-observing that the Eddystone lighthouse was so situated as to
-be of equal service to all nations navigating the Channel. It
-is gratifying to meet with this trait of natural generosity in
-a mind long since obscured by the bigotry which prompted
-the revocation of the Edit de Nantes.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 520px;">
-<img src="images/084.png" width="520" height="527" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Eddystone Lighthouse.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>After these repeated disasters, the rebuilding of Eddystone
-lighthouse, in a more substantial manner than had hitherto been
-effected, was now no longer confided to amateur ingenuity, but
-to John Smeaton, an eminent civil engineer, one of those men
-who by originality of genius and strength of character are so well
-entitled to rank among the worthies of England. From his
-early infancy Smeaton (born May 28, 1724) gave tokens of the
-extraordinary abilities which were one day to render his name
-illustrious. Before he attained his sixth year his playthings
-were not the playthings of children but the tools which men employ:
-before he was fifteen he made for himself an engine for
-turning, forged his iron and steel, and had self-made tools of
-every sort for working in wood, ivory, and metals. At eighteen
-he by the strength of his genius acquired the art of working
-in most of the mechanical trades, and such was his untiring zeal
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">� 84 �</a></span>
-that a part of every day was generally occupied in forming some
-ingenious piece of mechanism. In 1753, his various inventions
-and improvements had already attracted such notice that he was
-elected member of the Royal Society; and when, a few years
-later, the accident happened which burnt down the Eddystone
-lighthouse to the ground, he was at once fixed upon as the person
-most proper to rebuild it. A better choice could not possibly
-have been made, for Smeaton's lighthouse, firm as the rock on
-which it stands, has now already braved the storms of more than
-a century, and will no doubt continue to brave them for many
-ages to come. Of him it may well be said "exegit monumentum
-&aelig;re perennius," for to him is due the honour of having fixed the
-<i>best form</i> to be given to a marine lighthouse, and even now the
-Eddystone beacon-tower remains a model which has hardly been
-surpassed by the taller and more graceful edifices of Bell Rock
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">� 85 �</a></span>
-and Skerryvore. Nothing could exceed the patient ingenuity,
-the sagacity, and forethought with which that great engineer
-mortised his tall tower to the wave-worn rock, and then dove-tailed
-the whole together, so as to make rock and tower practically
-one stone, and that of the very best form for deadening
-the action of the wave. Nor must we forget that our great marine
-lighthouses, of which Smeaton gave the model, are as remarkable
-from an artistic as from a utilitarian point of view, as
-pleasing to the man of taste as to the friend of humanity. "It is
-to be regretted," says, with perfect justice, the author of an excellent
-article in the Quarterly Review,<a name="FNanchor_9" id="FNanchor_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[I]</a> "that these structures are
-placed so far at sea that they are very little seen, for they are,
-taken altogether, perhaps the most perfect specimens of modern
-architecture which exist. Tall and graceful as the minar of an
-Eastern mosque, they possess far more solidity and beauty of construction;
-and, in addition to this, their form is as appropriate
-to the purposes for which it was designed as anything ever done
-by the Greeks, and consequently meets the requirements of
-good architecture quite as much as a column of the Parthenon."</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_9" id="Footnote_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9"><span class="label">[I]</span></a> No. 228.</p></div>
-
-<p>Covered to the height of fifteen feet at spring tide, and
-little more than a hundred yards in its extent, the famous
-Bell Rock, or Inchcape, facing the Frith of Tay at a distance of
-twelve miles at sea, was as dangerous to the navigation of the
-eastern coast of Scotland as the Eddystone had been to the
-entrance of the Channel. To erect a tower on a spot like this
-was an undertaking of no common boldness, but, fired by
-Smeaton's example, Mr. Robert Stevenson no less gloriously
-succeeded in converting what for ages had been a source of
-danger into a beacon of safety.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">� 86 �</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 524px;">
-<img src="images/086.png" width="524" height="520" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Bell Rock Lighthouse.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>On the opposite coast of Scotland, and placed in the same
-parallel of latitude as Bell Rock, the Skerryvore Reef had a name
-equally dreaded by the mariner. Situated considerably farther
-from the mainland than the Bell Rock, it is less entirely submerged,
-some of its summits rising above the level of high water, though
-the surf dashes over them; but the extent of foul ground is much
-greater, and hidden dangers, even in fine weather, beset the intervening
-passage between its eastern extremity and Tyree, from
-which island it is distant some eleven miles. In rough weather
-the sea which rises there is described as one in which no ship
-could live. This terrible reef, so fatal to many a gallant bark,
-rendered the erection of a lighthouse most desirable, yet such
-was the difficulty of the case that although so long ago as 1814
-an Act was obtained for a light on Skerryvore, it was not before
-1837 that Mr. Alan Stevenson, son of the famous architect of
-the Bell Rock sea-tower, was authorised to commence the work.
-That difficulty was not confined to the position and character
-of the reef itself, as the neighbouring island of Tyree afforded
-no resource, and all the materials for the building, even the stone
-itself, had to be transported from distant quarters. At length,
-all preliminary arrangements being settled, the engineer reached
-the rock and commenced his work, in June 1838, by erecting a
-barrack-house upon stilts&mdash;a sort of dovecot perched on poles&mdash;high
-out of the water on the reef, close to the proposed site of
-the lighthouse. The erection of this barrack fully occupied the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">� 87 �</a></span>
-first summer; and, lest it might be supposed that this was but
-little work for so long a time, it may be as well to remark that,
-such was the turbulence of the sea that between August 7 and
-September 11, it had only been possible to be 165 hours on the
-rock. Much inconvenience was occasioned by the hard and
-slippery nature of the volcanic formation of the Skerryvore, to
-which the action of the sea had given the appearance and the
-smoothness of a mass of dark-coloured glass, so that the foreman
-of the masons compared the operation of landing on it to that of
-climbing up the neck of a bottle. When we consider how often,
-by how many persons, and under what circumstances of swell
-and motion, this operation was repeated, we must look upon
-this feature of the spot as an obstacle of no slight amount.</p>
-
-<p>At length, after much danger and difficulty, the barrack was
-completed, but the first November storm swept it away and
-utterly annihilated the work of the season. Iron stancheons
-had been drawn, broken, and twisted like the wires of a
-champagne bottle; the smith's iron anvil had been transported
-eight yards from where it was left; and a stone three-fourths
-of a ton was lifted out from the bottom of a hole and sent
-towards the top of the rock.</p>
-
-<p>Mortified, but nothing daunted by this disaster, which gave
-him a warning of the tremendous power he had to contend with,
-Mr. Stevenson prepared during the winter for the labours of
-1839, which, besides the re-erection of the barrack on an improved
-plan, chiefly consisted in the levelling or blasting of a flat
-surface of forty-two feet diameter on the top of the rock from
-which the lighthouse was to arise. This foundation pit was in
-itself a work of no small magnitude, as it required for its excavation
-the labours of 20 men for 217 days, the firing of 296
-shots, and the removal into deep water of 2,000 tons of material.
-The blasting, from the absence of all cover and the impossibility
-of retiring to a distance farther in any case than thirty feet, and
-often reduced to twelve, demanded all possible carefulness.</p>
-
-<p>The only precautions available were a skilful appointment of
-the charge and the covering the mines with mats and coarse netting
-made of old rope. Every charge was fired by or with the
-assistance of the architect in person, and no mischief occurred.</p>
-
-<p>The year 1840 had now arrived, and the construction of the
-lighthouse was about to begin. Quarriers and labourers had been
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">� 88 �</a></span>
-busily employed in cutting blocks of stone in the quarries.
-Carpenters were diligently engaged in making wooden moulds
-for each lighthouse block wherewith to gauge its exact mathematical
-figure. In April, a reinforcement of thirty-seven masons
-from Aberdeen arrived at Tyree&mdash;men expert in the difficult
-work of dressing granite&mdash;and, on April 30, the first visit was
-made to the rock. To the great joy of all, the barrack constructed
-in the previous season was found uninjured, though a
-mass of rock weighing about five tons had been detached from
-its bed and carried right across the foundation pit by the
-violence of the waves. In this barrack the architect and his
-party now took up their quarters, which from the frequent flooding
-of the apartments with water and from the heavy spray that
-washed the walls were anything but agreeable. "Once," says the
-gallant engineer,<a name="FNanchor_10" id="FNanchor_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[J]</a> "we were fourteen days without communication
-with the shore or the steamer, and during the greater part
-of that time we saw nothing but white fields of foam as far as
-the eye could reach; and heard nothing but the whistling of the
-wind and the thunder of the waves, which was at times so loud as
-to make it almost impossible to hear anyone speak. Such a scene,
-with the ruins of the former barrack not twenty yards from us,
-was calculated to inspire the most desponding anticipations; and
-I well remember the undefined sense of dread that flashed on my
-mind, on being awakened one night by a heavy sea which struck
-the barrack and made my cot swing inwards from the wall, and
-was immediately followed by a cry of terror from the men in the
-apartment above me, most of whom, startled by the <i>sound and
-the tremor</i>, sprang from their berths to the floor, impressed with
-the idea that the whole fabric had been washed into the sea."</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_10" id="Footnote_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10"><span class="label">[J]</span></a> Account of Skerryvore Lighthouse, by Alan Stevenson, Engineer to the
-Northern Lighthouse Board. Edinburgh, 1848.</p></div>
-
-<p>This spell of bad weather, though in summer, well-nigh outlasted
-their provisions; and when at length they were able to
-make the signal that a landing would be practicable, scarcely
-twenty-four hours' stock remained on the rock. The landing of
-the heavy stones from the lighters was a work of no small difficulty,
-considering the slippery nature of the rock, and as the
-loss of one dressed stone would frequently have delayed the
-whole progress of the building, the anxiety was incessant. On
-July 4, the building of the tower really commenced. Six courses
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">� 89 �</a></span>
-of masonry carried the building to the height of 8 feet 2 inches
-before the autumnal gales terminated the work of 1840, and an
-excellent year's work it was. The saying that "what is well
-begun is half done" was illustrated here. Next year's work was
-comparatively easy&mdash;so that in 1842 the tower rose to its full
-height of 138 feet; and the year after the light was shedding its
-beneficent rays over the thirty miles of watery waste that surround
-the hidden rocks of Skerryvore.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 531px;">
-<img src="images/089.png" width="531" height="517" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">The Skerryvore Lighthouse.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Well may we be proud of men like Smeaton and the
-Stevensons; but, while justly admiring their architectural skill,
-their perseverance, and their courage, we must not forget to
-offer the just tribute of our gratitude to the eminent natural
-philosophers without whose ingenious optical inventions the
-most splendid sea-towers would be comparatively useless. The
-Pharus or lighthouse of Alexandria was, probably with justice,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">� 90 �</a></span>
-reckoned among the seven wonders of the world, and its several
-stories, rising on marble columns to the height of 400 feet,
-must have presented an imposing spectacle, but I strongly
-suspect that the rude brazier on the summit of the majestic
-pile bore the same proportion to the lighthouse lanterns of our
-time as the wretched coasting-craft of the ancient Greeks to the
-ocean steamers of the present day. Among the names of those
-who have contributed most effectually to the progress of marine
-illumination Argand, Borda, and Fresnel are conspicuous. The
-hollow cylindrical wick of the first was a sudden and immense advance
-in the art of economical and effective illumination. The
-second, by his invention of the parabolic mirror, multiplied the
-effect of the unassisted flame by 450, and the refracting lens of
-Fresnel so admirably concentrates the light as to project its warning
-beams to the wonderful distance of thirty or thirty-five miles.</p>
-
-<p>In former ages the efforts of man to provide a refuge to the
-mariner from the fury of the raging gale were feeble and insignificant.
-Content with the harbours that nature had provided,
-it was then thought quite sufficient to line a river-bank with
-quays or to enclose a natural pond by walls. The idea of raising
-colossal breakwaters by casting whole quarries into the deep, or
-of extending artificial promontories far into the bosom of the
-ocean, is of modern date, and would have appeared chimerical
-not only to the ancients but to our fathers not a century ago.
-The first great work of this description is the famous breakwater
-planned by De Cessart in 1783, and terminated in
-1853, which has converted the open roadstead of Cherbourg
-into a land-locked harbour. Rising from a depth of 40 feet
-at low spring tides, on a coast where the floods attain a height
-of 19 feet, it opposes a front of 12,700 feet to the fury of the
-storm, and carries 250 pieces of the heaviest cannon on its formidable
-brow.</p>
-
-<p>It far surpasses in extent and boldness of construction the
-breakwater at Plymouth, nor will it be eclipsed by the moles now
-forming at Portland, Holyhead, and Alderney; but although
-it is a more impressive spectacle to see man struggling with the
-ocean and producing calmness and shelter in the midst of the
-raging storm, than to contemplate his operations where he has
-no such adversaries to subdue, still such buildings as those just
-described are neither the largest nor the most expensive works
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">� 91 �</a></span>
-required for the accommodation of shipping. Witness the
-Cyclopean grandeur of the Liverpool docks or of the Great Float
-at Birkenhead, which alone covers an area of water of 121 acres,
-and whose portals, with a clear opening of 100 feet, will admit
-the largest screw-steamer or sailing ship the wildest imagination
-has yet conceived. Six millions of money is the cost of this
-one work alone&mdash;more than would be required to raise a pyramid
-like that of Cheops&mdash;and even this sum is a trifle when compared
-with what has been spent on the harbours of Liverpool,
-London, and other great commercial cities.</p>
-
-<p>Not satisfied with erecting his lighthouses on wave-worn rocks
-or defying the waves with his colossal breakwaters, man spans
-bridges over arms of the sea and excavates mines under the
-abysses of the deep. The locomotive now rolls full speed 100
-feet above high water over the strait which separates Anglesea
-from the mainland; and in Botallack and several other Cornish
-mines the workman, while resting from his subterranean labours,
-hears the awful voice of the ocean rolling over his head.</p>
-
-<p>"In all these submarine mines," says Mr. Henwood, "I have
-heard the dashing of the billows and the grating of the shingle
-when in calm weather. I was once, however, underground in
-Wheal Cock during a storm. At the extremity of the level
-seaward some eighty or one hundred fathoms from the shore,
-little could be heard of its effects, except at intervals, when the
-reflux of some unusually large wave projected a pebble outward,
-bounding and rolling over the rocky bottom. But when standing
-beneath the base of the cliff, and in that part of the mine where
-but nine feet of rock stood between us and the ocean, the heavy
-roll of the large boulders, the ceaseless grinding of the pebbles,
-the fierce thundering of the billows, with the crackling and
-boiling as they rebounded, placed a tempest in its most appalling
-form too vividly before me ever to be forgotten. More than
-once doubting the protection of our rocky shield, we retreated
-in affright, and it was only after repeated trials that we had
-confidence to pursue our investigations." Yet the miners,
-accustomed from their early youth to the fierce and threatening
-roaring of the stormy sea, pursue their work from year to year,
-never doubting that the thin roof which separates them from a
-watery grave will continue to protect them, as it has shielded
-their fathers before them.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">� 92 �</a><br /><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">� 93 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="PART_II" id="PART_II">PART II.</a></h2>
-
-<p class="caption2">THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">� 94 �</a><br /><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">� 95 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_VIII" id="CHAP_VIII">CHAP. VIII.</a></h2>
-
-<p class="caption2">THE CETACEANS.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">General Remarks on the Organisation of the Cetaceans.&mdash;The Large Greenland
-Whale.&mdash;His Food and Enemies.&mdash;The Fin-Back or Rorqual.&mdash;The Antarctic
-Whale.&mdash;The Sperm-Whale.&mdash;The Unicorn Fish.&mdash;The Dolphin.&mdash;Truth and
-Fable.&mdash;The Porpoise.&mdash;The Grampus.&mdash;History of the Whale Fishery.</div>
-
-
-<p>Of all the living creatures that people the immensity of ocean,
-the cetaceans, or the whale family, are the most perfect. Their
-anatomical construction renders them in many respects similar
-to man, and their heart is susceptible of a warmth of feeling
-unknown to the cold-blooded fishes; for the mother shows signs
-of attachment to her young, and forgets her own safety when
-some danger menaces her offspring. Like man, the cetaceans
-breathe through lungs, and possess a double heart, receiving and
-propelling streams of <i>warm</i> red blood. The anatomical structure
-of their pectoral fins bears great resemblance to that of the
-human arm, as the bony structure of those organs equally consists
-of a shoulder-blade, an upper arm, a radius and ulna, and five
-fingers.</p>
-
-<p>But the arm, which in man moves freely, is here chained to the
-body as far as the hand, and the latter, which, in obedience to
-human volition and intellect, executes such miracles of industry
-and art, is here covered with a thick skin, and appears as a broad
-undivided fin or flapper. Yet still it is destined for higher
-service than that of a mere propelling oar, as it serves the
-mother to guide and shield her young. The lower extremities
-are of course wanting, but their functions are performed by the
-mighty <i>horizontal</i> tail, by whose powerful strokes the unwieldy
-animal glides rapidly through the waters.</p>
-
-<p>The cetaceans distinguish themselves, moreover, from the fishes
-by the bringing forth of living young, by a greater quantity of
-blood, by the smoothness of their skin, under which is found a
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">� 96 �</a></span>
-thick layer of fat, and by their simple or double blow-hole, which
-is situated at the top of the head, and corresponds to the nostrils
-of the quadrupeds, though not for
-the purpose of smelling, but
-merely as an organ of respiration.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 260px;">
-<img src="images/096.png" width="260" height="678" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Bones of the Anterior Fin of a Whale.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Our knowledge of the cetaceans
-is still very incomplete; and
-this is not to be wondered at, when
-we consider that they chiefly dwell
-in the most inaccessible parts of
-the ocean, and that when met with,
-the swiftness of their movements
-rarely allows more than a flighty
-view of their external form. Thus
-their habits and mode of living
-are mostly enveloped in obscurity;
-and while doubtless many cetaceans
-are to the present day unknown,
-one and the same species
-has not seldom been described
-under different names, to the no
-small confusion of the naturalist.</p>
-
-<p>The cetaceans are either without
-a dental apparatus, or provided
-with teeth. The former, or
-the whalebone whales, have two
-blow-holes on the top of the head,
-in the form of two longitudinal
-fissures; while in the latter,
-(sperm-whales, unicorn-fish, dolphins,)
-which comprise by far the
-greater number of species, there
-is but one transversal spout-hole.
-In all whales the larynx is continued
-to the spouting canal, and deeply inserted or closely
-imbricated within its tube. Thus no tones approaching to a
-voice can be emitted except through the spiracles, which are
-encumbered with valves, and evidently badly adapted for the
-transmission of sound. Scoresby assures us that the Greenland
-whale has no voice, and Bennett frequently noticed sperm-whales
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">� 97 �</a></span>
-suffering from extreme alarm and injury, but never
-heard any sound from them beyond that attending an ordinary
-respiration.</p>
-
-<p>The whalebone whales are either <i>smooth-backs</i> (Bal&aelig;n&aelig;), or
-<i>fin-backs</i> (Bal&aelig;nopter&aelig;), having a vertical fin rising from the
-lower part of the back. To the former belongs the mighty
-Greenland Whale (<i>Bal&aelig;na mysticetus</i>), the most bulky of
-living animals, and of all cetaceans the most useful and important
-to man. Its greatest length, according to Scoresby, is
-from sixty to seventy feet, and round the thickest part of its
-body it measures from thirty to forty feet, but the incessant
-persecutions to which it is subjected scarcely ever allow it to
-attain its full growth.</p>
-
-<p>The whale being somewhat lighter than the medium in which it
-swims, its weight may be ascertained with tolerable accuracy;
-and Scoresby tells us that a stout animal of sixty feet weighs
-about seventy tons, allowing thirty to the blubber, eight or ten
-to the bones, and thirty or thirty-two to the carcase. The lightness
-of the whale, which enables it to keep its <i>crown</i>, in which
-the blow-hole is situated, and a considerable extent of back
-above the water, without any effort or motion, is not only owing
-to its prodigious case of fat, but also to the lightness of its
-bones, most of which are very porous and contain large quantities
-of fine oil; an admirable provision of nature for the wants of a
-creature destined to breathe the atmospheric air, and to skim its
-food from the surface of the waters.</p>
-
-<p>The unsightly animal shows disproportion in all its organs.
-While the tail fin measures twenty-four feet across, the pectoral
-fins or paddles are no more than six feet long. The monstrous
-head forms about the third of the whole body, and is furnished
-with an equally monstrous mouth, which on opening exhibits a
-cavity about the size of an ordinary ship's cabin. The leviathans
-of the dry land, the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the hippopotamus,
-are provided with tusks and teeth corresponding to their
-size&mdash;huge weapons fit for eradicating trees or crushing the bone-harnessed
-crocodile; but the masticatory implements of the giant
-of the seas are scarcely capable of dividing the smallest food.
-Instead of teeth, its enormous upper jaw is beset with about 500
-lamin&aelig; of whalebone, ranged side by side, two-thirds of an inch
-apart, the thickness of blade included, and resembling a frame
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">� 98 �</a></span>
-of saws in a saw-mill.   Their interior edges are covered with
-fringes of hair; externally they are
-curved and flattened down, so as to
-present a smooth surface to the lips.
-The largest lamin&aelig;, situated on both
-sides of the jaw, attain a length of
-fifteen feet, and measure from twelve
-to fifteen inches at their base; in
-front and towards the back of the
-mouth they are much shorter.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 205px;">
-<img src="images/098a.png" width="205" height="113" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Skull of Whale, with the Baleen.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Besides these, there are suspended from the palate many other
-small lamin&aelig; of the thickness of a quill, a few inches long, and
-likewise terminating in a fringe. Thus the whole roof of the
-mouth resembles a shaggy fur, under which lies the soft and
-spongy tongue, a monstrous mass often ten feet broad and
-eighteen feet long.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 131px;">
-<img src="images/098b.png" width="131" height="136" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Clio borealis.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>This whole formation is beautifully adapted to the peculiar
-nourishment of the whale, which does not consist, as one might
-suppose, of the larger fishes, but of the minute animals, (<i>Medus&aelig;</i>,
-<i>Entomostraca</i>, <i>Clio borealis</i>, and other
-pteropod molluscs,) with which its pasture-grounds
-in the northern seas abound.
-To gather food, it swims rapidly with open
-mouth over the surface; and on closing
-the wide gates, and expelling the foaming
-streams, the little creatures remain entangled
-by thousands in the fringy thicket
-as in a net; there to be crushed and bruised
-by the tongue into a savoury pulp. Fancy the vast numbers
-requisite to keep a monster of seventy tons in good condition.</p>
-
-<p>The back of the whale is usually of a fine glossy black, marked
-with whitish rays, which have some resemblance to the veins of
-wood. This mixture of colours presents an agreeable appearance,
-especially when the back of the fish is illuminated with the rays
-of the sun. The under part of the trunk and of the lower jaw
-is of a dead white. The skin is about an inch thick, and covers
-a layer of fat of fifteen inches; a most excellent coat for keeping
-the whale warm and increasing its buoyancy, but at the same
-time the chief cause which induces man to pursue it with the
-deadly harpoon.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">� 99 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The usual march of the whale over the waters is rarely more
-than four miles an hour, but its speed increases to an astonishing
-rapidity when terror or the agonies of pain drive it madly through
-the sea.</p>
-
-<p>In its sportive humours it is sometimes seen to spring out of
-the water, and to remain suspended for a moment in the air.
-On falling back again into the sea, high foam-crested fountains
-spout forth on all sides, and mighty waves propagate the tumult
-in widening circles over the troubled ocean. Or else it raises its
-bulky head vertically on high, so that the deceived mariner
-fancies he sees some black rock looming out of the distant waters.
-But suddenly the fancied cliff turns round and brandishes playfully
-its enormous flukes in the air, or lashes the waters with
-such prodigious power, that the sound rolls far away like thunder
-over the deserts of the ocean.</p>
-
-<p>Strange to say, the giant is of so cowardly a nature, that the
-sight of a sea-bird often fills him with the greatest terror, and
-causes him to avoid the imaginary danger by a sudden plunge
-into the deep.</p>
-
-<p>Besides man, a vast number of enemies, great and small,
-persecute the whale and embitter his life.</p>
-
-<p>The Sword-fish (<i>Xiphias Gladius</i>) and the Thresher or Sea-fox,
-a species of shark (<i>Carcharias Vulpes</i>), often attack him
-conjointly and in packs. As soon as his back appears above
-the water, the threshers, springing several yards into the air,
-descend with great violence upon the object of their rancour,
-and inflict upon him the most severe slaps with their long tails,
-the sound of which resembles the report of distant musketry.
-The sword-fish, in their turn, attack the distressed whale,
-stabbing from below; and thus beset on all sides, and bleeding
-from countless wounds, the huge animal, though dealing the
-most dreadful blows with its enormous tail, and lashing the
-crimsoned waters into foam, is obliged to succumb at last.</p>
-
-<p>The Greenland Shark (<i>Squalus borealis</i>) is also one of the
-bitterest enemies of the whale, biting and annoying it while
-living, and feeding on it when dead. It scoops hemispherical
-pieces out of its body nearly as big as a man's head, and continues
-scooping and gorging lump after lump, until the whole cavity of
-its belly is filled. It is so insensible of pain, that, though it has
-been run through the body, and escaped, yet after a while
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">� 100 �</a></span>
-Scoresby has seen it return to banquet again on the whale at the
-very spot where it received its wounds. The heart, as is frequently
-the case with gluttons, bears no proportion to its vast
-capacity of stomach; for it is very small, and performs only six
-or eight pulsations in a minute, continuing its beating for some
-hours after having been taken out of the body. The body also,
-though separated into any number of parts, gives evidence of life
-for a similar length of time. It is therefore so difficult to kill,
-that it is actually unsafe to trust the hand in its mouth though
-the head be separated from the body.</p>
-
-<p>Strange to say, though the whale-fishers frequently slip into
-the water where sharks abound, Scoresby never heard an instance
-of their having been attacked by one of these voracious monsters.
-Perhaps they are loth to attack man, looking upon him as their
-best purveyor.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 383px;">
-<img src="images/100.png" width="383" height="120" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Saw of the Saw-fish.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Fishermen relate that the whale and saw-fish, whenever they
-come together, engage in deadly combat; the latter invariably
-making the attack with inconceivable fury.</p>
-
-<p>
-"The meeting of these champions proud<br />
-Seems like the bursting thunder cloud."<br />
-</p>
-
-<p>The whale, whose only defence is his tail, endeavours to strike
-his enemy with it; and a single blow would prove mortal. But the
-saw-fish, with astonishing agility, shuns the tremendous stroke,
-bounds into the air, and returns upon his huge adversary, plunging
-the rugged weapon with which he is furnished into his back.
-The whale is still more irritated by this wound, which only
-becomes fatal when it penetrates the fat; and thus pursuing and
-pursued, striking and stabbing, the engagement only ends with
-the death of one of the unwieldy combatants.</p>
-
-<p>Even the white-bear is said to attack the whale, watching his
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">� 101 �</a></span>
-approach to the sea-shore; but the enmity of the narwhal is
-evidently fabulous, as both cetaceans may frequently be seen
-together in perfect harmony.</p>
-
-<p>Besides these formidable attacks of what may be considered
-as more or less noble foes, the whale is constantly harassed by
-the bites of the vilest insects. A large species
-of louse adheres by thousands to its back, and
-gnaws this animated pasture-ground, so as to
-cover it frequently with one vast sore. In the
-summer, when this plague is greatest, numbers
-of aquatic birds accompany the whale, and settle
-on his back, as soon as it appears above the
-water, in order to feed upon these disgusting parasites.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 90px;">
-<img src="images/101.png" width="90" height="117" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Whale Louse.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Barnacles often cover the whale in such masses, that his
-black skin disappears under a whitish mantle, and even sea-weeds
-attach themselves to his vast jaws, floating like a beard,
-and reminding one of Birnam's wandering forest.</p>
-
-<p>As its name testifies, the home of the Greenland whale is
-confined to the high northern seas, where it has been met with
-in the open waters or along every ice-bound shore as far as man
-has penetrated towards the Pole. The southern limit of its
-excursions seems to be about 60� N. lat. It never visits the
-North Sea, and is seldom found within 200 miles of the British
-coasts. Its favourite resorts are the so-called whale-grounds,<a name="FNanchor_11" id="FNanchor_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[K]</a>
-between 74� and 80� N. lat., where the warmth, imparted to the
-water by the Gulf-stream, favours the multiplication of the
-small marine animals which form the nourishment of the
-Leviathan of the seas.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_11" id="Footnote_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11"><span class="label">[K]</span></a> See <a href="#Page_20">page 20</a>.</p></div>
-
-<p>Sometimes open spaces in the ice, abounding in minute
-crustaceans and medus&aelig;, attract a larger number of whales, but
-the huge creature cannot be said to live in larger herds or associations.</p>
-
-<p>The Fin-fish or northern Rorqual (<i>Bal&aelig;noptera boops</i>, <i>musculus</i>)
-attains a greater length than the sleek-backed Greenland
-whale, but does not equal it in bulk, having a more elongated
-form and a more tapering head. Its whalebone is much shorter
-and coarser, being adapted to a different kind of food, for, despising
-the minute medus&aelig; and crustaceans which form the food
-of its huge relation, the more nimble rorqual pursues the herring
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">� 102 �</a></span>
-and the mackerel on their wandering path. Like the blubber-whale,
-the fin-back is black above, white below, but distinguishes
-itself by long and numerous blood-red streaks or furrows, running
-under the lower jaw and breast as far as the middle of the
-belly. This is the species of whale which not unfrequently
-strands on our shores, for though an inhabitant of the Arctic
-seas, it wanders farther to the south than the Greenland whale.
-It is seldom harpooned, for the produce of oil is not equivalent
-to the expense, the risk, and the danger attending its capture.</p>
-
-<p>In the southern hemisphere, the Antarctic Smooth-backed
-Whale (<i>B. antarctica</i>), a species similar to the Greenland whale,
-though of less bulk, is the chief object of the fisherman's pursuit.
-It hangs much about the coasts in the temperate latitudes,
-and loves the neighbouring seas, where the discoloured
-waters afford the richest repasts, but is not known in the central
-parts of the Pacific. In the spring it resorts to the bays on the
-coasts of Chili, South Africa, the Brazils, Australia, New Zealand,
-Van Diemen's Land, &amp;c. &amp;c., where it is attacked either
-by stationary fishermen, or by whalers, who at that time leave
-the high seas.</p>
-
-<p>Farther towards the pole <i>Hump-backs</i> and <i>Fin-backs</i> abound;
-but these are far from equalling the former in value. When
-Dumont d'Urville, returning from his expedition to the south
-pole, told the whalers whom he found in the Bay of Talcahuano
-of the great number of cetaceans he had seen in the higher
-latitudes, their eyes glistened at the pleasing prospect; but when
-he added that they were only hump-backs and fin-backs, they
-did not conceal their disappointment; for the hump-back is
-meagre, and not worth the boiling, and the fin-back dives with
-such rapidity, that he snaps the harpoon line, or drags the boat
-along with him into the water.</p>
-
-<p>The Sperm-Whale, or Cachalot (<i>Physeter macrocephalus</i>),
-rivals the great smooth-backed whales both in its various utility
-to man and the colossal dimensions of its unwieldy body. The
-largest authentically recorded size of the uncouth animal is
-seventy-six feet by thirty-eight in girth; but whalers are well
-contented to consider fifty-five or sixty feet the average length
-of the largest examples they commonly obtain. The male, however,
-alone attains these ample proportions; the adult female
-does not exceed thirty or at most thirty-five feet, so that there
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">� 103 �</a></span>
-is a greater disproportion of size between sexes than in any
-other known species of cetaceans.</p>
-
-<p>The form of the beast is without symmetry, and from the
-general absence of other prominent organs than the tail or
-pectoral fins, can be compared to little else than a dark rock or
-the bole of some giant tree. The prevailing colour is a dull black,
-occasionally marked with white, especially on the abdomen and
-tail. The summit of the head and trunk presents a plane surface,
-until about the posterior third of the back, whence arises a
-hump or spurious fin of pyramidal form, and entirely composed
-of fat. From this embossed appendage an undulating series of
-six or eight similar, but smaller elevations, occupies the upper
-margin or ridge of the tail to the commencement of the caudal
-fin. The pectoral fins or paddles are placed a short distance
-behind the head; they are triangular in shape, diminutive as
-compared with the size of the whale, and being connected to
-the trunk by a ball and socket joint, possess free movement,
-either vertical or horizontal.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 339px;">
-<img src="images/104.png" width="339" height="211" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Cuttle-fish (Sepia).</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Owing to the flexibility of the tail, the movements of the tail-fin,
-or "flukes," which sometimes measures eighteen feet across,
-are exceedingly extensive, whilst its power may be estimated by
-the gigantic bundles of round tendons, which pass on either side
-the loins, to be inserted into its base. Whether wielded in
-sportive mood or in anger, its action is marked by rapidity and
-ease, and when struck forcibly on the surface of the ocean, produces
-a report which may be heard at a considerable distance.
-In progression, the action of this organ is precisely the reverse
-of that of the tail of the lobster, for whilst the latter animal
-swims backward by striking the water with its tail from behind
-forwards, the cachalot and other cetaceans swim forward by
-striking with their flukes in the contrary direction, the fin being
-brought beneath the body by an oblique and unresisting movement;
-while the act of springing it back and straightening the
-tail propels the animal ahead with an undulating or leaping
-gait. When employed offensively the tail is curved in a direction
-contrary to that of the object aimed at, and the blow is
-inflicted by the force of the recoil. The lower jaw appears
-diminutive, slender, and not unlike the lower mandible of a
-bird. When the mouth is closed it is received within the soft
-parts pendent from the border of the upper jaw, and is nearly
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">� 104 �</a></span>
-concealed by them. True and serviceable teeth are situated only
-in the lower jaw, and are received into corresponding sockets
-in the upper jaw. In aged males they are of great solidity and
-size, attaining a weight of from two to four pounds each; their
-entire structure is ivory. This powerful armament shows us at
-once that the food of the cachalot must be very different from
-that of the whalebone cetaceans; it generally consists of cuttle-fish,
-many kinds of which are ejected from its stomach when it
-is attacked by the boats, as well as after death. Owing to the
-great projection of the snout beyond the lower jaw, it may be
-requisite for this whale to turn on its side or back to seize its
-more bulky prey; a supposition strengthened by the fact that,
-when the animal attacks a boat with its mouth, it invariably
-assumes a reversed posture, carrying the lower jaw above the
-object it is attempting to bite. As long as it continues on the
-surface of the sea, the cachalot casts from its nostril a constant
-succession of spouts, at intervals of ten or fifteen seconds. As
-in all whales, the jets are not, as frequently imagined, water-columns,
-but a thick white mist ejected by one continual effort
-to the height of six or eight feet, and rushing forth with a sound
-resembling a moderate surf upon a smooth beach. The peculiar
-fat or sperm which renders the cachalot so valuable, is chiefly
-situated in the head. <i>Junk</i> is the name given by the fishermen
-to a solid mass of soft, yellow, and oily fat, weighing between
-two and three tons, based on the upper jaw, and forming the
-front and lower part of the snout; while the cavity called <i>case</i>
-is situated beneath and to the right of the spouting canal, and
-corresponds to nearly the entire length of that tube. It is
-filled with a very delicate web of cellular tissue, containing in
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">� 105 �</a></span>
-large cells a limpid and oily fluid, which is liberated by the
-slightest force. The quantity, chiefly spermaceti, contained in
-this singular receptacle, is often very considerable, nearly 500
-gallons having been obtained from the case of one whale. So
-vast an accumulation of fat has obviously been intended to
-insure a correct position in swimming, to facilitate the elevation
-of the spiracle above the surface of the sea, and to counteract
-the weight of the bony and other ponderous textures of the
-head; objects which in the Greenland whale are sufficiently
-attained by a similar accumulation of fat in the lips and tongue,
-and by the more elevated situation of the spout-hole.</p>
-
-<p>While the large whalebone whales generally roam about in
-solitary couples, the cachalot forms large societies. <i>Schools</i>,
-consisting of from twenty to fifty individuals, are composed of
-females attended by their young, and associated with at least one
-adult male of the largest size, who generally takes a defensive
-position in the rear when the school is flying from danger.</p>
-
-<p><i>Pods</i> are smaller congregations of young or half-grown males,
-which have been driven from the maternal schools. Two or
-more schools occasionally coalesce to a "<i>body of whales</i>," so
-that Bennett<a name="FNanchor_12" id="FNanchor_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[L]</a> sometimes saw the ocean for several miles around
-the ship swarming with sperm leviathans, and strewn with a
-constant succession of spouts. These large assemblies sometimes
-proceed at a rapid pace in one determinate direction, and
-are then soon lost sight of; at other times they bask and sleep
-upon the surface, spouting leisurely, and exhibiting every indication
-of being <i>at home</i>, or on their feeding ground. Like
-most gregarious animals, the cachalots are naturally timid. A
-shoal of dolphins leaping in their vicinity is sufficient to put a
-whole school to flight: yet occasionally fighting individuals are
-met with; particularly among those morose solitary animals
-that most likely from their intolerable character have been
-turned out of the society of their kind. The central deserts of
-ocean, or the neighbourhood of the steepest coasts, are the chief
-resort of the cachalot; and so great is the difference of his
-<i>habitat</i> from that of the smooth-backed whales, that during the
-whole time Bennett was cruising in quest of cachalots, he in no
-single instance saw an example of the true whale. The cachalot
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">� 106 �</a></span>
-is more especially found on the <i>line-currents</i>, which extend
-from the equator to about the seventh degree of north and south
-latitudes, yet it has been noticed in the Mediterranean, and one
-individual, a stray sheep indeed, has even been captured in the
-Thames.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_12" id="Footnote_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12"><span class="label">[L]</span></a> Narrative of a Whaling Voyage round the Globe.</p></div>
-
-<p>The Narwal, or Unicorn-fish, attains a length of from twenty to
-twenty-five feet. He is of a grey-white colour, punctured with
-many white spots, and as his head is not disproportionate to the
-length of his body, may rank among the handsomest cetaceans.
-He distinguishes himself, as is well known, from all other
-members of the family by the long twisted tooth or horn projecting
-horizontally from the upper jaw. This mighty weapon,
-the true use of which has not yet been fully ascertained, was
-formerly sold at a very high price, as proceeding from the fabulous
-unicorn; at present, it is only paid according to the
-worth of its excellent ivory, which is harder, heavier, and less
-liable to turn yellow than that of the elephant. The whalers
-are therefore highly delighted when they can pick up a chance
-narwal, but this only succeeds in narrow bays; for the unicorn-fish
-is an excellent swimmer, and extremely watchful. In spite
-of his menacing appearance, he is a harmless sociable creature,
-fond of gambolling and crossing swords playfully with his compeers.
-It is remarkable that the opening of the mouth of so
-huge an animal is scarcely large enough to admit the hand of a
-man. Scoresby found in the stomach of a narwal remains of
-cuttle fishes, which seem to form his chief aliment, besides
-pieces of skates and plaice. The narwal is frequent about
-Davis' Straits and Disco Bay, but is nowhere found in the
-Pacific, having most likely not yet discovered the north-western
-passage. He rarely wanders into the temperate seas, yet one
-was caught, in 1800, near Boston in Lincolnshire, and two others,
-in 1736, on the German coast of the North Sea.</p>
-
-<p>The Dolphin tribe is distinguished from the cachalot by a
-more proportionate head; from the narwal by the absence of
-the long horn; and generally possesses sharp teeth in both jaws,
-all of one form. The number of species is very great; Linn&aelig;us
-distinguished four sperm-whales and three dolphins; now many
-naturalists acknowledge but one species of the former, while the
-dolphins have increased to more than thirty, and many are as
-yet unknown.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">� 107 �</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 221px;">
-<img src="images/107.png" width="221" height="92" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Delphinus Delphis.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The most famous member of this numerous family is undoubtedly
-the classical Dolphin of the ancients (<i>Delphinus delphis</i>)
-which attains a length of from
-nine to ten feet, and is, according to
-Pliny, the swiftest of all animals, so
-as to merit the appellation of the
-"arrow of the sea." His lively
-troops often accompany for days the
-track of a ship, and agreeably interrupt the monotony of a long
-sea-voyage. As if in mockery of the most rapid sailer, they
-shoot past so as to vanish from the eye, and then return again
-with the same lightning-like velocity. Their spirits are so
-brisk that they frequently leap into the air, as if longing to expatiate
-in a lighter fluid. Hence, dolphins are the favourites of
-the mariner and the poet, who have vied in embellishing their
-history with the charms of fiction.</p>
-
-<p>Everybody knows the wonderful story of Arion, who having
-been forced by pirates to leap into the sea, proceeded merrily
-to his journey's end on the back of a dolphin:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem">
-<span class="i1">"Secure he sits, and with harmonious strains<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Requites his bearer for his friendly pains.<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">The gods approve, the dolphin heaven adorns,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">And with nine stars a constellation forms."<br /></span>
-</div>
-
-<p>Pliny relates the no less astonishing tale of a boy at Bai&aelig;, who
-by feeding it with bread, gained the affections of a dolphin,
-so that the thankful creature used to convey him every morning
-to school across the sea to Puteoli, and back again. When the
-boy died, the poor disconsolate dolphin returned every morning
-to the spot where he had been accustomed to meet his friend,
-and soon fell a victim to his grief. The same naturalist tells us
-also that the dolphins at Narbonne rendered themselves very
-useful to the fishermen by driving the fish into their nets, and
-were generously rewarded for their assistance with "bread soaked
-in wine." A king of Caria having chained a dolphin in the
-harbour, its afflicted associates appeared in great numbers, testifying
-their anxiety for its deliverance by such unequivocal
-signs of sorrow, that the king, touched with compassion, restored
-the prisoner to liberty.</p>
-
-<p>Such, and similar fables, which were believed by the naturalists
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">� 108 �</a></span>
-of antiquity, are laughed at even by the old women of
-our times. The dolphin is in no respects superior to the other
-cetaceans; his musical taste is as low as zero, and if, like the
-bonito and albacore, he follows a ship for days together, it is
-most surely not out of affection for man, but on account of the
-offal that is thrown overboard. But do not many human
-friendships repose on similar selfish motives?</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 364px;">
-<img src="images/108.png" width="364" height="116" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">The Porpoise.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Porpoise (<i>Delphinus Phoc&#339;na</i>), which only attains a
-length of five or six feet, and seems to be the smallest of all
-cetaceans, is frequently confounded with the dolphin. It is at
-home in the whole Northern Atlantic, in the Mediterranean, and
-the Euxine. While the dolphin prefers the high sea, the porpoise
-loves tranquil bays and cliff-sheltered shores, and often
-swims up the rivers, so that individuals have been caught in
-the Elbe and Seine as high up as Dessau and Paris. The
-porpoise is a no less excellent swimmer than the dolphin,
-making at least fifteen miles an hour. His rapidity and sharp
-teeth render him a most dangerous enemy to all the lesser fry
-of the ocean, whose sole refuge lies in the shallowest waters.
-When he rises to the surface to draw breath, the back only
-appears, the head and tail are kept under water. At the entrance
-of harbours, where he is frequently seen gambolling, his
-undulatory or leaping movements, now rising with a grunt,
-now sinking to reappear again at some distance, afford an entertaining
-spectacle.</p>
-
-<p>A much more formidable animal, the largest of the whole dolphin
-tribe, is the ravenous Grampus, (<i>Delphinus Orca</i>,) which measures
-no less than twenty-five feet in length, and twelve or thirteen in
-girth. The upper part of the body is black, the lower white:
-the dorsal fin rises in the shape of a cone, to the height of
-three feet or more.</p>
-
-<p>All naturalists agree in describing the grampus as the most
-voracious of the dolphin family. Its ordinary food is the seal
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">� 109 �</a></span>
-and some species of flat-fish, but it also frequently gives chase
-to the porpoise, and perhaps the whale would consider the
-grampus as his most formidable enemy, were it not for
-the persecutions of man. Pliny gives us a fine description of
-the conflicts which arise between these monsters of the deep.
-At the time when the whale resorts to the bays to cast its young,
-it is attacked by the grampus, who either lacerates it with his
-dreadful jaws, or in rapid onset endeavours to strike in its ribs,
-as with a catapult. The terrified whale knows no other way to
-escape from these furious attacks, than by interposing a whole
-sea between him and his enemy. But the grampus, equally
-wary and active, cuts off his retreat, and drives the whale into
-narrower and narrower waters, forcing him to bruise himself on
-the sharp rocks, or to strand upon the shelving sands, nor
-ceases his efforts until he has gained a complete victory.
-During this fight the sea seems to rage against itself, for though
-no wind may be stirring the surface, waves, such as no storm
-creates, rise under the strokes of the infuriated combatants.</p>
-
-<p>While the Emperor Claudius was visiting the harbour of
-Ostium, a grampus stranded in the shallow waters. The back
-appeared above the surface of the sea, and resembled a ship with
-its keel turned upwards. The Emperor caused nets to be stretched
-across the mouth of the harbour to prevent the animal's escape,
-and then attacked it in person with his pr&aelig;torian guards. The
-soldiers surrounding the monster in boats, and hurling their inglorious
-spears, exhibited an amusing spectacle to the populace.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>That man ventures to pursue the leviathans of the deep
-among the fogs and icebergs of the Arctic seas, and is generally
-successful in their capture, may surely be considered as one of
-the proudest triumphs of his courage and his skill.</p>
-
-<p>The breast of the first navigator, says Horace, was cased with
-triple steel; but of what adamantine materials must that man's
-heart have been formed, whose steadfast hand hurled the first
-harpoon against the colossal whale?</p>
-
-<p>History has not preserved his name; like the great warriors
-that lived before Agamemnon, he sank into an obscure grave
-for want of a Homer to celebrate his exploits. We only know that
-the Biscayans were the first <i>civilised</i> people that in the fourteenth
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">� 110 �</a></span>
-and fifteenth century fitted out ships for the whale
-fishery. At first the bold men of Bayonne and Santander contented
-themselves with pursuing their prey, (most likely rorquals)
-in the neighbouring seas, but as the persecuted whales
-diminished in frequency, they followed them farther to the
-north, until they came to the haunts of the real whale, whose
-greater abundance of fat rewarded their intrepidity with a richer
-spoil.</p>
-
-<p>Their success naturally roused the emulation and avidity of other
-seafaring nations, and thus, towards the end of the sixteenth century,
-we see the English, and soon after the Dutch, enter the lists
-as their competitors. At first our countrymen were obliged to
-send to "Biskaie for men skilful in catching the whale, and
-ordering of the oil, and one cooper, skilful to set up the staved
-casks," (Hakluyt's <i>Voyages</i>, i. 414); but soon, by their skill,
-their industry and perseverance, together with the aid and encouragement
-granted by the legislature, they learnt to carry on the
-whale fishery on more advantageous terms than the original adventurers,
-whose efforts became less enterprising as their success
-was more precarious.</p>
-
-<p>The first attempts of the English date as far back as the year
-1594, when some ships were sent out to Cape Breton for morse
-and whale fishing. The fishing proved unsuccessful, but they
-found in an island 800 whale fins or whalebone, part of the
-cargo of a Biscayan ship wrecked there three years before,
-which they put on board and brought home. This was the
-first time this substance was imported into England.</p>
-
-<p>Hull took the lead in the Greenland whale fishery in 1598,
-thirteen years after the first company for that purpose had been
-formed in Amsterdam, and as both maritime nations gave it
-every encouragement, not only on account of its profits, but
-also from considering it as one of the best nurseries for their
-seamen, it gradually grew to a very important branch of
-business. Some idea may be formed of the extent to which
-the Dutch engaged in the whale fishery during the last century,
-by stating that for a period of forty-six years preceding 1722,
-5886 ships were employed in it, and captured 32,907 whales.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1788, 222 English vessels were employed in the
-northern fishery.</p>
-
-<p>The earliest period at which we find the pursuit of the sperm-whale
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">� 111 �</a></span>
-conducted upon a scientific plan is about 1690, when it
-was commenced by the American colonists. In 1775, ships were
-first sent out from ports of Great Britain, but for some years it
-was necessary to appoint an American commander and harpooner
-until competent officers could be reared. At the same
-early date the sperm fishery was chiefly prosecuted in the
-Atlantic, but Messrs. Enderby's ship "Emilia" having rounded
-Cape Horn in 1788, first carried the sperm-whale fishery into
-the Pacific, where its success opened a wide and fruitful field
-for future exertions. As our whalers became better acquainted
-with the South Sea, many valuable resorts were discovered. In
-1819 the "Syren" (British) first carried on the fishery in the
-western parts of that great ocean, and in the year 1848 the
-American whaler "Superior," Captain Roys, penetrated through
-Behring's Straits into the Icy Sea, and opened the fishery in
-those remote waters. The year after no less than 154 vessels
-followed upon his track, and the number has been increasing
-ever since. At present the Americans are the people which
-carries on the whale fishery with the greatest energy and good
-fortune. While of late years only thirty or forty British sail
-have been employed in the Pacific, our cousins "across the
-Atlantic" numbered in the year 1841 no less than 650 whalers,
-manned by 13,500 seamen. One of the causes of their success
-may be, that while the whale fishery in England is carried on
-by men of large capital, who are the sole proprietors of the ship,
-the American interest in one vessel is held by many men of
-small capital, and not unfrequently by the commander and
-officers. It must, however, not be forgotten that the Australian
-colonies, being more conveniently situated than the mother
-country, fit out many ships for the whale fishery, which is
-besides conducted in several permanent stations along the coasts
-of New Zealand, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p>Whale charts have of late years been drawn, on which the
-best fishing grounds at different seasons are delineated. These
-maps are not only useful guides for the fishermen, but promise
-the future solution of the still undecided question of the migration
-of whales. While some naturalists are of opinion that the
-cetaceans, flying from the pursuit of man, abandon their old
-haunts for more sequestered regions, others, like M. Jacquinot
-(<i>Zoologie, Voyage de l'Astrolabe et de la Z�l�e</i>) believe that if
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">� 112 �</a></span>
-the whaler is continually obliged to look out for more productive
-seas, it is not because the whale has migrated, but because he
-has been nearly extirpated in one place and left unmolested in
-another.</p>
-
-<p>The Greenland whale fishery was for more than a hundred
-years confined to the seas between Spitzbergen and Greenland;
-the entrance and east shore of Davis' Straits not being frequented
-before the beginning of the last century. Since then the expeditions
-of Ross and Parry have made the whalers acquainted
-with a number of admirable stations on the farther side of Davis'
-Straits and in the higher latitudes of Baffin's Bay. The vessels
-destined for that quarter sail usually in March, though some
-delay their departure till the middle or even the end of April.
-They proceed first to the northern parts of the coast of Labrador,
-or to the mouth of Cumberland Strait, carrying on what is
-called the south-west fishery. After remaining there till about
-the beginning of May, they cross to the eastern shore of the
-strait and fish upwards along the coast, particularly in South-east
-Bay, North-east Bay, Kingston Bay, or Horn Sound.</p>
-
-<p>About the month of July they usually cross Baffin's Bay to
-Lancaster Sound, which they sometimes enter, and occasionally
-even ascend Barrow's Strait twenty or thirty miles. In returning,
-they fish down the western shore, where their favourite
-stations are Pond's Bay, Agnes' Monument, Home Bay, and
-Cape Searle, and sometimes persevere till late in October. The
-casualties are generally very great, the middle of Baffin's Bay
-being filled with a compact and continuous barrier, through
-which, till a very advanced period of the season, it is impossible
-for the navigator to penetrate. Between this central body and
-that attached to the land, there intervenes a narrow and precarious
-passage, where many a vessel has been crushed or pressed
-out of the water and laid upon the ice. In 1819 ten ships were
-lost out of sixty-three, and in 1821 eleven out of seventy-nine.
-Fortunately the loss of lives is seldom to be deplored, as the
-weather is generally calm and the crew has time enough to
-escape in another vessel.</p>
-
-<p>Whale fishing is not only a very dangerous and laborious
-pursuit, it is also extremely precarious and uncertain in its
-results. Sometimes a complete cargo of oil and whalebone is
-captured in a short time, but it also happens that after a long
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">� 113 �</a></span>
-cruise not a single fish is caught&mdash;a result equally unfortunate
-for the ship owner and the crew, who look to a share of the
-profits for their pay.</p>
-
-<p>How much the whale fishery depends upon chance is shown
-by the following facts. In the year 1718 the Dutch Greenland
-fleet, consisting of 108 ships, captured 1291 fish, worth at least
-650,000<i>l.</i>, while in the year 1710, 137 ships took no more than
-62. Various meteorological circumstances&mdash;the prevalence of
-particular winds, the character of the summer or preceding
-winter&mdash;are probably the causes of the extraordinary failure and
-success of the fishery in different years. The Pacific is as fallacious
-as the Arctic seas. Thus Dumont d'Urville met in the
-Bay of Talcahuano with several whalers, one of whom had
-rapidly filled half his ship, while the others had cruised more
-than a year without having harpooned a single fish. In such
-cases the captains have the greatest trouble in preventing their
-men from deserting, who, being disappointed in their hopes,
-naturally enough look out for a better chance elsewhere.</p>
-
-<p>The method of whale catching has been so often and so
-minutely described, that it is doubtless familiar to the reader.
-As soon as a whale is in sight, boats are got out with all speed,
-and row or sail as silently and quietly as possible towards the
-monster. One of the crew&mdash;the man of unflinching eye and
-nervous arm&mdash;stands upright, harpoon in hand, ready to hurl
-the murderous spear into the animal's side, as soon as the
-proper moment shall have come. When struck the whale dives
-down perpendicularly with fearful velocity, or goes off horizontally
-with lightning speed, at a short distance from the
-surface, dragging after him the line to which the barbed instrument
-of his agony is fixed. But soon the necessity of respiration
-forces him to rise again above the waters, when a second
-harpoon, followed by a third or fourth at every reappearance,
-plunges into his flank. Maddened with pain and terror, he
-lashes the crimsoned waters into foam, but all his efforts to cast
-off the darts that lacerate his flesh are vain, and his gaping
-wounds, though not "as deep as wells, nor as wide as church-doors,"
-are still large enough to let out sufficient blood even
-to exhaust a whale. His movements become more and more
-languid and slow, his gasping and snorting more and more
-oppressed, a few convulsive heavings agitate the mighty mass,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">� 114 �</a></span>
-and then it floats inert and lifeless on the waters. As soon as
-death is certain&mdash;for to the last moment a convulsive blow of
-the mighty tail might dash the overhasty boat to pieces&mdash;the
-whale is lashed by chains to the vessel's side, stripped of his
-valuable fat, and then left to float, a worthless carcase, on the
-heaving ocean.</p>
-
-<p>And now, man having taken his share, there begins a magnificent
-feast for birds and fishes. Crowds of fulmars, snow
-birds, or kittiwakes, flock together from all sides to enjoy the
-delicious repast; but their delight, so rare is perfect felicity
-on earth, is but too often disturbed by their terrible rival the
-blue gull (<i>Larus glaucus</i>), which, while it rivals them in rapacity,
-surpasses them all in strength, and forces them to disgorge
-the daintiest morsels. Meanwhile sharks, saw-fishes, and whatever
-else possesses sharp teeth and boldness enough to mix
-among such formidable company, are busy biting, hacking,
-scooping, and cutting below the water line, so that in a short
-time, notwithstanding its vast bulk, the carrion disappears.</p>
-
-<p>The catching of the whale does not always end so fortunately
-as I have just described. Sometimes the line becomes entangled,
-and drags the boat into the abyss; or the tail of the
-animal, sweeping rapidly through the air, either descends upon
-the shallop, cutting it down to the water's edge, or encounters
-in its course some of the crew standing up (such as the headsman
-or harpooner), who are carried away and destroyed.
-Thus Mr. Young, chief mate of the "Tuscan," was seen flying
-through the air at a considerable height, and to the distance of
-nearly forty yards from the boat, ere he fell into the water,
-where he remained floating motionless on the surface for a few
-moments, and then sank and was seen no more.</p>
-
-<p>Sometimes, particularly among the sperm-whales, desperate
-characters are found, that without waiting for the attack, rush
-furiously against the boats sent out against them, and seem
-to love fighting for its own sake. Bennett describes an encounter
-of this kind which he witnessed in the South Sea. The
-first effort of the whale was to rush against the boat with his
-head. Having been baffled by the crew steering clear, he next
-attempted to crush it with his jaws; failing again, through the
-unaccommodating position of his mouth, he remedied this defect
-with much sagacity, for approaching impetuously from a distance
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">� 115 �</a></span>
-of forty yards, he turned upon his back, raising his lower jaw
-to grasp the boat from above. A lance-wound, however, applied
-in time, caused him to close his mouth; but continuing to
-advance, he struck the boat with such force that he nearly overturned
-it, and concluded by again turning on his back and
-thrusting his lower jaw through the planks. Fortunately the
-other boats came up to the rescue, and an addition of many
-tons of sperm to the ship's cargo made up for the damaged
-boat.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 437px;">
-<img src="images/115.png" width="437" height="253" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Sperm-Whale.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Although generally only the greater cetaceans are objects of
-pursuit at sea, yet man does not disdain the capture of the
-several dolphin-species when they approach his shores, and surrender
-themselves as it were into his hands. The intelligence
-that a shoal of ca'ing whales (<i>Delphinus melas</i>) has been seen
-approaching the coast, operates like an electric shock upon the
-inhabitants of the Fero� Islands. The whole village, old and
-young, is instantly in motion, and soon numerous boats push off
-from shore to surround the unsuspecting herd. Slowly and
-steadily they are driven into a bay, the phalanx of their enemies
-draws closer and closer together; terrified by stones and blows,
-they run ashore, and lie gasping as the flood recedes. Then
-begins the work of death, amid the loud rejoicings of the happy
-islanders. The visits of the ca'ing whale are extremely uncertain.
-From 1754 till 1776 scarce one was caught, but on
-the 16th of August of the last-named year more than 800 were
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">� 116 �</a></span>
-driven on the strand, and changed dearth into abundance.
-During the four summer months that Langbye sojourned on
-the islands in the year 1817, 623 of these large dolphins, mostly
-from eight to ten yards long, were caught, and served to pay one
-half of the imported corn. The division of spoil is made in
-presence of the "<i>Amtmann</i>." Each fish is measured, and its
-size marked on its skin in Roman characters. The largest
-whale is given to the boat which first discovered the shoal;
-then others for the poor and clergyman are selected, and the
-remainder divided, according to stated rules, between the proprietor
-of the ground and the persons who drove them on shore.
-The flesh is either eaten fresh, or cut into slices and hung up to
-dry; whilst the blubber is partly converted into train oil, or
-salted in casks and barrels. The fat on the sides of the fish,
-when hung for a week or two, will keep for years, and is used
-instead of bacon by the natives.</p>
-
-<p>The ca'ing whale, remarkable from following a leader and
-swimming in large herds, also strands from time to time on the
-coasts of Iceland and on the Shetland and Orkney Islands, where
-his appearance is hailed with universal pleasure.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 225px;">
-<img src="images/116.png" width="225" height="156" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Pelican.</div>
-</div>
-
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 417px;">
-<a href="images/117fplg.png"><img src="images/117fp.png" width="417" height="609" alt="" /></a>
-<div class="fig_caption">AUSTRALIAN SEA-BEARS.<br />
-<span class="smaller">Click on image to view larger version.</span></div>
-</div>
-
-<p class="caption2"><a name="FPage_117" id="FPage_117">AUSTRALIAN SEA-BEARS.</a></p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 56px;">
-<img src="images/bardot.png" width="56" height="7" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<div class="blockquot1">
-
-The group of Australian sea-bears is taken from the "Zoology of the voyage of
-H.M.S. Erebus and Terror." This animal, <i>Arctocephalus lobatus</i>, is among the
-largest of the Seal family. It is occasionally found congregating in vast numbers
-upon various portions of the coast of Australia.</div>
-
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">� 117 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_IX" id="CHAP_IX">CHAP. IX.</a></h2>
-
-<p class="caption2">SEALS AND WALRUSES.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">The Manatees and the Dugongs.&mdash;The Seals and the Esquimaux.&mdash;King Menelaus
-in a Seal's Skin.&mdash;Barbarous Persecutions of the Seals in Behring's Sea and the
-Pacific.&mdash;Adventures of a Sealer from Geneva.&mdash;The Sea Calf.&mdash;The Sea Bear.&mdash;His
-Parental Affection.&mdash;The Sea Lions.&mdash;The Sea Elephant.&mdash;The Arctic
-Walrus.&mdash;The Boats of the "Trent" fighting with a Herd of Walruses.&mdash;The
-White Bear.&mdash;Touching Example of its Love for its Young.&mdash;Chase of the Sea
-Otter.</div>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 159px;">
-<img src="images/118.png" width="159" height="615" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Skeleton of the Dugong.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Manatees or Lamantins of the Atlantic Ocean, and the now
-nearly extinct Dugongs of the Indian seas, form the connecting
-link between the real whales and the seals and walruses. Like
-the whales, these animals have no hind feet, and a powerful
-tail, which is their chief instrument of locomotion; they are
-distinguishable, however, from them by less fin-like, more
-flexibly-jointed anterior extremities, on which they lean while
-cropping the sea-weeds on the shallow shores. When they raise
-themselves with the front part of their body out of the water, a
-lively fancy might easily be led to imagine that a human shape,
-though certainly none of the most beautiful, was surging from
-the deep. Hence they have been named sea-sirens, mermaids,
-and mermen, and have given rise to many extravagant fictions.
-Their intelligence is very obtuse, but their stolid calf-like
-countenance indicates great mildness of temper.</p>
-
-<p>They live at peace with all other animals, and seem to be
-solely intent upon satisfying their voracious appetite. Like the
-hippopotamus, they swallow at once large masses of sea-plants
-or of juicy grasses growing beyond the water's edge on the
-borders of rivers.</p>
-
-<p>The Manatees, or Sea-cows, as they are familiarly called,
-inhabit the coasts and streams of the Atlantic between 19�
-S. lat. and 25� N. lat., and attain a length of from eight to
-ten feet.    Humboldt compares the flesh to ham, and Von
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">� 118 �</a></span>
-Martius says he never tasted better
-meat in the Brazils. The
-South American monks, who have
-their own ideas on the classification
-of animals, consider it as
-fish, and fare sumptuously upon it
-during Lent. Besides its flesh,
-one single animal gives as much
-as 4000 bottles of oil, which is
-used both in cookery and for
-lighting. The thick hide is cut
-into stripes, from which straps or
-whips are made, to flog the unfortunate
-negroes. Useful in
-many respects, defenceless and
-easy to kill, particularly during
-the time of the inundations, when
-it ascends the great rivers, the manatee
-or sea-cow has been nearly
-extirpated in many parts where it
-formerly abounded, a fate which
-it partakes with the East Indian
-dugong. These animals might
-easily be enclosed and tamed, in
-the lagoons and bays of the tropical
-streams; but it is to be feared
-that they will have vanished from
-the face of the earth before the
-industry of man endeavours to
-introduce them, as it were, among
-the domestic animals.</p>
-
-<p>The Seal family forms a still
-nearer approach to the land
-quadrupeds, as here hind feet
-begin to make their appearance.
-The shortness of these extremities
-renders their movements upon
-land generally awkward and slow,
-but they make up for this deficiency
-by an uncommon activity
-in the water.   Their body, tapering
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">� 119 �</a></span>
-fish-like from the shoulders to the tail, their abundance of
-fat, the lightness of which is so favourable to swimming, the
-position of their feet, admirably
-formed for rowing, paddling, and
-steering, their whole economy, in a
-word, is calculated for the sea. Although
-citizens of two worlds, their
-real element is evidently the water,
-from which their food is exclusively
-derived.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 533px;">
-<img src="images/119a.png" width="533" height="298" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Female Dugong of Ceylon. (From Sir J. Emerson Tennent's Work on Ceylon.)</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 221px;">
-<img src="images/119b.png" width="221" height="124" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Skeleton of Seal.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Seals are found in almost all seas, but they particularly abound
-on the coasts of the colder regions of the earth, and diminish in
-size and numbers as they
-approach the torrid zone.
-Small seals are found near
-Surinam, but the giants of
-the family, the huge, sea-elephant,
-the sea-lion, the
-sea-bear, belong exclusively
-to those higher latitudes
-which the sun visits only
-with slanting rays, or where
-the winter forms a dreary and continuous night.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 282px;">
-<img src="images/119c.png" width="282" height="173" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">The Seal.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>How wonderful to see the desolate coasts of the icy seas
-peopled by such herds of great warm-blooded mammalia! But
-there, where the dry land produces only the scantiest vegetation,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">� 120 �</a></span>
-the bountiful sea teems with fishes, affording abundance to the
-hungry seals. The <i>Merlangus polaris</i> and the <i>Ophidium
-Parryii</i> in the northern hemisphere, as well as the <i>Nothothenia
-phoc&aelig;</i>, which Dr. Richardson discovered off Kerguelen's Land,
-seek in vain to escape from the pursuit of the seals in the
-hollows and crevices of the pack-ice; and these small fish, in
-turn, fare sumptuously upon the minute crustaceans and molluscs
-with which those cold waters abound. Thus animal life,
-but sparingly diffused over the barren land, luxuriates in the
-sea, where we find one species preying upon the other, until at
-last, at the bottom of the scale, we come to creatures so small
-as to be invisible to the naked eye.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 386px;">
-<img src="images/120.png" width="386" height="175" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Esquimaux in his Kayak.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Greenland Esquimaux, whose ice-bound fatherland affords
-no food but berries, is also obliged to look to the sea for his
-subsistence; and the seal plays as important a part in his
-humble existence as the reindeer among the Laplanders, or the
-camel among the Bedouins of the desert. Its flesh and fat
-form his principal food; from its skin he makes his boat, his
-tent, his dress; from its sinews and bones, his thread and
-needles, his fishing line, and his bow-strings. Thus on the
-frozen confines of the Polar Sea, as in many other parts of the
-world, we find the existence of man almost entirely depending
-upon that of a single class of animals. But the Bedouin who
-tends the patient dromedary, or the Laplander who feeds on
-the flesh and milk of the domesticated reindeer, enjoys an easy
-life when compared to the Esquimaux, who, to satisfy the cravings
-of his sharp appetite, is in all seasons obliged to brave all the
-perils of the Arctic Ocean. Sometimes he waits patiently for
-hours in the cold fog until a seal rises to the surface, or else he
-warily approaches a herd basking or sleeping on the ice blocks,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">� 121 �</a></span>
-for the least noise awakens the watchful animals. Sometimes he
-has recourse to stratagem, covers himself with a seal skin, and,
-imitating the movements and gestures of the deceived phoc&aelig;,
-introduces himself into the midst of the unsuspecting troop.</p>
-
-<p>We read in the <i>Odyssey</i> how the "dark-featured hero," Menelaus,
-deigned to conceal his royal limbs under a fresh seal-skin,
-in order to surprise Proteus, the infallible seer; and what sufferings
-his olfactory organs underwent from the</p>
-
-<p class="i2">
-"Unsavoury stench of oil and brackish ooze,"<br />
-</p>
-
-<p class="p0">until the fair sea-nymph Eidothea, whom the gallant chief
-implored in his distress,</p>
-
-<p class="i2">
-"With nectar'd drops the sickening sense restor'd."<br />
-</p>
-
-<p>Fortunately for the Esquimaux, his nose is less sensitive than
-that of the son of Atreus, and without ambrosia, he willingly
-dons a disguise which affords his unsophisticated taste the
-pleasure of a theatrical entertainment, combined with the profit
-of a savoury prize. Physical strength, dexterity, caution,
-quickness of eye, and acuteness of hearing, are the indispensable
-qualities of the Esquimaux, and require to be exercised and
-developed from his tenderest years. The boy of fifteen must
-be as perfect a seal-catcher as his father, and be able to make
-all the instruments necessary for the chase. In these inhospitable
-regions, every one is obliged to rely upon himself alone;
-there, where all the powers of the body and mind are tasked to
-the utmost for the mere sustenance of life, weakness and want
-of dexterity must inevitably succumb.</p>
-
-<p>Besides the savages of the north, the civilised nations also
-give chase to the seals, or rather wage a barbarous war of extermination
-against these helpless creatures. Thus, from the year
-1786 to 1833, more than 3,000,000 sea-bears were killed on
-the Pribilow Islands, in Behring's Sea. At Unalaschka, the chief
-staple-place of the Russian Fur Company, 700,000 skins were
-cast into the water in the year 1803, on the same principle as
-that which induced the Dutch to burn their superfluous nutmegs,
-viz. "not to glut the market." As a well-merited punishment
-for this stupid slaughter, the products of the chase diminished
-rapidly from that time until within the last few years, when a
-better husbandry has again increased the number of the sea-bears.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">� 122 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Unfortunately, our own countrymen and the Americans have
-done no better in the southern seas. Thousands of sea-lions
-used formerly to be killed on the South American coast, while
-at present the number of the animals is so much diminished as
-scarce to reward the sealer's trouble. Sir James Ross informs
-us that the sea elephant was formerly found in great numbers
-on Kerguelen's Land, and yearly attracted many vessels to those
-desert islands. But at present, after such incessant persecution,
-the animals have either migrated, or been almost totally extirpated.
-English and American captains often set some men
-ashore on the uninhabited coasts and islands of the southern seas,
-for the purpose of catching seals, boiling their oil, and stripping
-their skins. After a few months the ship generally returns to
-fetch the produce of their labours, or to bring a fresh supply of
-provisions to the seal catchers, who often remain several years
-in their solitary hunting grounds. But sometimes the poor
-wretches are abandoned by their associates, and then their
-despair may be imagined when week after week elapses without
-the expected sail appearing! Dumont d'Urville found one of
-these adventurers in the Straits of Magellan among a horde of
-Patagonians, who, though hospitably inclined, were themselves
-so poor as hardly to be able to keep body and soul together.
-He was a watchmaker from Geneva, who, having emigrated to
-New York, and finding himself disappointed, had listened to the
-fair promises of a skipper, who carried him out to Tierra del
-Fuego, and not finding the business answer, had left him to his
-fate. The French navigator took the poor man on board, and
-gave him a passage to Talcahuano in Chili.</p>
-
-<p>On the east coast of North America seal catching is still
-carried on with considerable success. Newfoundland intercepts
-many of the immense fields and islands of ice which in the
-spring move south from the Arctic Sea. The interior parts,
-with the openings or lakes interspersed, remain serene and
-unbroken, and form the transitory abodes of myriads of seals.
-In the month of March upwards of three hundred small vessels,
-fitted out for the seal fishery, are extricated from the icy
-harbours on the east coast of Newfoundland; the fields are now
-all in motion, and the vessels plunge directly into the edges
-of such as appear to have seals on them; the crews, armed with
-firelocks and heavy bludgeons, there <i>land</i>, and in the course
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">� 123 �</a></span>
-of a few weeks destroy nearly 300,000 of these animals. The
-Greenland winter, it would appear, is too severe for these luckless
-wanderers, and when
-it sets in, they accompany
-the field-ice, and remain on
-it until it is scattered and
-dissolved. Old and young
-being then deserted in the
-ocean, nature points out to
-them the course to their favourite icy haunts, and thither
-their herds hurry over the deep to pass an arctic summer.
-Winter returns, and with it commences again their annual
-migration from latitude to latitude. The Scotch ports, particularly
-Aberdeen, fit out ships for the spring seal-catching on
-the American coast, and are generally successful in their undertakings.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 280px;">
-<img src="images/123a.png" width="280" height="115" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Greenland Seal.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 285px;">
-<img src="images/123b.png" width="285" height="110" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Seal.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>According to the different numbers and forms of their canine
-teeth and grinders, and to the deficiency or presence of an <i>outward</i>
-ear, the seal tribe is divided into many families, genera,
-and species, among which I shall select a few of the most remarkable
-for further notice. The Common Seal or Sea-calf,
-(<i>Calocephalus vitulinus</i>),
-which owes the latter name
-to the unharmonious accents
-of its voice, attains a
-length of from five to six
-feet. It has a large round
-head, small short neck, and
-several strong bristles on each side of its mouth, large eyes, no
-external ears, and a forked tongue. It has six fore teeth in the
-upper jaw, four in the lower, a strong pointed canine tooth on
-each side in both jaws, and a goodly row of sharp and jagged
-grinders. Woe to the poor herring whose evil star leads him
-between these engines of destruction&mdash;he is irrevocably lost!
-Different species of common seals inhabit the Northern seas,
-from Greenland and Spitzbergen to the mouth of the Scheldt,
-and from the White Sea to the eastern coast of America.
-Others are found in the Antarctic seas. An excellent swimmer,
-the seal dives like a shot, and rises at fifty yards' distance, often
-remaining full a quarter of an hour under the water&mdash;three
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">� 124 �</a></span>
-times longer than the most strong-breasted and expert pearl
-fisher. Yet he is seldom seen more than thirty miles from
-land, where he sleeps and reposes, choosing rocks surrounded by
-the sea or the less accessible cliffs, left dry by the ebb of the
-tide, so that, if disturbed by an enemy, he may be able to
-plunge immediately into the sea. In the summer he will come
-out of the water to bask or sleep in the sun on the top of large
-stones and ledges of rocks; and this affords our countrymen the
-opportunity of shooting him. If he chances to escape, he
-hastens towards his proper element, flinging dirt or stones
-behind him as he scrambles along, at the same time expressing
-his fears by piteous moans; but if he happens to be overtaken,
-he will make a vigorous defence with his feet and teeth till he
-is killed. His flesh, which is tender, juicy, and fat, was formerly,
-like that of the porpoise, served up at the tables of the
-great, as appears from the bill of fare of a magnificent feast that
-Archbishop Neville gave in the reign of Edward the Fourth.
-Seals commonly bring forth two young ones at a time, which they
-suckle for about a fortnight, and then carry them out to sea to
-instruct them in swimming. When taken young, they may be
-domesticated, and will follow their master like a dog, coming to
-him when called by name. According to Pliny, no animal
-enjoys a deeper sleep,&mdash;"nullum animal graviore somno premitur."
-This assertion is, however, contradicted by general
-observation, for it is well known that seals are extremely watchful,
-seldom sleeping longer than a minute without moving their
-heads to ascertain whether anything suspicious is going on.</p>
-
-<p>Although without external ears, seals appear to hear well
-both above and under the water. Music or whistling will
-draw them to the surface and induce them to stretch their necks
-to the utmost extent&mdash;a curiosity which often proves a snare for
-their destruction. The most effectual way of shooting seals is
-by firing small shot into their eyes; for when killed with a
-bullet they generally sink and are lost. They are often seen in
-very large shoals on their passage from one situation to another.
-In such cases, all appear every now and then at the surface
-together for the sake of respiration, springing up so as to run
-their heads, necks, and often their whole bodies out of the
-water. They shuffle along, especially over the ice, with a surprising
-speed considering the shortness of their legs. They are
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">� 125 �</a></span>
-very tenacious of life, and able to survive even when shockingly
-mangled. According to Dr. Scoresby, the island of Jan Mayen
-affords excellent seal fishing in March and April. When on
-detached pieces of drift ice, they are captured by the use of
-boats, each boat making a descent upon a different herd. When
-the seals observe the boat, they endeavour to escape before it
-reaches the ice; the sailors, however, raise a long-continued
-shout, which frequently causes the amazed animals to delay
-their retreat until arrested by blows. When seals are abundant,
-the boat immediately pushes off after the slaughter is finished,
-and proceeds to another piece of ice for the increase of its
-harvest, leaving one man to flay off the skins and fat. But in
-situations where boats cannot navigate, the seal fishers have to
-pursue them over the ice, leaping from piece to piece until the
-capture is made; every man then flenses his own, and drags the
-skins and blubber to his boat or ship. Ships fitted out for
-seal fishing have occasionally procured cargoes of four or five
-thousand, yielding nearly a hundred tons of oil; but such enterprises
-are very hazardous, from the exposed nature of that dreary
-island, and the liability to heavy and sudden storms.</p>
-
-<p>The Sea-Elephant (<i>Cystophora proboscidea</i>) deserves his
-name, not only from his immense size, attaining a length of
-twenty, twenty-five, or even thirty feet, but also from the singular
-structure of his elongated nostrils, which hang down when
-he is in a state of repose, but swell out to a foot-long proboscis
-when he is enraged. Then the beast has a most formidable
-appearance, which, along with its gaping jaws and dreadful
-roar, might strike terror into the boldest huntsman. But total
-helplessness and weakness conceal themselves behind this terrible
-mask, for a single blow upon the snout with a club suffices to
-fell the giant. Between 35� and 55� S. lat. is the home
-of the sea-elephant, where he frequents desert islands and
-uninhabited coasts. But even here, as I have already mentioned,
-he could not escape the rapacity of man, for his tough hide and
-the thick layer of blubber beneath were too tempting to remain
-unnoticed.</p>
-
-<p>The Hooded Seal of the northern seas, (<i>Cystophora borealis</i>,)
-enjoys the same faculty of inflating a folding, skinny crest extending
-on each side from the snout to the eyes. But in
-spite of the menacing appearance of these wind-bags, the seal
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">� 126 �</a></span>
-fisher knocks him on the head, draws, without ceremony, his
-skin over his ears, and throws his blubber into the oil-kettle.</p>
-
-<p>The <i>Otarias</i>, or seals furnished with an external ear, and whose
-longer and more developed feet allow them to move more freely
-on land, rank in point of organisation at the head of the whole
-tribe. The most important and valuable of all is the Sea-Bear
-(<i>Arctocephalus ursinus</i>), of which there are probably two
-species; the one inhabiting the Antarctic seas, while the other
-roams about the coasts and islands of the Northern Pacific, and
-selects St. Paul, one of the Pribilow group in Behring's Sea, as
-its favourite summer haunt. The fine-haired, black, curly
-skin of the younger animals, of from four months to one year
-old, is particularly esteemed, so as to be classed among the finer
-furs which find a ready sale in the Chinese market, and serve
-to decorate the persons of the higher rank of mandarins. The
-chase, which on the latter island was formerly a promiscuous
-massacre, is now reduced to the slaughter of a limited number
-of victims. It begins in the latter part of September, on a cold
-foggy day when the wind blows from the side where the animals
-are assembled on the rocky shore. The boldest huntsmen, accustomed
-to clamber over stones and cliffs, open the way; then
-follow their less experienced comrades, and the chief personage
-of the band comes last, to be the better able to direct and survey
-the movements of his men, who are all armed with clubs. The
-main object is to cut off the herd as quickly as possible from
-the sea. All the grown-up males and females are spared, but
-the younger animals are all driven landwards, sometimes to the
-distance of a couple of miles, and then partly clubbed to death.
-Those which are only four months old are doomed without exception;
-while of the others only a certain number of the
-males are killed, and the females allowed to return again to the
-coast, when they soon betake themselves to the water. For
-several days after the massacre, the bereaved mothers swim
-about the island, seeking and loudly wailing for their young.</p>
-
-<p>From the 5th of October, St. Paul is gradually deserted by the
-sea bears, who then migrate to the south, and reappear towards
-the end of April,&mdash;the males arriving first. Each seeks the
-same spot on the shore which he occupied during the preceding
-year, and lies down among the large stone blocks with which the
-flat beach is covered. About the middle of May the far more
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">� 127 �</a></span>
-numerous females begin to make their appearance, and Otarian
-life takes full possession of the strand. The full-grown sea-bear
-is from eight to nine feet long, measures five in girth,
-and acquires a weight of from eight to nine hundred pounds.
-He owes his name to his shaggy blackish fur, and not to his
-disposition, which is far from being cruel or savage. He indulges
-in polygamy like a Turk or a Mormon, and has often
-as many as fifty wives. The young are generally lively, fond of
-play and fight. When one of them has thrown another down,
-the father approaches with a growl, caresses the victor, tries to
-overturn him, and shows increasing fondness the better he defends
-himself. Lazy and listless youngsters are objects of his
-dislike, and these hang generally about their mother. The
-male is very much attached to his wives, but treats them with
-all the severity of an oriental despot. When a mother neglects
-to carry away her young, and allows it to be taken, she is made
-to feel his anger. He seizes her with his teeth, and strikes her
-several times, not over gently, against a cliff. As soon as she
-recovers from the stunning effects of these blows, she approaches
-her lord in the most humble attitudes, crawls to his feet,
-caresses him, and even sheds tears, as Steller, the companion of
-Behring's second voyage, informs us. Meanwhile the male
-crawls about to and fro, gnashes his teeth, rolls his eyes, and
-throws his head from side to side. But when he sees that his young
-is irrevocably lost, he then, like the mother, begins to cry so
-bitterly, that the tears trickle down upon his breast. In his
-old age the ursine seal is abandoned by his wives, and spends
-the remainder of his life in solitude, fasting, and sleeping; an
-indolence from which he can only be roused by the intrusion of
-another animal, when a tremendous battle is the consequence.
-Though extremely irascible, the sea-bears are lovers of fair
-play, so that when two are fighting, the others form a ring, and
-remain spectators until the contest is decided. Then, however,
-they take the part of the weaker, which so enrages the victor
-that he immediately attacks the peace-makers. These in turn
-fall out, the dreadful roaring attracts new witnesses, and the
-whole ends, like an Irish wedding, with a general fight.</p>
-
-<p>Ursine seals are also found in the southern hemisphere, on
-desert coasts analogous to their residences in the north. Common
-seals and sea-otters stand in great awe of these animals,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">� 128 �</a></span>
-and shun their haunts. They again are in equal fear of the
-Leonine seals, and do not care to begin a quarrel in their
-presence, dreading the intervention of such formidable arbitrators,
-who likewise possess the first place on the shore.</p>
-
-<p>Steller's Sea-Lion, (<i>Otaria Stelleri</i>,) is about as large again as
-the sea-bear, but its tawny hide, covered with short bristles, is
-without value in the fur trade. To the Aleut, however, the
-animal is of great use, for he covers his boat with its skin,
-makes his water-tight <i>kamleika</i> with its intestines, the soles of
-his shoes with the webs of its feet, ornaments his cap with its
-long beard hair, and feasts upon its flesh. On all the coasts and
-islands of the Pacific this sea-lion is found, from 61� N. lat.
-to unknown southern limits, but nowhere in such numbers as
-on the Pribilow Island, St. George, where its countless herds
-afford a wonderful spectacle. The shapeless gigantic fat and
-flesh-masses, awkward and unwieldy on land, cover, as far as
-the eye can reach, a broad, rocky, naked strand-belt, blackened
-with oil. The sea-birds occupy the empty places between
-the herds of the sea-lions, and fly fearlessly before the gaping
-jaws of the huge monsters, without caring about their hideous
-bellowing. In countless numbers they build their nests in the
-caves of the surf-beaten cliffs, and among the large boulders on
-the shore, whose tops are whitened with their dung. A thick fog
-generally spreads over the desolate scene, and the hollow roaring
-of the breakers unites, with the screaming of the birds and
-the bellowing of the sea-lions, to form a wild and melancholy
-concert.</p>
-
-<p>Steller's sea-lion is furnished only with an erect and curly
-hair-tuft at his neck, while a complete mane flows round the
-breast of the sea-lion of the southern hemisphere, (<i>Otaria jubata</i>).
-The remainder of the body is covered with short smooth hairs,
-or bristles. The sea-lioness has no mane, and is darker than the
-male. The fore-fins have the appearance of large pieces of black
-tough leather, showing, instead of nails, slight horny elevations;
-the hind-fins, which are likewise black, have a closer resemblance
-to feet, and the five toes are furnished with small nails. A formidable-looking
-beast, eleven feet long! and well may the
-naturalist start, when, walking through the high tussack grass
-of the Falkland Islands, he suddenly stumbles over a huge sea-lion,
-stretched along the ground, and blocking up his path.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">� 129 �</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 210px;">
-<img src="images/129a.png" width="210" height="150" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Walrus, or Morse.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 205px;">
-<img src="images/129b.png" width="205" height="185" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Skull and Head of Walrus.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Arctic Walrus forms the nearest approach to the seals in
-the scale of creation, and is likewise better adapted for a marine
-life than for existence on dry land.
-But he is completely without fore-teeth,
-and his grinders have a broad
-furrowed crown, like those of the
-herbivorous animals. This difference
-of dentition points to a different
-food, and while the phoc&aelig;
-are such voracious fish-eaters that
-Sir James Ross found no less than
-twenty-eight pounds of undigested fish in the stomach of a
-southern seal, the walrus principally lives on sea-weeds and
-molluscs. The Arctic walrus or sea-horse (<i>Trichechus rosmarus</i>)
-is one of the largest mammals known, as he sometimes grows
-to the length of eighteen feet, and so thick as to measure twelve
-feet about the middle of the body. His form is very clumsy,
-having a small head, a strong elongated neck, a thick body, and
-short legs, the hind feet uniting to a broad fin. With such a
-form, no one can wonder at the clumsiness of its movements on
-land. Admiral Beechey describes the gallop of a sea-horse as
-probably the most awkward motion exhibited by the animal
-tribe, for, like a large caterpillar, the unwieldly creature alternately
-lowers and raises its head, in order to facilitate the
-bringing up of the hinder parts of the body;&mdash;no easy task,
-when we consider the immense weight of the animal, and the
-great disproportion between the length of its body and its legs.
-The upper lip, which is very thick,
-and indented or cleft into two large
-rounded lobes, furnished with thick
-yellow bristles, contributes also but
-little to its external beauty. From
-under this formidable-looking inflation
-protrude two large and long
-tusks, growing, like those of the elephant,
-from the upper jaw, but bent
-downwards, not outward and upwards,
-as is the case with the latter.
-Their uses are also very different, for while the elephant employs
-his tusks in digging up roots, the walrus raises by their assistance
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">� 130 �</a></span>
-his unwieldy body upon the ice-blocks and precipitous shores,
-where he loves to bask in the sun.    Both animals use them,
-moreover, as formidable weapons, the former against the bounding
-tiger, the latter against the hungry ice-bear or the voracious
-shark.</p>
-
-<p>In fine weather the walruses, like the seals, gather on the ice,
-where they may be seen in herds consisting occasionally of
-upwards of 100 animals each. In these situations they appear
-greatly to enjoy themselves, rolling and sporting about, and
-frequently making the air resound with their bellowing, which
-bears some resemblance to that of a bull. These diversions
-generally end in sleep, during which these wary animals appear
-always to take the precaution of having a sentinel to warn them
-of any danger to which they may be liable. So universal seems
-the observance of this precaution amongst their species, that
-Beechey, who had many opportunities of observing them in
-Spitzbergen, scarcely ever saw a herd, however small, in which
-he did not notice one of the party on the watch, stretching his
-long neck in the air every half-minute, to the utmost extent of
-its muscles, to survey the ground about him. In the event of
-any alarming appearances, the sentinel begins by seeking his
-own safety; and as these animals always lie huddled upon one
-another, the motion of one is immediately communicated to the
-whole group, which is instantly in motion towards the water.
-When the herd is large, and an alarm is given, the consequences
-are most ludicrous. From the unwieldy nature of the animals,
-the state of fear into which they are thrown, and their being so
-closely packed together, at first they tumble over one another,
-get angry, and in their endeavour to regain their feet flounder
-about in each other's way, till having at last scrambled to the
-edge of the ice, they tumble into the water, head first, if possible,
-but otherwise, in any position in which chance may have placed
-them, occasioning one of the most laughable scenes it is possible
-to conceive.</p>
-
-<p>Though the first movement of the walruses at the approach
-of danger is to seek the water, yet here, enraged by an unprovoked
-attack, they often become most formidable assailants; of
-which Beechey recounts a remarkable instance.</p>
-
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 608px;">
-<a href="images/131fplg.png"><img src="images/131fp.png" width="608" height="415" alt="" /></a>
-<div class="fig_caption">THE BOATS OF H.M.S. TRENT ATTACKED BY WALRUSES.<br />
-<span class="smaller">Click on image to view larger version.</span></div>
-</div>
-
-<p class="caption2"><a name="FPage_131" id="FPage_131">THE BOATS OF H.M.S. TRENT ATTACKED BY
-WALRUSES.</a></p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 56px;">
-<img src="images/bardot.png" width="56" height="7" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<div class="blockquot1">
-
-<p>This plate is taken from an incident narrated in the account of the voyage of
-H.M. ships Dorothea and Trent. The boat belonging to the Trent was attacked
-by a shoal of walruses, which were near swamping it; and were not driven
-off till a gigantic walrus, which appeared to be the captain of the shoal, was
-destroyed by a shot fired into its throat as represented in the engraving, the
-original of which, as published in the account of the voyage, was taken from
-a sketch by an officer present in the singular conflict.</p></div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">� 131 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>One evening, while the Dorothea and Trent were at anchor
-in Magdalena Bay, Spitzbergen, several herds of these animals
-had crawled upon the ice, to enjoy the fine weather and rest
-themselves. The boats, properly equipped, and manned with
-some of the officers and seamen, pushed off in pursuit of them.
-The first herd which was selected disappointed the sportsmen,
-but another was so intent upon its gambols, that the sentinel
-absolutely forgot his duty, and several of the crew managed to
-effect a landing upon the ice without any alarm being given to
-the animals; as soon, however, as the first musket was fired,
-the affrighted group made such a desperate rush towards the
-edge of the ice that they nearly overturned the whole of the
-assailing party, purposely stationed there to intercept them.
-The seamen, finding this charge more formidable than they
-expected, were obliged to separate to allow their opponents to
-pass through their ranks; and being thus in their turn taken by
-surprise, they suffered them, almost unmolested, to perform
-their somersaults towards the sea. What with their uncertain
-movements, the extreme toughness of their skin, and the
-respectful distance at which the men were obliged to keep, to
-avoid the lashing of the head and tusks of the animals, it was
-indeed no easy task to inflict any serious injury upon them.
-One, however, was desperately wounded in the head with a ball,
-and the mate of the brig, being determined if possible to secure
-his prey, resolutely struck his tomahawk into his skull; but the
-enraged animal, with a twist of its head, sent the weapon whirling
-in the air, and then lashing his neck, as though he would
-destroy with his immense tusks everything that came in his way,
-effected his escape to the water. The seamen followed and
-pushed off in their boats; but the walruses, finding themselves
-more at home now than on the ice, in their turn became the
-assailants. They rose in great numbers about the boats, snorting
-with rage, and rushing at the boats, and it was with the
-utmost difficulty they were prevented upsetting or staving them
-by placing their tusks upon the gunwales, or by striking at
-them with their heads. It was the opinion of the seamen that
-in this assault the walruses were led on by one animal in particular,
-a much larger and more formidable beast than any of
-the others, and they directed their efforts more particularly
-towards him; but he withstood all the blows of their tomahawks
-without flinching, and his tough hide resisted the entry of the
-whale lances, which were unfortunately not very sharp, and soon
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">� 132 �</a></span>
-bent double. The herd was so numerous, and their attacks so
-incessant, that there was not time to load a musket, which indeed
-was the only effectual mode of seriously injuring them. The
-purser fortunately had his gun loaded, and the whole now being
-nearly exhausted with chopping and striking at their assailants,
-he snatched it up, and thrusting the muzzle down the throat of
-the leader, fired into his bowels. The wound proved mortal and
-the animal fell back amongst his companions, who immediately
-desisted from the attack, assembled round him, and in a moment
-quitted the boat, swimming away as hard as they could with
-their leader, whom they actually bore up with their tusks, and
-assiduously preserved from sinking. Whether this singular and
-compassionate conduct, which in all probability was done to
-prevent suffocation, arose from the sagacity of the animals, it is
-difficult to say; but there is every probability of it, and the fact
-must form an interesting trait in the history of the habits of the
-species. After the discharge of the purser's gun, there remained
-of all the herd only one little assailant, which the seamen, out
-of compassion, were unwilling to molest. This young animal had
-been observed fighting by the side of the leader, and from the
-protection which was afforded it by its courageous patron, was
-imagined to be one of its young. This little animal had no
-tusks, but it swam violently against the boat, and struck her
-with its head, and indeed would have stove her, had it not been
-kept off by whale lances, some of which made deep incisions in
-its young sides. These, however, had not any immediate effect;
-the attack was continued, and the enraged little animal, though
-disfigured with wounds, even crawled upon the ice in pursuit of
-the seamen, who had <i>relanded</i> there, until one of them, out of
-compassion, put an end to its sufferings.</p>
-
-<p>The valuable ivory of its tusks, which is more solid, finer
-grained, and whiter than that of the elephant, exposes the
-walrus to the attacks of man, no less than his thick hide, from
-which a strong elastic leather is made, and his abundance of
-flesh and blubber. The former are sought by civilised nations,
-while the latter forms the chief food of the northern Esquimaux
-and of the Tschutchi on the western shore of Behring's Straits.</p>
-
-<p>Every year a troop of Aleuts land on the northern coast
-of the peninsula of Aliaska, where the young walruses assemble
-in great numbers during the summer, having most
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">� 133 �</a></span>
-likely been driven away by the older males from their more
-northern haunts. The walruses herd on the lowest edge of
-the coast which is within reach of the high spring-tides. When
-the Aleuts prepare to attack the animals, they take leave of
-each other as if they were going to face death, being no less
-afraid of the mighty tusks of the walruses than of the awkwardness
-of their own companions. Armed with lances and heavy
-axes, they stealthily approach the walruses, and having disposed
-their ranks, suddenly fall upon them with loud shouts, and
-endeavour to drive them from the sea, taking care that none
-of them escape into the water, as in this case the rest would
-irresistibly follow and precipitate the huntsmen along with
-them. As soon as the walruses have been driven far enough
-up the strand, the Aleuts attack them with their lances, endeavouring
-to strike at them in places where the hide is not so
-thick, and then pressing with all their might against the spear, to
-render the wound deep and deadly. The slaughtered animals fall
-one over the other and form large heaps, while the huntsmen, uttering
-furious shouts and intoxicated with carnage, wade through
-the bloody mire. They then cleave the jaws and take out the
-tusks, which are the chief objects of the slaughter of several
-thousands of walruses, since neither their flesh nor their fat
-is made use of in the colony. Sir George Simpson, in his
-"Overland Journey Round the World," relates that the bales
-of fur sent to Kjachta are covered with walrus hide; then it
-is made to protect the tea chests, which find their way to
-Moscow; and after all these wanderings, the far-travelled skin
-returns again to its native seas, when, cut into small pieces and
-stamped with a mark, it serves as a medium of exchange. The
-carcases of the wholesale slaughter are left on the shore to be
-washed away by the spring-tides, which soon erase every vestige
-of the bloody scene, and in the following year the inexhaustible
-north sends new victims to the coast.</p>
-
-<p>Kane gives us a vivid description of a walrus hunt in Smith's
-Sound, most likely the most northern point of the earth inhabited
-by man. "After a while Myouk became convinced, from signs or
-sounds, that walruses were waiting for him in a small space
-of recently open water that was glazed over with a few days'
-growth of ice, and, moving gently on, soon heard the characteristic
-bellow of a bull,&mdash;the walrus, like some bipeds, being
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">� 134 �</a></span>
-fond of his own music. The party now formed in single file,
-and moved on in serpentine approach to the recently frozen ice
-spots, which were surrounded by older and firmer ice. When
-within half a mile the line broke, and each man crawled towards
-a separate pool. In a few minutes the walruses were in sight,
-five in number, rising at intervals through the ice in a body
-with an explosive puff that might have been heard for miles.
-Two large grim-looking males made themselves conspicuous as
-leaders of the group. When the walrus is above the water, the
-hunter lies flat and motionless; as it begins to sink, he is alert
-and ready for a spring. The animal's head is hardly below the
-water line, when every man advances in rapid run, and again,
-as if by instinct, before the beast returns, all are motionless
-behind protecting knolls of ice. In this way the Esquimaux have
-reached a plate of thin ice, hardly strong enough to bear them,
-at the very brink of the pool. Myouk, till now phlegmatic,
-seems to waken with excitement. A coil of walrus hide lies by
-his side, and he grasps the harpoon, ready for action. Presently
-the water is in motion, and, puffing with pent-up respiration, the
-walrus rises before him. Myouk rises slowly, the right arm
-thrown back, the left flat at his side. The walrus looks about
-him, shaking water from his crest, Myouk throws up his left
-arm, and the animal, rising breast-high, fixes one look before he
-plunges. It has cost him all that curiosity can cost, for the
-harpoon lies buried under his left flipper." The wounded animal
-makes a desperate spring, and endeavours to lift itself upon the
-ice, which breaks under its weight. These fruitless endeavours
-give its physiognomy a still more vengeful expression; its bellowing
-degenerates into a roar, and crimson foam gathers round
-its mouth.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 313px;">
-<img src="images/134.png" width="313" height="189" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus).</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Ice-Bear (<i>Ursus
-maritimus</i>) may also be
-reckoned among the
-marine animals, as the
-sea affords him by far
-the greater part of his
-food. From the common
-bear, whom he surpasses
-in strength and
-size, as he attains a
-length of nine feet, and a height of four, he not only distinguishes
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">� 135 �</a></span>
-himself by his white sleek-haired fur, but also by a much
-longer neck. His half-webbed feet show at once that he is born for
-a sea life, and he is able to swim three miles an hour, and to dive
-for a considerable length of time. On land he runs as fast again
-as a man, and often surprises his prey, as his tread upon the snow
-is almost inaudible. He principally lives on fish, but also on
-seals, birds, foxes, reindeer, and even attacks
-man&mdash;particularly when pinched
-with hunger. But in his turn he falls
-a prey to the inhabitants of the Arctic
-regions, who eat the flesh, though it is
-very coarse, and use the skin for
-coverings of various kinds. He is a cunning hunter, though
-not always successful. Thus one sunshiny day, Admiral
-Beechey saw a large walrus rise in a
-pool of water not very far from where
-he stood. After looking around, the
-grim-visaged creature drew his greasy
-carcase upon the ice, where he rolled
-about for a time, and at length laid
-himself down to sleep. A bear, which
-had probably been observing his movements,
-crawled carefully upon the ice
-on the opposite side of the pool, and
-began to roll about also, but apparently
-more with design than amusement, progressively
-lessening the distance that intervened between him
-and his prey. The suspicious walrus drew himself up, preparatory
-to a precipitate retreat, when immediately the bear remained
-motionless, as if in the act of sleep; but after a time he began to
-lick his paws, and clean himself, and occasionally to encroach a
-little more upon his intended victim. This time, however, his
-cunning was useless, for the walrus suddenly plunged into the
-pool, and though the bear, throwing off all disguise, rushed to
-the spot and followed him in an instant into the water, he was
-most likely disappointed of a meal that would have made up for
-a long period of fasting. The ice-bear is everywhere at home
-within the Arctic circle, and particularly abounds on Spitzbergen
-and the other small islands of that sea. He sometimes comes
-floating on drift ice to the north coasts of Iceland, Norway,
-and Newfoundland, but is soon killed by the inhabitants.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 200px;">
-<img src="images/135a.png" width="200" height="90" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Seal.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 206px;">
-<img src="images/135b.png" width="206" height="216" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Arctic Walrus.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">� 136 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Manby, in his "Voyage to Spitzbergen," relates several interesting
-examples of his ferocity and daring. Having perceived
-an ice-bear swimming in the sea, a boat went after him to cut
-him off; when suddenly the monster changed his route, faced
-the boat, and approached it, keeping up a continued growling,
-with other indications of rage, such as showing his frightful
-teeth, and elevating his head and much of his body out of the
-water. Being desirous to preserve the head, Manby let him
-come within twelve yards, when he fired a ball through his
-shoulder, which deprived him of the use of a fore-leg. Roaring
-hideously, the infuriated animal pressed towards the boat in the
-most ferocious manner, endeavouring to board or upset it, but
-failed from the loss of his leg. He was then attacked by the
-crew with lances, the thrusts of some of which he avoided with
-astonishing dexterity, and, in the most resolute manner, again
-made several attempts to reach the boat; but being repulsed
-by the overpowering thrust of a lance from the harpooner on his
-flank, he was unable longer to continue the contest. He had
-bitten a lance, in the heat of the combat, with such exasperated
-rage, as to break one of his long tusks; but finding his efforts
-fruitless, he retreated towards the ice, swimming most astonishingly
-fast, considering the great propelling power he had lost,
-and finally ascended it with great difficulty, having only one
-fore-paw to assist him, when, exhausted by the effort, he fell
-down dead, uttering a tremendous growl.</p>
-
-<p>Captain Lewis, with a party of five hunters, attacked a bear,
-and when at a distance of forty yards, four of them fired, and
-each lodged a musket ball in its body, two of which passed
-directly through the lungs. The enraged animal ran at them
-with open mouth, and as it came near, the two men who
-had reserved their fire gave it two wounds, and broke its
-shoulder, which retarded its motion for a moment. But before
-they could reload, it was so near that they were obliged to run,
-and before they reached the shore the bear had almost overtaken
-them. Two jumped into the canoe, the other four separated,
-concealed themselves behind ice blocks, and firing as fast as
-they could load, struck the bear several times. But although
-eight balls had passed through its body, the bear pursued two
-of them so closely, that they were obliged to leap down a perpendicular
-bank of twenty feet into the water.   The dying
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">� 137 �</a></span>
-animal sprang after them, and was within a few feet of the
-hindermost, when his strength at last failed him.</p>
-
-<p>Scoresby relates that in 1783, Captain Cook, of the Archangel,
-of Lynn, landed on the coast of Spitzbergen, accompanied
-by the surgeon and mate. While traversing the shore, the
-captain was unexpectedly attacked by a bear, which seized him
-in an instant between its paws. At this awful juncture, when a
-moment's pause must have been fatal to him, the unfortunate
-man called to his surgeon to fire, who immediately, with admirable
-resolution and steadiness, discharged his piece, and
-providentially shot the bear through the head, thus literally
-saving the master from the jaws of death.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 475px;">
-<img src="images/137.png" width="475" height="390" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Ice-bear approaching the "Dorothea" and "Trent."</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"One evening," says Beechey, "we set on fire some sea-horse
-fat, in order to entice within reach of our muskets any bears
-that might be ranging the ice; as these animals possess a
-very keen scent, and are invariably attracted by burnt animal
-matter. About midnight we had the satisfaction of seeing one
-of them drag his huge carcass out of the water, and slowly make
-his way towards us. The sight of the tall masts of the ships
-appeared to alarm him a little at first, for he occasionally hesitated,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">� 138 �</a></span>
-threw up his head, and seemed half inclined to turn round
-and be off; but the agreeable odour of the burnt blubber was
-evidently so grateful to his olfactory nerves and empty stomach,
-that it overcame every repugnance, and gradually brought him
-within range of our muskets. On receiving the first shot he
-sprang round, uttered a terrific growl, and half raised himself
-upon his hind legs, as if in expectation of seizing the object that
-had caused him such excruciating pain; and woe to any human
-being who had at that moment been within reach of his merciless
-paws! The second and third ball left him writhing upon
-the ice, and the mate of the Dorothea jumped out of the
-vessel and endeavoured to despatch him with the butt end of a
-musket; but it unfortunately broke short off, and for a moment
-left him at the mercy of his formidable antagonist, who showed,
-by turning sharply upon his assailant, and seizing him by the
-thigh, that he was not yet mastered; and he would most certainly
-have inflicted a serious wound, had it not been for the
-prompt assistance of two or three of his shipmates who had
-followed him. The animal was by no means one of the largest
-of his species, being only six feet in length, and three feet four
-inches in height. His stomach was quite empty, with the
-exception of a garter, such as is used by Greenland sailors to tie
-up their boat stockings. In his left side there was a cicatrised
-wound of considerable magnitude. From what we saw of the
-activity and ferociousness of this animal, added to the well-known
-strength of his species, we readily gave credit to the
-accounts of Barentz and other early visitors to these regions;
-and it may be considered a fortunate circumstance for the hero
-of the Nile and Trafalgar that a natural barrier was interposed
-between him and the object of his chase, when in his youth he
-ventured alone over the ice in these regions in pursuit of such
-formidable game."</p>
-
-<p>The ferocious white bear, the enemy and the dread of all
-other animals that come within its reach, is exceedingly tender
-and affectionate to its young, of which the following anecdote
-affords a striking and interesting example. While the "Carcase"
-was locked in the ice, early one morning the man at the mast-head
-gave notice that three bears were making their way very
-fast over the frozen ocean, and were directing their course towards
-the ship. They had no doubt been invited by the scent
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">� 139 �</a></span>
-of some blubber of a sea-horse that the crew had killed a few
-days before, which had been set on fire; for they drew out of
-the flames a part of the flesh that remained unconsumed, and
-ate it voraciously. The crew from the ship threw great lumps
-of the flesh of the sea-horse, which they had still left, upon the
-ice, which the old bear fetched singly, laid every lump before
-her cubs as she brought it, and dividing it, gave to each a share,
-reserving but a small portion to herself. As she was fetching
-away the last piece, they levelled their muskets at the cubs and
-shot them both dead, and in her retreat they wounded the dam,
-but not mortally. It would have drawn tears of pity from any
-but unfeeling minds, to have marked the affectionate concern
-expressed by this poor beast in the dying moments of her expiring
-young. Though she was herself dreadfully wounded,
-and could but just crawl to the place where they lay, she carried
-the lump of flesh she had fetched away, as she had done others
-before, tore it in pieces, and laid it before them; and when she
-saw that they refused to eat, she laid her paws first upon one
-and then upon the other, and endeavoured to raise them up,
-piteously moaning all the while. When she found she could not
-stir them, she went off, and when she had got at some distance,
-looked back and moaned; and that not availing her to entice
-them away, she returned, and smelling round them, began to
-lick their wounds. She went off a second time as before, and
-having crawled a few paces, looked again behind her, and for
-some time stood moaning. But still her cubs not rising to follow
-her, she returned to them again, and with signs of inexpressible
-fondness, went round one and round the other, pawing
-them and moaning. Finding at last that they were cold and
-lifeless, she raised her head towards the ship, and uttered a
-growl of despair, which the murderers returned with a volley of
-musket balls. She fell between her cubs, and died licking their
-wounds.</p>
-
-<p>The Sea-Otter is the last of the marine mammiferous animals
-that claim our attention. Although it is also found in the
-southern Pacific, yet its chief resort is in the Behring's Sea,
-along the chain of the Aleut Islands. It is but a small animal,
-yet its long-haired, beautifully fine and black fur, which is not
-seldom paid for with 400 or 500 rubles, renders it by far the
-most important product of those seas. It has even got an historical
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">� 140 �</a></span>
-interest, since it has been the chief cause which led the
-Russians from Ochotzk to Kamtschatka, and from thence over
-the Aleut chain to the opposite
-coast of America.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 290px;">
-<img src="images/140.png" width="290" height="170" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Sea-Otter.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Aleut islanders
-show a wonderful dexterity
-in the capture of this
-animal. In April or May
-they assemble at an appointed
-spot in their light
-skin-boats, or <i>baidars</i>, and
-choose one of the most
-respected <i>tamols</i>, or chiefs, for the leader of the expedition,
-which generally numbers from fifty to a hundred boats. Such
-hunting-parties are annually organised from the Kurile Islands
-to Kadjack, and consequently extend over a line of three thousand
-miles. On the first fine day the expedition sets out, and proceeds
-to a distance of about forty wersts from the coast, when the
-baidars form into a long line, leaving an interval of about two
-hundred and fifty fathoms from boat to boat as far as a sea-otter
-diving out of the water can be seen; so that a row of thirty
-baidars occupies a space of from ten to twelve wersts. When
-the number of the boats is greater, the intervals are reduced.
-Every man now looks upon the sea with concentrated attention.
-Nothing escapes the penetrating eye of the Aleut; in the smallest
-black spot appearing but one moment over the surface of the
-waters, his experienced glance at once recognises a sea-otter.
-The baidar which first sees the animal, rows rapidly towards the
-place where the creature dived, and now the Aleut, holding his
-oar straight up in the air, remains motionless on the spot. Immediately
-the whole squadron is in motion, and the long straight
-line changes into a wide circle, the centre of which is occupied
-by the baidar with the raised oar. The otter not being able
-to remain long under water, re-appears, and the nearest Aleut
-immediately greets him with an arrow. This first attack is
-seldom mortal; very often the missile does not even reach its
-over-distant mark, and the sea-otter instantly disappears. Again
-the oar rises from the next baidar; again the circle forms, but
-this time narrower than at first; the fatigued otter is obliged to
-come oftener to the surface, arrows fly from all sides, and finally
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">� 141 �</a></span>
-the animal, killed by a mortal shot, or exhausted by repeated
-wounds, falls to the share of the archer who has hit it nearest
-to the head. If several otters appear at the same time, the
-boats form as many rings, provided their number be sufficiently
-great. All these movements are executed with astonishing
-celerity and precision, and amidst the deepest silence, which is
-only interrupted from time to time by the hissing sound of the
-flying arrows.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 225px;">
-<img src="images/141.png" width="225" height="90" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Banded Dipper.</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">� 142 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_X" id="CHAP_X">CHAP. X.</a></h2>
-
-<p class="caption2">SEA-BIRDS.</p>
-
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 165px;">
-<img src="images/142.png" width="165" height="325" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Flamingo.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">Their vast Numbers.&mdash;Strand-Birds.&mdash;Artifices of the Sea-Lark to protect its
-Young.&mdash;Migrations of the Strand-Birds.&mdash;The Sea-Birds in General.&mdash;The
-Anatid&aelig;.&mdash;The Eider Duck.&mdash;The Sheldrake.&mdash;The Loggerheaded Duck.&mdash;Auks
-and Penguins.&mdash;The Cormorant.&mdash;Its Use by the Chinese for Fish
-catching.&mdash;The Frigate Bird.&mdash;The Soland Goose.&mdash;The Gulls.&mdash;The Petrels.&mdash;The
-Albatross.&mdash;Bird-catching on St. Kilda.&mdash;The Guano of the Chincha
-Islands.</div>
-
-<p>Countless are the birds of the wood and field, of the mountain
-and the plain; and yet it is doubtful whether they equal in
-number those of the fish-teeming seas.
-For every naked rock or surf-beaten cliff
-that rises over the immeasurable deserts
-of ocean, is the refuge of myriads of sea-birds;
-every coast, from the poles to the
-equator, is covered with their legions
-and far from land, their swarms hover
-over the solitudes of the deep. Many,
-unfit for swimming, seek their food along
-the shores; others rival the fishes in their
-own native element; and others, again,
-armed with indefatigable wings, pursue
-their prey upon the high seas. But,
-however different the mode of living and
-destination of the numerous tribes, families,
-genera, and species of the sea-birds may be,
-each of them is organised in the most
-perfect manner for the exigencies of its own peculiar sphere.
-Take, for instance, the Strand-birds, that live on the margin of
-ocean, and feast upon the molluscs and sea-worms, that inhabit
-the littoral zone. How admirably the light weight of their proportionally
-small body suits
-the soft, yielding soil on
-which they have to seek their
-food; how well their long
-legs are adapted for striding
-through the mud of the shallow
-waters; and their long
-bill and flexible neck, how
-beautifully formed for seizing
-their fugitive prey, ere it
-can bury itself deep enough
-in the safe mud or sand!</p>
-
-
-<p style="clear: both;" class="caption2"><a name="FPage_142" id="FPage_142"></a>PENGUINS ON THE SOUTH POLAR ICE.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot1">
-
-<p>A scene showing the immense droves of penguins which often clothe the sea
-edges of the ice and rocks in the South Polar regions is represented in the
-annexed plate.</p>
-
-<p>The individuals in the front are of the large species known as the Great
-Penguin, <i>Aptenodytes Forsteri</i>. Beyond is a group of the lesser, but perhaps
-more beautiful, species, <i>Aptenodytes Pennantii</i>.</p>
-
-<p>In the distance are seen lines of another small kind, which has been made
-a separate genus, under the denomination of <i>Eudyptes</i>. It is inferior in characteristic
-beauty to either of the last named. <i>Eudyptes antipodes</i> is, however,
-worthy of a better representation than the dimensions of our plate permitted.</p></div>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 414px;">
-<a href="images/142fplg.png"><img src="images/142fp.png" width="414" height="612" alt="" /></a>
-<div class="fig_caption">PENGUINS ON THE SOUTH POLAR ICE.<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">� 143 �</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 270px;">
-<img src="images/143.png" width="270" height="290" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Curlew.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The wonderful art with
-which the feathered inhabitants
-of the grove construct
-their nests, we should in vain look for among the Strand-birds,
-but the anxiety they show in protecting their young brood, and
-the stratagems they use to divert the attention of the enemy,
-are after all instincts no less admirable than those which prompt
-the Cassique or the Tailor-bird to build their complicated
-dwellings. Thus on the approach of any person to its nest, the
-Lapwing flutters round his head with great inquietude, and if
-he persists in advancing, it will endeavour to draw him away by
-running along the ground as if lame, and thereby inviting pursuit.
-The Golden Plover also, when it sees an enemy&mdash;-man or
-dog&mdash;-approach, does not await their arrival, but advances to
-meet them. Then suddenly rising with a shrill cry, as if just
-disturbed from its nest, it flutters along the ground as if crippled,
-and entices them farther and farther from its young. The dogs,
-expecting to catch an easy prey, follow the lame bird, which
-suddenly, however, flies off with lightning speed, and leaves its
-disappointed pursuers on the beach. The discovery of the
-nest is rendered still more difficult by the colour and markings
-of the eggs assimilating so closely to that of the ground and
-surrounding herbage.</p>
-
-<p>The Scoopers, Oyster-catchers, Avosets, and other strand-birds
-have recourse to similar stratagems for the protection of their
-young. In New Zealand, the French naturalists, Quoy and
-Gaimard, were deceived by an oyster-catcher, which, having
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">� 144 �</a></span>
-been shot at, feigned to be wounded, and with hanging wing,
-diverted them from the right track.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 180px;">
-<img src="images/144a.png" width="180" height="140" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Avoset.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The strand-birds of the high northern
-regions fly from the winter to coasts
-where milder winds are blowing. But
-as soon as the summer's sun begins to
-exert its power, the desert shores of
-the Arctic Ocean become animated
-with swarms of plovers, sand-pipers,
-rails, herons, and phalaropes, to whom
-the thawed strand opens its inexhaustible
-supplies. Soon, however, the approach of winter
-hardens once more the soil, want follows upon abundance,
-and the whole long-legged host hastens
-to abandon the ice-bound strand, which
-opposes an impenetrable armour to their
-beaks.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 150px;">
-<img src="images/144b.png" width="150" height="210" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Plover.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The food of the different kinds of strand-birds
-varies, and consequently their bills
-are variously formed. Those that live upon
-worms have generally a long thin awl-shaped
-bill, well fitted for picking their
-prey out of the soft muddy or sandy soil.
-If the small creatures conceal themselves
-under large stones, they are secure from
-these attacks; but then comes the Turn-stone, (<i>Tringa interpres</i>,)
-who with his bill, a little turned up at the top, raises
-the stone as with a lever, and makes sad havoc amongst the
-defenceless garrison.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 215px;">
-<img src="images/144c.png" width="215" height="145" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Scissor-bill (Rhynchops nigra).</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Sea-pie uses its wedge-shaped bill for opening shell-fish
-with great adroitness; but the industry
-of the Black Skimmer or Cut-water,
-(<i>Rhynchops nigra</i>,) is still more
-remarkable. The bill of this bird,
-which chiefly inhabits the hot coasts
-of America, is quite unique in its
-kind; the under mandible, which is
-in fact nothing but a wedge, being
-about an inch longer than the upper
-one, by which it is clasped.   The sandy beach of Penco, says
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">� 145 �</a></span>
-Lesson, is full of shell-fish, which remain nearly dry at low
-water in small pools. The skimmer keeps waiting close by
-until one of them opens its shell, when he immediately introduces
-his wedge. He then seizes the mussel, beats it to pieces
-upon the sand, and devours it with all the pleasure of an epicure
-eating an oyster. He is also very active in sweeping the surface of
-the water, from which he skims, as it were, the smaller fish or
-shrimps. Thus, on all flat sandy shores nothing exists, either
-soft or hard, creeping or swimming, jumping or running, that
-does not find among the strand-birds its peculiar and admirably
-armed enemy, or that can boast of a perfect immunity from
-hostile attacks.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 380px;">
-<img src="images/145.png" width="380" height="200" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Speckled Diver.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>If we examine the real sea-birds, such as are formed for
-indefatigable swimming or diving, or for wide flights over the
-deserts of ocean, we shall find them no less wonderfully organised
-than the winged dwellers on the strand. Their short
-compressed toes easily cleave the waters, and by means of their
-membranes or webs form, as it were, broad oars. Their muscular
-short legs, placed more behind than in other birds, are beautifully
-adapted for rowing, although their movements on land
-are awkward and slow. All creatures living on the sea of course
-require a thick waterproof mantle against weather and storm;
-and consequently we find the plumage of sea birds thicker,
-closer, and better furnished with down than that of the other
-feathered tribes. And finally, the gland which all birds have at
-the rump, and from which they express an oily matter to
-preserve their feathers moist, is most considerable among those
-that live upon the water, and contributes to make their plumage
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">� 146 �</a></span>
-impermeable. Surely the sea bird has no right to complain of
-imperfect clothing or a deficient outfit!</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 180px;">
-<img src="images/146a.png" width="180" height="204" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Snow Goose.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The numerous members of the duck
-family, or the Anatid&aelig;, mostly live
-during the summer in higher latitudes,
-and wander in winter in countless swarms
-towards sunnier regions; as, for instance,
-the Snow Goose and the Barnacle.
-Some remain throughout the year in
-Great Britain, some only during the
-winter; while others, which are more
-particularly birds of the Arctic zone, but
-very seldom make their appearance in
-our southern clime. Most Anatid&aelig; prefer the lake, the river,
-the pond, or the morass; but many of them are true littoral
-birds, and spend a great part of their
-time swimming and fishing in the
-sea.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 210px;">
-<img src="images/146b.png" width="210" height="190" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Barnacle Goose.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Eider Duck, (<i>Anas mollissima</i>,)
-which attains nearly double the
-size of the common duck, inhabits the
-higher latitudes of Europe, Asia, and
-America. One of its most remarkable
-breeding places is on the small island
-of Vido� near Reikiavik (Iceland),
-where it lives under the protection of the law; a person who
-should chance to kill a breeding bird having to pay a fine of thirty
-dollars.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 185px;">
-<img src="images/146c.png" width="185" height="135" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Eider Duck.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"As our boat approached the shore,"
-says Mackenzie, ("Voyage through Iceland,")
-"we came through a multitude
-of these beautiful birds, who hardly gave
-themselves the trouble to move out of
-the way. Between the landing place and
-the house of the old governor the ground was covered with them,
-and it was necessary to walk cautiously not to tread upon their
-nests. The ganders went about with a cackle resembling the
-cooing of a pigeon, and were even more familiar than our
-common duck. Round about the house, on the garden wall, on
-the roofs, even in the inside of the huts and the chapel, they sat
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">� 147 �</a></span>
-breeding in great numbers. Those which had not been long
-upon their nest generally left it at our approach, but those
-which had more than one or two eggs remained undisturbed,
-allowed themselves to be handled, and sometimes even gently
-used their bills to remove our hand. The nests were lined with
-down, which the mother plucks from her own breast; and near
-at hand a sufficient quantity was piled up to cover the eggs
-when she goes to feed, which is generally at low water. The
-downs are twice removed, but sometimes the poor duck is
-obliged to provide for a fourth lining; and when she has no
-more to spare, the gander willingly deprives himself of part of
-his showy snow-white and rose-red garment. The eggs, which
-are considered a great delicacy, are also partially taken away.
-Our Vido� friend used to send us two hundred at a time.
-When boiled, they are tolerably good, but always very inferior
-to those of our domestic hen. When taken from the nest, the
-downs are of course mixed with feathers and straw; and to sort
-and prepare them for sale is part of the winter employment of
-the women. One nest furnishes about a quarter of a pound of
-cleaned downs. The softness, lightness, and elasticity of these
-feathers is universally known. A few handfuls of compressed
-downs suffice to fill a whole coverlet, under which the northlander
-bids defiance to the strongest winter cold. Almost as
-soon as the young have left the egg, the mother conducts them
-to the water's edge, takes them on her back, and swims a few
-yards with them, when she dives, and leaves them on the
-surface to take care of themselves. As soon as they have thus
-acquired the art of swimming, the duck returns and becomes
-their leader. The broods often unite in great numbers, and
-remain some weeks quite wild, after which they disappear.
-Long before we left Iceland not a single duck was to be seen.
-No one knows to what parts they migrate. The bird is found
-on the Flannen Islands, to the west of Lewis; it is seen on the
-Shetland and Orkney Islands; it breeds on May Island, at the
-mouth of the Frith of Forth." Even on Heligoland the eider
-duck sometimes makes its appearance, but not to breed. The
-produce of the eider duck, either for personal use or as an
-article of trade, contributes to the comforts of many northern
-nations. The Esquimaux kill these birds with darts, pursuing
-them in their little boats, watching their course by the air
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">� 148 �</a></span>
-bubbles when they dive, and always striking at them when they
-rise wearied to the surface. Their flesh is valued as food, and
-their skins are made into warm and comfortable under
-garments.</p>
-
-<p>The Long-tailed Duck and the Sheldrake or Burrow Duck,
-(<i>Anas glacialis</i> <i>tadorna</i>), likewise inhabit the northern shores
-of Europe, Asia, and America. The
-former often remains the whole year
-in the high north, bidding defiance
-to the icy winter of the Arctic circle,
-and enjoying during the summer the
-light of an uninterrupted day. Often,
-however, it migrates to the south,
-and wanders from Greenland and
-Hudson's Bay as far as New York,
-and from Spitzbergen and Iceland to Heligoland and the
-Schleswig Islands. The duck likewise lines her nest with her
-downs. During the winter, the sheldrake is often seen in
-the west of England and in Ireland, where it is caught in nets.
-On Sylt, on the Danish coast, it is half domesticated, living in
-artificial burrows, and breeding even in the villages, on walls,
-and in earth holes. In a pleasant valley among the downs,
-which, although without trees, refreshed the eye with a verdant
-carpet variegated with flowers, Naumann, the celebrated German
-ornithologist, saw thousands of sheldrakes scattered in
-couples over the meads, so tame that they could be approached
-within twenty paces, when they flew up, but soon again alighted
-on the sward. He admired the construction of the artificial
-nests, often thirteen in one cavity, with a common entrance, and
-communicating by horizontal tunnels. Over every nest is a
-perpendicular opening, decked with a sod. On this being raised
-the duck is often seen sitting on her nest, so tame that it allows
-itself to be stroked. Every householder possesses several of
-these artificial burrows, from which he daily gathers during
-several weeks from twenty to thirty eggs, leaving six in each
-nest to be hatched. He also takes care to remove one half of
-the beautiful downs, which are no less light and valuable than
-those of the eider duck.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 215px;">
-<img src="images/148.png" width="215" height="160" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Sheldrake.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>One of the most curious members of the duck family is the
-large Loggerheaded Duck or goose (<i>Anas brachyptera</i>) of the
-Falkland Islands, which sometimes weighs twenty-two pounds.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">� 149 �</a></span>
-It was formerly called, from its extraordinary manner of
-paddling and splashing upon the water, race-horse, but is now
-named, much more appropriately, steamer. Its wings are too
-small and weak to allow of flight, but by their aid, partly
-swimming and partly flapping the surface of the water, it moves
-very quickly. The manner is something like that by which the
-common house duck escapes when pursued by a dog; but Mr.
-Darwin, who often watched the bird, is nearly sure that the
-steamer moves its wings alternately, instead of both together, as
-in other birds. These clumsy logger-headed ducks make such
-a noise and splashing, that the effect is exceedingly curious.
-It is able to dive only a very short distance. It feeds entirely
-on shell-fish from the kelp and tidal rocks; and hence its beak
-and head, which it uses for the purpose of breaking them, are
-so surprisingly heavy and strong, that they can scarcely be
-fractured with a hammer.</p>
-
-<p>Another remarkable inhabitant of the southern hemisphere is
-the Rock Goose, (<i>Anas antarctica</i>,) which exclusively inhabits
-rocky shores, and is often met with on the Falkland Islands,
-and on the west coast of America, as far north as Chili. In the
-deep and retired channels of Tierra del Fuego, the snow-white
-gander, invariably accompanied by his darker consort, and
-standing close by each other on some distant rocky point, is a
-common feature in the landscape.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 215px;">
-<img src="images/149.png" width="215" height="130" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Red-Breasted Merganser.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Mergansers differ chiefly from the sea-ducks, whom they
-otherwise closely resemble both in outward form and mode of
-life, by their comparatively long and slender bill, furnished
-with serrated edges and hooked at the extremity. All
-the British species are adorned with crests, or a tuft of
-long feathers, at the back of the
-head. The red-breasted merganser
-is a beautiful bird, painted with a
-variety of gay colours. "The head
-and throat are of a rich shining green,
-the neck white, except a narrow dark
-line behind; at either side before the
-wings are numerous large white
-feathers bordered by velvet-black; the lower part of the neck
-and breast is chestnut-brown, varied with dark streaks, and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">� 150 �</a></span>
-the body and wings are elegantly diversified with white, black,
-and brown feathers." (Harvey, <i>Sea Side Book</i>.)</p>
-
-<p>The family of the Grebes and Divers approximates the duck
-tribe in the order of creation, but is distinguished by a long
-conical bill, and the position of the legs, which are placed so far
-back towards the tail, that when the bird leaves the water it is
-obliged to stand nearly erect to preserve its equilibrium. The
-foot in the grebes is only partially webbed, the toes being merely
-lobed or finned; but the divers are completely web-footed,
-like the duck. These latter do honour to their name, being
-most expert and indefatigable divers, remaining down sometimes
-for several minutes, and swimming rapidly under the
-water. The Red-throated Diver preys much on the fish entangled
-in the nets, but is often caught himself in his rapid
-pursuit of the fish; thus affording a strange example of a bird
-caught under water.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 360px;">
-<img src="images/150.png" width="360" height="325" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Great Crested Grebe.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Arctic Diver enjoys among the Norwegians the reputation
-of being a most excellent weather-prophet. When the
-skies are big with rain, the birds fly wildly about, and make the
-most horrible hoarse noise, fearing that the swelled waters
-should invade their nest; on the contrary, in fine weather, their
-note is different, and seemingly in an exulting strain.   For this
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">� 151 �</a></span>
-reason, the Norwegians, who, being mostly a maritime population,
-pay the greatest attention to the aspect of the sky, think
-it impious to destroy, or even to disturb, this species.</p>
-
-<p>The family of <i>Alcad&aelig;</i>, comprising the Guillemots, Auks,
-Razor Bills, and Puffins, is in form of body very similar to the
-Divers: the legs, which are short and thick, are inserted very
-far back, and give a still more erect carriage to the bird when
-on shore. The wings are short and small in proportion to the
-bulk of the body, and in the (now probably extinct) Great Auk,
-so much so as to be unfitted for flight. The Auks are strictly
-sea-birds, and nestle on its borders, breeding in caverns and
-rocky cliffs, and laying only one large egg. They obtain their
-food by diving, at which they are very expert. They are of
-social habits, and congregate in vast flocks on the rocky islets
-and head-lands of the northern coasts. At the head of the
-Magdalen Bay, on Spitzbergen, for instance, there is a high
-pyramidal mountain of granite, termed Rotge Hill, from the
-myriads of small birds of that name (Little Auk, <i>Alca alce</i>),
-which frequent its base, and which appear to prefer its environs
-to every other part of the harbour. They are so numerous
-that Admiral Beechey frequently saw an uninterrupted line
-of them extending full half-way over the bay, or to a distance
-of more than three miles, and so close together that thirty fell at
-one shot. This living column, on an average, might have been
-about six yards broad, and as many deep; so that allowing
-sixteen birds to a cubic yard, there must have been nearly four
-millions of birds on the wing at one time.</p>
-
-<p>The calling or crying of the rotges amongst one another
-sounds at a distance as if you heard a great many women scolding
-together; so that the noise of millions uniting in a chorus
-must be terrific. On a fine summer's day, when a glorious
-sunshine gilds the snow peaks and glaciers of Spitzbergen, the
-merry cry of the little auk unites with that of the willocks,
-divers, cormorants, gulls, and other aquatic birds; and everywhere
-groups of walruses, basking in the sun, mingle their
-playful roar with the husky bark of the seal. It is pleasant
-to reflect that in those arctic wilds, uninhabitable by man, there
-are still millions of creatures enjoying life, all owing their support
-to the inexhaustible "garners" of the deep.</p>
-
-<p>In the Penguins of the southern hemisphere, the shortness of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">� 152 �</a></span>
-wing and aptitude for swimming and diving are still more conspicuous
-than in the auks of the
-northern regions. In the water, the
-penguin makes use of its small
-featherless wing-stumps as paddles;
-on land, as fore feet, with whose
-help it scales so rapidly the grass-grown
-cliffs, as to be easily mistaken for a quadruped. When
-at sea, and fishing, it comes to the surface for the purpose of
-breathing, with such a spring, and dives again so instantaneously,
-that at first sight no one can be sure that it is not a fish leaping
-for sport. Other sea-birds generally keep part of their body out
-of the water while swimming; but this is not the case with the
-penguin, whose head alone appears upon the surface; and thus
-it swims with such rapidity and perseverance, as almost to defy
-many of the fishes to equal it. How much it feels itself at
-home on the waters, may be inferred from the fact that Sir
-James Ross once saw two penguins paddling away a thousand
-miles from the nearest land.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 255px;">
-<img src="images/152a.png" width="255" height="130" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Antarctic Penguin.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>On many uninhabited islands in the
-higher latitudes of the southern hemisphere,
-this strange bird is met with in
-incredible numbers. On Possession
-Island, for instance, a desolate rock discovered
-by Sir James Ross in lat. 71� 56&#8243;,
-not the smallest appearance of vegetation
-could be found; but inconceivable
-myriads of penguins completely and
-densely covered the whole surface of
-the island, along the ledges of the precipices,
-and even to the summits of the
-hills, attacking vigorously the sailors as they waded through
-their ranks, and pecking at them with their sharp beaks, disputing
-possession, which, together with their loud coarse notes,
-and the insupportable stench from the deep bed of guano which
-had been forming for ages, made them glad to get away again.
-Sir James took possession of the island in the name of Queen
-Victoria; but unfortunately its treasures of manure are hidden
-beyond a far too formidable barrier of ice ever to be available
-to man.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 215px;">
-<img src="images/152b.png" width="215" height="300" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Penguin.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">� 153 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Duperrey ("Voyage de la Coquille,") found the Falklands
-swarming with penguins. In summer and autumn these strange
-birds leave their burrows early in the morning, and launch into
-the sea for fishing. After having filled their capacious stomachs,
-they waddle on shore, and remain for a time congregated on the
-strand, raising a dreadful clamour; after which they retire to
-enjoy a noon-tide sleep among the high tussack grass or in their
-burrows. In the afternoon the fishing recommences. Lesson
-says that about sunset on fine summer evenings, which
-unfortunately are but of rare occurrence on those foggy, storm-visited
-islands, all the penguins together raise their discordant
-voices, so that at a distance the noise might be mistaken for
-the hoarse murmur of a great popular assembly. As soon as
-the young are sufficiently strong, the whole band leaves the
-island, departing no one knows whither, though the mariners
-frequenting those seas believe that they spend the winter on
-the ocean. This opinion seems to be corroborated by the
-observations of Sir James Ross, who, on the 4th of December,
-in 49� S. lat., met on the high sea a troop of penguins that
-were doubtless on the way to their breeding place. He
-admired the astonishing instinct of these creatures, half fish,
-half bird, which leads them hundreds of miles through the
-pathless ocean to their accustomed summer abodes.</p>
-
-<p>It may be imagined how the neighbouring seas must abound
-with fish, to be able to nourish such multitudes of penguins,
-whose stomach is capable of holding more than two pounds, and
-whose voracity is so great that they are often obliged to disgorge
-their superabundant meal. The elongated stomach reaches to
-the lower part of the abdomen, and the whole length of the
-intestinal canal is twenty-five feet, fifteen times longer than the
-body, so that nature has evidently provided for a most vigorous
-appetite, whetted by sea-bathing and sea air.</p>
-
-<p>There are several species of penguins. The largest (<i>Aptenodytes
-antarctica</i>) weighs about eighty pounds. It is a rare
-bird, generally found singly, while the smaller species always
-associate in vast numbers. In 77� S. lat., Sir James Ross caught
-three of these giant penguins, the smallest of which weighed
-fifty-seven pounds. In the stomach of one of them he found
-ten pounds of quartz, granite, and trap fragments, swallowed
-most likely to promote digestion.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">� 154 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The penguin, like his northern representative the auk, lays
-but one single egg. His not unsavoury flesh is black. Besides
-his dense plumage, he is protected against the cold of the
-higher latitudes by a thick cover of fat under his skin.</p>
-
-<p>Humboldt's penguin (<i>Spheniscus Humb.</i>) is frequently found
-in the Bay of Callao. This bird is a little smaller than the
-common grey penguin, with a somewhat differently coloured
-back and breast. The Peruvians call it <i>pajaro ni�o</i>, "little
-darling bird," and keep it in their houses; it is very easily
-tamed, gets very familiar, and follows its master like a dog.
-The sight of the fat creature, awkwardly waddling about the
-streets on its short feet, and violently agitating its wing-stumps
-to maintain its equilibrium, is inexpressibly grotesque. Tschudi
-kept one of these tame penguins, which punctually obeyed his
-call. At dinner it regularly stood like a stiff footman behind
-his chair, and at night slept under his bed. When "Pepe"
-wanted a bath, he went into the kitchen and kept striking with
-his beak against an earthen jar, until some one came to pour
-water over him.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 265px;">
-<img src="images/154.png" width="265" height="230" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Common Pelican.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>To the pelican tribe, which is generally distinguished by a
-surface of naked skin about the
-throat, capable of considerable dilatation,
-and serving as a pouch for
-the reception of unswallowed food,
-belong among others the Cormorant
-(<i>Phalacrocorax</i>), the Frigate-Bird
-(<i>Tachypetes aquila</i>), and the
-Gannet (<i>Sula bassana</i>), or Solan
-goose. All these birds are of much
-more active habits than the last
-named family, with bodies of more
-shapely form, more ample wings, and a stronger flight.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 200px;">
-<img src="images/155a.png" width="200" height="275" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Common Cormorant.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The common cormorant with his long bill, bent at the point,
-and furnished with a nail, his black livery, and yellowish chin-pouch,
-is a most disagreeable comrade. His smell, when alive, is
-more rank and offensive than that of any other bird, and his
-flesh is so disgusting, that it turns the stomach even of an
-Esquimaux. In spite of his voracity, he always remains thin
-and meagre, the picture of a hungry parasite. But fishing he
-understands remarkably well, and formerly used to be trained
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">� 155 �</a></span>
-for this purpose in England, in the same manner as a nearly
-related species is to the present day employed in China. Mr.
-Fortune thus describes this original chase,
-which he witnessed on the Yellow River:&mdash;"There
-were two boats, each containing
-one man, and about ten or twelve birds.
-The latter stood perched on the sides of
-the boats, and seemed to have just arrived
-upon the scene of action. Their masters
-now commanded them to leave the boats;
-and so excellent was their training, that
-they instantly obeyed, scattered themselves
-over the canal, and began to look
-for prey. They have a splendid sea-green
-eye, and quick as lightning they
-see and dive upon the finny tribe, which, once caught in the sharp
-notched bill, finds escape impossible. As soon as a cormorant rises
-to the surface with his prey in his bill, his master calls him, when,
-docile as a dog, he swims to the boat and surrenders the fish,
-after which he again resumes his labours. And what is more
-wonderful still, when one of them has got hold of a fish so large
-as to be with difficulty dragged to the boat, the others come to
-his assistance, and by their united strength overpower the
-sprawling giant. Sometimes when a cormorant is lazy or playful,
-and seems to forget his business, the Chinaman strikes the
-water with a long bamboo near to the dreamer, and calls out
-to him in an angry tone. Immediately the bird, like a schoolboy
-caught nodding over his lesson, gives up his play, and
-returns to his duty. A small string is tied round the neck of
-the birds, for fear they might be tempted to swallow the fish
-themselves."</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 265px;">
-<img src="images/155b.png" width="265" height="205" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Frigate-Bird.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The frigate-bird hovers over the
-tropical waters. Its singularly easy
-and graceful flight affords all the
-charm of variety. Sometimes it is
-seen balanced in mid air, its wings
-spread, but apparently motionless,
-its long forked tail expanding and
-closing with a quick alternate motion,
-and its head turned inquisitively downwards; sometimes
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">� 156 �</a></span>
-it wheels rapidly, and darts to the surface of the water in pursuit
-of prey; and then again it soars so as to be lost to vision, its elevation
-alone being sufficient to distinguish it from all other sea
-birds. Sometimes it is seen 400 leagues from land; and yet it is
-said to return every night to its solitary roost. Its expanded
-pinions measure from end to end fourteen feet, a prodigious extent
-of wings, equalling or even surpassing that of the condor, the
-lordly bird of the loftiest Andes. Being unable to swim or dive,
-it seizes the flying-fish, that, springing out of the water to avoid
-the jaws of the bonito, often falls a prey to the frigate-bird, or
-else it compels boobies or tropic birds to disgorge. On volcanic
-coasts it builds its nest in the crevices of the high cliffs, and on
-the low coral islands in the loftiest trees. In the Paumotu Group,
-Captain Wilkes saw whole groves covered with the nests of the
-frigate-bird. When the old birds flew away, they puffed up
-their red pouches to the size of a child's head, so that it looked
-as if a large bladder full of blood was attached to their neck.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 460px;">
-<img src="images/156a.png" width="460" height="170" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Flying Fish.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 266px;">
-<img src="images/156b.png" width="266" height="225" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Common Gannet.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Gannet or Soland-goose (<i>Sula Bassana</i>) haunts the Bass
-Island, a high steep rock in the Frith of Forth, whose black
-precipices are painted with dazzling
-stripes of white <i>guano</i>, the product
-of the inconceivable number of birds
-which settle upon the weather-beaten
-ledges. The gannets incubate in the
-turf of the slopes above, and you may
-sit down by them and their great
-downy young while their mates hover
-over you with discordant screams and
-almost touch you with their outspread pinions. There is but one
-landing-place, and this sole entrance to the natural fastness is
-closed by a barred gate, proclaiming that man has taken possession
-of the rock. Some years ago it was let at an annual rent
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">� 157 �</a></span>
-of thirty-five pounds. The eggs are not collected, and no old
-bird is allowed to be shot, under a penalty of five pounds; only
-the young birds are persecuted. The chase begins on the 1st of
-August. They are taken with the hand or knocked on the head
-with sticks, and sent to the Edinburgh market, where they fetch
-about half a crown a piece. The gannet breeds also on Lundy
-Island, in the Severn, on Ailsa, on the coast of Ayrshire, on the
-island of St. Kilda, and hardly anywhere else in Europe. As it
-must let itself fall before taking wing, it requires a steep and
-precipitous breeding-station. Its mode of fishing is particularly
-graceful. Rapidly skimming the surface of the sea, as soon as
-it spies a fish swimming below, it rises perpendicularly over the
-spot, and then, suddenly folding its wings, drops head-foremost
-on its prey swifter than an arrow, and with almost unerring aim.
-The prevalent colour of the full-plumaged bird is white, the
-tips of its wings only being black, and some black lines about
-the face, resembling eyebrows or spectacles. The pale yellow
-eyes are encircled with a naked skin of fine blue, the head and
-neck are buff colour, the legs black, and greenish on the fore
-part. The plumage of the young bird is very different, being
-blackish, dotted irregularly with small white specks.</p>
-
-<p>The family of the Larid&aelig;, which comprises the gulls, the
-sea-swallows, the petrels, and the albatrosses, is widely spread
-over the whole surface of the ocean. All the birds of this
-tribe have a powerful flight, and are distinguished by the
-easy grace of their motions, striking the air at long intervals
-with their wings, and generally gliding or soaring with outstretched
-pinions. Their form is handsome and well-proportioned,
-some of them resembling the swallow, others the dove;
-but their mode of life does not correspond with their beauty, as
-they are all ill-famed for their predatory habits and insatiable
-voracity. The cry of the sea-mew is peculiar, being a mixture
-of screaming and laughing. When in the solitude of a wild
-rocky coast it is heard mingling with the hoarse rolling of the
-surge and the moaning wind, it harmonises well with the character
-of the dreary scene, and produces a not unpleasing effect.
-It is amusing to witness the movements of the sea-mews at the
-mouths of the larger rivers, where they are seen in numbers,
-picking up the animal substances which are cast on shore, or
-come floating down with the ebbing tide. Such as are near
-the breakers will mount up the surface of the water, and run
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">� 158 �</a></span>
-splashing towards the crest of the wave, to get hold of the object
-of their pursuit, while others are seen every now and then diving,
-and reappearing with a fish in their bill. Sometimes the more
-powerful sea-hawk interrupts their pleasure, pounces upon the
-robbers, and scatters the screaming band.</p>
-
-<p>Many different species of gulls inhabit the northern shores,
-and various are the places which they choose for breeding.
-The Kittiwake or Tarrock (<i>Larus tridactylus</i>), one of the commonest
-sea-birds in Greenland, Iceland, the Fero�s and the
-Scotch islands, builds its sea-weed nest on the highest and most
-inaccessible rocks. According to Faber (Prodromus of Icelandic
-Ornithology), its swarms are so numerous on Grimsoe,
-that they darken the sun when they fly, deafen the ear when
-they scream, and deck the green-capped rocks with a white
-covering when they breed.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 287px;">
-<img src="images/158a.png" width="287" height="201" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Herring Gull (Young).</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>In the famous "bird-city" at the north point of Sylt, the Silvery
-or Herring-gull plays a prominent
-part. Its great size, equal to that
-of the raven, but with much longer
-wings&mdash;its agreeable form, its pure
-white plumage, of metallic brilliancy
-on the back, gradually melting into
-light ash-blue; the velvet-black ends
-of the wings, with snowy feather tips,
-the lovely yellow eye, and the deep
-yellow beak, with its coral-red spot, all this together forms a beautiful
-picture. "There we stood," says
-Naumann, "surrounded by thousands,
-that partly hovered close
-over our heads, uttering their shrill
-screams, partly stood before us in
-pairs; some on their nests, the
-males keeping guard, some sleeping
-on one leg, and others leisurely
-stretching themselves. In one
-word, one hardly knew what most
-to admire, the uncommon cleanliness
-and beauty of their plumage, the great variety and elegance
-of their attitudes, their tameness, or the immense numbers
-collected in so small a space."</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 255px;">
-<img src="images/158b.png" width="255" height="225" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Herring Gull, or Silvery Gull
-(Adult).</div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">� 159 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>In the same "bird-city," but apart from the former, breed
-also the Common Gull (<i>Larus canus</i>) which is much smaller
-and of a more slender shape, and also the Sandwich and Caspian
-Terns. It is astonishing to see how each kind of sea-bird seeks
-its particular spot for breeding; only the auks and guillemots
-herd promiscuously. What may induce the birds to meet in
-such large bodies and then always to choose some particular
-cliff? The gulls yield the fortunate possessor of their district
-an annual income of at least two hundred rix-dollars. More
-than thirty thousand of the eggs, which are larger than those
-of the turkey, are collected every year, packed up with moss in
-baskets, and sent to the market. Two or three persons are busy
-from morning till evening, during the whole season, collecting
-the eggs, and receive for their trouble those of the smaller birds,
-which may also amount to about twenty thousand. But although
-the terns appear in considerable numbers on Sylt, they have
-chosen the small flat island, Norder Oog, to the west of Pelworm,
-for their chief residence. The breeding colony of the
-Sandwich tern amounts here to at least a million of individuals,
-so that when the birds are at rest, the island, at the distance
-of a mile, resembles a white stripe in the sea; but when their
-innumerable multitudes hover above it, they seem an immense
-white rotatory cloud. The eggs lie in some places so close
-together, that it is almost impossible to walk between them
-without treading upon them; the breeding birds often touch
-one another, and would not find room, if, like all sea-swallows
-that breed socially on the coast, they did not sit in the same
-posture, with their head facing the water. It is incomprehensible
-how each bird can find its eggs; it would even seem impossible,
-did we not know the miracles of animal instinct. Their noise
-is incessant, for even during the night they keep up a continual
-and lively prattle. He who approaches them during the
-day is soon surrounded by these screamers, whose whirling
-thousand-tongued multitudes stun his senses; and these birds,
-at other times so shy, flutter so close over his head, as often to
-touch him with their wings.</p>
-
-<p>On Nowaja Semlja's ice-bound coast, on the peaks of isolated
-cliffs, and suffering no other bird in his vicinity, dwells the
-fierce imperious Burgomaster (<i>Larus glaucus</i>). None of its class
-dares dispute the authority of the lordly bird, when with unhesitating
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">� 160 �</a></span>
-superiority it descends on its prey, though in the
-possession of another. Although not numerous, yet it is the
-general attendant on the whale-fisher whenever spoils are
-to be obtained. Then it hovers over the scene of action, and
-having marked out its morsel, descends upon it and carries
-it off on the wing. On its descent, the most dainty pieces
-must be relinquished, though in the grasp of fulmar, snow-bird,
-or kittiwake.</p>
-
-<p>The larger parasitical or raptorial gulls (<i>Lestris parasiticus,
-catarrhactes</i>), are incapable of diving or plunging, their feathers
-being too large in proportion to their bulk. They are therefore
-obliged to live by the exertions of the lesser species, making
-them disgorge what they have eaten, and dexterously catching
-the rejected fish before it reaches the water. Thus we see the
-old feudal relations of baron and serf established as a natural
-institution among the gull-tribe.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 262px;">
-<img src="images/160a.png" width="262" height="165" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Broad-billed Petrel.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Although the sea-swallows and sea-mews are endowed with
-great power of wing, yet the petrels
-and albatrosses alone deserve the
-name of oceanic birds, as they are
-almost always found on the high
-seas, at every distance from land,
-and only during breeding-time seek
-the solitary coasts and islands.
-Petrels are scattered over the whole
-extent of the ocean, but the petrels
-which inhabit the northern seas are different from those of the
-antarctic ocean, and between both are other species, that never
-forsake the intertropical waters.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 255px;">
-<img src="images/160b.png" width="255" height="230" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Fork-tailed Petrel.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Fulmar (<i>Procellaria glacialis</i>)
-is at home in the high north.
-As soon as the whale-fisher has
-passed the Shetland Islands, on his
-way to the Arctic Seas, this bird is
-sure to accompany his track, eagerly
-watching for anything thrown overboard.
-Walking awkwardly on land,
-the fulmar flies to windward in the
-most terrific storms. Many thousands
-frequently accumulate round a dead whale, rushing in from all
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">� 161 �</a></span>
-quarters. The sea immediately about the ship's stern, when
-the men are engaged in skinning their gigantic prey, is sometimes
-so completely covered with them that a stone can scarcely
-be thrown overboard without striking one of them. When
-anything is thus cast among the crowd, those nearest take
-alarm, and so on, till a thousand are put in motion; but as
-in rising they strike the water with their feet, a loud and most
-irregular splashing is produced. It is amusing to observe with
-what jealousy they view, and with what boldness they attack,
-any of their species engaged in devouring the finest morsels,
-and to hear the curious chuckling noise they make in their
-anxiety for despatch, lest they should be disturbed. The voracious
-birds are frequently so glutted as to be unable to fly, in
-which case they rest upon the water until the advancement of
-digestion restores their wonted powers. They then return to
-the banquet with the same gusto as before, and although numbers
-of the species may have been killed with boat-hooks, and float
-among them, the others, nothing daunted, and unconscious of
-danger to themselves, continue their gormandising labours.
-When carrion is scarce, the fulmars follow the living whale, as
-if they had a presentiment of his future fate, and sometimes,
-by their peculiar motions while hovering on the surface of the
-water, point out to the fisherman the position of the animal.
-As their beak cannot make an impression on the dead whale
-until some more powerful creature tears away the skin, it may
-be imagined how delighted they are when man takes upon
-himself the trouble of peeling a whale for them.</p>
-
-<p>The Glacial Petrel (<i>Procellaria gelida</i>) does not seem to
-approach the pole so near as the fulmar. He appears but seldom
-in Iceland, but breeds frequently in Newfoundland. The same
-is the case with the Shearwater (<i>P. puffinus</i>), which breeds in
-great numbers on the Fero� islands, and in Orcadia. The
-tropical petrels are the least known. They do not appear
-to gather troopwise, and but seldom follow ships. Towards
-45� S. lat. the first Pintados (<i>P. capensis</i>) make their appearance,
-and are more rarely seen after having passed 60� S.
-lat. The Giant Petrel (<i>P. gigantea</i>), extends its flight as far as
-the ice-banks of the south, where the Antarctic and the Snowy
-(<i>P. antarctica et nivea</i>) Petrels first appear, birds which never
-leave those dreary seas, and are often seen in vast flocks floating
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">� 162 �</a></span>
-upon the drift ice. Thus nature has set bounds to petrels, as to
-all other creatures that swim or fly in and over the ocean, and
-has divided the wide deserts of the sea among their different
-species. Who can tell us the mysterious laws which assign to
-each of them its limits? Who can show us the invisible barriers
-they are not allowed to pass?</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 440px;">
-<img src="images/162.png" width="440" height="260" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Stormy Petrel.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Stormy Petrel (<i>P. pelagica</i>) seems to belong to every
-sea.   It is about the size of a swallow, and in its general appearance
-and flight is not unlike that bird. Although the smallest
-web-footed bird known, it braves the utmost fury of the tempest,
-often skimming with incredible velocity the trough of the waves,
-and sometimes gliding rapidly over their snowy crests. Like all
-of its kind, it lives almost constantly at sea, and seeks during
-the breeding season some lonely rock, where it deposits in some
-fissure or crevice its solitary egg.</p>
-
-<p>The mode of life of the petrels corresponds but little with
-their external beauty; they are in fact the crows of the ocean,
-and live upon the dead animal substances floating on its surface.
-Wherever the carcase of a whale, borne along by the current,
-covers the sea with a long stripe of putrid oil, they are seen
-feasting in the polluted waters. All petrels have the remarkable
-faculty of spouting oil of a very offensive smell, from their
-nostrils when alarmed, and this apparently as a means of
-defence.</p>
-
-<p>The Albatross (<i>Diomedea exulans</i>) is the monarch of the high
-seas; the picture of a hero, who, under every storm of adverse
-fortune, preserves the immoveable constancy of an undaunted
-heart. Proud and majestic, he swims along in his own native
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">� 163 �</a></span>
-element, and without ever touching the water with his pinions,
-rises with the rising billow, and falls with the falling wave.
-It is truly wonderful how he bids
-defiance to the fury of the unshackled
-elements, and how quietly he
-faces the gale. "He seems quite
-at home," say the sailors; and indeed
-this expression is perfectly
-characteristic of his graceful ease as
-he hovers over the agitated ocean.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 275px;">
-<img src="images/163.png" width="275" height="225" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Wandering Albatross.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The albatross exceeds the swan in
-size, attains a weight of from 12lbs.
-to 28lbs., and extends his wings from
-ten to thirteen feet. His plumage is white and black, harmonising
-with the wave-crest and the storm-cloud.   For weeks and months
-together he is seen to follow the course of a ship; but, according
-to Mr. Harvey (Sea Side Book), "the time he can remain on
-the wing seems to have been much exaggerated, for although,
-like the gull and the petrel, he is no diving-bird, he swims
-with the greatest ease; and notwithstanding the enormous
-length of his pinions, knows well how to rise again into the
-air.   He is indeed unable to take wing from a narrow deck,
-but when he wishes to rise from the sea, he runs along flapping
-the waters until he has acquired the necessary impetus, or meets
-with a wave of a sufficient height, from whose lofty crest he
-starts as from a rocky pinnacle, and resumes his extensive flight
-over an immense expanse of ocean." A short-winged species
-frequents the waters of Kamtschatka and Japan; but the
-<i>wandering</i> albatross (<i>D. exulans</i>) belongs more particularly to
-the southern hemisphere, being rarely seen to the north of 30�
-S. lat., and appearing more frequently as the higher latitudes
-are approached. The regions of storms&mdash;the Cape of Good
-Hope and Cape Horn&mdash;are his favourite resorts, and all travellers
-know that the southern point of Africa is not far distant as soon as
-the albatrosses show themselves in larger numbers. These birds
-are the vultures of the ocean; their crooked sharp-edged beak
-is better adapted to lacerate a lifeless prey, than to seize upon
-the rapid fish as it darts swiftly along below the surface of
-the waters. From a vast distance they smell the floating carcase
-of a whale, and soon alight in considerable numbers upon the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">� 164 �</a></span>
-giant carrion. They also feed upon the large cephalopods
-that inhabit mid-ocean, and remains of these molluscs are
-generally found in their stomach. The Auckland and Campbell
-islands seem to be two of their favourite breeding-stations.
-When Sir James Ross visited these secluded groups, the birds
-were so assiduously breeding as to allow themselves to be
-taken with the hand. The nest is built of sand mixed with
-dried leaves and grasses, generally eighteen inches high, with
-a diameter of twenty-seven inches at the surface, and of six feet
-at the base. While breeding, the snow-white head and neck of
-the bird project above the grasses, and betray it from afar.
-On endeavouring to drive it from its eggs it defends itself valiantly,
-snapping with its beak. Its greatest enemy is a fierce
-raptorial gull (<i>Lestris antarcticus</i>), which is always on the look-out,
-and, as soon as the albatross leaves the nest, shoots down
-upon it to steal the eggs.</p>
-
-<p>Swift flies the albatross, but fancy travels with still more rapid
-wings through the realms of space, and leads us suddenly from
-the lone islands of the Pacific to the north of another hemisphere.
-Saint Kilda rises before us&mdash;a glorious sight when the last rays
-of the setting sun, as he slowly sinks upon the ocean, light up
-with dazzling splendour the towering cliffs of the island, which
-one might almost fancy to be some huge volcano newly emerged
-from the deep, or the impregnable bulwark of some enchanted
-land. St. Kilda, one of the most striking examples of the grandest
-rock-scenery, plunges on all sides perpendicularly into the sea,
-so that although six miles in circumference, it affords but one
-single landing-place, accessible only in fair weather. Four of
-the promontories are perforated, and as many large caverns are
-formed, through which the sea rolls its heaving billows. From
-the eastern extremity, which rises nearly perpendicularly to the
-height of 1380 feet, and is supposed to be the loftiest precipice
-in Britain, the view is of indescribable sublimity. Far
-below, the long heavy swell of the ocean is seen climbing up
-the dark rock, whose base is clothed with sheets of snow-white
-foam. In many places the naked rock disappears under the
-myriads of sea-birds sitting upon their nests; the air is literally
-clouded with them, and the water seems profusely dotted with
-the larger fowl, the smaller ones being nearly invisible on account
-of the distance.   Every narrow ledge is thickly covered
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">� 165 �</a></span>
-with kittiwakes, auks, and guillemots; all the grassy spots are
-tenanted by the fulmar, and honey-combed by myriads of
-puffins; while close to the water's edge on the wet rocks, which
-are hollowed out into deep recesses,
-sit clusters of cormorants, erect and
-motionless, like so many unclean
-spirits, guarding the entrance of some
-gloomy cave.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 240px;">
-<img src="images/165a.png" width="240" height="140" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Black Guillemot.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>On rolling down a large stone from
-the summit, a strange scene of confusion
-ensues. Here, falling like a
-thunderbolt on some unfortunate fulmar sitting upon its nest,
-it crushes the poor creature in an instant; then rolling down
-the crags, and cutting deep furrows
-in the grassy slopes, it scatters in
-dismay the dense groups of auks and
-guillemots. Its progress all along
-is marked by the clouds of birds,
-which affrighted shoot out from the
-precipice to avoid the fate to which
-nevertheless many fall a prey, until
-at length it reaches the bottom along
-with its many victims. The scared
-tenants of the rock now return to their resting-places, and all
-is again comparatively quiet.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 230px;">
-<img src="images/165b.png" width="230" height="184" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Common Puffin.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Several species of gulls are of common occurrence on St.
-Kilda: <i>Larus marinus</i>, <i>fuscus</i>, <i>canus</i>, and <i>tridactylus</i>. The
-last, or kittiwake, is the most abundant; a social bird, choosing
-the most inaccessible spots. On disturbing a colony of kittiwakes,
-most of the birds leave their nests and fly about the
-intruder, uttering incessantly their clamorous but not unmusical
-cry. The noise from a large flock is almost deafening; the
-flapping of their wings and their loud screams, joined to the
-deep guttural notes of the passing gannets, and the shrill tones
-of the larger gulls, form a combination of sounds without a
-parallel in nature. Probably on account of its vigilance, the
-kittiwake is not pursued by the fowler.</p>
-
-<p>The fulmar breeds in almost incredible numbers on St. Kilda
-(the only place in Britain where he is found), and is to the
-natives by far the most important production of their barren
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">� 166 �</a></span>
-land. On the crest of the highest precipices, and only on such
-as are furnished with small grassy shelves, on every spot above
-a few inches in extent, the fulmars have taken possession of the
-rock. On being seized, they instantly disgorge a quantity of clear
-amber-coloured oil, which imparts to the whole bird, its nest
-and young, and even the very rock which it frequents, a peculiar
-and very disagreeable odour.</p>
-
-<p>Fulmar oil is one of the most valuable productions of St.
-Kilda. The best is obtained from the old bird by surprising it
-at night upon the rock, and tightly closing the bill until the
-fowler has seized the bird between his knees with its head downwards.
-By opening the bill, the fulmar is allowed to eject
-about a table-spoonful, or rather more, of oil into the dried
-gullet or stomach of a solan-goose. The islanders use fulmar oil
-for their lamps, and consider it as an infallible remedy against
-chronic rheumatism.</p>
-
-<p>It is chiefly in pursuit of the fulmar that the St. Kildian often
-endangers his life. Two of the fowlers generally proceed in
-company, each furnished with several coils of rope, about half an
-inch in diameter. One of them fastens one of the ropes under
-his arm-pits, and holding the extremity of another rope in one
-hand, is lowered down the cliff. His comrade stands a little
-away from the edge, holding the supporting rope firmly with
-both hands and letting it out very slowly, while he allows the
-other, or guide-rope, to slip out as is required from under one
-foot, which loosely secures it. On reaching a ledge occupied
-by birds, the fowler commences his operations, easily securing
-the eggs and young birds, and knocking down the old ones with
-a short stick, or catching them by a noose attached to a long
-slender rod. He then secures his sport by bundling the birds
-together, and tying them to a rope let down from above, depositing
-at the same time in a small basket the eggs he has gathered. The
-dexterity of these rocksmen is truly astonishing. The smallest
-spot is considered by them as a sufficiently secure standing-place,
-and they will creep on hands and knees, though cumbered with
-a load of birds, along a narrow ledge, seemingly without concern
-for their personal safety. When exhibiting before strangers, a
-precipice about six hundred feet high, overhanging the sea, at
-a short distance from the village, is generally chosen for a display
-of their agility. About midway they strike against the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">� 167 �</a></span>
-rock, and rebound twelve feet or more with all the agility of a
-tight-rope dancer.</p>
-
-<p>The Gannet, or Solan-goose, which abounds in the north of
-Scotland and on the numberless islands and rocky fiords which
-line the Norwegian coast, likewise congregates in vast numbers
-about St. Kilda, from whence a portion of them take their departure
-every morning to fish for herrings, their favourite food,
-in the bays and channels of the other Hebrides, the nearest of
-which is about fifty miles distant. This bird is very select in
-the choice of its breeding-places, which it occupies to the total
-exclusion of every other species. None are to be found in Hirta,
-but the island of Borreray is almost entirely occupied with
-them, as are also the adjacent rocks, Stack Ly and Stack Narmin.
-These cliffs are remarkable for their pointed summits and towering
-height, and appear, even from the distance of many miles,
-as if they were covered with snow, the deceptive appearance
-being caused by the myriads of gannets with which the rock is
-thickly covered, as well as the dense clouds of these white-plumed
-birds passing and repassing in the neighbourhood of
-their nests. Petrels, shearwaters, puffins, guillemots, and auks,
-are also very abundant about the weather-beaten cliffs of St.
-Kilda.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 400px;">
-<img src="images/167.png" width="400" height="310" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Puffin.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 165px;">
-<img src="images/168a.png" width="165" height="220" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Auk.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>If we consider that similar bird-republics are to be found on
-almost every rocky coast or surf-beaten cliff of the northern
-seas, we must needs be astonished at the inexhaustible prodigality
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">� 168 �</a></span>
-of Nature, which covers desolate rocks with such a profusion
-of life. The vast number of sea-birds is the more
-surprising, as many species, such as the
-guillemot, the auk, the fulmar, and the
-puffin, lay but one single egg on the naked
-rock, and often in so precarious a situation,
-that it is almost inconceivable how
-breeding can take place. When the birds
-are surprised and suddenly fly off, many of
-the eggs tumble down into the surf. Sea-eagles,
-falcons, and raptorial gulls destroy
-a great number, and pounce upon the
-young; thousands fall a prey to the rigours
-of an Arctic winter; the spring-tides
-sweeping over low shores, often carry away whole generations
-at once, and many a maritime population lives entirely upon
-the sea-fowl that breed upon the sterile soil. And yet, in spite
-of so many enemies and persecutions, their numbers remain
-undiminished, nor has their importance ever ceased in the
-domestic economy of the rude islanders of the north.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 575px;">
-<img src="images/168b.png" width="575" height="312" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Sea-Fowl Shooting.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>But however valuable the eggs and the oil, the feathers and the
-flesh of the hyperborean bird-republics may be to man, they are
-far from equalling in importance the guano producing sea-fowl of
-the tropical seas. This inestimable manure, which has become
-so indispensable to the British agriculturist, is found scattered
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">� 169 �</a></span>
-over numerous localities in the intertropical regions. It abounds
-on many of the rocky islets of the Red Sea, where the life-teeming
-waters afford sustenance to innumerable sea-gulls, cormorants,
-and pelicans; but its most widely celebrated stores cover the small
-Chincha Islands, not far from Pisco, about a hundred miles to the
-south of Callao, where they form enormous layers 50 or 60 feet deep.</p>
-
-<p>The upper strata are of a greyish-brown colour, which lower
-down becomes darker; and in the inferior strata the colour is a
-rusty red, as if tinged by oxide of iron. The guano becomes
-progressively more and more compact from the surface downwards,
-a circumstance naturally accounted for by the gradual
-deposit of the strata and the increasing superincumbent weight.
-As is universally known, guano is formed of the excrements of
-different kinds of marine birds; but the species which Tschudi,
-the celebrated Peruvian traveller, more particularly enumerates
-are&mdash;<i>Larus modestus</i> (Tschudi), <i>Rhynchops nigra</i> (Linn.),
-<i>Plotus anhinga</i> (Linn.), <i>Pelecanus thayus</i> (Mol.), <i>Phalacrocorax
-Gaimardii</i> and <i>albigula</i> (Tsch.), and chiefly the <i>Sula
-variegata</i> (Tsch.).</p>
-
-<p>The immense flocks of these birds, as they fly along the coast,
-appear like a�rial islands; and when their vast numbers, their
-extraordinary voracity, and the facility with which they procure
-their food are considered, we cannot be surprised at the magnitude
-of the beds of guano which have resulted from the uninterrupted
-accumulations of countless ages. During the first year
-of the deposit the strata are white, and the guano is then called
-<i>Guano blanco</i>. In the opinion of the Peruvian cultivators, this
-is the most efficacious kind. As soon as the dealers in guano
-begin to work one of the beds, the island on which it is formed
-is abandoned by the birds. It has also been remarked that, since
-the increase of trade and navigation, they have withdrawn from
-the islands in the neighbourhood of the ports. Under the empire
-of the Incas, the guano was regarded as an important branch
-of state economy. It was forbidden, on pain of death, to kill
-the young birds. Each island had its own inspector, and was
-assigned to a certain province. The whole distance between
-Arica and Chaucay, a length of two hundred nautical miles, was
-exclusively manured with guano. These wise provisions have
-been entirely forgotten by the Spaniards, but the Peruvians now
-begin to discover the error of their former masters, and look
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">� 170 �</a></span>
-forward with anxiety to the period when the guano will no longer
-suffice for the wants of husbandry. At the present day they use
-it chiefly in the cultivation of maize and potatoes. A few weeks
-after the seeds begin to shoot, a little hole is made round each
-root and filled up with guano, which is afterwards covered with a
-layer of earth. After the lapse of twelve or fifteen hours, the
-whole field is laid under water, and left in that state for about
-half a day. Of the guano blanco a less quantity suffices, and the
-field must be more speedily and abundantly watered, otherwise the
-roots would be destroyed. The effect of this manure is incredibly
-rapid. In a few days the growth of the plant is doubled; if the
-manure is repeated a second time, but in smaller quantity, a rich
-harvest is certain;&mdash;at least the produce will be three times
-greater than that which would have been obtained from the unmanured
-soil. The uniformity of climate, along a coast where
-rain is <i>never</i> known to fall, contributes essentially to the superior
-quality of the Chincha guano, as atmospherical precipitations
-naturally dissolve and wash away many of the most fertilising
-salts.</p>
-
-<p>The consumption of guano in Western Europe, and particularly
-in England, increases with surprising rapidity. On the
-island of Iquique a layer thirty feet deep, and covering a space
-of 220,000 square feet, has been entirely removed within twenty-seven
-years. In the year 1854, 250,000 tons were dug in the
-Chincha Islands, and the actual annual exportation amounts to
-double the quantity. The digestive functions of the Sula and
-her companions thus bring in <i>larger</i> sums to the Peruvian
-Government than all the silver mines of Cerro de Pasco, and
-the transport of the guano employs larger fleets than ever Spain
-possessed at the brightest period of her power.</p>
-
-<p>"The Chincha Islands," says Castelnau (<i>Exp�dition dans les
-Parties Centrales de l'Am�rique du Sud</i>; Paris, 1851), "are
-completely desert and devoid of vegetation; their granite soil
-is clearly distinguished by its colour from the thick stratum
-of guano with which it is covered, and the surface of
-which looks at a distance like snow. The steep banks render
-landing difficult, but facilitate at the same time the shipping of
-the produce, as the vessels lie at anchor close to the pits.
-Digging takes place at three places, close to one another, and
-the traveller has only to compare the enormous deposits with
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">� 171 �</a></span>
-the smallness of the excavations, which at some distance are
-hardly perceptible, to convince himself of the inexhaustible
-supply. Some huts have been constructed on the island, where,
-in the midst of ammoniacal effluvia, some Peruvian customhouse
-officers and soldiers superintend the working of the
-guano-mines."</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 410px;">
-<img src="images/171.png" width="410" height="222" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Birds of Passage.</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">� 172 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_XI" id="CHAP_XI">CHAP. XI.</a></h2>
-
-<p class="caption2">THE REPTILES OF THE OCEAN.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">The Saurians of the Past Seas.&mdash;The Anatomical Structure of the Turtles.&mdash;Their
-Size.&mdash;Their Visits to the Shores.&mdash;The Dangers that await their Young.&mdash;Turtles
-on the Brazilian Coast.&mdash;Prince Maximilian of Neuwied and the
-Turtle.&mdash;Conflicts of the Turtles with Wild Dogs and Tigers on the Coast of
-Java.&mdash;Turtle-catching on Ascension Island.&mdash;Tortoise-shell.&mdash;The Amblyrhynchus
-cristatus.&mdash;Marine Snakes.&mdash;The Great Sea-Snake.</div>
-
-
-<p>There was a time when the reptiles were the monarchs
-of the sea, when the ocean swarmed with gigantic saurians,
-tyrants of the fishes, combining the swiftness
-of the dolphin with the rapacity of the
-crocodile. Had those monsters of the deep
-been endowed with human intelligence,
-they would most likely also, with human
-arrogance, have boasted of an eternal sway.
-For where in the whole ocean was the
-enemy that could cope with them? Did
-not all beings flee wherever they appeared?
-and did not the inexhaustible sea promise
-them an everlasting supply of food?</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 170px;">
-<img src="images/172.png" width="170" height="518" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Ichthyosaurus.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>But in spite of their colossal power, the
-saurians, like all created beings, have been
-forced to succumb to time.</p>
-
-<p>Centuries and centuries passed on, the
-sea and air gradually changed, the temperature
-of the elements no longer remained
-the same, and thus by degrees a new ocean
-and a new atmosphere were formed, uncongenial
-to the nature of those huge reptiles.
-Thus they have been effaced from the roll
-of living things, and some petrified remains
-alone bear testimony to their former
-existence.</p>
-
-<p>The most powerful saurians of the present day&mdash;the crocodile
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">� 173 �</a></span>
-the gavial and the alligator&mdash;have left to the dolphins, the
-sharks, and other monstrous or swiftly-swimming cetaceans
-and fishes the dominion of the seas, and now merely infest
-the rivers and swamps of the tropical zone. The lizards also
-have long since retired from the scene where they once
-abounded, and the ocean at present harbours no other reptiles
-in its bosom than turtles and sea-snakes.</p>
-
-<p>Most of the animals belonging to this class are either dangerous
-or of a disgusting appearance. Few creatures are objects
-of such universal abhorrence as the crocodile&mdash;the very
-type of brutal cold-blooded ferocity; as the venomous snake&mdash;the
-emblem of perfidy and ingratitude; or as the loathsome,
-but innocent toad, to which, on account of its ugliness, noxious
-properties have been ascribed which the poor animal does not
-possess. The frogs, lizards, and turtles alone seem to have
-escaped this general detestation, either from their more active
-habits, or their well-known harmlessness, or their various utility
-to man.</p>
-
-<p>The anatomy of the turtle offers many points of interest; its
-vertebr&aelig;, ribs, and breast-bone growing together so as to form a
-bony envelope round the whole animal. This harness is covered
-by the skin, which in its turn is bedecked with large scales, while
-all the muscles and other soft parts are enclosed in the inner
-cavity. Only the head, feet, and tail protrude through openings
-between the upper and under carapace, and these can, by the
-land tortoises at least, be withdrawn entirely under the former.
-This is the only protection which Nature has afforded these
-animals against their enemies, for they have neither swiftness of
-flight, nor any offensive weapon at their command. But as soon
-as anything suspicious approaches, they conceal themselves
-under their massive cover, and oppose to every attack by tooth
-or nail the passive resistance of an impenetrable shield. Most
-of their enemies find it, besides, no easy task to turn them on
-their back, as many species attain a very considerable weight, so
-that their mere bulk constitutes a good defence. It might be
-supposed that this protection could only avail for a short time,
-as the want of air must soon force the animal to stretch its head
-out of its hiding-place, and this indeed would be the case, if kind
-Nature had not taken her measures against this emergency, by
-giving the creature a <i>cold</i> blood, so that it can remain a very
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">� 174 �</a></span>
-long time without breathing; long enough, at least, to tire the
-patience of the most obstinate foe.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 675px;">
-<img src="images/174.png" width="675" height="505" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Skeleton of Tortoise.</div>
-
-<div><span class="smcap">A</span>, superior maxilla; <span class="smcap">B</span>, inferior maxilla; <span class="smcap">C</span>, ossiculum auditus;
-<span class="smcap">D</span>, os hyoides; <span class="smcap">E</span>, cervical vertebr&aelig;; <span class="smcap">F</span>, dorsal vertebr&aelig;;
-<span class="smcap">G</span>, sacrum; <span class="smcap">H</span>, caudal vertebr&aelig;; <span class="smcap">I</span>, dorsal ribs;
-<span class="smcap">K</span>, marginal scales; <span class="smcap">N</span>, scapula; <span class="smcap">O</span>, coracoid bone;
-<span class="smcap">P</span>, os humeri; <span class="smcap">Q</span>, radius; <span class="smcap">R</span>, ulna;
-<span class="smcap">S</span>, bones of the carpus; <span class="smcap">T</span>, metacarpal bones; <span class="smcap">U</span>, digital phalanges;
-<span class="smcap">V</span>, pelvis; <span class="smcap">W</span>, femur; <span class="smcap">X</span>, tibia; <span class="smcap">Y</span>, fibula;
-<span class="smcap">Z</span>, tarsus; <span class="smcap">�</span>, metatarsus; <span class="smcap">A.V.</span>, phalanges of the foot.</div>
-</div>
-
-
-<p>But how comes it, the reader may ask, that respiration, which
-pours a warm current through our veins, fails in raising the
-temperature of the turtle's blood?</p>
-
-<p>Without entering into a lengthened description of the human
-heart, I shall merely observe that it consists of two halves (each
-half being again subdivided into two separate chambers), and
-that the right half, which receives venous blood and pours it
-into the lungs, is completely separated by a partition from the
-left half, which receives arterial or a�rated blood from the lungs,
-and propels it into every part of the body. Thus the two different
-kinds of blood are completely separated, so that an
-<i>unmixed</i> venous blood flows into the lungs, where it is converted
-by the oxygen of the air into arterial blood. But this connection,
-like most chemical processes, takes place under an evolution of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">� 175 �</a></span>
-heat, which is so considerable that our internal temperature
-constantly maintains itself at the height of 98� F.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 430px;">
-<img src="images/175a.png" width="430" height="405" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Theoretic Representation of the Circulation in
-Mammals and Birds.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 399px;">
-<img src="images/175b.png" width="399" height="313" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Theoretic Representation of the Circulation in Reptiles.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>But the turtle's heart is differently formed, consisting, as the
-annexed theoretic representation shows, of but one ventricle and
-two auricles, so that a <i>mixed</i>, or only half a�rated blood circulates
-throughout the body, which naturally produces a torpidity of the
-whole vital process. Besides, the lungs of the reptiles are incapable
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">� 176 �</a></span>
-of a�rating so great a quantity of blood as ours, as their cells
-are much larger, thus offering less surface to the action of the air;
-and finally, the ribs of the turtles being immovable, they are incapable
-of extending the lungs, so that the animal is absolutely
-obliged to swallow the necessary supply of air, and to pump it, as
-it were, into the lungs, by contracting the muscles of the throat.
-Thus we see that every precaution has been taken to reduce respiration
-to a low standard, and prevent the evolution of heat. With
-this indolence of its cold-blooded circulation, the whole nature
-of the animal is in harmony; the bluntness of its senses, its want
-of intelligence, its slow movements, and its long endurance of
-hunger, thirst, and want of air. It leads but a drowsy dream-like
-existence, and yet, we may be sure, it is far from unhappy,
-for all its functions and organs agree perfectly one with the other,
-and when concord reigns, enjoyment of some kind must exist.</p>
-
-<p>The turtles are distinguished from the land tortoises particularly
-by their large and long fin-shaped feet, and also by a
-longer tail, which serves them as a rudder. They have no teeth,
-but the horny upper jaw closes over the lower like the lid of a
-box, thus serving them as excellent shears, either for crushing
-shells or dividing the tough fibres of the sea-grass.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 230px;">
-<img src="images/176.png" width="230" height="102" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Green Turtle.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>They are at home in all the warmer seas, but sometimes they
-are carried by oceanic streams far away from their accustomed
-haunts. Thus, in the year 1752,
-a Green turtle, six feet long, and
-weighing 900 pounds, stranded near
-Dieppe; and in 1778 another, seven
-feet long, on the coast of Languedoc.
-One taken on the coast of Cornwall
-in July, 1756, measured from the
-tip of the nose to the end of the shell, six feet nine inches, and
-the weight was supposed to be nearly 800 pounds. These few
-examples show us that the turtles rank among the larger inhabitants
-of the ocean, although they are far from attaining the
-fabulous proportions assigned to them by Pliny (who makes the
-Indians use their shells as boats or roofs), or the enormous size
-of some colossal extinct species, such as the fossil tortoise from
-the Siwala hills, preserved in the East Indian Museum, which
-measures twelve feet in length. They live almost constantly at
-sea, partly on shell-fish, like the fierce Loggerhead turtle
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">� 177 �</a></span>
-(<i>Testudo Caretta</i>), partly on sea-grass, like the Green turtle
-(<i>T. Midas</i>), and only go on shore during the warmest months
-of the year, for the purpose of laying
-their eggs.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 234px;">
-<img src="images/177.png" width="234" height="152" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Loggerhead Turtle.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"We followed the monotonous sea-coast,"
-says Prince Maximilian of
-Neuwied, in his interesting "Travels
-through the Brazils;" "our
-two soldiers, a Negro and an Indian,
-frequently stopping to dig turtle-eggs
-out of the sand, which, boiled in sea-water,
-used to form our evening repast. Once, while they were
-busy gathering drift-wood for cooking, we found at a small
-distance from our fire an enormous turtle busy laying her eggs.
-We could not possibly have met with anything more agreeable;
-the creature seemed to have crawled there for the express
-purpose of providing for our supper. Our presence did not
-discompose her in the least; she allowed herself to be touched,
-and even raised from the ground, for which purpose four men
-were required. During our loud deliberations on her future
-fate, she gave no other sign of uneasiness than a blowing sound,
-and continued to work slowly with her hind fins, throwing up
-the earth at regular intervals.</p>
-
-<p>"One of the soldiers stretched himself out at full length on the
-ground near the purveyor of our kitchen, inserted his arm into the
-earth-hole, and threw out the eggs as they were laid by the
-turtle. In this manner above a hundred were collected in about
-ten minutes. A council was now held as to the means of adding
-the beast to our collection, but as it would have required an
-additional mule for the transport, we gave it its life. These
-colossal turtles&mdash;Midas, Coriacea, and Caretta&mdash;especially choose
-these desert coasts for the laying of their eggs. They emerge
-from the sea in the dusk of evening, and then crawl back again
-into the water one or two hours after the setting of the sun.
-Thus also the friendly turtle, which had so abundantly provided
-for our wants, disappeared after a short time; we found the large
-hole filled up, and a broad trace in the sand showed that the
-animal had again retreated to its favourite element. The Midas
-is said to lay from ten to twelve dozen, and the Coriacea from
-eighteen to twenty dozen eggs at once."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">� 178 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The wild sand coast of Bantam (Java) is annually frequented
-by a large number of turtles. They are often obliged to creep
-over nearly a quarter of a mile of the beach, before finding at
-the foot of the sand-dunes a dry and loose soil fit for their purpose;
-and on this journey, which for them is a very long one, they
-have many dangers to encounter. Hundreds of their skeletons
-lie scattered about the strand, many of them five feet long, and
-three feet broad; some bleached and cleaned by time, others still
-half filled with putrid intestines, and others, again, quite fresh
-and bleeding. High in the air a number of birds of prey wheel
-about, scared by the traveller's approach. Here is the place
-where the turtles are attacked by the wild dogs. In packs of
-from twenty to fifty, the growling rabble assails the poor sea-animal
-at every accessible point, gnaws and tugs at the feet and
-at the head, and succeeds by united efforts in turning the huge
-creature upon its back. Then the abdominal scales are torn off,
-and the ravenous dogs hold a bloody meal on the flesh, intestines,
-and eggs of their defenceless prey. Sometimes, however, the
-turtle escapes their rage, and dragging its lacerating tormentors
-along with it, succeeds in regaining the friendly sea. Nor
-do the dogs always enjoy an undisturbed repast. Often
-during the night, the "lord of the wilderness," the royal tiger,
-bursts out of the forest, pauses for a moment, casts a glance over
-the strand, approaches slowly, and then with one bound, accompanied
-by a terrific roar, springs among the dogs, scattering
-the howling band like chaff before the wind. And now it is
-the tiger's turn to feast, but even he, though rarely, is sometimes
-disturbed by man. Thus, on this lonely, melancholy coast, wild
-dogs and tigers wage an unequal war with the inhabitants of the
-ocean.</p>
-
-<p>The cold-blooded turtle is obliged to confide the hatching of
-her eggs to the sun, which generally accomplishes the task in three
-weeks. On creeping out of the egg, the young, even those of
-the largest species, are not larger than half-a-crown and of a
-white colour. Unprotected by a parent's tenderness, the poor
-little creatures seem only to be born for immediate death. Their
-first instinctive movements are towards the element for which
-they are destined; slowly they drag themselves towards the
-water, but the sea meets them with a rough embrace, and the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">� 179 �</a></span>
-unmerciful waves generally throw them back again upon the
-shore. Here they are attacked by great sea-birds, storks and
-herons, against which, in spite of their smallness, they make
-feeble efforts of defence, or by still more powerful beasts of
-prey; and thus the greater part of the unfortunate brood is
-destroyed at its very first entrance into life; while those which
-reach the sea, are generally devoured by sharks and other sharp-toothed
-fishes. It is therefore not in vain that the turtle lays
-four or five hundred eggs in the course of a single summer, for
-were she less fruitful, the race would long since have been extinguished.</p>
-
-<p>I need hardly mention, that the flesh of the green turtle is
-everywhere esteemed as a first-rate delicacy. The king of the
-Manga Reva Islands in the South Sea keeps them in a pen for
-the wants of his table; and the London alderman is said to
-know no greater enjoyment than swallowing a basin of turtle soup.
-Hence it is no wonder that the mariner, tired of salt-beef
-and dried peas, persecutes them on all the coasts of the tropical
-seas, wherever solitude, a flat beach, and a favourable season
-promise to reward his trouble.</p>
-
-<p>Bernardin de St. Pierre gives us the following picturesque
-description of turtle-catching on Ascension Island;&mdash;"Fire-wood,
-a kettle, and the great boat-sail were landed, and the
-sailors lay down to sleep, as the turtles do not emerge from the
-sea before night-fall. The moon rose above the horizon and
-illumined the solitude, but her light, which adds new charms to
-a friendly prospect, rendered this desolate scene more dreary
-still. We were at the foot of a black hillock, on whose summit
-mariners had planted a great cross. Before us lay the plain,
-covered with innumerable blocks of black lava, whose crests,
-whitened by the drippings of the sea-birds, glistened in the
-moonbeam. These pallid heads on dark bodies, some of which
-were upright, and others reclined, appeared to us like phantoms
-hovering over tombs. The greatest stillness reigned over this
-desolate earth, interrupted only from time to time by the breaking
-of a wave, or the shriek of a sea-bird. We went to the
-great bay to await the arrival of the turtles, and there we lay
-flat upon the sand in the deepest silence, as the least noise
-frightens the turtles, and causes them to withdraw. At last we
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">� 180 �</a></span>
-saw three of them rising out of the water, and slowly creeping
-on shore, like black masses. We immediately ran up to the
-first, but our impatience caused it to drop immediately again
-into the sea, where it escaped our pursuit. The second, which
-had already advanced too far, was unable to retreat; we turned
-it on its back. In this way we caught about fifty turtles, some
-of which weighed five hundred pounds. Next morning, at ten,
-the boat came to fetch the produce of our nocturnal sport.
-This work occupied us the whole day, and in the evening the
-superfluous turtles were restored to the sea. If suffered to
-remain a long time on their back, their eyes become blood-red,
-and start out of their sockets. We found several on
-the strand that had been allowed to perish in this position, a
-cruel negligence, of which thoughtless sailors are but too often
-guilty."</p>
-
-<p>In the sea, also, the turtles are pursued by man. In the clear
-West Indian waters, where they are frequently seen at great
-depths, feeding on the sea-grass meadows, divers plunge after
-them and raise them to the surface. Sometimes they are harpooned,
-or even caught sleeping on the waters.</p>
-
-<p>The ancient Romans, who spent such extravagant sums upon
-dishes repugnant to our taste, seem to have had but little relish for
-turtle flesh, which otherwise the conquerors of the world might
-easily have obtained from the Red Sea; for though we read that
-Vitellius feasted upon the brains of pheasants, and the tongues
-of nightingales, it is nowhere mentioned, that he ever, like the
-Lord Mayor of London, set seven hundred tureens of turtle
-soup before his guests.</p>
-
-<p>On the other hand, they made a very extensive use of tortoise-shell,
-the produce of the Hawk's-bill turtle (Testudo
-imbricata) a native both of the American
-and Asiatic seas, and sometimes, but more rarely,
-met with in the Mediterranean. The flesh
-of the animal is not held in any estimation as a
-food, but the plates of the shell being thicker,
-stronger, and cleaner than those of any other
-species, render it of great importance as an article
-of trade.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 130px;">
-<img src="images/180.png" width="130" height="169" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Hawk's-bill Turtle.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"Carvilius Pollio," says Pliny, "a man of great invention in
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">� 181 �</a></span>
-matters pertaining to luxury, was the first who cut the plates of
-the tortoise for veneering or inlaying." The Romans imported
-large quantities of this precious article from Egypt, and under
-the reign of Augustus, the wealthy patricians used even to inlay
-the doors and columns of their palaces with it. When Alexandria
-was taken by Julius C&aelig;sar, the warehouses were so full of
-tortoise-shell that the conqueror proposed to make it the principal
-ornament of his triumph.</p>
-
-<p>The use of tortoise-shell for the decoration of houses and furniture
-is long since out of fashion, but it is still in great request
-for the making of combs and boxes. By steeping it in boiling
-water it softens, and may then, by a strong pressure, be moulded
-into any form. When a considerable extent of surface is required,
-different pieces must be joined together. This is done
-by scraping thin the edges of the pieces to be united, and laying
-them over each other while they are in the heated and softened
-state; strong pressure being then applied, they become completely
-agglutinated. It is in this way that gold, silver, and
-other metals for different ornaments are made to adhere to
-tortoise-shell.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>When, at the beginning of the chapter, I mentioned that the
-lizards had entirely forsaken the ocean, I forgot that the Galapagos
-Islands in the South Sea, right under the Equator,
-exclusively possess a maritime animal of this kind, which, from
-its being the sole existing representative, or dwindled descendant
-of the giant oceanic saurians of yore, is far too interesting
-to be passed unnoticed. This lizard is extremely common
-on all the islands throughout the Archipelago. It lives exclusively
-on the rocky sea-beaches, and is never found,&mdash;at
-least Mr. Darwin never saw one,&mdash;even ten yards inshore. It is
-a hideous-looking creature, of a dirty black colour, stupid and
-sluggish in its movements. The usual length of a full-grown
-one is about a yard, but there are some even four feet long.
-These lizards were occasionally seen some hundred yards from
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">� 182 �</a></span>
-the shore, swimming about; and Captain Collnett, in his "Voyage,"
-says they go out to sea in shoals to fish. With respect to
-the object, Mr. Darwin believes he is mistaken; but the fact, stated
-on such good authority, cannot be doubted. When in the water
-the animal swims with perfect ease and quickness by a serpentine
-movement of its body and flattened tail; the legs, during
-this time, being motionless and closely collapsed on its sides.
-A seaman of the "Beagle" sank one with a heavy weight attached
-to it, thinking thus to kill it directly; but when an hour
-afterwards he drew up the line the lizard was quite active.
-Their limbs and strong claws are admirably adapted for crawling
-over the rugged and fissured masses of lava, which every where
-form the coast. In such situations a group of six or seven of
-these hideous reptiles may oftentimes be seen on the black
-rocks, a few feet above the surf, basking in the sun with outstretched
-legs.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Darwin opened the stomach of several, and in each case
-found it largely distended with minced sea-weed, of a kind growing
-at the bottom of the sea, at some little distance from the coast.
-The nature of this lizard's food, as well as the structure of its
-tail, and the certain fact of its having been seen voluntarily
-swimming out at sea, absolutely prove its aquatic habits; yet
-there is in this respect one strange anomaly, namely, that when
-frightened it will not enter the water. From this cause it is
-easy to drive these lizards down to any little point overhanging
-the sea, where they will sooner allow a person to catch hold of
-their tail than jump into the water. They do not seem to have
-any notion of biting; but when much frightened they squirt a
-drop of fluid from each nostril. One day Mr. Darwin carried one
-to a deep pool left by the retiring tide, and threw it in several
-times as far as he was able. It invariably returned in a direct
-line to the spot where he stood. It swam near the bottom with
-a very graceful and rapid movement, and occasionally aided
-itself over the uneven ground with its feet. As soon as it arrived
-near the margin, but still being under water, it either
-tried to conceal itself in the tufts of sea-weed, or it entered some
-crevice. As soon as it thought the danger was past, it crawled
-out on the dry rocks and shuffled away as quickly as it could.
-Mr. Darwin several times caught this same lizard by driving it
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">� 183 �</a></span>
-down to a point, and, though possessed of such perfect powers
-of diving and swimming, nothing could induce it to enter the
-water; and as often as he threw it in, it returned in the manner
-above described.</p>
-
-<p>Perhaps this singular piece of apparent stupidity may be
-accounted for by the circumstance that this reptile has no
-enemy whatever on shore, whereas at sea it must often fall
-a prey to the numerous sharks. Hence, probably urged by a
-fixed and hereditary instinct that the shore is its place of safety,
-whatever the emergency may be, it there takes refuge. On a
-comparison of this singular animal with the true iguanas, the
-most striking and important discrepancy is in the form of the
-head. Instead of the long pointed narrow muzzle of those
-species, we have here a short obtusely truncated head, not so
-long as it is broad; the mouth consequently is capable of being
-opened to only a very small extent. From this circumstance,
-and from the crest on its head, it has received the Latin name
-of <i>Amblyrhynchus cristatus</i>.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>The serpent race, which thrives so abundantly in the tropical
-forests and morasses, has also its marine representatives in the
-Indian and Pacific Oceans, where more than fifty species of
-Hydrophis, Pelamys, and Chersydra have been found. They
-are distinguished from their terrestrial relations by the flattened
-form of their tail, the planes of which being directed vertically
-give it the properties of a powerful oar, in striking
-the water by lateral oscillations. These sea-snakes
-always appear to prefer calms, swimming
-on the still surface in an undulating manner,
-never raising the head much from the surface,
-or vaulting out of the water. They dive with
-facility on the approach of danger, but do not
-appear to be particularly timid.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 136px;">
-<img src="images/183.png" width="136" height="205" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Water-Snake.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Pelamys bicolor is very common from
-India to Otaheite. In the seas of Mindoro and
-Sooloo, Mr. Adams saw thousands swimming on the top of the
-water, especially in eddies and tide-ways where the ripple
-collects numerous fish and medus&aelig;, which principally constitute
-their prey.   Their tongue is white and forked, differing in
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">� 184 �</a></span>
-respect of its colour from the tongue of other snakes, which is
-generally black. The water-snakes, which are frequently
-beautifully banded, and as thick as a man's leg, are said to be
-highly venomous. Captain Cook, in one of his voyages, "saw
-abundance of water-snakes, one of which was coming up the
-side of our ship, and our men beat it off. The Spaniards
-affirm there is no cure for such as are bit by them; and one
-of our blacks happened to fall under that misfortune, and died
-notwithstanding the utmost care was taken by our surgeons to
-recover him."</p>
-
-<p>Such are the <i>real</i> sea-snakes as they are met with by ordinary
-travellers, while <i>the great sea-serpent</i>, which from time to time
-dives up in the columns of the newspapers, must, until better
-evidence be brought forward for its existence, be banished to
-those dim regions peopled by unicorns, griffins, krakens, and
-tailed men.</p>
-
-<p>Olaus Magnus, it is true, speaks of the great sea-snake as if
-it made its daily appearance on the Norwegian coast. According
-to him, it inhabits the rocky caves near Bergen, and
-wanders forth at night, particularly by moonshine, to commit its
-depredations by sea and land; as calves and pigs seem to suit
-its appetite as well as fishes and lobsters. The body is covered
-with scales, a long mane flows along the neck, and the head,
-furnished with two glistening eyes, rises like a mast out of the
-water. It often attacks ships, and picks up seamen from the
-deck. This description may serve as an example of the boldness
-with which authors have sometimes asserted the most
-extravagant things.</p>
-
-<p>The Greenland missionary Egede tells us in his Journal, that
-"on the 6th of July, 1734, there appeared a very large and
-frightful sea-monster, which raised itself so high out of the
-water that its head reached above our main-top. It had a
-long sharp snout, very broad flappers, and spouted water like a
-whale. The body seemed to be covered with scales, the skin
-was uneven and wrinkled, and the lower part was formed like a
-snake. After some time the creature plunged backwards into
-the water, and then turned its tail up above the surface, a
-whole ship-length from the head."</p>
-
-<p>It is hard to disbelieve so pious and excellent a man, whose
-excited fancy no doubt gave extraordinary forms and dimensions
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">� 185 �</a></span>
-to some commoner sea-animal of large size; but the testimony
-of a Scoresby, who during his frequent Arctic voyages never
-saw anything of the kind, would have been more convincing.</p>
-
-<p>If to this account of Egede be added the reports of some
-other northern divines, such as Pontoppidan, the missionary
-Nicholas Gr&aelig;mius, and Maclean, who either pretend to have
-actually seen the monster or write about it from hearsay&mdash;and
-the testimony of a few seamen, among others of Captain
-M'Quhae of the D&aelig;dalus, who, on the 6th of August, 1848,
-saw a sea-snake on his homeward voyage from the East Indies;
-we have all the evidence extant in favour of the existence of
-the monstrous animal.</p>
-
-<p>In opposition to these testimonies, incredulous naturalists beg
-to remark, that no museum possesses a single bone of the huge
-snake, and that its body has nowhere been found swimming on
-the ocean or cast ashore. They therefore agree with Professor
-Owen in regarding the negative evidence, from the utter absence
-of any recent remains, as stronger against their actual existence
-than the positive statements which have hitherto weighed with
-the public mind in favour of their reality; and believe that a
-larger body of evidence from eye-witnesses might be got
-together in proof of the reality of ghosts than in proof of the
-existence of the great sea-serpent.</p>
-
-<p>The plain truth seems to be that lines of rolling porpoises,
-resembling a long string of buoys, first gave origin to the
-marvellous stories of the fabulous monster. For, keeping in
-close single file, and progressing rapidly along the calm surface
-of the water by a succession of leaps or demivaults forward,
-part only of their uncouth forms appears to the eye, so as to
-resemble the undulatory motions of one large serpentiform
-animal.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">� 186 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_XII" id="CHAP_XII">CHAP. XII.</a></h2>
-
-<p class="caption2">THE MARINE FISHES.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">General Observations on Fishes.&mdash;Their Locomotive Organs.&mdash;Tail.&mdash;Fins.&mdash;Classification
-of Fishes by Cuvier.&mdash;Air-Bladder.&mdash;Scales.&mdash;Beauty of the
-Tropical Fishes.&mdash;The Gills.&mdash;Terrestrial Voyages of the Anabas and the
-Hassar.&mdash;Examples of Parental Affection.&mdash;Organs of Sense.&mdash;Offensive
-Weapons of Fishes.&mdash;The Sea-Wolf.&mdash;The Shark.&mdash;The Saw-Fish.&mdash;The Sword-Fish.&mdash;The
-Torpedo.&mdash;The Star-Gazer.&mdash;The Angler.&mdash;The Ch&aelig;todon Rostratus.&mdash;The
-Remora, used for catching Turtles.&mdash;Defensive Weapons of
-Fishes.&mdash;The Weever.&mdash;The Stickleback.&mdash;The Sun-Fish.&mdash;The Flying-Fish.&mdash;The
-numerous Enemies of the Fishes.&mdash;Importance and History of the Herring
-Fishery.&mdash;The Pilchard.&mdash;The Sprat.&mdash;The Anchovy.&mdash;The Cod.&mdash;The Sturgeons.&mdash;The
-Salmon.&mdash;The Tunny.&mdash;The Mackerel Family.&mdash;The Eel.&mdash;The
-Murey.&mdash;The Conger.&mdash;The Sand-Launce.&mdash;The Plectognaths.&mdash;The Sea-Horse.&mdash;The
-Pipe-Fish.&mdash;The Flat-Fishes.&mdash;The Rays.&mdash;The Fecundity of Fishes.</div>
-
-
-<p>The bosom of the ocean is full of mysteries; it conceals a whole
-world of curiously-shaped animals, which the naturalist only
-superficially knows, and may, perhaps, never be able to fathom.
-To observe the habits of terrestrial animals, and accurately to
-determine their various species, is a comparatively easy task;
-but the denser element in which fishes live prevents us from
-following their motions with exactness, from studying their
-instincts, and from noting with fidelity their specific differences.</p>
-
-<p>Since Pliny, who mentions but seventy-four different kinds of
-fishes, the number of known species has indeed enormously increased.
-The ancients, who knew only the waters of the Mediterranean
-and a very small part of the ocean, had no conception
-of the finny multitudes inhabiting the tropical and icy seas;
-but although modern science has succeeded in describing and
-picturing above eight thousand different kinds of fishes, yet
-there can be no doubt that many still unknown species dwell in
-the depths of ocean, or in the distant seas which are but seldom
-visited by the European mariner.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">� 187 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>If the whole economy of the world of fishes were opened to
-our view, the magnificent picture would, no doubt, give us additional
-reasons for admiring the infinite wisdom of the Creator;
-but the little we do know suffices to convince us that the
-same wonderful harmony existing between the anatomical
-structure and the outward relations or mode of life in birds and
-mammiferous quadrupeds is also to be found in fishes, and that
-these creatures, though occupying a lower grade in Creation, are
-no less beautifully adapted to the peculiar element in which
-they are destined to live and move.</p>
-
-<p>This strikes us at once in their external form, which, though
-subject to great variety, being sometimes spherical as in the
-globe-fish, or cubical as in the ostracion, or expanded as in the
-skate, or snake-like as in the eel, is generally that of an elongated
-oval, slightly compressed laterally, a shape which enables
-the fishes to traverse their native fluid with the greatest celerity
-and ease. We wisely endeavour to imitate this peculiar form
-in the construction of our ships, yet the rapidity with which the
-fastest clipper cleaves the waters is nothing to the velocity of an
-animal formed to reside in that element. The flight of an
-arrow is not more rapid than the darting of a tunny, a salmon,
-or a gilt-head through the water. It has been calculated that a
-salmon will glide over 86,400 feet in an hour, that it will
-advance more than a degree of the meridian of the earth in a
-day, and that it could easily make the tour of the world in some
-weeks, were it desirous of emulating the fame of a Cook or of
-a Magellan. Every part of the body seems exerted in this
-despatch; the fins, the tail, and the motion of the whole backbone
-assist progression; and it is to this admirable flexibility of
-body, which mocks the efforts of art, that fishes owe the
-astonishing rapidity of their movements.</p>
-
-<p>Whales and dolphins move onwards by striking the water
-in a vertical direction, while fishes glide along by laterally
-curving and extending the spine. In some species, such as the
-eel, the whole body is flexible; but most of them paddle away
-with their tail to the right and left, and are thus driven forwards
-by the resistance of the water. Consequently the power of
-fishes is chiefly concentrated in the muscles bending the spine
-sideways, and generally we find these parts so much developed
-as to form the greatest part of the body.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">� 188 �</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 551px;">
-<img src="images/188.png" width="551" height="239" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Skeleton of the Perch.<br />
-
-<span class="smcap">A</span> <span class="smcap">A</span>, Dorsal Fins; <span class="smcap">B</span>, Caudal; <span class="smcap">C</span>, Anal; <span class="smcap">D</span>, Ventral; <span class="smcap">E</span>, Pectoral.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The fins are the most important auxiliary organs of locomotion
-in fishes. The dorsal, caudal, and anal fins serve by their
-vertical position to increase the extent of the rowing surface,
-and to maintain the animal's balance, while the pectoral and
-ventral fins, which must be considered as the representatives of
-the fore and hind limbs of other vertebrata, are, moreover, of
-great assistance in directing its movements. With the help of
-these organs, fishes can advance or retrograde, ascend or descend
-in the water as they please, and it is curious to observe how,
-alternately extending or contracting one fin or the other, they
-gracefully plough the liquid element in every direction.</p>
-
-<p>It is no less wonderful how perfectly the size and texture of
-the fins corresponds with the habits and necessities of the
-different species of fishes. Those which traverse vast portions
-of the ocean, or have frequently to struggle against swelling
-waves, are furnished with large and strong fins, while these organs
-are soft in the species which confine themselves to greater
-depths, where the winds cease to disturb the waters.</p>
-
-<p>From the great variety which is met with both in the number
-and position of the fins, they are also of the greatest use in the
-classification of fishes, and afford the naturalist many of the
-chief characters which serve to distinguish the several orders,
-families, genera, and species of these aquatic vertebrates.<a name="FNanchor_13" id="FNanchor_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[M]</a></p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_13" id="Footnote_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13"><span class="label">[M]</span></a> Cuvier divides the fishes into:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-<p>I. Chondropterygii&mdash;Skeleton cartilaginous; fins supported by cartilaginous
-rays; and</p>
-<p>II. Osteopterygii&mdash;Skeleton composed of true bone.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">� 189 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The Chondropterygii are subdivided into three orders:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-<p>(<i>a</i>) Sturionid&aelig; (sturgeons), with free gills.</p>
-<p>(<i>b</i>) Selacii (rays, sharks), with gills fixed and a mouth formed for mastication.</p>
-<p>(<i>c</i>) Cyclostomata (lamprey, myxine), with gills fixed and a mouth formed for
-suction.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>The osseous fishes, which are far more numerous, are subdivided into six
-orders:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-<p>(<i>a</i>) Acanthopterygii; distinguished by the stiff spines which constitute the
-first fin-rays of the dorsal fin, or which support the anterior fin of the back in
-case there are two dorsals. In some cases the anterior dorsal fin is only represented
-by detached spines. The first rays of the anal fin are likewise spinous,
-as well as the first ray of the ventral fin. To this extensive order, which comprises
-about three-fourths of the osseous fishes, belong, among others, the
-families of the perches, gurnards, mackerels, mullets, breams, gobies, blennies,
-&amp;c.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>The three following orders of the osseous fishes have the rays that support the
-fins soft and composed of numerous pieces articulated with each other, with the
-exception in some cases of the first ray of the dorsal, or of the pectoral. Their
-leading character is afforded by the situation or absence of the ventral fin, which
-in the</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-<p>(<i>b</i>) Malacopterygii abdominales are suspended beneath the abdomen, and
-behind the pectorals; in the</p>
-<p>(<i>c</i>) Malacopterygii subbrachiales beneath the pectorals; and in the</p>
-<p>(<i>d</i>) Malacopterygii apodes are totally wanting.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>To the abdominal soft-rayed fishes belong the herring, salmon, pike, sly, and
-carp families; to the subbrachial, the cod family, the side-swimmers, and the lump
-fishes; and, finally, to the apodal malacopterygians, the single family of the
-anguilliform fishes. The small order of the</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-<p>(<i>e</i>) Lophobranchi comprises the pipe-fishes, sea-horses, in whom the gills are
-not pectinated, as in the preceding subdivisions, but consist of little round tufts;
-and, finally, the</p>
-<p>(<i>f</i>) Plectognathi&mdash;comprising the file, porcupine, and sun fishes&mdash;are distinguished
-by their maxillaries and premaxillaries being joined immovably to each
-other, so as to render the upper jaw incapable of protrusion.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">� 190 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-<p>Most fishes possess a remarkable accessory organ of locomotion
-in the air-bladder or swim-bladder which extends to a
-greater or smaller distance along the ventral surface of the
-spine, and enables them voluntarily to increase or diminish the
-specific gravity of their body. When they contract this remarkable
-gas-reservoir, or press out the included air by means of the
-abdominal muscles, the bulk of the body is diminished, its
-weight in proportion to the water is increased, and the fish
-swims easily at a greater depth. The contrary takes place on
-relaxing the tension of the abdominal muscles; and thus we
-see fishes rise and fall in their denser element by the application
-of the same physical law which is made use of by our
-a�ronauts, to scale the heavens or to descend again upon the
-earth. Those fishes which are destined to live at the bottom of
-the sea or to conceal themselves in the mud, such as eels and
-skates, have either no air-bladder or a very small one&mdash;for
-economical Nature gives none of her creatures any organ that
-would be useless to them. Even the slimy glutinous matter
-which is secreted from the pores of most fishes, and lubricates
-their bodies, assists them in gliding through the waters, so that
-no means have been neglected to promote the rapidity of their
-movements.</p>
-
-<p>The skin of fishes is but seldom naked; in most species it is
-covered with scales, that sometimes appear in the form of
-osseous plates, as in the ostracions, or project into formidable
-prickles, as in the porcupine-fish, but generally offer the aspect
-of thin lamin&aelig;, overlapping each other like the tiles of a roof,
-and embedded, like our nails, in furrows of the skin. In nearly
-all the existing fishes, the scales are flexible and generally either
-of a more or less circular form (<i>cycloid</i>), as in the salmon,
-herring, roach, &amp;c., or provided with comb-like teeth projecting
-from the posterior margin (<i>ctenoid</i>), as in the sole, perch, pike,
-&amp;c.; while the majority of fossil fishes were decked with hard
-bony scales, either rhomboidal in their form, of a highly
-polished surface, as in our sturgeons (<i>ganoid</i>), and arranged in
-regular rows, the posterior edges of each slightly overlapping
-the anterior ones of the next, so as to form a very complete
-defensive armour to the body; or irregular in their shape and
-separately imbedded in the skin (<i>placoid</i>), as in the sharks and
-rays of the present day.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 320px;">
-<img src="images/190.png" width="320" height="175" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Portion of Skin of Sole highly magnified.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The scales of almost any fish afford admirable subjects for
-microscopic observation, but more particularly those of the
-ctenoid kind, which exhibit a brilliancy of reflected light, and a
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">� 191 �</a></span>
-regularity of structure, such as no human mosaic could ever
-equal.</p>
-
-<p>Many of our European fishes are richly decorated with vivid
-colours, but their scaly raiment is generally far from equalling
-the gorgeous magnificence of the fishes of the tropical seas.</p>
-
-<p>If in the birds of the equatorial zone a part of the plumage
-sparkles with a gem-like brilliancy, all the colours of the rainbow
-combine to decorate the raiment of the tropical fishes, and
-no human art can reproduce the beauty of their metallic lustre,
-which at every movement in the crystalline waters exhibits to
-the enchanted eye new combinations and reflections of the
-most splendid tints.</p>
-
-<p>The gaudiest fishes live among the coral reefs. In the tepid
-waters, where the zoophytes, those sensitive flowers of the ocean,
-build their submarine palaces, we find the brilliant Chetodons,
-the gorgeous Balistin&aelig;, and the azure Glyphysodons gliding
-from coral branch to coral branch like the playful Colibris, that
-over the Brazilian fields dart from one lustrous petal to another.</p>
-
-<p>Oxygen is as necessary to fishes and other marine creatures as
-it is to the terrestrial animals, but as they are obliged to draw
-it from a denser element, which absorbs but a small volume of
-air, their gills are necessarily differently constructed from the
-lungs of the creatures breathing in the atmosphere. In most
-species, comprising all the bony fishes, and the sturgeons,
-among those which have a cartilaginous skeleton, we find on
-either side of the throat five apertures, separated from each
-other by four crooked, parallel and unequal bones, and leading
-to a cavity, which is closed on the outside by an operculum or
-cover. In this cavity, and attached to the bones, are situated the
-delicate membranes, bearded like feathers, which serve to a�rate
-the blood. The water constantly flows through the gills in one
-direction, entering by the branchial apertures of the throat, and
-emerging through the operculum. This is, in more than one
-respect, a most wise provision of Nature; for if the fishes were
-obliged to receive and reject the water by the same aperture,
-as we do the air, each expiration would evidently drive them
-backwards, and consequently retard their movements. It is
-also evident that the delicate fringes or folds of the gills would
-soon get into disorder if the water were carried through them in
-two opposite directions.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">� 192 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>In most of the cartilaginous fishes, such as the sharks, rays,
-and lampreys, the gills are differently formed, the water not
-passing into a cavity closed by a cover, but flowing directly outwards
-through five (in the shark) or seven (in the lamprey)
-vents or spiracles. In these species also the gills are fixed, their
-margins being attached. Though the whole breathing apparatus
-of a fish is comprised in a small compass, its surface, if fully
-extended, would occupy a very considerable space; that of the
-common skate, for instance, being equal to the surface of the
-human body. This single fact may convince us of the numberless
-ramifications and convolutions of the gills, in which the
-water is elaborated and attenuated in the course of giving out
-its air; and how wonderfully Nature has contrived to effect her
-purpose with the greatest economy of space.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 320px;">
-<img src="images/192.png" width="320" height="270" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Theoretic representation of the Circulation in Fishes.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Respiration is a species of combustion, and this must necessarily
-be very slow in an element which contains so small a
-portion of oxygen.   No wonder that the circulation of the blood
-in fishes is equally tardy. Their heart, in comparison with <i>ours,
-is but half a one</i>, as it merely serves to force the venous blood
-into the gills&mdash;whence the a�rated blood does not flow back to
-the heart as with us, to be rapidly and strongly propelled through
-the body, but proceeds immediately to the arteries. Evidently
-only a cold blood could be formed under such circumstances. It
-may seem strange that, when fishes are taken out of the water, they
-die from want of air; such, however, is the case. Their delicate
-breathing membranes collapse in the atmosphere, the blood can
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">� 193 �</a></span>
-no longer flow as before into the innumerable small vessels with
-which they are interwoven, and, by rapidly drying in the air,
-they soon entirely lose the faculty of breathing. Thus those
-fishes whose gill-cover has a large aperture, die soonest in the
-air, while those where the opening is narrow, and more particularly
-those species where the gills communicate with a
-cellular labyrinth containing water, which serves to keep them
-moist, are able to live a much longer time in the atmosphere.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 510px;">
-<img src="images/193a.png" width="510" height="240" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">The Anabas of the Dry Tanks.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 375px;">
-<img src="images/193b.png" width="375" height="345" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Frog-Fish.&mdash;(Cheironectes.)</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>It is owing to such a moistening apparatus that <i>the climbing
-fishes</i> (Anabas) live for days out of the water, and even creep up
-the trees at some distance from the shore, to catch the insects
-which serve them as food&mdash;a curious instance indeed of an
-animal seeking its nourishment in another element.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">� 194 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The Frog-fish of the Asiatic islands and the Southern hemisphere
-is not more remarkable for its hideous deformity than for
-its capacity of leading a terrestrial life. Not only can it live
-several days out of the water but it can crawl about the room in
-which it is confined, a facility which it owes to the great strength
-and the peculiar position of its pectoral fins, which thus perform
-the office of feet. The whole aspect of these grotesque-looking
-creatures, particularly in a walking position, is so much like
-that of toads or frogs, that a careless observer would at first
-be at some loss to determine their real nature.</p>
-
-<p>A no less wonderful pedestrian is the Hassar (<i>Doras costata</i>),
-a South American fish, that marches over land in search of
-water, travelling a whole night when the pools dry up in
-which it commonly resides. It projects itself forwards on its
-bony pectoral fins, by the elastic spring of the tail, exerted
-sidewise, and in this manner proceeds nearly as fast as a man
-will leisurely walk. The strong scuta or bands which envelop
-its body must greatly facilitate its march, in the manner of
-the plates under the belly of serpents, which are raised and
-depressed by a voluntary power, in some measure performing
-the office of feet. The Indians say justly that these fishes
-supply themselves with water for their journey. If they find
-the pools and rivers everywhere dried up, they bury themselves
-in the mud, and fall into a kind of asphyxia or lethargy, till
-the rainy season recalls them again to life.</p>
-
-<p>The hassar is also remarkable for a parental affection, almost
-unexampled among fishes. Sir Richard Schomburgk relates that
-it not only builds a complete nest for its spawn but also watches
-over it with the utmost vigilance till the young brood comes
-forth. In April, this marine artist begins to build his little
-dwelling of vegetable fibres, among the water-plants and rushes,
-until it resembles a hollow ball, flattened at the top. An
-aperture corresponding to the size of the mother leads into
-the interior. The parental affection of the fish is shamefully
-misused by man for its destruction. A small basket is held
-before the opening; then the nest is slightly beaten with a
-stick; and, furious, with extended fins, whose sharp points are
-able to inflict a painful wound, the poor hassar darts into the
-fatal basket.</p>
-
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 408px;">
-<a href="images/195fplg.png"><img src="images/195fp.png" width="408" height="593" alt="" /></a>
-<div class="fig_caption">SUBAQUEOUS LIFE&mdash;STICKLEBACKS AND NEST.<br />
-<span class="smaller">Click on image to view larger version.</span></div>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="caption2"><a name="FPage_195" id="FPage_195">SUBAQUEOUS LIFE&mdash;STICKLEBACKS AND NEST.</a></p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 56px;">
-<img src="images/bardot.png" width="56" height="7" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<div class="blockquot1">
-
-<p>This plate represents a group of fifteen-spined sticklebacks busily employed in
-making their nests. To the left is seen a curious piece of marine architecture,
-mentioned by Mr. Couch, the well-known ichthyologist. A pair of sticklebacks
-had made their nest "in the loose end of a rope, from which the separated strands
-hung out about a yard from the surface, over a depth of four or five fathoms, and
-to which the materials could only have been brought, of course, in the mouth of
-the fish, from the distance of about thirty feet. They were formed of the usual
-aggregation of the finer sorts of green and red sea-weed, but they were so matted
-together in the hollow formed by the untwisted strands of the rope that the mass
-constituted an oblong ball of nearly the size of the fist, in which had been deposited
-the scattered assemblage of spawn, and which was bound into shape with a thread
-of animal substance, which was passed through and through in various directions,
-while the rope itself formed an outside covering to the whole."</p></div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">� 195 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The black Goby (<i>Gobius niger</i>) also prepares a nest for its
-eggs. This fish inhabits the slimy bottoms of the lagoons
-near Venice, and burrows galleries in the clayey soil, where
-it spends the greater part of the year, protected against storms
-and enemies. In spring it digs more superficial dwellings
-among the roots of the sea-grass, to which the spawn attaches
-itself. The architect watches over the entrance of the house,
-opposing sharp rows of teeth to every intruder.</p>
-
-<p>A similar care may be admired in the tiny Stickleback, which
-the celebrated ichthyologist, M. Coste, has often watched building
-its nest. After the fish has collected the materials, it
-covers them with sand, glues the walls with a mucous secretion,
-and prepares a suitable entrance. At a later period it becomes
-the bold and indefatigable defender of its eggs, repelling with
-tooth and prickles all other sticklebacks that approach the nest.
-If the enemy is too powerful, it has recourse to artifice, darts
-forth, seems actively engaged in the pursuit of an imaginary
-prey, and often succeeds in diverting the aggressor's attention
-from its nest. The River Bullhead is likewise said to evince
-the same parental affection for its ova, as a bird for its nest,
-returning quickly to the spot, and being unwilling to quit it
-when disturbed. It is believed, also, of the Lump-Sucker, that
-the male first keeps watch over the deposited ova, and guards
-them from every foe with the utmost courage. If driven from
-the spot by man, he does not go far, but is continually looking
-back, and in a short time returns. Thus we find among the
-inferior animals glimpses of a higher nature, which prove that
-all created beings form a continuous chain, linked together by
-one all-pervading and almighty Power.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">� 196 �</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 420px;">
-<img src="images/196a.png" width="420" height="215" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Internal Ear of Perch.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 400px;">
-<img src="images/196b.png" width="153" height="111" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Osseous labyrinth of the Human Ear.<br />
-
-<i>a</i>, Oval or vestibular fenestra; <i>b</i>, round or cochlear fenestra; <i>c</i>, external or horizontal semicircular
-canal; <i>d</i>, superior or anterior vertical semicircular canal; <i>e</i>, posterior or inferior
-vertical semicircular canal; <i>f</i>, the turns of cochlea.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The senses of the fishes are also in perfect harmony with
-the peculiarities of their mode of life. Their eyes are indeed
-wanting in the fire and animation which gives so much expression
-to the physiognomy of the higher animals, but the structure
-of these organs is admirably calculated for the element in which
-they are plunged, as the spherical form and great size of the
-crystalline lens, by concentrating the rays of light, enables them
-to see with distinctness even through so dense a medium as that
-which surrounds them. When water is clear, smooth, and undisturbed
-the sight of fishes is very acute, a circumstance well
-known to anglers, who prefer a breeze undulating over the
-surface, as they can then approach much nearer the objects of
-their pursuit and practise their <i>artful dodges</i> with a much
-better chance of success. The eyes in fishes are observed to
-occupy very different positions in different species, but their
-situation is always such as best to suit the exigencies of the
-particular fish. Thus in the star-gazer and sea-devil, that
-watch their prey from a muddy concealment, they are very
-appropriately placed at the top of the head, while in the flat-fishes,
-where an eye on the side habitually turned towards the
-ground would have been useless, the distorted head, by placing
-both eyes on the same level, affords them an extensive range of
-view in those various directions in which they may either endeavour
-to find suitable food or avoid dangerous enemies. That
-fishes are not deficient in the sense of hearing may be seen
-at once by the annexed illustrations, which show a marked
-similarity of organisation between the human ear and that of
-the perch.   It is well known that they start at the report of a
-gun, though it is impossible for them to see the flash. Sir
-Joseph Banks used to collect his fishes by sounding a bell, and
-the Chinese call the gold-fish with a whistle to receive their
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">� 197 �</a></span>
-food. In spite of their scaly covering, the fishes are not unprovided
-with organs of touch. The lips in many species are soft,
-and the mouths of others, such as the
-red mullet&mdash;for which such enormous
-sums were paid by the Roman epicures&mdash;are
-provided with barbules
-largely supplied with nerves, which no
-doubt enable them to distinguish the
-objects with which they come in contact.
-In the three elongated rays of their pectoral fins the
-gurnards may be said to possess fingers to compensate for their
-bony lips; and in many other fishes these modified arms or
-forefeet are applied as organs of feeling
-to ascertain the character of the
-bottom of the water. "You may witness
-the tactile action of the pectoral fins,"
-says Professor Owen,<a name="FNanchor_14" id="FNanchor_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[N]</a> "when gold-fish
-are transferred to a strange vessel;
-their eyes are so placed as to prevent
-them seeing what is below them; so
-they compress their air-bladder, and allow themselves to sink
-near the bottom, which they sweep, as it were, by rapid and
-delicate vibrations of the pectoral fins, apparently ascertaining
-that no sharp stone or stick projects upwards, which might
-injure them in their rapid movements round their prison."
-Whether fishes possess any high degree of taste is a subject
-not easily proved; but, to judge by the large size of their
-olfactory nerves, their sense of smell is probably acute.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_14" id="Footnote_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14"><span class="label">[N]</span></a> "Lectures on Comparative Anatomy."</p></div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 228px;">
-<img src="images/197a.png" width="228" height="119" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Red Mullet.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 232px;">
-<img src="images/197b.png" width="232" height="163" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Gurnard.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 232px;">
-<img src="images/197c.png" width="232" height="70" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Wolf-Fish.&mdash;(Anarrhicas lupus.)</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The life of fishes is a state of perpetual warfare, a constant
-alternation of flight and pursuit. Prowling through the waters,
-they attack and devour every weaker being they meet, or dart
-away to escape a similar lot. Many of
-them are provided, besides their swiftness
-and muscular power, with the most
-formidable weapons. Thus the Sea-wolf
-has six rows of grinders in each
-jaw, excellently adapted for bruising the crabs and whelks,
-which this voracious animal grinds to pieces, and swallows along
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">� 198 �</a></span>
-with the shells. When caught, it fastens with indiscriminate
-rage upon anything within its reach, fighting desperately, even
-when out of its own element, and inflicting severe wounds if not
-cautiously avoided. Sch�nfeld relates that it will seize on an
-anchor, and leave the marks of its teeth behind, and Steller informs
-us that one which he saw taken on the coast of Kamschatka
-frantically seized a cutlass with which it was attempted to be
-killed, and broke it in pieces as if it had been made of glass.
-No wonder that the fishermen, dreading its bite, endeavour as
-soon as possible to render it harmless by heavy blows upon the
-head. The great size of the monster, which in the British waters
-attains the length of six or seven feet, and in the colder and
-more extreme northern seas is said to become still larger, renders
-it one of the most formidable denizens of the ocean. It commonly
-frequents the deep parts of the sea, but approaches the
-coasts in spring to deposit its spawn among the marine plants.
-Fortunately for its more active neighbours, it swims but slowly,
-and glides along with the serpentine motion of the eel.</p>
-
-<p>Far more dreadful, from its gigantic size and power, is the
-White Shark (<i>Squalus carcharias</i>), whose jaws are likewise
-furnished with from three to six rows of strong, flat, triangular,
-sharp-pointed, and finely serrated teeth, which it can raise or
-depress at pleasure. This tyrant of the seas grows to a length of
-thirty feet, and its prodigious strength may be judged of from the
-fact that a young shark, only six feet in length, is able to break
-a man's leg by a stroke of its tail. Thus, when a shark is caught
-with a baited hook at sea, and drawn upon deck, the sailors' first
-act is to chop off its tail, to prevent the mischief otherwise to
-be apprehended from its enormous strength. An anecdote
-related by Hughes, the well-known and esteemed author of the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">� 199 �</a></span>
-"Natural History of Barbadoes," gives a good idea of the savage
-nature of this monster. "In the reign of Queen Anne a merchant-ship
-arrived at that island from England: some of the
-crew, ignorant of the danger of the recreation, were bathing in
-the sea, when a large shark appeared and swam directly towards
-them; being warned of their danger, however, they all hurried
-on board, where they arrived safe, except one poor fellow, who
-was bit in two by the shark, almost within reach of the oars.
-A comrade, and intimate friend of the unfortunate victim,
-when he observed the severed trunk of his companion, vowed
-his revenge. The voracious monster was seen traversing the
-bloody surface of the waves, in search of the remainder of his
-prey, when the brave youth plunged into the water. He held
-in his hand a long sharp-pointed knife; and the rapacious
-animal pushed furiously towards him. He had turned on his
-side and opened his enormous jaws, when the youth, diving
-dexterously, seized the shark with his left hand, somewhere
-below the upper fins, and stabbed him repeatedly in the belly.
-The animal, enraged with pain, and streaming with blood,
-attempted in vain to disengage himself. The crews of the surrounding
-vessels saw that the combat was decided; but they
-were ignorant which was slain, till the shark, exhausted by loss
-of blood, was seen nearer the shore, and along with him his
-gallant conqueror&mdash;who, flushed with victory, redoubled his
-efforts, and, with the aid of an ebbing tide, dragged him to the
-beach. Finally, he ripped open the stomach of the fish, and
-buried the severed half of his friend's body with the trunk in
-the same grave."</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 462px;">
-<img src="images/198.png" width="462" height="133" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">White Shark.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 534px;">
-<img src="images/199.png" width="534" height="142" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Hammer-headed Shark.&mdash;(Squalus Zyg&aelig;na.)</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>It is no uncommon thing for the negroes, who are admirable
-divers, thus to attack and vanquish the dreaded shark, but success
-can only be achieved by consummate dexterity, and by
-those who are armed for this express purpose.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">� 200 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Ordinary swimmers are constantly falling a prey to the
-sharks of warm climates. Thus Sir Brooke Watson, when in
-the West Indies, as a youth, was swimming at a little distance
-from a ship, when he saw a shark making towards him.
-Struck with terror at its approach, he immediately cried out
-for assistance. A rope was instantly thrown, but, even while
-the men were in the act of drawing him up the ship's side,
-the monster darted after him, and at a single snap took off
-his leg.</p>
-
-<p>Fortunately for the friends of sea-bathing on our shores, the
-white shark, like his relation, the monstrous Hammer-headed
-Zyg&aelig;na, appears but seldom in the colder latitudes, though both
-have occasionally been found on the British coast.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 237px;">
-<img src="images/200a.png" width="237" height="144" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Picked Dog-Fish.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The northern ocean has got its peculiar sharks, but they
-are generally either good-natured like
-the huge basking shark (<i>S. maximus</i>),
-which feeds on sea-weeds and medus&aelig;,
-or else like the <i>Picked</i> dog-fish
-(<i>Galeus acanthius</i>), of too small a size
-to be dangerous to man, in spite of
-the ferocity of their nature.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 300px;">
-<img src="images/200b.png" width="300" height="180" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Blue Shark.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>But the dog-fish and several other species of our seas, such as
-the Blue Shark (<i>Carcharias glaucus</i>), though they do not attempt
-the fisherman's life, are extremely
-troublesome and injurious
-to him, by hovering
-about his boat and cutting
-the hooks from the lines in
-rapid succession. This, indeed,
-often leads to their own
-destruction, but when their
-teeth do not deliver them
-from their difficulty, the blue
-sharks, which hover about the Cornish coast during the pilchard
-season, have a singular method of proceeding, which is, by rolling
-the body round so as to twine the line about them throughout
-its whole length; and sometimes this is done in such a
-complicated manner, that Mr. Yarrell has known a fisherman
-give up any attempt to unroll it as a hopeless task. To the
-pilchard drift-net this shark is a still more dangerous enemy,
-and it is common for it to pass in succession along the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">� 201 �</a></span>
-whole length of net, cutting out, as with shears, the fish and
-the net that holds them, and swallowing both together.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 461px;">
-<img src="images/201a.png" width="461" height="186" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Saw-Fish.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 570px;">
-<img src="images/201b.png" width="570" height="140" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Sword-Fish.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Saw-snouted Shark or Saw-fish (<i>Squalus pristis</i>), which
-grows to fifteen feet in length, and the Sword-fish (<i>Xiphias
-gladius</i>, <i>platypterus</i>), are furnished with peculiarly formidable
-weapons. The long flat snout of the former is set with teeth on
-both sides through its whole length, while the upper jaw of the
-latter terminates in a long sword-shaped snout. A twenty-feet
-long sword-fish once ran his sword with
-such violence into the keel of an East
-Indiaman, that it penetrated up to the
-root, and the fish itself was killed by the
-violence of the shock. The perforated
-beam, with the driven-in sword, are both
-preserved in the British Museum, and
-give a good idea of the prodigious power
-of the leviathans of ocean.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 189px;">
-<img src="images/201c.png" width="189" height="310" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Torpedo.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>While most fishes only rely upon their
-well-armed jaws, their physical strength,
-or their rapidity, for attack or defence,
-some of them are provided with more
-mysterious weapons, and stun their victims
-or their enemies by electrical discharges.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">� 202 �</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 355px;">
-<img src="images/202a.png" width="355" height="475" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Muscles and Electric Batteries of the Torpedo.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Torpedo of the Mediterranean is furnished with wonderful
-organs for this purpose, situated on each side of the anterior
-part of the body,&mdash;perfect
-galvanic batteries, consisting
-of a multitude of small
-prismatic columns, subdivided
-into cells, and interwoven
-with a multitude of
-nerves, which serve to disengage
-the electric fluid,
-and discharge it according
-to the will of the fish, or
-when it is excited by some
-external stimulus. The
-shock of the torpedo is
-not so strong as that of
-the electric eel (<i>Gymnotus
-electricus</i>) of the Orinoco,
-which is able to stun a
-horse, but its power suffices
-to paralyse the arm of a
-man. A Sly, or Silurus,
-found in the Nile or Senegal,
-and called by the Arabs <i>raasch</i>, or lightning, and one of
-the many Tetrodons inhabiting the tropical seas, is endowed
-with a similar faculty of producing galvanic shocks.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 240px;">
-<img src="images/202b.png" width="240" height="86" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Electric Eel.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Some fishes, to whom nature has denied all other offensive
-weapons, have recourse to stratagem
-for procuring their food. Hidden
-in the mud, the Star-gazer (<i>Uranoscopus
-scaber</i>) exposes only the tip
-of the head, and waving the
-beards with which its lips are
-furnished in various directions, decoys the smaller fishes and
-marine insects, that mistake these organs for worms.</p>
-
-<p>The Angler, or Sea-devil (<i>Lophius piscatorius</i>), a slow
-swimmer, who would very often be obliged to fast if he had only
-his swiftness to rely upon, uses a similar stratagem. Crouching
-close to the ground, he stirs up the sand or mud, and, hidden
-by the obscurity thus produced, attracts many a prize by leisurely
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">� 203 �</a></span>
-moving to and fro the two slender and elongated appendages
-on his head, the first of which, the better to deceive, is broad and
-flattened at the end, inviting pursuit
-by the shining silvery appearance of
-the dilated part. Even the great
-European Sly, a fish which has been
-known to grow to the length of fifteen
-feet, and to attain a weight of 300 lbs.
-is not ashamed to owe its food to
-similar deceits. Like a true lazzarone, the fat creature lies
-hidden in the mud of rivers, its mouth half open, and angling
-with its long beards.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 241px;">
-<img src="images/203a.png" width="241" height="119" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Angler.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 275px;">
-<img src="images/203b.png" width="275" height="272" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">European Sly.&mdash;(Silurus glanis.)</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>But no fish catches its prey in a
-more remarkable manner than the
-Beaked, or Rostrated Ch&aelig;todon,
-a native of the fresh waters of
-India. When he sees a fly alighting
-on any of the plants which
-overhang the shallow water, he
-approaches with the utmost caution,
-coming as perpendicularly as
-possible under the object of his
-meditated attack. Then placing
-himself in an oblique direction,
-with the mouth and eyes near the surface, he remains a moment
-immoveable, taking his aim like a first-rate rifleman. Having
-fixed his eyes directly on the insect, he darts at it a drop of water
-from his tubular snout, but without showing his mouth above the
-surface, from which only the drop seems to rise, and that with such
-effect, that though at the distance of four, five or six feet, it very
-seldom fails to bring its prey into the water. Another small
-East Indian fish, the <i>Toxotes jaculator</i>,
-catches its food by a similar dexterous
-display of archery.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 238px;">
-<img src="images/203c.png" width="238" height="133" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Toxotes Jaculator.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>While all other fishes hunt only for
-their own benefit, the Indian Remora,
-or Sucking-fish (<i>Echeneis Naucrates</i>),
-owes to the remarkable striated apparatus
-on its head, by which it firmly
-adheres to any object&mdash;rock, ship, or animal,&mdash;to which it
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">� 204 �</a></span>
-chooses to attach itself, the rare distinction of being employed
-by man as a hunting-fish. When Columbus first discovered the
-West Indies, the inhabitants of the coasts of Cuba and Jamaica
-made use of the remora to catch turtles, by attaching to its
-tail a strong cord of palm-fibres, which served to drag it out
-of the water along with its prey. By this means they were
-able to raise turtles weighing several hundred pounds from the
-bottom; "for the sucking-fish," says Columbus, "will rather
-suffer itself to be cut to pieces than let go its hold." In Africa,
-on the Mozambique coast, a similar method of catching turtles
-is practised to the present day. Thus a knowledge of the habits
-of animals, and similar necessities, have given rise to the same
-hunting artifices among nations that never had the least communication
-with each other. Everybody knows the fables that
-have been related of the small Mediterranean remora (<i>Echeneis
-remora</i>). It even
-owes its Latin name
-to the marvellous
-story of its being
-able to arrest a ship
-under full sail in
-the midst of the ocean; and from this imaginary physical power
-a no less astonishing moral influence was inferred, for the
-ancients believed that tasting the remora completely subdued
-the passion of love, and that if a delinquent, wishing to gain
-time, succeeded in making his judge eat some of its flesh, he
-was sure of a long delay before the verdict was pronounced.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 403px;">
-<img src="images/204a.png" width="403" height="82" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Sucking-fish. (Remora.)</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 243px;">
-<img src="images/204b.png" width="243" height="93" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Common Weever.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Most fishes have only a rapid flight to depend upon for
-their safety; some, however, more favoured by nature, have
-been provided with peculiar defensive weapons. Thus the
-dorsal fins of the Dragon-weever (<i>Trachinus draco</i>), a small
-silvery fish, frequently occurring on our shores, are armed
-with strong spines, that effectually provide against its being
-easily swallowed by a more powerful
-enemy. The wounds it inflicts are
-very troublesome and painful, though
-it does not appear that the spines
-contain any poisonous matter, as the
-fishermen generally believe. At all
-events, the dragon-weever is not nearly so dangerous as the <i>Clip
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">� 205 �</a></span>
-bagre</i>, a kind of silurus or sly, inhabiting the Brazilian rivers, that
-inflicts with its long spines such painful wounds as to deprive the
-sufferer of consciousness, and to produce an inflammation that lasts
-for several weeks. The Lance-tails, or
-Acanthuri, have a sharp bony process,
-not unlike the very large thorn of a
-rose-tree, placed on each side of the
-tail; by this they can inflict a deep
-cut on the hand of any one who
-is so imprudent as to seize them in
-that part.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 229px;">
-<img src="images/205a.png" width="229" height="156" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Surgeon Fish. (Acanthurus.)</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 251px;">
-<img src="images/205b.png" width="251" height="160" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Diodon.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>I could still add a long list of spine-armed fishes, but content
-myself with noticing the Stickleback, which frequently owes
-its preservation to the sharp needles with which it is provided.</p>
-
-<p>The Tetrodons and Diodons have the power of inflating their
-body at pleasure, and thus raising the small spines dispersed
-over their sides and abdomen in such
-a manner, as to operate as a defence
-against their enemies. These beautiful
-and remarkable fishes chiefly
-inhabit the tropical waters, but sometimes
-wander into higher latitudes.
-Man is not the only creature driven
-by the currents of fate far from the
-place of his birth.</p>
-
-<p>The Flying-fishes (<i>Exoceti</i>) are provided with pectoral fins of
-so great a length, as to be able to carry them, like wings, a great
-distance through the air. According to Mr. George Bennett
-("Wanderings in New South Wales"), they cannot raise themselves
-when in the atmosphere, the elevation they take depending
-entirely on the power of the first spring or leap they make on
-leaving their native element. Their flight, as it is called, carries
-them fifteen or eighteen feet high over the water, and the lines
-which they traverse when they enjoy full liberty of motion, are
-very low curves, and always in the direction of their previous
-progress in the usual element of fishes. Their silvery wings and
-blue bodies glittering beneath the rays of a tropical sun, afford
-a most beautiful spectacle, when, as is frequently the case, they
-rise into the air by thousands at once, and in all possible directions.
-The advantage afforded them by their wing-like fins, in
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">� 206 �</a></span>
-escaping from the pursuit of the bonitos and albacores, often,
-however, leads to their destruction in another element, where
-gulls and frigate-birds
-frequently
-seize them with
-lightning-like rapidity,
-ere they fall
-back again into the
-ocean. It is amusing
-to observe a
-bonito swimming
-beneath the feeble
-a�ronaut, keeping
-him steadily in view, and preparing to seize him at the moment
-of his descent. But the flying-fish often eludes the bite of his
-enemy, by instantaneously renewing his leap, and not unfrequently
-escapes by extreme agility.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 396px;">
-<img src="images/206.png" width="396" height="224" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Flying-Fish.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The specific gravity of the flying-fish can be most admirably
-regulated in correspondence with the element through which it
-may move. The swim-bladder, when distended, occupies nearly
-the entire cavity of the abdomen, thus containing a large volume
-of air; and in addition to this, there is a membrane in the
-mouth which can be inflated through the gills. The pectoral
-fins, though so large when expanded, can be folded into an
-exceedingly slender, neat, and compact form, so as to be no
-hindrance to swimming. A light displayed from the chains
-of a vessel in a dark night, will bring many flying-fishes on
-board, where they are esteemed as a great delicacy. Their
-fate, thus to be persecuted in both elements and to find security
-nowhere, has often been pitied in prose and verse; but although
-they excite so much sentimental commiseration, they are themselves
-no less predaceous than their enemies, feeding chiefly on
-smaller fishes.</p>
-
-<p>The flying-fish of the West Indian waters is frequently
-allured by the tepid waters of the Gulf-stream into higher latitudes,
-and Pennant cites several examples of its having been
-found near the British coast.</p>
-
-<p>The Flying-Gurnard (<i>Trigla volitans</i>) of the Mediterranean,
-Atlantic, and Indian seas, a highly singular and beautiful species,
-also raises itself into the air by means of its large pectoral fins
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">� 207 �</a></span>.
-It does not fly very high, but swings itself as far as a musket-ball
-reaches, and may thus elude even the rapidity of the
-dolphin. That strangely formed fish, the <i>Pegasus</i> of the Indian
-seas, is also enabled by its large pectoral
-fins to support itself for some
-moments in the air, when it springs
-over the surface of the water.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 241px;">
-<img src="images/207.png" width="241" height="159" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Swimming Pegasus.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Neither the quadrupeds nor the
-birds are subject to so many persecutions
-as the fishes, which have inexorable
-enemies in all classes of animals.
-Numberless molluscs and zoophytes
-feed upon their eggs, or devour their minute fry; myriads of sea-birds
-are on the look-out for them along the strands, or on the
-high ocean; seals and ice-bears lie in wait for them, while with
-weapons and deceit, with net, angle and harpoon, man carries
-death and destruction into their ranks. It would be a difficult
-task to state with any degree of exactness the number of fishermen
-disseminated over the face of the globe, but if we consider
-that, on a moderate calculation, at least a million of persons are
-directly or indirectly engaged in fishing in Great Britain and
-Ireland alone, and then cast a glance over the immense coast-line
-of the ocean, we may without exaggeration affirm that at
-least one-fiftieth part of the human race lives upon the produce
-of the seas. If we further reflect that fishes form a great part
-of the food of all coast-inhabitants, and consider in what masses
-they are sent into the interior,&mdash;fresh, dried, salted, smoked,
-and pickled,&mdash;we cannot doubt that the great extent of the ocean
-only apparently limits the numbers of the human race, for how
-many thousands of square miles of the most fruitful soil would
-it not require to bring forth the quantity of food which the blue
-and green fields of ocean supply to man? "Bounteous mother,"
-"<i>Alma parens</i>," was the name given by the grateful ancients to
-the corn and grass-producing, herd-feeding earth; but how
-much more deserving of that endearing appellation is the sea,
-that, without being ploughed or manured, dispenses her gifts
-with such inexhaustible profusion! Numberless indeed are the
-various kinds of fishes which she furnishes to man, for almost
-every species affords an equally agreeable and healthy food: but
-of all the finny families or tribes that people the ocean none can
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">� 208 �</a></span>
-compare for utility with that of the <i>Clupeid&aelig;</i>, or Herrings,
-small in size but great in importance. In mile-long shoals,
-often so thickly pressed that a spear cast into them would stand
-upright in the living stream, the common herring appears
-annually on the coasts of north-western
-Europe, pouring out the horn
-of abundance into all the lochs,
-bays, coves, and fiords, from Norway
-to Ireland, and from Orcadia to Normandy.
-Sea-birds without end keep thinning their ranks during
-the whole summer; armies of rorquals, dolphins, seals, shell-fish,
-cods, and sharks devour them by millions, and yet so countless
-are their numbers, that whole nations live upon their spoils.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 220px;">
-<img src="images/208.png" width="220" height="85" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Herring.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>As soon as the season of their approach appears, fleets of herring
-boats leave the northern ports, provided with drift-nets, about
-1200 feet long. The yarn is so thick that the wetted net sinks
-through its own weight, and need not be held down by stones
-attached to the lower edge, for it has been found that the
-herring is more easily caught in a slack net. The upper edge
-is suspended from the drift-rope by various shorter and smaller
-ropes, called buoy ropes, to which empty barrels are fastened,
-and the whole of the floating apparatus is attached by long
-ropes to the ship. Fishing takes place only during the night,
-for it is found that the fish strike the nets in much greater
-numbers when it is dark than while it is light. The darkest
-nights, therefore, and particularly those in which the surface of
-the water is ruffled by a fresh breeze, are considered the most
-favourable. To avoid collisions, each boat is furnished with one
-or two torches. From off the beach at Yarmouth, where often
-several thousand boats are fishing at the same time, these numberless
-lights, passing to and fro in every direction, afford a most
-lively and brilliant spectacle. The meshes of the net are exactly
-calculated for the size of the herring, wide enough to receive the
-head as far as behind the gill-cover, but not so narrow as to allow
-the pectoral fins to pass. Thus the poor fish, when once entangled,
-is unable to move backwards or forwards, and remains
-sticking in the net, like a bad logician on the horns of a dilemma,
-until the fisherman hauls it on board. In this manner a single
-net sometimes contains so vast a booty, that it requires all the
-authority of a Cuvier or a Valenciennes to make us believe the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">� 209 �</a></span>
-instances they mention. A fisherman of Dieppe caught in one
-night 280,000 herrings, and threw as many back again into the
-sea. Sometimes great sloops have been obliged to cut their nets,
-being about to sink under the superabundant weight of the fish.</p>
-
-<p>The oldest mention of the herring-fishery is found in the
-chronicles of the monastery of Evesham, of the year 709; while
-the first French documents on the subject only reach as far as
-the year 1030. As far back as the days of William the Conqueror,
-Yarmouth was renowned for its herring-fishery; and Dunkirk and
-the Brill conducted it on a grand scale centuries before William
-Beukelaer of Biervliet, near Sluys, introduced a better method
-of pickling herrings in small kegs, instead of salting them as
-before in loose irregular heaps. It is very doubtful whether
-Solon or Lycurgus ever were such benefactors of their respective
-countries as this simple uneducated fisherman has been to his
-native land; for the pickled herring mainly contributed to
-transform a small and insignificant people into a mighty nation.
-In the year 1603, the value of the herrings exported from Holland
-amounted to twenty millions of florins; and in 1615, the
-fishery gave employment to 2000 <i>buysen</i>, or smacks, and to
-37,000 men. Three years later we see the United Provinces
-cover the sea with 3000 <i>buysen</i>; 9000 additional boats served for
-the transport of the fishes, and the whole trade gave employment
-to at least 200,000 individuals. At that time Holland provided all
-Europe with herrings, and it may without exaggeration be affirmed
-that this small fish was their best ally and assistant in casting
-off the Spanish yoke, by providing them with money, the chief
-sinew of war. Had the emperor Charles V. been able to foresee
-that Beukelaer's discovery would one day prove so detrimental
-to his son and successor Philip II., he would hardly have done
-the poor fisherman the honour to eat a herring and drink a glass
-of wine over his tomb.</p>
-
-<p>But all human prosperity is subject to change; and thus
-towards the middle of the sixteenth century a series of calamities
-ruined the Dutch fisheries. Cromwell gave them the
-first blow by the Navigation Act; Blake the second, by his victories;
-in 1703 a French squadron destroyed the greatest part
-of their herring-smacks; and finally, the competition of the
-Swedes, and the closing of their ports by the English, under the
-disastrous domination of Napoleon I., completed the ruin of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">� 210 �</a></span>
-that branch of trade which had chiefly raised the fortunes of
-their fathers.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1814, when the Dutch first began to breathe after
-having shaken off the yoke of the modern Attila, they made a
-faint attempt to renew the herring-fishery with 106 boats, which,
-up to the year 1823, had only increased to 128; since 1836, however,
-there has been a steady progress, and herring-catching in
-the Zuyder Zee during the winter months is yearly increasing in
-importance.</p>
-
-<p>During the second half of the last century, while the herrings
-began to desert the Dutch nets, they enriched the Swedes,
-who, during the year 1781, exported from Gottenburg alone
-136,649 barrels, each of them containing 1200 herrings. But
-some years after, the shoals on the Swedish coasts began also to
-diminish, so that in 1799 there was hardly enough for home consumption.
-And now commenced the rapid rise and increase of
-the Scotch herring-fisheries; and it is certainly remarkable
-that this should have taken place at so late a period, since the
-British waters are perhaps those which most abound in herrings.
-When we think of the present grandeur of British commerce,
-which extends to the most distant parts of the globe, and
-ransacks all Nature for new articles of trade, it seems almost
-incredible that up to the middle of the sixteenth century the
-herring-fishery on the British coasts was left in the hands of
-the Dutch and Spaniards, and that the acute and industrious
-Scotchmen should have been so tardy in working the rich gold-mines
-lying at their gates. But if their appearance in the market
-has been late, they have made up for lost time, by completely
-distancing all their competitors. In 1855, the Scotch herring-fisheries
-employed no less than 11,000 smacks or boats, manned
-by 40,000 seamen, who were assisted by 28,000 curers and
-labourers, exclusive of the vessels and men bringing salt and
-barrels or engaged in carrying on the export trade.</p>
-
-<p>The English herring-fishery is also extremely important, for
-Yarmouth alone employs in this branch of trade about 400
-sloops, of from forty to seventy tons, the largest of which have
-ten or twelve men on board. Three of these sloops, belonging
-to the same proprietor, landed, in the year 1857, 285 lasts, or
-3,762,000 fishes; and as each last was sold for �14 sterling, it is
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">� 211 �</a></span>
-probable that no whaler made a better business that season.
-The importance of the Yarmouth herring-fishery may be inferred
-from the fact, that it gives employment and bread to
-about 5,000 persons during several months of the year, and
-engages a capital of at least �700,000. No wonder, that among
-the north seamen the herring-fishery is called the "great"
-fishery, while that of the whale is denominated only the "small."</p>
-
-<p>But the herring is a very capricious creature, seldom remaining
-long in one place; and there is not a station along the British
-coast which is not liable to great changes in its visits, as
-well with regard to time as to quantity. The real causes of these
-irregularities are unknown; the firing of guns, the manufacture
-of kelp, and the paddling of steam-boats have been assigned as
-reasons, but such reasons are quite imaginary. The progress of
-science promises to find, however, a remedy even for the caprices
-of the herring; and if his shoals frequently appear and disappear
-again in the more retired bays or fiords of Norway, before
-the fishermen are apprised of his movements, the electric telegraph
-(the most wonderful discovery of a time so rich in wonderful
-inventions), will be used for his more effectual capture.
-By this time the wires are already laid, which are to communicate
-along the whole Scandinavian coast, and with the rapidity
-of lightning, every important movement of the marine hosts.
-Poor herring! who would have thought, when Franklin made
-his first experiments upon electricity, that that mysterious
-power should ever be used for thy destruction!</p>
-
-<p>The supposed migration of herrings to and from the high
-northern latitudes is not founded on fact; the herring has never
-been seen in abundance in the northern seas, nor have our whale-fishers
-or Arctic voyagers taken any particular notice of them.
-There is no fishery for them of any consequence either in Greenland
-or Iceland. On the southern coast of Greenland the herring
-is a rare fish, and, according to Crantz, only a small variety makes
-its appearance on the northern shore. This small variety,
-or species, was found by Sir John Franklin on the shore of the
-Polar basin, on his second journey. There can be no doubt
-that the herring inhabits the deep water all round our coast,
-and only approaches the shores for the purpose of depositing its
-spawn within the immediate influence of the two principal
-agents in vivification&mdash;increased temperature and oxygen&mdash;and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">� 212 �</a></span>
-as soon as that essential object is effected, the shoals that haunt
-the superficial waters disappear, but individuals are found, and
-many are to be caught throughout the year. So far are they
-from being migratory to us from the north only, that they visit
-the west coast of Cork in August, arriving there much earlier
-than those which come down the Irish Channel, and long
-before their brethren make their appearance at places much
-farther north. Our common herring spawns towards the end of
-October, or the beginning of November, and it is for two or
-three months previous to this, when they assemble in immense
-numbers, that the fishing is carried on, which is of such great
-and national importance. "And here," Mr. Couch observes,
-"we cannot but admire the economy of Divine Providence, by
-which this and several other species of fish are brought to the
-shores, within reach of man, at the time when they are in their
-highest perfection and best fitted to be his food." The herring
-having spawned, retires to deep water, and the fishing ends for that
-season. While inhabiting the depths of the ocean, its food is
-said, by Dr. Knox, to consist principally of minute entomostraceous
-animals, but it is certainly less choice in its selection when
-near the shore.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 259px;">
-<img src="images/212.png" width="259" height="99" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Pilchard.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Although the common herring of our northern seas is beyond
-all doubt the most important of the tribe, yet there is no sea, no
-coast, where other species of the same family are not a source of
-abundance to man, and of astonishment by their vast numbers.
-Thus the enormous shoals of Pilchards
-appearing along our south-western
-coasts are not less valuable
-to the fishermen of Devon and
-Cornwall than the common herring
-to those of the North Sea. The
-older naturalists considered the pilchard, like the herring, as a
-visitor from a distant region, and they assigned to it also the
-same place of resort as that fish, with which indeed the pilchard
-has been sometimes confounded. To this it will be a sufficient
-reply, that the pilchard is never seen in the Northern Ocean.
-They frequent the French coasts, and are seen on those of Spain,
-but on neither in considerable numbers or with much regularity;
-so that few fishes confine themselves within such narrow bounds.
-On the coast of Cornwall they are found throughout all the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">� 213 �</a></span>
-seasons of the year, and even there their habits vary in the
-different months. In January they keep near the bottom, and
-are chiefly hauled up in the stomachs of ravenous fishes; in
-March they sometimes assemble in <i>schulls</i>, but this union is only
-partial and not permanent and only becomes so in July; when they
-regularly and permanently congregate so as to invite the fisherman's
-pursuit. The season and situation for spawning, and the
-choice of food, are the chief reasons which influence the motions
-of the great bodies of these fish; and it is probable that a thorough
-knowledge of these particulars would explain all the variations
-which have been noticed in the doings of the pilchard, in the
-numerous unsuccessful seasons of the fishery.</p>
-
-<p>They feed with voracity on small crustaceous animals, and
-Mr. Yarrell frequently found their stomachs crammed with thousands
-of a minute species of shrimp, not larger than a flea. It
-is probably when they are in search of something like this, that
-fishermen report they have seen them lying in myriads quietly
-at the bottom, examining with their mouths the sand and small
-stones in shallow water. The abundance of this food must be
-enormous, to satisfy such a host.</p>
-
-<p>"When near the coast," says the author of the "History
-of British Fishes," "the assemblage of pilchards assumes the
-arrangement of a mighty army, with its wings stretching parallel
-to the land, and the whole is composed of numberless smaller
-bodies, which are perpetually joining together, shifting their
-position, and separating again. There are three stations occupied
-by this great body, that have their separate influence on the
-success of the fishery. One is to the eastward of the Lizard, the
-most eastern extremity, reaching to the Bay of Bigbury in Devonshire,
-beyond which no fishing is carried on, except that
-it occasionally extends to Dartmouth; a second station is included
-between the Lizard and Land's End; and the third is on the
-north coast of the county, the chief station being about St. Ives.
-The subordinate motions of the shoals are much regulated by
-the tide, against the current of which they are rarely known to
-go, and the whole will sometimes remain parallel to the coast
-for several weeks, at the distance of a few leagues; and then, as if
-by general consent, they will advance close to the shore, sometimes
-without being discovered till they have reached it. This usually
-happens when the tides are strongest, and is the period when
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">� 214 �</a></span>
-the principal opportunity is afforded for the prosecution of the
-sean-fishery." The quantity of pilchards taken is sometimes
-incredibly large. In 1847, a very productive year, 40,000 hogsheads
-were cured in Cornwall alone, representing probably, after
-all deductions, a net value to the takers of �80,000. The Sardine
-(<i>Clupea sardina</i>), a fish closely allied to the Pilchard
-though smaller, is considered as the most savoury of all the
-herring tribe. It is chiefly found in the Mediterranean, on the
-coasts of South France and Africa, and about the islands of
-Corsica and Sardinia, where it plays a no less important part
-than the Pilchard on the coasts of Cornwall and Devonshire.</p>
-
-<p>Though a much less valuable fish than its larger-sized relatives,
-the diminutive Sprat is not to be despised. Coming into
-the market in immense quantities, and at a very moderate
-price, immediately after the herring season is over, it affords
-during all the winter months a cheap and agreeable food. Like
-all other species of the herring tribe, the sprats are capricious
-wanderers, and make their appearance in exceedingly variable
-numbers. The coasts of Kent, Essex, and Suffolk, are the most
-productive. So great is the supply thence obtained, that notwithstanding
-the immense quantity consumed by the vast
-population of London and its neighbourhood, there is yet occasionally
-a surplus to be disposed of at so low a price, as to induce
-the farmers, even so near the metropolis as Dartford, to
-use them for manure.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 355px;">
-<img src="images/214.png" width="355" height="110" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Anchovy.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Mediterranean seems to be the peculiar birthplace of
-the Anchovy (<i>Engraulis encrasicholus</i>), where it appears in
-the spawning season
-in countless multitudes
-along the shallow coasts.
-It is about four inches
-long, of a bluish-brown
-colour on the back, and
-silvery-white on the
-belly. It is covered with large thin and easily deciduous scales,
-and may be readily distinguished from the Sprat and other
-kindred species by the anal fins being remarkably short.
-It is mostly caught in the neighbourhood of Antibes, Frejus,
-and St. Tropez, and sent pickled in enormous quantities
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">� 215 �</a></span>
-to the fair of Beaucaire, from whence it is transported in small
-tin boxes to all parts of the world.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 253px;">
-<img src="images/215a.png" width="253" height="102" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Haddock.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 254px;">
-<img src="images/215b.png" width="254" height="70" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Ling.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 255px;">
-<img src="images/215c.png" width="255" height="94" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Cod.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Cod-family, to which among others, the Dorse, the
-Haddock, the Whiting, the Hake, the Ling, and other valuable
-fishes belong, ranks next to that of the herrings in importance
-to man. In the seas with which Europeans are best acquainted
-the common Cod, the chief representative of the tribe, is found
-universally, from Iceland to very nearly as far south as Gibraltar,
-but appears most abundantly on the eastern side of the American
-continent, and among its numerous
-islands, from 40� up to 66� N. lat.,
-where it may be said to hold dominion
-from the outer edge of the
-great banks of Newfoundland, which
-are more than three hundred miles
-from land, to the verge of every creek and cove of the bounding
-coast. To support such a mass of living beings, the ocean sends
-forth its periodical masses of other
-living beings. At one season the cod
-is accompanied by countless myriads
-of the Capelin (<i>Salmo arcticus</i>),
-and at another by equal hosts of
-a molluscous animal, the Cuttle-fish (<i>Sepia loligo</i>), called in
-Newfoundland the squid. The three animals are migratory,
-and man, who stations himself
-on the shore for their combined
-destruction, conducts his movements
-according to their migrations,
-capturing millions upon
-millions of capelins and squids,
-to serve as a bait for the capture of millions of cods. In the
-United Kingdom alone this fish, in the catching, the curing,
-the partial consumption, and sale, supplies employment, food,
-and profit to thousands of the human race; but the banks of
-Newfoundland are the chief scene of its destruction. As soon
-as spring appears, England sends forth 2000 ships, with 30,000
-men, across the Atlantic, towards those teeming shallows; France
-about one-half the number; and the Americans as many as both
-together. On an average, each ship is reckoned to catch about
-40,000 fishes; and we may form some idea of the voracity, as
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">� 216 �</a></span>
-well as of the numbers of the cod, when we hear that in the
-course of a single day a good fisherman is able to haul up four
-hundred one after another with his line&mdash;no easy task considering
-the size of the fish, which often attains a length of
-from two to three feet and a weight of from twenty to forty
-pounds.</p>
-
-<p>The captured fish have but little time left them to bewail
-their lot, for a few thousands will be "dressed down"&mdash;that is,
-gutted, boned and salted&mdash;in the course of two or three hours.
-For this purpose the crew divide themselves into throaters,
-headers, splitters, salters, and packers. First the throater
-passes his sharp knife across the throat of the unfortunate cod
-to the bone and rips open the bowels. He then passes it quickly
-to the header, who with a strong sudden wrench pulls off the
-head and tears out the entrails, which he casts overboard, passing
-at the same time the fish instantly to the splitter, who with one
-cut lays it open from head to tail, and almost in the twinkling
-of an eye with another cut takes out the backbone. After
-separating the sounds, which are placed with the tongues, and
-packed in barrels as a great delicacy, the backbone follows the
-entrails overboard, while the fish at the same moment is passed
-with the other hand to the salter. Such is the amazing quickness
-of the operations of heading and splitting that a good
-workman will often decapitate and take out the entrails and
-backbone of six fish in a minute. Every fisherman is supposed
-to know something of each of these operations, and no rivals at
-cricket ever entered with more ardour into their work than do
-some athletic champions for the palm of "dressing down" after
-a "day's catch."</p>
-
-<p>Besides its excellent firm flesh, the liver-oil of the cod is used
-as a valuable medicine, and serves to restore many a scrofulous
-or rickety child to health. The sound-bladder is also employed
-by the Icelanders for the manufacture of fish-lime or isinglass.
-The best quality of the latter article, however, is afforded by a
-species of Sturgeon (<i>Accipenser Huso</i>) which is chiefly found in
-the Black and Caspian seas, and ascends the tributary rivers in
-immense numbers.</p>
-
-<p>The Common Sturgeon (<i>Accipenser sturio</i>), though principally
-frequenting the seas and rivers of North-Eastern Europe, where,
-especially in the Volga, extensive fisheries are established for its
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">� 217 �</a></span>
-destruction, is also captured on the coasts of Great Britain and
-Ireland, as examples are by no means uncommon in the fish-mongers'
-shops of our great cities, a few coming into the hands
-of the principal dealers every season. Yarrell mentions one
-caught in a stake-net near Findhorn, in Scotland, in July 1833,
-which measured eight feet six inches in length and weighed two
-hundred and three pounds; but in the Baltic specimens of a
-length of eighteen feet and weighing a thousand pounds have
-occasionally been captured. The body is long and slender from
-the shoulders backward, somewhat pentagonal in shape, with five
-longitudinal rows of flattened plates, with pointed central spines,
-directed backwards, and the snout is tapering and beak-shaped,
-the mouth small and toothless, so that the sturgeon, though
-almost equalling the white shark in size, is of a much more
-harmless character and formidable only to the crustaceans, small
-fish, or soft animals, he meets with at the bottom in deep water,
-beyond the ordinary reach of sea-nets. Hence he is rarely caught
-in the open sea, but falls an easy prey to the cunning of man
-when entering the friths, estuaries, and rivers for the purpose of
-spawning. The sturgeon is a highly valuable fish not only for
-its well-flavoured flesh but also for its roe, which furnishes the
-delicate caviar of commerce. The smallest but most highly
-esteemed of the sturgeons is the Sterlet of the Volga, which
-sometimes fetches such extravagant prices that Prince Potemkin
-has been known to pay three hundred roubles for a single tureen
-of sterlet-soup.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 584px;">
-<img src="images/217.png" width="584" height="143" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Common Sturgeon.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>While many of the numerous members of the salmon family
-confine themselves to the rivulet or to the lake, others alternate,
-like the sturgeons, between the river and the sea. Of these
-the most remarkable is the noble fish which has given its name
-to the whole tribe, and may justly be considered as its head, not
-only in point of size but also for its wide-spread utility to man.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">� 218 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Every spring or summer the salmon leave the ocean to deposit
-their spawn in the sweet waters, often at a distance of many
-hundred miles in the interior of the Continent, so that the same
-fish which during part of the year may be breasting the waves
-of the North Sea, may at another be forcing the current of an
-Alpine stream. Their onward progress is not easily stopped:
-they shoot up rapids with the velocity of arrows, and make
-wonderful efforts to surmount cascades or weirs by leaping,
-frequently clearing an elevation of eight or ten feet. These
-surprising bounds appear to be accomplished by a sudden jerk,
-which is given to its body by the animal from a bent into a
-straight position. If they fail in their attempt, and fall back
-into the stream, it is only to rest a short time, and thus recruit
-their strength for a new effort. The fall of Kilmaroc, on the
-Beauly, in Inverness-shire, is one of the spots where the leaping
-feats of the salmon can best be witnessed. "The pool below that
-fall," says Mr. Mudie, in the <i>British Naturalist</i>, "is very large,
-and as it is the head of the run in one of the finest salmon
-rivers in the north, and only a few miles distant from the sea,
-it is literally thronged with salmon, which are continually
-attempting to pass the fall, but without success, as the limit of
-their perpendicular spring does not appear to exceed twelve or
-fourteen feet; at least, if they leap higher than that, they are
-aimless and exhausted, and the force of the current dashes them
-down again before they have recovered their energy. They often
-kill themselves by the violence of their exertions to ascend, and
-sometimes they fall upon the rocks and are captured. It is
-indeed said that one of the wonders which the Frasers of Lovat,
-who are lords of the manor, used to show their guests was a
-voluntarily cooked salmon at the falls of Kilmaroc. For
-this purpose a kettle was placed upon the flat rock on the south
-side of the fall, close by the edge of the water and kept full and
-boiling. There is a considerable extent of the rock where tents
-were erected, and the whole was under a canopy of overshadowing
-trees. There the company are said to have waited until a
-salmon fell into the kettle, and was boiled in their presence.
-We have seen as many as eighty taken in a pool lower down
-the river at one haul of the seine, and one of the number
-weighed more than sixty pounds."</p>
-
-<p>As the salmon laboriously ascend the rivers, it may easily be
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">� 219 �</a></span>
-imagined that the cunning and rapacity of man seeks every
-opportunity to intercept their progress. Nets of the most
-various form and construction are employed for their capture;
-numbers are entrapped in enclosed spaces formed in weirs, into
-which they enter as they push up the stream, and are then prevented
-by a grating of a peculiar contrivance from returning or
-getting out; and many are speared, a mode frequently practised
-at night-time, when torches are made use of to attract them to
-the surface, or to betray them by their silvery reflection to the
-attentive fisherman.</p>
-
-<p>The ruddy gleam illumining the river banks or sparkling in
-the agitated waters, the black sky above, the deep contrasts of
-light and shade, attach a romantic interest to this nocturnal
-sport, which has been both practised and sung by Walter
-Scott.</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i1">"'Tis blithe along the midnight tide<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">With stalwart arm the boat to guide,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">On high the dazzling blaze to rear<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">And heedful plunge the barbed spear.<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Rock, wood, and scour emerging bright,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Fling on the stream their ruddy light,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">And from the bank our band appears<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Like Genii armed with fiery spears."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The natural history of the salmon was until lately but very
-imperfectly known, as the parr (brandling, samlet) and the grilse,
-which are now fully proved to be but intermediate stages of its
-growth, were supposed by Yarrell to be distinct fishes. The first
-person who seems to have suspected the true nature of the parr
-was James Hogg, the Ettrick shepherd, who in his usual eccentric
-way took some pains to verify his opinion. As an angler, he
-had often caught the parr in its transition state, and had frequently
-captured smolts (at that time the only acknowledged
-youthful salmon) with the scales barely covering the bars or
-finger marks of the parr. Wondering at this, he marked a great
-number of the lesser fish and offered rewards of whisky (being
-himself a great admirer of the genuine mountain-dew) to the
-peasantry to bring him any fish that had evidently undergone
-the change. These crude experiments of the talented shepherd
-convinced him that the parr were the young of the salmon in
-the first stage, and since then professed naturalists have fully
-settled the question by watching the egg into life, and tracing
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">� 220 �</a></span>
-the growth of the young fish step by step until it ultimately
-changed into the kingly salmon.</p>
-
-<p>This ignorance of the true nature of the parr had most disastrous
-effects, as it largely contributed to the depopulation of our
-streams, for the farmers and cottars who resided near the rivers
-used not unfrequently, after filling the frying-pan with parr, to
-feed their pigs with them, and myriads were annually killed by
-juvenile anglers. This truly deplorable havoc has fortunately
-been arrested by Act of Parliament, but the killing of grilse is
-still, I believe, a fertile source of destruction,<a name="FNanchor_15" id="FNanchor_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[O]</a> and should
-undoubtedly be restrained by law, as the wholesale slaughter of
-these juvenile fishes is a most lamentable example of improvident
-waste.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_15" id="Footnote_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15"><span class="label">[O]</span></a> In 1862, 8,467 salmon and 25,042 grilse were captured in the Tweed.</p></div>
-
-<p>In former times our rivers abounded with salmon, more than
-200,000 having been caught in a single summer in the Tweed
-alone, and 2,500 at one haul in the river Thurso; but, besides
-the causes above mentioned, over fishing or fishing at an improper
-season, and probably in many cases the pollution of the
-streams with deleterious matter from mines or manufactories,
-have considerably reduced their numbers. Fortunately, public
-attention has at length been thoroughly aroused to the danger
-which menaces our king of fishes; and, what with better laws for
-his protection and the successful attempts that have latterly
-been made in artificial fish-breeding, we may hope that more
-prosperous times are in store for our salmon-fisheries.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 251px;">
-<img src="images/220.png" width="251" height="84" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Salmo Rossii</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The salmon not only frequents the streams of Northern
-Europe but ascends in vast multitudes the giant rivers of
-Siberia and of North America. It
-is fished by the Ostjak and the
-Tunguse, and speared by the Indian
-of the New World. Ross's Arctic
-salmon, which is of a more slender
-form than the common salmon,
-differently marked and coloured, and with a remarkably long
-under jaw, is so extremely abundant in the sea near the
-mouths of the rivers of Boothia Felix that 3,378 were obtained
-at one haul of a small-sized seine. The rivers of Kamtschatka
-abound in salmon of various kinds, so that the stream,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">� 221 �</a></span>
-swelling as it were with living waves, not seldom overflows
-its banks and casts multitudes ashore. Steller affirms that,
-in that almost uninhabited peninsula, the bears and dogs and
-other animals catch more of these fishes with their mouths
-and feet than man in other countries with all his cunning
-devices of net and angle.</p>
-
-<p>The salmon of Iceland, which formerly remained undisturbed
-by the phlegmatic inhabitants, are now caught in large numbers
-for the British market. A small river, bearing the significant
-name of Laxaa or Salmon river, has been rented for the trifling
-sum of 100<i>l.</i> a year by an English company which sends every
-spring its agents to the spot, well provided with the best fishing
-apparatus. The captured fish are immediately boiled and hermetically
-packed in tin boxes, so that they can be eaten in
-London almost as fresh as if they had just been caught. Other
-valuable salmon-streams in Iceland and Norway pay us a similar
-tribute; and as commerce, aided by the steamboat and the railway,
-extends her empire, rivers more and more distant are made
-to supply the deficiencies of our native streams. More than
-150,000 salmon are annually caught in Aljaska&mdash;not a quarter
-of a century ago a real "ultima Thule"&mdash;and after having been
-well pickled and smoked at the various fishing-stations are
-chiefly sent from Sitcha to Hamburg.</p>
-
-<p>Nature has denied the salmon to the streams of Australia
-and New Zealand; but as the eggs of this fish can be preserved
-for a very long time, they have been transported with perfect
-success to those far-distant colonies.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 200px;">
-<img src="images/221.png" width="200" height="85" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Tunny.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>If neither the salmon, nor the common herring, nor the cod,
-dwell in the Mediterranean, the fishermen of that sea rejoice
-in the capture of the Tunny, the
-chief of the mackerel or scomberoid
-family. Its usual length is about two
-feet, but it sometimes grows to eight or
-ten; and Pennant saw one killed in
-1769, when he was at Inverary, that
-weighed 460 pounds. The flesh is as firm as that of the
-sturgeon, but of a finer flavour.</p>
-
-<p>"In May and June," says Mr. Yarrell, "the adult fish rove
-along the coast of the Mediterranean in large shoals and triangular
-array. They are extremely timid, and easily induced to take a
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">� 222 �</a></span>
-new and apparently an open course, in order to avoid any suspected
-danger. But the fishermen take advantage of this peculiarity
-for their destruction by placing a look-out or sentinel on some
-elevated spot, who makes the signal that the shoal of tunnies is
-approaching, and points out the direction in which it will come.
-Immediately a great number of boats set off, range themselves
-in a curved line, and, joining their nets, form an enclosure which
-alarms the fish, while the fishermen, drawing closer and closer,
-and adding fresh nets, still continue driving the tunnies towards
-the shore, where they are ultimately killed with poles.</p>
-
-<p>"But the grandest mode of catching the tunny is by means of
-the French <i>madrague</i>, or, as the Italians call it, <i>tonnaro</i>. Series
-of long and deep nets, fixed vertically by corks at their upper
-edges, and with lead and stones at the bottom, are kept in a particular
-position by anchors, so as to form an enclosure parallel to
-the coast, sometimes extending an Italian mile in length; this is
-divided into several chambers by nets placed across, leaving
-narrow openings on the land side. The tunnies pass between
-the coast and the tonnaro; when arrived at the end, they are
-stopped by one of the cross-nets, which closes the passage against
-them, and obliges them to enter the tonnaro by the opening
-which is left for them. When once in, they are driven by
-various means from chamber to chamber to the last, which is
-called the chamber of death. Here a strong net, placed horizontally,
-that can be raised at pleasure, brings the tunnies to
-the surface, and the work of destruction commences. The
-tonnaro fishery used to be one of the great amusements of
-rich Sicilians, and, at the same time, one of the most considerable
-sources of their wealth. When Louis XIII. visited Marseilles,
-he was invited to a tunny-fishery, at the principal <i>madrague</i>
-of Morgiou, and found the diversion so much to his taste
-that he often said it was the pleasantest day he had spent in
-his whole progress through the south."</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 260px;">
-<img src="images/222.png" width="260" height="94" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Mackerel.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The elegant shape and beautiful
-colouring of the common
-Mackerel are too well known to
-require any particular description,
-and its qualities as an edible fish
-have been long duly appreciated. It dies very soon after it is
-taken out of the water, exhibits for a short time a phosphoric
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">� 223 �</a></span>
-light, and partly loses the brilliancy of its hues. Like all other
-members of the family, it is extremely voracious, and makes
-great havoc among the herring-shoals, although its own length
-is only from twelve to sixteen inches. It inhabits the northern
-Atlantic, and is caught in large numbers along the British coast,
-where it is preceded in its
-annual visit by the Gar-fish,
-which for this reason has
-received also the name of
-Mackerel-guide. The older
-naturalists ascribed to the
-mackerel the same distant
-migrations as to the tunny,
-but most probably it only retires during the winter into the
-deeper waters, at no very great distance from the shores,
-where it appears during the summer season in such incalculable
-numbers.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 290px;">
-<img src="images/223a.png" width="290" height="90" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Gar-Fish.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The mackerel is caught with long nets or by hand-lines. It
-bites greedily at every bait, but generally such a one is preferred
-as best represents a living prey darting through the water&mdash;either
-some silvery scaled fish, or a piece of metal, or of scarlet
-cloth. With swelling sails the boat flies along, and a sharp
-wind is generally considered so favourable that it is called
-a "Mackerel-breeze." The line is short, but made heavy
-with lead, and in this manner a couple of men can catch
-a thousand in one day. The more rapid the boat the
-greater the success, for the mackerel rushes like lightning
-after the glittering bait, taking it for a flying prey. The
-chieftains of the Sandwich Islands used to catch the bonito
-mackerels in a similar way, by attaching
-flying-fish to their hooks, and rapidly
-skimming the surface of the waters.
-Thus everywhere man knows how to
-turn to his advantage the peculiar instincts
-or habits of the animal creation.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 210px;">
-<img src="images/223b.png" width="210" height="100" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Bonito.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The author of "Wild Sports of the West" has favoured us
-with an animated description of mackerel-fishing on the coast
-of Ireland.</p>
-
-<p>"It was evident that the bay was full of mackerel. In every
-direction, and as far as the eye could range, gulls and puffins
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">� 224 �</a></span>
-were collected, and, to judge by their activity and clamour, there
-appeared ample employment for them among the fry beneath.
-We immediately bore away for the place where these birds were
-numerously congregated, and the lines were scarcely overboard
-when we found ourselves in the centre of a shoal of mackerel.
-For two hours we killed these beautiful fish, as fast as the baits
-could be renewed and the lines hauled in; and when we left off
-fishing, actually wearied with sport, we found that we had taken
-above five hundred, including a number of the coarser species,
-called Horse-mackerel. There is not, on sea or river, always
-excepting angling for salmon, any sport comparable to this delightful
-amusement: full of life and bustle, everything about it
-is animated and exhilarating; a brisk breeze and fair sky, the
-boat in quick and constant motion, all is calculated to interest
-and excite. He who has experienced the glorious sensations of
-sailing on the Western Ocean, a bright autumnal sky above, a
-deep-green lucid swell around, a steady breeze, and as much of
-it as the hooker can stand up to, will estimate the exquisite
-enjoyment our morning's mackerel-fishing afforded."</p>
-
-<p>Although an occasional visitor of our shores, the Bonito, or
-Stripe-bellied Tunny (<i>Thynnus pelamys</i>), which is much inferior
-in size to the common tunny of the Mediterranean and
-the Black Sea, is a true ocean-fish, and generally met with at
-a vast distance from land. It inhabits the warmer seas, of
-which it is one of the most active and voracious denizens. It
-is well known to all voyagers within the tropics for the amusement
-it affords by its accompanying the vessel in its track, and
-by its pursuit of the flying-fish. But in its turn the predacious
-Bonito is subject to the persecutions of the huge Sperm-whale,
-who will often drive whole shoals before him, and crush dozens
-at a time between his prodigious jaws.</p>
-
-<p>The Pelamid (<i>Thynnus sarda</i>), which abounds in all districts
-of the Mediterranean and on both sides of the Atlantic, has but
-very lately been discovered in the British waters, a single specimen
-having been caught a few years ago at the mouth of the
-North Esk. It greatly resembles the species just mentioned in
-form and mode of life, prowling about the high seas for cephalopods
-and flying-fishes, and is very commonly confounded with
-the bonito by sailors, who also give both of them the name of
-Skip-jacks, expressive of the habit which many of the large
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">� 225 �</a></span>
-Scomberoids have of skimming the surface of the sea, and
-springing occasionally into the air.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 215px;">
-<img src="images/225.png" width="215" height="86" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Pilot-Fish.&mdash;(Naucrates ductor.)</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Another member of the mackerel family, the Pilot-Fish
-(<i>Naucrates ductor</i>), easily recognised by the three dark-blue
-bands which surround its silvery body,
-will frequently attend a ship during its
-course at sea for weeks or even months
-together, most likely to profit by the
-offal thrown overboard. Regardless
-of the useful precept, "avoid bad company,"
-it is frequently found attending the white shark, and
-owes its name to its being supposed to act as a trusty guide
-or friendly monitor to that voracious monster, sometimes
-directing it where to find a good meal, and at others warning it
-when to avoid a dangerous bait. At all events, the pilot-fish
-is well rewarded for his attendance by snatching up the morsels
-which are overlooked by his companion, and as he is an excellent
-swimmer, and probably keeps a good look-out, has but
-little reason to fear being snatched up himself.</p>
-
-<p>"It has been observed," says Yarrell, "that when a shark and
-his pilot were following a vessel, if meat was thrown overboard
-cut into small pieces, and therefore unworthy the shark's attention,
-the pilot-fish showed his true motive of action by deserting
-both shark and ship to feed at his leisure on the
-morsels."</p>
-
-<p>The family of the anguilliform fishes, characterised by their
-serpent-like bodies, destitute of ventral fins, and generally
-covered by a slippery skin, with, in some of the genera, small
-scales embedded therein, likewise comprises a number of highly
-interesting and useful species, forming many generic groups.</p>
-
-<p>Its chief representative in our waters is the Common Eel
-(<i>Anguilla vulgaris</i>), which, though a frequent inhabitant of
-our lakes, ponds, and rivers, may also justly be reckoned among
-the marine fishes; for the same wonderful instinct which prompts
-the salmon and the sturgeon annually to leave the high seas
-and seek the inland streams for the sake of perpetuating their
-race, forces also the eel to migrate, but his peregrinations are
-of an opposite character, for here the full-grown fishes descend
-the rivers to deposit their spawn in the sea, and the young,
-after having been born in the brackish estuaries, ascend the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">� 226 �</a></span>
-streams to accomplish their growth in the sweet waters. The
-mode of procreation of eels, which for ages had been an enigma,
-has now at length been completely elucidated by Professor
-Rathke, who discovered that the eggs, which are of microscopic
-smallness, so as to be undistinguishable by the naked eye from
-the fat in which they lie imbedded, are expelled through an
-opening hardly large enough to admit the point of a needle.
-The energy of the salmon in swimming stream-upwards for
-hundreds and hundreds of miles, and bounding over rapids and
-cataracts, is truly wonderful, but the instinctive efforts of the
-little eels or <i>elvers</i> to surmount obstacles that seem quite out of
-proportion to their strength are no less admirable. Mr. Anderson,
-upwards of a century ago, described the young eels as
-ascending the upright posts and gates of the waterworks at
-Norwich until they came into the dam above; and Sir Humphry
-Davy, who was witness of a vast migration of elvers at
-Ballyshannon, speaks of the mouth of the river under the fall as
-blackened by millions of little eels. "Thousands," he adds,
-"died, but their bodies remaining moist, served as the ladder
-for others to make their way; and I saw some ascending even
-perpendicular stones, making their road through wet moss, or
-adhering to some eels that had died in the attempt. Such is
-the energy of these little animals that they continue to find
-their way in immense numbers to Loch Erne. Even the mighty
-fall of Schaffhausen (which stops the salmon) does not prevent
-them from making their way to the Lake of Constance, where
-I have seen many very large eels." After the little eels have
-gained the summit of a fall, they rest for a while with their
-heads protruded into the stream. They then urge themselves
-forward, taking advantage of every projecting stone or slack
-water, and never get carried back by the current. Myriads are
-destroyed on the way by birds or fishes; but, as usual, their
-greatest enemy is man, who not only devours whole cart-loads of
-little eels not larger than a knitting-needle, frying them into
-cakes, which are said to be delicious, though rather queer-looking
-from the number of little eyes with which they are
-bespangled, but after getting tired of eating them, actually
-feeds his pigs with them, or even uses them for manure. A
-prodigal waste which should be looked after, as these little
-eels would soon increase their weight, and consequently their
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">� 227 �</a></span>
-value a thousand fold. On the Continent many lakes and ponds
-have been stocked with elvers, packed in wet grass, and sent by
-the railroads or the post far into the interior of the country.</p>
-
-<p>Eels are pre-eminently nocturnal animals. They always congregate
-at the darkest parts of the stews in which they are
-kept, and invariably select the darkest nights for their autumnal
-migration to the sea. Owing to the smallness of their gill
-aperture, the membranous folds of which, by closing the orifice
-when the eel is out of the water, prevents the desiccation of the
-branchi&aelig;, they have the power of living a long time out of the
-water when the air is humid, and not unfrequently travel
-during the night over the moist surface of meadows or gardens
-in quest of frogs or other suitable food.</p>
-
-<p>That eels are not devoid of sagacity is proved by many well
-authenticated anecdotes. "In Otaheite," says Ellis in his "Polynesian
-Researches," "they are fed till they attain an enormous
-size. These pets are kept in large holes two or three feet deep,
-partially filled with water. On the sides of these pits they
-generally remain, excepting when called by the person who
-feeds them. I have been several times with the young chief
-when he has sat down by the side of the hole, and by giving a
-shrill sort of whistle has brought out an enormous eel, which
-has moved about the surface of the water and eaten with confidence
-out of his master's hand."</p>
-
-<p>The eel has many enemies, among others the common heron,
-who, in spite of the slippery skin of his victim, knows how to
-drive his denticulated middle claw into his body, or to strike
-him with his pointed bill. Yarrell relates that a heron had
-once struck his sharp beak through the head of an eel, piercing
-both eyes, and that the eel&mdash;no doubt remembering that one
-good turn deserves another&mdash;had coiled itself so tightly round
-the neck of the heron as to stop the bird's respiration: both
-were dead.</p>
-
-<p>The London market is principally supplied with eels from
-Holland, a country where they abound. According to Mr.
-Mayhew, about ten millions of eels, amounting to a weight of
-1,500,000 lbs., are annually sold in Billingsgate market. These
-figures show us at once that the multiplication of eels in our
-sluggish rivers, which only contain such fish as are comparatively
-speaking worthless, is a matter worth consideration, and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">� 228 �</a></span>
-powerfully pleads for the protection and transplantation of the
-elvers wherever they are likely to prosper.</p>
-
-<p>Eels are extremely susceptible of cold; none whatever are
-found in the Arctic regions, and at the approach of winter they
-bury themselves in the mud, where they remain in a state of
-torpidity until the genial warmth of spring recalls them to a
-more active state of existence. In this condition they are frequently
-taken by eel-spears, and in Somersetshire the people
-know how to find the holes in the banks of rivers in which eels
-are laid up, by the hoar-frost not lying over them as it does
-elsewhere, and dig them out in heaps. Though generally only
-from two to three feet long, eels sometimes acquire a much
-larger size. Specimens six feet long and fifteen pounds in weight
-are occasionally captured, and Yarrell saw at Cambridge the
-preserved skins of two which weighed together fifty pounds.
-They were taken on draining a fen-dyke at Wisbeach. As eels
-are but slow in growth, these sizes speak for a great longevity.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 240px;">
-<img src="images/228.png" width="240" height="95" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Conger Eel.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Conger is in its general appearance so nearly allied
-to the common eel that it might
-easily be mistaken for the same
-species. It, however, materially differs
-from it by its darker colour in
-the upper part, and its brighter hue
-beneath, by its dorsal fin beginning
-near the head, and by its snout generally projecting beyond
-the lower jaw.</p>
-
-<p>This marine giant of the eel tribe attains a length of ten feet,
-and a weight of 130 pounds, and is well known on all the rocky
-parts of the coast of the British Islands, though nowhere more
-abundant than on the Cornish coast, where, according to Mr.
-Couch, it is not uncommon for a boat with three men to bring
-on shore from five hundredweight to two tons. The fishing
-for congers is always performed at night, and not unattended
-with danger, as it is quite a common occurrence for a conger to
-attack the fishermen with open jaws, and so great is the strength
-of the large specimens that they have occasionally succeeded in
-pulling the fisherman quite out of his boat, if by any chance
-he has fastened the line to his arm. The congers that keep
-among rocks hide themselves in crevices, where they are not
-unfrequently left by the retiring tide; but in situations free
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">� 229 �</a></span>
-from rocks, congers hide themselves by burrowing in the
-ground, where it is customary on some parts of the coast of
-France to employ dogs in their search.   In spite of its tough
-flesh and exceedingly nauseous smell, the conger was highly
-esteemed by Greek epicures, and in England in the time of
-the Henrys considered an article of food fit for a king.   Thus,
-the Prince and Poins, according to Falstaff's account, found
-amongst other reasons for their companionship this one: that
-both of them were fond of conger and fennel sauce.   In our
-times its flesh, though banished from all aristocratic tables,
-meets a ready sale at a low price among the poorer classes.   In
-the Isle of Man the conger may be said to take the place of
-the poor man's pig; it is his bacon, which he would find difficult
-to save if it were not for these large eels, which are caught
-in great abundance, and sold at the rate of 2<i>d.</i> or 3<i>d.</i> per lb.
-The Manx men split the congers, and then salt them and
-hang them up to dry on their cottage walls, where they do not
-exactly contribute to perfume the gale.</p>
-
-<p>The Murry or Mur&aelig;na differs from the common eel by the
-want of pectoral fins, and its beautifully-marked skin. It is
-said to live with equal facility in fresh or salt water, though
-generally found at sea, and it is as common in the Pacific as it
-is in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. The only specimen on
-record as a British fish was caught by a fisherman of Polperro,
-October 8, 1834; its length was four feet four inches. The
-mur&aelig;na has acquired a kind of historical celebrity from the
-strange fondness with which it was cherished by the Romans,
-who preserved large quantities of them in their numerous
-vivaria, as we do the lustrous gold-fish in the water-basins of
-our gardens. A certain Cajus Hirrius, who lived in the time
-of Julius C&aelig;sar, was the first that introduced the fashion, which
-soon became a passion among the wealthy senators and knights
-of the imperial city, who used to deck their especial pets with
-all kinds of ornaments. The celebrated orator, Hortensius, the
-rival of Cicero, had a <i>piscina</i> at Bauli, on the gulf of Bai&aelig;,
-where he took great delight in a favourite murry that would
-come at his call and feed from his hand. When the creature
-died, he was unable to stop his tears; and another celebrated
-Roman, L. Licinius Crassus, appears to have had an equally
-tender heart, for he, too, wept at the death of his fishy darling.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">� 230 �</a></span>
-Vedius Pollio, a Roman knight, has even acquired through these
-fishes a scandalous renown, by causing now and then a slave
-that had been guilty of some slight offence to be cast alive and
-naked into their piscina, and amusing himself with the sight of
-the murrys lacerating and devouring the body. That this
-wretch was a friend of the Emperor Augustus harmonises but
-badly with the ideas of the urbanity of his court which we may
-have formed from the poems of Horace and Virgil. It is but
-fair, however, to the character of the emperor to state that
-he reprobated Pollio's cruelty, and ordered his fish-pond to be
-filled up.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 228px;">
-<img src="images/230.png" width="228" height="82" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Ammodyte, or Launce.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Launces are distinguished from the eels by their large
-gill openings, and their caudal fin being separated from their
-dorsal and anal fins. The common
-Sand Launce abounds on many parts
-of our shore. On account of its
-silvery brightness it is highly esteemed
-by the fishermen as bait for their
-hooks, and its remarkable habit of
-burrowing in the sand as the tide recedes affords easy means
-of capture. While underground, it most likely gets hold of
-many an unfortunate lob-worm, mollusc, or crustacean, but on
-emerging from its retreat it is in its turn preyed upon by
-the larger fishes. On a calm evening it is an interesting sight
-to see the surface of the water broken by the repeated plunges
-of the voracious mackerel as they burst upon the launces
-from beneath. On the sands at Portobello, near Edinburgh,
-people of all ages may be seen when the tide is out diligently
-searching for the sand launce, and raking them out with
-iron hooks. On the south coast of Devonshire, where the
-sand launces are extremely plentiful, the fishermen employ a
-small seine with a fine mesh, and are frequently so successful
-that six or seven bushels are taken at one haul. The usual
-length of the sand launce is from five to seven inches. In
-many localities it is prepared for table, and considered a great
-delicacy.</p>
-
-<p>Although the Lamprey essentially differs from the eel in the
-formation of its gills, the softness of its cartilaginous skeleton,
-and its funnel-shaped mouth provided with sharp teeth, disposed
-in circles, yet it resembles it closely in its outward form.   Its
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">� 231 �</a></span>
-colour is generally a dull brownish olive, clouded with yellowish-white
-variegations; the fins are tinged with dull orange, and the
-tail with blue. The Marine or Sea Lamprey inhabits the ocean,
-but ascends the rivers in spring. Though capable of swimming
-with considerable vigour and rapidity, it is more commonly seen
-attached by the mouth to some large stone or other substance,
-the body hanging at rest, or obeying the motion of the current.
-Its power of adhesion is so great that a weight of more than
-twelve pounds may be raised without forcing the fish to quit its
-hold. Like the eel, it is remarkably tenacious of life, the head
-strongly attaching itself for several hours to a stone, though by
-far the greater part of the body be cut away from it. The
-lamprey is still considered as a delicacy; every schoolboy
-knows that King Henry I. died of an indigestion caused by
-this favourite dish; and the town of Gloucester still sends every
-Christmas a lamprey-pie to Queen Victoria, such as it was wont
-to offer to its sovereign in the days of the Plantagenets and
-Tudors.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 265px;">
-<img src="images/231.png" width="265" height="108" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Myxine.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Myxine, Glutinous Hag, or Borer, bears a near resemblance
-to the lamprey, but
-stands upon a much inferior
-degree of organisation, having
-no eyes&mdash;(the sole example
-of blindness among fishes), and
-a still softer skeleton, so that,
-when boiled, it almost entirely
-dissolves into mucus. In the lamprey and myxine, the
-branchial cells, which admit water, are lined by the delicate
-membrane through which the blood is a�rated. In the former,
-however, the external apertures of the branchial cells are placed
-on the side of the neck; while in the myxine, which feeds on
-the internal parts of its prey, and buries its head and part of
-its body in the flesh, the openings of the respiratory organs are
-removed sufficiently far back to admit of the respiration going on
-while the animal's head is so inserted. Thus, even in this lowest
-and meanest of all vertebrate animals, we find a remarkable
-adaptation of its construction to its wants, and the proof that it
-has been as well taken care of by its Creator as the highest
-organised creatures of its class.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">� 232 �</a></span></p>
-
-<table summary="images">
-<tr>
-  <td><img src="images/232a.png" width="255" height="160" alt="" /><br />
-    <div class="fig_caption">Porcupine-Fish&mdash;(Diodon hystrix.)</div>
-  </td>
-  <td><img src="images/232b.png" width="212" height="132" alt="" /><br />
-    <div class="fig_caption">Globe-Fish.</div>
-  </td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td><img src="images/232c.png" width="160" height="175" alt="" /><br />
-    <div class="fig_caption">Short Sun-Fish.&mdash;(Orthagoriscus Mola.)</div>
-  </td>
-  <td><img src="images/232d.png" width="325" height="132" alt="" /><br />
-    <div class="fig_caption">Trunk-Fish.&mdash;(Ostracion triqueter.)</div>
-  </td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width:315px;">
-<img src="images/232e.png" width="315" height="151" alt="" /><br />
-<div class="fig_caption">File-Fish.&mdash;(Balistes erythropterus.)</div>
-</div>
-
-
-<p>One of the most remarkable orders of fishes is that of the
-Plectognaths, which are distinguished by having the superior
-maxillary bones and the intermaxillaries soldered together so as
-to render the upper jaw immovable, or incapable of projection.
-Among the Plectognaths, we find among others the prickly Globe-fishes
-and sea-porcupines; the curiously-shaped Sun-fishes, all
-head and no body; the Ostracions or Trunk-fishes, clothed like
-the armadillos in a defensive coat of mail, leaving only the tail,
-fins, mouth, and a small portion of the gill-opening, capable of
-motion; and the gorgeous Balist&aelig; or File-fishes, which owe their
-family-name to the peculiar
-structure of their first dorsal
-fin. The first and strongest
-spine of this organ is studded
-up the front with numerous
-small projections, which, under
-the microscope, look like so
-many points of enamel or
-pearl arising from the surface of the bone and giving it the
-appearance of a file. The second smaller spine has in the fore
-part of its base a projection which, when the spines are elevated,
-locks into a corresponding notch in the posterior base of the
-first spine, and fixes it like the trigger of a gun-lock; from
-which the fish is called in Italy <i>pesce balestra</i>, or the cross-bow
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">� 233 �</a></span>
-fish. The strong spine cannot be forced down till the small one
-has been first depressed and the catch disengaged.</p>
-
-<p>The Plectognaths are mostly denizens of the warmer seas,
-but the pig-faced trigger-fish of the Mediterranean (<i>Balistes
-capriscus</i>) has been caught three times in the British waters
-since 1827, and the short sun-fish or molebut, though occurring
-but occasionally, may be said to have been taken from
-John o' Groat's to the Land's End. It grows to an immense
-size, often attaining the diameter of four feet, sometimes even
-double that size, and occasionally weighing from 300 to 500
-pounds. When observed in our seas, the sun-fishes have generally
-appeared as though they were dead or dying, floating
-lazily along on one side and making little or no attempt to
-escape. It is to be presumed that in more congenial waters
-they evince a greater degree of liveliness.</p>
-
-<p>The order of the Lophobranchii is in many respects too
-curious and interesting to be passed over in silence. Here the
-gills, instead of being as usual ranged like the teeth of a comb,
-are clustered into small filamentous tufts placed by pairs along
-the branchial arches; the face projects into a long tubular
-snout, having the mouth either at its extremity, as in the Hippocampus
-and in the Pipe-fishes, or at its base, as in the Pegasus
-of the Indian seas; and the body is covered with shields or
-small plates, which often give it an angular form, and encase it
-as it were in jointed armour. But the most interesting feature
-of their economy is the pouches in which the males of the
-most characteristic genera carry the eggs until they are hatched.
-In the hippocampi this provision for the safety of the future
-generation, which strongly reminds one of the kangaroo or the
-opossum, forms a perfect sack, opening at its commencement
-only; in the pipe-fishes it is closed along its whole length by
-two soft flaps folding over each other. Another peculiarity of
-these interesting little fishes is the independent motion of their
-eyes, the one glancing hither and thither while its fellow remains
-motionless, or looks in different directions. This phenomenon
-of <i>double</i> vision, which was long supposed to be peculiar to the
-chameleon, is, however, not confined to this singular reptile or
-to the hippocampi and pipe-fishes, but has been found by
-Mr. Gosse to exist likewise in the Little Weever (<i>Trachinus
-vipera</i>), in the Suckers (<i>Lepidogastri</i>), a small family remarkable
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">� 234 �</a></span>
-for the power they possess of attaching themselves to stones
-or rocks by means of an adhesive disk on the under surface
-of their bodies, and in several other fishes.</p>
-
-<p>When imprisoned in an aquarium, few subjects of the deep
-display more intelligence or afford more entertainment than
-the little <i>Hippocampus brevirostris</i>, or Sea-Horse.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 223px;">
-<img src="images/234.png" width="223" height="100" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Sea-Horse.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"While swimming about," says Mr. Lukis,<a name="FNanchor_16" id="FNanchor_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[P]</a> "it maintains
-a vertical position, but the tail, ready to grasp whatever meets it
-in the water, quickly entwines itself in
-any direction round the weeds, and,
-when fixed, the animal intently watches
-the surrounding objects, and darts at its
-prey with great dexterity. When two
-of them approach each other, they often twist their tails together,
-and struggle to separate or attach themselves to the weeds; this
-is done by the under part of their cheeks or chin, which is also
-used for raising the body when a new spot is wanted for the tail
-to fasten upon afresh."</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_16" id="Footnote_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16"><span class="label">[P]</span></a> Yarrell, "British Fishes," 3rd edition, vol. ii. p. 396.</p></div>
-
-<p>"In captivity," says Mr. Gosse, "the manners of the Worm
-Pipe-Fish (<i>Syngnathus lambriciformis</i>), the smallest of our
-native species, are amusing and engaging. Its beautiful eyes
-move independently of each other, like those of the chameleon,
-and another point of resemblance to that animal our little pipe-fish
-presents in the prehensile character of its tail. It curves
-just the tip of this organ laterally round the stem or frond of
-some sea-weed and holds on by this half-inch or so, while the
-rest of its body roves to and fro, elevating and depressing the
-head and fore parts, and throwing the body into the most graceful
-curves. All the motions of the Pipe-fish manifest much
-intelligence. It is a timid little thing, retiring from the side
-of the glass at which it had been lying when one approaches,
-and hiding under the shadow of the sea-weeds, which I have
-put in, both to afford it shelter, and also to supply food in the
-numerous animalcules that inhabit these marine plants. Then
-it cautiously glides among their bushy fronds, and from under
-their shelter peeps with its brilliant eyes at the intruder as if
-wondering what he can be, drawing back gently at any alarming
-motion. In swimming, it is constantly throwing its body
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">� 235 �</a></span>
-into elegant contortions and undulations; often it hangs nearly
-perpendicular with the tail near the surface; now and then it
-butts against the side of the vessel with reiterated blows of its
-nose, as if it could not make out why it should not go forward
-where it can see no impediment. Now it twists about as if it
-would tie its body into a love knot, then hangs motionless in
-some one of the 'lines of beauty' in which it has accidentally
-paused."</p>
-
-<p>The family of the Pleuronectid&aelig; or Flat-fishes recommends
-itself to our notice as much by the singularity of its form as by
-its usefulness to man. "The want of symmetry," says Yarrell,
-"so unusual in vertebrated animals, is the most striking and
-distinctive character of these fishes: the twisted head with both
-eyes on the same side, one higher than the other, not in the
-same vertical line, and often unequal in size; the mouth cleft
-awry, and the frequent want of uniformity in those fins that
-are in pairs, the pectoral and ventral fins of the under side
-being generally smaller; and the whole of the colour of the
-fish confined to one side, while the other side remains white,
-produce a grotesque appearance: yet a little consideration will
-prove that these various and seemingly obvious anomalies are
-perfectly in harmony with that station in nature which an
-animal possessing such conformation is appointed to fill.</p>
-
-<p>"As birds are seen to occupy very different situations, some
-obtaining their food on the ground, others on trees, and not a
-few at various degrees of elevation in the air, so are fishes
-destined to reside in different depths of water. The flat-fishes
-and the various species of skate are, by their depressed form of
-body, admirably adapted to inhabit the lowest position, where
-they occupy the least space among their kindred fishes."</p>
-
-<p>"Preferring sandy or muddy shores, the place of the flat-fish
-is close to the ground; where, hiding their bodies horizontally
-in the loose soil at the bottom, with the head only slightly
-elevated, an eye on the under side of the head would be useless;
-but as both eyes are placed on the upper surface, an
-extensive range of view is afforded in those various directions
-in which they may either endeavour to find suitable food or
-avoid dangerous enemies. Light, one great cause of colour,
-strikes on the upper surface only; the under surface, like that
-of most other fishes, remains perfectly colourless. Having
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">� 236 �</a></span>
-little or no means of defence, had their colour been placed only
-above the lateral line on each side, in whatever position they
-moved their piebald appearance would have rendered them
-conspicuous objects to all their enemies. When near the
-ground, they swim slowly, maintaining their horizontal position;
-and the smaller pectoral and ventral fins, on the under side, are
-advantageous where there is so much less room for their action
-than with the larger fins that are above. When suddenly disturbed,
-they sometimes make a rapid shoot, changing their
-position from horizontal to vertical; and, if the observer
-happens to be opposite the white side, they may be seen to pass
-with the rapidity and flash of a meteor. Soon, however, they
-sink down again, resuming their previous motionless horizontal
-position, and are then distinguished with difficulty, owing to
-their great similarity in colour to the surface on which they
-rest."</p>
-
-<p>The number of species of the flat-fishes diminishes as the
-degrees of northern latitude increase. In this country we
-have twenty-three species; at the parallel of Jutland there
-are thirteen; on the coast of Norway they are reduced to
-ten; in Iceland the number is but five, and in Greenland only
-three.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 245px;">
-<img src="images/236.png" width="245" height="118" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Halibut.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Many of them attain a considerable size, particularly the
-Halibut (<i>Pleuronectes hippoglossus</i>). In April 1828 a specimen
-seven feet six inches long and three feet six inches broad
-was taken off the Isle of Man, and sent to Edinburgh market.
-Olafsen mentions that he saw one which measured five ells; and
-we are told by the Norwegian fishermen that a single halibut
-will sometimes cover a whole skiff.
-Let us, however, remember that these
-stories proceed from the country
-where monstrous krakens and sea-snakes
-are most frequently seen, and
-where the mists of the north seem to
-produce strange delusions of vision.
-At all events, the halibut is better entitled to the name of
-<i>maximus</i> than its relation the Turbot, to which that epithet has
-been improperly applied by naturalists. The turbot, equally
-esteemed by the ancients and the moderns for the delicacy of its
-flesh, is often confounded in our markets with the halibut, but
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">� 237 �</a></span>
-may be easily recognised by the large unequal and obtuse
-tubercles on its upper part.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 270px;">
-<img src="images/237a.png" width="270" height="177" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Turbot.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The number of turbot brought
-to Billingsgate within twelve
-months, up to a recent period,
-was 87,958. Though very considerable
-quantities of this fish
-are now taken on various parts of
-our own coasts, from the Orkneys
-to the Land's End, yet a preference
-is given to those caught by
-the Dutch fishermen, who are supposed to draw not less than
-80,000<i>l.</i> for the supply of the London market alone. According
-to Mr. Low, it is rare along our most northern shores, but
-increases in numbers on proceeding to the south.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 225px;">
-<img src="images/237b.png" width="225" height="105" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Sole.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Next to the turbot, the Sole is reckoned the most delicate of
-the flat-fishes. It inhabits the sandy shore all round our coast,
-where it keeps close to the bottom,
-indiscriminately feeding on smaller
-testaceous animals, crustacea, annelides,
-radiata, and the spawn and fry
-of other fishes. It is found northward
-as far as the Baltic and the seas of
-Scandinavia, and southward along the
-shores of Spain, Portugal, and the Mediterranean. The consumption
-is enormous, for Mr. Bertram informs us that no less
-than 100,000,000 soles are annually brought to the London
-market.<a name="FNanchor_17" id="FNanchor_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[Q]</a> They seldom take any bait, and are caught almost
-entirely by trawling. The principal fishing-ground in England
-is along the south coast from Sussex to Devonshire, where the
-soles are much larger and considered otherwise superior to
-those of the north and east. On the Devonshire coast, the great
-fishing-station is at Brixham in Torbay, where the boats, using
-large trawling nets from thirty to thirty-six feet in beam, produce
-a continual supply.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_17" id="Footnote_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17"><span class="label">[Q]</span></a> We are told by the same author ("Harvest of the Seas," Murray, 1866) that
-500,000 cod-fish, 25,000,000 mackerel, 35,000,000 plaice, and 200,000,000 haddocks,
-&amp;c., form the yearly supply of the metropolis, which, besides this immense
-number of white-fish, consumes 50,000,000 red herrings and 1,600,000 dried cod.
-These, with the addition of Molluscous shell-fish (oysters, &amp;c.) to the amount of
-920,000,000, and a daily demand for 10,000 lobsters during the season, afford an
-instructive indication of what must be the requirement of the whole population of
-the United Kingdom as regards fish food.
-</p>
-<p>
-The Report of the Commissioners appointed in the year 1863 to enquire into the
-sea-fisheries of the United Kingdom gives us the gratifying intelligence that the
-number of fishermen in Great Britain has nearly doubled within the last twenty
-years, while the boats are increasing in number and size. No class of the population
-is said to be in a more flourishing condition; and this prosperity is no doubt
-mainly due to the railroads, which have opened throughout the whole kingdom
-a ready market for the produce of the seas. In Ireland, however, there has been
-a diminution of 10,583 boats and 52,127 men within the same time; a consequence
-of the famine of 1848, and subsequent emigration.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">� 238 �</a></span></p></div>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 206px;">
-<img src="images/238a.png" width="206" height="144" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Plaice.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Plaice and Flounder, though far inferior to the sole in
-quality, are still in great request as articles of food. On the
-English coast, the plaice are obtained
-in abundance on all sandy banks and
-muddy grounds, wherever either lines
-or trawl-nets can be used. On the
-sandy flats of the Solway Frith, they
-are taken by the fishermen and their
-families wading in the shoal water
-with bare feet. When a fish is felt, it
-is pressed by the foot firmly against the bottom until it can
-be secured by the hand and transferred to the basket. Long
-practice gives the dexterity which renders this kind of fishing
-successful.</p>
-
-<p>In some parts of the North of Europe, where from the rocky
-nature of the soil the sea is remarkably transparent, plaice and
-some other flat-fish of large size are taken by dropping down
-upon them from a boat a doubly-barbed short spear, heavily
-leaded, to carry it with velocity to the bottom, with a line
-attached to it, by which the fish, when transfixed, is hauled up.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 210px;">
-<img src="images/238b.png" width="210" height="120" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">The Flounder.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Flounder, one of the most common of the flat-fish, is
-found in the sea and near the mouths of large streams all round
-our coast, particularly where the bottom
-is soft, whether of sand, clay, or mud.
-It also ascends the rivers, and is caught
-in considerable quantities from Deptford
-to Richmond by Thames fishermen, who,
-with the assistance of an apprentice, use
-a net of a particular sort, called a tuck-sean.
-"One end of this net," says Yarrell, "is fixed for a short
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">� 239 �</a></span>
-time by an anchor or grapple, and its situation marked by a
-floating buoy; the boat is then rowed or rather sculled by the
-apprentice in a circle, the fisherman near the stern handing
-out and clearing the net: when the circle is completed and a
-space enclosed, the net is hauled in near the starting-point in a
-direction across the fixed end."</p>
-
-<p>The Sail-fluke, a species of flat-fish common among the
-Orkneys, where it is highly prized as an article of food, its flesh
-being firm and white, is remarkable for its curious habit of
-coming ashore spontaneously, with its tail erected above the
-water, like a boat under sail, whence it has derived its name.
-This it does generally in calm weather, and on sandy shores, and
-the country people residing near such places train their dogs to
-catch it. In North Ronaldshay, the northernmost island of the
-group, a considerable supply is obtained in an original manner:
-thus described in a letter from a resident inserted in Yarrell's
-"British Fishes:" "In the winter and early spring, a pair of
-black-headed gulls take possession of the South Bay, drive away
-all interlopers, and may be seen at daybreak every morning,
-beating from side to side, on the wing, and never both in
-one place, except in the act of crossing as they pass. The
-sail-fluke skims the ridge of the wave towards the shore with
-its tail raised over its back, and when the wave recedes is left on
-the sand, into which it burrows so suddenly and completely that,
-though I have watched its approach, only once have I succeeded
-in finding its burrow.</p>
-
-<p>"The gull, however, has a surer eye, and casting like a hawk
-pounces on the fluke, from which, by one stroke of its bill, it
-extracts the liver. If not disturbed, the gull no sooner gorges
-the luscious morsel than it commences dragging the fish to
-some outlying rock, where he and his consort may discuss it at
-leisure. By robbing the black backs, I have had the house
-supplied daily with this excellent fish, in weather during which
-no fishing-boat could put to sea. Close to the beach of South
-Bay, a stone wall has been raised to shelter the crops from the
-sea-spray. Behind this we posted a smart lad, who kept his eye
-on the soaring gulls. The moment one of the birds made its
-well-known swoop, the boy rushed to the sea-strand shouting
-out with all his might. He was usually in time to scare the
-gull away and secure the fluke, but almost in every case with
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">� 240 �</a></span>
-the liver torn out. If the gull by chance succeeded in carrying
-his prey off the rock, he and his partner set up a triumphant
-cackling, as if deriding the disappointed lad."</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 248px;">
-<img src="images/240.png" width="248" height="164" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Thornback.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Rays resemble the side-swimmers by the flatness of their
-form, but differ widely from them in many other particulars.
-Like the sharks and sturgeons, they
-belong to the cartilaginous fishes, and
-as their branchi&aelig; adhere to the cells,
-these respiratory membranes are not
-furnished with a gill-cover, but communicate
-freely with the water by
-means of five spiracles on either side.
-More unsightly fishes can hardly be
-conceived. The rhomboidal broad body, the long narrow tail
-frequently furnished with two and sometimes three small fins,
-and mostly armed with one or more rows of sharp spines along
-its whole length, the dirty colour, and the thick coat of slime
-with which it is covered, render them pre-eminently disgusting.
-Their mode of defending themselves is very effectual, and forms
-a striking contrast to the helplessness of the flat fish. The point
-of the nose and the base of the tail are bent upwards towards
-each other, and the upper surface of the body being then concave,
-the tail is lashed about in all directions over it, and the
-rows of sharp spines frequently inflict severe wounds.</p>
-
-<p>Eleven species of rays are found on the British coasts, some,
-like the skates, with a perfectly smooth skin; others, like the
-thornback, with an upper surface studded with spines, and some,
-like the sting-ray, with a tail still more powerfully armed with a
-long serrated spine: a formidable weapon, which the fish strikes
-with the swiftness of an arrow into its prey or enemy, when with
-its winding tail it makes the capture secure. The lacerations inflicted
-by the tropical sting-rays produce the most excruciating
-tortures. An Indian who accompanied Richard Schomburgk on
-his travels through Guiana, being hit by one of these fishes while
-fording a river, tottered to the bank, where he fell upon the
-ground and rolled about on the sand with compressed lips in an
-agony of pain. But no tear started from the eye, no cry of
-anguish issued from the breast, of the stoical savage. An Indian
-boy wounded in the some manner, but less able to master his
-emotions, howled fearfully, and flung himself upon the sand,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">� 241 �</a></span>
-biting it in the paroxysm of his anguish. Although both had
-been hit in the foot, they felt the severest pain in the loins, in
-the region of the heart, and in the arm-pits. A robust man,
-wounded by a sting-ray, died in Demarara under the most
-dreadful convulsions.</p>
-
-<p>The rays are very voracious; their food consists of any sort
-of fish, mollusc, annelide, or crustacean, that they can catch.
-So powerful are their muscles and jaws that they are able to
-crush the strong shell of a crab with the greatest ease. Even in
-our seas they attain a considerable size. Thomas Willoughby
-makes mention of a single skate of two hundred pounds' weight,
-which was sold in the fish market at Cambridge to the cook of
-St. John's College, and was found sufficient for the dinner of a
-society, consisting of more than a hundred and twenty persons.
-Dr. G. Johnston measured a sharp-nosed ray at Berwick, which
-was seven feet nine inches long and eight feet three inches
-broad. But our European rays are far from equalling the
-colossal dimensions of the sea-devil of the Pacific. This terrific
-monster swims fast, and often appears on the surface of the
-ocean, where its black unwieldy back looks like a huge stone
-projecting above the waters. It attains a breadth of twelve
-or fifteen feet, and Lesson was presented by a fisherman of
-Borabora with a tail five feet long. The Society Islanders
-catch the hideous animal with harpoons, and make use of its
-rough skin as rasps or files in the manufacture of their wooden
-utensils.</p>
-
-<p>Creatures so voracious and well armed as the rays would have
-attained a dangerous supremacy in the maritime domains had
-they equalled most other fishes in fecundity. Fortunately for
-their neighbours, they seldom produce more than one young at
-a time, which, as in the sharks, is enclosed in a four-cornered
-capsule ending in slender points, but not, as in the former, produced
-into long filaments.</p>
-
-<p>Thus nature has in this case set bounds to the increase of a
-race which else might have destroyed the balance of marine
-existence; in most fishes, however, she has been obliged to
-provide against the danger of extinction by a prodigal abundance
-of new germs. If the cod did not annually produce more
-than nine millions of eggs, and the sturgeon more than seven;
-if the flat-fish, mackerels, and herrings, did not multiply by
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">� 242 �</a></span>
-hundreds of thousands, they could not possibly maintain themselves
-against the vast number of their enemies. "Not one egg
-too much," every one will say who considers that of all the
-myriads of germs which are deposited on the shallow sand-banks
-and shores to be quickened by the fructifying warmth
-of the sun, not one in a hundred comes to life, as fishes and
-molluscs, crabs and radiata, devour the spawn with equal voracity;
-that a thousand dangers await the young defenceless fry, since
-everywhere in the oceanic realms no other right is known than
-that of the stronger; and that, finally, the insatiable rapacity of
-man is continually extirpating millions on millions of the full-grown
-fishes. But if very few of this much-persecuted race
-die a natural death, a life of liberty makes them some amends
-for their violent end. The tortured cart-horse or the imprisoned
-nightingale would, if they could reflect, willingly exchange their
-hard lot and joyless existence for the free life of the independent
-fish, who, from the greater simplicity of his structure, his want
-of higher sensibilities, his excellent digestion, and the more
-equal temperature of the element in which he lives, remains
-unmolested by many of the diseases to which the warm-blooded
-and particularly the domestic animals are subject.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 235px;">
-<img src="images/242.png" width="235" height="208" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Dory.</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">� 243 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_XIII" id="CHAP_XIII">CHAP. XIII.</a></h2>
-
-<p class="caption2">CRUSTACEA.</p>
-
-<p class="caption2">CRABS&mdash;LOBSTERS.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">How are they distinguished from the Insects?&mdash;Barnacles and Acorn-shells.&mdash;Siphonostomata.&mdash;Entomostraca.&mdash;King-Crab.&mdash;Edriophthalmia.&mdash;Sandhoppers.&mdash;Thoracostraca.&mdash;Compound
-Eye of the higher Crustaceans.&mdash;Respiratory
-Apparatus of the Decapods.&mdash;Digestive Organs.&mdash;Chel&aelig; or Pincers.&mdash;Distribution
-of Crabs.&mdash;Land Crabs.&mdash;The Calling Crab.&mdash;Modifications of the Legs in
-different species.&mdash;The Pinna and Pinnotheres.&mdash;Hermit Crabs.&mdash;The Lobster.&mdash;The
-Cocoa-nut Crab.&mdash;The Shrimp.&mdash;Moulting Process.&mdash;Metamorphoses of
-Crabs.&mdash;Victims and Enemies of the Crustaceans.&mdash;Their Fecundity.&mdash;Marine
-Spiders and Insects.</div>
-
-<table summary="barnacle">
-<tr>
-  <td><img src="images/244a.png" width="300" height="130" alt="" /><br />
-    <div class="fig_caption">Barnacle.</div>
-  </td>
-  <td style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/244b.png" width="96" height="138" alt="" /><br />
-    <div class="fig_caption">Balanus ovularis.</div>
-  </td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 387px;">
-<img src="images/244c.png" width="387" height="344" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Development of Balanus balanoides.&mdash;(Acorn-shell.)<br />
-
-A. Earliest form. B. Larva after second moult. C. Side view of the same. D. Stage immediately
-preceding the loss of activity. <i>a.</i> Stomach. <i>b.</i> Nucleus of future attachment.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Crustaceans were included by Linn&aelig;us among his insects,
-but their internal structure presents such numerous and important
-differences that modern naturalists have raised them to
-the dignity of a separate class. They have indeed, in common
-with the insects, an articulated body, generally cased with hard
-materials; they are like them provided with jointed legs, with
-antenn&aelig; or feelers, and their organs of mastication are similarly
-formed; but insects breathe atmospheric air through lateral
-pores or trache&aelig;, while the crustaceans, being either aquatic
-animals or constantly frequenting very damp places, have a
-branchial or a tegumentary respiration. The perfect insect
-undergoes no further change; the crustacean, on the contrary,
-increases in size with every successive year. The higher crustacean
-possesses a heart, which propels the blood, after it has
-been a�rated in the gills, to every part of the body; in the insect
-the circulation of the blood is by no means so highly organised.
-On the other hand many of the insects are far superior in point
-of intelligence to even the best endowed crustaceans, for here
-we find no parental care, no mutual affection, no joint labours
-for the welfare of a large community, no traces of an amiable
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">� 244 �</a></span>
-disposition, but frequent outbursts of an irascible and sanguinary
-temper. Though the whole of the Crustacea are formed
-after one and the same
-general type, and the
-same fundamental idea
-may be traced throughout
-all their tribes,
-yet the rings of which
-their body is composed,
-and the limbs or appendages
-attached to these segments, undergo such extensive
-modifications of structure in the various orders into which
-the class has been divided that even the eye of
-science has with difficulty made out the true
-nature of many of their lowest forms. Who,
-for instance, judging from outward appearances
-alone, would suppose that the Barnacles and
-Acorn-shells which he sees riveted to the rock
-or to a piece of floating timber were relations
-of the crab or lobster; but a view of their early
-forms at once points out their real character, for then they appear
-as active little animals possessing three pairs of legs and a pair
-of compound eyes, and having the body covered with an expanded
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">� 245 �</a></span>
-shield like that of many of the lower crustaceans. After going
-through a series of metamorphoses, these larv&aelig;, tired of a roaming
-life, attach themselves by their head, a portion of which becomes
-excessively elongated into the "peduncle" of the Barnacles,
-whilst in the Balani or acorn-shells it expands into a broad
-disk of adhesion. The multivalve shell is gradually formed,
-the eyes are cast away as being no longer needed, and the now
-useless feet are replaced by six pairs of extremely useful <i>cirrhi</i>,
-long, slender, many-jointed, tendril-like appendages fringed with
-delicate filaments and covered with vibratile cilia. These cirrhi,
-which resemble a plume of purple feathers, and from whose
-peculiar character the name of the group, Cirrhipoda, is derived,
-are constantly in motion as long as they are bathed in
-water, projecting outwards and expanding into an oval concave
-net, then retracting inwards, and closing upon whatever may
-have come within their reach. They are so judiciously placed
-that any small animal which becomes entangled within them
-can rarely escape, and is at once conveyed to the mouth. The
-currents produced in the water by their perpetual activity
-serve also to a�rate the blood, so that these delicate organs act
-both as gills and as prehensile arms. In spite of their sessile
-condition, the Cirrhipeds have not been left without protection
-against hostile attacks, for at the approach of danger they shrink
-within their shell, and close its orifice against a host of hungry
-intruders.</p>
-
-<p>Their various families are widely spread over the seas. It is
-well known that the barnacles frequently attach themselves in
-such vast numbers to ships' bottoms as materially to obstruct
-their way, and the acorn-shells often line the coasts for miles
-and miles with their large white scurfy patches. The Coronul&aelig;
-settle so profusely on the skin of the Greenland whale as often to
-hide the colour of its skin, while the Tubicinell&aelig; exclusively
-occur on the huge cetaceans of the South Sea. Some of the
-larger sea-acorns are highly esteemed as articles of food. The
-Chinese, after eating the animal of <i>Balanus tintinnabulum</i> with
-salt and vinegar, use the shell, which is about two or three
-inches high and an inch in diameter, as a lamp, and the flesh of
-<i>Balanus psittacus</i> on the southern parts of the South American
-coast is said to equal in richness and delicacy that of the crab.</p>
-
-<p>While the Cirrhipeds grasp their prey as in a living net, the
-Siphonostomata lead a parasitic life chiefly upon fishes, sucking
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">� 246 �</a></span>
-their juices with a bloodthirsty proboscis. Some (Argulus,
-Caligus) wander about freely on the body of their victims as
-grazing animals on their pasture grounds, or even make excursions
-in the water, where they will turn over and over several
-times in succession like mountebanks; others (Lerne&aelig;), after
-having, like the barnacles, indulged in a vagabond existence in
-their first youth, remain ever after clinging to the spot on which
-they originally settled, and where their body undergoes such
-remarkable transformations that not a vestige of the crustacean
-structure which characterised their erratic life remains.</p>
-
-<p>As we continue to proceed from the lower to the higher forms,
-we find, on the next stage of crustacean life, the numerous
-families of the Entomostraca; some bristly-footed (Lophyropoda),
-with a small number of legs and with respiratory organs attached to
-the parts in the neighbourhood of the mouth, others gill-footed
-(Branchiopoda), with numerous foliaceous legs, serving both for
-respiration and swimming. Some of these creatures, which are
-generally of such minute size as to be only just visible to the
-naked eye, have an unprotected body (Branchipus), but generally
-they are enclosed within a horny or shelly
-casing, which sometimes closely resembles a
-bivalve shell in shape and in the mode of junction
-of its parts, whilst in other instances it forms a
-kind of buckler, an opening being left behind,
-through which the members project.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 127px;">
-<img src="images/246a.png" width="127" height="223" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">King-Crab.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Though enjoying a royal title, the King-crabs,
-or Limuli, occupy in reality but a low rank
-among the crustaceans, and are hardly superior in
-organisation to the Entomostraca. They are of
-large size, sometimes attaining the length of
-two feet, and of a very singular structure, the bases of the legs
-performing the part of jaws. The best-known species comes from
-the Moluccas, where they are often seen slowly
-swimming in the sheltered bays, or still more
-slowly crawling along upon the sandy shores.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 118px;">
-<img src="images/246b.png" width="118" height="96" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Sandhopper.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>In the Edriophthalmia are included the lower
-crustaceans that have no carapace, and whose
-thorax and abdomen are distinctly composed of articulated
-segments. The numerous legs are variously formed in the different
-genera for springing, walking, or swimming; and respiration
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">� 247 �</a></span>
-is executed by certain portions of the extremities, modified
-for this purpose in their structure. To this order belong among
-others the saltatorial sandhoppers (Talitrus), which so frequently
-jump up before our feet when walking on the wet sea-sand;
-the ill-famed Chelur&aelig; and Linnori&aelig;, whose devastations in submerged
-timber almost rival those of the ship-worm, and the
-parasitical Cyami, which gnaw deep holes into the skin of the
-whale. The sandhoppers are extremely frequent on the shores
-of the arctic seas, where they emulate the
-tropical ants in their speedy removal of
-decaying animal substances. Thus Captain
-Holb�ll relates that, having enclosed a piece
-of shark's flesh in a basket, and let it down
-to a depth of seventy-five fathoms, in the Greenland sea, he by
-this means caught within two hours six quarts of these little
-creatures, while a vast number still followed the basket
-as it was hauled up.</p>
-
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 150px;">
-<img src="images/247a.png" width="150" height="98" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Chelura terebrans.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 91px;">
-<img src="images/247b.png" width="91" height="136" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Limnoria
-lignorum.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 76px;">
-<img src="images/247c.png" width="76" height="54" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Square
-facets of
-Scyllarus.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 90px;">
-<img src="images/247d.png" width="90" height="68" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Hexagonal
-facets of
-Squilla.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>As the lower crustaceans offer but few points of interest
-to the general reader, they required but a few
-words of notice; but the highest order of the class, the
-Thoracostraca, thus named from the carapace which
-covers their thorax, so that only the abdomen presents
-an annular structure, may justly claim a more ample
-description. The preceding orders had either sessile eyes or
-none at all; here the movable eyes are fixed on stalks and of a
-compound structure like those of the insects; each
-ocular globe consisting of a number of distinct parallel
-columns, every one of which is provided with its own
-crystalline lens, receives its separate impression of
-light, and is thus in itself a perfect eye. Approaches
-to this structure are seen in some of the lower crustaceans; but
-here the "ocelli," as these minute individual eyes have been
-designated, are very numerous. They are at once
-recognised, under even a low magnifying power, by
-the facetted appearance of the surface of the compound
-eye, the facets being either square (Scyllari,
-&amp;c.) or more commonly hexagonal (Paguri, Squill&aelig;,
-&amp;c). The auditory apparatus is likewise highly developed;
-the sense of smell is known to be very acute; and the antenn&aelig;
-are delicate organs of touch.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">� 248 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The Thoracostraca are subdivided into the small group of
-the Stomatopoda, whose branchi&aelig; are external and the feet
-prehensile or formed for swimming, and
-the far more numerous and important
-Decapods, which are either long-tailed
-like the scyllarus or short-tailed like the
-crab. In these the branchi&aelig; no longer
-float in the water, but are enclosed in
-two chambers, situated one at each side of the under surface
-of the broad shelly plate which covers the back of the animal.
-Each of these chambers is provided with two apertures, one in
-the front near the jaws, the other behind.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 174px;">
-<img src="images/248.png" width="174" height="99" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Scyllarus equinoxialis.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The disposition of the anterior or efferent orifice varies but
-little; but in the long-tailed species the afferent or posterior
-orifice is a wide slit at the basis of the feet, while in the short-tailed
-kinds it forms a small transverse aperture generally
-placed almost immediately in front of the first pair of ambulatory
-extremities. By means of this formation, the short-tailed decapods
-or crabs, like those fishes that are provided with a narrow
-opening to their gill covers, are enabled to exist much longer
-out of the water than the long-tailed lobsters. Some of them
-even spend most of their time on land; and, still better to adapt
-them for a terrestrial life, the internal surfaces of the branchial
-caverns are lined with a spongy texture, and the gill branches
-separated from each other by hard partitions, so as to prevent
-them from collapsing after a long penury of water and thus
-completely stopping the circulation. While in fishes the water
-that serves for respiration flows from the front backwards, so as
-not to impede their motions, we find in the interior of the
-branchial cavity of the decapods a large valve attached to the
-second pair of maxillary feet, which, continually falling and
-rising, occasions a rapid current from behind forwards in the
-water with which the cavity is filled, a structure perfectly
-harmonising with their retrograde or sidelong movements.</p>
-
-<p>The digestive apparatus of the decapods is of a very complicated
-structure. The mouth is here furnished with at least
-eight pieces or pairs of jaws, which pass the food through an
-extremely short gullet into a stomach of considerable size. This
-stomach is rendered curious by having within certain cartilaginous
-appendages, to which strong grinding-teeth are attached.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">� 249 �</a></span>
-These are placed at the outlet of the stomach, so that the aliment,
-after being subjected to the action of the jaws, is again more
-perfectly comminuted by the stomach-teeth before entering
-the digestive tube. The different pieces composing the
-masticatory apparatus of the stomach vary considerably in
-the different genera, and even in the several species of the
-same genus; but in every case they are always singularly in
-harmony with the kind of food taken and the general habits of
-the animal.</p>
-
-<p>To enable the decapods to seize their victims or to defend
-themselves against their enemies, their anterior thoracic extremities
-generally assume the form of "chel&aelig;," claws, or pincers
-of considerable strength, armed with teeth or sharp hooks, which
-give them increased powers of prehension. This form results
-mainly from the state of extreme development in which the
-penultimate articulation frequently occurs, and its assumption
-of the shape of a finger by the prolongation of one of its inferior
-angles. Against the finger-like process thus produced,
-which is of great strength, and quite immovable, the last
-articulation can be brought to bear with immense force, as it
-is put into motion by a muscular mass of great size, and in
-relation with the extraordinary development of the penultimate
-articulation. In most cases only the first pair of legs is converted
-into these formidable weapons, but in the Dromi&aelig;, which
-are very common in the warmer seas, we
-find the two posterior pairs of legs, which
-are of a much smaller size, and raised above
-the plane of the others, similarly armed.
-These posterior claws, however, are not
-intended for active warfare, but merely for
-strategical purposes, as they serve to hold
-fast the pieces of sponges, shells, medus&aelig;, and other marine
-productions, under whose cover the wily robber approaches and
-entraps his prey.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 170px;">
-<img src="images/249.png" width="170" height="122" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Dromia Vulgaris.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>While the lower crustaceans abound in the polar seas,
-the crabs are completely wanting in those desolate regions;
-their number increases with the warmer temperature
-of the waters, and attains its maximum in the tropical
-zone. Here we find the most remarkable and various
-forms, here they attain a size unknown in our seas; and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">� 250 �</a></span>
-here they do not, as with us, inhabit solely the salt waters, but also
-people the brooks and rivers, or even constantly sojourn on land,&mdash;as,
-for instance, the <i>Thelphus&aelig;</i> and <i>Gecarcini</i>. There are even
-some species of land-crabs that suffocate
-when dipped into water. They
-breathe indeed through branchi&aelig;,
-but the small quantity of oxygen
-dissolved in water does not suffice
-for the wants of their active respiration.
-They generally live in the
-shades of the damp forests, often at a great distance from the
-sea, concealing themselves in holes. At breeding time they
-generally seek the shore for the purpose of washing off their
-spawn, and depositing it in the sand, and no obstruction will
-then make them deviate from the straight path. They feed on
-vegetable substances, and are reckoned very excellent food.
-When taken, they will seize the person's finger with their claw,
-and endeavour to escape, leaving the claw behind, which for
-some time after it has been separated from the body, continues
-to give the finger a friendly squeeze. In the dusk of the evening
-they quit their holes, and may then be seen running about with
-great swiftness.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 214px;">
-<img src="images/250a.png" width="214" height="104" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Jamaica Land-Crab.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>All sandy and muddy coasts of the tropical seas, affording
-sufficient protection against a heavy sea, swarm with crabs.
-In the East and West Indies the Gelasimi bore in every
-direction circular holes in the moist black soil of the coast.
-One of the claws of these remarkable creatures is much larger
-than the other, so as sometimes to surpass
-in size the whole remainder of the body.
-They make use of it as a door, to close the
-entrance of their dwelling, and when running
-swiftly along, carry it upright over the
-head, so that it seems to beckon like an outstretched
-hand. One might fancy the crab
-moved it as in derision of its pursuers, telling
-them by pantomimic signs, "Catch me if you can!"</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 153px;">
-<img src="images/250b.png" width="153" height="103" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Large-Clawed Calling-Crab.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>As soon as the ebbing flood lays bare the swampy grounds of
-the mangrove woods, myriads of animals are seen wallowing in
-the pestiferous mud. Here a fish jumps about, there a holothuria
-crawls, and crabs run along by thousands in every direction.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">� 251 �</a></span>
-The black mud along the coast of Borneo assumes quite
-a brilliant blue tinge, when, at low water, during the heat of
-the day, the c&#339;rulean Gelasimi
-come forth to feed.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 255px;">
-<img src="images/251.png" width="255" height="140" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Calling-Crab of Ceylon.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Venetian lagoons also harbour
-a vast number of the common
-Shore-Crab (<i>Portunus M&aelig;nas</i>),
-the catching of which affords a
-profitable employment to the inhabitants
-of those swampy regions.
-Whole cargoes are sent to Istria, where they are used as bait for
-anchovies. The fishermen gather them a short time before they
-cast their shell, and preserve them in baskets, until the moulting
-process has been effected, when they are reckoned a delicacy even
-on the best tables. On attempting to seize this crab, it runs
-rapidly sideways, and conceals itself in the mud; but when unsuccessful,
-it raises itself with a menacing mien, beats its claws
-noisily together, as if in defiance of the enemy, and prepares for
-a valiant defence, like a true knight.</p>
-
-<p>The most valuable short-tailed crustacean of the North Sea is
-undoubtedly the Great Crab (<i>Cancer pagurus</i>), which attains
-a weight of from four to five pounds, and is consumed by
-thousands in the summer, when it is in season and heaviest.
-It is caught in wicker-baskets, arranged so as to permit an easy
-entrance, while egress is not to be thought of.</p>
-
-<p>The legs of the crabs are very differently formed in various
-species. In those which have been called sea-spiders they are
-very long, thin, and weak, so that the animal swims badly, and is
-a slow and uncertain pedestrian. For greater security it therefore
-generally seeks a greater depth, where, concealed among the sea-weeds,
-it wages war with annelides, planarias, and small mollusks.
-Sea-spiders are often found on the oyster-banks, and considered
-injurious by the fishermen, who unmercifully destroy them
-whenever they get hold of them.</p>
-
-<p>In other species the legs are short, muscular, and powerful,
-so as rapidly to carry along the comparatively light body. The
-tropical land-crabs and the genera <i>Ocypoda</i> and <i>Grapsus</i>, which
-form the link between the former and the real sea-crabs, are
-particularly distinguished in this respect.</p>
-
-<p>The Rider or Racer (<i>Ocypoda cursor</i>), who is found on the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">� 252 �</a></span>
-coasts of Syria and Barbary, and abounds at Cape de Verde,
-owes his name to his swiftness, which is such that even a man
-on horseback is said not to be able to
-overtake him. The West Indian ocypodas
-dig holes three or four feet deep,
-immediately above high-water mark,
-and leave them after dusk. Towards
-the end of October they retire further
-inland, and bury themselves for the
-winter in similar holes, the opening of
-which they carefully conceal.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 222px;">
-<img src="images/252a.png" width="222" height="136" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">American Sand-Crab.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>In the Portuni, or true Sea-crabs, finally, we find the hind
-pair of legs flattened like fins, so that they would cut but a
-sorry figure on the land, but are all the
-better able to row about in their congenial
-element.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 188px;">
-<img src="images/252b.png" width="188" height="140" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Spotted Fin-Crab.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>A strange peculiarity of many crabs is
-the quantity of parasites they carry along
-with them on their backs. Many marine
-productions, both of a vegetable and
-animal nature, have their birth and grow
-to beauty on the shell of the sea-spider. Corallines, sponges,
-zoophytes, alg&aelig;, may thus be found, and balani occasionally cover
-the entire upper surface of the body of the crab. "All the
-examples of the <i>Inachus Dorsettensis</i> which I have taken," says
-the distinguished naturalist, Mr. W. Thompson of Belfast, "were
-invested with sponge, which generally covers over the body,
-arms, and legs; alg&aelig; and zoophytes likewise spring from it." In
-this extraneous matter some of the smaller zoophytes find
-shelter, and, together with the other objects, render the capture
-of the <i>Inachus Dorsettensis</i> interesting far beyond its own acquisition.
-In Mr. Hyndman's collection, there is a sea-spider carrying
-on its back an oyster much larger than itself, and covered
-besides with numerous barnacles. Like Atlas, the poor creature
-groaned under a world.</p>
-
-<p>The extraneous matters which so many crabs carry along with
-them are, however, far from being always a useless burden;
-they are often a warlike stratagem, under cover of which the
-sly crustacean entraps many a choice morsel. Thus Bennett
-witnessed at Otaheite the proceedings of an interesting Hyas
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">� 253 �</a></span>
-species, which disguised itself by investing its body with a
-covering of decayed vegetable substances and coral-sand. The
-better to ensnare its prey, the back was covered with rigid and
-incurved bristles, calculated to retain the extraneous substances,
-while the short and well concealed forceps-claws were
-ready for the attack, and the ophthalmic peduncles, curving upward
-to raise the eyes above the pile of materials, gave the wily
-crab the great advantage of seeing without being seen. As soon
-as an unfortunate mollusk, unsuspicious of evil, approached the
-lurking ruffian, he darted upon it like an arrow, and, ere it could
-recover its presence of mind, was busy tearing it to pieces.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 125px;">
-<img src="images/253a.png" width="125" height="98" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Pea-Crab.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>If many crabs are burdened with small animals and plants,
-others live parasitically in the shells of mollusks. Thus the
-small <i>Pinnotheres veterum</i> claims the hospitality
-of the Pinna, a large bivalve of the
-Mediterranean. The ancients supposed that this
-was a friendly connection, an <i>entente cordiale</i>,
-formed for mutual defence: that the Pinna,
-being destitute of eyes, and thus exposed when
-he opened his shell to the attacks of the cuttle-fish
-and other enemies, was warned of their approach by his
-little lodger, upon which he immediately closed his shell and
-both were safe. Unfortunately, there
-is not a word of truth in the whole
-story. The sole reason why the Pinnotheres
-takes up its abode under a
-stranger's roof is the softness of its
-own integuments, which otherwise
-would leave it utterly defenceless; nor does the Pinna show the
-least sign of affection for its guest, who, on returning from an
-excursion, often finds it very difficult to slip again into the
-shell.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 238px;">
-<img src="images/253b.png" width="238" height="101" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Pinna Augustana.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>According to Mr. Thompson, the <i>Modiola vulgaris</i>, a species
-of mussel very common on the Irish coast, almost always harbours
-several parasitic crabs (<i>Pinnotheres pisum</i>). At Heligoland,
-Dr. Oetker, to whom we are indebted for the best work
-on that interesting island, scarce ever found a modiola without
-several guests of this description, while he never could find any
-in oysters, mussels, and other nearly related species. What may
-the reason be of either this predilection or that desertion?</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">� 254 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The numerous family of the Paguri, or Hermit crabs, is also
-condemned by its formation to lead a parasitic and robber-life.
-The fore part of the body is indeed, as in other
-crabs, armed with claws and covered with a
-shield, but ends in a long soft tail provided
-with one or two small hooks. How then are
-the poor creatures to help themselves? The
-hind part is not formed for swimming, and its
-weight prevents them from running. Thus
-nothing remains for them but to look about
-them for some shelter, and this is afforded
-them by several conchiform shells, <i>buccina</i>,
-<i>nerit&aelig;</i>, in which they so tenaciously insert their hooked tails, as if
-both were grown together. So long as they are young and feeble,
-they content themselves with such shells as they find empty on
-the strand, but when grown to maturity, they attack living
-specimens, seize with their sharp claws the snail, ere it can withdraw
-into its shell, and after devouring its flesh, creep without
-ceremony into the conquered dwelling, which fits them like a
-coat when they take a walk, and the mouth of which they close
-when at rest with their largest forceps, in the same manner as
-the original possessor used his operculum or lid. How remarkable
-that an animal should thus find in another creature
-belonging to a totally different class, the completion, as it
-were, of its being, and be indebted to it for the protecting cover
-which its own skin is unable to secrete!</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 146px;">
-<img src="images/254.png" width="146" height="180" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Diogenes Hermit
-Crab.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>When the dwelling of the pagurus becomes inconveniently
-narrow, the remedy is easy, for appropriate sea-shells abound
-wherever hermit crabs exist. They are found on almost every
-coast, and every new scientific voyage makes us acquainted with
-new species. According to Quoy and Gaimard, they are particularly
-numerous at the Ladrones, New Guinea, and Timor.
-The strand of the small island of Kewa, in Coupang Bay, was
-entirely covered with them. In the heat of the day they
-seek the shade of the bushes; but as soon as the cool of evening
-approaches, they come forth by thousands. Although they
-make all large snail-houses answer their purposes, they seem in
-this locality to prefer the large Sea Nerites.</p>
-
-<p>The famous East Indian Cocoa-nut Crab (<i>Birgus latro</i>), a
-kind of intermediate link between the short and long tailed
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">� 255 �</a></span>
-crabs, bears a great resemblance to the paguri. It is said to
-climb the palm-trees, for the sake of detaching the heavy nuts;
-but Mr. Darwin, who attentively observed the animal on the
-Keeling Islands, tells us that it merely lives upon those that
-spontaneously fall from the tree. To extract its nourishment
-from the hard case, it shows an ingenuity which is one of the
-most wonderful instances of animal instinct. It must first of
-all be remarked, that its front pair of legs is terminated by very
-strong and heavy pincers, the last pair by others, narrow and
-weak. After having selected a nut fit for its dinner, the crab
-begins its operations by tearing the husk, fibre by fibre, from
-that end under which the three eye-holes are situated; it then
-hammers upon one of them with its heavy claws, until an opening
-is made. Hereupon it turns round, and by the aid of its posterior
-pincers, extracts the white albuminous substance. It
-inhabits deep burrows, where it accumulates surprising quantities
-of picked fibres of cocoa-nut husks, on which it rests as on
-a bed. Its habits are diurnal; but every night it is said to pay
-a visit to the sea, no doubt for the purpose of moistening its
-branchi&aelig;. It is very good to eat, living as it does on choice
-vegetable substances; and the great mass of fat, accumulated
-under the tail of the larger ones, sometimes yields, when melted,
-as much as a quart of limpid oil. Thus our taking possession of
-the Keeling Islands, as a coaling station for the steamers from
-Australia to Ceylon, bodes no good to the Birgus.</p>
-
-<p>The long tail, which the paguri sedulously conceal in shells,
-serves the shrimps and lobsters as their chief organ of locomotion,
-for although these creatures have well-formed legs, they
-make but slow work of it when they attempt to crawl. But
-nothing can equal the rapidity with which they dart backwards
-through the water, by suddenly contracting their tail. Thus
-the Lobster makes leaps of twenty feet at one single bound, and
-the little shrimp equals it fully in velocity in proportion to its size,
-and belongs unquestionably to the most active of the denizens of
-the ocean. It swarms in incalculable numbers on the sandy
-shores of the North Sea, where it is caught in nets attached to a
-long cross pole, which the fishermen, walking knee-deep in the
-water, push along before them. Boiled shrimps are a well
-known delicacy; and the <i>Squilla Mantis</i> of the Mediterranean,
-which resembles our common shrimp in outer form, but essentially
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">� 256 �</a></span>
-differs from it in the formation of its branchi&aelig;, which
-float freely in the water, attached to the abdominal legs, holds
-an equal rank in the estimation of the South Europeans.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 542px;">
-<img src="images/256a.png" width="542" height="322" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Crustaceans and Oysters.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 242px;">
-<img src="images/256b.png" width="242" height="140" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Spotted Mantis Crab.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>But of all crustaceans, none approaches the Lobster in delicacy
-of taste. This creature, the epicure's
-delight, loves to dwell in the
-deep clear waters along bold rocky
-shores, where it is taken in wicker
-baskets, or with small nets attached
-to iron hoops. About two millions
-of lobsters are annually imported
-from Norway, although they are also found in great abundance
-along the Scottish and Irish coasts. Thus, considering their high
-price, they form a considerable article of trade; and yet they
-are far from equalling in importance the minute Herring-crab
-(<i>Cancer halecum</i>), which, by forming the chief nourishment of
-that invaluable fish, renders in an indirect way incalculable
-services to man.</p>
-
-<p>The lobster breeds in the summer months, depositing many
-thousands of eggs in the sand, and leaving them there to be
-hatched by the sun. But few, as may easily be imagined, live
-to attain a size befitting them to appear in red livery on our
-tables. Like all crustaceans, the lobster casts its shell annually,
-and with such perfection, that the discarded garment, with all
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">� 257 �</a></span>
-its appendages, perfectly resembles the living animal. The
-process is curious enough to deserve a few lines of description.</p>
-
-<p>When towards autumn, the time of casting the shell approaches,
-the lobster retires to a silent nook, like a pious hermit
-to his cell, and fasts several days. The shell thus detaches
-itself gradually from the emaciated body, and a new and tender
-cuticle forms underneath. The old dress seems now, however,
-to plague the lobster very much, to judge by the efforts he
-makes to sever all remaining connection with it. Soon the
-harness splits right through the back, like the cleft bark of a
-tree, or a ripe seed-husk, and opens a wide gate to liberty.
-After much tugging and wriggling, the legs, tail, and claws
-gradually follow the body. The claws give the lobster most
-trouble; but he is well aware that perseverance generally wins
-the day, and never ceases till the elastic mass, which can be
-drawn out like india-rubber, and instantly resumes its ordinary
-shape, has been forced through the narrow passage. It can
-easily be supposed that, after such a violent struggle for freedom,
-the lobster is not a little exhausted. Feeling his weakness, and
-the very insufficient protection afforded him by his soft covering,
-he bashfully retires from all society until his hardened case
-allows him to mix again with his friends on terms of equality,
-for he well knows how inclined they are to bite and devour a
-softer brother.</p>
-
-<p>The facility with which the crustacea cast off their legs, and
-even their heavy claws, when they have been wounded in one
-of these organs or alarmed at thunder, is most remarkable.
-Without the least appearance of pain, they then continue to run
-along upon their remaining legs. After some time a new limb
-grows out of the old stump, but never attains the size of the
-original limb.</p>
-
-<p>At the beginning of the chapter I have already briefly
-described the wonderful transformations of the barnacles,
-acorn-shells, and lerne&aelig;, but the changes which the young
-crabs, lobsters, prawns, and shrimps, have to undergo ere they
-assume their perfect form are no less astonishing. Thus in the
-earliest state of the small edible crab (<i>Carcinus m&#339;nas</i>) we
-find a creature with a preposterously large helmet-shaped head,
-ending behind in a long spine, and furnished in front with two
-monstrous sessile eyes like the windows of a lantern. By means
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">� 258 �</a></span>
-of a long articulated tail the restless Chimera continually turns
-head over heels. Claws are wanting, and while the old crab is
-of course a perfect decapod, the young has only four bifid legs,
-armed at the extremity with four long bristles, that are continually
-pushing food towards the ciliated mouth. Who could
-imagine that a creature like this should ever change into a crab,
-to which it has not the least resemblance? But time does
-wonders. After the first change of skin the body assumes
-something like its permanent shape, the eyes become stalked,
-the claws are developed, and the legs resemble those of the
-crab, but the tail is still long, and the swimming habit has not
-yet been laid aside. At the next stage, while the little creature
-is still about the eighth of an inch in diameter, the crab form
-is at length completed, the abdomen folding in under the
-carapace. No wonder that these larv&aelig; were long supposed to be
-distinct types, and described under the
-names of Zo�a and Megalops, until
-Mr. T. J. Thompson first discovered
-their real nature.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 536px;">
-<img src="images/258a.png" width="536" height="234" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Metamorphosis of Carcinus m&#339;nas.<br />
-
-A. First stage. B. Second stage. C. Third stage, in which it begins to assume the adult form.
-D. Perfect form.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 200px;">
-<img src="images/258b.png" width="200" height="135" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Phyllosoma.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The life history of the Palinuri or
-spiny lobsters is equally curious. They
-frequently weigh ten or twelve pounds
-each, and are distinguished by the very large size of their
-lateral antenn&aelig; and by their feet being unarmed with pincers.
-Surely nothing can be more dissimilar than the glass crabs or
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">� 259 �</a></span>
-<i>Phyllosomas</i>, thin as a leaf of paper, and so transparent that
-their blue eyes are their only visible parts while swimming in
-the water; and yet these flimsy creatures are nothing but the
-young of the large and bulky Palinuri.</p>
-
-<p>Though several of the lower crustaceans ascend into the
-regions of eternal snow, while others hide themselves in the
-perpetual night of subterranean grottoes; though many delight
-in the sweet waters of the river or the lake, or rapidly multiply
-in stagnant pools, yet the chief seat of their class, which altogether
-comprises about 1,600 known species, is in the ocean
-and its littoral zone, where their numbers, their voracity,
-and their powerful claws, render them the most formidable
-enemies of all the lower aquatic animals that are not
-swift or cunning enough to escape them. Even the fishes
-and cetaceans are, as we have seen, exposed to their attacks;
-and as the whale, the carp, the sturgeon, the shark, the perch,
-have each of them their peculiar crustacean parasites, it can
-easily be imagined how large the number of still unknown
-species must be which feast on that vast host of fishes that has
-never yet been accurately examined. On the other hand, the
-crustaceans constitute a great part of the food, as well of the sea-stars,
-sea-urchins, annelides, and many of the molluscs, as also
-of the fishes and sea-birds; and as they are found of all sizes,
-from microscopical minuteness to the gigantic proportions of
-the <i>Inachus K&aelig;mpferi</i> of Japan, the fore-arm of which measures
-four feet in length, and the others in proportion, so that it
-covers about 25 feet square of ground, they are able to
-satisfy the wants or the voracity of a vast number of enemies,
-from the rotifer or the polyp that feed on tiny entomostraca or
-the larv&aelig; of the barnacle, to man, who selects a great variety
-of the fat and luscious decapods for his share of the feast.</p>
-
-<p>A great fecundity enables the crustaceans to bear up against
-all these persecutions. 12,000 eggs have been found on the
-lobster; 6,807 on the shrimp; 21,699 on the great crab
-(<i>Platycarcinus pagurus</i>). The lower orders are still more
-prolific, for such is the rapidity with which many of them come
-to maturity and begin to propagate that it has been calculated
-that a single female Cyclops may be the progenitor in one year
-of 4,442,189,120 young! Endowed with such powers, the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">� 260 �</a></span>
-crustaceans are not likely to be extirpated, nor to disappoint
-the hopes of their gastronomical admirers for many an age to
-come.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>When we hear of fishes wandering about on the dry land, we
-cannot wonder that some insects and arachnidans should depart
-so strangely from the usual habits of their class as to select
-the sea for their habitation.</p>
-
-<p>"There is a minute marine spider," says Mr. Gosse, "very
-common on most parts of the coast, crawling sluggishly upon
-the smaller sea-weeds, which seems, from its lack of centralisation,
-to realise our infant ideas of Mr. Nobody; but zoologists
-have designated him as <i>Nymphon gracile</i>. Widely different
-from the spiders of terra firma, in which an abdomen some ten
-times as bulky as all the rest of the animal put together is the
-most characteristic feature, the belly of our marine friend is reduced
-to an atom not so big as a single joint of one of his
-eight legs; though his thorax is more considerable, this is little
-more than the extended line formed by the successive points of
-union of the said legs. These latter, on the other hand, are
-long, stout, well-armed, and many-jointed; but, apparently
-from the lack of the centralising principle, they are moved
-heavily, sprawled hither and thither, and dragged about like
-the limbs of an unfortunate who is afflicted with the gout."
-This strange little creature has four eyes gleaming like diamonds,
-respires by the skin, and its stomach is prolonged into each of
-its eight legs, which are thus made the seats of digestion. Mr.
-Nobody and his marine relations, some of which also attach
-themselves to fishes, form the small group of the <i>Pycnogonida</i>
-(&#960;&#965;&#954;&#957;&#959;&#962;, <i>frequent</i>; &#947;&#8001;&#957;&#965; <i>knee</i>) thus named from their many-jointed
-legs.</p>
-
-<p>It is a well-known fact that the winds will sometimes waft
-butterflies to an immense distance from the shore. Thus
-<i>Acherontia atropos</i> has been found on the Atlantic a thousand
-miles from the nearest land; and while Mr. Darwin was in the
-bay of San Blas, in Patagonia, he saw thousands of butterflies
-hovering over the sea as far as the eye could reach. These
-insects, of course, are nothing but stray wanderers on an alien
-and hostile element; but <i>Leptopus longipes</i>, a species of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">� 261 �</a></span>
-bug, makes the salt water its home; the Halobates, another
-hemipterous insect, faces the tranquil mirror of the tropical
-seas as leisurely as our water-bugs sport on the glassy surface
-of our ponds, and the <i>Gyrinus marinus</i>, a beetle belonging
-to the family of the whirligigs, ambitiously seeks a wide
-expanse, and may be seen curvetting about on the surface
-of the sea, and darting down every now and then to seize its
-prey.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 240px;">
-<img src="images/261.png" width="240" height="166" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Stenopus hispidus.</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">� 262 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_XIV" id="CHAP_XIV">CHAP. XIV.</a></h2>
-
-<p class="caption2">MARINE ANNELIDES.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">The Annelides in general.&mdash;The Eunice sanguinea.&mdash;Beauty of the Marine Annelides.&mdash;The
-Giant Nemertes.&mdash;The Food and Enemies of the Annelides.&mdash;The
-Tubicole Annelides.&mdash;The Rotifera&mdash;Their Wonderful Organisation.&mdash;The
-Synch&aelig;ta Baltica.</div>
-
-
-<p>The class of the Annelides, or annulated worms&mdash;to which also
-our common earth-worm and the leech belong&mdash;peoples the
-seas with by far the greater number of its genera and species.
-All of them are distinguished by an elongated, and generally
-worm-like form of body, susceptible of great extension and contraction.
-The body consists of a series of rings, or segments,
-joined by a common elastic skin; and each ring, with the exception
-of the first or foremost, which forms the head, and the
-last which constitutes the tail, exactly resembles the others,
-only that the rings in the middle part of the body are larger
-than those at the extremities. The head is frequently provided
-with eyes, and more or less perfect feelers; the mouth is armed
-in many species with strong jaws, or incisive teeth. The blood
-is red, and circulates in a system of arteries and veins.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 640px;">
-<img src="images/262.png" width="640" height="110" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Nervous Axis of an Annelidan.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>With the idea of a worm we generally connect that of incompleteness;
-we are apt to consider them as beings equally
-uninteresting and ugly, and disdain to enquire into the wonders
-of their organisation. But a cursory examination of the <i>Eunice
-sanguinea</i>, a worm about two and a half feet long, and frequently
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">� 263 �</a></span>
-occurring on our coasts, would alone suffice to give us a very
-different opinion of these despised, but far from despicable creatures.
-The whole body is divided into segments scarce a line
-and a half long, and ten or twelve lines broad, and thus consists
-of about three hundred rings. A brain and three hundred
-ganglions, from which about three thousand nervous branches
-proceed, regulate the movements, sensations, and vegetative
-functions of an Eunice. Two hundred and eighty stomachs
-digest its food, five hundred and fifty branchi&aelig; refresh its blood,
-six hundred hearts distribute this vital fluid throughout the
-whole body, and thirty thousand muscles obey the will of the
-worm, and execute its snake-like movements. What an astonishing
-profusion of organs! Surely there is here but little occasion
-to commiserate want, or to scoff at poverty!</p>
-
-<p>And if we look to outward appearance, we shall find that
-many of the marine annelides may well be reckoned among the
-handsomest of creatures. They display the rainbow tints of the
-humming-birds, and the velvet, metallic brilliancy of the most
-lustrous beetles. The vagrant species that glide, serpent-like,
-through the crevices of the submarine rocks, or half creeping,
-half swimming conceal themselves in the sand or mud, are pre-eminently
-beautiful. The delighted naturalists have consequently
-given them the most flattering and charming names of
-Greek mythology,&mdash;Nereis, Euphrosyne, Eunice, Alciopa.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 494px;">
-<img src="images/263.png" width="494" height="188" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Nereis.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"Talk no more of the violet as the emblem of modesty,"
-exclaims De Quatrefages, "look rather at our annelides, that, possessed
-of every shining quality, hide themselves from our view,
-so that but few know of the secret wonders that are hidden
-under the tufts of alg&aelig;, or on the sandy bottom of the sea."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">� 264 �</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 150px;">
-<img src="images/264.png" width="150" height="92" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Aphrodita, or Sea-Mouse.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>In most of the wandering annelides, each segment is provided
-with variously formed appendages, more or less developed,
-serving for respiration and locomotion, or for aggression and
-defence; while in some of the least perfect of the class, not a
-trace of an external organ is to be found over
-the whole body. The great Band-worm
-(<i>Nemertes gigas</i>) is one of the most remarkable
-examples of this low type of annelism.
-It is from thirty to forty feet long, about
-half an inch broad, flat like a ribbon, of brown
-or violet colour, and smooth and shining like
-lackered leather. Among the loose stones, or in the hollows of
-the rocks, where he principally lives on Anomi&aelig;,&mdash;minute shells
-that attach themselves to submarine bodies,&mdash;this giant worm
-forms a thousand seemingly inextricable knots, which he is continually
-unravelling and tying. When after having devoured all
-the food within his reach, or from some other cause, he desires
-to shift his quarters, he stretches out a long dark-coloured
-ribbon, surmounted by a head like that of a snake, but without
-its wide mouth or dangerous fangs. The eye of the observer
-sees no contraction of the muscles, no apparent cause or instrument
-of locomotion; but the microscope teaches us that the
-Nemertes glides along by help of the minute vibratory
-cili&aelig; with which his whole body is covered. He hesitates, he
-tries here and there, until at last, and often at a distance of
-fifteen or twenty feet, he finds a stone to his taste; whereupon
-he slowly unrolls his length to convey himself to his new resting
-place, and while the entangled folds are unravelling themselves
-at one end, they form a new Gordian knot at the other. All
-the organs of this worm are uncommonly simplified; the mouth
-is a scarce visible circular opening, and the intestinal canal ends
-in a blind sack.</p>
-
-<p>Nature has not in vain provided the more perfect annelides
-with the bristly feet, which have been denied to the Nemertes
-and the sand-worm. Almost all of them feed on a living prey,&mdash;Planarias
-and other minute creatures&mdash;which they enclasp
-and transpierce with those formidable weapons. Some, lying in
-wait, dart upon their victims as they heedlessly swim by, seize
-them with their jaws, and stifle them in their deadly embrace;
-others, of a more lively nature, seek them among the thickets of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">� 265 �</a></span>
-corallines, millepores and alg&aelig;, and arrest them quickly ere
-they can vanish in the sand.</p>
-
-<p>But the annelides also are liable to many persecutions. The
-fishes are perpetually at war with them; and when an imprudent
-annelide quits its hidden lurking-place, or is uncovered by
-the motion of the waves, it may reckon itself fortunate, indeed,
-if it escapes the greedy teeth of an eel or a flat-fish. It is even
-affirmed of the latter, as it is of the whelks, that they know perfectly
-well how to dig the annelides out of the sand. The sea-spiders,
-lobsters, and other crustacea are the more dangerous, as their
-hard shells render them perfectly invulnerable by the bristling
-weapons of the annelides.</p>
-
-<p>While the greater part of these worms lead a vagrant life,
-others, like secluded hermits, dwell in self-constructed retreats
-which they never leave. Their cells, which they begin to form
-very soon after having left the egg, and which they afterwards
-continue extending and widening according to the exigencies of
-their growth, generally consist of a hard calcareous mass; but
-sometimes they are leathery or parchment-like tubes, secreted by
-the skin of the animal, not however forming, as in the mollusks,
-an integral part of the body, but remaining quite unconnected
-with it. Thus these tubicole annelides spend their whole life
-within doors, only now and then peeping out of their prison
-with the front part of their head.</p>
-
-<p>As they lead so different a life from their roaming relations,
-their internal structure is very different, for where is the being
-whose organisation does not perfectly harmonise with his wants?
-Thus, we find here no bristling feet or lateral respiratory appendages;
-but instead of these organs, which in this case would
-be completely useless, we find the head surmounted by a beautiful
-crown of feathery tentacul&aelig;, which equally serve for breathing
-and the seizing of a passing prey. Completely closed at the inferior
-extremity, the tube shows us at its upper end a round
-opening, the only window through which our hermit can
-peep into the world, seize his food, and refresh his blood by
-exposing his floating branchi&aelig; to the vivifying influence of the
-water.</p>
-
-<p>Do not, therefore, reproach him with vanity or curiosity, if
-you see him so often protrude his magnificently decorated
-head; but rejoice rather that this habit, to which necessity
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">� 266 �</a></span>
-obliges him, gives you a better opportunity for closer observation.
-Place only a shell or stone covered with <i>serpulas</i> or
-<i>cymospiras</i>, into a vessel filled with
-sea-water, and you will soon see how,
-in every tube, a small round cover
-is cautiously raised, which hitherto
-hermetically closed the entrance, and
-prevented you from prying into the
-interior. The door is open, and
-soon the inmate makes his appearance.
-You now perceive small buds,
-here dark violet or carmine, there blue or orange, or variously
-striped. See how they grow, and gradually expand their
-splendid boughs! They are true flowers that open before your
-eye, but flowers much more perfect than those which adorn your
-garden, as they are endowed with voluntary motion and animal
-life.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 220px;">
-<img src="images/266.png" width="220" height="162" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Serpula, attached to a Shell.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>At the least shock, at the least vibration of the water, the
-splendid tufts contract, vanish with the rapidity of lightning,
-and hide themselves in their stony dwellings, where, under
-cover of the protecting lid, they bid defiance to their enemies.</p>
-
-<p>Not all the tubicole annelides form grottos or houses of so
-complete a structure as those I have just described. Many
-content themselves with agglutinating sand or small shell-fragments
-into the form of cylindrical tubes. But even in
-these inferior architectural labours of the <i>Sabellas</i>, <i>Terebellas</i>,
-<i>Amphitrites</i>, &amp;c., we find an astonishing regularity and art;
-for these elegant little tubes, which we may often pick up on
-the strand, where they lie mixed with the shells and alg&aelig; cast
-out by the flood, consist of particles of almost equal size, so
-artistically glued together, that the delicate walls have everywhere
-an equal thickness. The form is cylindrical, or funnel-shaped,
-the tube gradually widening from the lower to the upper
-end. Some of these tubicoles live like solitary hermits, others
-love company; for instance, the <i>Sabella alveolaris</i>, which often
-covers wide surfaces of rock, near low-water mark with its
-aggregated tubes. When the flood recedes nothing is seen but
-the closed orifices; but when covered with the rising waters, the
-sandy surface transforms itself into a beautiful picture. From
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">� 267 �</a></span>
-each aperture stretches forth a neck ornamented with concentric
-rings of golden hair, and terminating in a head embellished
-with a tiara of delicately feathered, rainbow-tinted tentacula.
-The whole looks like a garden-bed enamelled with gay flowers
-of elegant form and variegated colours.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>If size alone were a criterion of classification, the Rotifera
-would have to be ranked among the microscopic Protozoa, as
-they are scarcely visible to the naked eye; but a more complicated
-organisation separates them widely from these lowest
-members of the animal kingdom, and entitles them to be
-placed next to the worms.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 344px;">
-<img src="images/267.png" width="344" height="394" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Ptygura mehcerta.&mdash;(A rotifer highly magnified.)<br />
-
-<p class="p0">
-1. Partially expanded.<br />
-2. Completely expanded, the cilia in action causing currents indicated by the arrows.<br />
-3. Contracted.&nbsp; <i>a.</i> Contractile vesicle.&nbsp; <i>b.</i> Situation of the anal orifice.<br />
-</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>They are chiefly characterised by a remarkable rotatory
-or ciliary apparatus, whose vibrating motions, whirling the
-water about in swift circles or eddies, engulf in a fatal vortex
-their microscopic food, or enable them to swim from place to
-place. Such is the crystal transparency of these curious
-little creatures that their internal structure can be easily
-recognised. The mouth is placed immediately below the rotatory
-apparatus, and when once an unfortunate animalcule has
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">� 268 �</a></span>
-been driven into its gaping portals, it is presently crushed between
-a pair of formidable sharp-toothed jaws, which are perpetually
-in motion, whether the animal is taking food or not.
-After having undergone the action of this lively apparatus,
-the aliment passes into a tubular stomach surrounded by a
-cushion-like mass of cells commonly coloured with the hue of
-the food, and, therefore, concluded to be connected with the
-digestive system.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 343px;">
-<img src="images/268.png" width="343" height="556" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Conochilus volvox.&mdash;(Highly magnified.)<br />
-
-<i>a.</i> Jaws and teeth.&nbsp; <i>b.</i> Papill&aelig;.<br />
-<i>c.</i> Glands.&nbsp; <i>d.</i> Ovarium.<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 209px;">
-<img src="images/269.png" width="209" height="656" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Philodina roseola.&mdash;(Highly
-magnified.)<br />
-
-<p>
-<i>a.</i> Respiratory tube.<br />
-<i>b.</i> Alimentary canal.<br />
-<i>c.</i> Cellular mass.<br />
-<i>d.</i> Terminal intestinal pouch.<br />
-<i>e.</i> Anal orifice.<br />
-</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The rotifera are either naked or covered with a sheath, and
-many inhabit a tube formed by themselves, attached by its
-lower end to some water-plant, and open at the summit, from
-which the animal protrudes when it would exercise its active
-instincts, and into which it retires for repose from labour or for
-refuge from alarm. The majority, however, have a furcated
-foot, which is often capable of contraction by a set of telescopic
-sheathings or false joints, and by which they are enabled to
-secure a hold of the minute stems of water-plants.   This is
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">� 269 �</a></span>
-their ordinary position when keeping their wheels in action for
-a supply of food or of water; but they have no difficulty in
-letting go their hold, and either creeping along by alternate
-contractions and extensions or swimming away in search of a
-new attachment. From the neck projects a telescopic spur,
-supposed to be an organ of respiration,
-and just below this are seen two
-minute red specks, supposed to be
-eyes. The first rotifer was discovered
-by Leeuwenhoek, in 1702; now more
-than 180 species are known, and new
-discoveries are constantly adding to
-their numbers. They are chiefly found
-in sweet water, but some are inhabitants
-of the sea, as, for instance, the <i>Synch&aelig;ta
-baltica</i>, remarkable for its luminous
-powers. It measures about 1/125
-of an inch in length, and but 1/350 in
-width, so that it is invisible to the
-sharpest unassisted sight: but when
-viewed through a microscope, it appears
-as a beautiful and richly organised
-creature, clear as glass and perfectly
-colourless, except that its stomach is
-usually distended with yellow food,
-and that it carries a large red eye, which
-glitters like a ruby.</p>
-
-<p>"Its motions too," says Mr. Gosse,
-"are all vivacious and elegant. It
-shoots rapidly along or circles about
-in giddy dance, in company with its
-fellows, sometimes near the surface, at
-others just over the bottom of the vase
-in which it is kept. Occasionally the
-foot with the tiny toes is drawn up
-into the body and then suddenly thrown
-down, and bent up from side to side as a dog wags his tail.
-Sometimes the rotatory organs are brought forward and then
-spasmodically spring back to their ordinary position, when the
-little creature shoots forward with redoubled energy. In all its
-actions it displays vigour and precision, intelligence and will."</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">� 270 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_XV" id="CHAP_XV">CHAP. XV.</a></h2>
-
-<p class="caption2">MOLLUSCS.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">The Molluscs in general.&mdash;The Cephalopods.&mdash;Dibranchiates and Tetrabranchiates.&mdash;Arms
-and Tentacles.&mdash;Suckers.&mdash;Hooked Acetabula of the Onychoteuthis.&mdash;Mandibles.&mdash;Ink
-Bag.&mdash;Numbers of the Cephalopods.&mdash;Their Habits.&mdash;Their
-Enemies.&mdash;Their Use to Man.&mdash;Their Eggs.&mdash;Enormous size of several species.&mdash;The
-fabulous Kraken.&mdash;The Argonaut.&mdash;The Nautili.&mdash;The Cephalopods of
-the Primitive Ocean.&mdash;The Gasteropods.&mdash;Their Subdivisions.&mdash;Gills of the
-Nudibranchiates.&mdash;The Pleurobranchus plumula.&mdash;The Sea-Hare.&mdash;The Chitons.&mdash;The
-Patell&aelig;.&mdash;The Haliotis or Sea-Ear.&mdash;The Carinari&aelig;.&mdash;The Pectinibranchiates.&mdash;Variety
-and Beauty of their Shells.&mdash;Their Mode of Locomotion.&mdash;Foot
-of the Tornatella and Cyclostoma.&mdash;The Ianthin&aelig;.&mdash;Sedentary Gasteropods.&mdash;The
-Magilus.&mdash;Proboscis of the Whelk.&mdash;Tongue of the Limpet.&mdash;Stomach
-of the Bulla, the Scyll&aelig;a, and the Sea-Hare.&mdash;Organs of Sense in the
-Gasteropods.&mdash;Their Caution.&mdash;Their Enemies.&mdash;Their Defences.&mdash;Their Use to
-Man.&mdash;Shell-Cameos.&mdash;The Pteropods.&mdash;Their Organisation and Mode of Life.&mdash;The
-Butterflies of the Ocean.&mdash;The Lamellibranchiate Acephala.&mdash;Their
-Organisation.&mdash;Siphons.&mdash;The Pholades.&mdash;Foot of the Lamellibranchiates.&mdash;The
-Razor-Shells.&mdash;The Byssus of the Pinn&aelig;.&mdash;Defences of the Bivalves.&mdash;Their
-Enemies.&mdash;The common Mussel.&mdash;Mussel Gardens.&mdash;The Oyster.&mdash;Oyster
-Parks.&mdash;Oyster Rearing in the Lago di Fusaro.&mdash;Formation of new
-Oyster Banks.&mdash;Pearl-fishing in Ceylon.&mdash;How are Pearls formed?&mdash;The
-Tridacna gigas.&mdash;The Teredo navalis.&mdash;The Brachiopods.&mdash;The Terebratul&aelig;.&mdash;The
-Polyzoa.&mdash;The Sea-Mats.&mdash;The Eschar&aelig;.&mdash;The Leprali&aelig;.&mdash;Bird's Head
-Processes.&mdash;The Tunicata.&mdash;The Sea-Squirts.&mdash;The Chelyosoma.&mdash;The Botrylli.&mdash;The
-Pyrosomes.&mdash;The Salp&aelig;.&mdash;Interesting Points in the Organisation of the
-Tunicata.</div>
-
-
-<p>Simple or compound, free or sessile, peopling the high seas
-or lining the shores, the marine Molluscs, branching out into
-more than ten thousand species, extend their reign as far as the
-waves of ocean roll. Though distinguished from all other sea-animals
-by the common character of a soft unarticulated body,
-possessing a complicated digestive apparatus, and covered by a
-flexible skin or mantle, under or over which a calcareous shell
-is generally formed by secretion, yet their habits are as various
-as their forms. Some dart rapidly through the waters, others
-creep slowly along, or are firmly bound to the rock; in some
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">� 271 �</a></span>
-the senses are as highly developed as in the fishes, in others they
-are confined to the narrow perceptions of the polyp. Many
-are individually so small as to escape the naked eye, others of
-a size so formidable as to entitle them to rank among the giants
-of the sea; some are perfectly harmless and unarmed, others
-fully equipped for active warfare. It is evident that creatures
-so variously gifted, and consequently so widely dissimilar in
-structure, cannot possibly be grouped together in one description,
-and that each of the four orders, Cephalopoda, Gasteropoda,
-Pteropoda, and Acephala (Lamellibranchiates, Brachiopods,
-Polyzoa, and Tunicata), into which they have been subdivided,
-must be separately brought before the reader, in order to give
-him a clear and faithful picture of their organisation and mode
-of life.</p>
-
-<p>The Cephalopods are the most perfect specimens of the
-molluscan type, as the decapods are the first among the
-crustaceans. These remarkable creatures consist of two distinct
-parts: the trunk or body, which, in form of a sack,
-open to the front, encloses the branchi&aelig; and digestive organs,
-and the well-developed head, provided with a pair of sharp-sighted
-eyes, and crowned with a number of fleshy processes,
-arms or feet, which encircle and more or less conceal the mouth.
-It is to this formation that the cephalopod owes its scientific
-name, for as the feet grow from the circumference of the mouth,
-it literally creeps upon its head.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 259px;">
-<img src="images/272a.png" width="259" height="383" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Poulp (Octopus).</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>All the cephalopods are marine animals, and breathe through
-branchi&aelig; or gills. These are concealed under the mantle, in
-a cave or hollow, which alternately expands and contracts, and
-communicates by two openings with the outer world. The one
-in form of a slit serves to receive the water; the other, which is
-tubular, is used for its expulsion.</p>
-
-<p>According to the different number of their gills, the
-cephalopods are divided into two groups. The first, to which
-the poulp and common cuttle-fish belong, and which comprises
-by far the majority of living species, has only two sets of gills;
-while the second, which, in the present epoch, is only
-represented by a few species of Nautilus, has four, two
-on each side, according to the number of their arms or feet&mdash;for
-these remarkable organs serve equally well for prehension
-or locomotion. The first group is again subdivided into two
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">� 272 �</a></span>
-orders, Octopods and Decapods, the former having only eight
-sessile feet, while the latter possess
-an additional pair of elongated tentacles,
-which serve to seize a prey
-that may be beyond the reach of
-the ordinary feet, and also to act as
-anchors to moor them in safety during
-the agitations of a stormy sea.</p>
-
-<p>Both the arms and tentacles are
-furnished with suckers disposed along
-the whole extent of the inner surface
-of the former, but generally confined
-to the widened extremities of the
-latter, where they are closely aggregated
-on the inner aspect.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 260px;">
-<img src="images/272b.png" width="260" height="528" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Calamary.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>In all the octopods the suckers are
-soft and unarmed.   Every sucker is
-composed of a circular adhesive disk, which has a thick fleshy
-circumference and bundles of muscular
-fibres radiating towards the
-circular orifice of an inner cavity.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 240px;">
-<img src="images/273.png" width="240" height="385" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Section of an arm and suckers of a
-Poulp.<br />
-
-<i>e.</i> Soft and tumid margin of the disk.<br />
-<i>g.</i> Circular aperture.<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>This widens as it descends, and
-contains a cone of soft substance,
-rising from the bottom of the cavity,
-like the piston of a syringe. When
-the sucker is applied to a surface
-for the purpose of adhesion, the
-piston, having previously been raised
-so as to fill the cavity, is retracted,
-and a vacuum produced, which may
-be still further increased by the
-retraction of the plicated central
-portion of the disk. So admirably
-are these air-pumps constructed, and
-so tenacious is their grasp, that,
-when they have once seized or fixed
-upon a prey, it cannot possibly disengage
-itself from their murderous
-embrace.</p>
-
-<p>In many of the decapods, who, generally seeking their prey in
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">� 273 �</a></span>
-the deeper waters, have to contend with the agile, slippery, and
-mucus-clad fishes, more powerful organs of prehension have
-been superadded to the suckers.
-Thus, in the Calamary the base of
-the piston is enclosed by a horny
-hoop, the margin of which is developed
-into a series of sharp-pointed
-curved teeth; and in the still more
-formidable Onychoteuthis each hoop
-is produced into the form of a long,
-curved, and sharp-pointed claw (<i>f</i>),
-which the predacious mollusc presses
-firmly into the flesh of its struggling
-victim, and then withdraws by muscular
-contraction.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 157px;">
-<a href="images/274lg.png"><img src="images/274.png" width="157" height="634" alt="" /></a>
-<div class="fig_caption">Arms and Tentacles of an
-Onychoteuthis.<br />
-<i>e.</i> Parts joined together by the mutual<br />
-apposition of the armed suckers.<br />
-<i>f.</i> Terminal expanded portions bearing<br />
-the hooks.<br /><br />
-<span class="smaller">Click on image to view larger version.</span>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Besides the hooked acetabula, a
-cluster of small simple unarmed
-suckers may be observed at the base
-of the expanded part. These add
-greatly to the animal's prehensile
-powers, for when they are applied to one another (<i>e</i>), the
-tentacles are firmly locked together at that point, and the
-united strength of both the elongated peduncles can be applied
-to drag towards the mouth any resisting object which has been
-grappled by the terminal hooks. There is no mechanical
-contrivance which surpasses the admirable structure of this
-natural forceps.</p>
-
-<p>The size of the arms and the arrangement of the suckers differ
-considerably in the various species. In the octopods or poulps,
-which generally lead a more sedentary creeping life, and, hidden
-in the crevices of rocks, await the passing prey, the arms, in
-accordance with their wants, are with rare exceptions longer,
-more muscular, and stronger, than in the actively swimming
-decapods, where the two elongated tentacles or peduncles are the
-chief organs of prehension. In some species we find the arms
-distinct&mdash;in others they are united by a membrane. Some
-have a double row of suckers on each arm, others four rows,
-others again but one. So wonderful are the variations which
-nature, that consummate artist, plays upon a single theme&mdash;so
-inexhaustible are the modifications she introduces into the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">� 274 �</a></span>
-formation of numerous species, all constructed upon the same
-fundamental plan, and all equally
-perfect in their kind.</p>
-
-<p>Thus well provided with the means
-for seizing and overcoming the struggles
-of a living prey, the Cephalopods
-likewise possess adequate weapons for
-completing its destruction; for their
-mouth is most formidably armed with
-two horny or calcareous jaws, shaped
-like the mandibles of a parrot, playing
-vertically on each other, and enclosing
-a large fleshy tongue bristling with
-recurved horny spines. Hard, indeed,
-must be the crab which can resist this
-terrible beak; and when the cuttle-fish
-has once fixed on the back of a
-fish, though much larger and stronger
-than himself, it is in vain for the
-tortured victim to fly through the
-water: he carries his enemy with him
-till he sinks exhausted under his murderous
-fangs.</p>
-
-<p>Besides their arms, by help of which
-the Cephalopods either swim or creep,
-the forcible expulsion of the water
-through the respiratory tube or infundibulum
-serves them as a means
-of locomotion in a backward direction.
-By those which have an elongated
-body and comparatively strong muscles,
-this movement is performed with
-such violence that they shoot like arrows
-through the water, or even like
-the flying-fish perform a long curve
-through the air.</p>
-
-<p>Thus Sir James Ross tells us, that
-once a number of cuttle-fish not only
-fell upon the deck of his ship, which
-rose fifteen or sixteen feet above the water, and where more
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">� 275 �</a></span>
-than fifty were gathered, but even bolted right over the entire
-breadth of the vessel, like a sportsman over a five-barred gate.
-Finally, the fin-like expansion of their mantle renders the
-nimble decapods good service in swimming.   In the Sepias this
-finny membrane runs along the sides of the body, while in the
-Calamary it forms a kind of terminal paddle.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 445px;">
-<img src="images/275.png" width="445" height="697" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Sepia.<br />
-
-<i>b.</i> Finny membrane running along the sides of the body.<br />
-<i>c.</i> Arms with four rows of suckers.<br />
-<i>d.</i> Elongated retractile tentacles.<br />
-<i>e.</i> Eyes.<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>It might be supposed that the dibranchiate cephalopods, by
-their swiftness, their arms, and their powerful jaws, were sufficiently
-provided with means of attack or defence; but it must
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">� 276 �</a></span>
-be remembered that their body is soft and naked, and that,
-though well armed in front, they may readily be attacked in the
-rear. To afford them the additional protection they required,
-nature, ever ready to minister to the real wants of her children,
-has furnished them with an internal bag communicating with the
-respiratory tube, and secreting a large quantity of an inky fluid,
-which they can squirt out with force in the face of their foe,
-and which, mixing readily with the water, envelops them in an
-opaque cloud, and thus screens them from pursuit. But this
-inky fluid, thus useful to its owner, is often the cause of his
-destruction by man, who applies it to his own purpose, for
-the Italian pigment, called sepia, so invaluable to painters in
-water-colours, is prepared from the inspissated contents of
-the ink bag of a cuttle-fish. Such is the durability of this
-colour that even the inky fluid of fossil species has been found
-to retain its chromatic property. We are told that grains of
-wheat buried with Egyptian mummies three thousand years
-ago have germinated; but it is surely still more astonishing
-that an animal secretion, the origin of which is lost in the
-dark abyss of countless ages, should remain so long unaltered.</p>
-
-<p>The cephalopods are scattered in vast numbers over the
-whole ocean, from the ice-bound shores of Boothia Felix to the
-open main; they seem, however, to be most abundant in
-temperate latitudes. Some, like the common poulp, constantly
-frequent the coasts, creeping among the rocks and stones at the
-bottom; others, like the Cirroteuthis and Ommastrephes, roam
-about the high seas at a vast distance from the land.</p>
-
-<p>They are generally nocturnal or vespertine in their habits;
-they abound towards evening and at night on the surface of the
-seas, but sink to a greater depth, or retire into the crevices of
-the rocks, as soon as the sun rises above the horizon. Some are
-of a recluse disposition, and lead a solitary life in the anfractuosities
-of the littoral zone; others, of a more social temper,
-wander in large troops along the shores, or over the vast plains
-of ocean.</p>
-
-<p>Possessing the organs of sense, and the means of locomotion
-in a high degree of development, the cephalopods may naturally
-be expected to be far more active and intelligent than the
-inferior orders of the molluscs. On moonlight nights, among
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">� 277 �</a></span>
-the islands of the Indian Archipelago, Mr. Adams frequently
-observed the Sepi&aelig; and Octopi in full predatory activity, and
-had considerable difficulty and trouble in securing them, so
-great was their restless vivacity, and so vigorous their endeavours
-to escape. "They dart from side to side of the pools," says the
-naturalist in his entertaining and instructive account of his
-journey to those distant gems of the tropical sea, "or fix themselves
-so tenaciously to the surface of the stones by means of
-their suckers that it requires great force and strength to detach
-them. Even when removed and thrown upon the sand, they
-progress rapidly, in a sidelong shuffling manner, throwing about
-their long arms, ejecting their ink-like fluid in sudden violent
-jets, and staring about with their big shining eyes (which at
-night appear luminous, like a cat's) in a very grotesque and
-hideous manner."</p>
-
-<p>At the Cape de Verd islands, Mr. C. Darwin was also much
-amused by the various arts to escape detection used by a
-cuttle-fish, which seemed fully aware that he was watching it.
-Remaining for a time motionless, it would then stealthily
-advance an inch or two, like a cat after a mouse, and thus
-proceeded, till, having gained a deeper part, it darted away,
-leaving a dusky train of ink, to hide the hole into which it had
-crawled.</p>
-
-<p>All the cephalopods are extremely voracious; they destroy on
-shallow banks the hopes of the fishermen, devour along the
-coasts and on the high seas countless myriads of young fish and
-naked molluscs, and kill, like the tiger, for the mere love of
-carnage. Thus they would become dangerous to the equilibrium
-of the seas if nature, to counterbalance their destructive
-habits, had not provided a great number of enemies for the
-thinning of their ranks.</p>
-
-<p>They form the almost exclusive food of the sperm-whales,
-and the albatross and the petrels love to skim them from the
-surface of the ocean. Tunnies and bonitos devour them in vast
-numbers, the cod consumes whole shoals of squids, and man, as
-I have already mentioned, catches many millions to serve him
-as a bait for this valuable fish.</p>
-
-<p>At Teneriffe, in the Brazils, in Peru and Chili, in India and
-China, various species of cephalopods are used as food. Along
-the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, the common sepia
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">� 278 �</a></span>
-constitutes now, as in ancient times, a valuable part of the food
-of the poor. "One of the most striking spectacles," says
-Edward Forbes, "is to see at night on the shores of the �gean
-the numerous torches glancing along the shores, and reflected
-by the still and clear sea, borne by poor fishermen, paddling as
-silently as possible over the rocky shallows in search of the
-cuttle-fish, which, when seen lying beneath the water in wait for
-his prey, they dexterously spear, ere the creature has time to
-dart with the rapidity of an arrow from the weapon about to
-transfix his soft but firm body."</p>
-
-<p>Animals exposed to the attacks of so many enemies must
-necessarily multiply in an analogous ratio. Their numerous
-eggs are generally brought forth in the spring. In the species
-inhabiting the high seas, they float freely on the surface,
-carried along by the currents and winds, and form large gelatinous
-bunches or cylindrical rolls, sometimes as large as a
-man's leg.</p>
-
-<p>The eggs of the littoral cephalopods appear in the form of
-dark-coloured, roundish or spindle-shaped bodies, of the size and
-colour of grapes, and hanging together in clusters. They are
-soft to the touch, with a tough skin,
-resembling india-rubber; one end
-is attenuated into a sort of point
-or nipple, and the other prolonged
-into a pedicle, which coils round
-sea-weed or other floating objects,
-and serves to fix the berry-like
-bag in its place. At an early stage
-these "sea-grapes," as they are
-called by the fishermen, contain a
-white yolk enclosed in a clear albumen,
-and nearer maturity the young
-cuttle-fish may be found within in
-various stages of formation, until
-finally, hatched by the heat of the
-sun, it emerges from the husk perfectly
-formed, and launches forth
-into the water.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/278.png" width="252" height="423" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Ova of the Cuttle-fish.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Some species of cephalopods are only about the size of a finger,
-while others attain an astonishing size. Banks and Solander, in
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">� 279 �</a></span>
-Cook's first voyage, found the dead carcass of a gigantic cuttle-fish
-floating between Cape Horn and the Polynesian islands. It
-was surrounded by aquatic birds, which were feeding on its
-remains. From the parts of this specimen, which are still
-preserved in the Hunterian collection, and which have always
-strongly excited the attention of naturalists, it must have
-measured at least six feet from the end of the tail to the end of
-the tentacles.</p>
-
-<p>Near Van Diemen's Land, P�ron saw a sepia about as
-big as a tun rolling about in the waters. Its enormous arms
-had the appearance of frightful snakes. Each of these organs
-was at least seven feet long, and measured seven or eight inches
-round the base. These well authenticated proportions are truly
-formidable, and fully justify the dread and abhorrence which
-the Polynesian divers entertain of those snake-armed monsters
-of the deep; but not satisfied with reality, some writers have
-magnified the size of the cephalopods to fabulous dimensions.
-Thus Pernetti mentions a colossal cuttle-fish, which, climbing
-up the rigging, overturned a three-masted ship; and Pliny
-notices a similar giant, with arms thirty feet long and a corresponding
-girth. But all this is nothing to the Norwegian kraken,
-a mass of a quarter of a mile in diameter, and a back covered
-with a thicket of sea-weeds. When it comes to the surface,
-which seems to be but rarely the case, it raises its arms mast-high
-into the air, and, having enjoyed for a time the lovely
-daylight, sinks slowly back again into abysmal darkness.
-Fishermen are said to have landed on a kraken, and to have
-kindled a fire upon the supposed island for the purpose of
-cooking their dinner. But even a kraken, thick-skinned as
-he may be, does not like his back to be converted into a
-hearth, and thus it happened that the treacherous ground
-gave way under the mistaken mariners, and overwhelmed
-them in the waters. Strange that the oriental tale of Sinbad
-the sailor should thus be re-echoed in the wild legends of the
-north.</p>
-
-<p>All the dibranchiate cephalopods are destitute of an outward
-shell, with the sole exception of the Spirula, a small species
-chiefly found in the South Sea, and of the far more renowned
-Argonaut, which poets, ancient and modern, have celebrated as
-the model from which man took the first idea of navigation.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">� 280 �</a></span>
-Its two sail-like arms expanding in the air, and the six others
-rowing in the water,
-the keel of its elegant
-shell is pictured
-as dividing
-the surface of the
-tranquil sea. But
-as soon as the wind
-rises, or the least
-danger appears, the
-cautious argonaut
-takes in his sails,
-draws back his oars,
-creeps into his shell,
-and sinks instantly into a securer depth. Unfortunately there is
-not a word of truth in this pleasing tale. Like the common
-octopus, the argonaut generally creeps about at the bottom of
-the sea, or when he swims, he places his sails close to his
-shell, stretches his oars right out before him, and shoots backwards
-like most of his class by expelling the water from his
-respiratory tube.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 401px;">
-<img src="images/280.png" width="401" height="310" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Argonaut.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>As he sits loosely in his shell, he was supposed by some
-naturalists to be a parasite enjoying the house of the unknown
-murdered owner; but this is perfectly erroneous, as the young
-in the egg already show the rudiments of the future shell,
-and the full-grown animal repairs by reproduction any injury
-that may have happened to it.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 606px;">
-<img src="images/281.png" width="606" height="524" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Pearly Nautilus.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The tetrabranchiate cephalopods, or Nautili, are very differently
-constructed from their dibranchiate relations. Here, instead of
-mighty muscular arms, furnished with suckers or raptorial claws,
-we find a number of small, sheathed, and retractile tentacles (<i>f</i>),
-surrounding the mouth in successive series, and amounting to
-little short of a hundred. The head is further provided with a
-large muscular disk (<i>g</i>), which, besides acting as a defence to the
-opening of the shell, serves also in all probability as an organ
-for creeping along the ground, like the foot in the Gasteropods.
-The mandibles are strengthened by a dense calcareous
-substance fit to break up the defensive armour of the crustacean
-or shell-fish on which the animal feeds. There is no ink-bag,
-no organ of hearing, and the eyes (<i>h</i>) are pedunculated, and of a
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">� 281 �</a></span>
-more simple structure. The handsome pearl-mother and spirally
-wound shell is divided by transverse partitions (<i>a</i>), perforated in
-the centre, into numerous chambers (<i>b</i>). The animal takes up
-its abode in the foremost and largest (<i>b&#8242;</i>), but sends a communicating
-tube or siphon (<i>c</i>) through all the holes of the partitions
-to the very extremity of the spirally wound shell. Though the
-empty conch was frequently found swimming on the waters of
-the Indian Ocean, or cast ashore on the Moluccas or New
-Guinea, yet it was only in 1829 that the animal was known with
-any certainty, one having been caught alive by Mr. George
-Bennett, near the New Hebrides, which, preserved in spirits, is
-now in the museum of the College of Surgeons. Since then
-three different species have been found to abound in the waters
-of the above-named archipelago, of New Caledonia, and of the
-Feejee and Solomon Islands, where they principally sojourn
-among the coral reefs at depths of from three to six fathoms.
-They usually remain at the bottom of the water, where they
-creep along rather quickly, supporting themselves upon their
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">� 282 �</a></span>
-tentacula, with their head downwards and the shell raised above.
-After stormy weather, as it becomes more calm, they may be
-seen in great numbers floating upon the surface of the sea with
-the head protruded, and the tentacula resting upon the water,
-the shell at the same time being undermost; they remain,
-however, but a short time sailing in this manner, as they can
-easily return to their situation at the bottom of the sea, by
-merely drawing in their tentacles and upsetting the shell. They
-are caught in baskets by the natives, who eat them roasted as a
-great delicacy.</p>
-
-<p>What renders these animals peculiarly interesting is the
-circumstance that they are the only living representatives of a
-class which once filled in countless numbers the bosom of the
-primeval ocean, and whose fossil remains (Orthoceratites, Ammonites)
-furnish the naturalist with a series of historical
-documents, attesting the unmeasured age of our planet. What
-are the ruins, thirty or forty centuries old, that speak of the
-vanished glories of extinguished empires to these wonderful
-medals of creation that lead our thoughts through the dim
-vista of unnumbered centuries to the fathomless abyss of the
-past.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>In point of development of organisation the Gasteropods or
-snails rank immediately after the Cephalopods. They also have
-a head plainly distinguishable from the rest of the body, and to
-which two brilliant black eyes give an animated expression.
-But their nervous system is far less developed, and while the
-lively cephalopod is able to swim about, and rapidly to seize a
-distant prey, almost all the gasteropods creep slowly along
-upon a flat disk or foot situated below the digestive organs, a
-formation to which they owe their name of gasteropods or
-stomach-footers.</p>
-
-<p>The marine snails are divided into several groups according
-to the different position and arrangement of their gills. In
-some species these organs form naked or free-swimming tufts
-on the back (Nudibranchiata) but generally they are variously
-disposed either in special cavities or under the folds of the
-mantle. Thus in the Inferobranchiata they are arranged
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">� 283 �</a></span>
-under its inferior border on both sides of the body, or upon
-one side only, while in the Tectibranchiata they are placed, as
-in the Nudibranchiata, upon the
-dorsal aspect of the body, but are
-protected by a fold of the skin.
-In the Cyclobranchiata they form
-a fringe round the margin of the
-body, between the edge of the
-mantle and the foot, and in the
-Scutibranchiata and Pectinibranchiata
-they are pectinated, or
-shaped like the teeth of a comb, and placed in a large hollow
-chamber, which opens externally at the side of the body or
-above the head.</p>
-
-<table summary="Images">
-<tr>
-  <td><img src="images/283a.png" width="268" height="190" alt="" /><br />
-    <div class="fig_caption">Tiara.</div>
-  </td>
-  <td><img src="images/283b.png" width="330" height="314" alt="" /><br />
-    <div class="fig_caption">Glaucus.</div>
-  </td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 125px;">
-<img src="images/283c.png" width="125" height="241" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Scyll&aelig;a.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Nothing can be more elegant or various than the form and
-arrangement of the gills in most of the nudibranchiate gasteropods.
-In the Glauci and Scyll&aelig;&aelig;, we see at each side of the
-elongated body long arms branching out into tufty filaments;
-in the Briarei a hundred furcated stems serve for the a�ration
-of the blood. On the back of the Eolides the gills are arranged
-in rows; in the Dorides they form a wreath or garland round
-the posterior intestinal aperture.</p>
-
-<p>The beauty of these animals corresponds with their charming
-mythological names, for every part of them which is not
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">� 284 �</a></span>
-sparkling like the purest crystal shines with the liveliest
-colours, red, yellow, or azure. Some inhabit the coasts, where
-they creep along upon a well-developed foot, others live in
-the deep waters, where they cling to the stems of floating
-sea-weed with a narrow
-and furrowed
-foot, or swim upon
-their back, using the
-borders of the mantle
-and of the branchi&aelig;
-as oars. Though chiefly living in the warmer latitudes,
-they are found in every sea, and many interesting
-species inhabit the British waters: such as the Sea-lemon
-(<i>Doris tuberculata</i>), which, when its horns and starry wreath
-of branchi&aelig; are concealed, bears a curious resemblance in
-size, form, colour, and warty surface to the half of a citron
-divided longitudinally; the exquisite <i>Eolis coronata</i>, whose
-crowded clusters of branchial papill&aelig; are radiant with crimson
-and cerulean tints; and the crested Antiopa, whose transparent
-breathing organs are tipped with silvery white.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 387px;">
-<img src="images/284.png" width="387" height="112" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Eolis.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Though they have no shell to cover them, the Nudibranchiata
-are not left defenceless to the mercy of their
-enemies. The transparency of their body is a cause of
-safety to many of them. Some conceal themselves under
-stones or among the branches of the madrepores, and some
-on contracting cast off a part of their mantle, which they
-leave in possession of their hungry foe, while they themselves
-make their escape.</p>
-
-<p>Among the British Inferobranchiata we find the rare golden
-or orange-coloured <i>Pleurobranchus plumula</i>, thus named from
-its branchi&aelig; projecting like a plume from between the mantle
-and foot in crawling; and among the Tectibranchiata the
-common sea-hare (<i>Aplysia punctata</i>), which resembles a great
-naked snail; its back opening with two wide lobes, which can be
-expanded or closed over the opening at the animal's will. When
-open, they expose to view on the right side the finely fringed
-and lobed branchi&aelig;, seated in a deep hollow beneath a fold of
-the mantle. The uncomely creature glides along over the stones
-upon its flat fleshy foot and up the slender stems of sea-weeds
-by bringing the borders of the same locomotive apparatus to
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">� 285 �</a></span>
-meet around the stem, thus tightly grasping it as if enclosed in
-a tube. While progressing, the fore part is poked forward as a
-narrow neck furnished with two pair of tentacles, one pair of
-which, standing erect and being formed of thin lamin&aelig;, bent
-round so as to bring the edges nearly into contact, look like the
-ears of the timid quadruped, from which the Aplysia has derived
-its common name. The colour is a dark-brownish purple studded
-with rings and spots of white. On being disturbed, the sea-hare
-pours out from beneath the mantle-lobes a copious fluid of the
-richest purple hue, which however quickly fades, and is of no
-value in the arts.</p>
-
-<p>More than forty species of Aplysi&aelig; are known, most of them
-inhabitants of the warmer seas. The acrid humour exuded by
-the depilatory aplysia, or <i>Aplysia depilans</i>, of the Mediterranean
-is still supposed by the Italian fishermen to occasion the loss of
-the hair, and was used by the ancient Romans in the composition
-of their venomous potions&mdash;though it is by no means
-poisonous. Such are the prejudices resulting from the propensity
-of man to associate evil qualities with an unprepossessing
-appearance.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 151px;">
-<img src="images/285.png" width="151" height="134" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Chiton squamosus.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>To the Cyclobranchiate order belong the Limpets and the
-Chitons. The latter, which are the only multivalve shells among
-the Gasteropods, are spread in more than two hundred species
-over every shore from Iceland to the Indies, but they are
-particularly abundant on the coasts of Peru and Chili. Some of
-the smaller species inhabit our coasts, where they may be found
-adhering to stones near low water mark. They
-are coated with eight transverse shelly plates,
-folding over each other at their edges like the
-plates of ancient armour, and inserted into a
-tough marginal band, so as to form a complete
-shield to the animal. Thus encased in coat of
-mail, the chitons have the power of baffling
-the voracity of their enemies by rolling themselves up into a
-ball like the wood-louse or the armadillo: they are also able to
-cling with such tenacity to the rock that it is difficult to detach
-them without tearing them to pieces. The Limpets, or Patell&aelig;,
-likewise attach their shield-like shell so firmly to a hard body
-that it requires the introduction of a knife between the shell and
-the stone to detach them. It has been calculated that the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">� 286 �</a></span>
-larger species are thus able to produce a resistance equivalent
-to a weight of 150 pounds, which, considering the sharp angle
-of the shell, is more than sufficient to defy the strength of a
-man to raise them. They often congregate
-in large numbers in one place,
-and an old writer compares them to nail-heads
-struck into the rock. More than a
-hundred species are known; one of which,
-the <i>Patella cochlear</i> of the Cape, is almost
-invariably found squatting upon the shell of
-another species of limpet. The finest and largest varieties
-abound on the shores of the Oriental seas and the coasts of the
-Mediterranean, but several of the smaller species are very numerous
-in our littoral or sub-littoral zone, where they either feast
-on the green sea-weeds that we find covering at ebb-tide the
-stones with a thin emerald layer, or upon the coarser olive-coloured
-alg&aelig;. Thus <i>Patella pellucida</i> and <i>Patella l&aelig;vis</i>,
-both remarkable for longitudinal streaks of iridescent colours
-on an olive-shell, may generally be found feeding either on
-the broad fronds or on the roots and stems of the Laminari&aelig;,
-or Oar-weeds. To their labours may indeed be partly attributed
-the annual destruction of these gigantic alg&aelig;, for, eating into
-the lower part of the stems, and destroying the branches of the
-roots, they so far weaken the base that it is unable to support
-the weight of the frond, and thus the plant is detached and
-driven on shore by the waves.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 202px;">
-<img src="images/286.png" width="202" height="134" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Limpet and Shell.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The beautiful Sea-ear, or Haliotis, is the chief representative
-of the scutibranchiate gasteropods. The flattened shell, perforated
-with small holes on one side, is characterised by a very
-wide mouth or aperture, the largest in any shell except the
-limpet. The outside is generally rough, or covered with
-marine substances; the inside presents the same enamelled
-appearance as mother-of-pearl, and exhibits the most beautiful
-colours. The holes with which the shell is perforated serve to
-admit water to the branchi&aelig;, and are formed at regular intervals
-as it increases in size. The foot is very large, having the
-margin fringed all round, and is able, like that of the chiton
-or the limpet, to cling firmly to the rock. More than seventy
-species of Haliotis are known, the greater part occurring in the
-Pacific Ocean.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">� 287 �</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 372px;">
-<img src="images/287a.png" width="372" height="567" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Haliotis.<br />
-
-<i>c.</i> Series of perforations.<br />
-<i>d.</i> Eye peduncles.&nbsp; <i>e.</i> Tentacles.&nbsp; <i>g.</i> Foot.<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 354px;">
-<img src="images/287b.png" width="354" height="198" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Carinaria.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>To the scutibranchiate gasteropods also belong the strangely
-formed Carinari&aelig;, which seem to be made up of disjointed
-parts. The gills (<i>g</i>) project from under a thin vitreous shell (<i>f</i>),
-which projects from the
-dorsal surface, and has a
-form not unlike that of
-the Argonaut or of a Phrygian
-cap. The foot (<i>b</i>) is
-not formed for creeping,
-but constitutes a muscular
-vertical paddle or fin, that
-serves them for swimming
-on the back, and is furnished
-with a sucking disk (<i>c</i>), with which they are enabled to
-attach themselves to floating objects.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">� 288 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The Pectinibranchiata comprise all the spiral univalve shells,
-and are by far the most numerous of all the gasteropods, as their
-species are not counted by hundreds, but by thousands. If their
-calcareous garment could be drawn out, it would be found to
-consist of a tube gradually widening from the apex to the base;
-but what an immense variety of form and ornaments, what a
-prodigality of splendid tints, has not Nature spread over this
-interminable host! The same fundamental idea appears to us
-in thousands of modifications, one yet more elegant and capricious
-than the other. Thus the passion of the
-shell collector is as conceivable as that of
-the lover of choice flowers, and when we read
-that rich tulip-amateurs have given thousands
-of florins for one single bulb, we cannot wonder
-that many of the Volutes, Cones, Mitres,
-and Harps, are worth several times their
-weight in gold; that more than a hundred
-pounds have been paid for a Chinese wentle-trap,
-and that the <i>Cypr&aelig;a aurora</i>, which the
-Polynesian chiefs used to wear about the neck,
-is valued at thirty or forty guineas.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 173px;">
-<img src="images/288a.png" width="173" height="369" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Orange Cone-Shell.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 163px;">
-<img src="images/288b.png" width="163" height="208" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Mitre-Shells.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 212px;">
-<img src="images/288c.png" width="212" height="172" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Harp-shell.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The mode in which these beautifully painted
-structures are formed is very similar to what
-takes place among bivalve shells. They are
-secreted by the glandular margin of the mantle or soft
-skin which clothes the upper part of the body of the snail,
-and their form depends on the shape of the body they
-are destined to cover, while the outline of the border is alike
-regulated by that of the mantle. In the border of the mantle
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">� 289 �</a></span>
-are placed the glands through which colouring matter is added
-to the lime of which the shell consists, and here also the whole
-of the outer coat of the shell is formed by constant annual
-additions to the lip. The after-growth of the shell proceeds,
-layer over layer, from the general surface of the mantle, so that
-the calcareous robe constantly increases in thickness with the age
-of the animal.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 397px;">
-<img src="images/289.png" width="397" height="246" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Chinese Wentle-trap.&mdash;(Scalaria pretiosa.)</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>However different the form of a shell may be, its use is invariably
-the same, affording the soft-bodied animal a shield or
-retreat against external injuries. In this respect it is not
-uninteresting to remark that those species which inhabit the
-littoral zone, and are most exposed to the violence of the
-waves, have a stronger shell than those which live in greater
-depths, and that the fresh-water molluscs have generally a
-much more delicate and fragile coat than those which live in
-the ocean. The greater the necessity of protection the better
-has Nature provided for the want. Thus most of the gasteropods,
-besides possessing a stone-hard dwelling, are also furnished
-at the extremity of the foot with an operculum, or calcareous
-lid, which fits exactly upon the opening of their house, and
-closes it like a fortress against the outer world. But no
-animal exists that is safe against every attack, for the large
-birds sometimes carry the ponderous sea-snails, whose entrance
-they cannot force with their beaks, high up into the air,
-and let them fall upon the rocks, where they are dashed to
-pieces.</p>
-
-<p>The ordinary mode of locomotion of the testaceous sea-snails
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">� 290 �</a></span>
-is by creeping along on their foot: those that have a very heavy
-house to carry, such as the Cassis or the
-Pteroceras, generally move along very
-slowly, while others, such as the Oliv&aelig;,
-that are possessed of a comparatively
-strong and broad foot, have rapid and
-lively movements, and quickly raise
-themselves again when they have been
-overturned. The Strombid&aelig; and Rostellari&aelig; place their powerful
-and elastic foot under the shell in a bent
-position, when suddenly by a muscular effort
-they straighten that organ and roll and leap over
-and over. The structure of the foot of the
-<i>Tornatella fasciata</i>, an inhabitant of our coast, is most remarkable:
-beaten incessantly by the waves, in
-the cavities of rocks which it frequents,
-nearly on a level with the surface of the
-sea, to the violence of which it is always
-exposed, it has need of additional powers
-for retaining its hold; its foot is therefore
-divided into two adhering portions, placed
-at each extremity, and separated by a wide interval; when it
-crawls, it fixes the posterior disc and advances the other, which
-it attaches firmly to the place of progression, and this being
-effected, the hinder sucker is detached and drawn forwards,
-locomotion being accomplished by the alternate adhesion of
-these two prehensile discs. In Cyclostoma the foot is likewise
-furnished with two longitudinal adhering lobes, which are advanced
-alternately. But the foot of the marine snails is not
-merely an instrument of progression on a solid surface, for in
-many species it is convertible at the will of the animal into a
-boat, by means of which the creature
-can suspend itself in an inverted position
-at the surface of the water, where by
-the aid of its mantle and tentacles it can
-row itself from place to place.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 239px;">
-<img src="images/290a.png" width="239" height="130" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Pteroceras scorpio.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 152px;">
-<img src="images/290b.png" width="152" height="68" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Oliva hispidula.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 185px;">
-<img src="images/290c.png" width="185" height="136" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Strombus pes pelicani.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 214px;">
-<img src="images/290d.png" width="214" height="131" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Ianthina communis.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Ianthin&aelig;, or purple Sea-Snails,
-carry under their foot a vesicular organ
-like a congeries of foam-bubbles, that prevents creeping, but
-serves as a buoy to support them at the surface of the water.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">� 291 �</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 214px;">
-<img src="images/291a.png" width="214" height="93" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Murex haustellum.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>When the sea is quiet, these little creatures,</p>
-
-<p>
-Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,<br />
-</p>
-
-<p>appear in vast shoals on the surface, but as soon as the
-wind ruffles the ocean, or an enemy approaches, they at
-once empty their air-cells, contract their float, and sink to
-the bottom, pouring out at the same time a darkened fluid
-like that of the Aplysia or the Murex, which no doubt
-serves them as a defence against
-their foes, and, according to Lesson,
-furnished the celebrated purple of
-the ancients. The Ianthin&aelig; inhabit
-the Mediterranean and the warmer
-regions of the Atlantic, but especially towards the close of
-summer they are frequently drifted by the Gulf Stream to the
-west coast of Ireland.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 153px;">
-<img src="images/291b.png" width="153" height="236" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Magilus antiquus.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 119px;">
-<img src="images/291c.png" width="119" height="152" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Worm-Shell.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>While the vast majority of the gasteropods either creep or
-swim, some are doomed to the sedentary life of the oyster,
-and remain for ever fixed to the spot where
-they first attached themselves as small free-swimming
-larv&aelig;. Thus the <i>Magilus antiquus</i>,
-which in its young state presents all
-the characters of a regular spiral univalve, establishes
-itself in the excavations of madrepores,
-and as the coral increases around it, the Magilus
-is obliged, in order to have its aperture on a
-level with the surrounding surface, to construct
-a tube, lengthening with the growth of the
-coral. As the tube goes on increasing, the
-animal abandons the spiral for the tubular part of the shell, and
-in the operation it leaves behind no partitions,
-but secretes a compact calcareous matter which
-reaches to the very summit of the spiral part, so
-that in an old specimen the posterior part of the
-shell presents a solid mass.</p>
-
-<p>The Siliquari&aelig; are generally found embedded
-in a similar manner in sponges or other soft
-bodies, while the Vermetus, or Worm-Shell, usually
-attaches itself, like the Serpul&aelig;, to rocks, coral-reefs, or
-shells.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">� 292 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>In these genera, which have been arranged by Cuvier in a
-separate order (Tubulibranchiata), the foot is naturally reduced
-to the state of an adhesive organ, its chief functions consisting
-in opening and closing the lid.</p>
-
-<p>The sea-snails are either predaceous or herbivorous; among
-the pectinibranchiates, those with circular mouths to the shell
-are vegetable feeders, while such as have an aperture ending in
-a canal are animal feeders. Considerable modifications of
-internal structure indicate this difference of food; and the
-external organs, particularly about the mouth, exhibit a corresponding
-variety of form. In those which feed on vegetables
-the mouth is generally a slit furnished with more or less perfect
-lips, armed with a simple cutting apparatus, which is often
-powerful enough to divide or dismember comparatively hard
-substances.</p>
-
-<p>In most animal feeders the mouth presents the appearance
-of a proboscis that can be protruded or shortened at
-the will of the animal, and which, grasping the food, conveys
-it to a spine-armed tongue, by the aid of which it is propelled
-into the gullet without mastication or any preparatory
-change.</p>
-
-<p>In the Whelk and its shell-boring allies, the alternate protrusion
-and retraction of the proboscis, which is here of a much
-more complicated structure, causes the sharp tongue to act as a
-rasp or auger, capable of drilling holes into the hardest shells.
-It is this circumstance which renders the whelk so formidable
-an enemy to mussel and oyster banks. During the erection of
-Bell Rock lighthouse, an attempt was made to plant a colony of
-mussels on the wave-beaten cliff, as they were likely to be of
-great use to the workmen, and especially to the light keepers,
-the future inhabitants of the rock; but the mussels were soon
-observed to open and die in great numbers. "For some time,"
-says Mr. Stevenson in his interesting narrative, "this was
-ascribed to the effects of the violent surge of the sea, but the
-Buccinum lapillus having greatly increased, it was ascertained
-that it had proved a successful enemy to the mussel. The
-buccinum was observed to perforate a small hole in the shell,
-and thus to suck out the finer parts of the body of the mussel;
-the valves of course opened, and the remainder of the shell-fish
-was washed away by the sea. The perforated hole is generally
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">� 293 �</a></span>
-upon the thinnest part of the shell, and is perfectly circular, of a
-champhered form, being wider towards the outward side, and so
-perfectly smooth and regular as to have all the appearance of
-the most beautiful work of an expert artist. It became a
-matter extremely desirable to preserve the mussel, and it seemed
-practicable to extirpate the buccinum. But after we had picked
-up and destroyed many barrels of them, their extirpation was
-at length given up as a hopeless task. The mussels were consequently
-abandoned as their prey; and, in the course of the
-third year's operations, so successful had the ravages of the
-buccinum been that not a single member of the imported
-mussel colony was to be found upon the rock." Thus the
-engineer, whose skill and perseverance had gained so proud a
-triumph over the waves of the stormy ocean, was defeated by
-an ignoble whelk.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 349px;">
-<img src="images/293.png" width="349" height="192" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Limpet's tongue.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>In the genera which have no proboscis, the tongue, acting as
-a prehensile and rasping or abrading organ, is frequently of considerable
-length; thus, in the Ear-shell, it is half as long as the
-body, and in the common Limpet even three times longer than
-the entire animal. From
-the two cartilaginous
-pieces (<i>b b</i>), placed on
-each side of its root, arise
-the short and powerful
-muscles which wield the
-organ. The surface of
-this curious piece of
-mechanism, a magnified
-view of which is given
-at <span class="smcap">B</span>, is armed with minute, though strong, teeth, placed in
-transverse rows, and arranged in three series; each central
-group consists of four spines, while those on the sides contain
-but two a-piece. It is only at its anterior extremity (<i>d</i>),
-however, that the tongue, so armed, presents that horny
-hardness needful for the performance of its functions, the
-posterior part being comparatively soft; so that, probably
-in proportion as the anterior part is worn away, the parts
-behind it gradually assume the necessary firmness, and advance
-to supply its place. In the upper part of the circumference
-of the mouth, we find a semicircular horny
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">� 294 �</a></span>
-plate, resembling an upper jaw, and the tongue, by triturating
-the food against this, gradually reduces substances
-however hard. On opening the limpet, the tongue is found
-doubled upon itself, and folded in a spiral manner beneath
-the viscera.</p>
-
-<p>Many of the Gasteropods which live on coarse and refractory
-materials are provided with several digestive cavities, resembling
-in some degree the stomachs of the ruminating
-quadrupeds; and frequently the triturating power of these
-organs is still further increased by their being armed with teeth
-variously disposed.</p>
-
-<table summary="images">
-<tr>
-  <td><img src="images/294a.png" width="124" height="154" alt="" /><br />
-    <div class="fig_caption">Bulla.</div>
-  </td>
-  <td><img src="images/294b.png" width="120" height="196" alt="" /><br />
-    <div class="fig_caption">Gizzard of Bulla.</div>
-  </td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<p>In the Bulla, for instance, a genus belonging, like the sea-hares,
-to the tectibranchiate order, the gizzard, or
-second stomach, contains three plates of stony
-hardness attached to its walls, and so disposed
-that they perform the part of a most efficacious
-grinding mill.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 210px;">
-<img src="images/294c.png" width="210" height="330" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Gizzard of Syll&aelig;a.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>On opening the gizzard
-of the Scyll&aelig;a, it is found
-to be still more formidably armed, for
-in its muscular walls there are embedded
-no less than twelve horny
-plates (<i>e</i>), which are extremely
-hard and as sharp
-as the blades of a knife.</p>
-
-<p>The Sea-hare, however,
-furnishes us with the most
-curious form of these
-stomachal teeth, for here
-we see not only the
-gizzard (<i>b</i>) armed with horny pyramidal plates, whose tuberculated
-apices, meeting in the centre of the organ, must
-necessarily bruise by their action whatever passes through
-that cavity, but the third stomach (<i>d</i>) is also studded with
-sharp-pointed hooks (<i>c</i>), resembling canine teeth, and admirably
-adapted to pierce and subdivide the tough leathery
-fronds of the olive sea-weeds on which the animal feeds. Thus
-these deformed and disgusting molluscs afford us one of the
-most interesting examples of the adaptation of organs to their
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">� 295 �</a></span>
-functions, which an enlightened research is continually finding
-in creation.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 340px;">
-<img src="images/295.png" width="340" height="586" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Compound stomach of Sea-Hare.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Though not so gifted as the cephalopods, many of the gasteropods
-possess all the organs of sense. Like them, they have an
-apparatus specially calculated to appreciate sonorous undulations,
-and consisting of a membranous vesicle attached to an
-auditive nerve, and containing either a single spherical otolithe
-or a larger number of similar smaller calcareous bodies, which
-by their vibrations communicate the impression of sound to the
-nerve. Their minute eyes are short-sighted, it is true, and
-frequently either entirely wanting or, as in the Nudibranchiates,
-scarcely able to distinguish light from darkness; but their
-inactive habits require no wide field of vision, and thus they
-see as much of the external world as is necessary for their
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">� 296 �</a></span>
-humble sphere of existence. The organs of sight are generally
-situated either on a prominence
-at the base of the
-superior pair of tentacles
-or, as, for instance, in the
-Murex, at the extremity
-of these organs (<i>a</i>, <i>b</i>), a
-position which enables
-the animal to direct them
-readily to different objects.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 338px;">
-<img src="images/296.png" width="338" height="414" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Tentacles and eye of Murex.<br />
-
-<i>c.</i> Eye highly magnified.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Many of the Gasteropods
-are evidently capable of
-perceiving odours; thus,
-animal substances let down
-in a net to the bottom will
-attract thousands of Nass&aelig;
-in one night. We also may
-infer that they are not deficient
-in taste from the presence of papill&aelig; at the bottom of
-their mouth, analogous to those found on the tongue of other
-animals; but, of all their senses, that of touch is undoubtedly
-the most perfect. The whole soft surface of the body is indeed
-of exquisite sensibility, but more especially the vascular foot,
-and the tentacles, or horns, which vary both in number and in
-shape in different genera. Yet, in spite of this delicacy in
-the organisation of the skin, which makes it so sensible of
-contact, it appears to have been beneficently ordered that
-animals so helpless and exposed to injury from every quarter
-are but little sensible to pain. Although they are deprived of
-all higher instincts, we find among the Gasteropods a few
-examples of concealment under extraneous objects, which
-remind us of the masks and artifices frequently employed by
-the insects and crustaceans.</p>
-
-<p>The Agglutinating Top (<i>Trochus agglutinans</i>) covers itself
-with small stones and fragments of shells, and thus shielded
-from the view escapes the voracity of many an enemy but
-little suspecting the savoury morsel hidden under the mound of
-rubbish which he disdainfully passes by.</p>
-
-<p>In animals which are only provided with passive means of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">� 297 �</a></span>
-defence, we may naturally expect a considerable degree of
-caution, and in this respect the gasteropods might give many
-useful lessons to man. How carefully they protrude their tentacles
-as far as possible to sound every obstacle in their way,
-before they creep onwards, and how rapidly they withdraw
-into their shell at the least symptom of danger! What an
-example to so many of us that leap before they look, and frequently
-break their necks in the fall!</p>
-
-<p>Yet, in spite of all their prudence and of the protection of
-their stony dwellings, they serve as food to a host of powerful
-enemies. The sea-stars, their most dangerous foes, not only
-swallow the young fry but also seize with their long rays the
-full-grown gasteropods, and clasp them in a murderous embrace.</p>
-
-<p>They are preyed upon by fishes, crustaceans, and sea-birds,
-who pick them up along the shores; but it will sometimes
-happen that a crow, while endeavouring to detach a limpet for
-its food, is caught by the tip of its bill, and held there until
-drowned by the advancing tide.</p>
-
-<p>Man also consumes a vast number of sea-snails, for on every
-coast there are some edible species; and it may be said that, with
-the exception of very few that have a disagreeable taste, they
-are all of them used as food by the savage. The miserable
-inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego chiefly live upon a large limpet
-that abounds on the rocky shores of their inhospitable land, and
-but for this resource would most likely long since have been
-extirpated by hunger.</p>
-
-<p>Many of the univalve shells are, moreover, highly prized as
-objects of ornament or use both by savage and civilised nations.
-The South Sea Islander makes use of a Triton as a war conch;
-the Patagonian drinks out of the Magellanic volute, the Arab
-of the Red Sea employs a large Buccinum as a water-jug, and
-the <i>Cypr&aelig;a moneta</i> is well known in commerce as the current
-coin of the natives of many parts of Africa. In Europe the iridescent
-Haliotis is frequently used for the inlaying of tables or
-boxes, and various species of Helmet-shells and Strombi (<i>Cassis
-rufa madagascariensis</i>, <i>Strombus gigas</i>), peculiar as being
-formed of several differently coloured layers, placed side by side,
-are in great request for the cutting of cameos, as they are soft
-enough to be worked with ease, and hard enough to resist wear.
-More than two hundred thousand of these shells are annually
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">� 298 �</a></span>
-imported into France, and the value of cameos produced in Paris
-alone amounts to more than a hundred thousand pounds. A large
-number are also cut in the small town of Oberstein on the Nahe
-(a river flowing into the Rhine at Bingen), which has long been
-famous for the manufactory of agate ornaments and trinkets,
-and has now added this new branch of industry to the more
-ancient sources of its prosperity.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>The Pteropods, or Wing-footers, move about by means of
-two fin-like flaps, proceeding wing-like from the fore part of the
-body. They have no disk to walk upon, nor arms for the
-seizure of prey, like the cephalopods and gasteropods, but resemble
-them by the possession of a head distinct from the rest
-of the body, which some, like the Hyaleas and Cleodora, conceal
-in a thin transparent or translucent shell, in which they
-also hide their head and wings at the approach of danger, and
-immediately sink to the bottom; while others, like the blue and
-violet Clios, beautifully variegated with light
-red spots, are perfectly naked. They generally
-inhabit the high seas, and are but
-rarely drifted by storms or currents into the
-neighbourhood of the land. They mostly
-swim about freely, but sometimes also they
-are found clinging by their wings to floating
-sea-weeds. They are small creatures, but propagate so fast that
-the <i>Clio borealis</i> and <i>Limacina arctica</i> form the chief food of
-the colossal whale.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 180px;">
-<img src="images/298.png" width="180" height="138" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Hyalea globulosa.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>While these two little pteropods, in spite of their minute proportions,
-deserve to rank among the most important inhabitants
-of the northern seas, the Mediterranean species belong mainly
-to the genera Hyalea, Cleodora, and Criseis&mdash;forms wholly
-unknown to our own fauna except as waifs. Vast shoals of
-these animals frequent the deeper parts of that sea, leaving
-their remains strewed over its bed, between depths of from
-one hundred to two hundred fathoms; they are short-lived
-creatures, and have their seasons, being met with near the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">� 299 �</a></span>
-surface during spring and winter, sparkling in the water like
-needles of glass.</p>
-
-<p>"The pteropods are the winged insects of the sea," says M.
-Godwin-Austen, "reminding us, in their free circling movements
-and crepuscular habits, of the gnats and moths of the
-atmosphere; they shun the light, and if the sun is bright, you
-may look in vain for them during the life-long day&mdash;as days
-sometimes are at sea; a passing cloud, however, suffices to bring
-some Cleodor&aelig; to the surface. It is only as day declines
-that their true time begins, and thence onwards the watches of
-the night may be kept by observing the contents of the towing-net,
-as the hours of a summer day may be by the floral dial.
-The Cleodor&aelig; are the earliest risers; as the sun sets, <i>Hyal&aelig;a
-gibbosa</i> appears, darting about as if it had not a moment to
-spare, and, indeed, its period is brief, lasting only for the Mediterranean
-twilight. Then it is that <i>Hyal&aelig;a trispinosa</i> and
-<i>Cleodora subula</i> come up; <i>Hyal&aelig;a tridentata</i>, though it does
-not venture out till dusk, retires early, whilst some species,
-such as <i>Cleodora pyramidata</i>, are to be met with only during the
-midnight hours and the darkest nights. This tribe, like a
-higher one, has its few irregular spirits, who manage to keep it
-up the whole night through. All, however, are back to their
-homes below before dawn surprises them."</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>The lamellibranchiate Acephala, or headless molluscs with
-comb-like gills, are distinguished from the preceding orders of
-molluscs by a more simple organisation and the peculiar formation
-of their external coverings. They are all contained within
-a bivalve shell, articulated after the manner of a hinge, and to
-which some of their families are attached by one strong muscle
-(Monomyaria), others by two (Dimyaria). In this shell, which
-is secreted by two large flaps or folds of their skin or mantle,
-they generally lie concealed like a book in its binding, and bid
-defiance to many of their enemies. When danger menaces, the
-sea-snail withdraws its head and closes the entrance of its hermitage
-with a lid, but the bivalve shuts its folding-doors when
-it wishes to avoid a disagreeable intruder. A strong elastic
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">� 300 �</a></span>
-ligament connects the two valves, and opens them wide as
-soon as the muscular contraction which closed them ceases
-to act.</p>
-
-<p>While the sea-snail creeps along upon a mighty foot, the
-bivalve is frequently doomed to a sedentary life, and the former
-protrudes from its shell a well-formed head, while the latter,
-like many a biped, has no head at all. The lamellibranchiate
-Acephala have, however, been treated by nature not quite so
-step-motherly as might be supposed from this deficiency, for
-many of them have eyes, or at least ocular spots, which enable
-them to distinguish light from darkness; and even auditory
-organs have been discovered in many of them. Their circulation
-is performed by a heart generally symmetrical, and their
-respiration by means of four branchial leaflets equal in size,
-and symmetrically arranged on either side of the body. The
-mouth is a simple orifice without any teeth, bordered by membranous
-lips, and placed at one end of the body between the
-two inner leaves of the branchi&aelig;. The digestive apparatus
-consists of a stomach or intestine of different lengths, a liver,
-and several other accessory organs. A simple nervous system
-brings all the parts of the body into harmonious action.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 302px;">
-<img src="images/300.png" width="302" height="253" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Bivalve deprived of shell, to show its
-various openings.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>In many lamellibranchiates the folds of the mantle are disjoined,
-as, for instance, in the oyster, which, on opening its shell,
-at once admits the water to its delicately fringed branchi&aelig;; in
-others they are more or less united, so as to form a closed sack
-with several openings, an anterior one (<i>h</i>) for the passage of the
-foot, and two posterior ones (<i>g</i>, <i>f</i>) for the ingress and egress of the
-water which the animal requires
-for respiration. These posterior
-openings are often prolonged
-into shorter or longer tubes or
-siphons, sometimes separate, and
-sometimes grown together so
-as to form a single elongated
-fleshy mass. The use of these
-prolongations becomes at once
-apparent when we consider that
-they are chiefly developed in
-those species which burrow in
-sand, mud, wood, or stone, and which therefore require to
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">� 301 �</a></span>
-be specially guarded against the danger of suffocation. The
-interior of these siphonal canals is lined with innumerable
-vibratory cilia, by the
-action of which the water
-is drawn towards the
-branchial orifice and conveyed
-in a current through
-the canal over the surface
-of the gills; then, having
-been deprived of its oxygen,
-it is expelled by a
-similar mechanism through the other tube; and it is by the
-force of this anal current that the passage is kept free from the
-deposit of mud or other substances, which would otherwise soon
-choke it up. The cleaning action of the anal current is assisted
-by the faculty the burrowing molluscs possess of elongating
-and contracting their siphons, and the degree to which this
-may be accomplished depends on the depth of the cavity which
-the species is accustomed to make. Yet since many particles
-of matter float even in clear water, which from their form or
-other qualities might be injurious to the delicate tissue of the
-viscera to be traversed, how is the entrance of these to be
-guarded against in an indiscriminating current? A beautiful
-contrivance is provided for this necessity. The margin of the
-branchial siphon, and sometimes, though more rarely, of the anal
-one, is set round with a number of short tentacular processes,
-endowed with an exquisite sensibility and expanding like
-feathery leaves. In <i>Pholas dactylus</i> this apparatus, which is
-here confined to the oral tube, is of peculiar beauty, forming a
-network of exquisite tracery, through the interstices or meshes
-of which the water freely percolates, while they exclude all
-except the most minute floating atoms of extraneous matter.
-Thus admirably has the health and comfort of the lowly shell-fish
-been provided for that spend their whole life buried in
-sepulchres of stone or sand.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 365px;">
-<img src="images/301.png" width="365" height="163" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Donax.<br />
-
-<i>a</i>, <i>b</i>. Siphons.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The fragile shell of the pholades seems to have prompted
-them to seek a better protection in the hard rock; a similar
-necessity may have induced the ship-worm to drill a dwelling
-in wood. Its shells, which are only a few lines broad, are very
-small compared with the size of the vermiform body, and are
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">� 302 �</a></span>
-therefore completely inadequate for its defence. For better
-security it bores deep passages in submerged timber, which it
-lines with a calcareous secretion, closing
-the opening with two small lids. Unfortunately,
-while thus taking care of
-itself, it causes considerable damage to
-the works of man. It is principally
-to guard against the attacks of this
-worm that ships are sheathed with
-copper, and the beams of submarine
-constructions closely studded with nails.
-During the last century, the Teredo
-caused such devastations in the dykes which guard a great part
-of Holland against the encroachments of an overwhelming
-ocean that the Dutch began to tremble
-for their safety; and thus a miserable
-worm struck terror in the hearts of
-a nation which had laughed to scorn
-the tyranny of Philip II., and bid defiance
-to the legions of Louis XIV.</p>
-
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 218px;">
-<img src="images/302a.png" width="218" height="211" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Pholas striata.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 222px;">
-<img src="images/302b.png" width="222" height="108" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Ship-worm.&mdash;(Teredo navalis.)</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>But while blaming the teredo for its damages, justice bids us
-not pass over in silence the services which it renders to man. If it
-here and there destroys useful constructions, on the other hand, it
-removes the wrecks that would otherwise obstruct the entrance
-of rivers and harbours; and we may ask whether these services
-do not outweigh the harm it causes. The pholades also belong
-to the noxious animals; they perforate the walls and calcareous
-jetties which man opposes to the fury of the sea, or raises for the
-creation of artificial harbours and landing
-places, destroy their foundations, and
-gradually cause their destruction.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 222px;">
-<img src="images/302c.png" width="222" height="237" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Petunculus.<br />
-
-<i>a.</i> Foot.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The foot of the lamellibranchiates
-presents a great variety of form, and is
-found in various degrees of development,
-gradually passing into a rudimentary
-state, until finally it is completely
-wanting in the oyster family. In most
-of those which live at large it is strong
-and muscular, serving either as an excellent
-spade for speedy concealment in the sand when an
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">� 303 �</a></span>
-enemy approaches, or to dig a furrow into which the animal
-forces itself partially, and then advances slowly by making
-slight see-saw or balancing motions, or even to jump along with
-tolerable rapidity. Thus, the common Cockle protrudes its
-foot to its utmost length, bending it and fixing it strongly
-against the surface on which it stands; then by a sudden
-muscular spring it throws itself into the air, and, by repeating
-the process again and again, hops along at a pace one would
-hardly expect to meet with in a shell-bound mollusc.</p>
-
-<p>Even some of those which have but a very rudimentary foot,
-incapable of subserving locomotion, are able to move from place
-to place by the sudden opening or shutting of their valves. In
-this manner the scallop, which inhabits deep places, where it
-lies on a rocky or shelly bottom, swims or flies through the
-water with great rapidity, and the file or rasp mussel, a closely
-related genus, principally occurring in the Indian Ocean, glides
-so swiftly through the water that the French naturalists Quoy
-and Gaimard were hardly able to overtake it.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 218px;">
-<img src="images/303.png" width="218" height="200" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Cockle.<br />
-
-<i>a.</i> Foot.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>In the stone or wood-boring bivalves
-the functions of the foot with regard to
-locomotion are much more limited than
-in the Cockle, or Tellina, as they merely
-consist in moving the animal up and
-down in the cavity where it has fixed its
-residence. In the Razor-Shells, which
-will sometimes burrow to the depth of
-two feet, and very rarely quit their holes,
-the cylindrical foot, no longer fit for horizontal
-locomotion, serves the animal for rising or sinking in the
-sand, for when about to bore, it attenuates it into a point, and
-afterwards contracts it into a rounded form so as to fix it by its
-enlargement when it desires to rise.</p>
-
-<p>In places where the razor-shells abound, they are sought
-after as bait for fish, and taken in spite of their mole-like
-facility of concealment, for when the tide is low, their retreat is
-easily recognised by the little jet of water they eject when
-alarmed by the motion of the fishermen above. Having thus
-detected their burrow, the wily enemy who is well aware that,
-though inhabiting the salt water, the Solen does not like too
-much of a good thing, merely throws some salt into the hole,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">� 304 �</a></span>
-which, sadly irritating the nerves of the poor creature, generally
-brings it to the surface. He must, however, be very quick in
-grasping it firmly, for should he fail, the animal speedily sinks
-again into the sand and will remain there, being either insensible
-to the additional irritation or its instinct of self-preservation
-teaching it to remain beneath.</p>
-
-<p>The pholades, which have very delicate milk-white valves,
-burrow holes in limestone or sandstone rocks, though occasionally
-they content themselves with houses of clay or turf.
-How creatures invested with shells as thin as paper and as
-brittle as glass are able to work their way through hard stone
-has long been a puzzle to naturalists, some of whom asserted
-that they attained their object by means of an acid solvent,
-others that they bored like an auger by revolving; but recent
-investigations have discovered that their short and truncated
-foot is the chief instrument they use in their mining operations,
-being provided at its base with a rough layer of sharp crystals
-of flint, which, when worn off, are soon replaced by others, and
-act as excellent files.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 99px;">
-<img src="images/304.png" width="99" height="450" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Solen, or Razor-Shell.<br />
-
-<i>a.</i> Foot.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>In several of the sedentary genera the rudimentary
-foot, though incapable of locomotion, makes
-itself useful by spinning a bundle of silken threads,
-called <i>byssus</i>, or beard, which serve to anchor the
-animal to any solid submarine object as firmly as a
-ship in harbour. Generally the connection is permanent,
-but some species, among others the edible
-mussel, are able to detach the filaments from the
-glandular pedicle situated at the inferior base of the
-foot which originally secreted them, and then to seek
-another point of attachment.</p>
-
-<p>If the byssus be examined under a powerful lens,
-before any of the filaments are torn, it is easy to perceive
-that these are fixed to submarine bodies by
-means of a small disc-like expansion of their extremities
-of various extent, according to the genus
-and species. Certain genera are celebrated for the
-abundance and fineness of their byssus; that of the
-Pinn&aelig;, or Wing-Shells, among others, which are very common
-in some parts of the Mediterranean, and attain a considerable
-size, is so long and firm that in Naples it is sometimes manufactured
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">� 305 �</a></span>
-into gloves and other articles of dress, though more as
-an object of curiosity than for use.</p>
-
-<p>Thus we find in the same class of animals the same organ
-most variously modified in form and structure; now serving
-as a foot, now as a spade, or as a rasp, or as a spinning machine,
-and, throughout all these modifications, admirably adapted in
-every case to the mode of life
-of its possessor.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 284px;">
-<img src="images/305.png" width="284" height="532" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Pinna.<br />
-
-<i>c.</i> Pedicle from which the filaments are detached.<br />
-<i>d.</i> Inferior base of the foot.<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The whole construction, and
-generally the extremely restricted
-locomotion, of the bivalves tells
-us at once that they are unable
-to attack their prey, but must be
-satisfied with the food which the
-sea-currents bring to the door of
-their shells, or within the vortex
-of their branchial siphons. But
-they have as little reason to complain
-as the equally slow or sessile
-polyps, bryozoa, and ascidians,
-for the waters of the ocean harbour
-such incalculable multitudes
-of microscopic animals and
-plants that their moderate appetite
-never remains long unsatisfied.
-The same streams
-which a�rate their blood also
-convey to their mouth all the
-food which they require.</p>
-
-<p>Deprived of more active weapons, most bivalves rely upon
-their shells as their best means of defence, and to answer this
-purpose, their stony covering must naturally increase in solidity
-the more its owner is exposed to injury. The pholades, lithodomes,
-and teredines, which scoop out their dwellings in stone
-or wood, and thus enjoy the protection of a retrenched camp,
-can do with a thin and brittle or even with a mere rudimentary
-shell. The solens, which at the least alarm bury themselves
-deeper and deeper in the sand, likewise require no closely-fitting
-valves; but the oysters or mussels, which have no external
-fortress to retire to, and are unable to move from the spot, would
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">� 306 �</a></span>
-be badly off indeed if they could not entirely conceal themselves
-within their thick shells, and keep them closed by strong
-muscular contraction.</p>
-
-<p>Bernardin de St. Pierre, in his "Studies of Nature," points
-out another admirable provision for the safety of molluscs.
-Thus, those which crawl and travel, and can consequently choose
-their own asylums, are in general those of the richest colours.
-Such, among the Gasteropods, are the gaudily-tinted Nerites,
-and the polished marbled Cowries, the Olives, richly ornamented
-with three or four colours, and the Harps, which have tints as
-rich as the most beautiful tulips; while among the bivalves the
-vivacious Pectens, coloured scarlet and orange, and a host of
-other travelling shells, are impressed with the most lively colours.
-But those which do not swim, as the Oysters, which are adherent
-always to the same rocks, or those which are perpetually at
-anchor, as the Pinnas and Mussels, or those which repose on the
-bosom of Madrepores, such as the Arcs, or those which are
-entirely buried in the calcareous rocks, as the Lithodomi, or
-those which immovably, by reason of their weight, pave the surface
-of the reefs, as the Tridacna, are of the colour of the bottoms
-or floors which they respectively inhabit, in order, no doubt,
-that they shall be less perceived by their enemies.</p>
-
-<p>But even so the best guarded of the bivalves fall a prey to
-innumerable enemies, and when we see the strand covered for
-miles and miles with their d�bris, we may rest assured that but
-few of the quondam inmates of these fragmentary shells have
-died a natural death. Annelides and Sea-snails, crustaceans
-and star-fishes, strand birds and even quadrupeds, all fatten
-upon their delicate flesh, and man devours incalculable numbers.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 144px;">
-<img src="images/306.png" width="144" height="128" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Edible Cockle.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>In vain the Pholas buries itself in stone, or the cockle in the
-sand; their security was at an end as soon as man had found
-out that they were grateful to the palate. The former was
-reckoned a delicacy by the ancients, and
-the latter is preferred by some to the oyster
-itself. So much is certain, that, during
-the years of famine caused by the potato
-disease, it preserved the lives of many of
-the poor Shetlanders and Orcadians.</p>
-
-<p>The Razor-Shells, particularly when
-roasted, and the Clam-Mussels, which are not only a favourite
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">� 307 �</a></span>
-repast of the Greenlander but also of the white bear and arctic
-fox, are equally reckoned among the most delicate of bivalves.</p>
-
-<p>The common Mussel (<i>Mytilus edulis</i>), which is found in
-the littoral zone on almost every rocky shore, is eaten in vast
-numbers by the coast inhabitants, and carried in enormous
-masses into the interior of the country; it furnishes an equally
-cheap and agreeable food, but is not easy of digestion, and sometimes
-produces symptoms of poisoning, which have been ascribed
-to the eggs of asterias, on which it feeds
-during the summer. In the northern countries
-it is also in great request as a bait for
-cod, ling, rays, and other large fishes that
-are caught by the line. In the Frith of
-Forth alone from thirty to forty millions of
-mussels are used for this purpose, and in
-many places they are enclosed in <i>gardens</i>,
-the ground of which is covered with large
-stones, to which they attach themselves by
-their byssus or beard.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 174px;">
-<img src="images/307.png" width="174" height="224" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Edible Mussel.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>It is a curious fact that the rearing of mussels should have
-been introduced into France as far back as the year 1235, by an
-Irishman of the name of Walton. This man, who had been
-shipwrecked in the Bay de l'Aiguillon, and gained a precarious
-living by catching sea-birds, observed that the mussels, which
-had attached themselves to the poles on which he spread his nets
-over the shallow waters, were far superior to those that naturally
-grow in the mud, and immediately made use of his discovery
-by founding the first "<i>bouchot</i>," or mussel-park, consisting of
-stakes and rudely interwoven branches. His example soon
-found imitators, and, strange to say, the method of construction
-adopted by Walton, six centuries ago, has been maintained unaltered
-to the present day. It may give some idea of the
-immense resources that might be obtained from so many utterly
-neglected lagunes when we hear that the fishermen of l'Aiguillon,
-although they sell three hundredweight of mussels for the very
-low sum of five francs, or four shillings, annually export or send
-them into the interior to the amount of a million or twelve
-hundred thousand francs.</p>
-
-<p>The praise which Pliny bestowed on the oyster, calling it the
-palm or glory of the table, is still re-echoed by thousands of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">� 308 �</a></span>
-enthusiastic admirers. We know that this king of the molluscs
-congregates in enormous banks, often extending for miles and
-miles, particularly on rocky ground, though it is also found on
-a sandy or even on a muddy bottom. Along the shallow
-alluvial shores of many tropical lands, great quantities of
-oysters are often found attached to the lower branches of the
-mangroves, where they are so situated as to be covered when
-the flood sets in, and to remain suspended in the air when it
-retires, swinging about as the wind agitates their movable
-support. The oyster inhabits all the European seas from the
-shores of the Mediterranean to the Westenfiord in Norway, where
-it finds its northern boundary, lat. 68� N., but the British
-waters may be considered as its headquarters, for nowhere is it
-found in greater abundance and of a richer flavour. After the
-ancient Romans had once tasted the oysters of Kent&mdash;the renowned
-<i>Rutupians</i>&mdash;they preferred them by far to those of the
-Lucrine lake, of Brindisi, and of Abydos, and Macrobius tells
-us that the Roman epicures in the fourth century never failed
-to have them at table. The "Pandores" of Edinburgh, and
-the "Carlingfords" of Dublin, are likewise celebrated for their
-delicious flavour; and if we turn to the Continent, we find the
-Bay of Biscay, and the coasts of Brittany and Normandy, of
-Holland and of Schleswig-Holstein, renowned for the excellence
-of their oysters.</p>
-
-<p>Three sorts of oysters are distinguished in the trade. The
-first comprises those which are dredged from the deeper banks.
-These are the largest-sized, but also the least valued. The
-second consists of those that are gathered on a more elevated
-situation. Being accustomed to the daily vicissitudes of ebb
-and flood, they retain their water much longer, and can therefore
-be transported to much greater distances than the former.
-Those are preferred that grow on a clear bottom near the
-estuaries of rivers. The third and most valued sort of oysters
-are those that are cleaned and fattened in artificial <i>parks</i> or
-stews.</p>
-
-<p>This branch of industry was already known to the Romans,
-and Pliny tells us that Sergius Orata, a knight, was the first
-who established an artificial basin for the cultivation of oysters,
-and realised large sums of money by this ingenious invention.
-At present Harwich, Colchester, Whitstable, and many other
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">� 309 �</a></span>
-sea-ports along our coast are famed for their oyster-stews, as are,
-in France and Belgium, Marennes, Havre, Dieppe, Tr�port, and
-Ostend, where real British natives are cleaned and fattened for
-continental consumption.</p>
-
-<p>The renowned oyster-parks of Ostend, the oldest of which
-celebrated its hundredth anniversary in 1860, are extensive
-walled basins, communicating by sluices with the open sea, so
-that the water can be let in and out with every returning tide.
-As microscopic alg&aelig; and animalcul&aelig; are produced in much
-greater numbers in these tranquil reservoirs than in the boisterous
-sea, the oysters find here much more abundant food, and
-being detached one from the other, they can also open and close
-their shells with greater facility, so that nothing hinders their
-growth. Thus fostered and improved by constant attention,
-they are greatly superior in flavour to the rough children of
-nature that are sent without any further preparation to market
-and condemned to the knife soon after having been dragged
-forth from their submarine abode. The highly prized <i>green</i>
-oysters owe their colour to the number of ulv&aelig;, enteromorph&aelig;,
-and microscopic infusori&aelig;, that are abundantly generated in
-the parks, and communicate their verdant tinge to the animal
-that swallows them.</p>
-
-<p>In spite of their high price, which unfortunately debars the
-poorer classes from their enjoyment, the consumption of oysters
-is immense; so that in a commercial point of view they are by
-far the most important of all the mollusc tribes. Of the quantities
-eaten in London alone, it is impossible to give even an
-approximate guess, as no reliable statistics can be arrived at.
-Exclusive of those bred in Essex and Kent, in the rivers Crouch,
-Blackwater, and Colne, and in the channel of the Swale and the
-Medway, vast numbers are brought from Jersey, Poole, and
-other places along the coast. The Channel Islands alone, which
-export about 100,000 bushels a year, send a great part of their
-oysters to the metropolitan market.</p>
-
-<p>The luxurious tables of Paris likewise consume unnumbered
-millions, and when we consider that, thanks to the railroad,
-even the most distant inland towns of the Continent may now be
-supplied with Ostend oysters, we cannot wonder that their
-price has risen enormously with the constantly increasing demand.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">� 310 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>This great augmentation of value has naturally directed
-attention to the creation of new oyster-banks, and to the better
-management of those already existing, and fortunately the
-manner in which the mollusc propagates renders its culture in
-appropriate localities a by no means difficult task.</p>
-
-<p>The oyster spawns from June to September. Instead of immediately
-abandoning its eggs to their fate, as is the case with
-so many sea-animals, it keeps them for a time in the folds of its
-mantle, between the branchial lamell&aelig;, and it is only after having
-thus acquired a more perfect development that the microscopic
-larv&aelig;, furnished with a swimming apparatus and eyes, emerge
-from the shell, and are then driven about by the floods and
-currents, until they find some solid body to which they attach
-themselves for life. In this manner the oyster produces in one
-single summer a couple of millions of young, which, however,
-mostly perish during the first wandering stage of their existence.
-Thus we see what rich rewards may be gained by protecting and
-fixing the oyster-larv&aelig; at an early date; and that this can be
-done in many places without any great outlay of capital is
-proved to us by successful examples both in ancient and modern
-times.</p>
-
-<p>Between the Lucrine Lake, the ruins of Cum&aelig;, where of yore
-the Sibyl uttered her ambiguous oracles, and the promontory of
-Misenum, lies a small salt-water lake, about a league in circumference,
-generally from three to six feet deep, and reposing
-on a volcanic, black, and muddy bottom. This is the old Acheron
-of Virgil, the present Fusaro. Over its whole extent are spread
-from space to space great heaps of stones, that have been
-originally stocked with oysters brought from Tarentum. Round
-each of these artificial mounds stakes are driven into the ground,
-tolerably near each other, and projecting from the water, so as
-to be pulled up easily. Other stakes stand in long rows several
-feet apart, and are united by ropes, from which bundles of brushwood
-hang down into the water. All these arrangements are
-intended to fix the <i>oyster-dust</i>, that annually escapes from the
-parental shells, and to afford it a vast number of points to which
-it may attach itself. After two or three years the microscopic
-larv&aelig; have grown into edible oysters. Then, at the proper
-season, the stakes and brushwood bundles are taken out of
-the water, and after the ripe berries of the marine vineyard
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">� 311 �</a></span>
-have been plucked, they are again immersed into the lake,
-until a new generation brings a new harvest. Thus the indolent
-Neapolitans have for ages given an example which has but
-recently been imitated by the men of the North. In 1858 a
-mason named Beef (a name which, if not misspelt, would seem
-to point out an English origin) inaugurated the modern era of
-oyster cultivation, at the island of R�, near La Rochelle, by
-laying down a few bushels of growing oysters among a quantity
-of large stones on the fore shore. His success encouraged his
-neighbours to follow his example, so that now already upwards
-of 4,000 beds or <i>claires</i> extend along the coast.</p>
-
-<p>Between March and May 1859 a quantity of oysters taken
-from different parts of the sea were distributed in ten longitudinal
-beds in the Bay of St. Brieux, on the coast of Brittany.
-The bottom was previously covered with old oyster-shells and
-boughs of trees arranged like fascines, which afford a capital
-holding-ground for the spat. In 1860 three of the fascines were
-taken up indiscriminately from one of the banks, and found to
-contain about 20,000 oysters each, of from one inch to two
-inches in diameter. The total expense for forming the above
-bank was 221 francs, and reckoning the number of oysters on
-each of the 300 fascines laid down on it at only 10,000, these
-sold at the low price of 20 francs a thousand would produce
-the sum of 60,000 francs, thus yielding a larger profit than any
-other known branch of industry.</p>
-
-<p>Encouraged by these successful examples, an English company
-has obtained a grant by Act of Parliament of a piece of
-fore shore lying between the Whitstable and Faversham Oyster
-Companies' beds, and thus admirably situated for receiving a
-large quantity of floating spawn from these establishments.
-There can be no doubt that oyster cultivation will spread further
-and further, and that ultimately all the worthless bays and
-lagunes along our coasts will be converted into rich oyster-fields,
-yielding a good profit to their owners and enjoyment to millions
-of consumers.</p>
-
-<p>A shell nearly related to the oyster produces the costly pearls
-of the East that have ever been as highly esteemed as the
-diamond itself. The most renowned pearl-fisheries are carried
-on at Bahrein, in the Persian Gulf, and in the Bay of Condatchy,
-in the island of Ceylon, on banks situated a few miles from
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">� 312 �</a></span>
-the coast. Before the beginning of the fishery, the government
-causes the banks to be explored, and then lets them to
-the highest bidder, very wisely allowing only a part of them to
-be fished every year. The fishing begins in February, and
-ceases by the beginning of April. The boats employed for this
-purpose assemble in the bay, set off at night at the firing of a
-signal-gun, and reach the banks after sunrise, where fishing goes
-on till noon, when the sea-breeze which arises about that time
-warns them to return to the bay. As soon as they appear
-within sight, another gun is fired, to
-inform the anxious owners of their
-return. Each boat carries twenty men
-and a chief; ten of them row and
-hoist up the divers, who are let down
-by fives,&mdash;and thus alternately diving
-and resting keep their strength to the
-end of their day's work. The diver,
-when he is about to plunge, compresses
-his nostrils tightly with a small piece of horn, which
-keeps the water out, and stuffs his ears with bees'-wax for the
-same purpose. He then seizes with the toes of his right foot a
-rope to which a stone is attached, to accelerate the descent,
-while the other foot grasps a bag of network. With his right
-hand he lays hold of another rope, and in this manner rapidly
-reaches the bottom. He then hangs the net round his neck,
-and with much dexterity and all possible despatch collects as
-many oysters as he can while he is able to remain under water,
-which is usually about two minutes. He then resumes his
-former position, makes a signal to those above by pulling the
-rope in his right hand, and is immediately by this means hauled
-up into the boat, leaving the stone to be pulled up afterwards
-by the rope attached to it. Accustomed from infancy to their
-work, these divers do not fear descending repeatedly to depths
-of fifty or sixty feet. They plunge more than fifty times in a
-morning, and collect each time about a hundred shells. Sometimes,
-however, the exertion is so great that, upon being brought
-into the boat, they discharge blood from their mouth, ears, and
-nostrils.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 225px;">
-<img src="images/312.png" width="225" height="189" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Ceylon Pearl-Oyster.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>While the fishing goes on, a number of conjurors and priests
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">� 313 �</a></span>
-are assembled on the coast, busily employed in protecting the
-divers by their incantations against the voracity of the sharks.
-These are the great terror of the divers, but they have such
-confidence in the skill or power of their conjurors that they
-neglect every other means of defence. The divers are paid in
-money, or receive a part of the oyster-shells in payment. Often,
-indeed, they try to add to their gains by swallowing here or there
-a pearl, but the sly merchant knows how to find the stolen
-property. The oysters, when safely landed, are piled up on mats,
-in places fenced round for the purpose. As soon as the animals
-are dead, the pearls can easily be sought for and extracted from
-the gaping shells. After the harvest has been gathered, the
-largest, thickest, and finest shells, which furnish mother-of-pearl,
-are sorted, and the remaining heap is left to pollute the air.
-Some poor Indians, however, often remain for weeks on the spot,
-stirring the putrid mass in the hopes of gleaning some forgotten
-pearls from the heap of rottenness. The pearls are drilled and
-stringed in Ceylon, a work which is performed with admirable
-dexterity and quickness. For cleaning, rounding, and polishing
-them, a powder of ground pearls is made use of.</p>
-
-<p>The Pacific also furnishes these costly ornaments to wealth
-and beauty, but the pearls of California and Tahiti are less
-prized than those of the Indian Ocean.</p>
-
-<p>Pearl-like excrescences likewise form on the inner surface of
-our oysters and mussels, and originate in the same manner as
-the true pearls. The formation of the pearl, however, is not
-yet quite satisfactorily accounted for. Some naturalists believe
-that the animal accumulates the pearl-like substance to give
-the shell a greater thickness and solidity in the places where it
-has been perforated by some annelide or gasteropod; and according
-to Mr. Philippi, an intestinal worm stimulates the exudation
-of the pearl-like mass, which, on hardening, encloses and
-renders it harmless.</p>
-
-<p>Brilliancy, size, and perfect regularity of form are the
-essential qualities of a beautiful pearl. Their union in a single
-specimen is rare, but it is of course still more difficult to find a
-number of pearls of equal size and beauty for a costly necklace
-or a princely tiara.</p>
-
-<p>Nature has given the bivalves the same beauty of colouring
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">� 314 �</a></span>
-and wonderful variety of elegant or capricious forms as to the
-sea-snails; so that they are equally esteemed in the cabinets of
-wealthy amateurs. Among the most costly are reckoned the
-Spondyli, which are found in the tropical seas, where they grow
-attached to rocks. They are distinguished by the brilliancy of
-their colours, but particularly by the long thorny excrescences
-with which their shells are covered. A Parisian professor once
-pawned all his silver spoons and forks to make up the sum of
-six thousand francs which was asked for a <i>Royal Spondylus</i>;
-but on returning home was so <i>warmly</i> received by his lady
-that, overwhelmed by the hurricane, he flung himself on a chair,
-when the terrific cracking of the box containing his treasure
-reminded him too late that he had concealed it in his skirt-pocket.
-Fortunately but two of the thorns had been broken
-off, and the damage was susceptible of being repaired; his
-despair, however, was so great that his wife had not the heart
-to continue her reproaches, and in her turn began to soothe the
-unfortunate collector.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 289px;">
-<img src="images/314.png" width="289" height="136" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Tridacna gigas.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The gigantic Tridacna, which is now to be found in the shop
-of every dealer in shells, was formerly an object of such rarity
-and value that the Republic of
-Venice once made a present of
-one of them to Francis I., who
-gave it to the Church of St.
-Sulpice in Paris, where it is
-still made use of as a basin for
-holy water. The tridacna attains
-a diameter of five feet,
-and a weight of five hundred pounds, the flesh alone weighing
-thirty. The muscular power is said to be so great as to be able
-to cut through a thick rope on closing the shell. It is found in
-the dead rocks on the coral reefs, where there are no growing
-lithophytes except small tufts. Generally only an inch or two
-in breadth of the ponderous shell is exposed to view, for the
-tridacna, like the pholas, has the power of sinking itself in the
-rock, by removing the lime about it. Without some means like
-this of security, its habitation would inevitably be destroyed
-by the roaring breakers. A tuft of byssus, however strong,
-would be a very imperfect security against the force of the sea
-for shells weighing from one to five hundred pounds. It
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">� 315 �</a></span>
-is found in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific as far as the
-coral zone extends. The animal
-of the tridacna, and of the nearly
-related Hippopus, distinguishes
-itself by the beauty of its colours.
-The mantle of the <i>Tridacna safranea</i>,
-for instance, has a dark
-blue edge with emerald-green
-spots, gradually passing into a
-light violet. When a large number
-of these beautiful creatures
-expand the velvet brilliancy of
-their costly robes in the transparent waters, no flower-bed on
-earth can equal them in splendour.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 269px;">
-<img src="images/315.png" width="269" height="263" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Hippopus maculatus.</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>Like the Lamellibranchiate Acephala, the Brachiopods are
-covered with a bivalve shell, but their internal organisation is
-very different. Instead of being disposed in separate gills,
-their respiratory system is combined with the ciliated mantle on
-which the vascular ramifications are distributed, but their most
-striking feature is the possession of spiral fringed arms or
-buccal appendages which serve to open the shell and occupy
-the greater part of its cavity. These curious organs are in some
-Brachiopods quite free, in others attached to a complicated
-cartilaginous or calcareous skeleton. None of the existing
-molluscs of this class are capable of changing place, but are
-either fixed to extraneous substances by the agglutination of one
-of their valves or by a muscular peduncle passing through a
-perforation of their shells. There are no more than forty-nine
-living species, chiefly belonging to the genera Terebratula and
-Crania, and generally found at great depths in the Southern
-Ocean; but the fossil remains of 1,370 species prove their
-importance in the primitive seas, where they rivalled the
-lamellibranchiates in numbers and variety. Though now so
-rare or so local in the British seas that ordinary collectors are
-not likely to meet with any, they abound in many of our oldest
-rocks. "A visit to the quarries at Dudley," says E. Forbes,
-"or an Irish lime-kiln, or an oolitic section on the Dorsetshire
-coast, or a green sand ravine in the Isle of Wight, will afford
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">� 316 �</a></span>
-more information about the Brachiopods than an examination
-of the finest collection of the living species. In each of the
-above excursions a different set of forms would be collected, for
-many of the pal&aelig;ozoic genera have altogether disappeared when
-we rise among the secondary rocks, and in the latter we find
-forms which closely remind us of existing species, but which,
-though very near, are yet unquestionably distinct. In formations
-of all epochs, a few generic types are common, and the
-Lingul&aelig; of the earliest sedimentary formations, presenting
-traces of organic life, strikingly remind us of the species of
-that curious group living in exotic seas at the present day."</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 216px;">
-<img src="images/316.png" width="216" height="172" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Leaf-like Sea-Mat.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>At the lower extremity of the great series of molluscous
-animals we find the Polyzoa (Bryozoa, or Sea-Mosses) and
-Tunicata. The former, which comprise the Sea-Mats (Flustr&aelig;,
-Eschar&aelig;), the Sea-Scurfs (Leprali&aelig;), the Retepores, the Cellulari&aelig;,
-and several other families, were formerly reckoned among
-the polyps, whom they greatly resemble in appearance and mode
-of life, but far surpass by the complexity of their internal organisation.
-The Sea-Mats are among the commonest objects
-which the tide casts out upon our shores, for you will hardly ever
-walk upon the strand without finding their blanched skeletons
-among the relics of the retiring flood.
-Their flat leaf-like forms might easily
-cause them to be mistaken for dried sea-weeds,
-but a pocket-lens suffices to show
-that they are built up of innumerable
-little oblong cells, placed back to back
-like those of a honey-comb, and each
-crowned by four stout spines, which give
-their surface a peculiarly harsh feel
-when the finger is passed over it from the apex to the base.
-"The individual cells," says Mr. Gosse, "are shaped like a
-child's cradle, and if you will please to suppose some twenty
-thousand cradles stuck side to side in one plane, and then
-turned over, and twenty thousand more stuck on to these bottom
-to bottom, you will have an idea of the framework of a flustra.
-And do not think the number outrageous, for it is but an ordinary
-average. I count in an area of half an inch square sixty
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">� 317 �</a></span>
-longitudinal rows, each of which contains about twenty-eight
-cells in that space; this gives 6,720 cells per square inch on each
-surface. Now a moderate-sized polyzoary contains an area of
-three square inches, i. e. six on both surfaces, which will give the
-high number of 40,320 cells on such a specimen. Many, however,
-are much larger."</p>
-
-<p>Before the stormy tide detached them from the bottom of the
-sea, and left them to perish on the shore, each of the cells contained
-a living creature whose mouth was surrounded by a
-coronet of filiform and ciliated tentacles, destined to produce
-a vortex in the water, and thus to provide the tiny owner with
-its food. The body was bent on itself somewhat like the letter
-V, the one branch (<i>a</i>) being the mouth and throat, the other (<i>b</i>)
-the rectum, opening by an anus, and the middle part (<i>c</i>) the
-stomach. Each of these tiny members of the
-flustra colony possessed a considerable number
-of muscles; each was furnished with a movable
-lip or lid to block up the entrance of his
-cell when he courted retirement; each had
-his individual nerves, and consequently his
-individual sensations, though feeling and
-moving simultaneously with his fellow citizens
-by the agency of a system of nerves common
-to the whole republic, and sending forth a
-delicate filament to the inmate of each cell.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 152px;">
-<img src="images/317.png" width="152" height="272" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Flustra in its cell.
-(Highly magnified.)</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Such are the wonders which but for the
-microscope would for ever have remained
-unknown to man.</p>
-
-<p>The Eschar&aelig; greatly resemble the Flustr&aelig;, for here also the
-cells are disposed side by side upon the same plane, so as to
-form a broad leaf-like polyzoary, which, however, is not of a
-horny or coriaceous texture, as in the latter genus, but completely
-calcified, so as to present something of the massiveness
-of the stony corals. The annexed wood-cuts, showing us
-<i>Eschara cervicornis</i>, first <span class="smcap">A</span>, in its natural size; then <span class="smcap">B</span>, a few
-cells magnified twenty diameters, and ultimately <span class="smcap">C</span>, a single
-individual so highly magnified as to reveal some of the details
-of its otherwise invisible structure, give us a good idea of the
-truly remarkable organisation of the Polyzoa.</p>
-
-<p>In the Eschar&aelig; and Flustr&aelig; the cellular extension of the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">� 318 �</a></span>
-common stock or polyzoary is unbroken, and opening on both
-surfaces, while in the Retepores we find the cells opening only
-on one side, and the leaf-like expansion pierced like network.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 210px;">
-<img src="images/318a.png" width="210" height="325" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Eschara cervicornis.
-(Natural size.)</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 214px;">
-<img src="images/318b.png" width="214" height="218" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Portion of a branch of the polypary of
-Eschara cervicornis, magnified twenty
-diameters, to show the form and arrangement
-of cells.</div>
-</div>
-
-
-<p>In cabinets of natural history, the species commonly called
-Neptune's ruffles will rarely be found wanting. It is a native
-of the Mediterranean, but individuals of a smaller size are also
-found in the British seas.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 251px;">
-<img src="images/318c.png" width="251" height="312" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">An individual of Eschara cervicornis,
-highly magnified.<br />
-
-<i>a.</i> Tentacula<br />
-<i>b.</i> First digestive cavity.<br />
-<i>d.</i> Stomach.<br />
-<i>f.</i> Anus.<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 192px;">
-<img src="images/318d.png" width="192" height="150" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Retepora cellulosa.
-(Neptune's Ruffle.)</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Leprali&aelig;, or Sea-Scurfs, form thin calcareous crusts of
-a white-yellow or reddish colour on rocks, shells, and sea-weeds.
-To the naked eye they appear as rude unsightly
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">� 319 �</a></span>
-eruptions, so as to justify their name derived from the hideous
-leprosy of the East, but, when magnified, their cells, generally
-disposed in regular concentric rows, exhibit a surprising
-diversity and elegance of structure. Forty species are found
-in the North Sea alone; hence we may judge how great the
-number of still unknown forms must be that spread their
-microscopic traceries over the alg&aelig; and shells of every zone.</p>
-
-<p>It would lead me too far were I minutely to describe the
-Cellulari&aelig; with their cells disposed in alternating rows on
-narrow bifurcated branches; the Tubulipores, with their mouths
-at the termination of tubular cells without any movable
-appendage or lip; the Bowerbankias and Lagunculas, with
-their creeping stems and separate cells; suffice it to say that a
-wonderful exuberance of fancy displays itself in the structure
-of the numerous varieties of the Polyzoa.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 350px;">
-<img src="images/319.png" width="350" height="460" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">A. Portion of a Cellularia, magnified.<br />
-
-B. A Bird's Head Process, more highly magnified,
-and seen in the act of grasping another.
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>But a closer inspection reveals still greater miracles to the
-marine microscopist, for most genera, and chiefly the Cellulari&aelig;,
-possess very remarkable appendages, or processes, presenting the
-most striking resemblance to the head of a bird. Each of these
-processes, or "aviculari&aelig;,"
-as they have been
-named, has two "mandibles,"
-of which one is
-fixed like the upper jaw
-of a bird, the other
-movable like its lower
-jaw; the latter is opened
-and closed by two sets of
-muscles, which are seen
-in the interior of the
-head, and between them
-is a peculiar body, furnished
-with a pencil of
-bristles, which is probably
-a tactile organ,
-being brought forwards
-when the mouth is open,
-so that the bristles project
-beyond it, and being
-drawn back when the mandible closes. During the life of the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">� 320 �</a></span>
-polyzoon, these tiny "vulture-heads," which are either sessile
-or pedunculated, keep up a continual motion, and it is most
-amusing to see them see-sawing and snapping and opening
-their jaws, and then sometimes in their incessant activity even
-closing upon the beaks of their neighbours.</p>
-
-<p>It is still very doubtful what is their precise function in the
-economy of the animal; whether it is to retain within reach of
-the ciliary current bodies that may serve as food, or whether it
-is like the pedicellari&aelig; of the sea-urchins to remove extraneous
-particles that may be in contact with the surface of the polyzoary.
-The latter would seem to be the function of the "vibracula,"
-which are likewise pretty generally distributed among the
-polyzoa. Each of these long bristle-shaped organs, springing
-at its base out of a sort of cup, that contains muscles by which
-it is kept in almost constant motion, sweeps slowly and carefully
-over the surface of the polyzoary, and removes what might be
-injurious to the delicate inhabitants of the cells, when their
-tentacles are protruded. So carefully have these lowly molluscs
-been provided for!</p>
-
-<p>The polyzoa can neither hear nor see, at least as far as we are
-able to ascertain, but the delicacy of their sense of touch is very
-great. "When left undisturbed in a glass of fresh sea-water,"
-says Dr. Johnston,<a name="FNanchor_18" id="FNanchor_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[R]</a> "they push their tentacula beyond the
-mouth of the cell by straightening the body, and then expanding
-them in the form of a funnel or bell, they will often remain
-quiet and apparently immovable for a long time, presenting a
-very pretty and most interesting object to an observer of the
-'minims of nature.' If, however, the water is agitated, they
-withdraw on the instant, probably by aid of the posterior ligament
-or muscle; the hinder part of the body is pushed aside up
-the cell, the whole is sunk deeper, and by this means the tentacula,
-gathered into a close column, are brought within the cell,
-the aperture of which is shut by the same series of actions.
-The polyzoa of the same polyzoary often protrude their thousand
-heads at the same time, or in quick but irregular succession,
-and retire simultaneously, or nearly so, but at other times
-I have often witnessed a few only to venture on the display of
-their glories, the rest remaining concealed, and if, when many
-are expanded, one is singled out and touched with a sharp instrument,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">� 321 �</a></span>
-it alone feels the injury, and retires, without any
-others being conscious of the danger, or of the hurt inflicted on
-their mate. The polyzoa propagate by gemmation and by ova
-or eggs, which, germinating on the inner surface, escape at a later
-period into the visceral cavity, and are finally discharged into
-the wide sea, so to fulfil their mission in creation, and people the
-shores of every clime with myriads of busy workers in horn and
-in lime, which, with subtle chemistry, they draw from a fluid
-quarry and build up in textures of admirable beauty and
-heaven-ordered designs."</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_18" id="Footnote_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18"><span class="label">[R]</span></a> "History of the British Zoophytes," 2nd edit. vol. i. p. 259.</p></div>
-
-<p>Each polyzoon begins with a single ovum. The original or
-seminal cell of a flustra or lepralia has no sooner fixed itself
-upon some stone, shell, or alga, than new buds begin to shoot
-forth, which in their turn produce others from their unattached
-margins, so as rapidly to augment the number of cells to a very
-large amount. Thus a common specimen of <i>Flustra carbasea</i>
-presents more than 18,000 individual polyzoa, and as each of
-these has about twenty-two tentacula, which are again furnished
-with about a hundred cili&aelig; a piece, the entire polyzoary presents
-no less than 396,000 tentacula and 39,600,000 cili&aelig;. The
-Rev. David Landsborough calculated that a specimen of <i>Flustra
-membranacea</i> five feet in length by eight inches in breadth had
-been the work and the habitation of above two millions of inmates,
-so that this single colony on a submarine island was about
-equal in number to the population of Scotland. As the tentacula
-are numerous in this species, four thousand millions of cili&aelig;
-must have provided for its wants, about four times the number
-of the inhabitants of this globe!</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">� 322 �</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 244px;">
-<img src="images/322a.png" width="244" height="652" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Clavellina producta. Group of two adult
-and several young individuals, magnified
-about five times.<br />
-<i>c.</i> Branchial orifice.&nbsp; &nbsp;<i>e.</i> Branchi&aelig;.<br />
-<i>i.</i> Anal orifice.&nbsp; &nbsp;<i>l.</i> Stomach.<br />
-<i>o.</i> Heart.&nbsp; &nbsp;<i>u</i>, <i>u&#8242;</i>, <i>u&#8243;</i>. Reproductive<br />
-buds, springing from the abdomen of the adults.
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 220px;">
-<img src="images/322b.png" width="220" height="485" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Ascidia mammillata.<br />
-<i>a.</i> Branchial orifice, open.&nbsp; &nbsp;<i>b.</i> Anal orifice, closed.
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Tunicata are so called because their soft parts are not
-enclosed in a calcified shell such as invests the majority of their
-class, but in a more or less coriaceous envelope or tunic which
-is either bag-shaped, and provided with two apertures, or tube-shaped,
-and open at the ends. They present a strong resemblance
-to the Polyzoa, not merely in their general plan of
-conformation, but also in their tendency to produce composite
-structures by gemmation; they may, however, be at once distinguished
-from them by the absence of the ciliated tentacula
-which form so conspicuous a feature in the external aspect of a
-flustra or a retepore. Their branchi&aelig;, which have generally
-the form of ridges (<i>e</i>), occupy a large sac, forming, as it were,
-the antechamber of the alimentary canal, which is barely
-distinguishable into gullet, stomach, and intestine, and always
-convoluted or folded once on itself. The Tunicata are exclusively
-marine, and widely spread from the arctic to the
-tropical seas. All of them are free during the earlier parts of
-their existence; some remain permanently so (Pyrosomid&aelig;,
-Salp&aelig;), but the generality (Ascidi&aelig;, Botrylli) become fixed to
-shells and other marine bodies; some exist as distinct individuals
-(Ascidi&aelig;, Cynthia), whilst various degrees of combination are
-effected by others (Botryllus, Clavellina, Pyrosoma), and some
-are simple in one generation and combined in the next (Salp&aelig;).</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">� 323 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Thus the whole family is divisible into two groups, the
-<i>simple</i> and the <i>aggregate</i>; both branching out into numerous
-genera, of which my limits only allow me to mention some of
-the most remarkable. The simple Ascidi&aelig;, or Sea-Squirts, are
-very common on our shores. "Rarely," says Forbes, "is
-the dredge drawn up from any sea-bed at all prolific in
-submarine creatures without containing few or many of their
-irregularly shaped leathery bodies, fixed to sea-weed, rock,
-or shell, by one extremity, or by one side, free at the other,
-and presenting two more or less prominent orifices, from
-which, on the slightest pressure, the sea-water is ejected with
-great force. On the sea-shore, when the tide is out, we find
-similar bodies attached to the under surface of rough stones.
-They are variously, often splendidly, coloured, but otherwise
-are unattractive or even repulsive in aspect. Some are of a
-large size, several inches in length. As may easily be imagined,
-they lead a very inactive life, except in the young state, when
-by means of a long tail they rapidly swim about, until finally
-settling in some convenient spot, they gradually assume the
-form and adopt the quiet life of the parent from which they
-sprang."</p>
-
-<p>To the simple Tunicata belong also the Chelyosomata, whose
-coriaceous envelope, consisting of eight somewhat horny angular
-plates, reminds one of the
-carapace of the turtle.
-Their small and prominent
-orifices, perforating
-the plated surface, are
-each surrounded by six
-triangular valvules.</p>
-
-<p>Some species of simple
-Ascidians on the coasts
-of the Channel and the
-Mediterranean are valued
-as articles of food. At
-Cette sea-squirts are taken
-regularly to market, and <i>Cynthia microcosmus</i>, although so
-repulsive externally, furnishes a very delicate morsel.</p>
-
-<table summary="images">
-<tr>
-  <td><img src="images/323.png" width="354" height="260" alt="" />
-    <div class="fig_caption">Chelyosoma Macleayanum.<br />
-    <i>a.</i> Branchial orifice.&nbsp; &nbsp;<i>b.</i> Anal orifice.<br />
-    <i>c.</i> Coriaceous envelope of the sides.<br />
-    <i>d.</i> Stone to which the animal is fixed.
-    </div>
-  </td>
-  <td><img src="images/324a.png" width="268" height="405" alt="" />
-    <div class="fig_caption">Botryllus violaceus. Two of the
-    stems magnified.<br />
-    <i>a.</i> Common test.&nbsp; &nbsp;<i>b.</i> Some of the branchial orifices.<br />
-    <i>c.</i> The common anal orifice of one of the systems.
-    </div>
-  </td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">� 324 �</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 452px;">
-<img src="images/324b.png" width="452" height="402" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Diazona violacea (magnified).</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 180px;">
-<img src="images/325.png" width="180" height="597" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">A single individual of
-Pyrosoma giganteum, cut
-out of the common test
-and magnified.<br />
-<i>a.</i> Branchial or external orifice.<br />
-<i>b.</i> Anal or internal orifice.<br />
-<i>d.</i> Stomach.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<i>e.</i> Liver.<br />
-<i>f.</i> Branchi&aelig;.
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>While in the Clavellinid&aelig; the animals are connected by
-creeping tubular prolongations of the common tunic through
-which the blood circulates, the Botrylli form translucent jelly-like
-masses of various hues of
-orange, yellow, purple, blue, grey,
-and green; sometimes nearly uniform
-in tint, sometimes beautifully
-variegated, and very frequently
-pencilled as if with stars of
-gorgeous device; now encrusting
-the surface of the rock, now
-descending from it in icicle-like
-projections. They are also frequently
-attached to the broad-leaved
-fuci, investing the stalks,
-or clothing with a glairy coat
-the expanse of the fronds. "In
-examining their bodies," says
-the distinguished naturalist previously
-quoted, "we find that it
-is not a single animal which is
-before us, but a commonwealth
-of beings bound together by common and vital ties. Each
-star is a family, each group of stars a community. Individuals
-are linked together in systems, systems combined into masses.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">� 325 �</a></span>
-Few bodies among the forms of animal life exhibit such exquisite
-figures as those which we see displayed in the combinations of
-these compound Ascidians."</p>
-
-<p>In the genus Diazona, which has its chief seat in the Mediterranean,
-the animals, which are very prominent and arranged in
-concentric circles, form a single system expanded into a disc like
-that of a flower or of an Actinia. The anal orifices, it will be
-seen, are situated close to the branchial apertures at the free end
-of the single animals, while in the Botrylli
-they open into a central excretory cavity.</p>
-
-<p>In the Pyrosomes we find large colonies
-of small individuals aggregated in
-the form of a cylinder open at one end.
-Their mouths or anterior extremities are
-situated on the exterior of this hollow
-body, which they bristle with large and
-longish tubercles (<i>a</i>), whilst the opposite
-or anal orifices (<i>b</i>) open into the cavity
-of the cylinder, whose smooth wall they
-perforate with numerous small holes. By
-a simultaneous action the central cavity is
-either narrowed or enlarged, and by this
-means the strange social republic glides
-slowly through the waters.</p>
-
-<p>The Pyrosomes inhabit the Mediterranean
-and the warmer parts of the ocean.
-In the former at times their abundance is
-a source of great annoyance to the fishermen,
-sometimes even completely clogging
-their nets, and on the high seas they are
-not seldom met with in almost incredible
-profusion. Their delicate and transparent
-forms, their elegant tints, and their
-unrivalled phosphorescence render them
-objects of admiration to the voyager, and
-entitle them to rank amongst the most
-resplendent living gems of the ocean.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">� 326 �</a></span></p>
-
-<table summary="images">
-<tr>
-  <td><img src="images/326a.png" width="358" height="155" alt="" />
-    <div class="fig_caption">Salpa maxima.<br />
-    <i>a.</i> Upper lip or posterior orifice.<br />
-    <i>b.</i> Anterior orifice.<br />
-    <i>c.</i> Prolongations of the test by which the<br />
-    animal is adherent to its neighbours.
-    </div>
-  </td>
-  <td><img src="images/326b.png" width="312" height="279" alt="" />
-    <div class="fig_caption">Salp&aelig;, isolated and associated.<br />
-    A. <i>Salpa runcinata</i>, solitary.<br />
-    B. <i>Salpa runcinata</i>, associated.<br />
-    C. <i>Salpa zonaria</i>, aggregated.
-    </div>
-  </td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-
-
-<p>While the sessile Ascidi&aelig; remind one of the polyps, the
-transparent Salp&aelig;, freely swimming in the sea, bear a great
-resemblance to the pellucid jelly-fishes. Each resembles a
-crystalline tube, through which one can distinctly see the internal
-coloured parts. Sometimes these animals, which abound in the
-warmer seas, are found solitary, at other times associated in circular
-or lengthened groups, termed garlands, ribands, and chains;
-but, strange to say, these two forms so different in outward
-appearance are only the alternating generations of one and the
-same animal. The chained Salp&aelig; produce only solitary ones, and
-the latter only chains, or, as Chamisso, to whom we owe the discovery
-of this interesting fact, expresses himself, "a salpa mother
-never resembles her daughter, or her own mother, but is always
-like her sister, her grand-daughter, or her grand-mother." When
-Chamisso first made known his discovery, he was laughed at as
-a fanciful visionary, but all later observations have not only
-fully confirmed his statement but also discovered similar or
-even more wonderful metamorphoses among the jelly-fish,
-polyps, crustacea, sea-urchins, and other marine animals. Thus
-Chamisso gave the first impulse to a whole series of highly
-interesting observations, and his rank is now as well established
-among naturalists as it has long been among the most distinguished
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">� 327 �</a></span>
-poets of Germany. The Salp&aelig; progress by the alternate
-contractions and dilatations of their tubular body. In this
-manner the chains, as if obeying a common impulse, glide
-along with a serpentine movement, and are often regarded by
-sailors as sea-snakes.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 325px;">
-<img src="images/327.png" width="325" height="471" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Inner or under side of the superior plated
-surface of Chelyosoma Macleayanum.<br />
-<i>a.</i> Branchial orifice.&nbsp; &nbsp;
-<i>b.</i> Anal orifice.&nbsp; &nbsp;
-<i>c.</i> Muscles bordering the carapace-plates.&nbsp; &nbsp;
-<i>d.</i> Central hexagonal plate.<br />
-<i>e.</i> Surrounding plates.&nbsp; &nbsp;
-<i>f.</i> The nerve-ganglion and nerve-fibres.&nbsp; &nbsp;
-<i>g</i>, <i>h</i>. Auditory apparatus.&nbsp; &nbsp;
-<i>i.</i> Row of tentacles, anterior to the &#339;sophagus.&nbsp; &nbsp;
-<i>j.</i> Stomach.&nbsp; &nbsp;
-<i>k.</i> Part of the intestine.
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Before quitting the Tunicata, a few points of interest in their
-simple history remain to be noticed. Despite their humble
-organisation, they have a heart which, as may easily be ascertained
-in the transparent species, is subject to strange alternations
-of action. For after having received for a minute or
-two the blood <i>from</i> the branchi&aelig;, and propelled it <i>to</i> the
-system at large, it will at once cease to pulsate for a moment
-or two, and then propel the
-blood <i>to</i> the branchial sac,
-receiving it at the same
-time <i>from</i> the system generally.
-After this reversed
-course has continued for
-some time, another pause
-occurs, and the first course
-is resumed. It is very probable
-that many of the
-Tunicata are able to hear
-and to see. In Chelyosoma,
-organs have been discovered
-whose structure seems to
-indicate that they are destined
-for the transmission
-of sound, and the Ascidi&aelig;
-have frequently around the
-extremity of their tubes a
-row of coloured points similar
-to the imperfect organs
-of sight present in the majority
-of the bivalve Acephalans.
-Thus a closer examination
-of the lower animals is constantly bringing new faculties
-to light, and the further we penetrate into the secrets of their
-life the more we find occasion to admire the power and wisdom
-of their Maker!</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">� 328 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_XVI" id="CHAP_XVI">CHAP. XVI.</a></h2>
-
-<p class="caption2">ECHINODERMATA.</p>
-
-<p class="caption2">STAR-FISHES, SEA-URCHINS, AND SEA-CUCUMBERS.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">The Star-Fishes.&mdash;Their Feet or Suckers.&mdash;Voracity of the Asterias.&mdash;The Rosy
-Feather-Star.&mdash;Brittle and Sand-Stars.&mdash;The real Sea-Stars of the British Waters.&mdash;The
-Sea-Urchins.&mdash;The Pedicellari&aelig;.&mdash;The Shell and the Dental Apparatus
-of the Sea-Urchin.&mdash;The Sea-Cucumbers.&mdash;Their strange Dismemberments.&mdash;Trepang-fishing
-on the Coast of North Australia.&mdash;In the Feejee Islands.</div>
-
-
-<p>"As there are stars in the sky, so are there stars in the sea," is
-the poetical exordium of Link's treatise on Star-fishes, the first
-ever published on the subject; and James Montgomery tells us in
-rather bombastic style, that the seas are strewn with the images
-of the constellations with which the heavens are thronged.</p>
-
-<p>This is no doubt highly complimentary to the star-fishes, but
-is far from being merited by any particularly shining or radiant
-quality; as they occupy a very inferior grade among the denizens
-of the sea, and merely owe their stellar name to their form,
-which somewhat resembles the popular notion of a star.</p>
-
-<p>But if they are of an inferior rank to most marine animals;
-if even the stupid oyster boasts of a heart, which they do not
-possess; yet a closer inspection of their organisation shows us
-many wonderful peculiarities, and proves to us once more that
-nature has impressed the stamp of perfection as well upon her
-lowest and most simple creations, as upon those beings that rank
-highest in the scale of life.</p>
-
-<p>Every one knows the common Star-fish, with its lanceolate
-arms; its generally orange-coloured back, thickly set with tubercles,
-and the pale under-surface, with its rows of feet, feelers,
-or suckers, which serve both for locomotion and the seizure of
-food.</p>
-
-<p>When one of these creatures is placed on its back, in a plate
-filled with sea-water, it is exceedingly curious to watch the
-activity which those numberless sucking feet display. At first
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">� 329 �</a></span>
-the star-fish is motionless; for, offended by the rough handling
-it has undergone, the feet have all shrunk into the body; but
-soon they are seen to emerge like so many little worms from
-their holes, and to grope backwards and forwards through the
-water, evidently seeking the nearest ground to lay hold of.
-Those that reach it first immediately affix their suckers, and, by
-contracting, draw a portion of the body after them, so as to
-enable others to attach themselves, until, pulley being added
-to pulley, their united power is sufficient to restore the star-fish
-to its natural position.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 447px;">
-<img src="images/329.png" width="447" height="442" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Star-Fish.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class="hanging">The upper tuberculated surface is shown, with some of the spines of the under surface
-projecting at the sides of the rays. At one of the angles between the rays, on the right
-side, is seen the eccentric calcareous plate, or madreporic tubercle, which indicates the
-existence of a bilateral symmetry.</p>
-
-
-
-<p>This act of volition is surely remarkable enough in so simple
-an animal, which scarcely possesses the rudiments of a nervous
-system, but the simple mechanism by which the suckers are
-put into motion is still more wonderful. Each of these little
-organs is tubular, and connected with a globular vesicle filled
-with an aqueous fluid, and contained within the body of the
-star-fish immediately beneath the hole from which the sucker
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">� 330 �</a></span>
-issues. When the animal wishes to protrude its feet, each
-vesicle forcibly contracts, and, propelling the fluid into the corresponding
-sucker, causes its extension; and, when it desires
-to withdraw them, a contraction of the suckers drives back the
-fluid into the expanding vesicles. The internal walls of the
-suckers and their vessels are furnished with vibratory cilia, and
-by this simple means a continual circulation of the fluid they
-contain goes on within them.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 162px;">
-<img src="images/330a.png" width="162" height="162" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Lily-Encrinite.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Numerous species of star-fishes are so very common in our
-waters, that in many places the sea-bottom is literally paved
-with them. They likewise abounded in the primeval ocean, for
-deep beds of carboniferous limestone and vast strata of the
-triassic muschelkalk are often formed by the
-accumulation of little else than the skeletons
-of Encrinites and Pentacrinites, which,
-unlike the sea-stars which every storm drifts
-upon our shores, did not move about freely,
-but were affixed to a slender flexible stalk,
-composed of numerous calcareous joints connected
-together by a fleshy coat. The
-feathered bifurcated arms of the Crinoids
-are unprovided with suckers, which would have been perfectly
-useless to creatures not destined to pursue their game to any
-distance, but passively to receive the nutriment
-which the current of sea-water set in motion
-by their richly-ciliated pinnules conveys to the
-mouth. These beautiful creatures were formerly
-supposed to be nearly extinct, for up to
-within the last few years only two living
-stalked crinoids were known in the ocean of
-the present period, but the dredge has latterly
-brought up new and remarkably fine species
-from depths of more than 2000 fathoms, and
-there is every reason to believe that these
-animals still form an important element in
-the abyssal fauna.<a name="FNanchor_19" id="FNanchor_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[S]</a></p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_19" id="Footnote_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19"><span class="label">[S]</span></a> See <a href="#Page_420">page 420</a>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 138px;">
-<img src="images/330b.png" width="138" height="232" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Portion of the Pentaorinus Briareus.
-(Fossil.)</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Of freely-swimming Crinoids but one single representative is
-known in the northern seas, the Rosy Feather-star (<i>Comatula
-rosacea</i>), whose long and delicately fringed rays and deep rose
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">� 331 �</a></span>
-colour dotted with brown may serve to give us an idea of the
-beauty of the submarine landscapes where <i>Pentacrinus Wyville-Thomsoni</i>
-or <i>Bathycrinus gracilis</i> abound. During the earlier
-stage of its existence, the comatula is attached to a stalk; a discovery
-for which science is indebted to Mr. T. V. Thompson, who
-in 1823 dredged in the Cove of Cork a singular little pedunculated
-crinoid animal (<i>Pentacrinus europ&aelig;us</i>), which he found attached
-to the stems of zoophytes. It measured about three-fourths of
-an inch in height, and resembled a minute <i>comatula</i> mounted on
-the stalk of a <i>pentacrinus</i>. When this pygmy representative
-of the ancient lily-stars was first dragged up from its submarine
-haunts, it created a great sensation among naturalists, as it was
-the first recent animal of the encrinite kind which had ever
-been seen in the seas of Europe. At first it was supposed to be
-a distinct species, but Mr. Thompson, by carefully following it
-through all the stages of its growth, succeeded in proving that
-it was merely the hitherto unnoticed young of the rosy feather-star.</p>
-
-<p>This elegant crinoid is found all round our coasts, and its
-range extends from Norway to the shores of the Mediterranean.
-In swimming, the movements of its arms exactly resemble the
-alternating stroke given by the medusa to the liquid element,
-and have the same effect, causing the animal to raise itself from
-the bottom and to advance back foremost, even more rapidly
-than the medusa. When dying, either in fresh water or in
-spirits, it emits a most beautiful purple colour, which tinges
-the liquid in which it is killed.</p>
-
-<p>The <i>Ophiurid&aelig;</i>, or <i>snake-stars</i>, are essentially distinguished
-from the true <i>star-fishes</i> by the long serpent or worm-like
-arms, which are appended to their round, depressed, urchin-like
-bodies. They have no true suckers with which to walk,
-their progression being effected (and with great facility) by
-the twisting or wriggling of their arms, which are moreover
-in many species furnished with spines on the sides, assisting
-locomotion over a flat surface. These arms are very different
-from those of the true star-fishes, which are lobes of the
-animal's body, whereas the arms of the Ophiurid&aelig; are mere
-processes attached or superadded to the body.</p>
-
-<p>These animals are very generally distributed through the
-seas of our earth, both of its northern and southern hemispheres,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">� 332 �</a></span>
-but are found largest in the tropical ocean. In
-our own waters they are very abundant, and are among the
-most curious and beautiful game pursued by
-the dredger.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 179px;">
-<img src="images/332.png" width="179" height="434" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Sand-star.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The British Ophiurid&aelig; belong to two
-generic types, that of the <i>Ophiur&aelig;</i> and that
-of the <i>Euryales</i>. The former, to which the
-sand and brittle-stars belong, have simple
-arms; the latter, arms ramifying into many
-processes.</p>
-
-<p>The rays of the Sand-stars have a whip-like
-or lizard-tail appearance, while those of the
-Brittle-stars look like so many centipedes or
-annelides attached at regular distances round
-a little sea-urchin. We have ten native brittle-stars,
-the most common of which (<i>Ophiocoma
-rosula</i>, Forbes) is also one of the handsomest,
-presenting every variety of variegation, and
-the most splendid displays of vivid hues arranged
-in beautiful patterns. Not often are
-two specimens found coloured alike. It is
-the most brittle of all brittle-stars, separating itself into
-pieces with wonderful quickness and ease. Touch it, and
-it flings away an arm; hold it, and in a moment not an
-arm remains attached to the body. "The common brittle-star,"
-says Edward Forbes, "often congregates in great numbers
-on the edges of scallop-banks, and I have seen a large
-dredge come up completely filled with them; a most curious
-sight, for when the dredge was emptied, these little
-creatures, writhing with the strangest contortions, crept about
-in all directions, often flinging their arms in broken pieces
-around them; and their snake-like and threatening attitudes
-were by no means relished by the boatmen, who anxiously asked
-permission to shovel them overboard, superstitiously remarking
-that the things weren't altogether right."</p>
-
-<p>Fancy the naturalist's vexation, who has no other means of
-preserving a brittle-star entire than by quickly plunging it into
-cold fresh water, which acts as a poison on the Ophiur&aelig; as well
-as on most other marine animals, and kills them so instantaneously
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">� 333 �</a></span>
-that even the most brittle species have no time to
-make the contraction necessary to break off their rays.</p>
-
-<p>The <i>Ophiocoma rosula</i> seems to be equally abundant on all
-parts of the coast of Britain and Ireland. It is fond of rocky
-places, and grows in Shetland to a much larger size than elsewhere.
-It is said to prey on little shells and crabs, and is
-greatly relished by the cod in its turn, great numbers being
-often found in the stomach of that voracious fish.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 228px;">
-<img src="images/333.png" width="228" height="315" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Warted Euryale.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Scotch or Shetland Argus (<i>Euryale verrucosum</i>, Lamarck),
-a very rare animal, of which the adjoining wood-cut
-represents a segment, is the only
-British <i>Euryale</i>. It measures a foot
-or more across, and its singular aspect
-has long excited admiration among
-naturalists. "So odd a creature as
-this," remarks Bradley in his "Works
-of Nature," "is well worth the contemplation
-of such curious persons
-as live near the sea, where every day
-they have subjects enow to employ
-their curiosity and improve their
-understanding." Grew says that
-"as he swims he spreads and stretches
-out all his branches to their full
-length, and so soon as he perceives
-his prey within his reach, he hooks them all in, and so takes it
-as it were in a net."</p>
-
-<p>The British species of true star-fishes may be arranged under
-four families. The <i>Urasters</i> are distinguished from all others
-by having four rows of suckers in each of the avenues which
-groove the under surface of their rounded rays. In consequence
-of the great number of these singular organs, the under surface
-of a living cross-fish presents a sight truly curious and wonderful.
-Hundreds of worm-like suckers, extending and contracting,
-coiling and feeling about, each apparently acting independently
-of the others, give the idea rather of an assemblage of polypi
-than of essential parts of <i>one</i> animal. They are sensitive in
-the extreme, for, if we touch one of those singular tubes when
-outstretched, all those in its neighbourhood are thrown into a
-state of agitation; and when it shrinks from our touch, changing
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">� 334 �</a></span>
-from a lengthy fibre to a little shrunk tubercle, some of its
-neighbours, as if partaking in its fears, contract themselves in
-like manner.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 290px;">
-<img src="images/334.png" width="290" height="265" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Common Cross-fish.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The common Cross-fish (<i>Uraster rubens</i>) abounds on most
-parts of our shores, so as in some places to be used for manure
-in large quantities. "It is a
-sworn enemy to oysters, and
-as it is frequently found with
-one or more of its rays broken
-off, the fishermen fancy that
-it loses them in consequence
-of its oyster-hunting propensities;
-that it insinuates an arm
-into the incautious oyster's
-gape, with the intent of whipping
-out its prey, but that
-sometimes the apathetic mollusk
-proves more than a match
-for its radiate enemy, and closing on him, holds him fast by the
-proffered finger; whereupon the cross-fish preferring amputation
-and freedom to captivity and dying of an oyster, like some
-defeated warrior flings his arms away, glad to purchase the
-safety of the remaining whole by the reparable loss of a part,
-as it has the power of reproducing the broken rays.</p>
-
-<p>"There is, however, reason to think that the cross-fish destroys
-his prey in a very different manner from that just narrated; for
-star-fishes are not unfrequently found feeding on shell-fish,
-enfolding their prey within their arms, and seeming to suck it
-out of its shell with their mouths, pouting out the lobes of the
-stomach, which they are able to project in the manner of a
-proboscis. Possibly the stomach secretes an acrid and poisonous
-fluid, which, by paralysing the shell-fish, opens the way to its
-soft and fleshy parts."&mdash;<i>Forbes's Star Fishes.</i></p>
-
-<p>The <i>Solasters</i> are "suns in the system of sea-stars," and are
-entitled to this distinguished rank among the marine constellations
-by their many rays and brilliant hues. The <i>Solaster
-papposa</i>, or common Sun-star, with rays varying in number
-from twelve to fifteen, is one of the commonest, and at the
-same time handsomest, of all the British species. Sometimes
-the whole upper surface is deep purple, and frequently the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">� 335 �</a></span>
-disk is red, and the rays white tipped with red. It grows to a
-considerable size, having been found eleven inches broad.</p>
-
-<p>The Goniasters, or Cushion-stars, are distinguished from the
-allied species by their pentagonal form. One of the most singular
-of our native species is the Birdsfoot Sea-star (<i>Palmipes membranaceus</i>),
-being the thinnest and flattest of all its class. When
-alive it is flexible, like a piece of leather, and a person who
-had never seen it before would be apt to mistake it for the torn
-off dorsal integument of some gibbous goniaster. The colour
-is white, with a red centre and five red rays, proceeding one to
-each angle. The whole upper surface is covered with tufts of
-minute spines arranged in rows.</p>
-
-<p>The Asteri&aelig;, with their stellate body and flat rays, are very
-different in aspect from the Goniasters. The Butt-thorn (<i>Asterias
-aurantiaca</i>) owes its name to one of those strange superstitions
-which originate in some inexplicable manner, and are
-handed down by one credulous generation to the next. "The
-first taken by the fishermen at Scarborough is carefully made a
-prisoner, and placed on a seat at the stern of the boat. When
-they hook a butt (halibut) they immediately give the poor
-star-fish its liberty and commit it to its native element; but if
-their fishery is unsuccessful it is left to perish, and may eventually
-enrich the cabinet of some industrious collector."</p>
-
-<p>To the family of the Asteri&aelig; belongs also the Ling-thorn
-(<i>Luidia fragilissima</i>), the largest, and one of the most interesting
-of our British species. When full grown, it measures two
-feet across, and would appear to exceed that size occasionally, judging
-from fragments. The rays are from five to seven in number,
-quite flat, and generally five times as long as the disk is broad.
-The colour is brick-red above, varying in intensity, the under
-surface being straw-coloured. The wonderful power which the
-Luidia possesses, not merely of casting away its arms entire, but of
-breaking them voluntarily into little pieces with great rapidity,
-approximates it to the brittle-stars, and renders the preservation
-of a perfect specimen a very difficult matter.</p>
-
-<p>"The first time I ever took one of these creatures," says
-Edward Forbes, "I succeeded in getting it into the boat entire.
-Never having seen one before, and quite unconscious of its
-suicidal powers, I spread it out on a rowing-bench, the better
-to admire its form and colours. On attempting to move it for
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">� 336 �</a></span>
-preservation, to my horror and disappointment I found only an
-assemblage of rejected members. My conservative endeavours
-were all neutralised by its destructive exertions, and it is now
-badly represented in my cabinet by an armless disk and a
-diskless arm. Next time I went to dredge on the same spot,
-determined not to be cheated out of a specimen in such a way
-a second time, I brought with me a bucket of cold fresh water,
-to which article star-fishes have a great antipathy. As I expected,
-a luidia came up in the dredge, a most gorgeous specimen.
-As it does not generally break up before it is raised above the
-surface of the sea, cautiously and anxiously I sunk my bucket
-to a level with the dredge's mouth, and proceeded in the most
-gentle manner to introduce luidia to the purer element.
-Whether the cold air was too much for him, or the sight of
-the bucket too terrific, I know not, but in a moment he proceeded
-to dissolve his corporation, and at every mesh of the
-dredge his fragments were seen escaping. In despair I grasped
-at the largest, and brought up the extremity of an arm with
-its terminating eye, the spinous eyelid of which opened and
-closed with something exceedingly like a wink of derision."</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 285px;">
-<img src="images/336.png" width="285" height="285" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Goniaster.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Sea-star might be called a flattened sea-urchin, with
-radiated lobes, and the Sea-urchin, a contracted or condensed
-sea-star, so near is their relationship.
-In both we find
-the same radiating construction,
-in which the number five
-is so conspicuous, and in both
-also the rows of suckers, which,
-starting from a centre, are
-set into motion by a similar
-mechanism, and used for the
-same purpose. In all the sea-urchins
-finally, and in many
-of the sea-stars, we find the
-surface of the body covered
-with numerous exceedingly minute, two- or three-forked pincers,
-that perpetually move from side to side, and open and shut without
-intermission. These active little organs, which have been
-named <i>Pedicellari&aelig;</i>, were formerly supposed to be parasites,
-working on their own account, but they are now almost universally
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">� 337 �</a></span>
-recognised as organs subservient to the nutrition of the
-animal, and destined to seize the food floating by, and to convey
-it to the mouth, one passing it to the other. Even in their outward
-appearance, the sea-urchins are not so very different from
-the sea-stars as would be imagined on seeing a Butt-thorn near
-a globular urchin, for both orders approach each other by
-gradations; thus, the Goniasters, with their cushion-shaped
-disks and shortened rays, approximate very much in shape to
-the sea-urchins; and among the latter we also find a gradual
-progression from the flattened to the globular form. Still
-there are notable differences between the two classes. Thus in
-the sea-urchins the digestive organs form a tube with two
-openings, while in the true sea-stars they have but one single
-orifice. Their mode of life is, however, identical.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 410px;">
-<img src="images/337.png" width="410" height="318" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Shell of Echinus, or Sea-Urchin.<br />
-
-On the right side covered with spines, on the left the spines removed.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Echinid&aelig; move forward by means of the joint action of
-their suckers and spines, using the former in the manner of the
-true star-fishes, and the latter as the snake-stars. They also
-make use of the spines, which move in sockets, to bury themselves
-in the fine sand, where they find security against many
-enemies.</p>
-
-<p>Some species even entomb themselves pholas-like in stone,
-inhabiting cavities or depressions in rocks, corresponding to
-their size, and evidently formed by themselves. Bennett describes
-each cavity of the edible <i>Echinus lividus</i> as circular,
-agreeing in form with the urchin within it, and so deep as to
-embrace more than two-thirds of the bulk of the inhabitant.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">� 338 �</a></span>
-It is large enough to admit of the creature's rising a little, but
-not of its coming out easily. The echinus adheres so firmly to
-this cavity by its suckers, as to be forced from it with extreme
-difficulty when alive. On the coasts of the county of Clare
-thousands may be seen lodged in the rock, their purple spines
-and regular forms presenting a most beautiful appearance on
-the bottoms of the grey limestone rock-pools. How the boring
-is performed has, like many other secrets, not yet been settled by
-naturalists. The first perforation is most likely effected by
-means of the teeth, and then the rock softened by some secreted
-solvent.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 195px;">
-<img src="images/338a.png" width="195" height="182" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Mammillated Sea-Urchin.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Sea-urchins are found in all seas, but as they are extremely
-difficult to preserve, and many of them have such long and delicate
-spines that it is almost impossible
-to procure perfect specimens, probably
-not one tithe of their species is known.</p>
-
-<p>On our coasts the common "egg-urchin"
-affords the poor a somewhat scanty
-repast; but, throughout the Mediterranean,
-its greater size, and also that of its
-allies, <i>Echinus melo</i> and <i>E. sardicus</i>,
-render them, when "in egg," important
-articles of food. In Sicily these animals are in season about the
-full moon of March; there the <i>E. esculentus</i> is still called the
-"King of Urchins;" whilst the larger melon-urchin is popularly
-considered to be its mother. The size and abundance of these
-edible species are among the striking peculiarities of the fish
-markets of the Mediterranean sea-board.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 200px;">
-<img src="images/338b.png" width="200" height="144" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Edible Sea-Urchin.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The calcareous shell of the "sea-urchin" seems, at first sight,
-to be composed of one simple crust, but proves, on nearer inspection,
-to be a masterpiece of mosaic
-consisting of several hundred parts,
-mostly pentagonal. These are so closely
-united that their junctions are hardly
-visible, but on allowing the shell to
-macerate for some days in fresh water,
-it falls to pieces. This complicated
-structure is by no means a mere architectural
-fancy, a useless exuberance of ornament, but essentially
-necessary to the requirements of the animal's growth. A
-simple hard crust would not have been capable of distension,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">� 339 �</a></span>
-whereas a complicated shell, such as the sea-urchin possesses,
-can grow in the same ratio as the internal parts, by continual
-deposits on the edges of the individual pieces. On closely
-examining a living sea-urchin, we find the whole surface of the
-shell and spines covered with a delicate skin, which, in spite
-of their close connexion, penetrates into the intervals of the
-several pieces. This membrane secretes the chalk of which the
-shell is composed, and deposits fresh layers on the edges of the
-plates, so that in this manner the shell continually widens until
-the animal has attained its perfect size. The spines are secreted
-in the same manner, and show under the microscope an admirable
-beauty and regularity of structure. So bountifully has
-the great Architect of worlds
-provided for the poor insignificant
-sea-urchin!</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 284px;">
-<img src="images/339a.png" width="284" height="280" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Dental Apparatus of the Sea-urchin,
-viewed from above.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The dental apparatus of the
-animal&mdash;the so-called lantern
-of Aristotle&mdash;is another masterpiece
-in its way. Fancy five
-triangular bones or jaws, each
-provided with a long, projecting,
-movable tooth. A complicated
-muscular system sets
-the whole machinery going, and
-enables the jaws to play up and
-down, and across, so that a more effective grinding-mill can
-scarcely be imagined.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 298px;">
-<img src="images/339b.png" width="298" height="225" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">A. Two sockets with teeth, of Echinus
-esculentus. B. Single socket with its
-tooth viewed on the outside.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The <i>Holothuri&aelig;</i>, or Sea-cucumbers,
-may be regarded
-in one light as soft sea-urchins,
-and in another as approximating
-to the Annelides or
-worms. Their suckers are
-similar to those of the true
-star-fishes and sea-urchins.
-Besides progression by means
-of these organs, they move,
-like annelides, by the extension
-and contraction of their
-bodies. The mouth is surrounded by plumose tentacula, the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">� 340 �</a></span>
-number of which, <i>when they are complete</i>, is always a multiple
-of five. They all have the power of changing their shapes in
-the strangest manner, sometimes elongating themselves like
-worms, sometimes contracting the middle of their bodies, so as
-to give themselves the shape of an hour-glass, and then again
-blowing themselves up with water, so as to be perfectly globular.</p>
-
-<p>The great Sea-cucumber is the largest of all the known
-European species, and probably one of the largest <i>Cucumeri&aelig;</i> in
-the world, measuring when at rest fully one foot, and capable
-of extending itself to the length of three. Under the influence
-of terror, it dismembers itself in the strangest manner. Having
-no arms or legs to throw off, like its relations the luidia and the
-brittle-star, it simply disgorges its viscera, and manages to live
-without a stomach; no doubt a much greater feat than if it
-contrived to live without a head. According to the late Sir
-James Dalyell, the lost parts are capable of regeneration, even
-if the process of disgorgement went so far as to leave but an
-empty sac behind. Considering the facility with which the
-sea-cucumber separates itself from its digestive organs, it is the
-more to be wondered how it tolerates the presence of a very
-remarkable parasite, a fish belonging to the genus <i>Fierasfer</i>,
-and about six inches long. This most impudent and intrusive
-comrade enters the mouth of the cucumber, and, as the stomach
-is too small for his reception, tears its sides, quartering himself
-without ceremony between the viscera and the outer skin. The
-reason for choosing this strange abode is as yet an enigma.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 441px;">
-<img src="images/340a.png" width="441" height="59" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Fierasfer.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 227px;">
-<img src="images/340b.png" width="227" height="63" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Eatable Trepang.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The <i>Holothuri&aelig;</i>, which in our part of the globe are very little
-noticed, play a much more important part in the Indian Ocean,
-where they are caught by millions, and, under the name of
-<i>Trepang</i> or <i>Biche de mer</i>, brought to
-the markets of China and Cochin-China.
-Hundreds of praos are annually
-fitted out in the ports of the Sunda
-Islands for the gathering of trepang; and sailing with help of the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">� 341 �</a></span>
-western monsoon to the eastern parts of the Indian Archipelago,
-or along the northern coast of Australia, return home again by
-favour of the eastern monsoon. The bays of the inhospitable
-treeless shores of tropical New Holland, the abode of a few half-starved
-barbarians, are enlivened for a few months by the
-presence of the trepang fishers.</p>
-
-<p>"During my excursions round Raffles Bay," says Dumont
-d'Urville, ("Voyage to the South Pole,") "I had remarked here
-and there small heaps of stones surrounding a circular space.
-Their use remained a mystery until the Malayan fishers arrived.
-Scarce had their praos cast anchor, when without loss of time
-they landed large iron kettles, about three feet in diameter, and
-placed them on the stone heaps, the purpose of which at once
-became clear to me. Close to this extemporised kitchen they
-then erected a shed on four bamboo stakes, most likely for the
-purpose of drying the holothurias in case of bad weather. Towards
-evening, all preliminaries were finished, and the following
-morning we paid a visit to the fishermen, who gave us a friendly
-reception. Each prao had thirty-seven men on board, and carried
-six boats, which we found busily engaged in fishing. Seven or
-eight Malays, almost entirely naked, were diving near the ship,
-to look for trepang at the bottom of the sea. The skipper alone
-stood upright, and surveyed their labours with the keen eye of a
-master. A burning sun scorched the dripping heads of the divers,
-seemingly without incommoding them; no European would have
-been able to pursue the work for any length of time. It was
-about noon, and the skipper told us this was the best time for
-fishing, as the higher the sun, the more distinctly the diver is able
-to distinguish the trepang crawling at the bottom. Scarce had
-they thrown their booty into the boat when they disappeared
-again under the water, and as soon as a boat was sufficiently
-laden, it was instantly conveyed to the shore, and succeeded by
-another.</p>
-
-<p>"The holothuria of Raffles Bay is about six inches long, and
-two inches thick. It forms a large cylindrical fleshy mass,
-almost without any outward sign of an organ, and as it creeps
-very slowly along is easily caught. The essential qualities of a
-good fisherman are great expertness in diving, and a sharp eye
-to distinguish the holothurias from the similarly coloured sea-bottom.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">� 342 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>"The trepang is first thrown into a kettle filled with boiling sea-water.
-After a few minutes, it is taken out of its hot-bath and
-ripped open with a knife to cleanse it of its intestines. It is
-then thrown into a second kettle, where a small quantity of
-water and the torrefied rind of a mimosa produce dense vapours.
-This is done to smoke the trepang for better preservation. Finally,
-it is dried in the sun, or in case of bad weather under the above-mentioned
-shed. I tasted the trepang, and found it had some
-resemblance to lobster. In the China market the Malays
-sell it to the dealers for about fifteen rupees the picul of 125
-pounds. From the earliest times, the Malays have possessed
-the monopoly of this trade in those parts, and Europeans will
-never be able to deprive them of it, as the economy of their
-outfit and the extreme moderation of their wants forbid all
-competition. About four in the afternoon the Malays had
-terminated their work. In less than half an hour the kettles
-and utensils were brought on board, and before night-fall we saw
-the praos vanish from our sight."</p>
-
-<p>The inhabitants of the island of Waigiou, to the north of New
-Guinea, prepare the trepang in the Malay manner, and barter it
-for cotton and woollen stuffs, which are brought to them by some
-Chinese junks. "In every hut," says Lesson, "we found great
-heaps of this dried leathery substance, which has no particular
-taste to recommend it, and is so highly esteemed by the Chinese
-for no other reason than because they ascribe to it,&mdash;as to some
-other gelatinous substances, as agar-agar, shark-fins, and edible
-bird's nests,&mdash;peculiar invigorating properties, by means of which
-their enervated bodies are rendered fit for new excesses."</p>
-
-<p>The Feejee islanders have the reputation of being the greatest
-cannibals and the most perfidious savages of the whole Pacific,
-yet the trepang fishery attracts many American and European
-speculators to that dangerous archipelago. Captain Wilkes, of the
-United States Exploring Expedition, found there a countryman,
-Captain Eagleston, who had been successful in more than one of
-these expeditions, and obligingly communicated to him all the
-particulars of his adventurous trade. There are six valuable sorts
-of biche de mer, or trepang; the most esteemed is found on
-the reefs one or two fathoms deep, where it is caught by diving.
-The inferior sorts occur on reefs which are dry, or nearly so, at
-low water, where they are picked up by the natives, who also
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">� 343 �</a></span>
-fish the biche de mer on rocky coral bottoms by the light of the
-moon or of torches, as they come forth by night to feed. The
-most lucrative fisheries are on the northern side of Viti Levu.
-They require a large building for drying, with rows of double
-staging, on which reeds are placed. Slow fires are kept up by
-natives underneath, about fifteen hands being required to do
-the ordinary work of a house.</p>
-
-<p>Before beginning, the services of some chief must be secured,
-who undertakes the building of the house, and sets his dependants
-at work to fish. The usual price is a whale's tooth for a
-hogshead of the animals just as they are taken on the reef; but
-they are also bought with muskets, powder, balls, vermilion,
-blue beads, and cotton cloth of the same colour. When the
-animals are brought on shore, they are measured into bins
-containing about fifty hogsheads, where they remain until next
-day. They are then cut along the belly for a length of three or
-four inches, taking care not to cut too deep, as this would cause
-the fish to spread open, which would diminish its value. They
-are then thrown into boilers, two men attending each pot, and
-relieving each other, so that the work may go on night and day.
-No water need be added, as the fish itself yields moisture enough
-to prevent burning. After draining on a platform for about an
-hour, they are taken to the house and laid four inches deep
-upon the lower battens, and afterwards upon the upper ones,
-where they remain three or four days. Before being taken on
-board they are carefully picked, all damp pieces being removed.
-They are stowed in bulk, and sold in Manilla or Canton by the
-picul, which brings from fifteen to twenty-five dollars. In this
-manner Captain Eagleston had collected in the course of seven
-months, and at a trifling expense, a cargo of 1200 piculs, worth
-about 25,000 dollars. The outfit is small, but the risk is great,
-as no insurance can be effected; and it requires no small activity
-and enterprise to conduct this trade. A thorough knowledge of
-native character is essential to success, and the utmost vigilance
-and caution must always be observed to prevent surprise, or
-avoid difficulties.</p>
-
-<p>No large canoes should ever be allowed to remain alongside
-the vessel, and a chief of high rank should be kept on board as
-a hostage. That these precautions are by no means unnecessary,
-is proved by the frequent attempts of the savages to cut off
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">� 344 �</a></span>
-small vessels trading on their coasts. One of the most frequent
-methods is to dive and lay hold of the cable; this, when the
-wind blows fresh to the shore, is cut, in order that the vessel may
-drift upon it, or in other cases a rope is attached to the cable by
-which the vessel may be dragged ashore. The time chosen is
-just before daylight. The moment the vessel touches the land,
-it is treated as a prize sent by the gods, and the crew murdered,
-roasted, and devoured.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 342px;">
-<img src="images/344.png" width="342" height="186" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Sea-horse.</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">� 345 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_XVII" id="CHAP_XVII">CHAP. XVII.</a></h2>
-
-<p class="caption2">C&#338;LENTERATA.</p>
-
-<p class="caption2">POLYPS AND JELLY-FISHES.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">Thread-cells or Urticating Organs.&mdash;Sertulari&aelig;.&mdash;Campanulariad&aelig;.&mdash;Hydrozoie
-Acaleph&aelig;.&mdash;Medusid&aelig;.&mdash;Lucernariad&aelig;.&mdash;Calycophorid&aelig;.&mdash;The Velella.&mdash;The
-Portuguese Man-of-war.&mdash;Anecdote of a Prussian Sailor.&mdash;Alternating Fixed
-and Free-swimming Generations of Hydrozoa.&mdash;Actinozoa.&mdash;Ctenophora.&mdash;Their
-Beautiful Construction.&mdash;Sea-anemones.&mdash;Dead Man's Toes.&mdash;Sea-pens.&mdash;Sea-rods.&mdash;Red
-Coral.&mdash;Coral Fishery.&mdash;Isis hippuris.&mdash;Tropical Lithophytes.&mdash;History
-of the Coral Islands.&mdash;Darwin's Theory of their Formation.&mdash;The
-progress of their Growth above the level of the Sea.</div>
-
-
-<p>Despite the low rank they occupy in the hierarchy of animal
-life, the C&#339;lenterata, comprising the numerous families of the
-Jelly-fishes and Polyps, play a most important part in the household
-of the ocean, for the sea is frequently covered for miles
-and miles with their incalculable hosts, and whole archipelagos
-and continents are fringed with the calcareous structures they
-raise from the bottom of the deep.</p>
-
-<p>Their organisation is more simple than that of the preceding
-classes, for they have neither the complex intestinal tube of the
-polyzoa or the sea-urchins nor the jointed rays or arms of the
-star-fishes; their whole digestive apparatus is but a simple sac,
-and their instincts are reduced to the mere prehension of the
-food that the currents bring within reach of their tentacles, or
-to the retraction of these organs when exposed to a hostile
-attack.</p>
-
-<p>But, simple as they are, they have been provided by Nature
-with a comparatively formidable weapon in those remarkable
-"thread-cells," or urticating organs, which are so constantly met
-with in their integuments, and chiefly in their tentacles.</p>
-
-<p>The thread-cells are composed of a double-walled sac having
-its open extremity produced into a short sheath terminating in
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">� 346 �</a></span>
-a long thread. A number of barbs or hooks are sometimes
-disposed spirally around the sheath, the thread itself being often
-delicately serrated. Under pressure or irritation the thread-cell
-suddenly breaks, its fluid escapes, and the delicate thread is
-so rapidly projected that the eye is utterly unable to follow the
-process. The violent protrusion of this barbed missile, along
-with the acrid secretion of the cell, causes many a worm or
-crustacean of equal or superior strength, that might have gone
-forth as victor from the struggle of life, to succumb to the c&#339;lenterate,
-and is even in many cases exceedingly irritating to the
-human skin. Besides enabling its possessor to derive his subsistence
-from animals whose activity, as compared with his own,
-might be supposed to have removed them altogether out of the
-reach of danger, these stings serve also as admirable weapons of
-defence, and many a rapacious crab or annelide that would
-willingly have feasted upon a sea-anemone is no doubt repelled
-by the venomous properties of its urticating tentacles.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 362px;">
-<img src="images/346.png" width="362" height="410" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Urticating Organs of C&#339;lenterata.<br />
-
-<i>a</i>, <i>e</i>, <i>f</i>. Threads and thread-cells of <i>Caryophyllia Smithii</i>.<br />
-<i>b.</i> Thread-cell of <i>Corynactis Allmani</i>.<br />
-<i>c.</i> Peculiar receptacle of <i>Willsia stellata</i>, containing thread-cells.<br />
-<i>d.</i> A single thread-cell of the same.<br />
-<i>g.</i> Thread-cell of <i>Actinia crassicornis</i>.&mdash;(All magnified.)<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The C&#339;lenterata have been subdivided into two great classes:
-the Hydrozoa, in which the wall of the digestive sac is not separated
-from that of the cavity of the body, and the Actinozoa, in
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">� 347 �</a></span>
-which the stomach forms a distinct bag separated from the wall
-of the cavity of the body by an intervening space, subdivided
-into chambers by a series of vertical partitions. Each of these
-two classes comprises a number of families of various forms and
-habits of life. Thus among the Hydrozoa, with whom I begin
-my brief survey of c&#339;lenterate life, some are of a compound
-nature (Sertularid&aelig;, &amp;c.), and, having once settled, remain permanently
-attached to the site of their future existence; while
-others (Rhizostomid&aelig;, &amp;c.) continue freely to roam through the
-water, and others again appear in the various stages of their
-development either as sessile polyps or as free-swimming
-Medus&aelig;.</p>
-
-<p>The sertularian tribes
-are remarkable for the
-elegance of their forms,
-resembling feathers more
-or less stiff and angular,
-more or less flexible and
-plumose. Their bleached
-skeletons are among
-the commonest objects
-thrown out by the waves,
-and so plant-like is their
-appearance and manner
-of growth that, like the
-Flustr&aelig;, they might
-easily be mistaken for
-sea-weeds.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 342px;">
-<img src="images/347.png" width="342" height="531" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Sertularia tricuspidata.<br />
-
-<i>a.</i> Skeleton (natural size).<br />
-<i>b.</i> Portion of the same, highly magnified.<br />
-<i>&#954;.</i> <i>C&#339;nosarc</i>, or common trunk.<br />
-<i>&#960;&#8242;.</i> <i>Hydrotheca</i>, or protective envelope of individual polyp.<br />
-<i>&#961;&#8242;.</i> <i>Gonoblastidium</i>, or reproductive germ or body.<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Originally produced
-from a single ovulum,
-every species, by the
-evolution of a succession
-of buds, after an order
-peculiar to each, grows
-up to a populous colony,
-and simultaneously with
-its growth the fibres by which it is rooted extend, and at uncertain
-intervals give existence to similar bodies, whence new
-polypiferous shoots take their origin, for these root fibres are
-full of the same medullary substance with the rest of the body.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">� 348 �</a></span>
-Thus the graceful sea-fir (<i>Sertularia cupressina</i>), the largest of
-our native species, may attain a height of two or three feet, and
-bear on its branches no less than 100,000 distinct microscopical
-polypi, each with its own crown of tentacles, and each of these
-armed with numerous thread-cells, as formidable in their way as
-the crustacean's claw or the annelide's embrace. But though
-each polyp has a certain share of independence yet its body is
-continuous with the more fluid pulp that fills the branches and
-stem of the common trunk, and by this means all the polyps of
-it are connected together by a living thread, and made to constitute
-a family whose workings are all regulated by one harmonious
-instinct. Each of
-these plant-like structures
-may therefore be considered
-as one animal furnished with
-a multitude of armed heads
-and mouths, and in all the
-other compound c&#339;lenterates
-we find a similar organisation.
-All the soft parts of a sertularian
-polypary are enclosed
-in a horny sheath (<i>hydrosoma</i>)
-which develops peculiar
-cup-shaped processes (<i>hydrothec&aelig;</i>)
-for the protection of
-each individual polyp, and
-capsules for the reproductive
-bodies (<i>gonoblastidia</i>) in
-which the ova are produced.
-The various modifications of
-form and structure of the
-polyps, of their hydrothec&aelig; and gonoblastidia, give rise to a
-number of families, genera, and species. Thus in the Sertulari&aelig;
-the polypites are sessile, biserial, alternate, or paired; sessile and
-uniserial in the Plumulari&aelig;, and stalked in the Campanulariad&aelig;.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 317px;">
-<img src="images/348.png" width="317" height="405" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><br />
-
-<i>a.</i> <i>Laomedea neglecta</i>, natural size.<br />
-<i>b.</i> Portion of the same, magnified.<br />
-<i>c.</i> Reproductive body of <i>Campanularia volubilis</i>.<br />
-<i>e.</i> Reproductive body of <i>C. syringa</i>.<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The free-swimming Jelly-fishes, or Acaleph&aelig;, as they have
-been named by Aristotle on account of the stinging properties
-due to their urticating cells, are likewise among the commonest
-objects left upon our shores by the retreating tide. When
-stranded, they appear like gelatinous masses, disgusting to
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">� 349 �</a></span>
-the sight; but these shapeless objects were beautiful while
-they moved along in their own element, and their simple
-organisation shows no less the masterhand of the Creator
-than the complex structure of the higher stages of animal
-existence. With the exception of the Ctenophora, they all
-belong to the hydrozoic class, and from the great diversity
-of their structure have been ranged under four orders, Medusid&aelig;,
-Lucernarid&aelig;, Calycophorid&aelig;, and Physophorid&aelig;.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 448px;">
-<img src="images/349.png" width="448" height="315" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><br />
-
-<i>a.</i> Medusid seen in profile.&nbsp; <i>b.</i> The same viewed from below.&nbsp; <i>c.</i> Its polypite.<br />
-<i>d.</i> Part of its marginal canal, and other structures in connection therewith.<br />
-&#957;. Disk or swimming organ.&nbsp; &#960;. Polypite.&nbsp; &#968;. Veil.&nbsp; &#964;. Tentacle.&nbsp; &#967;. Radiating canal.<br />
-&#967;&#8242;. Marginal canal.&nbsp; &#969;. Reproductive organ.&nbsp; &#959;&#8242;. Coloured spot.&nbsp; &#959;&#8243;. Marginal vesicle.<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Medusid&aelig; are distinguished by their globular or bell-shaped
-disc, which by its alternate contractions and expansions
-forces them forward through the water. By contracting the
-whole or only part of its disc, the medusa has it in its power to
-direct its movements, and while thus swimming along with the
-convex side of the disc directed forwards, and its oral lobes and
-tentacles following behind like "streamers long and gay," it
-may well rank among the most elegant children of the sea.</p>
-
-<p>From the roof of the disc a single polypite is suspended,
-whose mouth, generally produced into four lobes, though in some
-forms it is much more divided, passes into the central cavity
-(stomach) of the swimming organ, from which canals (either
-four in number, or multiples of four) radiate to join a circular
-vessel surrounding the margin of the bell. A shelf-like membrane
-or veil, extending around the margin, and highly contractile,
-assists locomotion by narrowing more or less the aperture
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">� 350 �</a></span>
-of the bell, and thus concentrating its efforts upon a narrower
-space. More or less numerous tentacles generally depend from
-the margin, and around it are disposed two kinds of remarkable
-bodies&mdash;"vesicles" and "pigment spots," or "eye-specks"&mdash;which
-are supposed to be able to communicate the impressions
-of light and sound. This complexity of organisation in creatures
-which R�aumur contemptuously styled mere lumps of
-animated jelly is all the more wonderful when we consider that
-they consist almost entirely of water, and shrink to a mere
-nothing when abandoned by their vital power. Thus of a
-medusa originally weighing many pounds but few traces remain
-after death; the ground is covered with a light varnish; all the
-rest has been absorbed by the thirsty sands.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 600px;">
-<img src="images/350.png" width="463" height="386" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Various forms of Medusid&aelig;.<br />
-
-<i>a.</i> <i>Aequorea formosa</i>, seen in profile.&nbsp; <i>b.</i> The same, viewed from above.<br />
-<i>c.</i> Upper view of <i>Willsia stellata</i>.&nbsp; <i>d.</i> <i>Slabberia conica.</i><br />
-<i>e.</i> Portion of the marginal canal of <i>Tiaropsis Pattersonii</i>.<br />
-<i>f.</i> Polypite of <i>Bougainvillea dinema</i>.&nbsp; <i>g.</i> Part of its marginal canal.<br />
-<i>h.</i> <i>Steenstrupia Owenii.</i> (<i>a</i>, <i>b</i>, and <i>d</i> are about the natural size; the others are magnified.)<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The oceanic or free-swimming forms of the Lucernarid&aelig;
-resemble the Medusid&aelig; by their bell-shaped umbrella, but
-differ from them by their internal structure, by the absence of
-a marginal veil, by the nature of their canal system and marginal
-bodies, and by their mode of development. The radiating
-canals, never less than eight in number, send off numerous
-branches, which form a very intricate network, and the vesicles
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">� 351 �</a></span>
-and pigment-spots, here united into a single organ, termed the
-lithocyst, are each protected externally by a sort of hood, whence
-these jelly-fishes have been named "Stegonophthalmia," or
-"covered-eyed," by Forbes, to distinguish them from the
-naked-eyed "Gymnophthalmia," or Medusid&aelig;. The Pelagid&aelig;
-(Chrysaora), which form one of the divisions of this group, are
-simple, and have their margin surrounded with tentacles like the
-Medusid&aelig;, while the Rhizostomid&aelig; have no marginal tentacles,
-and consist of numerous polyps studding the trunks of a dependent
-tree. These animals have consequently no central
-mouth, but hundreds of little mouths all active for the welfare
-of the community.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 600px;">
-<img src="images/351.png" width="485" height="451" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Oceanic forms of Lucernarid&aelig;.<br />
-
-<i>a.</i> <i>Rhizostoma pulmo.</i>&nbsp; <i>b.</i> <i>Chrysaora hysoscella.</i><br />
-<i>c.</i> Its lithocyst.&mdash;(All reduced.)<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The sessile Lucernarid&aelig; differ from the other members of
-the order by the narrow disc or stalk which serves to fix their
-body when at rest. Their quadrangular mouth is in the centre
-of the umbrella expansion, and round the margin of the
-cup arise a number of short tentacles, disposed in eight or nine
-tufts in Lucernaria, and forming one continuous series in
-Carduella.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">� 352 �</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 324px;">
-<img src="images/352.png" width="324" height="163" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Lucernalia auricula.
-(Natural size.)</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Though generally preferring to lie at anchor, the Lucernarid&aelig;
-are able to detach themselves, and to swim in an
-inverted position by the
-slowly repeated movements
-of their cup-like umbrella.
-When in a state of expansion,
-few marine creatures
-exceed them in beauty and
-singularity of form; when
-contracted, they are shapeless,
-and easily overlooked.
-"Their mode of progression," says Mr. Couch, "differs under
-different circumstances. If intending to move to any great
-distance, they do so by loosening their attachments, and then, by
-various and active contortions, they waft themselves away till they
-meet with any obstruction, where they rest; and if the situation
-suits them, they fix themselves; if not, they move on in the
-same manner to some other spot. If the change be only for a
-short distance, as from one part of a leaf to another, they bend
-their campanulate rims, and bring the tentacula in contact with
-the jaws, and by them adhere to it. The foot-stalk is then
-loosened and thrown forward and twirled about till it meets
-with a place to suit it; it is then fixed, and the tentacula are
-loosened, and in this way they move from one spot to another.
-Sometimes they advance like the Actini&aelig;, by a gliding motion
-of the stalk. In taking their prey, they remain fixed with their
-tentacula expanded, and if any minute substance comes in contact
-with any of the tufts, that tuft contracts, and is turned to
-the mouth, while the others remain expanded watching for prey."</p>
-
-<p>The Calycophorid&aelig; are distinguished by the cup-shaped
-swimming organs, which form the most prominent part of their
-body. Generally transparent like glass, their course upon
-distant inspection is only revealed by the bright tints of
-some of their appendages. In Diphyes, the type of the group,
-the two cups (&#957;, &#957;&#8242;&#8242;) fit into each other so as to form a
-more or less perfect close canal. The common stem of the
-numerous polyp colony freely glides up and down the chamber
-thus formed, into which it can be completely retracted, and
-along its sides are placed the several appendages of the compound
-creature, consisting chiefly of polypites (&#960;), tentacles, and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">� 353 �</a></span>
-organs of reproduction. Large specimens of Diphyes attain,
-when fully extended, a length of several inches, the stem
-giving support to at least fifty
-different polypites. The other
-genera of the order exhibit a
-great variety in the form and
-arrangement of their various
-parts; thus, in Vogtia, each of
-the swimming organs (&#957;) is produced
-into five points, of which
-the three upper are much longer
-and stronger than the two lower.
-The individual polyps (&#960;), large
-in size, but few in number, are
-congregated immediately under
-the swimming apparatus, and
-are provided with long and formidable
-tentacula.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 295px;">
-<img src="images/353.png" width="295" height="467" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><i>a.</i> Diphyes
-appendiculata.<br />
-
-<i>b.</i> Vogtia pentacantha.
-(Natural size.)</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>In the Physophorid&aelig; the
-basal end of the common polyp
-stem is modified so as to form a
-float or a�riform sac, which is,
-however, extremely different in
-shape, structure, and size in the
-various families. In the Velell&aelig;, the float, whose under surface
-is studded, besides one larger central polypite, with numerous
-small nutritive, reproductive, and tentacular bodies, forms
-a horizontal disc traversed by a diagonal triangular crest, and
-divided into numerous hollow chambers. Thus equipped, the
-semi-transparent velella, beautifully tinged with ultramarine,
-sails on the surface of the warmer seas, but the currents of the
-Gulf Stream, and the westerly winds, frequently drift it to the
-coast of Ireland, where it is often found on the beach, entangled
-in masses of sea-weed. Of the vast numbers in which it sometimes
-occurs, Herr von Kittlitz relates an interesting instance in
-his "Travels to Russian America and Micronesia." "Having
-passed 30� N. lat. in the Pacific, the sea was suddenly found
-covered with myriads of Velell&aelig;, of a size somewhat greater
-than the Atlantic species." Two days long the ship sailed
-through these floating masses, when suddenly the scene changed,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">� 354 �</a></span>
-and large clusters of barnacles appeared, which, having no
-doubt devoured the soft parts of the Velell&aelig;, now invested their
-horny skeletons. As the ship advanced, the number of the
-barnacle clusters augmented, which, to judge from the various
-sizes of the individuals, must have taken some time for their
-formation, and were apparently destined to increase until the
-final destruction of the Velell&aelig; hosts, into which, from their
-greater weight, they were continually drifting deeper and
-deeper by the action of the currents. Again two or three days
-elapsed, and as the surface of the sea occupied by both species
-of animals extended at the least over four degrees of latitude,
-a faint idea may be formed of their numbers. Shoals of
-dolphins and sperm-whales were busy exterminating the barnacles,
-as these had devoured the Velell&aelig;. The whole scene
-was an example on the grandest scale of the destruction and
-regeneration perpetually going on in the wastes of the ocean.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 462px;">
-<img src="images/354.png" width="462" height="373" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><br />
-
-<i>a</i>. <i>Velella spirans</i>, somewhat enlarged.<br />
-<i>b.</i> One of its smaller polypites, much magnified.<br />
-&#957;. Crest.&nbsp; &#955;. Liver.&nbsp; &#959;. Mouth of polypite.&nbsp; &#948;. Its digestive cavity.<br />
-&#966;&#8242;. Rounded elevations, containing thread-cells.&nbsp; &#961;. Medusiform zo�ids.<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">� 355 �</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 320px;">
-<img src="images/355.png" width="320" height="571" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Physalia caravella.&mdash;(Considerably reduced.)<br />
-
-&#945;. Pneumatophore, or float-bladder.<br />
-&#960;. Polypites.&nbsp; &#964;. Tentacles.<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-
-<p>The Physali&aelig;, which far surpass the Velell&aelig; in size and
-beauty, are also inhabitants of the warmer seas, where the <i>Physalia
-caravella</i>, or "Portuguese man-of-war," is the mariner's
-admiration. On a large float-bladder eight or nine inches long
-and three inches broad, whose transparent crystal shines in every
-shade of purple and azure, rises a vertical comb, the upper
-border of which sparkles with fiery red. This beautiful float
-has a small opening at either
-end, and strong muscular
-walls, so that by their contraction
-its cavity can be considerably
-diminished. And
-thus partly by the escape of
-air forced out through the
-openings, and partly by the
-compression of what remains,
-the specific gravity is so much
-altered as to admit of the
-animal's sinking into the
-deep when danger threatens.
-Numerous polyps proceed
-from the lower surface, accompanied
-by tentacles having
-a sac-like extension at
-their base, and hanging down
-in beautifully blue and violet
-coloured locks or streamers.
-When fully extended, these
-tentacles form fishing lines
-fifteen or sixteen feet long,
-which, as their thread-cells
-are uncommonly large, at
-once paralyse the resistance of the fish or cephalopod they meet
-with. Then rolling together, they convey the senseless prey to
-the numerous mouths of the compound animal, which, sucking
-like leeches, pump out its nutritious juices. In this manner the
-greedy physalia devours many a bonito or flying-fish of a size
-far superior to its own, and such is the corrosive power of
-its tentacles that even man is punished with excruciating
-pains when heedlessly or ignorantly he comes within their reach.
-"One day," says Dutertre in his "History of the Antilles," "as
-I was sailing in a small boat, I saw a physalia, and as I was
-anxious to examine it more closely, I tried to get hold of it.
-But scarcely had I stretched out my hand when it was suddenly
-enveloped by a net of tentacles, and after the first impression of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">� 356 �</a></span>
-cold (for the animal has a cold touch) it seemed as if my arm
-had been plunged up to the shoulder in a caldron of boiling oil,
-so that I screamed with pain." In his journey round the
-world, Dr. Meyen also relates the case of a sailor who jumped
-overboard to catch a physalia. But scarce had he come within
-reach of its tentacles when the excruciating pain almost deprived
-him of sensation, and he was with great difficulty hauled
-out of the water. A severe fever was the consequence, and
-his life was for some time despaired of.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 300px;">
-<img src="images/356.png" width="210" height="587" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Physophora Philippii.<br />
-
-&#945;. Pneumatophore.&nbsp; &#957;. Swimming-bells.<br />
-&#966;. Hydrocysts.&nbsp; &#960;. Polypites.&nbsp; &#964;. Tentacles.<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Several of the Physophorid&aelig; are provided, besides the float,
-with swimming-bells (<i>nectocalyces</i>) and peculiar appendages
-or bracte&aelig; (<i>hydrophyllia</i>), which, overlapping
-the polypites, serve for their
-protection. The graceful <i>Athorybia
-rosacea</i> possesses from twenty to forty
-of these organs inserted in two or three
-circlets immediately below the pneumatocyst,
-and above a much smaller number
-of polypites.</p>
-
-<p>It has the power of alternately raising
-and depressing them so as to render
-them agents of propulsion.</p>
-
-<p>The Physophor&aelig; have no hydrophyllia,
-but their swimming-bells are considerably
-developed, and serve as powerful
-instruments of locomotion. They are
-also provided with certain processes
-termed "hydrocysts," which some observers
-appear disposed to regard as
-organs of touch. Such are but a few
-of the numerous genera of the Physophorid&aelig;.</p>
-
-<p>Of the jelly-fishes in general it may
-be remarked that, though they are
-denizens of the frigid as well as of
-the temperate and tropical seas, their
-beauty increases on advancing towards
-the equator, for while the Medus&aelig; in
-our latitudes are generally dull and obscure, those of the torrid
-zone appear in all the splendour of the azure, golden-yellow, or
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">� 357 �</a></span>
-ruby-red tints which distinguish the birds and fishes of those
-sunny regions. They are indeed of no immediate use to man,
-but their indirect services are not to be despised. They partly
-nourish the colossal whale, and thus, converted into oil, attract
-thousands of hardy seamen to the icy seas; numberless Crustacea
-and molluscs also live upon their hosts, and are in their
-turn devoured by the mighty herring shoals, whose capture
-gives employment and wealth to whole nations of fishermen.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 600px;">
-<img src="images/357.png" width="466" height="237" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Development of Chrysaora hysoscella.<br />
-
-<i>a.</i> Ova with gelatinous investment.&nbsp; <i>b</i> and <i>c</i>. Free ova.<br />
-<i>d.</i> Young Hydratuba developed therefrom.&nbsp; <i>e.</i> The same with eight tentacles.<br />
-<i>f.</i> Hydratuba in its ordinary condition.&nbsp; <i>g</i>, <i>h</i>. More advanced forms, with constrictions.<br />
-<i>i.</i> A specimen undergoing fission, in which the tentacles are seen to arise from below the constricted portion, while its upper segments separate and become free-swimming zo�ids (<i>k</i>).<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Armed with that wonderful instrument, the microscope,
-naturalists have been taught to disunite in many cases animals
-which from their external resemblance were formerly supposed
-to belong to the same class or family; and to join others to all
-appearances extremely dissimilar. Thus the Bryozoa have
-been detached from the polyps, in spite of their similitude of
-growth, while the roaming and fixed Hydrozoa have been found
-in many cases to be but alternating generations or various
-phases of development of the same animal. Take, for instance,
-<i>Chrysaora hysoscella</i> (see preceding figure, <a href="#Page_351">page 351</a>),
-one of our commonest jelly-fishes. The ova this free-swimming
-creature produces might naturally be supposed to develop
-themselves into equally free-swimming Chrysaor&aelig;; but instead
-of this they soon become attached, and grow into a colony of
-sessile Hydratub&aelig;, as, at this stage of their career, they have
-been termed. For years they may thus continue, but then the
-evolutions shown in the annexed illustration take place until
-free-swimming zo�ids are detached, which eventually become
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">� 358 �</a></span>
-similar to the huge Chrysaora, from one of whose ova the
-primitive hydratube was produced.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 600px;">
-<img src="images/358.png" width="450" height="390" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Various forms of Coryniad&aelig;.<br />
-
-<i>a</i> and <i>b</i>. <i>Vorticlava humilis.</i>&nbsp; <i>c.</i> Four polypites of <i>Hydractinia echinata</i>, growing on a piece of shell.<br />
-<i>d.</i> Portion of <i>Syncoryne Sarsii</i>, with medusiform zo�ids (&#961;), budding from between the tentacles (&#964;) of the polypite (&#959;).&mdash;(All, except <i>a</i>, magnified.)<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>In a similar manner the Coryniad&aelig;, a family of hydrozoic
-polyps, which, unpossessed of the firm investment of the sertularians,
-are frequently found decking sea-weeds and stones with
-dense arborescent structures, give birth to detached medusiform
-zo�ids. On the other hand, many medusid forms produce
-organisms directly resembling their parents, and many fixed
-Hydrozoa, such as the Sertularid&aelig;, do not give birth to free-swimming
-medusoids, but to ciliated gemmules, which, escaping
-from the capsules in which they had been formed, soon evolve
-themselves into true polyps. A great part of this "strange
-eventful history" is still enveloped in darkness, as the life of
-comparatively but few Hydrozoa has been thoroughly investigated;
-so much is certain that future observations will
-bring many new interesting relationships to light, and add new
-links to the chain which binds together the various members of
-the hydrozoic class.</p>
-
-<p>Although the Ctenophora, thus named from the ciliated bands
-which constitute so obvious a feature in their physiognomy, closely
-resemble the Medus&aelig; by their gelatinous consistence and their
-mode of life, yet a more complex organisation assigns them the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">� 359 �</a></span>
-highest rank among the Actinozoa, and approximates them to the
-sea-anemones. The elegant <i>Pleurobrachia pileus</i>, which in the
-summer so often appears on our coasts in countless multitudes, is
-the species that has been longest known. The melon-shaped body,
-from half an inch to nearly an inch in length, is clear as crystal,
-and divided by eight longitudinal equidistant ribs into eight
-equally large segments or fields. These ribs are covered with
-numberless flat paddles or cili&aelig;, placed one above another, and
-obeying the will of the animal. When it wishes to swim backwards
-or forwards, it sets all its paddles in motion, whose united
-power drives the living crystal rapidly and gracefully through
-the water; and when it wishes to turn, it merely stops their
-movements on one side. In sunlight, the ribs of the pleurobrachia
-sparkle with all the colours of the rainbow; in darkness
-they emit a beautiful cerulean phosphorescence.</p>
-
-<p>The prehensile apparatus of the elegant little creature is no
-less beautifully organised than its locomotive mechanism. It
-consists of two long tentacles emerging from the under part of
-the body, and capable of so wonderful a contraction as entirely
-to disappear within its cavity, where they are lodged in tubular
-sheaths. On one side they are provided at regular intervals
-with shorter and much thinner filaments, which roll together
-spirally when the chief tentacle contracts, and expand when it
-is stretched forth. On the secondary branches themselves still
-more minute threads are said to have been observed. Words
-are unable to express the beauty which the entire apparatus
-presents in the living animal, or the marvellous ease with which
-it can be alternately contracted, extended, and bent at an
-infinite variety of angles.</p>
-
-<p>Most of the Ctenophora are spheroidal or ovate, but in
-Cestum elongation takes place to an extraordinary extent, at
-right angles to the direction of the digestive track, a flat ribbon-shaped
-body, three or four feet in length, being the result. The
-Callianir&aelig; are remarkable for having their ciliated ribs elevated
-on prominent wing-like appendages, and the Bero�s, which have
-no tentacles, receive their nourishment through a widely gaping
-mouth, whose size makes them amends for the deficiency of
-other prehensile organs. Such are but a few of the varieties
-exhibited by the beautiful and interesting Ctenophora.</p>
-
-<p>In habit they resemble the oceanic Hydrozoa, like them
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">� 360 �</a></span>
-swimming near the surface in calm weather, and again descending
-on the approach of a squall. Like them also, their delicate
-structures rapidly disappear when removed from the sea-water
-and exposed to the rays of the sun, an almost imperceptible
-film remaining the only trace of what was erewhile an active
-and beautiful organism. Yet in spite of their aqueous consistence
-the Ctenophora are very voracious, feeding on a number of
-floating marine animals, among which their own kindred seem
-especially to be preferred. The prey once swallowed is assimilated
-with a rapidity which to some may seem strange when
-the simple structure of the digestive apparatus is considered.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 410px;">
-<img src="images/360.png" width="402" height="540" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Various forms of Ctenophora.<br />
-
-<i>a. Cestram Veneris.</i> <i>b. Eurhamph&aelig;a vexilligera.</i> <i>c. Bero� rufescens.</i><br />
-<i>d. Callianira triploptera.</i> <i>e. Pleurobrachia pileus.</i> (<i>a</i> is considerably reduced; <i>b</i> slightly so; <i>c</i> and <i>e</i> are about the
-natural size; the size of <i>d</i> is uncertain.)<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The land has its flowers; they bloom in our gardens, they
-adorn our meadows, they perfume the skirts of the forest, they
-brave the winds that blow round the high mountain peaks,
-they conceal themselves in the clefts of rocks, or spring forth
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">� 361 �</a></span>
-out of ruins; wherever a plant can find room there Flora
-appears with her lovely gifts.</p>
-
-<p>But the ocean also has its large radiate anemones, whose
-lustrous petals, still more wonderful than those of the land, for
-they are endowed with animal life, form the chief ornament of
-the crystal tide-pools, or of the sheltered basins of our rock-bound
-shores.</p>
-
-<p>More than twenty species of these marine flowers, many of
-them displaying a gorgeous wreath of richly coloured tentacles,
-are denizens of the British waters; but the finest and largest
-are found along the margin of the equatorial ocean, where they
-occasionally measure a foot in diameter. Their tints are as
-various as the arrangement of their prehensile crown; fiery red
-and apple-green, yellow and white as driven snow. Sometimes
-the tentacles form a gorgon's head of long thick worms, clothed
-in satin and velvet, and sometimes a thicket of delicate filaments.</p>
-
-<p>Nothing seems more inoffensive than a sea-anemone expanding
-its disc in the tranquil waters, but woe to the wandering
-annelide, to the shrimp, or whelk, or nimble entomostracon, that
-comes within reach of its urticating tentacles, for, plunged into
-a fatal lethargy, it is soon hurried to the gaping mouth of its
-voracious enemy, ever ready to engulf it in a living tomb. The
-morsel thus swallowed is retained in the stomach for ten or
-twelve hours, when the undigested remains are regurgitated,
-enveloped in a glairy fluid, not unlike the white of an egg.
-The size of the prey is frequently in unseemly disproportion
-to the preyer, being often equal in bulk to itself. Thus Dr.
-Johnstone mentions a specimen of <i>Actinia crassicornis</i>, that
-might have been originally two inches in diameter, and that
-had somehow contrived to swallow a scallop-valve of the size
-of an ordinary saucer. The shell fixed within the stomach was
-so placed as to divide it completely into two halves, so that the
-body, stretched tensely over, had become thin and flattened like
-a pancake. All communication between the inferior portion of
-the stomach and the mouth was of course prevented; yet instead
-of emaciating and dying of an atrophy, the animal had availed
-itself of what undoubtedly had been a very untoward accident
-to increase its enjoyments and chances of double fare. A new
-mouth, furnished with two rows of numerous tentacula, was
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">� 362 �</a></span>
-opened upon what had been the base, and led to the under
-stomach; the individual had indeed become a sort of Siamese
-twin, but with greater intimacy and extent in its unions.</p>
-
-<p>From this instance we may naturally infer that the Actini&aelig;
-are no mean adepts in the art of accommodating themselves to
-circumstances. They may be kept without food for upwards of
-a year; they may be immersed in water hot enough to blister
-their skins, or exposed to the frost, or placed within the exhausted
-receiver of the air-pump, and their hardy vital principle
-will triumph over all these ordeals. Their reproductive powers
-are truly astonishing. Cut off their tentacles, and new ones
-sprout forth; repeat the operation, and they germinate again.
-Divide their bodies transversely or perpendicularly through the
-middle, and each half will develop itself into a more or less
-perfect individual.</p>
-
-<p>But these apparently indestructible creatures die almost
-instantly when plunged into fresh water, which is for them, or
-for so many other marine animals, a poison no less fatal than
-prussic acid to man.</p>
-
-<p>Though generally firmly attached by means of a glutinous
-secretion from their enlarged base to rocks, shells, and other
-extraneous bodies, the sea-anemones can leave their hold, and
-remove to another station, whensoever it pleases them, either by
-gliding along with a slow and almost inperceptible movement
-or by reversing the body and using the tentacula as feet; or,
-lastly, inflating the body with water so as to diminish its specific
-weight, they detach themselves, and are driven to a distance by
-the random motion of the waves. They are extremely sensible
-not only to external irritations&mdash;the slightest touch causing
-them to shrink into a shrivelled shapeless mass&mdash;but also of
-atmospherical changes. They hide their crown under a glare
-of light; but in a calm and unclouded sky expand and disclose
-every beauty, while they remain contracted and veiled in cloudy
-or stormy weather. The Abb� Dicquemare has even found,
-from several experiments, that they foretell changes of the
-weather as certainly as the barometer. When they remain
-naturally closed there is reason to fear a storm, high wind,
-and a troubled sea; but a fair and calm season is to be anticipated
-when they lie relaxed with expanded tentacula. The
-ova of the Actini&aelig; are detained for some time after their separation
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">� 363 �</a></span>
-in the interseptal spaces, or even in the stomach, and
-there hatched, as it were, into their lasting form. On emerging
-into the open ocean, they already resemble their full-grown
-relatives, the only difference consisting in a smaller number of
-tentacles and septa. The sea-anemones were consequently
-supposed to be viviparous, an error which more accurate observations
-have fully refuted.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 607px;">
-<img src="images/363.png" width="607" height="430" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Alcyonidium elegans.<br />
-
-<i>a.</i> Branch to which the polypary is fixed.&nbsp; <i>b.</i> Foot.&nbsp; <i>c.</i> Trunk.<br />
-<i>d.</i> Polyp-bearing branches.&nbsp; <i>e.</i> Polyps contracted within the foot.<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Both the Ctenophora and the Sea-Anemones are single or
-solitary, but the vast majority of the Actinozoa consist of
-aggregated animals attached to one another by lateral appendages,
-or by their posterior extremity, and participating in a
-common life, while at the same time each member of the family
-enjoys its independent and individual existence. These compound
-polyps are all either <i>Alcyonarians</i>, in which each polyp
-is furnished with eight pinnately fringed tentacles, or <i>Zoantharians</i>,
-in which the tentacula are simple or variously modified,
-and generally disposed in multiples of five or six. The Alcyonarians
-are again subdivided into the four families of the Alcyonid&aelig;,
-the Pennatulid&aelig;, the Gorgonid&aelig;, and the Tubiporid&aelig;.</p>
-
-<p>The Alcyonid&aelig; vary much in form, being either lobed,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">� 364 �</a></span>
-branched, rounded, or existing in a shapeless mass or crust,
-while the interior substance is of a spongy or cork-like nature,
-surrounded by tubular rays enclosed in a sort of tough fleshy
-membrane. The <i>Alcyonium digitatum</i> is one of our most
-common marine productions, so that on many parts of the coast
-scarce a shell or stone can be dredged from the deep that does
-not support one or more specimens. As it lies on the shore, it
-certainly offers few inducements from its beauty to recommend
-it to further notice, and seems fully to warrant the more expressive
-than elegant names of "cow's paps," "dead man's toes,"
-or "dead man's hands," which the fishermen have conferred on
-it. On putting one of these shapeless masses into a glass of
-sea-water, however, and allowing it to remain for a little time
-undisturbed, its real nature becomes apparent, and a series of
-most interesting phenomena present themselves. The dull
-orange mass, which was at first opaque and of a dense texture,
-slowly swells and becomes more diaphanous, apparently by the
-absorption of the surrounding water into its substance, until,
-having attained its full dimensions, numerous dimples appear,
-studding its entire surface, each of which, as it gradually
-expands, reveals itself to be a cell, the residence of a polyp,
-which, gradually protruding itself, pushes out a cylindrical
-body, clear as crystal, fluted like a column, and terminated by a
-coronet of eight delicately fringed tentacula. The unsightly
-aspect of the trunk, which reminded us of cadaverous fingers
-or toes, is now forgotten, just as we forget the uncouth branches
-of a cactus when we see it clothed with its gorgeous flowers.
-All the polyp-cells are connected by a complicated system of
-inosculating canals, bound together by a fibrous network, and
-lying imbedded in a transparent jelly, which forms the fleshy
-part of the compound animal. The eggs are lodged in the
-tubes, and at length discharged through the mouth.</p>
-
-<p>The Sea-Pens, or Pennatul&aelig;, are remarkable from the circumstance
-that, although they possess an internal calcareous support,
-they are not permanently attached to foreign bodies.
-The lower portion of the stem, which strikingly resembles the
-barrel of a quill, is naked, and, when found in the bays upon
-our coast, is generally stuck into the mud at the bottom like
-a pen into an inkstand, whilst the upper two thirds of the stem
-are feathered with long closely set pinn&aelig;, comparable to the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">� 365 �</a></span>
-barbs of a quill, from the margin of which are protruded the
-rows of polyps which minister to the support of the common
-body of the compound
-animal. The purple-red
-<i>Pennatula phosphorea</i>,
-which is found in great
-plenty sticking to the baits
-on the fishermen's lines,
-especially when they use
-muscles to bait their hooks,
-is one of the most singular
-and elegant of the British
-sea-pens. Some authors
-believe that it is capable
-of using its fin-like arms
-like oars, but observations
-are wanting in corroboration.
-The pale orange fawn
-<i>Virgularia mirabilis</i>, an
-allied species, has a more elongated slender form than the
-pennatula. Its rod-like body, from six to ten inches long, is
-furnished with short fin-like lobes of a crescent shape, which
-approach in pairs, but are not strictly opposite;
-they are about the eighth of an
-inch asunder, and are furnished along
-the margins with a row of urn-shaped
-polyp-cells. These very delicate and
-brittle animals seem to be confined to a
-small circumscribed part of the coast,
-which has a considerable depth and a
-muddy bottom, and the fishermen accustomed
-to dredge at that place believe from the cleanness
-of the Virgulari&aelig;, when brought to the surface, that they
-stand erect at the bottom with one end fixed in the mud
-or clay.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 343px;">
-<img src="images/365a.png" width="343" height="397" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Grey Sea-Pen.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 184px;">
-<img src="images/365b.png" width="184" height="203" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Virgularia mirabilis.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Gorgonid&aelig; (Gorgonia, Primnoa, Corallium, Isis, Mopsea)
-mainly differ from the Alcyonid&aelig; in having an erect and
-branching stem, firmly rooted by its expanded base. A soft
-and fleshy crust, studded with numerous polyps, envelops a
-solid horny or calcareous axis, which serves as a support to the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">� 366 �</a></span>
-arborescent structure, and enables it to rise to a height of
-several feet, or even, if we are to credit the Norway fishermen,
-to rival our forest-trees in magnitude. This they conclude to
-be the case from their nets being sometimes entangled on the
-trunk or stem of the <i>Primnoa lepadifera</i>, as this large species
-of gorgon is called, when the united strength of several men is
-unable to free the nets. "They have even assured me," says
-Sir A. Capell de Brooke, "that the corals grow to the height of
-fifty or sixty feet, as they judge from the following circumstance,
-which seems clear and simple. The lines for the red-fish, which
-is found in the greatest plenty where the primnoa grows, are
-set in very deep water at the distance of about six feet from the
-bottom, and in the parts where it is flat and level, which they
-can tell from their soundings. On drawing up the lines at the
-distance of forty, fifty, or sixty feet, and sometimes even more
-from the bottom, they get entangled with some of the upper
-parts or branches of the gorgon, which are thus torn off, and
-hence they reasonably conclude that the animal rises to this
-height."</p>
-
-<p>The Gorgonid&aelig; either branch away irregularly like shrubs,
-or else their branches inosculate and form a kind of net or fan,
-as in the <i>Flabellum Veneris</i>, a beautiful Indian species, which
-some naturalist of more than usual fancy has appropriated to
-the use of Venus.</p>
-
-<p>Four British species of Gorgonia are recorded. <i>G. verrucosa</i>,
-the commonest of these, abounds in deep water along the whole
-of the south coast of England. It is more than twelve inches
-in height, and fifteen or seventeen in breadth, and expands
-laterally in numerous cylindrical and warty branches. It is
-somewhat fan-shaped, but does not form a continuous network.
-Its coral has a dense black axis, with a snow-white pith in the
-centre, and is covered, while living, with a flesh-coloured crust.
-The flexible corneous stem of the Gorgonias enables them to
-bend beneath the passing current, and thus prevents their
-long and slender ramifications from breaking, while the hard
-calcareous branches of the valuable red coral (<i>Corallium
-nobile</i>) are sufficiently short and strong to resist the violence
-of the sea. This beautiful marine production, though also
-occurring in the Ethiopic Ocean and about Cape Negro, is
-chiefly found in the Mediterranean, on the shores of Provence,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">� 367 �</a></span>
-about the isles of Majorca and Minorca, on the south of Sicily,
-and on the coast of Africa. It grows on rocky bottoms, and
-frequently in an inverted position, or downwards from the under
-surface of stones, generally at a depth of several hundred feet.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 548px;">
-<img src="images/367.png" width="548" height="641" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Red Coral.<br />
-
-Gorgonia nobilis. (A small detached portion magnified.)</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>When alive, the soft rind which invests the valuable central
-stony axis is studded with snow-white polyps. The fishery is
-still carried on in the same way as it was described by Marsigli
-150 years ago. The net is composed of two strong rafters of
-wood tied crosswise, with leads fixed to them; to these they
-fasten a quantity of hemp twisted loosely round and intermingled
-with some loose netting. This apparatus is let down,
-and while the boat is sailing or being rowed along, alternately
-raised and dropped so as to sweep a certain extent of the bottom
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">� 368 �</a></span>
-and to entangle the corals in its coarse meshes. The labour,
-as may be imagined, is very great; frequently, after a long toil,
-the net is brought up empty, or filled only with other marine
-productions, which, however interesting they may be to the
-naturalist, are perfectly worthless in the eyes of the coral-fisher;
-and not seldom immense exertions are required to loosen it from
-the rocks, among which it has got entangled.</p>
-
-<p>The chief seat of the coral-fishery is at present along the
-coasts of Algeria and Tunis, where it is almost exclusively
-carried on by the Italians, who fit out more than 400 small
-ships, or "corallines," of from five to sixteen tons, for this purpose.
-In spring this fleet of nut-shells leaves the ports of Torre
-del Greco, Sicily, Sardinia, and Genoa, and proceeds to its
-various points of destination, where it remains until the
-autumnal gales compel the fragile "corallines" to retire. Every
-month or fortnight the products of the fishery are delivered up
-to agents in Bona or La Calle, under whose direction the corals
-are sorted, packed in cases, and sent to Naples, Leghorn, or
-Genoa, where they are cut, polished, and manufactured into
-necklaces and other ornaments or trinkets. About 4,000 sailors
-are employed in the fishery, each man receiving an average pay
-of 380 franks for the season, which he almost entirely brings
-home with him, his trifling expenses on land being generally
-defrayed by the small pieces of coral he manages to conceal
-from the sharp eye of the "padrone." The average quantity
-of corals fished by each "coralline" amounts to about six
-hundredweight, and the total value of the fishery to more than
-200,000<i>l.</i>, without taking into account the produce of the fisheries
-at Stromboli, in the Straits of Messina, and other parts of the
-Italian coast.</p>
-
-<p>The manufactured articles sell of course for a much higher
-price, so that the "red coral" is a by no means inconsiderable
-article of trade. Great quantities are exported to India, and in
-Leghorn and Genoa several large manufactories work exclusively
-for that distant market, where the blood-red corals, whose
-colour harmonises with the dark complexion of the native
-ladies, are particularly in demand, while those of a roseate hue
-are preferred in Europe.</p>
-
-<p>The fishermen have a strange belief that the corals are by
-nature soft, but immediately turn into stone from terror when
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">� 369 �</a></span>
-entangled by the net. There is also a legendary tale of an
-enchanted coral-tree, large and powerful as an oak, which is
-said to grow in a deep grotto at the foot of Mont Alban, on
-the Ligurian coast. It extends its arms when no danger is
-nigh, but immediately withdraws them, like a cuttle-fish, at the
-approach of an insidious enemy. This superstition is so firmly
-rooted that, while Professor Vogt was at Villafranca in 1865, a
-"coralline" arrived from Torre del Greco for the purpose of
-fishing for this imaginary prey. The "padrone" swore he
-would not leave the neighbourhood before he had secured his
-prize, hoping to enrich himself with the spoils, but doomed, no
-doubt, to a grievous disappointment, and a considerable loss, on
-a coast where but few ordinary corals are found.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 555px;">
-<img src="images/369.png" width="555" height="650" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Isis hippuris.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>In the elegant <i>Isis hippuris</i>, which grows in the Indian Ocean,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">� 370 �</a></span>
-and is frequently found in cabinets of natural history, the horny
-and calcareous matter of the axis is disposed in alternate joints,
-so as to unite flexibility with firmness. A similar structure of
-alternately disposed calcareous and horny segments occurs in
-Mopsea. In Isis branches are developed from the calcareous,
-in Mopsea from the horny segments of the axis.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 266px;">
-<img src="images/370a.png" width="266" height="184" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Tubipora Musica.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Tubiporid&aelig; are confined to the narrow limits of a single
-genus containing but few species. Here the polypary is composed
-of distinct calcareous tubes
-rising from a fleshy or membranaceous
-basis, and arranged in successive
-stages. These tubes are
-separated from each other by
-considerable intervals, but mutually
-support each other by the
-interposition of external horizontal
-plates, formed of the same
-dense substance as themselves, by which they are united together,
-so that a mass of these tubes exhibits an arrangement
-something like that of the pipes in an organ, whence the
-beautiful Indian species, <i>Tubipora musica</i>, has derived its
-name. From the upper ends of the tubes the polyps are
-protruded, and being, when alive, of a bright grass-green
-colour, they contrast very beautifully with the rich crimson of
-the tubes they inhabit.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 224px;">
-<img src="images/370b.png" width="224" height="145" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Caryophyllia.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>In our seas, the coralligenous Zoophytarians, distinguished by
-the hard calcareous skeletons they deposit within their tissues
-are but feebly represented by a few straggling Caryophylli&aelig;, but
-in the tropical ocean they branch out
-into numerous families, genera, and
-species, and play a highly important
-part in the economy of the maritime
-domain. Originally proceeding from
-single ova, which at first freely move
-by means of vibratile cili&aelig;, and
-become fixed after a short period of
-erratic existence, they multiply by gemmation, and grow into
-an immense variety of forms, of which the following description
-by one who has long and attentively studied them in their
-native haunts may serve to give an idea. "Trees of coral,"
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">� 371 �</a></span>
-says Professor Dana, "are well known; and although not emulating
-in size the oaks of our forests&mdash;for they do not exceed
-six or eight feet in height&mdash;they are gracefully branched, and
-the whole surface blooms with coral polyps in place of leaves
-and flowers. Shrubbery, tufts of rushes, beds of pinks, and
-feathery mosses, are most exactly imitated. Many species spread
-out in broad leaves or folia, and resemble some large-leaved plant
-just unfolding; when alive, the surface of each leaf is covered
-with polyp-flowers. The cactus, the lichen clinging to the rock,
-and the fungus in all its varieties, have their numerous representatives.
-Besides these forms imitating vegetation, there are
-gracefully modelled vases, some of which are three or four feet
-in diameter, made up of a network of branches and branchlets,
-and sprigs of flowers. There are also solid coral hemispheres
-like domes among the vases and shrubbery, occasionally ten
-or even twenty feet in diameter, whose symmetrical surface is
-gorgeously decked with polyp-stars of purple and emerald-green."</p>
-
-<p>Under such aspects appear the living organisms whose combined
-efforts have mainly constructed those reefs and islands of
-coral origin which now lie scattered far and wide over the
-surface of the equatorial ocean. Words are inadequate to express
-the splendour of the submarine gardens with which the
-lithophytes clothe the rocky shores of the tropical seas.</p>
-
-<p>"There are few things more beautiful to look at," says Captain
-Basil Hall, "than these corallines when viewed through two or
-three fathoms of clear and still water. It is hardly an exaggeration
-to assert that the colours of the rainbow are put to
-shame on a bright sunny day by what meets the view on
-looking into the sea in those fairy regions." And Ehrenberg
-was so struck with the magnificent spectacle presented by the
-living polyparia in the Red Sea that he exclaimed with enthusiasm,
-"Where is the paradise of flowers that can rival, in
-variety and beauty, these living wonders of the ocean!"</p>
-
-<p>Besides the charms of their own growth, the tropical coral
-gardens afford a refuge or a dwelling-place to numberless
-animals clothed in gorgeous apparel. Fishes attired in azure,
-scarlet, and gold, crustaceans, sea-urchins, sea-stars, sea anemones,
-annelides, of a brilliancy of colour unknown in the
-northern seas, glide or swim along through their tangled
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">� 372 �</a></span>
-shrubberies; and frequently the gigantic tridacna, embedded in
-their calcareous parterres, discloses, on opening her ponderous
-valves, her violet mantle tinted with emerald-green. The enchanted
-naturalist lingers for hours over the magnificent spectacle,
-and forgets the lapse of time, as wonders upon wonders
-crowd on his enraptured gaze.</p>
-
-<p>But the tropical coral-gardens serve not only as a harbour of
-refuge to the numberless creatures that frequent their labyrinthine
-recesses, for many annelides, crustaceans, asterias, and
-even fishes, feed upon their animal flowrets. Among these,
-the Scari are provided with a very remarkable dental apparatus
-to protect their mandibles from injury while biting the calcareous
-corals. These fishes have their jaws, which resemble
-the beak of a parrot (whence they receive their usual appellation
-"parrot fishes"), covered externally with a kind of pavement of
-teeth, answering the same purpose as the horny investment of
-the mandibles of the bird. The teeth that form this pavement
-are perpetually in progress of development towards the base of
-the jaw, whence they advance forward, when completed, to
-replace those which become worn away in front by the constant
-attrition to which they are subjected. Thus armed, the Scari
-browse without difficulty on the newest layers of the stony
-corals, digesting the animal matter therein contained, and
-setting free the carbonate of lime in a chalky state. Many of
-the Diodons, Ch&aelig;todons, and Balist&aelig; or file-fishes, of which
-Kittlitz saw some new species, one still more splendid than the
-other, in every lagoon-island he visited in the long range of
-the Carolines, likewise feed upon corals, and possess a dental
-apparatus fit for masticating their refractory aliment. The
-Diodons have grooved teeth, excellently adapted to crush and
-bruise, and the Balist&aelig; have eight strong conical teeth in every
-jaw, with which they easily nip off the shoots of the coral bushes.</p>
-
-<p>Of the reef-building corals it may well be said that they
-build for eternity. The bones of the higher animals vanish
-after a few years, but the stony skeleton of the polyp
-remains attached to the spot of its formation, and serves
-as a basement or stage for new generations to build upon.
-Life and death are here in concurrent or parallel progress;
-generally the whole interior of a corallum is dead. The
-large domes of the astr&aelig;as are in most species covered
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">� 373 �</a></span>
-with a hemispherical living shell,
-about half an inch thick; and in some
-porites of the same size the whole
-mass is lifeless, except the exterior
-for a sixth of an inch in depth.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 241px;">
-<img src="images/373a.png" width="241" height="142" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Astr&aelig;a.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>We are astonished when travellers
-tell us of the vast extent of certain
-ancient ruins; but how utterly insignificant
-are the greatest of these when compared with the piles of
-stone accumulated in the course of ages by these minute, and individually
-so puny architects! The history of the formation of
-coral-reefs is no less wonderful than their extent. They have been
-divided, according to their geological character, into three classes.
-The first fringes the shores of continents or islands (shore-reefs);
-the second, rising from a deep ocean, at a greater distance from
-the land, encircles an island, or stretches like a barrier along
-the coast (encircling-reefs, barrier-reefs); the third, enclosing a
-lagoon, forms a ring or annular breakwater round an interior
-lake (atolls, or lagoon-islands).</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 592px;">
-<img src="images/373b.png" width="592" height="299" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Stone Corals.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Many of the high rocky islands of the Pacific lie, like a
-picture in its frame, in the middle of a lagoon encircled by
-a reef. A fringe of low alluvial land in these cases generally
-surrounds the base of the mountains; a girdle of palm-trees, backed
-by abrupt heights, and fronted by a lake of smooth water, only
-separated from the deep blue ocean by the breakers roaring
-against the encircling reef; such, for instance, is the scenery of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">� 374 �</a></span>
-Tahiti, so justly named "the queen of islands." But the
-encircling reefs are often at a much greater distance from the
-shore. Thus in New Caledonia they extend no less than 140
-miles beyond the island.</p>
-
-<p>As an example of barrier-reefs, I shall cite that which fronts
-the north-east coast of Australia. It is described by Flinders as
-having a length of nearly a thousand miles, and as running
-parallel to the shore at a distance of between twenty and thirty
-miles from it, and in some parts even of fifty and seventy. The
-great arm of the sea thus inclosed, has a usual depth of between
-ten and twenty fathoms. This probably is both the grandest
-and most extraordinary reef now existing in any part of the
-world.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 588px;">
-<img src="images/374.png" width="588" height="284" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Stone Corals.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The atolls, or lagoon-islands, are numerously scattered over
-the face of the tropical ocean. The Marshall and Caroline
-islands, the Paumotic group, the Maldives and Lacadives, and
-many other groups or solitary islets of the Pacific or Indian
-Ocean, are entirely built up of coral; every single atom, from
-the smallest particle to large fragments of rock, bearing the
-stamp of having been subjected to the power of organic arrangement.
-A narrow rim of coral-reef, generally but a few
-hundred yards wide, stretches around the enclosed waters.
-When a lagoon-island is first seen from the deck of a vessel, only
-a series of dark points is descried just above the horizon. Shortly
-after, the points enlarge into the plumed tops of cocoa-nut trees,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">� 375 �</a></span>
-and a line of green, interrupted at intervals, is traced along the
-water's surface.</p>
-
-<p>The long swell produced by the gentle but steady action of the
-trade wind, always blowing in one direction over a wide area,
-causes breakers which even exceed in violence those of our
-temperate regions, and which never cease to rage. It is impossible
-to behold these waves without feeling a conviction
-that a low island, though built of the hardest rock, would ultimately
-yield, and be demolished by such irresistible forces. Yet
-the insignificant coral-islets stand and are victorious; for here
-another power, antagonistic to the former, takes part in the
-contest. The organic forces separate the atoms of carbonate of
-lime one by one from the foaming breakers, and unite them in
-a symmetrical structure. Let the hurricane tear up its thousand
-huge fragments, yet what will this tell against the accumulated
-labours of myriads of architects at work night and day, month
-after month. Thus do we see the soft and gelatinous body
-of a polyp, through the agency of vital laws, conquering the
-great mechanical power of the waves of an ocean, which neither
-the art of man nor the inanimate works of nature could successfully
-resist.</p>
-
-<p>The reef-building corals, so hardy in this respect, are extremely
-sensitive and delicate in others. They absolutely
-require warmth for their existence, and only inhabit seas the
-temperature of which never sinks below 60� Fahr. They also
-require clear and transparent waters. Wherever streams or
-currents are moving or transporting sediment, there no corals
-grow, and for the same reason we find no living zoophytes upon
-sandy or muddy shores.</p>
-
-<p>As within one cast of the lead coral-reefs rise suddenly like
-walls from the depths of ocean, it was formerly supposed that
-the polyps raised their structures out of the profound abysses of
-the sea; but this opinion could no longer be maintained, after
-Mr. C. Darwin and other naturalists had proved that the lithophytes
-cannot live at greater depths than twenty or at most
-thirty fathoms.</p>
-
-<p>Hereupon Quoy and Gaimard broached the theory that corals
-construct their colonies on the summits of mountain ridges, or
-the circular crests of submarine craters, and thus accounted both
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">� 376 �</a></span>
-for the great depths from which the coral-walls suddenly rise,
-and the annular form of lagoon islands. Yet this theory, ingenious
-as it was, could not stand the test of a closer examination:
-for no crater ever had such dimensions as, for instance, one of the
-Radack Islands, which is fifty-two miles long by twenty broad;
-and no chain of mountains has its summits so equally high, as
-must have been the case with the numerous reef-bearing submarine
-rocks, considering the small depth from which the
-lithophytes build. Another seemingly inexplicable fact was,
-that, although corals hardly exist above low-water mark, reefs
-are found at Tongatabu or Eua, for instance, at elevations of
-forty and even three hundred feet above the level of the ocean.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Charles Darwin was the first to give a satisfactory explanation
-of all the phenomena of coral formations, by ascribing
-them to the oscillations of the sea bottom, to its partial upheaving
-or subsidence.</p>
-
-<p>It is now perfectly well known that large portions of the
-continent of South America, Scandinavia, North Greenland,
-and many other coasts, are slowly rising, and that other terrestrial
-or maritime areas are gradually subsiding. Thus
-on every side of the lagoon of the Keeling Islands, in which
-the water is as tranquil as in the most sheltered lake, Mr.
-Darwin saw old cocoa-nut trees undermined and falling. The
-foundation-posts of a store-house on the beach, which, the inhabitants
-said, had stood seven years before just above high
-water, were now daily washed by the tide.</p>
-
-<p>Supposing on one of these subsiding areas an island-mountain
-fringed with corals, the lithophytes, keeping pace with the
-gradual sinking of their basis, soon raise again their solid
-masses to the level of the water; but not so with the land, each
-inch of which is irreclaimably gone. Thus the fringing reef
-will gradually become an encircling one; and, if we suppose the
-sinking to continue, it must by the submergence of the central
-land, but upward growth of the ring of coral, be ultimately
-converted into a lagoon-island.</p>
-
-<p>The numerous <i>atolls</i> of the Pacific and Indian Ocean give
-us a far insight into the past, and exhibit these seas overspread
-with lofty lands where there are now only humble monumental
-reefs dotted with verdant islets. Had there been no growing
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">� 377 �</a></span>
-coral, the whole would have passed away without a record;
-while, from the actual extent of the coral-reefs and islands, we
-know that the entire amount of the high land lost to the Pacific
-was at least 50,000 square miles. But as other lands may have
-subsided too rapidly for the corals to maintain themselves at the
-surface, it is obvious that the estimate is far below the truth.</p>
-
-<p>As living coral-reefs do not grow above low-water mark, it
-may well be asked how habitable islands can form upon their
-crests. The breakers are here the agents of construction. They
-rend fragments and blocks from the outer border of the reef
-and throw them upon the surface. Corals and shells are pulverised
-by their crushing grinding power, and gradually fill up the
-interstices. In this manner the pile rises higher and higher, till
-at last even the spring tides can no longer wash over it into the
-lagoon, on the border of which the fine coral sand accumulates
-undisturbed. The seeds which the ocean-currents often carry
-with them from distant continents find here a congenial soil,
-and begin to deck the white chalk with an emerald carpet.
-Trees, drifting from the primeval forest, where they have been
-uprooted by the swelling of the river on whose banks they grew,
-are also conveyed by the same agency to the new-formed shore,
-and bring along with them small animals, insects, or lizards, as
-its first inhabitants. Before the stately palm extends its feathery
-fronds sea-birds assemble on this new resting-place, and land-birds,
-driven by storms from their usual haunts, enjoy the shade
-of the rising shrubbery. At last, after vegetation has completed
-its work, man appears on the scene, builds his hut on
-the fruitful soil which falling leaves and decaying herbs have
-gradually enriched, and calls himself the master of this little
-world. In this manner all the coral-reefs and islands of the
-tropical seas have gradually become verdant and habitable;
-thus has arisen the kingdom of the Maldives, whose sultan,
-Ibrahim, glories in the title of sultan of the thirteen atolls and
-twelve thousand isles. May his shadow never be less!</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">� 378 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_XVIII" id="CHAP_XVIII">CHAP. XVIII.</a></h2>
-
-<p class="caption2">PROTOZOA.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">The Foraminifera.&mdash;The Am&#339;b&aelig;&mdash;Their Wonderful Simplicity of Structure.&mdash;The
-Polycystina.&mdash;Marine Infusoria.&mdash;Sponges&mdash;Their Pores&mdash;Fibres and Spicul&aelig;&mdash;The
-Common Sponge of Commerce.</div>
-
-
-<p>Think not, reader, that the life of the ocean ends with the
-innumerable hosts of fishes, molluscs, crustacea, medus&aelig;, and
-polyps we have reviewed, and that the waters of the sea or the
-sands of the shore have now no further marvels for us to admire.
-The naked eye indeed may have attained the limits of
-life, but the microscope will soon reveal a new and wonderful
-world of animated beings.</p>
-
-<p>Take only, for instance, while wandering on the beach, a
-handful of drift-sand, and examine it through a magnifying
-glass. You will then not seldom find,
-among the coarser grains of inorganic
-silica, a number of the most elegant
-shells; some formed like ancient amphor&aelig;,
-others wound like the nautilus,
-but all shaped in their minuteness with
-a perfection which no human artist
-could hope to equal in the largest size.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 225px;">
-<img src="images/378.png" width="225" height="135" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Nummulina discoidalis.<br />
-
-<i>a.</i> Natural size.&nbsp; <i>b.</i>, <i>c.</i> The same, highly magnified.<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The knowledge of these charming little marine productions is
-of modern date, for they were first observed in the sand of the
-Adriatic by Beccaria in 1731, and for some time believed to
-belong exclusively to that gulf. At a later period some species
-were discovered here and there in England and France, but
-their universality and importance in the economy of the ocean
-were first pointed out in 1825, by the distinguished French
-naturalist Alcide d'Orbigny.</p>
-
-<p>The sand of many sea-coasts is so mixed with Foraminifera, as
-they have been called from the openings with which their shells
-are pierced, that they often form no less than half its bulk.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">� 379 �</a></span>
-Plancus counted 6000 in an ounce of sand from the Adriatic,
-and d'Orbigny reckoned no less than 3,849,000 in a pound of
-sand from the Antilles. Along the whole Atlantic coast of the
-United States, the plummet constantly brings up masses of foraminiferous
-shells from a depth of ninety fathoms, so that the
-vast extent of ocean-bottom, which itself forms but a small part
-of the domains they occupy, is literally covered with their
-exuvi&aelig;.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 302px;">
-<img src="images/379a.png" width="302" height="330" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Am&#339;ba.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 412px;">
-<img src="images/379b.png" width="412" height="224" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Am&#339;ba,
-showing the extemporaneous feet formed by evanescent projections
-of the general plastic mass of the animal.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Thus their numbers surpass all human conception, nor can
-any other series of beings be compared to them in this respect;
-not even the minute crustaceans
-which colour thousands
-of square miles on the surface
-of the sea, and, according to
-Scoresby, form almost exclusively
-the food of the huge
-Greenland whale; nor the infusory
-animals of the fresh-water,
-whose shields compose
-the Bilin slate quarries in
-Bohemia; for these are limited
-in their distribution, whereas
-the Foraminifera occur in all
-parts of the world.</p>
-
-<p>The resemblance of the Foraminifera
-to the nautili and ammonites at first led naturalists
-to suppose that they formed part of the same class, which
-in a long course
-of centuries had
-dwindled down in
-less congenial seas
-to almost invisible
-dimensions; but a
-closer investigation
-proved them
-to belong to a
-much lower order
-of beings, nearly
-related to the
-Am&#339;b&aelig;, which likewise occur all over the ocean. Other animals
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">� 380 �</a></span>
-excite our wonder by their complicated structure, but the am&#339;ba
-raises our astonishment by the excessive simplicity of its organisation.
-The am&#339;ba is nothing more than a living globule of
-mucus, a transparent, colourless, contractile substance, or plastic
-mass, the individual life of which shows itself in manifold changes
-of form, bearing the character of voluntary motion. When an
-am&#339;ba approaches another minute animal or plant unable to
-move out of its reach, it sends out extemporaneous feet, which
-soon clasp the prey on all sides, and the prisoner lies embedded
-in the living mucus until all his soluble parts have been absorbed.
-There is absolutely no trace of particular organs in the am&#339;ba;
-all its constituent particles may be used for any purpose, all
-equally move and digest, and each can at any time perform the
-organic functions pertaining to the whole.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 300px;">
-<img src="images/380.png" width="202" height="159" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">A Compound Foraminiferous Protozoon, magnified.<br />
-
-The shell is perforated with holes, through which the different lobes of the animal
-communicate, and thread-like portions are protruded externally.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>In their internal simplicity the Foraminifera are on a par
-with the am&#339;b&aelig;, and differ from them only in respect of their
-outward form. The am&#339;b&aelig; are naked, while the Foraminifera
-are covered with a shell, out of which, through one or numerous
-openings, the animal protrudes the processes which it requires
-for creeping or seizing its prey. These processes or filaments
-of mucus frequently ramify, closing as they spread, and sometimes
-covering an area of several lines in diameter, in the centre
-of which the animal inclosed in its shell waits for its prey, like
-a spider in its net.</p>
-
-<p>The extended filaments appear to have something venomous
-about them; for Dr. Schultze, to whom we owe an interesting
-monograph on the Foraminifera, frequently saw small and
-sprightly parameci&aelig;, colpodes, and other infusoria drop down
-paralysed as soon as they touched the net.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">� 381 �</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 600px;">
-<img src="images/381.png" width="482" height="373" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Various forms of Foraminifera.<br />
-
-<i>a. Lagena striata.</i>&nbsp; <i>a&#8242;. Nodosaria rugosa.</i>&nbsp; <i>b. Marginulina raphanus.</i><br />
-<i>b&#8242;.</i> Longitudinal section of shell of ditto.&nbsp; <i>c. Polystomella crispa</i>, with its pseudopodia protruded.<br />
-<i>d. Nummulites lenticularis</i>, shown in horizontal section.&nbsp; <i>e. Cassidulina l&aelig;vigata.</i><br />
-<i>f. Textularia globulosa.</i>&nbsp; <i>g. Miliolina seminulum.</i>&nbsp; <i>g&#8242;.</i> Animal of Miliolina removed from its shell.<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The amazing variety of form of the Foraminifera is no less
-remarkable than the elegance of their delicately chiselled shells,
-and may well be called immense, as no less than 2,400 living
-and fossil species have already been distinguished by naturalists,
-and a far greater number is probably still nameless and
-unknown. Though generally so minute that the diameter of
-the pores through which they protrude their filaments usually
-only ranges from 1/3000 to 1/10000 of an inch yet the diminutive
-world of the Foraminifera has also its giants, particularly
-among the fossil species, such as the Nummulites, which occur
-in such prodigious numbers in the limestone of the Egyptian
-pyramids, and whose flattened lenticular coin-like forms (d)
-attain the comparatively gigantic diameter of several inches.
-Thus the material with which the proud Pharaohs of the Nile
-constructed their colossal tombs was originally piled up at the
-bottom of the sea by countless generations of shell-cased
-Protozoa.</p>
-
-<p>The Foraminifera are among the oldest inhabitants of our
-globe,<a name="FNanchor_20" id="FNanchor_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[T]</a> and as the present ocean contains them in countless
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">� 382 �</a></span>
-multitudes, thus have they swarmed in the waters of the primeval
-seas from the first dawn of creation, and piled up the
-monuments of their existence in vast strata of limestone. A
-great part of the rocky belt from R�gen to the Danish isles,
-the white chalk cliffs which, beginning in England, extend
-through France as far as Southern Spain, are chiefly composed
-of the shells of Foraminifera, and the zone of Nummulite
-limestone, which served to build the huge quadrilateral
-monument of Cheops, forms a band, often 1,800 miles in
-breadth, and frequently of enormous thickness, from the
-Atlantic shores of Europe and Africa through Western Asia
-up to North India and China; enough to satisfy the most
-extravagant architectural folly of millions of despots. So
-important is the part which these beings, individually so
-minute, have performed and still perform in the geological
-annals of the globe.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_20" id="Footnote_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20"><span class="label">[T]</span></a> The <i>Eozoon canadense</i>, the oldest of known organic remains, found in the
-Upper Laurentian series, which preceded the Cambrian formation, is a Foraminifer.
-Millions of years must have passed since it first felt and moved.</p></div>
-
-<p>Many of these "minims of nature" consist of only one
-chamber, and hence are called unilocular or monothalamous;
-but a vast proportion consist of several chambers, and hence are
-called multilocular or polythalamous. The latter, however
-numerous their chambers or seemingly complex their structure,
-always originate as a single shell. The primitive jelly-sphere,
-or first sarcode segment, secretes around itself its appropriate
-calcareous envelope. Having grown too large for its habitation,
-it protrudes a portion of itself without, and thus forms a second
-segment. If by a process of spontaneous fission this segment
-becomes quite detached from its parent, and repeats the life
-and method of reproduction of the latter, a series of monothalamous
-shells will be formed. But if by means of a sarcode
-band the primitive segment maintains its connection with
-its immediate offspring, and this, repeating the reproductive
-process, does the same, a compound shell will, of course, be the
-result.</p>
-
-<p>Among the microscopic denizens of the ocean, the Polycystina
-rival the Foraminifera both by their number and their
-wonderful elegance of form and structure. Their body consists
-of the same viscid homogeneous plastic mass, termed "sarcode"
-by the naturalists; like them they are capable of protruding it
-through the foramina with which their shell is pierced, and
-consequently they are ranked with them among the Rhizopods,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">� 383 �</a></span>
-or root-footed animalcules, that form the lowest order of the
-Protozoa, the lowest class of the animal world.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 430px;">
-<img src="images/383.png" width="430" height="352" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Polycystina.<br />
-
-<i>a. Podocyrtis Schomburgkii. b. Haliomma Humboldtii.</i></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>It is a peculiar feature of these beautiful little shells (whose
-delicate sculpture frequently reminds the observer of the finest
-specimens of the hollow ivory balls carved by the Chinese) that
-they are usually surmounted by a number of spine-like projections,
-very frequently having a radiate disposition. Some
-have an oblong shape (Podocyrtis), others a discoid form (Haliomma),
-from the circumference of which the silicious spines
-project at regular intervals, so as to give them a star-like aspect.
-They are generally of a smaller size than even the Foraminifera,
-appear to be almost as widely diffused, and have also largely
-contributed to the structure of the earth-rind. They were first
-discovered by Professor Ehrenberg at Cuxhaven, on the North
-Sea; they were afterwards found by him in collections made in
-the antarctic seas, and have been brought up by the sounding
-lead from the bottom of the Atlantic at depths of from 1,000 to
-2,000 fathoms.</p>
-
-<p>The term Infusoria, which formerly comprised a most
-heterogeneous assemblage of minute plants and animals, is now
-confined to the highest order of the Protozoa, distinguished
-from the Rhizopods by the possession of a mouth and of
-ciliary filaments, whose vibrations serve them both for progression
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">� 384 �</a></span>
-through the water and for drawing alimentary particles
-into the interior of their body. Though most of the Infusoria
-live in ponds, morasses, pools, wells, or cisterns, yet many are
-marine, as, for instance, the <i>Carchesium polypinum</i>, which is
-frequently found attached to corallines, and the <i>Vaginicola
-valvata</i>, which from its sheath and valve strongly reminds one
-of a tubicolar annelide.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 450px;">
-<img src="images/384.png" width="417" height="341" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Marine Infusoria.<br />
-
-<i>a.</i> <i>Vaginicola valvata</i>, showing animal extended, and valve (&#966;) raised.<br />
-<i>a&#8242;.</i> The same, showing animal contracted within its sheath,<br />
-and valve (&#966;&#8242;) shut down.<br />
-<i>b.</i> <i>Lagotia viridis</i>, showing rotatory organ (&#958;).<br />
-<i>b&#8242;.</i> Young animal of preceding.<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The wide diffusion both in time and space of the marine
-Protozoa, and chiefly of the Foraminifera and Polycystina, is
-a sufficient proof of their vast importance in the household of
-the seas. Along with the Diatoms and other microscopical
-forms of vegetation on which their own existence depends, they
-evidently constitute the basis on which the superstructure of all
-the higher orders of the animal life of the ocean reposes.
-Hosts of minute crustaceans, annelides, acaleph&aelig;, and molluscs,
-feed upon their inexhaustible legions, and serve in their turn to
-sustain creatures of a larger and still larger size until finally
-Man is enabled to feast on the abundance of the seas.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">� 385 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The Porifera, or Sponges, were formerly supposed to belong
-to the vegetable kingdom, but their animal nature is now fully
-ascertained, for modern researches have proved that the soft
-glairy substance with which their skeleton is invested during
-life consists of "sarcode," similar to that which forms the soft
-parts of the Foraminifera and Polycystina. It is by this
-animated or organic gelatine, which can generally be pressed
-out with the finger, and in some species is copious even to
-nauseousness, that the solid parts of the sponge are deposited,
-and from it the whole growth of the mass proceeds. The
-framework or skeleton of the Porifera is usually composed of
-horny fibres of unequal thickness, which ramify and interlace
-in every possible direction, anastomosing
-with each other so as to
-form innumerable continuous cells
-and intricate canals, the walls of
-which in the recent sponge are
-crusted over with the gelatinous
-living cortex.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 245px;">
-<img src="images/385a.png" width="245" height="148" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Single interspace or open cell, and
-surrounding finer meshwork of
-the skeleton of a sponge.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 330px;">
-<img src="images/385b.png" width="330" height="176" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Needle-like and starred spicula of a Tethea.
-(Highly magnified.)</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Generally this fibrous mass is interwoven
-with numerous mineral
-spicules of a wonderful elegance and variety of forms, for their
-shapes are not only strictly determinate for each species of
-sponge but each part of the sponge, it is believed, has spicul&aelig;
-of a character peculiar to itself. Sometimes they are pointed
-at both ends, sometimes at one only, or one or both ends may
-be furnished with a head like that of a pin, or may carry three
-or more diverging points, which sometimes curve back so as to
-form hooks. Sometimes they are triradiate, sometimes stellar;
-in some cases smooth, in
-others beset with smaller
-spinous projections like the
-lance of the saw-fish. In
-many species they are
-embedded in the horny
-framework; in others, as,
-for instance, in Tethea
-Cranium, or in Halichondria,
-they project from its surface like a tiny forest of spears.
-They are generally composed of silex or flint, but in the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">� 386 �</a></span>
-genus Grantia they consist of carbonate of lime. Though the
-skeleton of most sponges is formed both of horny fibres and
-of mineral spicules yet the proportions of these two component
-parts vary considerably in different species. In the common
-sponge, for instance, the fibrous skeleton is almost entirely
-destitute of spicules, a circumstance to which it owes the
-flexibility and softness that render it so useful to man, while
-they predominate in the
-Halichondri&aelig;, and sometimes
-even, as in the
-Granti&aelig;, completely supersede
-the horny fabric.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 352px;">
-<img src="images/386a.png" width="352" height="192" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Minute portion of the surface of Tethea Cranium,
-magnified, spicula projecting beyond the
-surface.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 614px;">
-<img src="images/386b.png" width="614" height="265" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Halina papillaris.<br />
-
-Currents passing inwards through the pores (<i>a a</i>), traversing the internal canals (b), and escaping
-by the larger vents (<i>c</i>, <i>d</i>).</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>On examining a sponge,
-the holes with which the
-substance is everywhere
-pierced may be seen to
-be of two kinds; one
-of larger size than the rest, few in number, and opening into
-wide channels and tunnels which pierce the sponge through its
-centre; the other minute, extremely numerous, covering the
-wide surface, and communicating with the innumerable branching
-passages which make up the body of the skeleton. Through
-the smaller openings or pores the circumambient water freely
-enters the body of the sponge, passes through the smaller
-canals, and, ultimately reaching the larger set of vessels, is
-evolved through the larger apertures or oscula. Thus by a still
-mysterious agency (for the presence of cilia has as yet been
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">� 387 �</a></span>
-detected but in one genus of full-grown marine sponges) a
-constant circulation is kept up, providing the sponge with
-nourishing particles and oxygen, and enabling its system of
-channels to perform the functions both of an alimentary tube
-and a respiratory apparatus.</p>
-
-<p>Dr. Grant describes in glowing terms his first discovery of
-this highly interesting phenomenon: "Having put a small
-branch of sponge with some sea-water into a watch-glass, in
-order to examine it with the microscope, and bringing one
-of the apertures on the side of the sponge fully into view,
-I beheld for the first time the spectacle of this living fountain,
-vomiting forth from a circular cavity an impetuous torrent
-of liquid matter, and hurling along in rapid succession opaque
-masses, which it strewed everywhere around. The beauty
-and novelty of such a scene in the animal kingdom long
-arrested my attention, but after twenty-five minutes of constant
-observation, I was obliged to withdraw my eye from
-fatigue, without having seen the torrent for one instant change
-its direction or diminish in the slightest degree the rapidity of
-its course. I continued to watch the same orifice at short
-intervals for five hours, sometimes observing it for a quarter of
-an hour at a time, but still the stream rolled on with a constant
-and equal velocity."</p>
-
-<p>Subsequent observations have proved that the living sponge
-has the power of opening and closing at pleasure its oscula,
-which are capable of acting independently of each other, thus
-fully establishing the animal nature of these simple organisations,
-in whom latterly even traces of sensibility have been detected,
-such as one would hardly expect to meet with in a sponge. For
-these creatures, as we are entitled to call them, are able to
-protrude from their oscula the gelatinous membrane which
-clothes their channels, and on touching these protruded parts
-with a needle, they were seen by Mr. Gosse to shrink immediately&mdash;a
-proof that the sponge, however low it may rank
-in the animal world, is yet far from being so totally inert or
-lifeless as was formerly imagined.</p>
-
-<p>The propagation of the sponges is provided for in a no less
-wonderful manner than their respiration and nourishment.
-Minute globular particles of sarcode sprout forth as little protuberances
-from the interior of the canals. As they increase in
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">� 388 �</a></span>
-size, they are gradually clothed with vibratile cilia, and, finally
-detaching themselves, are cast out through the oscula into the
-world of waters. Here their wanderings continue for a short
-time, until, if they be not devoured on the way, they reach some
-rock or submarine body on which, tired of their brief erratic
-existence, they fix themselves for ever, and, bidding adieu to all
-further rambles, lead henceforth the quiet sedentary life of their
-parents. In this manner the sponges, which otherwise would
-have been confined to narrow limits, spread like a living carpet
-over the bottom of the seas, and in spite of their being utterly
-defenceless, maintain their existence from age to age. At the
-same time they serve to feed a vast number of other marine
-animals, for the waters frequently swarm with their eggs, and
-these afford many a welcome repast to myriads of sessile molluscs,
-annelides, polyps, and other creatures small or abstemious
-enough to be satisfied with feasting on atoms.</p>
-
-<p>Sponges inhabit every sea and shore, and differ very much in
-habit of growth. For whilst some can only be obtained by
-dredging at considerable depths, others live near the surface,
-and others, again, attach themselves to the surfaces of rocks and
-shells between the tide marks. Like the corals, they revel in
-every variety of shape and tint, imitate like them every form
-of vegetation, and adorn like them the submarine grounds with
-their fantastic shrubberies. The fine collection of West Indian
-sponges exhibited in the Crystal Palace, but to which fancy
-must add the additional ornament of colour, may serve to give
-some idea of their prodigal versatility of growth. More than
-sixty different species have been discovered in the British waters
-alone, and as they go on increasing in numbers, size, and beauty,
-until they attain their highest development along the shores of the
-tropical ocean, they no doubt hold a conspicuous rank among
-the living wonders of the sea. The branched sponges, with a
-compact feltred tissue, are more common than others in the colder
-maritime domains, where the species of a loose texture, which
-grow in large massive forms, either do not exist or are very rare.
-Many sponges are of considerable size, such as the vase-like
-tropical species known under the name of Neptune's cup; others
-are almost microscopical; and while by far the greater number
-grow superficially from a solid base, some penetrate like destructive
-parasites into the texture of other animals. Thus the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">� 389 �</a></span>
-<i>Halichondria celata</i> establishes itself in the small holes which
-some of the smaller annelides drill in the shell of the oyster,
-eat further and further into the unfortunate mollusc's vitals,
-causing the softer parts of the shell to rot away, and spread
-through its whole substance, like the dry-rot fungus through a
-solid beam of timber, until, sinking under the weight of his
-misery, the poor victim perishes, and his loosened shell is cast to
-the mercy of the waves. On the other hand, some marine Acorn-shells
-nestle habitually in a sponge, the normal construction of
-the base of the shell being altered to suit the peculiarities of its
-habitation, so that in this instance, as in many others, there is a
-foreseen relation between two very dissimilar animals. Amongst
-the reticulated fibres of its spongy dwelling, the Acorn-shell
-finds a secure refuge in its infant state, and is soon enclosed by
-the growing fabric of the sponge-animal, except a small opening,
-which is kept clear by the vortex occasioned by the constant
-motion of its feelers or tentacula.</p>
-
-<p>But very few of the manifold species of sponges are of any use
-to man. The common sponge of commerce (<i>Spongia communis</i>),
-so serviceable in our households, is most abundant in the Lycian
-seas, where it is found attached to rocks at various depths
-between three fathoms and thirty. When alive, it is of a
-dull bluish black above, and dirty white beneath. There are
-several qualities, possibly indicating as many distinct species.</p>
-
-<p>"The most valued kinds," says Edward Forbes, "are sought
-for about the Gulf of Macri, along the Carian coast, and round
-the opposite islands. The species which live immediately along
-the shore near the water's edge, though often large, are worthless.
-These are of many colours; some of the brightest scarlet or
-clear yellow form a crust over the faces of submarine rocks;
-others are large and tubular, resembling holothuri&aelig; in form
-and of a gamboge colour, which soon turns to dirty brown when
-taken out of the water; others are again lobed or palmate,
-studded with prickly points, and perforated at intervals with
-oscula. These grow to a considerable size, but, like the former,
-are useless, since their substance is full of needles of flint."</p>
-
-<p>Large quantities of excellent sponge (<i>Spongia usitatissima</i>)
-are likewise imported from the West Indies.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">� 390 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_XIX" id="CHAP_XIX">CHAP. XIX.</a></h2>
-
-<p class="caption2">MARINE PLANTS.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">The Alg&aelig;.&mdash;Zostera marina.&mdash;The Ulv&aelig; and Enteromorph&aelig;.&mdash;The Fuci.&mdash;The
-Laminari&aelig;.&mdash;Macrocystis pyrifera.&mdash;Description of the Submarine Thickets at
-Tierra del Fuego.&mdash;Nereocystis lutkeana.&mdash;The Sargasso Sea.&mdash;The Gathering
-of edible Birds'-nests in the marine Caves of Java.&mdash;Agar-Agar.&mdash;The Floride&aelig;.&mdash;The
-Diatomace&aelig;.&mdash;Their importance in the economy of the Seas.</div>
-
-
-<p>The dry land develops the most exuberant vegetation on the
-lowest grounds, the plains and deep valleys, and the size and
-multiplicity of plants gradually diminish as we ascend the
-higher mountain regions, until at last merely naked or snow-covered
-rocks raise their barren pinnacles to the skies: but the
-contrary takes place in the realms of ocean; for here the greater
-depths are completely denuded of vegetation, and it is only
-within 600 or 800 feet from the surface that the calcareous
-nullipores begin to cover the sea-bottom, as mosses and lichens
-clothe the lofty mountain-tops. Gradually corallines and a
-few alg&aelig; associate with them, until finally about 80 or 100
-feet from the surface begins the rich vegetable zone which
-encircles the margin of the sea. The plants of which it is
-composed do not indeed attain the same high degree of development
-as those of the dry land, being deprived of the beauties
-of flower and fruit: but as the earth at different heights and
-latitudes constantly changes her verdant robe, and raises our
-highest admiration by the endless diversity of her ornaments,
-thus also the forms of the sea-plants change, whether we descend
-from the brink of ocean to a greater depth, or wander along the
-coast from one sea to another; and their delicate fronds are as
-remarkable for beauty of colour and elegance of outline, as the
-leaves of terrestrial vegetation.</p>
-
-<p>The difference of the mediums in which land- and sea-plants
-exist naturally requires a different mode of nourishment, the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">� 391 �</a></span>
-former principally using their roots to extract from a varying
-soil the substances necessary for their perfect growth, while the
-latter absorb nourishment through their entire surface from the
-surrounding waters, and use their roots chiefly as holdfasts.</p>
-
-<p>The constituent parts of the soil are of the greatest importance
-to land-plants, to whose organisation they are made to contribute;
-while to the sea-plant it is generally indifferent whether
-the ground to which it is attached be granite, chalk, slate, or
-sandstone, provided only its roots find a safe anchorage against
-the unruly waters.</p>
-
-<p>Flat rocky coasts, not too much exposed to the swell of the
-waves, and interspersed with deep pools in which the water is constantly
-retained, are thus the favourite abode of most alg&aelig;,
-while a loose sandy sea-bottom is generally as poor in vegetation
-as the Arabian desert.</p>
-
-<p>But even on sandy shores extensive submarine meadows are frequently
-formed by the Grass Wrack (<i>Zostera marina</i>), whose
-creeping stems, rooting at the joints and extending to a considerable
-depth in the sand, are admirably adapted for seeming a
-firm position on the loose ground. Its long riband-like leaves,
-of a brilliant and glossy green, wave freely in the water, and
-afford shelter and nourishment to numerous marine animals and
-plants. In the tropical seas it forms the submarine meadows
-on which the turtles graze, and in the North of Europe it is
-used for the manufacture of cheap bedding. It also furnishes
-an excellent material for packing brittle ware.</p>
-
-<p>Sea-weeds are usually classed in three great groups, green,
-olive-coloured, and red; and these again are subdivided into
-numerous families, genera, and species.</p>
-
-<p>On the British coasts alone about 400 different species are
-found, and hence we may form some idea of the riches of the
-submarine flora. Thousands of alg&aelig; are known and classified,
-but no doubt as many more at least still wait for their botanical
-names, and have never yet been seen by human eye.</p>
-
-<p>The <i>Green</i> sea-weeds, or Chlorosperme&aelig;, generally occur near
-high-water mark, and love to lead an amphibious life, half in the
-air and half in salt-water. The delicate Enteromorph&aelig;, similar
-to threads of fine silk, and the broad brilliant Ulv&aelig;, which frequently
-cover the smooth boulders with a glossy vesture of lively
-green, belong to this class. Many of them are remarkable for
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">� 392 �</a></span>
-their wide geographical distribution. Thus the <i>Ulva latissima</i>
-and the <i>Erderomorpha compressa</i> of our shores thrive also in
-the cold waters of the Arctic Sea, fringe the shores of the tropical
-ocean, and project into the southern hemisphere as far as the
-desolate head-lands of Tierra del Fuego. But few animals or
-plants possess so pliable a nature, and such adaptability to the
-most various climates.</p>
-
-<p>The <i>Olive-coloured</i> group of sea-weeds, or Melanosperme&aelig;,
-plays a much more considerable part in the economy of the
-ocean. The common fuci, which on the ebbing of the tide impart
-to the shore cliffs their peculiar dingy colour, belong to this
-class; as well as the mighty Laminari&aelig;, which about the level
-of ordinary low water, and one or two fathoms below that
-limit, fringe the rocky shore with a broad belt of luxuriant
-vegetation.</p>
-
-<p>The first olive-coloured sea-weed we meet with on the receding
-of the flood is the small and slender <i>Fucus canaliculatus</i>,
-easily known by its narrow grooved stems and branches, and
-the absence of air-vessels. Then follows <i>Fucus nodosus</i>, a large
-species, with tough thong-like stems, expanding at intervals
-into knob-like air-vessels, and covered in winter and spring with
-bright yellow berries. Along with it we find the gregarious
-<i>Fucus vesiculosus</i>, with its forked leaf traversed by a midrib,
-and covered with numerous air-vessels situated in pairs at each
-side of the rib. Finally, about the level of half-tide, a fourth
-species of fucus appears, <i>Fucus serratus</i>, distinguished from
-all the rest by its toothed margin and the absence of air-vessels.</p>
-
-<p>These four species generally occupy the littoral zone of our
-sea-girt isle, being found in greatest abundance on flat rocky
-shores, particularly on the western coasts of Scotland and Ireland,
-where they used formerly to be burnt in large quantities for
-the manufacture of kelp or carbonate of soda, which is now
-obtained by a less expensive process. In Orcadia alone more
-than 20,000 persons were employed during the whole summer
-in the collection and incineration of sea-weeds, a valuable resource
-for the poverty-stricken islanders, of which they have
-been deprived by the progress of chemical science.</p>
-
-<p>The fuci are, however, still largely used, either burnt or in a
-fermented state, as a valuable manure for green crops. Thus
-every year several small vessels are sent from Jersey to the
-coast of Brittany, to fetch cargoes of sea-weeds for the farmers
-of that island.</p>
-
-
-<p class="caption2"><a name="FPage_392" id="FPage_392">A RUSSIAN OFFICIAL, ATTENDED BY A SOLDIER,<br />
-COLLECTING ALG� ON THE SHORES OF THE<br />
-NORTH PACIFIC.</a></p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 56px;">
-<img src="images/bardot.png" width="56" height="7" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<div style="margin: 0 auto; width:700px;">
-<p>The annexed plate is taken from the frontispiece of the magnificent folio volume
-by Messrs. Ruprecht and Postels, on the Alg&aelig; of the North Pacific. This work, in
-which even the largest of the marine plants of that region are represented of their
-natural size, was published at the expense of the Russian Government, and copies
-were presented to some of the principal libraries of Europe.</p>
-
-<p>In the middle distance, a Russian official belonging to one of the settlements
-is seen gathering alg&aelig;, attended by a soldier.</p>
-
-<p>In the front of the picture the water is supposed to be so clear as to show distinctly
-the growth of sea-weeds of various kinds, which clothe the submarine
-rocks in that region. Some species of these have been added to the number
-shown in the original composition.</p>
-
-<p>In the centre, with the light fully upon them, are streaming plants of a gigantic
-<i>Alaria</i>, whose fronds sometimes extend to a length of 40 feet. Immediately beneath
-it, to the right, is the curiously perforated <i>Agarium Gmelini</i>, the singular perforations
-of which are indicated by small white patches.</p>
-
-<p>To the right is the curious "flower-bearing" sea-weed known as the Sea Rose,
-<i>Constantinea Rosa marina</i>, the flower-like growth of which, combined with the
-pink colour of its seeming flowers, is very remarkable.</p>
-
-<p>In front, and rather to the right of the last, is a dark mass of the splendid
-<i>Irid&aelig;a Mertensiana</i>, the dark velvety masses of which, of a deep crimson colour,
-are often more than a foot across.</p>
-
-<p>To the right of the last, in the corner, is one of the most beautiful of the ulv&aelig;,
-<i>Ulva fenestrata</i>, a name which may be popularised as the "windowed" ulva, in
-allusion to its extremely perforated character, the openings being of considerable
-size, and often separated from each other only by the slenderest divisions, thus
-forming a kind of vegetable lace-work.</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 614px;">
-<a href="images/392fplg.png"><img src="images/392fp.png" width="614" height="415" alt="" /></a>
-<div class="fig_caption">A RUSSIAN OFFICIAL ATTENDED BY A SOLDIER COLLECTING ALG� ON THE SHORES OF THE NORTH PACIFIC.<br />
-<span class="smaller">Click on image to view larger sized.</span></div>
-</div>
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">� 393 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The largest of indigenous sea-weeds are the <i>Laminaria
-saccharina</i> and <i>digitata</i>, or the sugary and fingered oar-weeds.
-Their stout woody stems, and broad tough glossy leaves of
-dark olive-green, often twelve or fourteen feet long, must be
-familiar to every one who has sojourned on the coast. When
-gliding over their submerged groves in a boat, their great fronds
-floating like streamers in the water afford the interesting
-spectacle of a dense submarine thicket, through whose palm-like
-tops the fishes swim in and out, emulating in activity the
-birds of our forests.</p>
-
-<p>But our native oar-weeds, large as they seem with regard to
-the other fuci among which they grow, are mere pygmies when
-compared with the gigantic species which occur in the colder
-seas.</p>
-
-<p>None of the members of this family grow in the tropical
-waters, but they extend to the utmost polar limits, and seem to
-increase in size and multiplicity of form as they advance to the
-higher latitudes. The northern hemisphere has generally different
-genera from the southern. To the former belong the
-gigantic Alarias with their often forty feet long and several
-feet broad fronds, the singularly perforated Thalassophyta, and
-the far-spreading Nereocystis, which is only found in the
-Northern Pacific; while the genera Macrocystis and Lessonia
-are denizens of the Southern Ocean.</p>
-
-<p>In the numerous channels and bays of Tierra del Fuego, the
-enormous and singular <i>Macrocystis pyrifera</i> is found in such
-incredible masses as to excite the astonishment of every traveller.
-"On every rock," says Mr. Darwin, perhaps the best observer of
-nature that ever visited those dreary regions, and certainly their
-most poetical describer, "the plant grows from low-water mark
-to a great depth, both on the outer coast and within the channels.
-I believe, during the voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, not
-one rock near the surface was discovered which was not buoyed by
-this floating weed. The good service it thus affords to vessels
-navigating near this stormy land is evident, and it certainly
-has saved many a one from being wrecked. I know few
-things more surprising than to see this plant growing and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">� 394 �</a></span>
-flourishing amidst those great breakers of the western ocean,
-which no mass of rock, let it be ever so hard, can long resist.
-The stem is round, slimy, and smooth, and seldom has a
-diameter of so much as an inch. A few taken together are
-sufficiently strong to support the weight of the large loose
-stones to which in the inland channels they grow attached;
-and some of these stones are so heavy, that when drawn to
-the surface they can scarcely be lifted into a boat by one
-person."</p>
-
-<p>"Captain Cook, in his second voyage says, that 'at Kerguelen's
-Land some of this weed is of most enormous length, though the
-stem is not much thicker than a man's thumb. I have mentioned
-that, on some of these shoals on which it grows, we did
-not strike ground with a line of twenty-four fathoms; the
-depth of water, therefore, must have been greater. And as this
-weed does not grow in a perpendicular direction, but makes a
-very acute angle with the bottom, and much of it afterwards
-spreads many fathoms on the surface of the sea, I am well
-warranted to say that some of it grows to the length of sixty
-fathoms and upwards.'</p>
-
-<p>"Certainly at the Falkland Islands, and about Tierra del
-Fuego, extensive beds frequently spring up from ten and fifteen
-fathoms water. I do not suppose the stem of any other plant
-attains so great a length as 360 feet, as stated by Captain Cook.
-Its geographical range is very considerable; it is found from the
-extreme southern islets near Cape Horn, as far north on the
-eastern coast as lat. 43�, and on the western it was tolerably
-abundant, but far from luxuriant, at Chiloe, in lat. 42�. It
-may possibly extend a little further northward, but is soon
-succeeded by a different species.</p>
-
-<p>"We thus have a range of 15� in latitude, and as Cook, who
-must have been well acquainted with the species, found it at
-Kerguelen's Land, no less than 140� in longitude.</p>
-
-<p>"The number of living creatures, of all orders, whose existence
-intimately depends on the kelp, is wonderful. A large volume
-might be written, describing the inhabitants of one of these beds
-of sea-weed. Almost every leaf, except those that float on the
-surface, is so thickly incrusted with corallines as to be of a white
-colour. We find exquisitely delicate structures, some inhabited
-by simple hydra-like polypi, others by more organised kinds
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">� 395 �</a></span>
-and beautiful compound ascidi&aelig;. On the flat surfaces of the
-leaves, various patelliform shells, trochi, uncovered mollusks, and
-some bivalves are attached. Innumerable crustacea frequent
-every part of the plant. On shaking the great entangled roots,
-a pile of small fish, shells, cuttle-fish, crabs of all orders, sea-eggs,
-star-fish, beautiful holothuri&aelig; (some taking the external
-form of the nudibranch mollusks), planari&aelig;, and crawling
-nereidous animals of a multitude of forms, all fall out together.
-Often as I recurred to a branch of the kelp, I never failed to discover
-animals of new and curious structure. In Chiloe, where, as I
-have said, the kelp did not thrive very well, the numerous shells,
-corallines, and Crustacea were absent, but there yet remained a
-few of the Flustrace&aelig;, and some compound ascidi&aelig;; the latter,
-however, were of different species from those in Tierra del Fuego.
-We here see the fucus possessing a wider range than the animals
-which use it as an abode.</p>
-
-<p>"I can only compare these great aquatic forests of the southern
-hemisphere with the terrestrial ones in the intertropical regions.
-Yet, if the latter should be destroyed in any country, I do not
-believe nearly so many species of animals would perish, as under
-similar circumstances would happen with the kelp. Amidst the
-leaves of this plant numerous species of fish live, which nowhere
-else would find food or shelter; with their destruction the many
-cormorants, divers, and other fishing-birds, the otters, seals,
-and porpoises, would soon perish also; and lastly the Fuegian
-savage, the miserable lord of this miserable land, would redouble
-his cannibal feast, decrease in numbers, and perhaps cease
-to exist."</p>
-
-<p>For many a day's sail before reaching Cape Horn, large
-bundles of the macrocystis detached by the storm announce to
-the navigator that he is approaching the desolate coasts of
-Tierra del Fuego.</p>
-
-<p>"We succeeded," says Professor Meyen, in his <i>Reise um die
-Welt</i>, "in getting hold of one of these floating islands, which,
-amid loud acclamations, was hauled upon deck by the exertions
-of five men. It was quite impossible to disentangle the enormous
-mass; we could only detach, to the length of about sixty
-feet, what we considered to be the chief stem; the branches
-were from thirty to forty feet long, and as thick as the principal
-trunk from which they sprang. We estimated the total length
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">� 396 �</a></span>
-of the plant at about two hundred feet; the pear-shaped air
-vessels at the basis of the leaves were often six or seven inches
-long, and the leaves themselves measured seven or eight feet.
-On these swimming fucus-islands lived a vast multitude of
-various animals; thousands upon thousands of barnacles and
-sertulari&aelig;, of crustaceans and annelides.</p>
-
-<p>"The admiration which the gigantic sea-weeds of Tierra del
-Fuego excited in our minds equalled that which had been raised
-by the exuberant vegetation of the virgin forests of Brazil.
-One single plant of the <i>Macrocystis pyrifera</i> would suffice,
-like one of the mammoth-trees of those luxuriant woods, to
-cover a large space of land with its leaf-like substance. The
-quantity of small alg&aelig;, of sertularias, cellarias, and other
-minute animals dwelling on these swimming islands, surpasses
-in variety the multitude of parasitical plants bedecking the
-trees in a tropical forest. It seems as if, in these desolate and
-dreary regions, the generative powers of the planet were solely
-confined to the gigantic growth of submarine vegetation."</p>
-
-<p>On the rocky coasts of the Falkland Islands are found no less
-astonishing masses of enormous sea-weeds, chiefly belonging
-to the genera Macrocystis, Lessonia, and Durvillea. Rent from
-the rocks to which they were attached, and cast ashore, they
-are rolled by the heavy surf into prodigious vegetable cables,
-much thicker than a man's body and several hundred feet long.
-Many of the rarest and most beautiful alg&aelig; may be here discovered,
-which have either been wrenched from inaccessible rocks
-far out at sea, along with the larger species, or have attached
-themselves parasitically to their stems and fronds. Many of
-them remind the botanist, by some similarity of form, of the
-sea-weeds of his distant home, while others tell him at once that
-he is far away in another hemisphere. The gigantic lessonias
-particularly abound about these islands. Their growth resembles
-that of a tree. The stem attains a height of from eight to ten
-feet, the thickness of a man's thigh, and terminates in a crown
-of leaves two or three feet long, and drooping like the branches
-of a weeping-willow. They form large submerged forests, and,
-like the thickets of the macrocystis, afford a refuge and a
-dwelling to countless sea animals.</p>
-
-<p>A similar abundance of colossal alg&aelig; is found in the Northern
-Pacific, about the Kurile and Aleutic Islands, and along the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">� 397 �</a></span>
-deeply indented and channel-furrowed north-west coast of
-America.</p>
-
-<p>Thus the <i>Nereocystis lutkeana</i> forms dense forests in Norfolk
-Bay and all about Sitcha. Its stem, resembling whipcord, and
-often above 300 feet long, terminates in a large air-vessel, six
-or seven feet long, and crowned with a bunch of dichotomous
-leaves, each thirty or forty feet in length. Dr. Mertens assures
-us that the sea-otter, when fishing, loves to rest upon the colossal
-air-vessels of this giant among the sea-weeds, while the long
-tenacious stems furnish the rude fishermen of the coast with
-excellent tackle. The growth of the nereocystis must be uncommonly
-rapid, as it is an annual plant, and consequently
-develops its whole gigantic proportions during the course of one
-brief summer.</p>
-
-<p>Before proceeding to the third chief group of marine plants,
-the red sea-weeds, or Rhodosperms, I must mention the enormous
-fucus banks, or floating meadows of the Atlantic, which
-form undoubtedly one of the greatest wonders of the ocean.</p>
-
-<p>We know that the mighty Gulf Stream, which rolls its indigo-blue
-floods from America to the opposite coasts of the Old World,
-flows partly southwards in the neighbourhood of Azores, and is
-ultimately driven back again to America. In the midst of these
-circuitous streams, from 22� to 36� N. lat., and from 35� to 65� W.
-long., extends a sea without any other currents than those resulting
-from the temporary action of the winds. This comparatively
-tranquil part of the ocean, the surface of which surpasses at least
-twenty times that of the British Isles, is found more or less densely
-covered with floating masses of <i>Sargassum bacciferum</i>. Often
-the sea-weed surrounds the ship sailing through these savannas
-of the sea, in such quantities as to retard its progress, and then
-again hours may pass when not a single fucus appears. While
-Columbus was boldly steering through the hitherto unknown
-fields of the Sargasso Sea, the fears of his timorous associates
-were increased by this singular phenomenon, as they believed
-they had now reached the bounds of the navigable ocean, and
-must inevitably strike against some hidden rock, if their commander
-persevered in his audacious course.</p>
-
-<p>It is an interesting fact that the Sargasso Sea affords the most
-remarkable example of an aggregation of plants belonging to one
-single species. Nowhere else, according to Humboldt, neither in
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">� 398 �</a></span>
-the savannas of America, nor on the heaths or in the pine forests
-of Northern Europe, is such a uniformity of vegetation found as
-in those boundless maritime meadows.</p>
-
-<p>"The masses of sea-weeds," says Meyen, "covering so vast an
-extent of ocean have ever since the time of Columbus been the
-object of astonishment and inquiry. Some navigators believe,
-that they are driven together by the Gulf Stream, and that the
-same species of Sargassum plentifully occurs in the Mexican Sea;
-this is however perfectly erroneous.</p>
-
-<p>"Humboldt was of opinion that this marine plant originally
-grows on submarine banks, from which it is torn by various
-forces; I for my part have examined many thousands of specimens,
-and venture to affirm that they never have been attached
-to any solid body. Freely floating in the water, they have
-developed their young germs, and sent forth on all sides roots
-and leaves, both of the same nature."</p>
-
-<p>Thus the Sargassum seems to be the indigenous production of
-the sea where it appears, and to have floated there from time
-immemorial. Its swimming islands afford an abode and
-nourishment to a prodigious amount of animal life. They are
-generally covered with elegant sertularias, coloured vorticellas,
-and other strange forms of marine existence. Various naked or
-nudibranchiate mollusks and annelides attach themselves to the
-fronds, and afford nourishment to hosts of fishes and crustaceans,
-the beasts of prey of this little world.</p>
-
-<p>Similar aggregations of sea-weeds are also met with in the
-Indian and Pacific Oceans, in the comparatively tranquil spaces
-encircled by rotatory currents. Their rare occurrence on the
-surface of the sea may serve as a proof of the restless motion of
-its waters. Were the ocean not everywhere intersected by currents,
-it would most likely be covered with sea-weeds, opposing
-serious, if not invincible obstacles to navigation.</p>
-
-<p>The <i>Red</i> sea-weeds, Rhodosperms or Floride&aelig;, are by far the
-most numerous in species, and undoubtedly the most beautiful and
-perfect of all the alg&aelig;. They love neither light nor motion, and
-generally seek the shade of larger plants on the perpendicular sides
-of deep tide-pools removed from the influences of the tides and
-gales. They mostly grow close to low-water mark, and are to be
-seen only for an hour or two at the spring-tides, during which, as
-is well known, the deepest ebbs take place. To this group belong
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">� 399 �</a></span>
-the wonderfully delicate polysiphonias, callithamnias, plocamias,
-and delesserias, whose elegant rosy scarlet or purple leaves
-are the amateur's delight, and when laid out on paper resemble
-the finest tracery, defying the painter's art to do justice to their
-beauty. It likewise numbers among its genera the chalky corallines
-and nullipores, which on account of the hardness of their
-substance were formerly considered to be polyps, but whose
-true nature becomes apparent on examining their internal
-structure.</p>
-
-<p>The <i>Chondrus crispus</i>, or Carrigeen, which grows in such vast
-quantities on the coasts of the British Isles, also belongs to the
-rhodosperms, though when growing, as it frequently does, in
-shallow tide-pools, exposed to full sunlight, its dark purple colour
-fades into green or even yellowish white. When boiled it
-almost entirely dissolves in the water, and forms on cooling a
-colourless and almost tasteless jelly, which of late years has been
-largely used in medicine as a substitute for Iceland moss. Similar
-nutritious gelatines, which also serve for the manufacture
-of strong glues, are yielded by other species of rhodosperms,
-among others by the <i>Gracillaria spinosa</i> of the Indian Ocean,
-which the Salangana (<i>Hirundo esculenta</i>), a bird allied to the
-swallow, is said principally to use for the construction of her
-edible nest.</p>
-
-<p>The steep sea-walls along the south coast of Java are clothed
-to the very brink with luxuriant woods, and screw-pines strike
-everywhere their roots into their precipitous sides, or look down
-by thousands from the margin of the rock upon the unruly sea
-below. The surf of incalculable years has worn deep caves into
-the chalk cliffs, and here the Salangana builds her nest. Where
-the sea is most agitated whole swarms are observed flying about,
-and purposely seeking the thickest wave-foam. From a projecting
-cape, on looking down upon the play of waters, may be
-seen the mouth of the cave of Gua Rongkop, sometimes completely
-hidden under the waves, and then again opening its
-black recesses, into which the swallows vanish, or from which
-they dart forth with the rapidity of lightning. While at some
-distance from the coast the blue ocean sleeps in undisturbed
-repose, it never ceases to fret and foam against the foot of the
-mural rocks, where the most beautiful rainbows glisten in the
-eternally rising vapours.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">� 400 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Who can explain the instinct which prompts the birds to glue
-their nests to the high dark vaults of those deep, and apparently
-so inaccessible, caverns? Did they expect to find them a safe
-retreat from the persecutions of man? Then surely their hopes
-were vain, for where is the refuge to which his insatiable avidity
-cannot find the way? At the cavern of Gua-gede, the brink
-of the precipitous coast lies eighty feet above the level of the sea at
-ebb-tide; the wall first bends inwards, and then, at a height of
-twenty-five feet from the sea, throws out a projecting ledge which
-is of great use to the nest-gatherers, serving as a support for a
-rotang ladder let down from the cliff. The roof of the cavern's
-mouth lies only ten feet above the sea, which, even at ebb-tide,
-completely covers the floor of the cave, while at flood-tide the
-opening of the vast marine grotto is entirely closed by every wave
-that rolls against it. To penetrate into the interior is thus only
-possible at low water, and during very tranquil weather; and even
-then it could not be done, if the rugged roof were not perforated
-and jagged in every direction. The boldest and strongest of the
-nest-gatherers wedges himself firmly in the hollows, or clings to
-the projecting stones, while he fastens rotang ropes to them, which
-then depend four or five feet from the roof. To the lower ends of
-these ropes long rotang cables are attached, so that the whole forms
-a kind of suspension bridge throughout the entire length of the
-cavern, alternately falling and rising with its inequalities. The
-cave is 100 feet broad and 150 long as far as its deepest recesses.
-If we justly admire the intrepidity of the St. Kildans, who, let
-down by a rope from the high level of their rocky birthplace,
-remain suspended over a boisterous sea, we must needs also pay a
-tribute of praise to the boldness of the Javanese nest-gatherers.
-Before preparing their ladders for the plucking of the birds' nests,
-they first offer solemn prayers to the goddess of the south-coast,
-and sometimes deposit gifts on the tomb where the first discoverer
-of the caverns and their treasures is said to repose.
-Thus in all zones and in every stage of civilisation, man is
-directed by an inward voice to seek the protection of the invisible
-powers when about to engage in a great and perilous undertaking.</p>
-
-<p>As I have already mentioned, the Salangana builds her nest of
-sea-weeds, which she softens in her stomach and then disgorges.
-During its construction new layers, which soon grow hard in
-the air, are continually deposited on the margin, until it has
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">� 401 �</a></span>
-attained the proper size. When gathering time approaches,
-some of the pluckers daily visit the cavern to examine the state
-of the brood. As soon as they find that most of the young are
-beginning to be provided with feathers, their operations commence.
-These nests form the first quality; those in which the
-young are still completely naked, the second; while those which
-only contain eggs, and are consequently not yet ripe, rank third.
-The nests with young whose feathers are completely developed
-are over-ripe, black, and good for nothing. All the young and
-eggs are thrown into the sea. The gathering takes place three
-times a year; the birds breed four times a year. In spite of
-these wholesale devastations their numbers do not diminish;
-as many of the young have no doubt flown away before the
-day of execution, or other swallows from still unexplored caverns
-may fill up the void. In this manner about 50 piculs are
-annually collected, which the Chinese pay for at the rate of
-4000 or 5000 guilders the picul. Each picul contains on an
-average 10,000 nests. Dividing these 500,000 nests among
-three gatherings, and reckoning two birds to each nest, we find
-that more than 333,000 swallows inhabit at the same time the
-Javanese coast caverns.</p>
-
-<p>In the interior of the island, in the chalkstone grottos of
-Bandong, the Salangana also breeds, but in far inferior numbers,
-as here the annual collection amounts on an average to no more
-than 14,000 nests. In these inland caves swallows and bats
-reside together, but without disturbing each other, as the
-former when not breeding leave their caverns at sunrise,
-disappear in the distance, and only return late in the evening,
-when the bats are already enjoying their vespertine or nocturnal
-flight.</p>
-
-<p>In Sumatra and some other islands of the Indian archipelago,
-birds'-nests are likewise collected, but nowhere in such numbers
-as in Java. They are brought to the Chinese market, where
-they are carefully cleaned before being offered for sale to the
-consumer. The addition of costly spices renders them one of
-the greatest delicacies of Chinese cookery, but as for themselves
-they are nothing better than a fine sort of gelatine.</p>
-
-<p>The Japanese have long been aware that these costly birds' nests
-are in fact merely softened alg&aelig;. They consequently pulverise
-the proper species of sea-weeds, which are abundantly found on
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">� 402 �</a></span>
-their own coasts, boil them to a thick jelly, and bring them to
-market under the name of <i>Dschin-schan</i>, as artificial birds'-nests.
-The Dutch call it Agar-agar, and make great use of it;
-simple boiling sufficing to convert the dried substance into a
-thick uniform jelly, which is both nourishing and easy of digestion.
-Thus we see that the alg&aelig;, which the Romans considered
-so perfectly worthless that, when they wished to express their
-utter contempt of an object, they declared it to be still viler
-than the vile sea-weed, are by no means deserving of so hard a
-sentence. Man himself might be much more justly reproached
-for neglecting the abundant stores of nourishment which nature
-has gratuitously provided for him on all flat and rocky coasts.
-For not only the species I have mentioned are eatable, but also
-some of the commonest fuci of our seas (<i>Fucus nodosus</i>, <i>F. vesiculosus</i>,
-<i>Laminaria saccharina</i>), as well as the gigantic alarias
-and durvilleas of the colder oceanic regions. And yet how
-rare is their use, notwithstanding the increasing wants of a
-rapidly growing population!</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 305px;">
-<img src="images/402.png" width="305" height="242" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Surirella constricta.<br />
-
-A. Front view. B. Binary subdivision.&mdash;(Highly magnified.)
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Besides the larger forms of vegetation, the ocean contains a
-vast number of microscopical plants. Among these the most
-remarkable are the Diatomace&aelig;, simple vegetable cells enclosed
-in a flinty envelope, consisting of two plates closely applied
-to each other like the two valves of a mussel. The forms of
-these minute organisms are no
-less curious than those of the
-Foraminifera, for they exhibit
-regular mathematical figures,
-and their surface is often
-most delicately sculptured.
-Multiplying by spontaneous
-fissure, many of the Diatoms
-are met with entirely free
-after the process of duplicative
-subdivision has once been completed,
-while others, such as the
-Licmophora, or Fan-bearer, an elegant native species, habitually
-remain coherent one to another, producing clusters or filaments
-of various shapes, connected by a gelatinous investment or by a
-stalk-like appendage, which serves to attach them to other
-plants or to stones and to pieces of wood. Though individually
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">� 403 �</a></span>
-invisible to the naked eye, they appear, when thus congregated,
-as patches of a green or brownish slimy mass, or as little glittering
-tufts a line or two in height. Some of their numerous
-species are natives of fresh water, but by far the majority are
-denizens of the sea, where
-they are found from the
-equator to the poles. The
-brown scum floating upon
-the surface of the antarctic
-waters near the mighty
-ice barrier which arrested
-Sir James Ross's progress
-to the south pole was
-found to consist almost
-solely of Diatomace&aelig;, and
-they are equally abundant
-in the Arctic Ocean.</p>
-
-<p>It is remarked by Dr.
-Hooker that the universal
-presence of this invisible
-vegetation throughout
-the South Polar Seas
-is a most important feature,
-since there is a marked deficiency in this region of higher
-forms of vegetation, so that without the Diatoms there
-would neither be food for aquatic animals nor (if it were
-possible for these to maintain themselves by preying on one
-another) could the ocean waters be purified of the carbonic
-acid which animal respiration would be continually imparting
-to it. Thus it is not in vain that they abound in the most
-inhospitable seas, where but for them no sea-bird would flap
-its wings, and no dolphin dart through the desert waters.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 359px;">
-<img src="images/403.png" width="359" height="469" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Licmophora flabellata.
-(Highly magnified.)</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>From the indestructible nature of their flinty coverings the
-Diatoms play a no less conspicuous part in the geological history
-of our globe than the calcareous Foraminifera.</p>
-
-<p>Extensive rocky strata, chains of hills, beds of marl&mdash;once deposited
-at the bottom of the ocean, and raised by subsequent
-changes of level from the depth of the waters&mdash;contain the
-remains of these little plants in greater or less abundance. No
-country is destitute of such monuments, and in some they constitute
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">� 404 �</a></span>
-the leading features in the structure of the soil. Under
-the whole city of Richmond, in Virginia, and far beyond its
-limits, over an area of unknown extent, they form a stratum of
-eighteen feet in thickness, and similar deposits are found to
-alternate in the neighbourhood of the Mediterranean with
-calcareous strata chiefly composed of Foraminifera. At first
-sight it may seem a gross exaggeration to attribute so vast an
-agency to beings individually so minute, but when we recollect
-how quickly they multiply by division, and how their activity
-dates from the first dawn of organic creation, their architectural
-powers no longer seem incredible. In forty-eight hours a single
-diatom may multiply to 8,000,000, and in four days to
-140,000,000,000,000, when the silicious coverings of its enormous
-progeny will already suffice to fill up a space of two cubic
-feet. No wonder, then, that during the course of ages these microscopic
-plants have been able to form prodigious strata wherever
-circumstances favoured their propagation. In no case is the
-power of numbers more forcibly exemplified, for where can we
-find results more vast, proceeding from the infinite multiplication
-of the smallest individuals, than that whole tracts of country
-should literally be built up of the skeletons of Foraminifera and
-Diatomace&aelig;?</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 235px;">
-<img src="images/404.png" width="235" height="204" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Hooded Merganser.</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">� 405 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_XX" id="CHAP_XX">CHAP. XX.</a></h2>
-
-<p class="caption2">THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF MARINE LIFE.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">The Dependence of all created Beings upon Space and Time.&mdash;The Influences
-which regulate the Distribution of Marine Life.&mdash;The four Bathymetrical Zones
-of Marine Life on the British Coasts, according to the late Professor Edward
-Forbes of Edinburgh.&mdash;Abyssal Animals.&mdash;<i>Bathybius Haeckelii.</i>&mdash;Deep-Sea
-Sponges and Shell-Fish.&mdash;Vivid Phosphorescence of Deep-Sea Animals.&mdash;Deep-Sea
-Shark Fishery.&mdash;The "Challenger."</div>
-
-
-<p>The wanderer to distant lands sees himself gradually surrounded
-by a new world of animals and plants. On crossing the Alps, for
-instance, the well-known vegetable forms of our native country
-leave us one after the other; the beech, the fir, the oak, no
-longer meet the eye, or appear but rarely, and of more stunted
-growth, while in their stead citron and olive-trees decorate the
-landscape; and finally, on the shores of the Mediterranean the
-world of palms begins to disclose its beauties.</p>
-
-<p>Thus during a long journey our early companions drop off
-one after the other, until at last we see ourselves surrounded by
-a crowd of new associates, who were strangers to us at the beginning
-of our pilgrimage.</p>
-
-<p>We may cross the earth from pole to pole, or follow the sun
-in his diurnal course; in all directions, from north to south and
-from east to west, Nature will be found to change her garments
-as we proceed, and never to resume again those she has once
-cast off. The plants and animals of the temperate and cold
-regions of the north are different from those of the analogous
-regions in the southern hemisphere; and in the tropical zone
-each part of the world nourishes its peculiar inhabitants.</p>
-
-<p>Similar changes meet our eye on ascending from the plains to
-the summits of high mountains. At the foot of Etna flourishes
-the luxuriant vegetation of a warmer sky, the palmetto (<i>Cham&aelig;rops
-humilis</i>) and the pomegranate, even the cotton shrub and
-the sugar-cane; higher up, the cool shade of magnificent chestnut
-woods refreshes our path; then follows the stately oak; until finally
-we attain the dreary height where all vegetation ceases in the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">� 406 �</a></span>
-dreadful cold of an eternal winter. With every thousand feet we
-rise above the level of the sea, we seem to have advanced nearer
-and nearer to the pole.</p>
-
-<p>This wonderful change of form, which decorates the various
-regions of the earth with such an endless variety of organised
-existence, alike prevails in the realms of ocean. Here we find
-every larger sea-basin nourishing its peculiar inhabitants, and
-discover at various vertical distances beneath the surface of the
-sea, changes in organic nature similar to those we observed at
-different distances above its level.</p>
-
-<p>Thousands of extinct animal and vegetable forms, which have
-successively flourished and disappeared, teach us the important
-lesson, that all created beings are made but for a season. It is
-only during a determined epoch of planetary life that each genus
-or species finds that combination of outward circumstances, under
-which it is able to attain its highest perfection. But imperceptibly,
-in the course of ages, the external world modifies its
-nature; families once flourishing in a different atmosphere
-decline and wither; they are no longer able to maintain themselves
-against new forms of life starting up in all the vigour of
-youth, and disappear from the scene, supplanted by races which
-must one day vanish in their turn.</p>
-
-<p>Organic life is no less dependent on place than it is on time.
-Of the numberless animal and vegetable forms that people the
-earth, each finds in only one spot the scene of its greatest size
-and its greatest profusion. Some endowed with a more pliable
-or energetic nature occupy a large space upon the surface of
-the globe; we find them in the enjoyment of healthy existence
-scattered far and wide over whole hemispheres, while
-others are obliged to content themselves with the narrowest
-birthplace, and are not seldom confined to a single bay, or
-a single mountain side.</p>
-
-<p>A great part of the magic charm of nature is owing no doubt
-to this deep and mysterious connexion between the soil and its
-productions. Here all is harmony; we feel it in our hearts; and
-our eye delights in the consonance of forms and colours, as our
-ear in the concord of sweet sounds. And where is the mortal
-artist whose paintings could rival the ever-changing panorama
-which the Master of all worlds unfolds through all zones, from
-pole to pole? His pictures constantly fade away; but they are
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">� 407 �</a></span>
-perpetually succeeded by new creations of equal beauty. Happy
-the man whose eye is open to their charms! Every ramble
-through the woods and fields is to him a banquet of pure and
-inexhaustible delight.</p>
-
-<p>The causes which confine the life of animals and plants to
-circumscribed localities are in many cases easily to be traced.
-The warmth or coldness of the sea, resulting from currents,
-geographical position, and depth; tranquil or disturbed, pure or
-troubled waters; abundance or scarcity of food, solidity or softness
-of the ground, sufficiently explain why many species of marine
-animals appear in some places in considerable numbers, while in
-others they are totally wanting. A superficial view of their
-organisation often shows us at once the physical properties their
-<i>habitat</i> must necessarily possess. By looking at a fucus we
-immediately see whether it requires the protection of tranquil
-waters, or is able to bid defiance to the floods; whether it is
-made to anchor upon the rock, or to sink its roots into a more
-yielding soil.</p>
-
-<p>In many cases, however, the causes which regulate the distribution
-of the sea-animals are still enveloped in darkness, and we
-no more know why the tropical seas bring forth in some places
-numerous coral-reefs, and none at all in other to all appearance
-just as favourably situated localities, than we do why the tea-plant
-is confined to a small corner of Asia, or the Peruvian
-cinchonas to a narrow girdle on the Andes.</p>
-
-<p>Evidently, besides the influences known to us, there are
-many other hidden ones at work, whose conflicting powers draw
-round every living creature a mysterious circle, whose bounds it
-is unable to transgress. Their discovery belongs to the future,
-and certainly forms one of the most interesting subjects for the
-naturalist's inquiries.</p>
-
-<p>The geographical distribution of the terrestrial plants and
-animals is undoubtedly much easier to be ascertained than that
-of the denizens of the ocean. The naturalist is able to climb
-the highest mountains beyond the extreme limit of vegetation,
-and far above their most towering peaks his eye, piercing the
-transparent atmosphere, sees the condor soar in solitary majesty;
-he can wander through the deepest glens, or even, penetrating
-into the bowels of the earth, examine and collect the forms of
-the subterranean flora; but it has not been given him to perambulate
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">� 408 �</a></span>
-the submarine meads, or to force his way leisurely through
-dense thickets of alg&aelig;, and explore their hidden wonders.</p>
-
-<p>Yet, in spite of these natural impediments, his inventive
-genius, fired by his insatiable avidity of knowledge, has given
-him the means of interrogating the abyss, and partly raising the
-veil behind which marine life conceals its secret operations.
-Armed with a dredge, he fetches from the bottom of the sea
-plants, polypi, mollusks, and annelides, and learns to distinguish
-the various depths assigned for their abode; or he puts on the
-helmet of the submarine diver, and passes whole hours in collecting
-and observing beneath the clear waters of the sea; or he
-drops the plummet hundreds of fathoms deep into the ocean,
-and draws it up again coated with specimens of corals or Foraminifera.</p>
-
-<p>To the late Professor Edward Forbes of Edinburgh science
-is indebted for the first investigations of this nature that have
-been undertaken on a greater scale; and, to give the reader
-some idea of the causes which regulate the distribution of marine
-life, I cannot do better than cite a few of the general results of
-that eminent naturalist's researches.<a name="FNanchor_21" id="FNanchor_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[U]</a></p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_21" id="Footnote_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21"><span class="label">[U]</span></a> Natural History of the European Seas, by the late Professor E. Forbes. Edited
-by R. Godwin Austen, 1859.</p></div>
-
-<p>As the animals and plants of the land are grouped together
-into distinct zoological and botanical provinces, so likewise is
-the population of the sea gathered into geographical groups,
-which, though well marked in their more central and most developed
-portions, imperceptibly merge at their margins into those
-of neighbouring realms. "These submarine provinces have a
-more or less direct correspondence with those of the neighbouring
-lands, though sometimes they differ very considerably from the
-latter in their extent; since the physical features which may
-constitute boundaries in the one, may not be sufficiently extended
-or developed in the other to impede the spread of
-peculiar species of animals or plants. Marine creatures, owing
-to their organisation and the transporting powers of the element
-in which they live, are much more capable of diffusion, as a
-whole, than the terrestrial organisms; hence we should expect to
-find the regions they respectively inhabit, beneath the waves, of
-much vaster dimensions than those occupied by similar geographical
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">� 409 �</a></span>
-assemblages of their terrestrial brethren; and such is to a
-great extent true. Nevertheless, the inequalities of the sea-bed,
-the modifications of the temperature of the ocean produced by
-currents pouring through it like mighty rivers, the projection of
-promontories, and the more important interruptions caused by
-the great gulfs and abysses of the deep, or by vast and comparatively
-desert tracts of unprolific sand, which in many places are
-spread out in extensive shallows, are all-powerful influences,
-determining their diffusion within certain and more or less defined
-limits."</p>
-
-<p>The <i>structure of the coast</i>, as far as the mineral character of
-its rocks is concerned, may seriously affect the distribution of
-particular tribes. Since many shell-fish, for instance, bore only in
-limestone or rocks containing abundance of lime, a very ordinary
-difference in the nature of the strata must necessarily determine
-their presence or absence.</p>
-
-<p>The <i>outline of a coast</i> has also great influence in regulating
-the diffusion of species. A much indented region is very
-favourable to submarine life; a straight coast-line, exposed to the
-full rolling of the surf, is usually unfavourable, though there are a
-few creatures which delight in the dash of the waves, and hardily,
-though some of them are small and exceedingly delicate, brave
-the full force of the ocean storms, reminding us, as Mr. Godwin
-Austen quaintly remarks, "of those sturdy people, not uncommon
-in this stormy life, who thrive best in troubles, and feel happiest
-under conditions that make most men miserable."</p>
-
-<p>The <i>nature of the sea-bottom</i>, according as it consists of
-mud, sand, gravel, nullipore, broken shells, loose stones, or
-rock, determines, to a great extent, the presence or absence of
-peculiar forms of shell-fish and other invertebrata, and of fish
-also, since the distribution of the food regulates that of the
-devourers.</p>
-
-<p>The <i>rise and fall of the tides</i> are most important in determining
-the presence or absence of the species inhabiting the
-littoral zone. The <i>currents</i>, besides their agency as modifiers
-of climate, act as means of transport, by carrying the germs and
-larv&aelig; of numerous creatures from region to region.</p>
-
-<p>The <i>influence of climate</i> is conspicuously manifested in the
-diminution of the number of genera and species as we proceed
-northwards to the Icy Ocean.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">� 410 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The <i>composition of the waters</i> has also a most important
-effect on the distribution of aquatic animals, as the degree of
-saltness or freshness determines the presence or absence of
-numerous forms of both fishes and invertebrate animals; and
-last, not least, the <i>influence of depth</i>, in which <i>pressure</i> and
-the <i>diminution of light</i> are doubtless important elements, is
-everywhere manifest over the ocean, "for everywhere we find
-creatures, whether animal or vegetable, distributed in successive
-belts or regions, from high-water mark down to the deepest
-abysses from which living beings have been drawn up. Peculiar
-types inhabit each of the zones, and are confined within their
-destined limits, whilst others are common to two or more, and
-not a few appear capable of braving all bathymetrical conditions.
-Nevertheless, so marked is the appearance of the inhabitants of
-any given region of depth, that the sight of a sufficient assemblage
-of them from any one locality will enable the naturalist
-at once to declare the soundings within certain limits, and
-without the aid of line or plummet."</p>
-
-<p>In the British seas <i>four</i> distinct and well-marked zones of
-life succeed each other in vertical extension. The first of these
-is the <i>littoral zone</i>, equivalent to the tract between tide-marks,
-but quite as manifest in those portions of the coast-line where
-the tides have a fall of only a foot or two, or even less, as in
-districts where the fall is very great. This important belt,
-which again forms four subdivisions, and is inhabited by
-animals and plants capable of enduring periodical exposure to
-the air, to the glare of light, the heat of the sun, the pelting
-of rain, and often to being more or less flooded with fresh
-water when the tide has receded, claims many genera as well
-as species peculiar to itself. "The verge of continual air is generally
-distinguished by the abundant presence of <i>Fucus canaliculatus</i>,
-among whose roots may be found crowds of small
-varieties of the periwinkle, called <i>Littorina rudis</i>, which indeed
-range out of the water considerably, and may be found adhering
-to rocks many feet above high-water mark." The second sub-region
-is marked by the abundance of a small dark rigid sea-weed,
-called <i>Lichina</i>, painting the rock sides as if with a dingy
-stripe. With it we find the larger forms of <i>Littorina rudis</i>,
-abundance of the common limpet (<i>Patella vulgata</i>), the common
-mussel (<i>Mytilus edulis</i>), and myriads of small seaside
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">� 411 �</a></span>
-barnacles, often striping the sea-wall in a broad white band.
-"Where the shore shelves a little, and rocky ledges decline
-gradually into the sea, the common mussel delights to live,
-firmly anchored by its byssal cable
-in the crevices of rocks or among
-masses of gravel, the pebbles of
-which are tied together by its
-silky filaments." The rock sides
-and the floors of transparent pools
-are here often thickly coated with
-a nullipore, forming a hard pale
-red crust. The region of half-tide
-forms a third subdivision of the littoral zone, and is exceedingly
-prolific in marine animals and plants. "Here we find <i>Fucus articulatus</i>,
-with its graceful even-edged rich brown fronds, mingled
-occasionally with the less elegant <i>Fucus nodosus</i>. Here limpets
-throng, and dog-periwinkles (<i>Purpura lapillus</i>) crawl observantly,
-seeking to bore more passive mollusks and extract their
-juicy substance. This is the home of the best of periwinkles,
-the large black <i>Littorina littorea</i>, gathered in thousands for
-the London market. On our western coasts
-we find it in company with the purple-striped
-top-shell (<i>Trochus umbilicatus</i>), and towards
-the south with the larger <i>Trochus crassus</i>.
-Here also sea-anemones love to expand their
-many-armed disks, often glowing with the
-most brilliant colours." A fourth sub-region
-succeeds, the lowest belt above low-water
-mark, and is distinguished by the presence
-of the black saw-toothed sea-weed (<i>Fucus
-serratus</i>), so much used in the packing of lobsters for market.
-On its fronds creeps the lowest in grade of the periwinkles, the
-variously tinted <i>Littorina neritoides</i>, exhibiting every colour in
-its obtuse and thickened shell.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 260px;">
-<img src="images/411a.png" width="260" height="154" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Limpet.</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 158px;">
-<img src="images/411b.png" width="158" height="192" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Periwinkle.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"At the verge of low-water mark, immediately below it, wherever
-the coast is rocky, there are all round the British shores,
-within a space of a few inches, a remarkable series of more or
-less distinctly defined belts, each consisting of a different species
-of sea-weed. These in succession are, the <i>Laurencia pinnatifida</i>
-uppermost; then the green <i>Conferva rupestris</i>; then the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">� 412 �</a></span>
-elegant and firm, often iridescent, fronds of <i>Chondrus crispus</i>;
-and, lowermost, the thong-weed or <i>Himanthalia lorea</i>."</p>
-
-<p>Succeeding the shore-band, or littoral zone, we have the
-<i>region of the great laminaria or tangle forests</i>, or in sandy
-places the waving meadows of zostera, or grass-wrack. It extends
-from the edge of low water to a depth varying in different
-localities, but seldom exceeding fifteen fathoms, and is itself
-divided into sub-regions, marked by belts of differently tinted
-alg&aelig;. This zone above all others swarms with life, and is the
-chief residence of fishes, mollusks, crustaceans, and invertebrata
-of all classes, remarkable for brightness and variety of colouring.
-"Here," says Mr. Godwin Austen, "is the chosen haunt of the
-nudibranchiate mollusks, animals of exceedingly delicate texture,
-extraordinary shapes, elegance of organs, and vividness of painting.
-Their bodies exhibit hues of a brilliancy and intensity
-such as can match the most gorgeous setting of a painter's
-palette. Vermilion red, intense crimson, pale rose, golden
-yellow, luscious orange, rich purple, the deepest and the brightest
-blues, even vivid greens and densest blacks, are common tints,
-separate or combined, disposed in infinite varieties of elegant
-patterns, in this singular tribe. Our handsomest fishes are congregated
-here, the wrasses especially, some of which are truly
-gorgeous in their painting. Here are gobies and more curious
-blennies, swimming playfully among these submarine groves.
-Strange worms crawl serpent-like about their roots, and formidable
-crustacea are the wild beasts who prowl amid their
-intricacies. The old stalks, and the surfaces of the rocky or
-stony ground on which they usually grow, are incrusted like
-the trunks of ancient trees or faces of barren rocks with lichenous
-investments. But whereas in the air these living crusts are
-chiefly if not all of vegetable origin, in the sea they are more
-often constructed out of animal organisms. Some of them are
-sponges, others are true zoophytes, others polyzoa or bryozoa,
-beings that have proved to belong to the class of mollusks,
-however unlike they may seem to shell-fish.</p>
-
-<p>"In the middle and lower part of the Laminarian region
-around our shores the tangles become less plentiful as we
-descend, and at last become exceptional and disappear. But
-other sea-weeds are very abundant, especially those that delight
-in red or purple hues. Tender sea-mosses, exquisitely delicate
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">� 413 �</a></span>
-in form and colouring, abound. Where none of these are
-very plentiful, we often find the coral-weed or nullipore in
-vast quantities, and assuming many strange modifications of
-form. Among these vegetable corals numbers of shells and
-articulate animals delight to live, and probably not a few feed
-upon their stony fronds. The Lima, a shell-fish related to the
-scallop, gathers the broken branches by means of prehensile
-tentacles, and constructs for itself a comfortable nest lined with
-a woven cloth of byssal threads. Numerous fishes resort to
-these rugged pastures in order to deposit their spawn among
-the gnarled branchlets."</p>
-
-<p>To the laminarian succeeds the <i>coralline zone</i>, extending
-in most places some thirty fathoms or more. Plants, indeed,
-are rare, but here the horny plant-like sertularias love to rear
-their graceful feathery branches, and form miniature gardens of
-fairy-like delicacy and beauty; and here carnivorous
-mollusks, whelks above all, prowl in
-great numbers. Bivalves of remarkable elegance,
-especially clams and scallops, are found buried
-in multitudes beneath its gravels and muddy
-sands; and no less plentifully congregate the
-spider-crabs, with many other peculiar crustaceans.
-As a natural consequence of this well-furnished
-table, fishes abound, and many of
-our deep sea and white fisheries owe their value
-to the zoological features of the coralline zone.</p>
-
-<p>Last and lowest of our regions of submarine existence is that
-of <i>deep-sea corals</i>, so named on account of the great stony
-zoophytes characteristic of it in the oceanic seas of Europe.
-Many sea-stars and sea-urchins are likewise found in this region,
-in the depths of which the number of peculiar creatures is few,
-yet sufficient to give it a marked character.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 130px;">
-<img src="images/413.png" width="130" height="224" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Whelk.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">� 414 �</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 268px;">
-<img src="images/414.png" width="268" height="123" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Gurnard.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The aspect of the British submarine fauna is in general
-more remarkable for elegance of form and neat simplicity than
-for glaring or vivid hues. "The smaller kinds of sponges are
-not seldom brilliantly dyed, but the more conspicuous kinds are
-tawny or brownish. The sea-anemones are elegantly variegated
-with rich colours, but the majority of zoophytes are not strikingly
-tinted. The star-fishes, as a group, are most remarkable among
-the invertebrata for gorgeous painting, but our sea-urchins
-are sombre when compared with their relatives from warmer
-seas. The jelly-fish are occasionally tinged with delicate hues,
-and some of the smaller kinds even showily ornamented; but
-those which most figure in our waters are not conspicuous on
-account of colour, however elegant in their contours. Our
-marine shells, though often pretty, are not gaudy or attractive,
-except in rare instances. The same may be said with almost
-equal truth of our marine crustaceans, though, on close inspection,
-the elegance of device on the carapaces of many species is exceedingly
-admirable."</p>
-
-<p>Our fishes are not distinguished by brilliancy of colour.
-"Their hues are quaker-like, though sufficiently lustrous for
-sober tinting. The cod and flounder tribes are among the most
-characteristic, and such of the more common fishes as belong to
-families of which we have but few representatives are in most
-instances clothed in sober grey and silver. Beauty of no mean
-description may, however, be displayed by these modest vestments;
-as, for instance, in the mackerel and the herring. Our
-gorgeously decorated wrasses form the chief exception to the
-general rule, but these belong to a family more characteristic of
-the southern seas. A like deficiency in the numbers of the
-gurnard and mackerel tribes seriously
-affects the aspect of our
-piscine fauna when compared
-with denizens of the Mediterranean."
-The sharks and rays
-too are comparatively deficient,
-although a few species, as we
-have seen in a former chapter,
-are, to the great annoyance of our fishermen, over-abundant.
-The sea-eels are also few, though in the common conger and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">� 415 �</a></span>
-the larger sand-eel (<i>Ammodytes lancea</i>) we have two very
-conspicuous species.</p>
-
-<table summary="images">
-<tr>
-  <td><img src="images/415a.png" width="203" height="67" alt="" /><br />
-    <div class="fig_caption">Sand-Eel.</div>
-  </td>
-  <td><img src="images/415b.png" width="253" height="87" alt="" /><br />
-    <div class="fig_caption">Grey Mullet.</div>
-  </td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td><img src="images/415c.png" width="217" height="104" alt="" /><br />
-    <div class="fig_caption">Red Mullet.</div>
-  </td>
-  <td><img src="images/415d.png" width="380" height="134" alt="" /><br />
-    <div class="fig_caption">Salmon.</div>
-  </td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<p>As the surface of the British islands exhibits a transition as
-it were from a northern to a southern
-character, from the firs of Scotland to
-the free-growing myrtles of the Devon
-coast, so the inhabitants of our seas
-pass through a great variety of form,
-from a northern to a southern type. While the rorqual of the
-Frozen Ocean not seldom strands on our northern and eastern
-coasts; the flying-fish of the equinoctial
-seas sometimes appears
-within view of our southern shores;
-and it is this peculiar position of
-our insular empire, fronting the
-colder and the warmer seas, which
-enriches its waters with such a variety of marine life. "Several
-characteristic boreal forms find their southern limit within the
-northern half of our waters, and there
-some of the most striking and abundant
-kinds are chiefly developed in numbers,
-such as the cat-fish or sea-wolf (<i>Anarhicas
-lupus</i>), the scythe (<i>Merlangus
-carbonarius</i>), the ling (<i>Lota molva</i>),
-the cod (<i>Gadus morrhua</i>), the lump-sucker (<i>Cyclopterus
-lumpus</i>), and even the herring (<i>Clupea harengus</i>). On the
-other hand, along the southern shores of England we find
-fishes becoming frequent which are distinctly of a southern
-type, such as the grey and red mullets (<i>Mugil cephalus</i> and
-<i>Mullus barbatus</i>), the sea-bream, and, far more plentifully,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">� 416 �</a></span>
-the John Dory (<i>Zeus aper</i>) and the pilchard (<i>Clupea pilchardus</i>)."<a name="FNanchor_22" id="FNanchor_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[V]</a></p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_22" id="Footnote_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22"><span class="label">[V]</span></a> Godwin Austen, Natural History of the European Seas, pp. 103, 104.</p></div>
-
-<p>Although very inferior in beauty to the tropical fishes, our
-finny tribes are far superior in flavour, and may well challenge
-the world to produce their equals for the table. The turbot,
-cod, whiting, herring, whitebait, mackerel, sole, and even the
-salmon, though it belongs rather to fluviatile history than to the
-chronicles of the sea, may fairly be cited to testify to the truth
-of this assertion; so that surely we have no reason to complain
-of having been but indifferently provided for in the geographical
-distribution of fishes, which of all marine productions are the
-most important to man.</p>
-
-<p>The researches of Forbes led him to believe that "as we
-descend deeper and deeper, the denizens of the sea become
-fewer and fewer, indicating our approach towards a silent and
-desolate abyss, where life is either extinguished or exhibits but
-faint glimmerings to mark its lingering presence;" but subsequent
-deep-sea soundings, performed with improved dredging
-apparatuses, have led to the surprising result that the bottom
-of the ocean, even in its abyssal depths, far from being a dreary
-void, as was formerly imagined, is in reality a busy scene,
-absolutely teeming with life. And in this case, as in so many
-others, we have a fine instance of the truth of the observation
-that every new invention or discovery casts a new light upon
-some other province of human knowledge; for to the submarine
-telegraph we are indebted for the first certain proof of
-the existence of highly organised animals living at abyssal
-depths.</p>
-
-<p>In 1860 the submarine cable between Sardinia and Bona, on
-the coast of Africa, having completely failed, was picked up
-from a depth exceeding one thousand fathoms, and found
-encrusted with various shells and corals. All previous observations
-with reference to the existence of living creatures at
-extreme depths had been liable to doubt from two sources. In
-the first place the methods of deep-sea soundings were still so
-imperfect that there was always a possibility, from the action of
-deep currents upon the sounding-line or from other causes, of a
-greater depth being indicated than really existed; and, secondly,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">� 417 �</a></span>
-there was no absolute certainty that the animals entangled on
-the sounding instrument had actually come up from the bottom.
-They might have been caught on the way.</p>
-
-<p>But now all doubt was removed. A submarine cable lies on
-the ground throughout its whole length. Before laying it, its
-course is carefully surveyed and the real depth accurately ascertained.
-Fishing it up is a delicate and difficult operation, and
-during its progress the depth is checked again and again.
-When, therefore, as in this case, the animals dragged up with
-a cable from depths of upwards of one thousand fathoms are
-found, not sticking loosely to it, but moulded upon its outer
-surface, or cemented to it by horny or calcareous excretions, it
-is evident that they must have lived and grown upon it at the
-bottom of the deep sea.</p>
-
-<p>The subsequent dredging cruises of H.M.SS. "Porcupine"
-and "Lightning" in 1868, 1869, and 1870, under the scientific
-direction of Dr. Carpenter, Professor Wyville Thomson, and Mr.
-Gwyn Jeffreys, afforded additional and convincing proofs that
-life abounds in the abyssal regions of the ocean. During these
-several cruises 57 hauls of the dredge were taken at depths
-beyond 500 fathoms, and 16 at depths beyond 1,000 fathoms,
-and in all cases life was abundant. In 1869 two casts were
-taken in depths greater than 2,000 fathoms, and proved equally
-successful in bringing up specimens of deep-sea life. With the
-deepest cast, 2,435 fathoms, off the mouth of the Bay of
-Biscay, living, well-marked, and characteristic specimens of all
-the five invertebrate sub-kingdoms were taken. "And thus,"
-says Professor Wyville Thomson,<a name="FNanchor_23" id="FNanchor_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[W]</a> "the question of the existence
-of abundant animal life at the bottom of the sea has been
-finally settled, and for all depths, for there is no reason to
-suppose that the depth anywhere exceeds between three and
-four thousand fathoms; and if there be nothing in the conditions
-of a depth of 2,500 fathoms to prevent the full
-development of a varied fauna, it is impossible to suppose
-that even an additional 1,000 fathoms would make any great
-difference."</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_23" id="Footnote_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23"><span class="label">[W]</span></a> The Depths of the Sea. London, 1873.</p></div>
-
-<p>It may be asked how the deep-sea animals bear the enormous
-pressure at these great depths, which seems at first sight alone
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">� 418 �</a></span>
-sufficient to put any idea of life out of the question? There
-was a curious popular notion that on descending deeper and
-deeper the sea water became gradually, under the pressure,
-heavier and heavier, so that at last it became more weighty than
-molten gold. But water is, in fact, almost incompressible; so
-that its density at 2,000 fathoms is scarcely appreciably increased.
-Any free air suspended in the water, or contained in
-any compressible tissue of an animal at 2,000 fathoms, would
-of course be reduced to a mere fraction of its bulk; but the
-animals subject to the pressure of the deep seas, being permeated
-throughout their whole organisation by incompressible fluids at
-the same pressure, are consequently as capable of bearing it as
-we do the pressure of the atmosphere. The absence of light
-seemed another circumstance incompatible with the existence
-of animal life at abyssal depths, as all plants depend upon
-light for their growth, and their absence apparently involves
-that of vegetable food, which, as we all know, forms everywhere
-the substratum of animal existence. We have as yet very little
-exact knowledge as to the distance to which the sun's light
-penetrates into the water of the sea. According to some recent
-experiments it would appear that the rays capable of affecting
-a delicate photographic film are very rapidly cut off, their effect
-being imperceptible at the depth of only a few fathoms; and
-though probably some portions of the sun's light possessing
-certain properties may penetrate to a much greater distance, it
-is certain that, beyond the first fifty fathoms, plants to whose
-existence light is essential are barely represented, and after two
-hundred fathoms entirely absent.</p>
-
-<p>But though plant-life is thus limited to the more superficial
-parts of the ocean, the analysis of sea water, taken in all
-localities and at all depths, has shown that it everywhere
-contains a very appreciable and very uniform quantity of
-organic matter in solution and in suspension. It is thus
-quite intelligible that numberless protozoa&mdash;whose distinctive
-character is that they are capable of being supported by the
-absorption of organic matter through the surface of their
-bodies&mdash;are able to exist in the dark abysses of the sea, and in
-their turn afford nourishment to more highly organised animals.</p>
-
-<p>After these general remarks on the creatures of the deep,
-I will now give a brief account of their various groups.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">� 419 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Over an enormous extent the abyssal ocean bottom is found
-covered with a sheet of almost formless beings, absolutely devoid
-of internal structure, and consisting merely of living and
-moving expansions of jelly-like matter. Whether this form of
-life, still more simple than the Am&#339;ba,<a name="FNanchor_24" id="FNanchor_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[X]</a> to which Professor
-Huxley has given the name of <i>Bathybius Haeckelii</i>, be continuous
-in one vast sheet or broken up into circumscribed
-individual particles, it is equally an object of wonder; and as
-no living thing, however slowly it may live, is ever perfectly
-at rest, it shows us that the bottom of the sea is, like its surface,
-the theatre of perpetual change.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_24" id="Footnote_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24"><span class="label">[X]</span></a> See Chapter XVIII., <a href="#Page_380">p. 380</a>.</p></div>
-
-<p>Living among and upon this Bathybius we find a multitude
-of other protozoa, foraminifera and other rhizopods, radiolarians,
-and sponges.</p>
-
-<p>Such is the countless number of the Foraminifera inhabiting
-the deep seas, that their remains form the chief mass of the
-soft oozy bottom of the ocean. In the surface layer of the
-deposit the shells of <i>Globigerina bulloides</i>, the prevailing
-species, are found fresh, whole, and living, and in the lower
-layers dead and gradually crumbling down by the decomposition
-of their organic cement and by the pressure of the
-layers above. Countless generations are thus piled one upon
-the other; and each successive stratum, weighing upon those of
-older date, is laying the foundation of future rocks, which subsequent
-revolutions may perhaps heave out of the deep and
-raise in towering pinnacles to the skies.</p>
-
-<p>Sponges<a name="FNanchor_25" id="FNanchor_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[Y]</a> of wonderful beauty and lustre appear to extend
-in endless variety over the whole of the bottom of the sea.
-Some (<i>Holtenia Carpenteri</i>) anchor in the ooze by means of a
-perfect maze of delicate glassy filaments, like fine white hair,
-spreading out in all directions through the sea's fluid mud;
-while others (<i>Hyalonema</i>) send right down a coiled whisp of
-strong spicules, each as thick as a knitting-needle, which open
-out into a brush as the bed gets firmer, and fix the sponge in
-its place somewhat on the principle of a screw-pile. "A very
-singular sponge, from deep water off the Loffoden Islands,
-spreads into a thin circular cake, and adds to its surface by
-sending out a flat border of silky spicules, like a fringe of white
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">� 420 �</a></span>
-floss silk round a little yellow mat; and the lovely Euplectella,
-whose beauty is imbedded up to its fretted lid in the grey mud
-of the seas of the Philippines, is supported by a frill of spicules
-standing up round it like Queen Elizabeth's ruff."<a name="FNanchor_26" id="FNanchor_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[Z]</a></p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_25" id="Footnote_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25"><span class="label">[Y]</span></a> Ibid. pp. 385-389.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_26" id="Footnote_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26"><span class="label">[Z]</span></a> The Depths of the Sea, p. 73.</p></div>
-
-<p>The stalked sea-stars, which, as the fossil pentacrinites and
-encrinites testify, abounded in the past periods of the earth's
-history, were, until now, supposed to be on the verge of extinction;
-but when we consider that the first few scrapes of the
-dredge at great depths have brought new species to light, we
-are entitled to believe that they constitute an important element
-in the abyssal fauna, and probably pave large tracts of the sea-bottom
-with a carpet of animated flowers. Freely-moving sea-stars
-and sea-urchins have likewise been hauled up in great
-numbers from abyssal depths; crustaceans have not been found
-wanting, and the captured shell-fish have shown that the deep-sea
-molluscs are by no means deficient in colour, though as a
-rule they are paler than those from shallow water.</p>
-
-<p><i>Dacrydium vitreum</i>, dredged from 2,435 fathoms, a curious
-little mytilo�d shell-fish, which makes and inhabits a delicate
-flask-shaped tube of foraminifera and other foreign bodies
-cemented together by organic matter and lined by a delicate
-membrane, is of a fine reddish-brown colour dashed with green,
-and the animals of one or two species of Lima from extreme
-depths are of the usual vivid orange scarlet.</p>
-
-<p>Some of the abyssal molluscs have even been found provided
-with organs of sight. A new species of Pleurotoma, from
-2,090 fathoms, had a pair of well-developed eyes on short foot-stalks,
-and a Fusus from 1,207 fathoms was similarly provided.
-The presence of organs of sight at these great depths leaves
-little room to doubt that light must reach even these abysses
-from some source, and as from many considerations it can
-scarcely be sunlight, Professor Wyville Thomson throws out
-the suggestion "that the whole of the light beyond a certain
-depth may be due to phosphorescence, which is certainly very
-general, particularly among the larv&aelig; and young of deep-sea
-animals."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">� 421 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Thus many of the creatures dredged in the Northern Atlantic,
-off the west coast of Ireland,<a name="FNanchor_27" id="FNanchor_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[AA]</a> in depths varying from 557 to 584
-fathoms, were most brilliantly phosphorescent. In some places
-nearly everything brought up seemed to emit light, and the
-mud itself was perfectly full of luminous specks. The alcyonarians,
-the brittle-stars, and some annelids were the most
-brilliant. The Pennatid&aelig;, the Virgulari&aelig;, and the Gorgoni&aelig;
-shone with a lambent white light, so bright that it showed
-quite distinctly the hour on a watch, while the light from
-<i>Ophiacantha spinulosa</i> was of a brilliant green, coruscating
-from the centre of the disk, now along one arm, now along
-another, and sometimes vividly illuminating the whole outline
-of the star-fish. While the Ophiacantha shines like a star of the
-most vivid uranium green, the sea-pen (<i>Pavonaria quadrangularis</i>)
-is resplendent with a pale lilac phosphorescence like the
-flame of cyanogen gas, not scintillating like the green light of
-Ophiacantha, but almost constant, sometimes flashing out at
-one point more vividly, and then dying gradually into comparative
-dimness, but still sufficiently bright to make every
-portion of the polyp visible.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_27" id="Footnote_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27"><span class="label">[AA]</span></a> Ibid., <a href="#CHAP_III">Chapter III</a>. Cruise of the "Porcupine," pp. 98-149.</p></div>
-
-<p>Such numbers of the Pavonaria were brought up at one haul
-of the dredge in the Sound of Skye, that the "Porcupine" had
-evidently passed over a forest of them. While the darkness of
-winter frowns over the surface of the Northern Atlantic, the
-animated shrubs at its bottom are thus glowing with light, and
-a kind of magical day prevails in depths which were supposed
-to be shrouded with perpetual night. But it might have been
-better for many of the luminous denizens of the abyss if a more
-obscure existence had been their lot; for in a sea swarming
-with predaceous crustaceans with great bright eyes phosphorescence
-must surely be a fatal gift.</p>
-
-<p>Off the coast of Portugal there is a great fishery of sharks
-(<i>Centroscymnus C&#339;lolepis</i>), carried on at a depth of 500
-fathoms. If an animal so highly organised as a shark can thus
-bear without inconvenience the enormous pressure of more
-than half a ton on the square inch existing at that depth, it
-is a sufficient proof that the pressure is applied under circumstances
-which prevent its affecting it to its prejudice, and there
-seems to be no reason why it should not tolerate equally well
-a pressure of one or two tons, or why many other fishes&mdash;though
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">� 422 �</a></span>
-the dredge, in consequence of their facility of locomotion, will
-hardly ever be able to bring them to light&mdash;should not abound
-in the still waters of the abyssal deep.</p>
-
-<p>The "Challenger" Exploring Expedition will no doubt reveal
-to us still many an unknown wonder of those interesting
-regions, and make us acquainted with a world of new animals
-which even the profundity of the ocean vainly strives to hide
-from the curiosity of man.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 551px;">
-<img src="images/422.png" width="551" height="348" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">� 423 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_XXI" id="CHAP_XXI">CHAP. XXI.</a></h2>
-
-<p class="caption2">THE PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE SEA.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">Its Causes.&mdash;Noctiluca miliaris.&mdash;Phosphorescent Annelides and Bero�s.&mdash;Intense
-Phosphorescence of the Pyrosoma atlantica.&mdash;Luminous Pholades.&mdash;The
-luminous Shark.&mdash;Phosphorescent Alg&aelig;.&mdash;Citations from Byron, Coleridge,
-and Crabbe.</div>
-
-
-<p>He who still lingers on the shore after the shades of evening
-have descended, not seldom enjoys a most magnificent spectacle;
-for lucid flashes burst from the bosom of the waters, as if the
-sea were anxious to restore to the darkened heavens the light it
-had received from them during the day. On approaching the
-margin of the rising flood to examine more closely the sparkling
-of the breaking wave, the spreading waters seem to cover the
-beach with a sheet of fire. Each footstep over the moist sands
-elicits luminous star-like points, and a splash in the water resembles
-the awakening of slumbering flames.</p>
-
-<p>The same wonderful and beauteous aspect frequently gladdens
-the eye of the navigator who ploughs his way through the wide
-deserts of ocean, particularly if his course leads him through the
-tropical seas.</p>
-
-<p>"When a vessel," says Humboldt, "driven along by a fresh
-wind, divides the foaming waters, one never wearies of the lovely
-spectacle their agitation affords; for, whenever a wave makes
-the ship incline sideways, bluish or reddish flames seem to shoot
-upwards from the keel. Beautiful beyond description is the
-sight of a troop of dolphins gambolling in the phosphorescent sea.
-Every furrow they draw through the waters is marked by streaks
-of intense light. In the Gulf of Cariaco, between Cumana
-and the peninsula of Maniquarez, this scene has often delighted
-me for hours."</p>
-
-<p>But even in the colder oceanic regions the brilliant phenomenon
-appears from time to time in its full glory. During a
-dark and stormy September night, on the way from the Sea-lion
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">� 424 �</a></span>
-island, Saint George, to Unalaschka, Chamisso admired as
-beautiful a phosphorescence of the ocean as he had ever witnessed
-in the tropical seas. Sparks of light, remaining attached to the
-sails that had been wetted by the spray, continued to glow in
-another element. Near the south point of Kamtschatka, at a
-water-temperature hardly above freezing point, Ermann saw
-the sea no less luminous than during a seven months' sojourn in
-the tropical ocean. This distinguished traveller positively
-denies that warmth decidedly favours the luminosity of the sea.</p>
-
-<p>At Cape Colborn, one of the desolate promontories of the desolate
-Victoria Land, the phosphoric gleaming of the waves on
-the 6th September, when darkness closed in, was so intense that
-Simpson assures us he had seldom seen anything more brilliant.
-The boats seemed to cleave a flood of molten silver, and the spray
-dashed from their bows, before the fresh breeze, fell back in
-glittering showers into the deep.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Charles Darwin paints in vivid colours the magnificent
-spectacle presented by the sea, while sailing in the latitudes
-of Cape Horn on a very dark night.</p>
-
-<p>There was a fresh breeze, and every part of the surface, which
-during the day is seen as foam, now glowed with a pale light.
-The vessel drove before her bows two billows of liquid phosphorus,
-and in her wake she was followed by a milky train. As far
-as the eye reached, the crest of every wave was bright, and the
-sky above the horizon, from the reflected glare of these livid
-flames, was not so utterly obscure as over the rest of the
-heavens.</p>
-
-<p>While "La Venus" was at anchor before Simon's Town, the
-breaking of the waves produced so strong a light that the room
-in which the naturalists of the expedition were seated was
-illumined as by sudden flashes of lightning. Although more
-than fifty paces from the beach where the phenomenon took place,
-they tried to read by this wondrous oceanic light, but the
-successive glimpses were of too short duration to gratify their
-wishes.</p>
-
-<p>Thus we see the same nocturnal splendour which shines forth
-in the tropical seas, and gleams along our shores, burst forth
-from the arctic waters, and from the waves that bathe the
-southern promontories of the old and the new worlds.</p>
-
-<p>But what is the cause of the beautiful phenomenon so widely
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">� 425 �</a></span>
-spread over the face of ocean? How comes it that at certain
-times flames issue from the bosom of an element generally
-so hostile to their appearance?</p>
-
-<p>Without troubling the reader with the groundless surmises
-of ancient naturalists, or repeating the useless tales of the past,
-I shall at once place myself with him on the stage of our
-actual knowledge of this interesting and mysterious subject.
-It is now no longer a matter of doubt that many of the inferior
-marine animals possess the faculty of secreting a luminous
-matter, and thus adding their mite to the grand phenomenon.
-When we consider their countless multitudes, we shall no longer
-wonder at such magnificent effects being produced by creatures
-individually so insignificant.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 234px;">
-<img src="images/425.png" width="234" height="207" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Noctiluca miliaris.
-(Highly magnified.)</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>In our seas it is chiefly a minute gelatinous animal, the
-<i>Noctiluca miliaris</i>, most probably an aberrant member of the
-infusorial group, which, as it were,
-repeats the splendid spectacle of the
-starry heavens on the surface of the
-ocean. In form it is nearly globular,
-presenting on one side a groove, from
-the anterior extremity of which issues
-a peculiar curved stalk or appendage,
-marked by transverse lines, which
-might seem to be made use of as an
-organ of locomotion. Near the base of
-this tentacle is placed the mouth, which passes into a dilatable
-digestive cavity, leading, according to Mr. Huxley, to a distinct
-anal orifice. From the rather firm external coat proceed
-thread-like prolongations through the softer mass of the body, so
-as to divide it into irregular chambers. This little creature,
-which is just large enough to be discerned by the naked eye
-when the water in which it may be swimming is contained in a
-glass jar exposed to the light, seems to feed on diatoms, as their
-loric&aelig; may frequently be detected in its interior. It multiplies
-by spontaneous fission, and the rapidity of this process may be
-inferred from the immensity of its numbers. A single bucket
-of luminous sea-water will often contain thousands, while for
-miles and miles every wave breaking on the shore expands in a
-sheet of living flame. It was first described by Forster in the
-Pacific Ocean; it occurs on all the shores of the Atlantic, and the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">� 426 �</a></span>
-Polar Seas are illuminated by its fairy light. "The nature
-of its luminosity," says Dr. Carpenter, "is found by microscopic
-examination to be very peculiar; for what appears to the eye to
-be a uniform glow is resolvable under a sufficient magnifying
-power into a multitude of evanescent scintillations, and these
-are given forth with increased intensity whenever the body of
-the animal receives any mechanical shock."</p>
-
-<p>The power of emitting a phosphorescent light is widely diffused
-both among the free-swimming and the sessile C&#339;lenterata.
-Many of the Physophorid&aelig; are remarkable for its manifestation,
-and a great number of the jelly-fishes are luminous. Our own
-<i>Thaumantias lucifera</i>, a small and by no means rare medusid,
-displays the phenomenon in a very beautiful manner, for, when
-irritated by contact of fresh water, it marks its position by a
-vivid circlet of tiny stars, each shining from the base of a
-tentacle. A remarkable greenish light, like that of burning
-silver, may also be seen to glow from many of our Sertularians,
-becoming much brighter under various modes of excitation.</p>
-
-<p>Among the Ctenophora the large <i>Cestum Veneris</i> of the
-Mediterranean is specially distinguished for its luminosity, and
-while moving beneath the surface of the water gleams at night
-like a brilliant band of flame.</p>
-
-<p>The Sea-pens are eminently phosphorescent, shining at night
-with a golden-green light of a most wonderful softness. When
-touched, every branchlet above the shock emits a phosphoric
-glow, while all the polyps beneath remain in darkness. When
-thrown into fresh water or alcohol, they scatter sparks about in
-all directions, a most beautiful sight; dying, as it were, in a
-halo of glory.</p>
-
-<p>But of all the marine animals the Pyrosomas, doing full
-justice to their name (fire-bodies) seem to emit the most vivid
-coruscations. Bibra relates in his "Travels to Chili" that he once
-caught half a dozen of these remarkable light-bearers, by whose
-phosphorescence he could distinctly read their own description
-in a naturalist's vade-mecum. Although completely dark when
-at rest the slightest touch sufficed to elicit their clear blue-green
-light. During a voyage to India, Mr. Bennett had occasion to
-admire the magnificent spectacle afforded by whole shoals of
-Pyrosomas. The ship, proceeding at a rapid rate, continued
-during an entire night to pass through distinct but extensive
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">� 427 �</a></span>
-fields of these molluscs, floating and glowing as they floated on
-all sides of her course. Enveloped in a flame of bright phosphorescent
-light, and gleaming with a greenish lustre, the
-Pyrosomes, in vast sheets, upwards of a mile in breadth, and
-stretching out till lost in the distance, presented a sight, the
-glory of which may be easily imagined. The vessel, as it
-cleaved the gleaming mass, threw up strong flashes of light, as
-if ploughing through liquid fire, which illuminated the hull, the
-sails, and the ropes, with a strange unearthly radiance.</p>
-
-<p>In his memoir on the Pyrosoma, M. P�ron describes with
-lively colours the circumstances under which he first made its
-discovery, during a dark and stormy night, in the tropical
-Atlantic. "The sky," says this distinguished naturalist, "was
-on all sides loaded with heavy clouds; all around the obscurity
-was profound; the wind blew violently, and the ship cut her way
-with rapidity. Suddenly we discovered at some distance a great
-phosphorescent band stretched across the waves, and occupying
-an immense tract in advance of the ship. Heightened by the
-surrounding circumstances, the effect of this spectacle was
-romantic, imposing, sublime, rivetting the attention of all on
-board. Soon we reached the illuminated tract, and perceived
-that the prodigious brightness was certainly and only attributable
-to the presence of an innumerable multitude of largish animals
-floating with the waves. From their swimming at different
-depths they took apparently different forms: those at the greatest
-depth were very indefinite, presenting much the appearance
-of great masses of fire, or rather of enormous red-hot cannon
-balls; whilst those more distinctly seen near the surface perfectly
-resembled incandescent cylinders of iron.</p>
-
-<p>"Taken from the water, these animals entirely resembled each
-other in form, colour, substance, and the property of phosphorescence,
-differing only in their sizes, which varied from
-three to seven inches. The large, longish tubercles with which
-the exterior of the Pyrosomes was bristled were of a firmer
-substance, and more transparent than the rest of the body, and
-were brilliant and polished like diamonds. These were the
-principal scene of phosphorescence. Between these large
-tubercles, smaller ones, shorter and more obtuse, could be distinguished;
-these also were phosphorescent. Lastly, in the
-interior of the substance of the animal, could be seen, by the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">� 428 �</a></span>
-aid of the transparency, a number of little, elongated, narrow
-bodies (viscera), which also participated in a high degree in the
-possession of the phosphoric light."</p>
-
-<p>In the Pholades or Lithodomes, that bore their dwellings in
-the hard stone, as other shell-fish do in the loose sands, the
-whole mass of the body is permeated with light. Pliny gives
-us a short but animated description of the phenomenon in the
-edible date-shell of the Mediterranean (<i>Pholas dactylus</i>):&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"It is in the nature of the pholades to shine in the darkness
-with their own light, which is the more intense as the animal is
-more juicy. While eating them, they shine in the mouth and
-on the hands, nay, even the drops falling from them upon the
-ground continue to emit light, a sure proof that the luminosity
-we admire in them is associated with their juice." Milne-Edwards
-found this observation perfectly correct, for wishing to place
-some living pholades in alcohol, he saw a luminous matter exude
-from their bodies, which on account of its weight sank in the
-liquid, covering the bottom of the vessel, and there forming a
-deposit as shining as when it was in contact with the air.</p>
-
-<p>Several kinds of fishes likewise possess the luminous faculty.
-The sun-fish, that strange deformity, emits a phosphoric gleam;
-and a species of Gurnard (<i>Trigla lucerna</i>) is
-said to sparkle in the night, so as to form fiery
-streams through the water.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 155px;">
-<img src="images/428.png" width="155" height="178" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Short Sun-Fish.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>With regard to the luminosity of the larger
-marine animals, Ermann, however, remarks
-that he so often saw small luminous crustacea
-in the abdominal cavity of the transparent
-<i>Salpa pinnata</i>, that it may well be asked
-whether the phosphorescence of the larger
-creatures is not in reality owing to that of
-their smaller companions.</p>
-
-<p>According to Mr. Bennett, "Whaling Voyage round the Globe,"
-a species of shark first discovered by himself is distinguished
-by an uncommonly strong emission of light. When the specimen,
-taken at night, was removed into a dark apartment, it afforded
-a very interesting spectacle. The entire inferior surface of the
-body and head emitted a vivid and greenish phosphorescent
-gleam, imparting to the creature by its own light a truly ghastly
-and terrific appearance. The luminous effect was constant, and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">� 429 �</a></span>
-not perceptibly increased by agitation or friction. When the
-shark expired, (which was not until it had been out of the water
-more than three hours,) the luminous appearance faded entirely
-from the abdomen, and more gradually from other parts; lingering
-longest around the jaws and on the fins.</p>
-
-<p>The only part of the under surface of the animal which was
-free from luminosity was the black collar round the throat; and
-while the inferior surface of the pectoral, anal, and caudal fins
-shone with splendour, their superior surface (including the upper
-lobe of the tail fin) was in darkness, as were also the dorsal fins,
-and the back and summit of the head.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Bennett is inclined to believe that the luminous power of
-this shark resides in a peculiar secretion from the skin. It was
-his first impression that the fish had accidentally contracted some
-phosphorescent matter from the sea, or from the net in which it
-was captured; but the most rigid investigation did not confirm
-this suspicion, while the uniformity with which the luminous
-gleam occupied certain portions of the body and fins, its permanence
-during life, and decline and cessation upon the approach
-and occurrence of death, did not leave a doubt in his mind but
-that it was a vital principle essential to the economy of the
-animal. The small size of the fins would appear to denote that
-this fish is not active in swimming; and, since it is highly predaceous
-and evidently of nocturnal habits, we may perhaps
-indulge in the hypothesis, that the phosphorescent power it
-possesses is of use to attract its prey, upon the same principle as
-the Polynesian islanders and others employ torches in night-fishing.</p>
-
-<p>Some of the lower sea-plants also appear to be luminous.
-Thus, over a space of more than 600 miles (between lat.
-8� N. and 2� S.), Meyen saw the ocean covered with phosphorescent
-Oscillatoria, grouped together into small balls or globules,
-from the size of a poppy-seed to that of a lentil.</p>
-
-<p>But if the luminosity of the ocean generally proceeds from
-living creatures, it sometimes also arises from putrefying organic
-fibres and membranes, resulting from the decomposition of those
-living light-bearers. "Sometimes," says Humboldt, "even a
-high magnifying power is unable to discover any animals in the
-phosphorescent water, and yet light gleams forth wherever a
-wave strikes against a hard body and dissolves in foam. The
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">� 430 �</a></span>
-cause of this phenomenon lies then most likely in the putrefying
-fibres of dead mollusks, which are mixed with the waters in
-countless numbers."</p>
-
-<p>Summing up the foregoing in a few words, it is thus an indisputable
-fact, that the phosphorescence of the sea is by no means
-an electrical or magnetic property of the water, but exclusively
-bound to organic matter, living or dead. But although thus
-much has been ascertained, we have as yet only advanced one
-step towards the unravelling of the mystery, and its proximate
-cause remains an open question. Unfortunately, science is still
-unable to give a positive answer, and we are obliged to be
-contented with a more or less plausible hypothesis. When we
-consider that the phosphorescence most commonly resides only
-in the outward mucous covering of the body, in which a number
-of particles cast off by the skin are continually undergoing decomposition,
-the phenomenon seems to be a simple chemical
-process, during which more or less phosphorus may be disengaged,
-which by agitation or friction gives rise to the emission
-of light. It is more difficult to explain those cases in which
-the entire mass of the body is luminous (as in Pholas), or the
-muscular substance (as in some Annelides), or the vibratory
-cilia (as in the Bero�s); and here we do better to confess our
-entire ignorance, than to resort to the hypothesis of electrical
-discharges, extremely improbable in an element which is so excellent
-an electrical conductor, and particularly when we consider
-that no emission of light takes place in the few and powerful
-electrical fishes we are acquainted with.</p>
-
-<p>We know as little of what utility marine phosphorescence may
-be. Why do the countless myriads of Mammari&aelig; gleam and
-sparkle along our coasts? Is it to signify their presence to other
-animals, and direct them to the spot where they may find
-abundance of food? So much is certain, that so grand and wide-spread
-a phenomenon must necessarily serve some end equally
-grand and important.</p>
-
-<p>As the phosphorescence of the sea is owing to living creatures,
-it must naturally show itself in its greatest brilliancy when the
-ocean is at rest; for during the daytime we find the surface of
-the waters most peopled with various animals when only a slight
-zephyr glides over the sea. In stormy weather, the fragile or
-gelatinous world of the lower marine creatures generally seeks a
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">� 431 �</a></span>
-greater depth, until the elementary strife has ceased, when it
-again loves to sport in the warmer or more cheerful superficial
-waters.</p>
-
-<p>In the tropical zone, Humboldt saw the sea most brilliantly
-luminous before a storm, when the air was sultry, and the sky
-covered with clouds. In the North Sea we observe the phenomenon
-most commonly during fine tranquil autumnal nights;
-but it may be seen at every season of the year, even when the
-cold is most intense. Its appearance is, however, extremely
-capricious; for, under seemingly unaltered circumstances, the
-sea may one night be very luminous, and the next quite dark.
-Often months, or even years, pass by without witnessing it in
-full perfection. Does this result from a peculiar state of the
-atmosphere, or do the little animals love to migrate from one
-part of the coast to another?</p>
-
-<p>It is remarkable that the ancients should have taken so little
-notice of oceanic phosphorescence. The "Periplus" of Hanno
-contains perhaps the only passage in which the phenomenon is
-described. To the south of Cerne the Carthaginian navigator
-saw the sea burn, as it were, with streams of fire. Pliny,
-in whom the miracle (<i>miraculum</i>, as he calls it) of the date-shell
-excited so lively an admiration, and who must often
-have seen the sea gleam with phosphoric light, as the passage
-proves where he mentions in a few dry words the luminous
-gurnard (<i>lucerna</i>) stretching out a fiery tongue, has no exclamation
-of delight for one of the most beautiful sights in nature.
-Homer also, who has given us so many charming descriptions of
-the sea in its ever-changing aspects, and who so often leads us
-with long-suffering Ulysses through the nocturnal floods, never
-once makes them blaze or sparkle in his immortal hexameters.</p>
-
-<p>Even modern poets mention the phenomenon but rarely.
-Camoens himself, whom Humboldt, on account of his beautiful
-oceanic descriptions, calls, above all others, the "poet of the
-sea," forgets to sing it in his Lusiad. Byron in his "Corsair"
-has a few lines on the subject:</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i1">"Flash'd the dipt oars, and, sparkling with the stroke,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Around the waves phosphoric brightness broke;"<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p class="p0">but contents himself, as we see, with coldly mentioning a phenomenon
-so worthy of all a poet's enthusiasm. In Coleridge's
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">� 432 �</a></span>
-wondrous ballad of "The ancient Mariner" we find a warmer
-description:</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i1">"Beyond the shadow of the ship<br /></span>
-<span class="i4">I watch'd the water-snakes:<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">They moved in tracks of shining white,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">And, when they rear'd, the elfish light<br /></span>
-<span class="i4">Fell off in hoary flakes.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i1">"Within the shadow of the ship<br /></span>
-<span class="i4">I watch'd their rich attire&mdash;<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Blue, glossy green, and velvet black:<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">They coiled and swam, and every track<br /></span>
-<span class="i4">Was a flash of golden fire."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>These indeed are lines whose brilliancy emulates the splendour
-of the phenomenon they depict, but even they are hardly more
-beautiful than Crabbe's admirable description:</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i1">"And now your view upon the ocean turn,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">And there the splendour of the waves discern;<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Cast but a stone, or strike them with an oar,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">And you shall flames within the deep explore;<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Or scoop the stream phosphoric as you stand,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">And the cold flames shall flash along your hand;<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">When, lost in wonder, you shall walk and gaze<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">On weeds that sparkle, and on waves that blaze."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Or than the graphic numbers of Sir Walter Scott:</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i1">"Awak'd before the rushing prow,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">The mimic fires of ocean glow,<br /></span>
-<span class="i4">Those lightnings of the wave;<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Wild sparkles crest the broken tides.<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">And flashing round, the vessel's sides<br /></span>
-<span class="i4">With elfish lustre lave;<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">While, far behind, their livid light<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">To the dark billows of the night<br /></span>
-<span class="i4">A blooming splendour gave."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">� 433 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_XXII" id="CHAP_XXII">CHAP. XXII.</a></h2>
-
-<p class="caption2">THE PRIMITIVE OCEAN.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">The Giant-Book of the Earth-rind.&mdash;The Sea of Fire.&mdash;Formation of a solid
-Earth-crust by cooling.&mdash;The Primitive Waters.&mdash;First awakening of Life in
-the Bosom of the Ocean.&mdash;The Reign of the Saurians.&mdash;The future Ocean.</div>
-
-
-<p>The greatest of all histories, traced in mighty characters by
-the Almighty himself, is that of the earth-rind. The leaves
-of this giant volume are the strata which have been successively
-deposited in the bosom of the sea, or raised by volcanic
-powers from the depths of the earth; the wars which it relates
-are the Titanic conflicts of two hostile elements, water and fire,
-each anxious to destroy the formations of its opponent; and the
-historic documents which bear witness to that ancient strife lie
-before us in the petrified or carbonified remains of extinct
-forms of organic existence&mdash;the medals of creation.</p>
-
-<p>It is only since yesterday that science has attempted to unriddle
-the hieroglyphics in which the past history of our planet
-reveals itself to man, and it stands to reason that in so difficult
-a study truth must often be obscured by error; but although
-the geologist is still a mere scholar, endeavouring to decipher
-the first chapters of a voluminous work, yet even now the study
-of the physical revolutions of our globe distinctly points out a
-period when the molten earth wandered, a ball of liquid fire,
-through the desert realms of space. In those times, so distant
-from ours that even the wildest flight of imagination is unable
-to carry us over the intervening abyss, the waters of the ocean
-were as yet mixed with the air, and formed a thick and hazy
-atmosphere through which no radiant sunbeam, no soft lunar
-light, ever penetrated to the fiery billows of molten rock, which
-at that time covered the whole surface of the earth. What
-pictures of desolation rise before our fancy, at the idea of yon
-boundless ocean of fluid stone, which rolled from pole to pole
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">� 434 �</a></span>
-without meeting on its wide way anything but itself. Ever
-and ever in the dark-red clouds shone the reflection of that vast
-conflagration, witnessed only by the eye of the Almighty, for
-organic life could not exist on a globe which exclusively obeyed
-the physical and chemical laws of inorganic nature.</p>
-
-<p>But while the fiery mass with its surrounding atmosphere
-was circling through the icy regions of ethereal space (the temperature
-of which is computed to be lower than 60� R. below
-freezing point), it gradually cooled, and its hitherto fluid surface
-began to harden to a solid crust. Who can tell how many
-countless ages may have dropped one after the other into the
-abyss of the past, ere thus much was accomplished; for the
-dense atmosphere constantly threw back again upon the fiery
-earth-ball the heat radiating from its surface, and the caloric of
-the vast body could escape but very slowly into vacant space?</p>
-
-<p>Thus millions of years may have gone by before the aqueous
-vapours, now no longer obstinately repelled by the cooling
-earth-rind, condensed into rain, and, falling in showers, gave
-birth to an incipient ocean. But it must not be supposed that
-the waters obtained at once a tranquil and undisturbed possession
-of their new domain, for, as soon as they descended upon
-the earth, those endless elementary wars began, which, with
-various fortunes, have continued to the present day.</p>
-
-<p>As soon as the cooling earth-rind began to harden, it naturally
-contracted, like all solid bodies when no longer subject to the
-influence of expanding heat, and thus in the thin crust enormous
-fissures and rents were formed, through which the fluid
-masses below gushed forth, and, spreading in wide sheets over
-the surface, once more converted into vapours the waters they
-met with in their fiery path.</p>
-
-<p>But after all these revolutions and vicissitudes which opposed
-the birth of ocean, perpetually destroying its perpetually renewed
-formation, we come at last to a period when, in consequence
-of the constantly decreasing temperature of the earth-rind,
-and its increasing thickness, the waters at last conquered a
-permanent abode on its surface, and the oceanic empire was
-definitively founded.</p>
-
-<p>The scene has now changed; the sea of fire has disappeared,
-and water covers the face of the earth. The rind is still too
-thin, and the eruptions from below are still too fluid to form
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">� 435 �</a></span>
-higher elevations above the general surface: all is flat and even,
-and land nowhere rises above the mirror of a boundless
-ocean.</p>
-
-<p>This new state of things still affords the same spectacle of
-dreary uniformity and solitude in all its horrors. The temperature
-of the waters is yet too high, and they contain too many
-extraneous substances, too many noxious vapours arise from the
-clefts of the earth-rind, the dense atmosphere is still too much
-impregnated with poisons, to allow the hidden germs of life anywhere
-to awaken. A strange and awful primitive ocean rises and
-falls, rolls and rages, but nowhere does it beat against a coast;
-no animal, no plant, grows and thrives in its bosom; no bird
-flies over its expanse.</p>
-
-<p>But meanwhile the hidden agency of Providence is unremittingly
-active in preparing a new order of things. The earth-rind
-increases in thickness, the crevices become narrower, and
-the fluid or semi-fluid masses escaping through the clefts ascend
-to a more considerable height.</p>
-
-<p>Thus the first islands are formed, and the first separation between
-the dry land and the waters takes place. At the same
-time no less remarkable changes occur, as well in the constitution
-of the waters as in that of the atmosphere. The farther the
-glowing internal heat of the planet retires from the surface, the
-greater is the quantity of water which precipitates itself upon it.
-The ocean, obliged to relinquish part of its surface to the dry
-land, makes up for the loss of extent by an increase of depth,
-and the clearer atmosphere allows the enlivening sunbeam to
-gild here the crest of a wave, there a naked rock.</p>
-
-<p>And now also life awakens in the seas, but how often has it
-changed its forms, and how often has Neptune displaced his
-boundaries since that primordial dawn. Alternately rising or
-subsiding, what was once the bottom of the ocean now forms
-the mountain crest, and whole islands and continents have been
-gradually worn away and whelmed beneath the waves of the sea,
-to arise and to be whelmed again. In every part of the world
-we are able to trace these repeated changes in the fossil remains
-embedded in the strata that have successively been deposited in
-the sea, and then again raised above its level by volcanic agencies,
-and thus, by a wonderful transposition, the history of the primitive
-ocean is revealed to us by the tablets of the dry land. The
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">� 436 �</a></span>
-indefatigable zeal of the geologists has discovered no less than
-thirty-nine distinct fossiliferous strata of different ages, and as
-many of these are again subdivided into successive layers, frequently
-of a thickness of several thousand feet, and each of them
-characterised by its peculiar organic remains, we may form some
-idea of the vast spaces of time required for their formation.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 208px;">
-<img src="images/436.png" width="208" height="295" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Trilobite.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The annals of the human race speak of the rise and downfall
-of nations and dynasties, and stamp a couple of thousand years
-with the mark of high antiquity; but each stratum or each leaf
-in the records of our globe has witnessed the birth and the extinction
-of numerous families, genera, and species of plants and
-animals, and shows us organic Nature as changeable in time as
-she appears to us in space. As, when we sail to the southern
-hemisphere, the stars of the northern firmament gradually sink
-below the horizon, until finally entirely new constellations blaze
-upon us from the nightly heavens; thus in the organic vestiges
-of the pal&aelig;ozoic seas we find no form of life resembling those
-of the actual times, but every class</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i1">"Seems to have undergone a change<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Into something new and strange."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Then spiral-armed Brachiopods were the chief representatives
-of the molluscs; then crinoid star-fishes paved the bottom of
-the ocean; then the fishes, covered with large thick rhomboidal
-scales, were buckler-headed like the Cephalaspis, or furnished with
-wing-like appendages like the Pterichthys; and then the Trilobites,
-a crustacean tribe, thus named from its three lobed
-skeleton, swarmed in the shallow littoral
-waters where the lesser sea-fry afforded
-them an abundant food. From a comparison
-of their structure with recent
-analogies, it is supposed that these strange
-creatures swam in an inverted position
-close beneath the surface of the water, the
-belly upwards, and that they made use of
-their power of rolling themselves into a
-ball as a defence against attacks from
-above. The remains of seventeen families
-of Trilobites, including forty-five genera
-and 477 species, some of the size of a pea,
-others two feet long, testify the once flourishing condition of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">� 437 �</a></span>
-these remarkable crustaceans, yet but few of their petrified
-remains, so numerous in the Silurian and Devonian strata, are
-found in the carboniferous or mountain limestone, and none
-whatever in formations of more recent date. Thus, long before
-the wind ever moaned through the dense fronds of the tree ferns
-and calamites which once covered the swampy lowlands of our
-isle, and long before that rich vegetation began, to which we are
-indebted for our inexhaustible coal-fields, now frequently buried
-thousands of feet below the surface on which they originally
-grew, the Trilobites belonged already to the things of the past!</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 218px;">
-<img src="images/437a.png" width="218" height="335" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Ammonites, or Snake-Stones.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>In the seas of the mesozoic or medi&aelig;val
-period, new forms of life appear upon
-the scene. A remarkable change has
-taken place in the cephalopods; for the
-chambered and straightened Orthoceratites
-and many other families of the
-order have passed away, and the spiral
-Ammonites, branching out into numerous
-genera, and more than 600 species,
-now flourish in the seas, so that in some
-places the rocks seem, as it were, composed
-of them alone. Some are of
-small dimensions, others upwards of
-three feet in diameter. They are met
-with in the Alps, and have been found
-in the Himalaya Mountains, at elevations of 16,000 feet, as
-eloquent witnesses of the vast revolutions of which our earth
-has been the scene. Carnivorous, and resembling
-in habits the Nautili, their small
-and feeble representatives of the present day,
-their immense multiplication proves how numerous
-must have been the molluscs, crustaceans,
-and annelides, on which they fed, all
-like them widely different from those of the
-present day.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 152px;">
-<img src="images/437b.png" width="152" height="250" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Belemnites.<br />
-
-<i>a.</i> B. acutus.<br />
-<i>b.</i> Belemnite (restored).<br />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Then also flourished the Belemnites (Thunder-stones),
-supposed by the ancients to be
-the thunderbolts of Jove, but now known
-to be the petrified internal bones of a race of
-voracious ten-armed cuttle-fishes, whose importance in the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">� 438 �</a></span>
-oolitic or cretaceous seas may be judged of by the frequency
-of their remains, and the 120 species that have been hitherto
-discovered. Belemnites two feet long have been found, so
-that, to judge by analogies, the animals to which they belonged
-as cuttle-bones must have measured eighteen or twenty feet
-from end to end, a size which reduces the rapacious Onychoteuthis
-of the present seas to dwarfish dimensions.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 238px;">
-<img src="images/438a.png" width="238" height="131" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Ichthyosaurus communis.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>But of all the denizens of the mesozoic seas none were more
-formidable than the gigantic Saurians, whose approach put
-even the voracious sharks to flight. The first of these monsters
-that raises its frightful head above the waters is the dreadful
-Ichthyosaurus, a creature thirty or even fifty feet long, half
-fish, half lizard, and combining in
-strange assemblage the snout of the
-porpoise, the teeth of the crocodile,
-and the paddles of the whale. Singular
-above all is the enormous eye,
-in size surpassing a man's head. Woe
-to the fish that meets its appalling
-glance! No rapidity of flight, no weapon, be it sword or saw,
-avails, for the long-tailed gigantic saurian darts like lightning
-through the water, and its dense harness bids defiance to every
-attack. Not only have fifteen distinct species of Ichthyosauri
-been distinguished, but the remains of crushed and partially
-digested fish-bones and scales, which are found within their
-skeleton, indicate the precise nature of their food. Their fossil
-remains abound along the whole extent of the lias formation,
-from the coasts of Dorset, through Somerset and Leicestershire
-to the coast of Yorkshire, but the largest specimens have been
-found in Franconia.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 456px;">
-<img src="images/438b.png" width="456" height="102" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption">Plesiosaurus.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Along with this monster, another and still more singular
-deformity makes its appearance, the Plesiosaurus, in which the
-fabulous chim&aelig;ras and hydras of antiquity seem to start into
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">� 439 �</a></span>
-existence. Fancy a crocodile twenty-seven feet long, with the
-fins of a whale, the long and flexible neck of a swan, and a
-comparatively small head. With the appearance of this new
-tyrant, the last hope of escape is taken from the trembling
-fishes; for into the shallow waters, inaccessible to the more
-bulky Ichthyosaurus, the slender Plesiosaurus penetrates with
-ease.</p>
-
-<p>A race of such colossal powers seemed destined for an immortal
-reign, for where was the visible enemy that could put an end
-to its tyranny? But even the giant strength of the saurians
-was obliged to succumb to the still more formidable power of
-all-changing time, which slowly but surely modified the circumstances
-under which they were called into being, and gave birth
-to higher and more beautiful forms.</p>
-
-<p>In the tertiary period, the dreadful reptiles of the mesozoic
-seas have long since vanished from the bosom of the ocean, and
-cetaceans, walruses, and seals, unknown in the primitive deep,
-now wander through the waters or bask on the sunny cliffs.
-With them begins a new era in the life of the sea. Hitherto it
-has only brought forth creatures of base or brutal instinct, but
-now the Divine spark of parental affection begins to ennoble its
-more perfect inhabitants, and to point out the dim outlines of
-the spiritual world.</p>
-
-<p>During all these successive changes the surface of the earth
-has gradually cooled to its present temperature, and many
-plants and animals that formerly enjoyed the widest range must
-now rest satisfied with narrower limits. The sea-animals of the
-north find themselves for ever severed from their brethren of
-the south, by the impassable zone of the tropical ocean; and
-all the fishes, molluscs, and zoophytes, whose organisation
-requires a greater warmth, confine themselves to the equatorial
-regions.</p>
-
-<p>As the tertiary period advances towards the present epoch,
-the species which flourished in its prime become extinct, like the
-numberless races which preceded them; new modifications of
-life, more and more similar to those of the present day, start
-into existence; and, finally, creation appears with increasing
-beauty in her present rich attire.</p>
-
-<p>Thus old Ocean, after having devoured so many of his children,
-has transformed himself at last into our contemporaneous
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">� 440 �</a></span>
-seas, with their currents and floods, and the various animals and
-plants growing and thriving in their bosom.</p>
-
-<p>Who can tell when the last great revolutions of the earth-rind
-took place, which, by the upheaving of mighty mountains or the
-disruption of isthmuses, drew the present boundaries of land
-and sea? or who can pierce the deep mystery which veils the
-future duration of the existing phase of planetary life?</p>
-
-<p>So much is certain, that the ocean of the present day will be
-transformed as the seas of the past have been, and that "all
-that it inhabit" are doomed to perish like the long line of
-animal and vegetable forms which preceded them.</p>
-
-<p>We know by too many signs that our earth is slowly but
-unceasingly working out changes in her external form. Here
-lands are rising, while other areas are gradually sinking; here
-the breakers perpetually gnaw the cliffs, and hollow out their
-sides, while in other places alluvial deposits encroach upon the
-sea's domain.</p>
-
-<p>However slowly these changes may be going on, they point to
-a time when a new ocean will encircle new lands, and new
-animal and vegetable forms arise within its bosom. Of what
-nature and how gifted these races yet slumbering in the lap of
-time may be, He only knows whose eye penetrates through all
-eternity; but we cannot doubt that they will be superior to the
-present denizens of the ocean.</p>
-
-<p>Hitherto the annals of the earth-rind have shown us uninterrupted
-progress; why, then, should the future be ruled by different
-laws? At first the sea only produces weeds, shells, crustacea;
-then the fishes and reptiles appear; and the cetaceans close the
-vista. But is this the last word, the last manifestation of oceanic
-life, or is it not to be expected that the future seas will be
-peopled with beings ranking as high above the whale or dolphin
-as these rank above the giant saurians of the past?</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">� 441 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="PART_III" id="PART_III">PART III.</a><br />
-
-<span style="font-size:0.8em;">THE</span><br />
-
-PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.</h2>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">� 442 �</a><br /><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">� 443 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_XXIII" id="CHAP_XXIII">CHAP. XXIII.</a></h2>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">Maritime Discoveries of the Ph&#339;nicians.&mdash;Expedition of Hanno.&mdash;Circumnavigation
-of Africa under the Pharaoh Necho.&mdash;Col&aelig;us of Samos.&mdash;Pytheas of
-Massilia.&mdash;Expedition of Nearchus.&mdash;Circumnavigation of Hindostan under
-the Ptolemies.&mdash;Voyages of Discovery of the Romans.&mdash;Consequences of the
-Fall of the Roman Empire.&mdash;Amalfi.&mdash;Pisa.&mdash;Venice.&mdash;Genoa.&mdash;Resumption
-of Maritime Intercourse between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.&mdash;Discovery
-of the Mariner's Compass.&mdash;Marco Polo.</div>
-
-
-<p>Among the nations of antiquity, navigation, as may well be supposed,
-was in a very rude and imperfect state. Unacquainted
-with the mariner's compass, which during the darkest and most
-tempestuous nights safely leads the modern seaman over the
-pathless ocean, the sparkling constellations of a serene sky, or
-the position of the sun, were the only guides of the ancient
-navigator. He therefore rarely ventured to lose sight of land,
-but cautiously steering his little bark along the shore, was
-subject to all the delays and dangers of coast navigation. Even
-under the mild sky and in the calm waters of the Mediterranean,
-it was only during the summer months that he dared to leave
-the port; to brave the fury of the wintry winds was a boldness
-he never could have thought of. Under such adverse circumstances,
-it is surely far less astonishing that the geographical
-knowledge of the ancients was so extremely limited when compared
-with ours, than that with means so scanty they yet should
-have known so much of the boundaries of ocean.</p>
-
-<p>But the spirit of commercial enterprise triumphs over every
-difficulty. Stimulated by the love of gain, and the hope of discovering
-new sources of wealth, the Ph&#339;nicians, the first great
-maritime nation mentioned in history, were continually enlarging
-the limits of the known earth, until the fatal moment when
-the sword of the conqueror destroyed their cities, and extinguished
-their power for ever.</p>
-
-<p>The first periods of Ph&#339;nician greatness are veiled in the
-mysterious darkness of an unknown past, yet so much is certain,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">� 444 �</a></span>
-that their date must have been very remote; as, according to the
-accounts which Herodotus received from the priests, the foundation
-of Tyre took place thirty centuries before the Christian era.</p>
-
-<p>Long before the expedition of the Argonauts, the Ph&#339;nicians
-had already founded colonies on the Bithynian coast of the
-Black Sea (Pronectus, Bithynium); and that at a very early time
-they must have steered through the Straits of Grades into the
-Atlantic is proved by the fact, that, as far back as the eleventh
-century before Christ, they founded the towns of Grades and
-Tartessus on the western coast of Southern Spain. Penetrating
-farther and farther to the north, they discovered Britain, where
-they established their chief station on the Scilly Isles, at present
-so insignificant and obscure, and even visited the barbarous shores
-of the Baltic in quest of the costly amber. They planted their
-colonies along the north-west coast of Africa, even beyond the
-tropic; and, 2000 years before Vasco de Gama, Ph&#339;nician
-mariners are said to have circumnavigated that continent, for
-Herodotus relates that a Tyrian fleet, fitted out by Necho II.,
-Pharaoh of Egypt (611-595 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span>), sailed from a port in the Red
-Sea, doubled the southern promontory of Africa, and, after a
-voyage of three years, returned through the Straits of Grades to
-the mouth of the Nile.</p>
-
-<p>Less wonderful, but resting on better historical proof, is the
-celebrated voyage of discovery to the south which Hanno performed
-by command of the senate of Carthage, the greatest of
-all Ph&#339;nician colonies, eclipsing even the fame of Tyre itself.
-Sailing from Cerne, the principal Ph&#339;nician settlement on the
-western coast of Africa, and which was probably situated on the
-present island of Arguin, he reached, after a navigation of
-seventeen days, a promontory which he called the West Horn
-(probably Cape Palmas), and then advanced to another cape, to
-which he gave the name of South Horn, and which is manifestly
-Cape de Tres Puntas, only 5� north of the line. During daytime
-the deepest silence reigned along the newly discovered
-coast, but after sunset countless fires were seen burning along
-the banks of the rivers, and the air resounded with music and
-song, the black natives spending, as they still do now, the hours
-of the cool night in festive joy. Most likely the Canary
-Islands were also known to the Ph&#339;nicians, as the summit
-of the Peak of Teneriffe is visible from the heights of Cape
-Bojador.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">� 445 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The progress of the great mariners of old in the Indian Ocean
-was no less remarkable than the extension of their Atlantic
-discoveries. Far beyond Bab-el-Mandeb their fleets sailed to
-Ophir or Supara, and returned with rich cargoes of gold, silver,
-sandal-wood, jewels, ivory, apes, and peacocks, to the ports of
-Elath and Ezion-Geber at the head of the Red Sea. These
-costly productions of the south were then transported across the
-Isthmus of Suez to Rhinocolura, the nearest port on the Mediterranean,
-and thence to Tyre, which ultimately distributed
-them over the whole of the known world.</p>
-
-<p>The true position of Ophir is an enigma which no learned
-&#338;dipus will ever solve. While some authorities place it on the
-east coast of Africa, others fix its situation somewhere on the
-west coast of the Indian peninsula; and Humboldt is even of
-opinion that the name had only a general signification, and that
-a voyage to Ophir meant nothing more than a commercial expedition
-to any part of the Indian Ocean, just as at present we
-speak of a voyage to the Levant or the West Indies.</p>
-
-<p>But whatever Ophir may have been, it is certain that the
-Ph&#339;nicians carried on a considerable trade with the lands and
-nations beyond the Gates of the Red Sea. Their trade in the
-direction of the Persian Gulf was no less extensive. Through
-the Syrian desert, where Palmyra, their chief station or emporium,
-proudly rose above the surrounding sands, their caravans
-slowly wandered to the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, to
-provide Nineveh and Babylon with the costly merchandise of
-Sidon and Tyre. Following the course of the great Mesopotamian
-streams, they reached the shores of the Persian Gulf,
-where they owned the ports of Tylos and Aradus and the rich
-pearl islands of Bahrein, and, having loaded their empty camels
-with the produce of Iran and Arabia, returned by the same way to
-the shores of the Mediterranean. How far their ships may have
-ventured beyond the mouth of the Persian Gulf is unknown,
-but the researches of the learned orientalists, Gesenius, Benfey,
-and Lassen, render it extremely probable, that, taking advantage
-of the regularly changing monsoons, they sailed through the
-Straits of Ormus to the coast of Malabar.</p>
-
-<p>The progress of the Ph&#339;nician race in the technical arts, as
-well as in the astronomical and mathematical sciences so highly
-important for the improvement of their navigation, was no less
-remarkable for the age in which they lived, than the vast
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">� 446 �</a></span>
-extension of a commercial intercourse which reached from
-Britain to the Indus, and from the Black Sea to the Senegal.
-They wove the finest linen, and knew how to dye it with the
-most splendid purple. They were unsurpassed in the workmanship
-of metals, and possessed the secret of manufacturing white
-and coloured glass, which their caravans and ships exchanged
-for the produce of the north and of the south. By the invention
-of the alphabet, which with many other useful sciences and arts,
-they communicated to the Greeks and other nations with whom
-they traded, they no less contributed to the progress of mankind
-than by the humanising influence of commerce.</p>
-
-<p>Thus when we consider the services which these merchant-princes
-of antiquity rendered to their contemporaries, wherever
-their flag was seen or their caravans appeared, the annihilation
-of the maritime power of Tyre by Alexander (332 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span>), and the
-destruction of Carthage by the Romans (146 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span>), must strike
-us as events calamitous to the whole human race. Had the
-Carthaginians, so distinguished by their commercial spirit and
-ardour for discovery, triumphed over the semi-barbarous Romans,
-who, then at least, had not yet learned to imitate the arts of
-plundered Greece, there is every probability that some Punic
-Columbus would have discovered America at least a thousand
-years sooner, and the world at this day be in possession of many
-secrets still unknown, and destined to contribute to the comforts
-or enjoyments of our descendants.</p>
-
-<p>In the times of Homer, when the Indian Ocean and the
-Atlantic had long been known to the Ph&#339;nicians, the geographical
-knowledge of the Greeks was still circumscribed by the
-narrow limits of the Eastern Mediterranean and part of the
-Euxine, and many a century elapsed ere their ships ventured
-beyond the Straits of Gades. Col&aelig;us of Samos (639 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span>) is said
-to have been the first seafarer of Hellenic race who sailed forth
-into the Atlantic, compelled by adverse winds, and was able on
-his return from his involuntary voyage to tell his astonished
-countrymen of the wondrous rising and falling of the oceanic
-tides. It was seventy years later before the Phoceans of Massilia,
-the present Marseilles, ventured to follow the path he
-had traced out, and to visit the Atlantic port of Tartessus.</p>
-
-<p>The town of Massilia had the additional honour of reckoning
-among her sons the great traveller Pytheas, the Marco Polo of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">� 447 �</a></span>
-antiquity. This far-wandering philosopher, who lived about 330
-years before Christ, had visited all the coasts of Europe, from
-the mouths of the Tanais or Don to the shores of Ultima Thule,
-which, according to Leopold von Buch, was not Iceland, nor
-Fero�, nor Orcadia, but the Norwegian coast. His narrative
-first made the Greeks acquainted with North-western Europe,
-and remained for a long time their only geographical guide to
-those hyperborean lands.</p>
-
-<p>While the horizon of the Greeks was thus considerably expanding
-towards the regions of the setting sun, the conquests of
-Alexander opened to them a new world in the distant Orient.
-Greek navigators now for the first time unfurled their sails on
-the Indian Ocean. The Macedonian, desirous not only of subduing
-Asia but of firmly attaching it to the nations of the
-Mediterranean by the bonds of mutual interest, and hoping by
-this means to consolidate his vast conquests, sent a fleet under
-the command of Nearchus, from the mouths of the Indus to the
-head of the Persian Gulf, to establish if possible a new road for
-a regular commercial intercourse between India and Mesopotamia.
-The performance of this voyage was reckoned by the
-conqueror one of the most glorious events of his reign, but it
-may serve as a proof of the slowness of ancient navigation, that
-Nearchus took ten months to perform a journey which one of
-our steamers might easily accomplish in five days.</p>
-
-<p>After the disruption of the Macedonian empire, the circle of
-the Greek discoveries in the Indian Ocean was widened by the
-enterprising spirit of the Seleucid&aelig; and Ptolemies. Seleucus
-Nicator is said to have penetrated to the mouths of the Ganges,
-and the fleets of the Egyptian kings sailed round the peninsula
-of Hindostan and discovered the coasts of Taprobane or Ceylon,
-the spicy odours of whose cinnamon-groves are said to be wafted
-far out to sea, so that&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span style="margin-left: 12em;">"for many a league,</span><br />
-Pleased with the grateful scent, old Ocean smiles."<br />
-</div></div>
-
-<p>But now came the time when earth-ruling Rome called the
-whole civilised world her own, and her victorious eagles expanded
-their triumphant wings from the Red Sea to the coasts of the
-Northern Ocean. What discoveries might not have been expected
-from such a power, if the Romans had possessed but one
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">� 448 �</a></span>
-tithe of the maritime spirit of conquered Carthage? But even
-this military empire contributed something to the enlargement
-of maritime knowledge. Under the reign of Augustus a Roman
-fleet sailed round the promontory of Skagen, discovered about
-sixteen years after the birth of Christ the Island of Fionia or
-F�nen, and is even supposed to have reached the entrance of the
-Gulf of Finland. In the year 84 <span class="smcap">A.C.</span> Julius Agricola, the
-conqueror of Britain, sailed for the first time round Scotland, and
-discovered the Orcadian Isles.</p>
-
-<p>In Pliny's time the real magnitude of the earth was still so imperfectly
-known that, according to the calculations of that great
-though rather over-credulous naturalist, Europe occupied the
-third part, Asia only the fourth, and Africa about the fifth, of its
-whole extent.</p>
-
-<p>The geographer Ptolemy, who lived about the middle of
-the second century, under the reigns of Hadrian and Marcus
-Aurelius, describes the limits of the earth as far as they were
-known in his time. To the west, the coast of Africa had been
-explored as far as Cape Juby; and the Fortunate Islands or Hesperides,
-the present Canaries, rose from the ocean as the last
-lands towards the setting sun.</p>
-
-<p>To the north discovery had reached as far as the Shetland
-Isles, and the promontory Perispa at the entrance of the Gulf of
-Finland; while on the east coast of Africa Cape Brava formed
-the ultimate boundary of the known world. Soon after
-Ptolemy's time the whole coast of Malacca (<i>Aurea Chersonesus</i>)
-and the Siamese Sea, as far as the Cape of Cambogia (<i>Notium
-promontorium</i>), was explored, and the Romans even appear to
-have had some knowledge of the great islands of the Indian
-archipelago, Java, Sumatra, and Borneo.</p>
-
-<p>And yet, notwithstanding all this progress towards the East, it
-may well be asked whether the Ph&#339;nicians had not embraced a
-wider horizon than the Romans in the full zenith of their fortunes.
-Even though we reject the circumnavigation of Africa under
-Necho, and the discovery of America by Punic navigators, as not
-fully proved or fabulous, it is quite certain that they had explored
-the west coast of Africa to a much greater extent than the Romans,
-and extremely probable that they knew at least as much of the
-lands which bound the Indian Ocean. But, as from a narrow-minded
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">� 449 �</a></span>
-mercantile policy they kept many of their discoveries
-profoundly secret, all knowledge of them perished with their
-ruin. In ancient times, when the defeat of a people too often
-led to its complete destruction, or at least to the extinction of its
-peculiar civilisation, and the difficulties of intercourse rendered
-the diffusion of knowledge extremely difficult and slow, it not
-unfrequently happened that useful discoveries were erased from
-the memory of mankind, a danger which, thanks to the printing-press
-and the steam-engine, is now no longer to be feared.</p>
-
-<p>Thus a darkening or eclipse of intellectual life took place to
-a vast extent when the western Roman Empire succumbed to
-the barbarians of the North, and the bands which for centuries
-had united the cities of the east and west were violently sundered.
-Under that fatal blight Civilisation vanished from the
-lands which had so long been her chosen seat, only to dawn
-again after a long and obscure night. Commercial intercourse
-ceased between the sea-ports of the Mediterranean, all communication
-with distant countries was cut off, and the boundaries
-of the known earth became more and more narrow, as the
-ignorance of a barbarous age increased.</p>
-
-<p>It is not before the beginning of the ninth century that we
-perceive the first glimpses of a better day in the rising fortunes
-of some Italian sea-ports, where favourable circumstances had
-given birth to liberal institutions. As early as the year 840
-Amalfi possessed a considerable number of trading-vessels, and
-carried on a lucrative commerce with the Levant. The maritime
-code of this little republic regulated the commercial transactions
-of all the Mediterranean sea-ports; as in a later century the
-law-book of Wisby served as a guide to the merchants of the
-Baltic. A few years after its submission in 1131 to the arms
-of King Roger of Sicily, Amalfi was plundered by the Pisanese
-and almost entirely destroyed. The neglected harbour was
-gradually choked with sand, and the little town, which now
-numbers no more than 3000 inhabitants, has nothing to console
-it for its actual poverty but the remembrance of a glorious
-past. Along with Amalfi, Ga�ta, Naples, and Pisa, rose to considerable
-eminence in commerce, though far from equalling the
-power and splendour of Genoa and Venice, the great republics
-of northern Italy.</p>
-
-<p>As far back as the beginning of the sixth century, the city of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">� 450 �</a></span>
-the lagunes fits out a small fleet to purge the Adriatic of Istrian
-pirates. By a prudent course of policy she renders herself indispensable
-to the Byzantine court, and acquires great privileges in
-Constantinople. It is here she purchases the costly productions
-of the East, with which during the ninth and tenth centuries,
-she provides Northern Italy and a great part of Germany. About
-the beginning of the eleventh century her trade with Egypt and
-Syria begins to flourish, and soon raises her to the pinnacle of
-her power and wealth. In the year 1080 she extends her rule
-over Croatia and Dalmatia, and gains in 1204 considerable advantages
-by assisting the western crusaders in the conquest of
-Constantinople. Pera, numerous coast towns from the Hellespont
-to the Ionian Sea, a great part of the Morea, Corfu, and
-Candia fall to the winged lion's share, and requite the services
-of "blind old Dandolo." The silk manufacture is transported,
-as a valuable fruit of conquest, from the Morea to Venice, and
-becomes a new source of wealth to the Adriatic Tyre. The
-Euxine opens her ports to the Venetian seamen, treaties of
-commerce are concluded with Trebizond and Armenia, and a
-factory is established at Tana, at the mouth of the Don.</p>
-
-<p>While thus the power of Venice rises more and more in the
-East, Genoa, which already in the tenth century carried on a
-flourishing trade, acquires by degrees the supremacy in the
-Western Mediterranean. The aid afforded by the republic to
-the Greek emperor Michael Pal&aelig;ologus contributes largely to the
-overthrow of the Latin throne of Constantinople, and opens the
-Bosphorus and the Black Sea to the enterprise of her merchants.
-The grandeur of Genoa now reaches its height; she holds fortified
-possession of Pera and Galata, and covers the coasts of the
-Crimea with her strong-holds and castles.</p>
-
-<p>At a later period the Florentines appear on the scene, and
-assume the rank formerly held by Pisa in Mediterranean commerce.
-The acquisition of the sea-port of Leghorn (1421) opens
-the barriers of the ocean to the birthplace of Dante and
-Galileo.</p>
-
-<p>After their deliverance from the Moorish yoke in the ninth
-century, a fresh and vigorous spirit begins also to animate the
-Catalans. They conclude treaties of commerce with Genoa and
-Pisa, and towards the end of the thirteenth century the ships of
-Barcelona are found visiting all the ports of the Mediterranean.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">� 451 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>But in spite of the growth of trade and navigation in Italy and
-Spain, many years had yet to elapse after the fall of the Roman
-empire ere the gates of the Atlantic were once more opened to
-the navigators of the Mediterranean. It was not before the
-middle of the thirteenth century, after Seville and a great part
-of the Andalusian coast had been wrested from the Moors by
-Ferdinand of Castile, that the Italian and Catalonian seafarers,
-encouraged by privileges and remissions of duties, began to visit
-the port of Cadiz, where they met with merchants from Portugal
-and Biscay. Soon after, and most probably in consequence of
-the connexions thus formed, we find Italian ships visiting the
-ports of England and the Netherlands. About 1316, Genoese
-vessels began to carry goods to England; and somewhat
-later the Venetians, whose visits are not mentioned by the
-chroniclers before 1323.</p>
-
-<p>Thus after a long interruption we see the seamen of the
-Mediterranean at length resuming the track to the Atlantic
-ports that had been struck out more than thirty centuries before
-by their predecessors the Ph&#339;nicians. But their voyages to the
-western ocean took place under circumstances much more
-favourable than those which had attended the men of Tyre and
-Carthage in their adventurous expeditions. Not only the better
-construction of their ships, but still more the use of the mariner's
-compass, for which Europe is probably indebted to the Arabs,
-who in their turn owed its knowledge to the Chinese, enabled
-them to steer more boldly into the open sea, and regardless of
-the bendings of the coasts to reach their journey's end by a less
-circuitous route. The period when the magnetic needle was
-first made use of by the Mediterranean navigators is not exactly
-known, but so much is certain that it did good service long before
-the time of Flavio Gioja (1302), to whom its discovery has
-been erroneously ascribed, though he may have introduced some
-improvement in the arrangement of the compass. Humboldt
-tells us in his "Cosmos," that in the satirical poem of Guyot de
-Provens, "La Bible" (1190), and in the description of Palestine
-by Jaques de Vitry, bishop of Ptolemais (1204-1215), the sea-compass
-is mentioned as a well-known instrument. Dante also
-speaks of the needle which points to the stars (Paradise, xii. 29);
-and in a nautical work by Raimundus Lullus of Majorca, written
-in the year 1286, we find another proof of a much earlier
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">� 452 �</a></span>
-knowledge of the compass than before the beginning of the
-fourteenth century, since its use by the mariners of his time is
-expressly mentioned by that author.</p>
-
-<p>Confidently following this unerring guide, the Catalonians
-sailed at an early period to the north coast of Scotland, and even
-preceded the Portuguese in their discoveries on the west coast of
-Africa, since Don Jayme Ferrer penetrated to the mouth of the
-Rio de Ouro as early as August 1346. About the same time the
-long-forgotten Canary Islands were rediscovered by the Spaniards;
-and at a later period (1402-1405) conquered and depopulated
-by some Norman adventurers, the Bethencourts.</p>
-
-<p>While thus the South-European navigators unfurled their sails
-on the Atlantic, and gave the first impulse to the glorious discoveries
-that in the following century were destined to open up
-the ocean, and reveal its hitherto unknown greatness to mankind,
-the Indian Sea still remained closed to their enterprise; for
-though the Venetians by this time rivalled, if they did not surpass
-the ancient maritime greatness of the Tyrians in the Mediterranean,
-they did not, like them, directly fetch the rich produce
-of the South in their own ships from the East-African and
-Indian ports, but received them at second hand from the Arabian
-masters of Syria and Egypt.</p>
-
-<p>But though no ship of theirs was ever seen in the Indian
-seas, through them the knowledge of the Arabian discoveries
-in those parts penetrated to Europe, and widely extended the
-knowledge of the ocean. For when the Arabs, fired by the prophetic
-ardour of Mahomet, suddenly emerged from the obscurity
-of pastoral life, and appeared as conquerors before the astonished
-world, the trade of the Indian Ocean fell into the hands of these
-new masters of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, who soon learnt
-to pursue it with an energy which the Romans and Persians had
-never known. The town of Bassora was founded by the caliph
-Omar on the western shore of the great stream formed by the
-confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, and soon emulated
-Alexandria herself in the greatness of its commerce. From Bassora
-the Arabs sailed far beyond the Siamese Gulf, which had
-formerly bounded European navigation. They visited the unknown
-ports of the Indian archipelago, and established so active a
-trade with Canton, that the Chinese emperor granted them the
-use of their own laws in that city.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">� 453 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>This progress of the Arabs, and the vast treasures accruing to
-Venice from the overland Indian trade, could not fail to excite
-the envy of the other seafaring powers, and to call forth an increasing
-desire of discovering a new maritime route to the wealth-teeming
-regions of Southern Asia.</p>
-
-<p>The wonderful narratives of the first travellers who wandered
-by land to the distant East likewise contributed in no small
-degree to foment the ardour of discovery. The most celebrated
-of these geographical pioneers was Marco Polo, a noble Venetian
-who had resided many years at the court of the Mongol ruler,
-Kublai Khan, and visited the most remote regions of Asia. He
-was the first European that ever sailed along the western shores
-of the Pacific, the first that told his astonished countrymen of
-the magnificence of Cambalu or Peking, the capital of the great
-kingdom of Cathay, and of the splendour of Zipanga or Japan
-situated on the confines of a vast ocean extending to the east.
-He also made more than one sea-voyage in the Indian Ocean,
-and to him Europe owed her first knowledge of the Moluccas,
-the east coast of Africa, and the island of Madagascar.</p>
-
-<p>This greatest of all the medi&aelig;val travellers, who without exaggeration
-may be said to have enlarged the boundaries of the
-known earth as much as Alexander the Great, was followed by
-Oderich of Portenau, who travelled as far as India and China
-(1320-1330); by Sir John Mandeville, who visited almost all
-the lands described by Marco Polo; by Schildberger of Munich,
-who accompanied the barbarous Tamerlane on his locust expeditions;
-and finally by Clavigo, sent in the year 1403 by the Spanish
-court on an embassy to Samarcand. The truths which these bold
-travellers communicated to their countrymen about the riches
-and the commerce of the nations they had visited, as well as the
-fables in which their credulity or their extravagant fancy indulged,
-made an enormous impression on the European mind,
-and raised to a feverish heat the longing after those sunny lands
-and isles which imagination adorned with all the charms of an
-earthly paradise.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">� 454 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_XXIV" id="CHAP_XXIV">CHAP. XXIV.</a></h2>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">Prince Henry of Portugal.&mdash;Discovery of Porto Santo and Madeira.&mdash;Doubling of
-Cape Bojador.&mdash;Discovery of the Cape Verde Islands.&mdash;Bartholomew Diaz.&mdash;Vasco
-de Gama.&mdash;Columbus.&mdash;His Predecessors.&mdash;Discovery of Greenland by
-G�nnbjorn.&mdash;Bjorne Herjulfson.&mdash;Leif.&mdash;John Vaz Cortereal.&mdash;John and
-Sebastian Cabot.&mdash;Retrospective View of the Beginnings of English Navigation.&mdash;Ojeda
-and Amerigo Vespucci.&mdash;Vincent Ya�ez Pinson.&mdash;Cortez.&mdash;Verazzani.&mdash;Cartier.&mdash;The
-Portuguese in the Indian Ocean.</div>
-
-
-<p>The reigning idea of a century finds always one or more eminent
-spirits, in whom and through whose agency the desires and
-hopes of thousands ripen into deeds, and are changed from
-dreams into realities. One of these rare and highly gifted men
-was Prince Henry of Portugal, a son of King John I., who
-made it the chief aim of his life to extend the boundaries of
-maritime discovery, and devoted with glowing ardour all the
-powers of his energetic mind, and all the influence of rank and
-riches to the attainment of this noble object. From the castle
-of Sagres near Cape St. Vincent, where, far from the court, he
-had fixed his residence in order to be less disturbed in his
-favourite studies, his eye glanced over the Atlantic, which
-constantly reminded him of the unknown lands which held out
-such brilliant prospects to the navigator who should venture to
-steer southwards along the African coast. The experienced
-seamen and learned geographers that surrounded him confirmed
-him in his hopes, and encouraged him to attempt the
-realisation of his generous ideas.</p>
-
-<p>Fortunately all outward circumstances combined to favour
-the prince's projects. At that time Portugal was not plunged,
-as at present, in a state of slothful lethargy, but full of the bold
-and enterprising spirit which the expulsion of the Moors and
-long intestine wars had called to life. The geographical position
-of the country, bounded on every side by the dominions of
-a mightier neighbour, forbade all extension by land, and pointed
-to the ocean as the only field in which a comparatively small
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">� 455 �</a></span>
-but spirited people could hope to reap a rich harvest of wealth
-and glory.</p>
-
-<p>The first two ships which Prince Henry sent out on a voyage
-of discovery along the African coast (1412) did not reach
-farther than Cape Bojador, whose rocky cliffs stretching far out
-into the Atlantic intimidated their inexperienced commanders.
-Six years later (1418) Juan Gonsalez Zarco and Tristan Vaz
-Tejeira were intrusted with a new expedition, and sailed with
-express commands to double that ill-famed promontory; but a
-terrible gale drove them out to sea, and forced them to seek
-a refuge on an unknown island, to which they thankfully gave
-the name of Porto Santo. This discovery, though extremely
-unimportant in itself, served to confirm the prince in his
-projects, and encouraged him to send out in the following year
-a new expedition under the same commander, to take possession
-of the island.</p>
-
-<p>This led to a more important discovery, for on landing on
-Porto Santo the attention of the Portuguese was struck by a
-black and prominent spot, rising above the southern horizon.
-To this they now directed their course, and were equally delighted
-and surprised to see it swell out as they approached to
-the ample proportions of a large island; to which, on account of
-the dense forests which at that time covered its verdant hill-slopes
-up to the very top, they gave the name of Madeira. Prince
-Henry immediately equipped a considerable fleet to carry a
-colony of his countrymen to the new land of promise, and furnished
-them with the vine of Cyprus, and the sugar-cane of
-Sicily, which throve so well on the Atlantic isle, that after a
-few years the produce of Madeira began to be of consequence in
-the trade of the mother country.</p>
-
-<p>Thus the first undertakings of Prince Henry were not left
-unrewarded; but, besides the commercial advantages arising
-from the possession of Madeira, it encouraged the Portuguese
-navigators no longer servilely to creep along the coasts, but
-boldly to steer into the open sea. Thus Don Gilianez, by avoiding
-the shore-currents, succeeded at last in doubling the dreaded
-Cape Bojador (1433), and opening a new sphere to navigation.
-One discovery now rapidly followed another. Gonsalez and Nu�o
-Tristan (1440-1442) penetrated as far as the Senegal; Cape de
-Verd was reached in 1446; and three years later, the limits of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">� 456 �</a></span>
-the known earth were extended as far as the islands of the same
-name and the Azores, those advanced sentinels in the bosom of
-the Atlantic. It may easily be imagined how much these successes
-contributed to encourage the universal ardour for discovery.
-Adventurers from all countries hastened to Portugal,
-hoping to gratify their ambition or avarice under the auspices of
-a prince who had already achieved so much; and even many
-Venetians and Genoese, who were at that time superior to all
-other nations in naval science, reckoned it as an honour to serve
-under a flag which might justly be considered as the high school
-of the seaman. Thus before Prince Henry closed his eyes (1463)
-the aim of his glorious life had been attained; for, though he
-did not live to see his countrymen penetrate into the Indian
-Ocean, yet he witnessed the mighty impulse which in a short
-time was to lead to that important result.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1471 the line was crossed for the first time, and
-the Portuguese thus detected the error of the ancients, who
-believed that the intolerable heat of a vertical sun rendered the
-equatorial regions uninhabitable by man.</p>
-
-<p>Under John the Second a mighty fleet discovered the
-kingdoms of Benin and Congo (1484), followed the coast above
-1500 miles beyond the equator, and revealed to Europe the
-constellations of another hemisphere.</p>
-
-<p>The farther their ships penetrated to the south, the higher
-rose the flood tide of their hopes. As the African continent
-appeared sensibly to contract itself, and to bend towards the
-East as they proceeded, they no longer doubted that the way to
-the Indian Ocean would now soon be found, and give them the
-exclusive possession of a trade which had enriched Venice, and
-made that city the envy of the world. The ancient long-forgotten
-tale of the Ph&#339;nician circumnavigation of Africa now
-found belief, and Bartholomew Diaz sailed from Lisbon for the
-purpose of solving the important problem. The storms of an
-unknown ocean, the famine caused by the loss of his store-ship,
-and the frequent mutinies of a dispirited crew, could not stop
-the progress of this intrepid mariner, who, boldly advancing in
-the face of a thousand difficulties, at length discovered the high
-promontory which forms the southern extremity of Africa.
-But, as his weather-beaten ships were no longer able to confront
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">� 457 �</a></span>
-the mountain-billows and furious gales foaming or roaring
-round that stormy headland, he was obliged, sore against his
-will, to give up the attempt to double the Cape of Tempests,
-Cabo tormentoso, as he called it, but to which the king gave the
-more inviting name of the Cape of Good Hope. Yet before
-Vasco de Gama set sail from Lisbon to accomplish the great
-work (1498) and win the prize to which so many navigators
-had gradually paved the way, the astounding intelligence had
-flashed through Europe that on the 12th of October, 1492,
-Columbus had discovered a new world in the west. The history
-of this most famous, and most important in its results, of all
-sea-voyages, is so well known that I may well refrain from
-entering into any details on the subject: at all events the reader
-will be much more interested by a short account of the intrepid
-navigators who, long before the great Genoese, found their way
-to the shores of the new continent.</p>
-
-<p>While Tropical America is separated from Europe and Africa
-by a vast tract of intervening ocean, and even the advanced
-posts of the Azores and Cape de Verd Islands are far distant
-from the western shores of the Atlantic, Iceland and Greenland
-appear to us in the north as stations linking at comparatively
-easy distances the Old World and the New. It is, therefore, by
-no means surprising that the discovery of Iceland by the Norwegian
-<i>Viking</i> or pirate Nadod, and the somewhat later colonisation
-of the island by Ingolf, in the year 875, should in the
-following century have led the Norsemen to the discovery of
-America, particularly when we consider that no people ever
-equalled them in daring and romantic love of adventure:</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i1">"Kings of the main their leaders brave,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Their barks the dragons of the wave."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Greenland, discovered by G�nnbjorn in the year 876 or 877,
-was indeed not colonised by the Icelanders before 983; a delay
-excusable enough when we consider the uninviting climate of
-that dreary peninsula or island, but three years after the latter
-date, we already find Bjorne Herjulfson undertaking a cruise
-from the new settlement to the south-west, and successively
-discovering Nantucket, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, though
-without making any attempts to land. Bjorne was followed
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">� 458 �</a></span>
-about the year 1000 by Leif, a son of Erick the Red, the founder
-of the Greenland colony; who, sailing along the American
-coast as far as 41-1/2� north lat. discovered the <i>good Winland</i>,
-which received its name from the wild vines which Tyrker, a
-German who accompanied the expedition, found growing there
-in abundance. The fertility and mild climate of this coast,
-when compared with that of Labrador and Greenland, induced
-the discoverers to settle, and to found the first European colony
-on the American continent. Frequent wars with the Eskimos
-or Skrelingers (dwarfs), who at that time, as I have already
-mentioned in the fourth chapter, extended far more to the south
-than at present, soon however destroyed the colony; and the last
-account of Norman America we find in the old Scandinavian
-records is the mention of a ship which, in the year 1347, had
-sailed from Greenland to Markland (Nova Scotia) to gather
-wood, and was driven by a storm to Stamfjord on the west coast
-of Iceland. About this time also the colonies in Greenland,
-which until then had enjoyed a tolerable state of prosperity,
-decayed and ultimately perished under the blighting influence
-of commercial monopolies, of wars with the aborigines, and
-above all of the <i>black death</i> (1347-1351), that horrible plague
-of the fourteenth century, which, after having depopulated
-Europe, vented its fury even upon those remote wilds. Thus
-the knowledge of the Norman discovery of America gradually
-faded from the memory of man, and thus also it happened that
-the names and deeds of Leif and Bjorne Herjulfson remained
-totally unknown to the southern navigators, who at that time
-moreover, had little intercourse with the nations of Northern
-Europe.</p>
-
-<p>Besides his well-authenticated Norman predecessors, Columbus
-may possibly have had others. Traces of early Irish and
-Welsh discoveries are pointed out by the Northern historians,
-and John Vaz Cortereal, a Portuguese navigator, is said to have
-visited the coasts of Newfoundland some time previous to the
-voyages of Columbus and Cabot.</p>
-
-<p>If before the first voyage of the great Genoese navigator a
-mighty longing to penetrate to distant countries pervaded the
-public mind of Europe, it may be imagined to what a feverish
-glow this reigning idea of the century was excited, when the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">� 459 �</a></span>
-wonderful accounts of the gold and enchanting beauty of Haiti
-spread from land to land. As in former times, half Europe had
-thrown itself upon the Orient to liberate the tomb of our
-Saviour from the tyranny of the Moslem; so now one flood of
-adventurers followed another to the new land of promise, which
-held out such glittering prospects of wealth and enjoyment.
-Obeying the mighty impulse, England and France now entered
-upon the path on which Portugal and Spain had so gloriously
-preceded them, and, as the fruit of this general emulation, we
-see after a few years the whole western shore of the great
-Atlantic basin drawn into the circle of the known earth.</p>
-
-<p>If Columbus was undoubtedly the first discoverer of the West
-Indian islands (the Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, 1492; Lesser Antilles,
-1493; Jamaica, 1494), the honour of having preceded him on
-the American continent belongs to John Cabot, a Venetian
-merchant settled in Bristol, and to the youthful energy of his
-son Sebastian, since they landed on the coast of Labrador (24th
-June, 1497) seventeen months before the continent of Tropical
-America, in the delta of the Orinoco, was discovered by
-Columbus on his third voyage.</p>
-
-<p>Thus Genoa and Venice, the great Mediterranean rivals, divide
-the glory of having revealed a new world to mankind, but it
-was ordained that the laurels of their sons should bloom under
-a foreign flag, and the fruits of their endeavours be reaped by
-other nations. For as Columbus steered into the western ocean
-in the service of the Spanish monarch, the Cabots were sent by
-Henry the Seventh of England across the Atlantic to discover a
-north-western passage to India. This, of course, they did not
-accomplish, but the discovery of Newfoundland and of the coast
-of America from Labrador to Virginia rewarded their efforts,
-and laid the foundation of Britain's colonial greatness. Their
-voyage is also remarkable as having been the first expedition of
-the kind that ever left the shores of England, which at that
-time held a very inferior rank among the maritime nations, and
-gave but taint indications of her future naval supremacy. On
-this occasion it may not be uninteresting to cast a retrospective
-glance on the modest beginnings of British navigation. In
-the year 1217 the first treaty of commerce was concluded with
-Norway, and in the beginning of the fourteenth century Bergen
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">� 460 �</a></span>
-was the most distant port to which English vessels resorted.
-Soon afterwards they ventured into the Baltic, and it was not
-before the middle of the following century that they began to
-frequent some of the Castilian and Portuguese ports. Towards
-the end of the fifteenth century the English flag was still
-a stranger to the Mediterranean, and direct intercourse with
-the Levant only began with the sixteenth. Edward the Second,
-preparing for his great Scottish war, was obliged to hire five
-galleys from Genoa, the same town whence a few years back
-our giant steamers transported a whole Sardinian army to the
-shores of the Crimea, where centuries before the Genoese had
-been established as lords and masters. Such are the changes
-in the relative position of nations that have been brought about
-by the power of time!</p>
-
-<p>After this short digression I return to America, where, in
-1499, Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci were the first to sail along
-the coast of Paria. The following year was uncommonly rich
-in voyages of discovery, as well in the south as in the north.
-In the western ocean the line was first crossed by Vincent
-Ya�ez Pinson, who doubled Cape Saint Augustin, discovered
-the mouths of the Amazon river, and thence sailed northwards
-along the coast as far as the island of Trinidad, which Columbus
-had discovered two years before. About the same time a
-Portuguese fleet, sailing under the command of Pedro Alvarez
-Cabral to the Indian Ocean, was driven by adverse winds to the
-coast of the Brazils; so that, if the genius of Columbus had not
-evoked, as it were, America out of the waves, chance would
-have effected her discovery a few years later.</p>
-
-<p>A third voyage, which renders the year 1500 remarkable in
-maritime annals, is that of Gaspar Cortereal, a son of John Vaz
-Cortereal whom I have already mentioned as one of the doubtful
-precursors of Columbus.</p>
-
-<p>Hoping to realise the dream of a north-west passage to the
-riches of India, Gaspar appeared on the inhospitable shores
-of Labrador, and penetrated into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
-Storms and ice-drifts forced him to retreat, but firmly resolved
-to prosecute his design, he again set sail in the following year
-with two small vessels. It is supposed that on this second
-voyage he penetrated into Frobisher Bay, but here floating ice-masses
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">� 461 �</a></span>
-and violent gales separated him from his companion
-ship, which returned alone to Portugal.</p>
-
-<p>As in our times the uncertain fate of Franklin has called forth
-a series of heroic deeds, so the doubtful destiny of the Portuguese
-explorer allowed his brother Miguel no rest, whom in the
-following spring we find hastening with three ships on the traces
-of the lost Gaspar. But Miguel also disappeared for ever among
-the ice-fields of the north. A third brother of this high-minded
-family yet remained, who earnestly implored the king that he
-also might be allowed to go forth and seek for his missing
-kindred. But Emanuel steadfastly refused permission, saying
-that these deplorable enterprises had already cost him two of
-his most valuable servants, and he could afford to lose no more.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1501 Rodrigo de Bastidas sailed to the coast of
-Paria, and discovered the whole shore-line from Cape de Vela
-to the Gulf of Darien. In the year 1502 the aged Columbus,
-entering with youthful ardour upon his fourth and last voyage,
-set sail with four wretched vessels, the largest of which was
-only seventy tons burthen, and discovered the coast of the
-American continent from Cape Gracias � Dios to Porto-Bello.
-The east coast of Yucatan was explored in the year 1508 by
-Juan Diaz de Solis and Vincent Ya�ez Pinson, and the island
-of Cuba circumnavigated for the first time by Sebastian de
-Ocampo.</p>
-
-<p>In 1512 Juan Ponce de Leon is led by his evil star to Florida,
-where, instead of finding as he hoped the fountain of eternal
-youth, he is doomed to a miserable end; and in 1517 the above-mentioned
-Solis sails along the coasts of the Brazils to the
-mouth of the Rio de la Plata, where he is killed in a conflict
-with the Indians. In 1518 Cordova makes his countrymen
-acquainted with the north and west coasts of Yucatan, and in
-the same year Grijalva discovers the Mexican coast from Tabasco
-to San Juan de Ulloa. In 1518 he is followed by the great
-Cortez, who lands at Vera Cruz, overthrows the empire of Montezuma
-after a series of exploits unparalleled in history, and
-renders the whole coast of Mexico far to the north subject to
-the Spanish crown.</p>
-
-<p>The voyages of Verazzani (1523) who sailed along the coast
-of the United States, and of Jacques Cartier (1524) who investigated
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">� 462 �</a></span>
-the Bay of St. Lawrence, did not indeed widely extend
-geographical knowledge, as these navigators, who had been sent
-out by Francis I., did no more than examine more closely the
-previous discoveries of Cabot and Cortereal; their explorations
-however had the result of giving France possession of Canada,
-and of entitling her to a share in the fisheries of Newfoundland.
-Thus within half a century after the ever memorable day when
-Columbus first landed on Guanahani, we find almost the whole
-eastern coast of America rising into light from the deep darkness
-of an unknown past.</p>
-
-<p>But while the western shores of the Atlantic were thus unrolling
-themselves before the wondering gaze of mankind, the
-Indian Ocean was the scene of no less remarkable events; for
-in the same year (1498) that Columbus first visited the American
-continent, Vasco de Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope, which
-thus fully justified its auspicious name, crossed the Eastern Ocean,
-and on the 22nd of May landed at Calicut on the coast of Malabar,
-ten months and two days after leaving the port of Lisbon.</p>
-
-<p>And now, as if by magic, the great revolution in commerce
-took place which the Venetians long had feared and the Portuguese
-had no less anxiously hoped for; for the latter lost no time
-in reaping the golden fruits of the glorious discoveries of Gama
-and his predecessors. In less than twenty years their flag waved
-in all the harbours of the Indian Ocean, from the east coast of
-Africa to Canton; and over this whole immense expanse a row
-of fortified stations secured to them the dominion of the seas.
-Their settlements in Diu and Goa awed the whole coast of
-Malabar, and cut off the intercourse of Egypt with India by
-way of the Red Sea. They took possession of the small island
-of Ormus, which commands the entrance of the Persian Gulf,
-and rendered this important commercial highway likewise tributary
-to their power. In the centre of the East-Indian world
-rose their chief emporium, Malacca, and even in distant China
-Macao obeyed their laws. The discovery of the Molucca
-Islands gave them the monopoly of the lucrative spice trade,
-which was destined at a later period, and more permanently, to
-enrich the thrifty Dutchman.</p>
-
-<p>What vast changes had taken place since Prince Henry's
-first expeditions to the coast of Africa! How had old Ocean
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">� 463 �</a></span>
-enlarged his bounds! He who as a child had still known the
-earth with her old and narrow confines might, before his
-hair grew white, have seen the Atlantic assume a definite form;
-Africa project like an enormous peninsula into the boundless
-world of waters, and one single ocean bathe all the coasts from
-Canton to the West Indies.</p>
-
-<p>Yet a few years and the Pacific opens its gates, and all the
-discoveries of Columbus and Vasco seem small when compared
-with the vast regions which Magellan reveals to man.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">� 464 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_XXV" id="CHAP_XXV">CHAP. XXV.</a></h2>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">Vasco Nu�ez de Balboa.&mdash;His Discovery of the Pacific, and subsequent Fate.&mdash;Ferdinand
-Magellan.&mdash;Sebastian el Cano, the first Circumnavigator of the
-Globe.&mdash;Discoveries of Pizarro and Cortez.&mdash;Urdaneta.&mdash;Juan Fernandez.&mdash;Mendoza.&mdash;Drake.&mdash;Discoveries
-of the Portuguese and Dutch in the Western
-Pacific.&mdash;Attempts of the Dutch and English to discover North-East and North-West
-Passages to India.&mdash;Sir Hugh Willoughby and Chancellor.&mdash;Frobisher.&mdash;Davis.&mdash;Barentz.&mdash;His
-Wintering in Nova Zembla.&mdash;Quiros.&mdash;Torres.&mdash;Schouten.&mdash;Le
-Maire.&mdash;Abel Tasman.&mdash;Hudson.&mdash;Baffin.&mdash;Dampier.&mdash;Anson.&mdash;Byron.&mdash;Wallis
-and Carteret.&mdash;Bougainville.</div>
-
-
-<p>The riches which the Indian trade had poured into the lap of
-Venice, and which at a later period fell to the share of the
-Portuguese, formed the chief incitement to the great maritime
-discoveries which illustrated the end of the fifteenth and the
-first half of the sixteenth century.</p>
-
-<p>The hope to discover a new road to India had not only
-animated the Portuguese navigators, but also led Columbus
-and Cabot across the Atlantic. It caused the unfortunate
-Cortereal to sail into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, induced Juan de
-Solis to penetrate into the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, and
-was finally the chief end and aim of the wondrous expedition of
-Magellan. The time is now come when the barriers of the
-Pacific are to fall, but before crossing its vast bosom with the
-illustrious navigator who first traversed it from end to end, I
-shall detain the reader a few moments on the shores of the Gulf of
-Darien, where the wretched remains of the colony of Santa Maria
-el Antigua, founded by Ojeda in 1509, had, after the departure
-of that unfortunate adventurer, freely elected Vasco Nu�ez de
-Balboa to be their governor. This great man, who would have
-emulated the fame of a Cortez or Pizarro if his good fortune
-had been equal to his merit, omitted no opportunity of justifying
-the choice of his comrades by the unremitting zeal he displayed
-for their welfare. Making up for the scantiness of his resources
-by unceasing activity, he subdued the neighbouring caciques,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">� 465 �</a></span>
-and collected a great quantity of gold, which abounded more in
-that part of the continent than in the islands.</p>
-
-<p>It happened during one of his frequent excursions that a
-young Cacique, witnessing a very angry dispute among the
-Spaniards about a few grains of gold, asked them in a contemptuous
-tone why they quarrelled about such a trifle; and
-added, that, if they set such an exorbitant value upon a metal
-comparatively worthless in his eyes, he could gratify their
-utmost wishes by pointing out to them a land where gold was so
-plentiful that even common utensils were made of it. And when
-Balboa eagerly asked where that happy country was situated,
-"Six days' journey to the south," was the answer, "will bring
-you to another ocean along whose coast it lies!"</p>
-
-<p>This was the first time the Spaniards ever heard of the Pacific
-and of gold-teeming Peru, and the intelligence was well calculated
-to inflame the enterprising spirit of their leader. Balboa
-immediately concluded that this sea must be that which Columbus
-and so many other navigators had vainly sought for, and
-that its discovery would beyond all doubt open the way to
-India, which, according to the geographical error of the times,
-was supposed to be far less distant from America than it
-really is.</p>
-
-<p>The most brilliant prospects rose before his fancy, and he
-would immediately have gone forth to realise them, if prudence
-had not warned him first to provide all the means necessary to
-insure success. He therefore endeavoured before all to gain the
-good-will of the neighbouring Indian chiefs, and sent some trustworthy
-agents to Hispaniola with a considerable quantity of
-gold, whereby many adventurers were induced to flock to his
-standard. Having thus reinforced himself, he thought he might
-now safely undertake his important expedition.</p>
-
-<p>The Isthmus of Darien, over which he had to force his way,
-is not above sixty miles broad, but this short distance was rendered
-difficult, or rather impervious, by the innumerable obstacles
-of a tropical wilderness. The high mountains running along the
-neck of land were covered with dense forests, and the low grounds
-beneath filled with deep swamps, from which arose exhalations
-deadly to a European constitution. Wild torrents rushed
-down the ravines, and often forced them to retrace their steps.
-A march through a country like this, thinly peopled by a few
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">� 466 �</a></span>
-savages, and without any other guides than some Indians of
-doubtful fidelity, was an enterprise worthy of all the energies of
-a Balboa.</p>
-
-<p>On the 1st of September, 1513, after the end of the rainy season,
-he set out with a small but well chosen band of 190 Spaniards,
-accompanied by 1000 Indian carriers. As long as he remained
-on the territories of the friendly Caciques his progress was
-comparatively easy, but scarce had he penetrated into the
-interior, when, besides the almost invincible obstacles of nature&mdash;forests,
-swamps, and swollen torrents,&mdash;he had to encounter
-the deadly enmity of the Indians. As he approached, some of
-the Caciques fled to the mountains, after having destroyed or
-carried along with them all that might have been of use to the
-hated strangers; while others, of more determined hostility,
-opposed his progress by force of arms. Although the Spaniards
-had been led to expect that a six days' march would bring them
-to their journey's end, they had already spent no less than twenty-five
-days in forcing their way through the wilderness, amidst
-incessant attacks and hardships. The greater part of them were
-rapidly giving way under fatigues almost surpassing the limits
-of mortal endurance, and even the strongest felt that they could
-not hold out much longer. But Balboa, ever the foremost to
-face danger or difficulty, whose spirits no reverse could damp,
-and whose fiery eloquence painted in glowing colours the
-glorious reward of their present privations, knew how to inspire
-his men with his own unconquerable spirit, so that without a
-murmur they kept toiling on through swamp and forest. At
-length the Indian guides pointed out to them a mountain-crest
-from which they promised them the view of the longed-for ocean.
-Filled with new ardour they climbed up the steep ascent, but
-before they reached the summit Balboa ordered them to halt,
-that he might be the first to enjoy the glorious prospect. As
-soon as he saw the Pacific stretch out in endless majesty along
-the verge of the distant horizon, he fell on his knees and poured
-forth his rapturous thanks to heaven for having awarded him so
-grand a discovery. And now also his impatient companions
-hurried on, and soon the primeval forest&mdash;accustomed only to
-the howlings of the brute or the eagle's scream&mdash;resounded
-with the loud exclamations of their astonishment, gratitude,
-and joy.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">� 467 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>It was from the small mountain-chain of Quarequa, on the 25th
-of September, 1513, that the Spaniards first saw the sea-horizon,
-but they had still several days to march before they reached the
-Gulf of San Miguel. Here Alonzo Martin de Don Benito was
-the first white man that ever floated in a canoe on the Eastern
-Pacific, even before Balboa, armed with sword and shield, descended
-into the water to take possession of the newly discovered
-ocean in the name of the king his master.</p>
-
-<p>Although the subsequent fortunes of this great man are
-foreign to my subject, yet it may not be uninteresting to the
-reader to be informed how his important services were requited.
-Unfortunately the ingratitude of the Spanish court, which so
-scandalously embittered the declining years of Columbus and
-Cortez, reached its lowest depth in the case of Balboa. Those
-great men had at least in the beginning enjoyed some show of
-favour, but the discoverer of the Pacific was treated throughout
-with the basest indignity. The governorship of Darien, to which
-his splendid achievements had given him so undeniable a claim,
-was conferred upon a certain Pedrarias Davila, a wretch who,
-after having persecuted and thwarted the hero in every possible
-way, caused him at length to be beheaded, under a false accusation
-of high treason.</p>
-
-<p>Six years after Balboa had first seen the Pacific, two years
-after his execution, Ferdinand of Magellan made his appearance
-in that great ocean. A Portuguese of noble birth, this eminent
-navigator had served with distinction under Albuquerque, the
-conqueror of Malacca. His plan of seeking a new road to India
-across the Atlantic being but coldly received in his native
-country, he transferred his services to Spain, where his distinguished
-merit found better judges in Cardinal Ximenes, and
-his youthful master, Charles V. With five ships, the largest
-of which did not carry more than 120 tons, and with a crew of
-236 men, partly the sweepings of the jails, he sailed on the 20th
-of September, 1519, from the port of San Lucar, and spent
-the following summer (the winter of the southern hemisphere)
-on the dreary coast of Patagonia. In this uncomfortable station
-he lost one of his squadron; and the Spaniards suffered so much
-from the excessive rigour of the climate, that the crews of three
-of his ships, headed by their officers, rose in open mutiny, and
-insisted on relinquishing the visionary project of a desperate
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">� 468 �</a></span>
-adventurer, and returning directly to Spain. This dangerous
-insurrection Magellan suppressed by an effort of courage no less
-prompt than intrepid, and inflicted exemplary punishment on
-the ringleaders.</p>
-
-<p>He now continued his journey to the south, and reached, near
-53� south lat., the celebrated straits which bear his name. Here
-again he had to exert his full authority to induce his reluctant
-followers to accompany him into the unknown channel that was
-to lead them to an equally unknown ocean. One of his ships
-immediately deserted him and returned to Europe, but the
-others remained true to their commander, and, after having
-spent twenty days in winding through those dangerous straits,
-they at last, on the 27th of November, 1521, emerged into the
-open ocean, the sight of which amply repaid Magellan for all
-the anxieties and troubles he had undergone. They now pursued
-their way across the wide expanse of waters, of whose enormous
-extent they had no conception, and soon had to endure
-all the miseries of hunger and disease. But the continuous
-beauty of the weather, and the steady easterly wind, which, swelling
-the sails of Magellan, drove him straight onwards to the
-goal, kept up his courage; and induced him to give to the
-ocean which greeted him with such a friendly welcome the name
-of the Pacific, which it still, though undeservedly, retains. During
-three months and twenty days he sailed to the north-west,
-and, by a singular mischance, without seeing any land in those
-isle-teeming seas, except only two uninhabited rocks which he
-called the "Desventuradas," or the "Wretched." At last, after
-the longest journey ever made by man through the deserts of
-the ocean, he discovered the small but fruitful group of the
-Ladrones (March 6, 1521), which afforded him refreshments in
-such abundance, that the vigour and health of his emaciated
-crew was soon reestablished. From these isles, to which his
-gratitude might have given a more friendly name, he proceeded
-on his voyage, and soon made the more important discovery of
-the islands now known as the <i>Philippines</i>. In one of these he
-got into an unfortunate quarrel with the natives, who attacked
-him in great numbers and well-armed; and, while he fought at
-the head of his men with his usual valour, he fell by the hands of
-those barbarians, together with several of his principal officers.</p>
-
-<p>Thus Magellan lost the glory of accomplishing the first circumnavigation
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">� 469 �</a></span>
-of the globe; the performance of which now fell
-to the share of his companion, Sebastian El Cano, who returned
-to San Lucar in the "Victoria" by the Cape of Good Hope,
-having sailed round the globe in the space of three years and
-twenty-eight days.</p>
-
-<p>But although Magellan did not live fully to achieve his glorious
-undertaking, the astonishing perseverance and ability with which
-he performed the chief and most difficult part of his arduous task
-have secured him an immortal renown. Nor has posterity been
-unmindful of his services, having awarded his name an imperishable
-place in the memory of man, both in the straits, the
-portal of his grand discovery, and in the "Magellanic clouds,"
-those dense clusters of stars and nebul&aelig; which so beautifully
-stud the firmament of the southern hemisphere.</p>
-
-<p>After Magellan, Pizarro, the conqueror of Peru, shines as a discoverer
-in the South Sea. The history of his memorable feats
-by land does not belong to this narrative, but I may well accompany
-him on his adventurous navigation along the unknown
-coast of South America, and relate the hardships he had to endure
-before he was enabled to reap the rewards of victory.</p>
-
-<p>Soon after the execution, or rather the murder, of Balboa,
-Pedrarias Davila obtained permission to transfer the colony of
-Darien to Panama, which, although equally unhealthy, yet from
-its situation on the Pacific afforded greater facilities for the
-prosecution of discovery on the south-west coast, to which now
-all the hopes and plans of the Spanish gold-seekers were directed.
-Several expeditions left the new colony in rapid succession, but
-all proved unsuccessful. Their timorous leaders, none of whom
-had ventured beyond the dreary coasts of <i>Tierra firme</i>, gave
-such dismal accounts of their hardships and the wretched aspect
-of the countries they had seen, that the ardour for discovery was
-considerably damped, and the opinion began to gain ground that
-Balboa must have founded chimerical hopes on the idle tales of
-an ignorant or deceitful savage.</p>
-
-<p>But there were three men in Panama, Francisco Pizarro, Diego
-de Almagro, and Hernando Luque, who, far from sharing the
-general opinion, remained fully determined to seek the unknown
-gold-land. Pizarro and Almagro were soldiers, Luque was a priest.
-They formed an association approved of by the governor, each
-agreeing to devote all his energies to the common interest.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">� 470 �</a></span>
-Pizarro, the poorest of the three, took upon himself the greater
-part of the hardships and dangers of the enterprise, and volunteered
-to command the first expedition that should be fitted out;
-Almagro engaged to follow him with the necessary reinforcements;
-and Luque, the man of peace, promised to watch in
-Panama over the interests of the association.</p>
-
-<p>On the 14th of November, 1524, Pizarro sailed from Panama
-with 112 men, closely packed together in one small vessel. Unfortunately
-he had chosen the worst season of the year for his
-departure, as the periodical winds raging at the time blew quite
-contrary to the course he intended to pursue, and thus it happened
-that after seventy days he had advanced no farther to the south-east
-than an experienced navigator will now traverse in as many
-hours. During this tedious journey he landed in different parts
-of the coast of Tierra firme, but, finding all the previous descriptions
-of its inhospitable nature fully confirmed, he saw himself
-obliged to await the promised reinforcements in Chuchama,
-opposite to the Pearl Islands. Here he was soon joined by
-Almagro, who had suffered similar hardships, and moreover
-lost an eye in a fight with the Indians. But, as he had advanced
-farther to the south, where the country and people wore a more
-favourable aspect, this slight glimpse of hope encouraged the
-adventurers to persevere in spite of all the miseries they had
-endured. Almagro returned to Panama, where with the greatest
-difficulty he could levy fourscore men, his sufferings and those
-of his companions having given his countrymen a very unfavourable
-idea of the service.</p>
-
-<p>With this small reinforcement the associates did not hesitate
-to renew their enterprise, and at length, after a passage no less
-tedious than the first, reached the Bay of Saint Matthew on the
-coast of Quito (1526). In Tecumez, to the south of the Emerald
-River, they were delighted with the aspect of a fine well-cultivated
-country, inhabited by a people whose clothing and dwellings
-indicated a higher degree of civilisation and wealth. But,
-not venturing to attempt its conquest with a handful of men enfeebled
-by fatigue and disease, they retired to the small island
-of Gallo, where Pizarro waited, while Almagro once more returned
-to Panama, hoping that the better accounts he could
-give of their second journey would procure reinforcements large
-enough for the conquest of the newly discovered countries.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">� 471 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>But the new governor of Panama, Pedro de los Rios, interdicted
-all further volunteering for an enterprise he considered
-chimerical, and even sent a vessel to the island of Gallo to bring
-back Pizarro and his companions. The associates, on the other
-hand, were less inclined than ever to give up their enterprise,
-now that better prospects had opened, so that Pizarro peremptorily
-refused to obey the governor's commands, and used all his
-eloquence in persuading his men not to abandon him. But the
-hardships they had endured, and the prospect of soon revisiting
-their families and friends, pleaded so strongly against him, that
-when he drew a line with his sword upon the sand, and told
-those that wished to leave him to pass over it, only thirteen of
-his veterans remained true to his fortunes.</p>
-
-<p>With this select band of heroes Pizarro now retired to the
-desert island of Gorgona, where, as it lay further from the
-coast, he could await with greater security the reinforcements
-which he trusted the zeal of his associates would soon be able to
-procure. Nor was he deceived, for Almagro and Luque, by
-their repeated solicitations, at length prevailed upon the governor
-to send out a small vessel to his assistance, though without one
-landsman on board, that he might not be encouraged to any
-new enterprise. Meanwhile Pizarro and his faithful "thirteen"
-had spent five long months on their wretched island, their eyes
-constantly turned to the north, until, heart-sick and despairing
-from hope deferred, they resolved to intrust themselves to the
-inconstant waves upon a miserable raft, rather than remain any
-longer in that dreadful wilderness. But now at last the vessel
-from Panama appeared, and raised them so thoroughly from the
-deepest despondency to the most extravagant hopes, that Pizarro
-easily induced not only his old friends, but also the crew of the
-vessel, to sail farther to the south instead of returning at once
-to Panama.</p>
-
-<p>This time the winds were favourable, and after a voyage of
-twenty days they at length reached the town of Tumbez on the
-coast of Peru, where the magnificent temple of the sun and the
-palace of the Incas, with its costly golden vases, exceeded their
-most sanguine expectations. But once more Pizarro, too weak
-to attempt invasion, was obliged to content himself with the
-view of the riches he one day hoped to possess, and returned to
-Panama after an absence of three years.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">� 472 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Amidst interminable delays and difficulties, which, although
-not to be compared to those he had endured, would still have
-totally discouraged a mind of a less iron mould, five years
-more elapsed before the matchless perseverance of Pizarro met
-with its reward. On the 14th of April, 1531, he landed in Peru
-for the second time, and in a few months the empire of the
-Incas lay prostrate at his feet. The poor adventurer of Gorgona
-was now one of the richest men on earth.</p>
-
-<p>From this time the stream of conquest and discovery continuously
-rolled on to the south, so that after a few years the
-whole coast of Peru and Chili, as far as the wilds of Patagonia,
-was either known or subject to the Spaniards.</p>
-
-<p>But while Pizarro and his comrades were thus opening the
-south-west coast of America to the knowledge of mankind, the
-conqueror of Mexico was no less anxious to add to his laurels
-the glory of discovery in the Northern Pacific, whose shores his
-warriors had reached in 1521, soon after the fall of the Aztec
-capital. Desirous of opening a new passage to the East Indies, he
-fitted out a fleet (1526), which, under the command of his kinsman
-Alvaro de Saavedra, was to sail to the Moluccas, and most
-likely discovered part of the Radack and Ralick Archipelago,
-visited and described three centuries later by Kotzebue and
-Chamisso.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1536 Cortez himself undertook a maritime expedition
-to the north, discovered the peninsula of California, and
-explored the greater part of the long and narrow bay which
-separates it from the mainland. After the return of this great
-man to Spain, where, loaded with ingratitude, he died in 1547,
-Rodriguez Cabrillo (1543) sailed as far as Monterey, and subsequently
-the pilot of the expedition, Bartholomew Ferreto,
-reached 43� N. lat., where Vancouver's Cape Oxford is situated.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1542 Villalobos made the first attempt to establish
-a colony on the Philippine Islands with settlers from Mexico,
-but, having failed, the colonisation did not take place before
-1565. The intelligence of this success was brought to America
-by the pilot and monk, Fray Andreas Urdaneta, who sailed on
-the 1st of June from Manilla and arrived on the 3rd of October
-in the Mexican port of Acapulco. All previous attempts to sail
-from Asia to America had failed, on account of the opposing
-trade-winds; but Urdaneta sailed northward till he encountered
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">� 473 �</a></span>
-the favourable west wind, which carried him to the New World
-across the wide bosom of the Pacific. The discovery of this
-new ocean route was of considerable importance to the Spaniards,
-and, to perpetuate the memory of Urdaneta's nautical ability,
-they continued to call the passage by his name.</p>
-
-<p>About the same time another Spanish pilot, Juan Fernandez,
-discovered the proper sea route from Callao to Chili, by first
-sailing far out to sea, and thus avoiding the coast-currents from
-the south. He also discovered the island which still bears his
-name, and has become so celebrated by the adventures of Alexander
-Selkirk, and the immortal tale of Daniel Defoe.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1567 an expedition sailed from Callao under
-Alvaro Mendana, which discovered the Solomon Islands; and in
-1595 the group of the Marquesas de Mendoza was first brought
-to light by the same navigator. Before the last expedition of
-Mendana, Drake, the first circumnavigator of the globe (1577-1580)
-after Magellan and El Cano, penetrated into the Pacific,
-by rounding Cape Horn, and subsequently discovered the coasts
-of New Albion as far as 48� N. lat.</p>
-
-<p>After having thus rapidly followed the course of the discoveries
-which during the sixteenth century made Europe acquainted
-with the whole western coast of America, from Cape Pillares in
-Tierra del Fuego to the mouth of the Columbia River, I return
-to the Indian Ocean, where in the beginning of the century we
-left the Portuguese in the full bloom of their power, and, to
-judge by the progress already made, likely to add largely to the
-stock of geographical knowledge. But whether the masters of
-the Indian Ocean had no desire to extend still farther the circle
-of their conquests, or the fiery spirit of enterprise which had
-animated Vasco de Gama and Diaz was prematurely extinguished,
-the discoveries of the Portuguese in the Pacific by no means
-corresponded to the gigantic flight which in less than a quarter
-of a century had led them from Cape de Verde to the extremity
-of the Malayan Archipelago. New Guinea was indeed discovered
-by Don Jorge de Menezes (1526) and Alvaro de Saavedra
-(1528), and some old maps prove that before 1542 a part of
-the coast of New Holland was known to the Portuguese, who had
-penetrated to the north as far as Formosa and Japan, yet at
-the end of the sixteenth century the western boundaries of
-the Pacific were only known from 40� N. lat. to 10� S. lat., and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">� 474 �</a></span>
-all beyond was enveloped in darkness. As little was known
-of the innumerable South Sea islands, for although some of the
-groups had been seen or visited by the Spaniards, their existence
-was kept secret lest other seafaring nations should be
-tempted to explore the wastes of the Pacific.</p>
-
-<p>I have already mentioned that the desire to find a shorter
-route to the wealth of India was the chief inducement which
-led to the discoveries of Vasco de Gama, Columbus, and
-Magellan; this same motive also called forth the first attempts
-of the Dutch and English to find a northern passage to the
-southern seas.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1553 Sir Hugh Willoughby and Chancellor left
-England on their memorable voyage of Arctic discovery, and
-steered to the north-east. In a stormy night they parted company,
-never to meet again. For a long time nothing was heard
-of Willoughby, until some Russian sailors found on the dreary
-coast of Lapland two wrecks tenanted only by the dead. A note,
-dated January 1554, proved that then at least some of the unfortunate
-navigators were still alive; but this was the last and
-only memorial of the mysterious end of the first Britons that
-ever ventured into the frozen seas. Chancellor was more fortunate.
-After having for a long time been driven about by storms,
-he discovered the White Sea, and on landing heard for the first
-time of Russia and her sovereign the Czar Ivan Vasiliovitch,
-who resided in a great town called Moscow. This unknown
-potentate the indefatigable seaman resolved to visit in his capital,
-where he was graciously received, and obtained permission for
-his countrymen to frequent the port of Archangel. Soon after
-his return to England he was sent back to Russia by Queen
-Mary, for the purpose of settling the terms of a treaty of
-commerce between the two nations; and, having satisfactorily
-accomplished his mission, once more set sail from the White
-Sea, accompanied by a Muscovite ambassador. But this time
-the return voyage was extremely unfortunate; two of the ships,
-richly laden with Russian commodities, ran ashore on the coast
-of Norway, and Chancellor's own vessel was driven by a dreadful
-storm as far as Pitsligo in Scotland, in which bay it was wrecked.
-Chancellor endeavoured to save the ambassador and himself in
-a boat, but the small pinnace was upset, and, although the
-Russian reached the strand, the Englishman, after having
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">� 475 �</a></span>
-escaped so many dangers in the Arctic Ocean, was doomed to
-an untimely end within sight of his native shores.</p>
-
-<p>Twenty years afterwards, Martin Frobisher set sail with three
-small vessels of thirty-five, thirty, and ten tons, on no less an
-errand than the discovery of a north-west passage to Asia.
-With these wretched nut-shells he reached the coasts of Greenland
-and Labrador, but was prevented by the ice from effecting
-a landing.</p>
-
-<p>This first voyage was little remarkable in itself, but its accidental
-results tended much to the advancement of northern
-research, for Frobisher brought home some glittering stones,
-the lustre of which was erroneously attributed to gold; a circumstance
-which, as may well be imagined, greatly contributed
-to pave the way for a second expedition to "Meta Incognita."
-This time Frobisher sailed with three ships, of a much larger
-size, that they might be able to hold more of the anticipated
-treasure; and, besides securing 200 tons of the imaginary gold,
-discovered the entrance of the strait which bears his name.</p>
-
-<p>His geographical knowledge may be inferred from the fact
-that he firmly believed the land on one side of this channel to
-be Asia, and on the other America; and, though we may be
-tempted to smile at his ignorance, yet the lion-hearted seaman
-is not the less to be admired, who with such inadequate means
-ventured to brave the unknown terrors of the Frozen Ocean.</p>
-
-<p>The gales and floating ice which greeted Frobisher as he
-endeavoured to force a passage through the strait put a stop to
-all farther progress to India; but, as the gold delusion still
-continued, the expedition was considered eminently successful.
-A large squadron of fifteen vessels was consequently fitted out
-for the summer of 1578, and commissioned not only to bring
-back an untold amount of treasure, but also to take out materials
-and men to establish a colony on those desolate shores.</p>
-
-<p>But this grand expedition, which sailed forth with such
-extravagant hopes, was doomed to end in disappointment. One
-of the largest vessels was crushed by an iceberg at the entrance
-of the strait, and the others were so beaten about by storms
-and obstructed by fogs, that the whole summer elapsed, and
-they were fain to return to England without having done anything
-for the advancement of geographical knowledge.</p>
-
-<p>The utter worthlessness of the glittering stones having meanwhile
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">� 476 �</a></span>
-been discovered, Frobisher relinquished all further attempts
-to push his fortunes in the northern regions, and sought
-new laurels in a sunnier clime. He accompanied Drake to the
-West Indies, commanded subsequently one of the largest vessels
-opposed to the Spanish Armada, and ended his heroic life while
-attacking a small French fort on behalf of Henry IV., during the
-war with the League. He was one of those adventurous spirits
-always thirsting for action, and too uneasy ever to enjoy repose.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1585, John Davis, with the ships "Sunshine" and
-"Moonshine," carrying besides their more necessary equipments
-a band of music "to cheer and recreate the spirits of the
-natives," made his first voyage in quest of the north-west
-passage, and discovered the broad strait which leads into the
-icy deserts of Baffin's Bay. But neither in this attempt nor in
-his two following ones was he able to effect the object for which
-he strove; and these repeated failures cooled for a long time
-the national ardour for northern discovery.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1594 the Dutch appear upon the scene. This
-persevering and industrious people, which in the following
-century was destined to play so important a part in the politics
-of Europe, had just then succeeded in casting off the Spanish
-yoke, and was laudably endeavouring to gain by maritime
-enterprise a position among the neighbouring states, which the
-smallness of its territory seemed to deny to its ambition. All
-the known roads to the treasures of the south were at that time
-too well guarded by the jealous fleets of Spain and Portugal to
-admit of any rivalry; but, if fortune should favour them in
-finding the yet unexplored northern passage to India, they
-might still hope to secure a lion's share in that most lucrative
-of trades. Animated by the bold spirit of adventure which
-the dawn of independence always calls forth in a nation, a
-company of Amsterdam merchants fitted out an expedition of
-northern discovery, which it intrusted to the superintendence
-and pilotage of William Barentz, one of the most experienced
-seamen of the day.</p>
-
-<p>Barentz left the Texel on the 6th of June, 1594, reached the
-northern extremity of Nova Zembla, and returned to Holland.
-Meanwhile his associate, penetrating through a strait to which
-he gave the very appropriate name of Waigats or "Wind-hole,"
-battled against the floating ice of the Sea of Kara, until, rounding
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">� 477 �</a></span>
-a promontory, he saw a blue and open sea extending before
-him, and the Russian coast trending away towards the south-east.
-He now no longer doubted that he had sailed round the
-famous cape "Tabis" of Pliny, an imaginary promontory which
-according to that erroneous guide formed the northern extremity
-of Asia, and whence the voyage was supposed to be short and
-easy to its eastern and southern shores. He had only reached
-the Gulf of Obi, and within the Arctic Circle the continent of
-Asia still stretched 120 degrees to the east; but this was then
-unknown, and the Dutchman, satisfied with the prospect of success,
-did not press onward to test its reality, but started in full
-sail for Holland, to rouse the sluggish fancy of his phlegmatic
-countrymen with chimerical hopes and golden visions.</p>
-
-<p>On the receipt of this glad intelligence six large vessels were
-immediately fitted out, and richly laden with goods suited to
-the taste of the Indians. A small swift-sailing yacht was added
-to the squadron to bear it company as far as the imaginary promontory
-of Tabis, and thence to return with the good news that
-it had safely performed what was supposed to be the most
-perilous part of the voyage, and had been left steering with a
-favourable wind right off to India.</p>
-
-<p>But, as may well be imagined, these sanguine hopes were
-destined to meet with a woeful disappointment, for the Wind-hole
-Strait, doing full justice to its name, did not allow them to
-pass; and, after many fruitless endeavours to force their way
-through the mighty ice-blocks that obstructed that inhospitable
-channel, they returned dejected and crest-fallen to the port
-whence they had sailed a few months before, elated with such
-brilliant expectations.</p>
-
-<p>Although great disappointment was felt at this failure, the
-scheme however was not abandoned, and on the 16th of May,
-1596, Heemskerk, Barentz, and Cornelis Ryp once more started
-for the north-east. Bear Island and Spitzbergen were discovered,
-whereupon the ships separated; Cornelis and Heemskerk returning
-to Holland, while Barentz, enclosed by the ice, was obliged
-to spend a long and dreary winter in the dreadful solitudes of
-Nova Zembla. Fortunately a quantity of drift-wood was found
-on the strand, which served the Dutchmen both for the construction
-of a small hut and for fuel. At the same time it raised
-their courage, as they now no longer doubted that Providence,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">� 478 �</a></span>
-which had sent them this unexpected succour in the wilderness,
-would guide them safely through all their difficulties.
-And indeed they stood in need of this consolatory belief, for
-as early as September the ground was frozen so hard that they
-tried in vain to dig a grave for a dead comrade, and their
-cramped fingers could hardly proceed with the building of the hut.</p>
-
-<p>The attacks of the white bears also gave them great trouble.
-One day Barentz, from the deck of the vessel, seeing three bears
-stealthily approaching a party of his men who were labouring at
-the hut, shouted loudly to warn them of their peril, and the men,
-startled at the near approach of danger, sought safety in flight.
-One of the party, in his haste and perturbation, fell into a cleft
-in the ice; but the hungry animals fortunately overlooked him,
-and continued their pursuit of the main body. These gained
-the vessel and began to congratulate themselves on their safety,
-when, to their horror, they perceived that their foes, instead of
-retreating from a hopeless pursuit, were actually scaling the ship's
-sides, evidently determined to have their meal. Matters now
-became serious. One of the sailors was despatched for a light,
-but in his hurry and agitation could not get the match to take
-fire (Enfields and revolvers were then unknown), and the
-muskets being thus rendered useless, the sailors in despair kept
-their enemies off by pelting them with whatever articles came
-first to hand. This unequal conflict continued for some time,
-until a well-directed blow on the snout of the largest bear caused
-the <i>barking</i><a name="FNanchor_28" id="FNanchor_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[AB]</a> monster to retire from the field followed by his
-two companions,</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span style="margin-left: 5em;">"who, seeing Hector flee,</span><br />
-No longer dared to face the enemy."<br />
-</div></div>
-
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_28" id="Footnote_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28"><span class="label">[AB]</span></a> "I did not hear them roar as ours do, but they only bark."&mdash;<i>Marten's Voyage
-to Spitzbergen.</i></p></div>
-
-<p>By the middle of October the hut was completed; and though
-the accommodations it afforded were extremely scanty, they were
-glad to take up their abode in it at once.</p>
-
-<p>And now began the long, dreary, three months' night of the
-77th degree of latitude, during which snow-drifts and impetuous
-winds confined them to their miserable dwelling. "We
-looked pitifully one upon the other," says Gerret De Veer, the
-simple narrator of the sufferings of that Arctic winter, "being
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">� 479 �</a></span>
-in great fear that if the extremity of the cold grew to be more
-and more, we should all die there of cold; for that what fire
-soever we made would not warm us." The ice was now two inches
-thick upon the walls and even on the sides of their sleeping-cots,
-and the very clothes they wore were whitened with frost, so that
-as they sat together in their hut they "were all as white as the
-countrymen used to be when they came in at the gates of the
-towns in Holland with their sleads, and have gone all night."</p>
-
-<p>Yet in the midst of all their sufferings these hardy men
-maintained brave and cheerful hearts, and so great was their
-elasticity of spirit that, remembering the 5th of January was
-"Twelfth Even," they determined to celebrate it as best they
-might. "And then," says the old chronicler, "we prayed our
-maister that we might be merry that night, and said that we
-were content to spend some of the wine that night which we
-had spared, and which was our share (one glass) every second
-day; and so that night we made merry and drew for king. And
-therewith we had two pounds of meale, whereof we made pancakes
-with oyle, and every man had a white biscuit, which we
-sopt in the wine. And so, supposing that we were in our own
-country, and amongst our friends, it comforted as well as if we
-had made a great banket in our owne house." Blessed Content!
-arising from a simple heart and a life of honest and healthful toil,
-never didst thou celebrate a greater triumph, or more forcibly
-show thy power, than in that dreary hut on Nova Zembla!</p>
-
-<p>Some weeks afterwards the sun appeared once more above
-the horizon; and the glorious sight, though it soon vanished
-again into darkness, was a joyful one indeed, full of delightful
-images of a return to friends and home. Now, also, the furious
-gales and snow-storms ceased; and, though the severity of the
-cold continued unabated, they were able to brave the outer air
-and recruit their strength by exercise.</p>
-
-<p>When summer came, it was found impossible to disengage the
-ice-bound vessel, and the only hopes of escaping from their
-dreary prison now rested on two small boats, in which they
-ventured on the capricious ocean. On the fourth day of their
-voyage, their fragile barks became surrounded by immense
-quantities of floating ice, which so crushed and injured them,
-that the crews, giving up all hope, took a solemn leave of each
-other. But in this desperate crisis they owed their lives to the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">� 480 �</a></span>
-presence of mind and agility of De Veer, who with a well-secured
-rope leaped from one fragment of ice to another till he
-gained a firm field, on which first the sick, then the stores, the
-crews, and finally the boats themselves, were safely landed.
-Here they were obliged to remain while the boats underwent
-the necessary repairs, and during this detention upon a floating
-ice-field the gallant Barentz closed the eventful voyage of his
-life. He died as he had lived, calmly and bravely, thinking less
-of himself than of the safety of his crew, for his last words
-were directions as to the course in which they were to steer.
-Even the joyful prospect of a return to their families and home
-could not console his surviving comrades for the loss of their
-leader, whom they loved and revered as a friend and father.
-After a most tedious and dangerous passage, they at length
-arrived at Kola in Russian Lapland, where to their glad surprise
-they found their old comrade, John Cornelis, who received them
-on board his vessel and conveyed them to Amsterdam.</p>
-
-<p>During the seventeenth century the most remarkable maritime
-discoveries were made by the English, Dutch, and Spaniards,
-though by the latter only at its commencement. In the year
-1605 Quiros sailed from Callao, discovered the island of
-Sagittaria, since so renowned under the name of Otaheite, and
-the archipelago of Espiritu Santo, or the New Hebrides of Cook.
-On this journey he was accompanied by Torres, the bold seaman
-who some years after gave his name to the strait which separates
-New Guinea from Australia.</p>
-
-<p>While the declining sun of Spain was thus gilding with its
-last rays the northern shore of New Holland, the meridian
-splendour of the Batavian republic cast forth bright beams of
-light over the wide Pacific.</p>
-
-<p>Schouten and Le Maire, penetrating through the strait which
-is still named after the latter, sailed in the year 1616 round
-Tierra del Fuego; and about the same time Hartog discovered
-Eendragt's Land, on the west coast of Australia. The successive
-voyages of Jan Edel (1619), Peter Nuyts (1627), and Peter
-Carpenter (1628), brought to light the northern and southern
-shores of the vast island, which thus began to assume a rude shape
-on the map of the geographer. In the year 1642, Abel
-Tasman, the greatest of the Dutch navigators, drew a mighty
-furrow through the South Sea, discovered Van Diemen's Land,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">� 481 �</a></span>
-which posterity desirous of perpetuating his fame has called
-Tasmania, saw the northern extremity of New Zealand emerge
-from the ocean, and finally unveiled to the world the hidden
-beauties of Tonga.</p>
-
-<p>While the Dutch navigators were thus dissipating the darkness
-of Australia, Hudson and Baffin were immortalising their names
-in the Arctic Ocean.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1627 Henry Hudson made the first attempt to
-steer right on to the pole, and to cross to India over the axis of
-the globe. He reached the northern extremity of Spitzbergen,
-but all his attempts to penetrate deeper into the polar ocean
-were baffled by the mighty ice-fields that opposed his progress.
-But though he failed in his undertaking to sail through the
-region of eternal winter to the spicy groves of India, yet the
-numerous morses and seals he had seen basking on the coast of
-Spitzbergen opened such cheering prospects of future profit,
-that the "Muscovy Company," which had fitted out the expedition,
-was by no means discontented with the issue of his
-voyage.</p>
-
-<p>Three years after we find the gallant Hudson once more
-attempting to discover the north-west passage in a vessel of
-fifty-five tons, provisioned for six months. The crew which he
-commanded was unfortunately utterly unworthy of such a leader,
-and quailed as soon as they had to encounter the fog and
-ice-fields of the Frozen Ocean.</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i1">"And now there came both mist and snow,<br /></span>
-<span class="i4">And it grew wondrous cold;<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">And ice mast-high came floating by,<br /></span>
-<span class="i4">As green as emerald.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">And through the drifts the snowy clifts<br /></span>
-<span class="i4">Did send a dismal sheen,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken,<br /></span>
-<span class="i4">The ice was all between."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-
-<p>But, in spite of the murmurs and repinings of his faint-hearted
-followers, the dauntless commander pressed on through the strait
-which bears his name, until at last his little bark emerged into
-a boundless deep blue sea. Hudson's Bay lay before him, but
-the delighted discoverer was happy in the belief that the grand
-object of his voyage was attained, and the shortest road to India
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">� 482 �</a></span>
-laid open to the mariners of England. It was about the beginning
-of August, and the spiritless crew considering the passage
-accomplished, urged an immediate return; but Hudson was
-determined on completing the adventure, and wintering if possible
-on the sunny shores of India.</p>
-
-<p>Three months long he continued tracking the coasts of that
-vast northern Mediterranean, now for the first time explored by
-civilised man, vainly hoping to see a new channel opening to the
-west, until at length November came and imprisoned his small
-vessel in adamantine fetters. A long and dreary winter awaited
-the ice-bound seamen, with almost exhausted provisions, and
-unfortunately without that heroic patience and serene concord
-which had sustained the sufferings of Barentz and his companions.
-It must indeed have been a melancholy winter for poor Hudson,
-solitary and friendless among scowling ruffians, hating him as
-the cause of their bitter misery; but spring came at last with its
-consolatory sunshine, and hope once more dawned in his tortured
-breast. The ship is again afloat, and on the 21st of June, 1611,
-the captain comes forth from his cabin, refreshed by the sleep of
-a quiet conscience, and strong in body and mind to meet the
-duties of the day. But as he steps on deck his arms are suddenly
-pinioned, and he finds himself in the power of a mutinous
-crew. He looks around for some trace of sympathy, but hatred
-meets him in every eye. Inquiry, remonstrance, entreaty,
-command, all alike fail to move their stubborn resolution, and
-now Hudson resigns himself bravely to his fate, with all the
-quiet dignity of a noble nature, and looks calmly at the ominous
-preparations going forward. A small open boat is in waiting,
-and into this he is lowered, some powder and shot and the carpenter's
-box come next, followed by the carpenter himself, a
-strong brave fellow, the captain's <i>one</i> devoted adherent among
-the rebellious crew; the sick and infirm complete the unfortunate
-cargo. A signal is given, the boat is cast adrift, and
-soon the last faint cry for mercy expires in the breeze which
-carries the vessel onwards on its homeward course.</p>
-
-<p>Thus perished the high-minded Hudson, without further
-tiding or trace, on the scene of his glory; but the vengeance of
-heaven soon overtook the ringleaders of that dark conspiracy.
-Some fell in a fight with the Eskimos, and others died on the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">� 483 �</a></span>
-homeward voyage, which was performed under the extremity of
-famine. Whatever horrors may have attended the last moments
-of Hudson, his sufferings were less, for his conscience was undefiled
-by guilt.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1616 Baffin sailed round the enormous bay to
-which his name has been given, but without attempting to
-penetrate through any one of those wide sounds that have led
-the Arctic navigators of our days to so many glorious discoveries.</p>
-
-<p>From the times of Tasman, whose bold voyage through the
-wastes of the Southern Pacific has already been mentioned, to
-those of our own immortal Cook, but very little was done for
-the progress of geography, as if, after so many heroic endeavours,
-the spirit of maritime discovery had required a long repose to
-recruit its energies, ere the greatest navigator of modern times
-was destined to unveil the mysterious darkness which still concealed
-one half of the vast Pacific from the knowledge of mankind.
-The voyages most worthy of remark during this period
-were those of the Cossack Semen Deshnew (1654), who sailed
-from the mouth of the Kolyma River round the eastern promontory
-of Asia, and must be considered as the discoverer of
-Behring's Straits; of the adventurous Dampier (1689-1691),
-that strange combination of the buccaneer, the author, and the
-naturalist, who first discovered the strait which separates New
-Guinea from New Ireland; of the Dutchman Roggewein (1721-23),
-who made known some islands in the Pacific; of the
-brothers Laptew and of Prontschitschew (1734-1743), who
-unveiled the greatest part of the Siberian coast; of Commodore
-Anson (1740-1744), whose heroic sufferings and successes in the
-Pacific still live in the memory of his countrymen; and of the
-unfortunate Behring (1730-1741), who terminated his second
-unsuccessful exploring expedition by a miserable death on a
-desert island.</p>
-
-<p>After the peace of Aix la Chapelle England felt that the
-dominion of the seas imposed upon her the obligation of extending
-the bounds of geographical knowledge, and thus in rapid
-succession Byron (1764) and Wallis and Carteret (1766-1768)
-were sent forth to discover unknown shores, while France made
-a simultaneous effort to refresh the somewhat meagre laurels she
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">� 484 �</a></span>
-had reaped by the voyages of Verazzani and Cartier. The consequences
-of this emulation were not unimportant. Bougainville
-(1766-1768) completed the discovery of the Solomon Islands,
-which Mendana had only partly seen; Wallis made the world
-acquainted with the beauties of Tahiti, and Byron explored the
-unvisited coasts of Patagonia. But the fame of these worthy
-mariners was soon eclipsed by a greater renown, for, in the same
-year that Wallis returned from his expedition, Cook sailed from
-the port of Plymouth on his first voyage round the world.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">� 485 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_XXVI" id="CHAP_XXVI">CHAP. XXVI.</a></h2>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">What had Cook's Predecessors left him to discover?&mdash;His first Voyage.&mdash;Discovery
-of the Society Islands, and of the East Coast of New Holland.&mdash;His second
-Voyage.&mdash;Discovery of the Hervey Group.&mdash;Researches in the South Sea.&mdash;The
-New Hebrides.&mdash;Discovery of New Caledonia and of South Georgia.&mdash;His
-third Voyage.&mdash;The Sandwich Islands.&mdash;New Albion.&mdash;West Georgia.&mdash;Cook's
-Murder.&mdash;Vancouver.&mdash;La Peyrouse.</div>
-
-
-<p>To form a correct estimate of Cook's discoveries, it is necessary
-that, before following the track of that great seaman, we should
-glance over the vast regions of the Pacific previously unknown
-to man. Many navigators indeed, since Magellan, had traversed
-that immense ocean, but the greater part of its expanse still lay
-buried in obscurity.</p>
-
-<p>To the north of the line, the Spaniards, sailing from Manilla
-to Acapulco, still servilely followed the route which Urdaneta had
-pointed out, and all beyond was unexplored.</p>
-
-<p>The regions to the south of the line were better known, but
-here also maritime discoverers, with the sole exception of
-Tasman, had confined themselves to the tropical waters. No
-one had yet tried to sail through the boundless space which to
-the south of the 25th degree of latitude extended between New
-Zealand and America. Of Australia only the western coast was
-known; the existence of Torres' Strait had long since been forgotten,
-and New Guinea and New Holland were supposed to form
-one connected land. To the south no one knew whether Australia
-and Van Diemen's Land were joined together, or severed
-by a channel; and the eastern coast of the fifth part of the world
-still awaited a discoverer. The boundaries of New Zealand were
-buried in the same obscurity. Tasman had only visited the west
-coast of the northern island, which, as far as was then known,
-might have extended a thousand miles farther on towards Chili.
-In one word, the great geographical problem of an enormous
-southern continent, the existence of which was formerly supposed
-necessary to form the counterpoise of the northern lands, still
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">� 486 �</a></span>
-remained unsolved. The discoveries already made had indeed
-narrowed the limits which during the sixteenth century were
-still assigned to that imaginary continent, but in the unexplored
-bosom of the South Sea there yet was room enough for lands surpassing
-the whole of Europe in extent. Many of the South Sea
-islands moreover, though discovered before Cook's voyages, had
-vanished again from the memory of the world, or, according to
-Humboldt's expression, "wavered, as if badly rooted on the map,
-for want of exact astronomical measurements." Thus two
-hundred and fifty years after Magellan the Pacific still offered
-an enormous field for discovery, and when Cook set sail on the
-30th of July, 1768, on his first voyage of circumnavigation,
-nearly one half of the globe lay open to his researches.</p>
-
-<p>The first service he rendered on this voyage was the discovery
-that the route to the Pacific through the Strait of Le Maire and
-round Cape Horn was preferable to that which until then had
-been followed, through the Straits of Magellan.</p>
-
-<p>After having observed at Otaheite the transit of Venus across
-the sun, which was one of the chief objects of the expedition,
-he soon after landed on the shores of Huaheine, Ulietea, and
-Borabora, which had never yet been visited by a European
-mariner, and gave to the whole group the name of the Society
-Islands, on account of their close vicinity to each other. Thence
-he sailed to New Zealand, which he was the first to find consisted
-of two large islands, separated by the strait which bears his name.
-With unwearied industry he spent no less than six months on
-the accurate survey of the New Zealand group, and then sailed to
-New Holland, the eastern coast of which he first discovered, and
-closely examined in its full length of 2000 miles. He also found
-that the continent of Australia was separated from New Guinea
-by a channel which he called "Endeavour Strait," but to which
-the justice of posterity has restored or awarded the name of Torres,
-its first explorer. This whole sea is so full of dangerous reefs
-and shoals that for months the sounding line was scarce ever laid
-aside, and any less experienced and prudent navigator must inevitably
-have been wrecked during these constant cruises in such
-perilous waters. Even Cook owed more than once his preservation
-to what may well be called a miraculous interposition of
-Providence, of which I shall cite a remarkable example. It was
-on the 10th of June, 1770, in the latitude of Trinity Bay.   The
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">� 487 �</a></span>
-vessel sailed, under a fresh breeze and by clear moonlight,
-through a sea the depth of which the plummet constantly
-indicated at 20 to 21 fathoms, so that not the least danger was
-apprehended. But suddenly the depth diminished to four
-fathoms, and before the lead could be heaved again the vessel
-struck and remained immoveable, except as far as she was
-heaved up and down and dashed against the rocks by the surge.
-The general anxiety may be imagined, and indeed the situation
-was such as to warrant the most serious apprehensions. It
-was found that the ship had been lifted over the ledge of a
-rock and lay in a hollow, inside of the reef, where the water
-in some places was three or four fathoms deep and in others
-hardly as many feet. The sheathing boards were knocked off
-and floating round the ship in great numbers, and at last the
-false keel also was destroyed, while the constant grating of the
-vessel against the rock seemed to announce its speedy disruption.
-It was now necessary to lighten the vessel as much as possible,
-and soon more than 50 tons' weight was thrown overboard.</p>
-
-<p>On the following morning land was seen at the distance of
-eight miles; but no islet lay between, on which, in case the
-vessel went to pieces, a speedy refuge might be found. To add
-to their distress, the vessel drew so much water that three
-pumps could hardly master it; and, finally, it was found that
-even the rising of the flood, on which they mainly reckoned,
-was unavailing to extricate them from their perilous position.
-All that could possibly be spared was now therefore cast into the
-sea, still more to lighten the vessel, and thus the next tide was
-patiently expected, when, after incredible exertion, the ship
-righted, and they got her over the ledge of the rock into deep
-water.</p>
-
-<p>But the men were by this time so much exhausted by their
-uninterrupted labour that they could not stand to the pumps
-more than five or six minutes at a time, after which they threw
-themselves flat on the streaming deck, where they lay till others
-exhausted like themselves took their places, on which they
-started up again and renewed their exertions. In this desperate
-situation one of the midshipmen, named Monkhouse, bethought
-himself of a means by which a ship, having sprung a leak admitting
-more than four feet of water in an hour, had yet been able
-to perform the whole journey from Virginia to London.   He
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488">� 488 �</a></span>
-took a lower studding-sail, and, having mixed a large quantity of
-oakum and wool together, stitched them down by handfuls as
-lightly as possible. The sail was then hauled under the ship's
-bottom by means of ropes which kept it extended. When it
-came under the leak, the wool and oakum, with part of the sail,
-were forced inwards by the pressure of the water, which thus
-prevented its own ingress in such an effectual manner that one
-pump, instead of three, was now sufficient to keep it under. In
-this way they got the ship into a convenient port on the coast of
-New Holland, where they repaired the injury. Here it was
-found that their preservation was not entirely owing to that ingenious
-expedient, for one of the holes in the ship's bottom was
-almost entirely plugged by a piece of rock which had broken off
-and stuck in it; and this hole was so large, that, had it not been
-filled up in this truly extraordinary manner, the vessel must undoubtedly
-have sunk. Some persons, leading a tranquil life
-unvexed by storm or wave, might perhaps be inclined to ascribe
-so miraculous an escape to chance, but the seaman, who has had
-death before his eyes, will always in such a case recognise the
-hand of an Almighty protector: and who can doubt that a thrill
-of intense gratitude flashed through the soul of Cook on the discovery
-of the cause to which he owed the preservation of his
-life?</p>
-
-<p>With a vessel thus shattered, and a crew thus worn with
-fatigue, further discoveries were no more to be thought of, and
-Cook hastened to return by way of Batavia and the Cape to
-England, where he arrived on the 11th of June, 1771.</p>
-
-<p>The object of his second voyage (1772-1775) was to determine
-finally the question of the existence of a great southern continent,
-and to extend the geography of that part of the globe to its utmost
-limits. Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander had accompanied
-him on his first voyage, this time John Reinhold Forster and
-his son George were engaged by government to explore and
-collect the natural history of the countries through which they
-should pass.</p>
-
-<p>On the 13th of July, 1772, Cook sailed from Plymouth, and
-reached the Cape without having a single man sick. Well
-aware how much cleanliness and pure air contribute to health,
-he had neglected none of the means necessary to insure it.
-Every day the beds were aired, the linen of the sailors was
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489">� 489 �</a></span>
-frequently washed, and in rainy weather fire often made between
-decks, to dispel unwholesome damps and effluvia.</p>
-
-<p>He now sailed to the south far into a desert and unknown
-sea, crossed it in various directions, and after having spent 117
-days on the ocean, mostly among floating ice-fields, and without
-having once seen land, he steered northwards to the well-known
-coast of New Zealand, where on the 25th of January, 1773, he
-cast anchor in Dusky Bay. The feelings of the seaman may be
-imagined, when, after long wanderings over the waste of waters,
-he sees land, mountains, forests, and green plains rise above the
-horizon, when singing-birds take the place of the wild sea-mew,
-and friendly faces greet him on the strand. A beneficent
-mind is ever anxious to do good, and thus before sailing
-farther on to Otaheite, Cook caused a little garden to be
-planted, in which European vegetable seeds were sown and confided
-with proper instructions to the care of the intelligent
-savages, who were moreover presented with goats and pigs.</p>
-
-<p>On the return voyage from Tahiti to New Zealand, where he
-intended to provide himself with fire-wood and provisions,
-before advancing once more into the high southern latitudes, he
-was pleased with the discovery of the small but lovely Harvey
-Islands, whose green girdle of cocoa-nut palms mirrors itself in
-the dark blue waters.</p>
-
-<p>And now again he cruised in all directions through the icy
-sea, over an extent of 65� of longitude and as far as the 71st
-degree of southern latitude, without having seen any land; and
-having thus satisfied himself of the non-existence of a southern
-continent, or at least of its circumscription within bounds which
-must ever render it perfectly useless to man, he left those dreary
-regions of eternal winter, to continue his discoveries under a less
-inclement sky.</p>
-
-<p>He first visited Easter Island and the Marquesas, where a new
-discovery received the name of Hood's Island, and on the way
-thence to Tahiti added the Palisser Group to the map of the
-world. We now follow him to the extensive archipelago of
-Espiritu Santo, first seen by Quiros in 1606, who took it for a
-part of the imaginary southern continent. Since then it had
-only been visited by Bougainville (1768), who however had
-contented himself with landing on the Isle of Lepers, and ascertaining
-the fact that it did not form part of a continent but
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490">� 490 �</a></span>
-of a considerable group of islands. Cook on his part examined
-the whole archipelago in such an accurate manner, ascertaining
-the situation of many of the islands and discovering such
-numbers of new ones, that he justly thought he had acquired
-the right to rebaptize them under the name of the New
-Hebrides.</p>
-
-<p>From these islands he sailed for the third time to New Zealand,
-and discovered on his passage New Caledonia and the
-romantic Norfolk Island.</p>
-
-<p>Leaving New Zealand on the 10th of November, 1774, once
-more to search for the southern continent, he traversed a vast
-extent of sea for 17 days, from 43� to 55� 48&#8242; S. lat., when he
-gave up all thoughts of finding any more land in that part of
-the ocean, and determined to steer directly for the west entrance
-of the Straits of Magellan, with a design of coasting the southern
-part of Tierra del Fuego, quite round Cape Horn to Le Maire's
-Straits. Those wild, deeply indented, rocky coasts, the region of
-eternal storms and fogs, form the most striking contrast to the
-smiling shores of the South Sea islands. But, if in the latter
-the splendour of tropical vegetation enchants the eye of the
-spectator, the exuberance of animal life in the Magellanic Archipelago
-may well raise his astonishment. In one of the small
-islands near Staaten Land Cook admired the remarkable harmony
-reigning among the different species of mammifera and
-birds. The sea-lions occupied the greatest part of the sea-coast,
-the bears the inland; the shags were posted on the highest cliffs,
-the penguins in such places as had the best access to the sea;
-and the other birds chose more retired places. Occasionally,
-however, all these animals were seen to mix together like domestic
-cattle and poultry in a farmyard, without one attempting
-to hurt the other in the least. Even the eagles and the vultures
-were frequently observed sitting together on the hills among the
-shags, while none of the latter, either old or young, appeared to
-be disturbed at their presence. No doubt the poor fishes had
-to pay for the touching union of this "happy family."</p>
-
-<p>Having fully explored the southern extremity of America, we
-once more see the indefatigable navigator steer forth into the
-deserts of the southern Polar Ocean, where he discovers some
-snow-clad isles, Bird Island, South Georgia, Sandwich Land,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">� 491 �</a></span>
-the southern Thule; and finally returns to England (30th July,
-1775) after an absence of three years and seventeen days.</p>
-
-<p>His third voyage (1776) was undertaken for the purpose of
-exploring the Northern Pacific, and casting the same broad light
-over those unvisited waters as over the southern part of that
-vast ocean. To the south-east of the Cape of Good Hope he
-discovered Prince Edward's Islands, and thence proceeded to
-explore Kerguelen's Land, discovered six years previously by
-the Frenchman of that name. This wintry island bears neither
-tree nor shrub, but in the bays the gigantic sea-weeds form submarine
-forests, and countless penguins make the dreary shores
-resound with their deep braying voice.</p>
-
-<p>Van Diemen's Land, New Zealand, and the Friendly and
-Society Isles were now visited for the last time. Steering to
-the north, Cook discovered in the last days of the year 1777 the
-Sandwich Islands, most likely previously known to the Spaniards,
-but kept secret from the world; and reached on the 7th of
-March, 1778, the mountainous forest-girt coast of New Albion,
-along which two centuries before Drake had sailed as far as 48�
-N. lat. Penetrating farther and farther to the north, he at
-length reached the most westerly point of the American continent,
-Cape Prince of Wales, which, stretching far out into the
-Straits of Behring, is only thirty-nine miles distant from the
-east coast of Siberia. Both pillars of this water-gate, according
-to Chamisso's description, are high mountains within sight of
-each other, rising abruptly from the sea on the Asiatic side,
-while on the American their foot is bordered by a low alluvial
-plain. On the Asiatic side the sea has its greatest depth, and
-the current, which sets from the south into the channel with a
-rapidity of two or three knots an hour, its greatest strength.
-Whales and numberless herds of walruses are seen only on the
-Asiatic side.</p>
-
-<p>Through these famous straits, which Deshnew had first passed,
-and which Behring most likely never saw, Cook penetrated
-into the Arctic Ocean, examined a part of the Siberian coast,
-and then sailed to the opposite shores of America, where he discovered
-and explored the coast of West Georgia as far as 70� 44&#8242;
-N. lat., until fields of ice opposed an impenetrable barrier to his
-progress.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492">� 492 �</a></span></p>
-
-<p>After having thus illumined with the torch of science the
-farthest extremities of the earth, Cook once more steered to the
-south and discovered Hawaii, the largest of the Sandwich Islands.
-But better had it been for him if the glory of this discovery had
-fallen to the share of some other navigator, for it was here that
-the illustrious seaman, who had thrice circumnavigated the
-globe, was doomed to fall by the club of a barbarous savage.</p>
-
-<p>No navigator has ever made so many important discoveries
-at such distances from each other as Cook, or done more for the
-progress of geographical knowledge. The wide Pacific he so
-thoroughly explored, that his successors found only single ears
-to glean where he had reaped the richest harvest. With the
-firm resolution and the indomitable perseverance of the ancient
-mariners who preceded him on that vast ocean, he combined a
-scientific knowledge they never possessed. What they had only
-flightily observed, or imperfectly described, he in reality discovered,
-and indelibly marked upon the map of the globe.
-Indefatigable with the astrolabe and the plummet, he neglected
-no opportunity of pointing out to his successors both the dangers
-they would have to avoid, and the harbours in which they
-might find a refuge against storms, and a supply of fresh water
-and provisions. His excellent method of preserving the health
-of seamen from the murderous attacks of the scurvy, secures
-him a lasting place among the benefactors of mankind. But he
-not only anxiously watched over the welfare of his companions&mdash;his
-humanity extended a no less salutary influence over the
-savages with whom he came in contact. He everywhere sought to
-better their condition, made them presents of useful animals and
-seeds, and pointed out to them the advantages of peace and agriculture.
-But his chief praise remains yet to be told, and this is,
-that he owed the high position he acquired in life exclusively to
-himself. He whose fame reached as far as the limits of the
-civilised world, and whose death was mourned as a national
-calamity, was the son of a poor labourer, and had commenced
-his career as a common sailor.</p>
-
-<p>The most celebrated navigators during the last quarter of the
-eighteenth century were Vancouver and La Peyrouse.</p>
-
-<p>Vancouver, who had accompanied Cook on his last and fatal
-voyage, gained his chief laurels (1790) by thoroughly exploring
-the north-west coast of America, which his illustrious friend had
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">� 493 �</a></span>
-merely sketched in its most important outlines, having been
-prevented by his untimely end from investigating it more fully
-on a second visit. Vancouver began his hydrographical labours
-at Cape Mendocino, examined the Straits of Juan de Fuca, and,
-having convinced himself of the non-existence of a passage to
-the eastward, accurately investigated the labyrinth of bays, isles,
-sounds, and inlets, extending between 50� and 60� N. lat., thus
-establishing the important fact of the uninterrupted continuation
-of the American continent in these parts. Vancouver's Island
-will transmit his name to the latest posterity, and British
-Columbia remember him as the first navigator that accurately
-mapped her shores.</p>
-
-<p>The fame of La Peyrouse is owing more to his misfortunes than
-to his eminent services. After having distinguished himself as a
-naval officer, he was sent by the equally unfortunate Louis XVI.
-on the voyage of discovery from which he was never to return.
-On the coast of Tartary and in the Japanese seas he examined a
-part of the world which hitherto no European had visited, and
-after having rectified many geographical errors sailed to Botany
-Bay, whence he forwarded his last despatches (7th Feb. 1788)
-to Europe. With the design of sailing through Torres' Straits
-to the Gulf of Carpentaria, he left the new-born English colony,
-but disappeared in the trackless ocean, and years and years
-passed on without solving the mystery of his fate.</p>
-
-<p>At length, in 1826, Captain Dillon, an Englishman, was
-informed by Martin Bushart, a Prussian sailor whom he found
-settled on the Island of Tikopia, that many years since two
-large ships had been wrecked on the neighbouring Island of
-Vanikoro. Having brought this intelligence to Calcutta, he was
-sent out by the East India Company in the "Research" to make
-further inquiries on the scene of the catastrophe. On the 13th of
-Sept., 1827, Dillon anchored at Vanikoro, and, having collected
-the most interesting relics of the shipwreck, left it after a few
-weeks.</p>
-
-<p>These facts became known at Hobart Town to the French circumnavigator
-Dumont d'Urville, who immediately resolved to
-sail to Vanikoro. He arrived there on the 22nd Feb., 1828,
-but at first found it very difficult to persuade the suspicious
-natives to point out to him the remains of the wrecked ship, until
-the offer of a piece of red cloth effectually overcame their scruples.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494">� 494 �</a></span>
-One of the boldest immediately jumped into a boat and offered
-to guide them on condition of receiving the proffered reward.
-The bargain was gladly struck, and the Frenchmen, piloted by
-the negro, eagerly pushed off from shore.</p>
-
-<p>The coral reef which forms an enormous girdle round Vanikoro
-approaches the land opposite to the village of Paiou, so that the
-distance between them is hardly a mile. There, in a channel
-dividing the breakers, the savage caused the boat to stop, and
-made signs to the Frenchmen to look down to the bottom, where
-they saw anchors, cannons, and other objects scattered about and
-overgrown with corals. No doubt now remained, and with deep
-emotion they gazed on these last memorials of the unfortunate
-expedition of La Peyrouse. Metal alone had been able to
-resist the tooth of time, the rolling waters, or the gnawing ship-worm;
-all wood-work was gone.</p>
-
-<p>I have already stated that on D'Urville's arrival he found the
-natives extremely distrustful and shy, answering all his questions
-by negations. It was evident that their conduct towards La
-Peyrouse had been anything but hospitable, and that they now
-feared the tardy vengeance of the white men. But, finding
-themselves treated with invariable kindness, their fears gradually
-gave way, and thus it became possible to gather some information
-about the catastrophe from some old men who had witnessed
-it, and from the most intelligent of the chiefs.</p>
-
-<p>After a dark and stormy night the islanders saw early on the
-following morning an enormous <i>pirogue</i> stranded on the coral
-reef on the south side of the island. The surf soon destroyed
-the ship, and but a small number of the crew reached the shore
-in a boat. On the following day a second large <i>pirogue</i> stranded
-opposite Paiou. But this wreck lying on the lee-side of the
-island, less exposed to the surf, and resting on a more even
-ground, remained a longer time without going to pieces. The
-whole of the crew escaped in the boats to Paiou, where they
-built a small vessel, and after a stay of five months once more
-embarked, and were never heard of since. Most likely they had
-steered towards New Ireland, with the intention of ultimately
-reaching the Moluccas or the Philippine Islands, and perished on
-some unknown reef. The unhealthy condition of D'Urville's
-crew prevented him from extending his researches any further
-along the western coasts of the Solomon Islands. That the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495">� 495 �</a></span>
-stranded vessels were those of La Peyrouse is beyond all doubt;
-for years before and after no other large vessels had been lost
-in those seas. The heavy cannons could only have belonged to
-ships of war such as La Peyrouse commanded, and several of
-the instruments collected by Captain Dillon evidently belonged
-to a scientific expedition.</p>
-
-<p>Before D'Urville left Vanikoro he resolved to raise a simple
-monument to the memory of his unfortunate countrymen, a four-sided
-pyramid resting on a square base. Neither nails nor iron
-clasps fastened the coral blocks together, for fear of awakening
-the cupidity of the savages; and, if they have kept their word
-to honour the <i>Papalangi</i> monument as they would a temple
-erected to their own gods, it still reminds the navigator whom
-chance may lead to that secluded island, of the renown and
-tragical end of the ill-fated La Peyrouse.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">� 496 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="CHAP_XXVII" id="CHAP_XXVII">CHAP. XXVII.</a></h2>
-
-<div class="blockquot2">Scoresby.&mdash;The Arctic Navigators.&mdash;Ross.&mdash;Parry.&mdash;Sufferings of Franklin and
-his Companions on his Overland Expedition in 1821.&mdash;Parry's Sledge-journey
-to the North Pole.&mdash;Sir John Franklin.&mdash;M'Clure.&mdash;Kane.&mdash;M'Clintock.&mdash;South
-Polar Expeditions.&mdash;Billinghausen.&mdash;Weddell.&mdash;Biscoe.&mdash;Balleny.&mdash;Dumont
-d'Urville.&mdash;Wilkes.&mdash;Sir James Ross.&mdash;Recent scientific Voyages of
-Circumnavigation.</div>
-
-
-<p>Although the undaunted courage and indomitable perseverance
-of the great navigators whom I have named in the preceding
-chapters had gradually circumscribed the bounds of discovery,
-and no vast ocean remained to be explored by some future Cook
-or Magellan, yet at the beginning of this century many secrets
-of the sea still remained unrevealed to man.</p>
-
-<p>The north coast of America and the Arctic Ocean beyond
-were still plunged in mysterious darkness; and although Cook
-in several places had advanced far into the Antarctic seas, yet
-here also a wide field still lay open to the adventurous seaman.</p>
-
-<p>Many coasts, many groups of islands scattered over the vast
-bosom of the ocean, awaited a more accurate survey, and would
-no doubt have remained unexplored, if gold, as in former times,
-had still been the sole magnet which attracted the seafarer to
-distant parts of the world. But fortunately science had now
-become a power which induced man, without any prospect of
-immediate profit, to spare no expense and to shrink from no
-danger, that he might become better and better acquainted with
-his dwelling-place the earth.</p>
-
-<p>It cannot be denied that our century has laboured at the
-solution of all these various geographical questions with an
-energy and perseverance unexampled in the history of civilisation;
-and the prominent part she has taken in their investigation
-is undoubtedly one of the great glories of England. At no
-other time have more voyages of discovery and more scientific
-expeditions been undertaken; never have more courageous Argonauts
-gone forth to conquer the golden fleece of knowledge.   It
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497">� 497 �</a></span>
-will be the pleasing task of this closing chapter to follow these
-noble mariners in their adventurous course; and, to avoid confusion,
-I shall begin with a short history of Arctic discovery up
-to the present day, and afterwards treat of the efforts made to
-extend our knowledge towards the South Pole. In spite of the
-unsuccessful efforts of a Frobisher, a Davis, a Hudson, and a
-Baffin, England had never given up the hope of discovering a
-northern passage to India, either direct across the Pole, or round
-the north coast of America. It had been one of the chief objects
-of Cook's third voyage to find a sea-path from Behring's
-Straits to Baffin's or Hudson's Bay; and some years before,
-while the illustrious navigator was busy exploring the Southern
-Pacific, we see Captain Phipps renewing the old attempt to sail
-direct to the Pole (1773). But, like his predecessor Hudson,
-he reached no farther than the northern extremity of Spitzbergen,
-where his vessel, surrounded by mighty ice-blocks, would have
-perished but for a timely change of wind. This repulse damped
-for a time the spirit of discovery; but hope revived again when
-it became known that Scoresby, on a whaling expedition in the
-Greenland seas (1806), had attained 81� N. lat. and thus approached
-the Pole to within 540 miles. No one before him had
-ever reached so far to the north, and an open sea tempted him
-mightily to proceed, but as the object of his voyage was strictly
-commercial, and he himself answerable to the owners of his
-vessel, Scoresby felt obliged to sacrifice his inclinations to his
-duty and to steer again to the south.</p>
-
-<p>During the continental war, England indeed had little leisure
-to prosecute discoveries in the Arctic Ocean; but not long after
-the conclusion of peace (1818) two expeditions were sent out
-for that purpose.</p>
-
-<p>Captain Buchan, with the ships "Dorothea" and "Trent,"
-sailed with instructions to proceed in a direction as due north as
-might be practicable through the Spitzbergen Sea; but, having
-after much difficulty gained lat. 80� 34&#8242; north in that polar archipelago,
-he was obliged speedily to withdraw and try his fortune
-off the western edge of the pack. Here however a tremendous
-gale, threatening every moment to crush the ships between the
-large ice-blocks heaving and sinking in the roaring billows,
-induced the bold experiment of dashing right into the body of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">� 498 �</a></span>
-the ice; a practice which has been resorted to by whalers in
-extreme cases, as their only chance of escaping destruction.</p>
-
-<p>"While we were yet a few fathoms from the ice," says Admiral
-Beechey, the eloquent eye-witness and narrator of the dreadful
-scene, "we searched with much anxiety for a place that was
-more open than the general line of the pack, but in vain; all
-parts appeared to be equally impenetrable, and to present one
-unbroken line of furious breakers, in which immense pieces of
-ice were heaving and subsiding with the waves.</p>
-
-<p>"No language, I am convinced, can convey an adequate idea of
-the terrific grandeur of the effect now produced by the collision
-of the ice and the tempestuous ocean. The sea violently agitated,
-and rolling its mountainous waves against an opposing
-body, is at all times a sublime and awful sight; but when, in
-addition, it encounters immense masses, which it has set in
-motion with a violence equal to its own, its effect is prodigiously
-increased. At one moment it bursts upon these icy fragments,
-and buries them many feet beneath its wave, and the next, as
-the buoyancy of the depressed body struggles for reascendency,
-the water rushes in foaming cataracts over its edges; whilst
-every individual mass, rocking and labouring in its bed, grinds
-against and contends with its opponent until one is either split
-with the shock or upheaved upon the surface of the other. Nor
-is this collision confined to one particular spot, it is going on as
-far as the sight can reach; and when, from this convulsive scene
-below, the eye is turned to the extraordinary appearance of the
-blink in the sky above, where the unnatural clearness of a calm
-and silvery atmosphere presents itself bounded by a dark hard
-line of stormy clouds, such as at this moment lowered over our
-masts, as if to mark the confines within which the efforts of
-man would be of no avail, the reader may imagine the sensation
-of awe which must accompany that of grandeur in the mind of
-the beholder.</p>
-
-<p>"At this instant, when we were about to put the strength of
-our little vessel in competition with that of the great icy continent,
-and when it seemed almost presumption to reckon on the
-possibility of her surviving the unequal conflict, it was gratifying
-in the extreme to observe in all our crew the greatest calmness
-and resolution. If ever the fortitude of seamen was fairly
-tried, it was on this occasion; and I will not conceal the pride I
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499">� 499 �</a></span>
-felt in witnessing the bold and decisive tone in which the orders
-were issued by the commander of our little vessel (the since so
-far-famed and lamented Franklin), and the promptitude and
-steadiness with which they were executed by the crew.</p>
-
-<p>"We were now so near the scene of danger as to render necessary
-the immediate execution of our plan, and in an instant the
-labouring vessel flew before the gale. Each person instinctively
-secured his own hold and with his eyes fixed upon the masts,
-awaited in breathless anxiety the moment of concussion. It
-soon arrived; the brig, cutting her way through the light ice,
-came in violent contact with the main body. In an instant we
-all lost our footing, the masts bent with the impetus, and the
-cracking timbers from below bespoke a pressure which was calculated
-to awaken our serious apprehensions. The vessel staggered
-under the shock, and for a moment seemed to recoil;
-but the next wave, curling up under her counter, drove her
-about her own length within the margin of the ice, where she
-gave one roll and was immediately thrown broadside to the wind
-by the succeeding wave. This unfortunate occurrence prevented
-the vessel from penetrating sufficiently far into the ice to escape
-the effect of the gale, and placed her in a situation where she
-was assailed on all sides by battering rams, if I may use the
-expression, every one of which contested the small space, which
-she occupied, and dealt such unrelenting blows that there appeared
-to be scarcely any possibility of saving her from foundering.
-Literally tossed from piece to piece, we had nothing left
-but patiently to abide the issue, for we could scarcely keep our
-feet, much less render any assistance to the vessel. The motion
-indeed was so great, that the ship's bell, which in the heaviest
-gale of wind had never struck of itself, now tolled so continually
-that it was ordered to be muffled, for the purpose of
-escaping the unpleasant association it was calculated to produce."</p>
-
-<p>By setting more head-sail, though at the risk of the masts,
-already tottering with the pressure of that which was spread, the
-vessels, splitting the ice and thus effecting a passage between the
-pieces, were at length released from their perilous situation, but
-the "Dorothea" was found to be completely disabled. A short
-time at Fairhaven in Spitsbergen was spent in necessary repairs,
-and even then she was unfit for any farther service than the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_500" id="Page_500">� 500 �</a></span>
-voyage to England. Franklin volunteered to prosecute the
-enterprise with the "Trent" alone, but the Admiralty Orders
-opposed such a proceeding, and the vessels returned home in
-company.</p>
-
-<p>Meanwhile Captain John Ross, with the "Isabella" and
-"Alexander," had proceeded to Baffin's Bay, but instead of
-exploring Smith's, Jones's, and Lancaster Sounds, which recent
-voyages have proved to be each and all grand open channels to
-the Polar Sea, he contented himself with Baffin's assertion that
-they were enclosed by land, and, after having thus fruitlessly
-accomplished the circuit of the bay, returned to England.</p>
-
-<p>With Parry's first expedition, which took place in the following
-year (1819), the epoch of modern discoveries in the Arctic
-Ocean, may properly be said to begin. Sailing right through
-Lancaster Sound, he discovered Prince Regent Inlet, Wellington
-Channel, and Melville Island. Willingly would he have proceeded
-farther to the west, but the ice was now rapidly gathering, the
-vessels were soon beset, and, after getting free with great difficulty,
-Parry was only too glad to turn back, and settle down in
-Winter Harbour. It was no easy task to attain this dreary port,
-as a canal two miles and a third in length had first to be cut
-through solid ice of seven inches average thickness, yet such was
-the energy of that splendid expedition, that the Herculean
-labour was accomplished in three days. The two vessels were
-immediately put in winter trim, the decks housed over, heating
-apparatus arranged, and everything done to make the ten
-months' imprisonment in those Arctic solitudes as comfortable
-as possible.</p>
-
-<p>It was not before the 1st of August that the ships were able
-to leave Winter Harbour, when Parry once more stood boldly
-for the west, but no amount of skill or patience could penetrate
-the obstinate masses of ice, or insure the safety of the vessels
-under the repeated shocks they sustained. Finding the barriers
-absolutely invincible he gave way, and, steering homeward,
-reached London on Nov. 3, 1820, where, as may well be imagined,
-his reception was most enthusiastic and cordial.</p>
-
-<p>While this wonderful voyage was performing, Franklin,
-Richardson, and Back, with two English sailors and a troop of
-Canadians and Indians, were penetrating by land to the mouth
-of the Coppermine River, whence they intended to make a
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_501" id="Page_501">� 501 �</a></span>
-boat-voyage of discovery along the coasts of the Icy Ocean. An
-idea of the difficulties of this undertaking may be formed, when
-I mention that the travellers started from Fort York, in Hudson's
-Bay, on the 30th of August, 1819, and after a voyage of 700
-miles up the Saskatchewan, reached Fort Cumberland, where
-they spent the first winter. The next found them 700 miles
-further on their journey, established during the extreme cold at
-Fort Enterprise. During the summer of 1821 they accomplished
-the remaining 334 miles, and on the 21st of July commenced
-their exploration of the Polar Sea in two birch-bark canoes.
-In these frail shallops they skirted the desolate coast of the
-American continent, 555 miles to the east of the Coppermine,
-as far as Point Turnagain, when the rapid decrease of their
-provisions and the shattered state of the canoes imperatively
-compelled their return. And now began a dreadful land-journey
-of two months, accompanied by all the horrors of famine. A
-lichen, called by the Canadians <i>tripe de roche</i> (rock-tripe),
-afforded them for some time a wretched subsistence, and, that
-failing, they were glad to satisfy their hunger with scraps of
-roasted leather or burnt bones, from prey which the wolves
-might have abandoned. On reaching the Coppermine a raft
-had to be framed, a task accomplished with the utmost difficulty
-by the exhausted party. One or two of the Canadians had
-already fallen behind, and never rejoined their comrades, and
-now three or four sank down, and could proceed no farther.
-Back, with the most vigorous of the men, had already pushed
-on to send help from Fort Enterprise; and Richardson, Hood,
-and Hepburn volunteered to remain with the disabled men,
-near a supply of the rock-tripe, while Franklin pursued his
-journey with the others capable of bearing him company. On
-reaching Fort Enterprise this last party found that wretched
-tenement completely deserted, and a note from Back stating that
-he had gone in pursuit of the Indians. Some cast-off deer-skins
-and a heap of bones, provisions worthy of the place, sustained
-their flickering life-flame, and after eighteen miserable days,
-they were joined in their dreary quarters by Richardson and
-Hepburn, the sole survivors of <i>their</i> party. At length, when on
-the point of sinking under their sufferings, three Indians sent
-by Back brought them timely succour. After a while they were
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_502" id="Page_502">� 502 �</a></span>
-able to join this valuable friend, and the following year brought
-them safely back to England.</p>
-
-<p>I pass over Parry's second and third voyages, undertaken in
-the years 1821 and 1824, which were consumed in fruitless
-endeavours to penetrate westward; the first through some unknown
-channel to the north of Hudson's Bay, the second through
-Prince Regent's Inlet; but his last attempt to reach the North
-Pole, by boat and sledge-travelling over the ice, is of too novel
-and daring a character to remain unnoticed. His hopes of
-success were founded on Scoresby's descriptions, who had seen
-ice-fields so free from either fissure or hummock, that, had they
-not been covered with snow, a coach might have been driven
-many leagues over them in a direct line, without obstruction or
-danger; but when Parry reached the ice-fields to the north of
-Spitzbergen he found them of a very different nature, composed
-of loose rugged masses, which rendered travelling over them
-extremely irksome and slow.</p>
-
-<p>The strong flat-bottomed boats&mdash;amphibious constructions,
-half sledge, half canoe,&mdash;expressly built for an amphibious
-journey over a region where solid ice was expected to alternate
-with pools of water, had thus frequently to be unloaded, in order
-to be raised over the intervening blocks or mounds, and repeated
-journeys backward and forward over the same ground were the
-necessary consequences. In some places the ice took the form
-of sharp pointed crystals, which cut the boots like penknives; in
-others, sixteen or eighteen inches of soft snow made the work
-of boat-dragging both fatiguing and tedious. Sometimes the
-men were obliged, in dragging the boats, to crawl on all-fours,
-to make any progress at all, and one day, when heavy rain
-melted the surface of the ice, four hours of vigorous effort
-accomplished only half a mile.</p>
-
-<p>Yet in spite of all these obstacles they toiled cheerfully on
-and on, until at length the discovery was made, that while they
-were apparently advancing towards the Pole, the ice-field on
-which they journeyed was moving to the south, and thus rendering
-all their exertions fruitless. Yet though disappointed in
-his great hope of planting his country's standard on that unattainable
-goal, Parry had the glory of reaching the highest
-latitude (82� 45&#8242;) ever attained by man.</p>
-
-<p>Before this adventurous voyage, Franklin, Richardson, and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_503" id="Page_503">� 503 �</a></span>
-Back, forgetful of their long life and death struggle with famine
-(1819), had once more (1825) with heroic perseverance bent
-their steps to the north. This time they chose the mouths of
-the Mackenzie for the starting-point of their discoveries, and
-having separated into two parties, proceeded to the east and
-west, and explored 4000 miles of unknown coast.</p>
-
-<p>In 1829 Captain John Ross, having for a long time vainly
-solicited government to send him out once more on an Arctic expedition,
-was enabled by the munificence of a private individual,
-Mr. Felix Booth, to accomplish his wishes, and to purchase a
-small steamer, to which the rather presumptuous name of
-"Victory" was given. The selection of the vessel was no doubt
-unlucky enough: for can anything be conceived more unpractical
-than paddle-boxes among ice-blocks; but, to make amends for
-this error, the veteran commander was fortunate in being
-accompanied by his illustrious nephew, James Ross, who with
-every quality of the seaman united the ardour and knowledge of
-the most zealous naturalist.</p>
-
-<p>He it was who discovered the peninsula which in compliment
-to the patron of the expedition was named Boothia Felix; to him
-also we owe the discovery of the Magnetic Pole; but the voyage
-is far less remarkable for these after all not very important
-successes, than for its unexampled protraction during a space of
-five years.</p>
-
-<p>The first season had a fortunate termination. On the 10th of
-August, 1829, the "Victory" attained Prince Regent's Inlet, and
-reached on the 13th the spot where Parry on his third voyage
-had been obliged to abandon the "Fury." Of the ship itself no
-traces remained; but the provisions which had providently been
-stored up on land were found untouched. The solid tin boxes
-had effectually preserved them from the voracity of the white
-bears; and the flour, bread, wine, rum, and sugar were found as
-good after four years, as on the day when the expedition started.</p>
-
-<p>It was to this discovery, to this "manna in the wilderness,"
-that Ross owed his subsequent preservation; for how else could
-he have passed four winters in the Arctic waste? Never was the
-hand of Providence more distinctly visible than here.</p>
-
-<p>On the 15th of August Cape Garry was attained, the most
-southern point of the inlet which Parry had reached on his third
-voyage.   Fogs and drift-ice considerably retarded the progress
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_504" id="Page_504">� 504 �</a></span>
-of the expedition; but Ross, though slowly, moved on, so that
-about the middle of September the map of the northern regions
-was enriched by some 500 miles of newly discovered coast. But
-now winter broke in with all its Arctic severity, and the "Victory"
-was obliged to seek refuge in Felix Harbour, where the useless
-steam-engine was thrown overboard as a nuisance, and the usual
-preparations made for spending the cold season as agreeably as
-possible.</p>
-
-<p>The following spring, from the 17th of May to the 13th of
-June, was employed by James Ross on a sledge journey, which
-led to the discovery of King William's Sound and King William's
-Land; and during which that courageous mariner penetrated so
-far to the west, that he had only ten days' provisions, scantily
-measured out, for a return voyage of 200 miles through an
-empty wilderness.</p>
-
-<p>After an imprisonment of full twelve months the "Victory" was
-set free on the 17th of September, 1830, and proceeded once
-more on her discoveries. But the period of her liberty was
-short indeed, short like that of revolted slaves between two despotisms;
-for, after advancing three miles in one continual battle
-against the currents and the drift-ice, she again froze fast on the
-27th of the same month.</p>
-
-<p>In the following spring we again see the indefatigable James
-Ross, ever active in the cause of science, extending the circle of
-his excursions and planting the British flag upon the site of the
-Northern Magnetic Pole, which, however, is not invariably fixed
-to one spot, as was then believed, but moves from place to place
-within the glacial zone.</p>
-
-<p>On the 28th of August, 1831, the "Victory," after a second
-imprisonment of eleven months, was warped into open water,
-and, after having spent a whole month to advance <i>four</i> English
-miles, was again enclosed by the ice on the 27th of September.</p>
-
-<p>But seven miles in two long years! According to this measure,
-there was but little hope indeed of ever seeing Old England again:
-the only chance left was to abandon the vessel, and endeavour
-by means of the boats left among the "Fury's" stores to reach
-Baffin's Bay, and get a homeward passage in some whaler.
-Accordingly the colours were nailed to the mast-head of the
-"Victory," and then officers and crew took leave of the ill-fated
-little vessel, on the 23rd of April, 1832. Captain Ross was deeply
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_505" id="Page_505">� 505 �</a></span>
-moved on this occasion; for, after having served forty-two years in
-thirty-five different ships, this was the first he had ever been
-obliged to abandon as a wreck.</p>
-
-<p>Provisions and boats had now to be transported over long
-tracts of rugged ice, and as their great weight rendered it impossible
-to carry all at once, the same ground had to be
-traversed several times. Terrific snow storms retarded the
-progress of the wanderers, and invincible obstacles forced them
-to make long circuits. Thus it happened that during the first
-month of their pilgrimage through the wilderness, although
-they had travelled 329 miles, they only gained thirty in a direct
-line.</p>
-
-<p>On the 9th of June, James Ross, the leading spirit of the
-expedition, accompanied by two men and with a fortnight's provisions,
-left the main body to ascertain the state of the boats
-and supplies at Fury Beach. Returning, they met their comrades
-on the 25th of June, and gratified them with the intelligence,
-that, though they had found three of the boats washed
-away, enough still remained for their purpose, and that all the
-provisions were in good condition.</p>
-
-<p>On the 1st of July the whole party arrived at Fury Beach,
-whence, after having repaired the weather-worn boats, they set
-out again on the 1st of August, and, after much buffeting among
-the ice in their frail shallops, reached the mouth of the inlet by
-the end of the month. But here they were doomed to disappointment;
-for, after several fruitless attempts to run along Barrow's
-Strait, the obstructions from the ice obliged them to haul the
-boats on shore and pitch their tents.</p>
-
-<p>Barrow's Strait was found from repeated surveys to be one
-impenetrable mass of ice. After lingering here till the third
-week in September, it was unanimously agreed that their only
-resource was to fall back again on the stores at Fury Beach, and
-spend their fourth winter in that dreary solitude. Here they
-sheltered their canvass tent with a wall of snow, and setting up an
-extra stove made themselves tolerably comfortable until the increasing
-severity of the winter, and the rigour of the cold, added to
-the tempestuous weather, made them perfect prisoners, and sorely
-tried their patience. Scurvy now began to appear, and several
-of the men fell victims to the scourge. At the same time cares
-for the future darkened the gloom of their situation, for, if they
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_506" id="Page_506">� 506 �</a></span>
-were not liberated in the ensuing summer, their diminishing
-food gave them but little hope of surviving another year.</p>
-
-<p>It may be imagined how anxiously the aspect of the sea was
-watched during the ensuing summer, and with what beating
-hearts they at length embarked on the 15th of August. The
-spot which the year before they had attained after the most
-strenuous exertions was soon passed, and slowly winding their
-way through the ice-blocks with which the inlet was encumbered,
-they now saw the wide expanse of Barrow's Strait open before
-them. With spirits invigorated by hope they push on, alternately
-rowing and sailing, and on the night of the 25th rest in a good
-harbour on the eastern shore of Navy Board Inlet. "A ship in
-sight!" is the joyful sound that awakens them early on the
-following morning; and never have men more hurriedly and
-energetically set out, never have oars been more indefatigably
-plied. But the elements are against them, calms and currents
-conspire against their hopes, and to their inexpressible disappointment
-the ship disappears in the distant haze.</p>
-
-<p>But after a few hours of suspense the sight of another vessel
-lying to in a calm relieves their despair. This time their exertions
-are crowned with success; and, wonderful! the vessel which
-receives them on board is the same "Isabella" in which Ross
-made his first voyage to these seas.</p>
-
-<p>They told him of his own death, and could hardly be persuaded
-that it was really he and his party who now stood before
-them. But when all doubts were cleared away, you should have
-heard their thrice-repeated thundering hurrahs!</p>
-
-<p>The scene that now followed cannot better be told than in
-Ross's own words:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"Every man was hungry, and was to be fed; all were ragged,
-and were to be clothed; there was not one to whom washing
-was not indispensable; nor one whom his beard did not deprive
-of all human semblance. All, everything, too was to be done
-at once. It was washing, dressing, shaving, eating, all intermingled;
-it was all the materials of each jumbled together;
-while in the midst of all there were interminable questions to be
-asked and answered on both sides; the adventures of the "Victory,"
-our own escapes, the politics of England, and the news,
-which was now four years old.</p>
-
-<p>"But all subsided into peace at last. The sick were accommodated,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_507" id="Page_507">� 507 �</a></span>
-the seamen disposed of, and all was done for us which
-care and kindness could perform.</p>
-
-<p>"Night at length brought quiet and serious thoughts; and I
-trust there was not a man among us who did not then express,
-where it was due, his gratitude for that interposition which had
-raised us all from a despair which none could now forget, and
-had brought us from the very borders of a most distant grave
-to life and friends and civilisation. Long accustomed, however,
-to a cold bed on the hard snow or the bare rock, few could sleep
-amid the comfort of our accommodations. I was myself compelled
-to leave the bed which had been kindly assigned me, and
-take my abode in a chair for the night, nor did it fare much
-better with the rest. It was for time to reconcile us to this
-sudden and violent change, to break through what had become
-habit, and to inure us once more to the usages of our former
-days."</p>
-
-<p>I have no time to relate how Ross was received in England,
-and what honours were heaped upon him; honours conferred
-with all the better grace that the nation had not forgotten him
-during his long-protracted absence, and had no cause to blush
-for culpable neglect. For Britain has ever considered it her
-duty to help and assist the men who venture their lives in the
-cause of science and for the advancement of her glory; nor will
-she allow the officer who carries her standard into unknown
-lands, and there falls a victim to nature or to man, to perish
-without feeling his last moments gladdened by the conviction,
-that, however distant his grave, the eye of his country rests upon
-him.</p>
-
-<p>Thus when Back, that noble Paladin of Arctic research,
-volunteered to lead a relief expedition in quest of Ross, �4000
-were immediately raised by public subscription to defray the
-expenses of the undertaking. While deep in the American wilds
-Back was gratified with the intelligence that the object of his
-search had safely arrived in England, but, instead of returning
-home, the indefatigable explorer resolved to trace the unknown
-course of the Thlu-it-scho, or Great Fish River, down to the
-distant outlet where it pours its waters into the polar seas. It
-would take a volume to recount his adventures in this wonderful
-expedition, the numberless falls, cascades, and rapids that obstructed
-his progress; the storms and snow-drifts that vainly
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_508" id="Page_508">� 508 �</a></span>
-conspired to repel him; the horrors of that iron-ribbed desert,
-without a single tree on the whole line of his passage; and how
-heroically he persevered to the very last, and added Back's River,
-as the Thlu-it-scho has most deservedly been called, to the geographical
-conquests of which England may well be proud.</p>
-
-<p>The present is not a detailed account of Arctic discovery, a
-complete historical narrative of how step by step those dreary
-regions, the refuse of the earth, have grown into distinctness on
-the map; so passing over Simpson's wonderful boat-voyage
-along the northern shores of America, which led to the discovery
-of 1600 miles of coast (1837-1839), and Rae's important researches
-on Melville Peninsula (1846, 1847), I proceed to the
-last expedition of Sir John Franklin. We all know how the
-veteran seaman left England in the sixtieth year of his age,
-once more to try the north-western passage; how since his last
-despatches, dated from the Whalefish Islands, Baffin's Bay,
-July 12th, 1845, months and months, and then years and years,
-elapsed without bringing any tidings of his fate; how Collinson
-and M'Clure, Penny and Inglefield, Kane and Bellot, and so
-many other worthies, went out to search for the "Erebus" and
-"Terror," and how in spite of all their efforts mystery still overhung
-the ill-fated expedition, until M'Clintock raised the veil
-and informed us how miserably most of the gallant seamen
-perished in those dreary wastes, but how their commander had
-been spared the pangs of protracted suffering, and gone to his
-eternal rest even before his country began to feel concerned
-about his loss.</p>
-
-<p>The search for Franklin is a page in history of which a
-nation may well be proud, more noble than a hundred battles
-and grander than the conquest of an empire. These are no
-blood-stained laurels, but palms of glory gained by matchless
-energy and perseverance over the horrors of a nature inimical to
-man, a theme which some future Homer will delight to sing.
-Had Franklin been ever so successful, he could not possibly
-have achieved so much for Arctic discovery as his loss gave rise
-to; for to the disasters of his voyage we owe the knowledge of
-all the coasts of that intricate conglomeration of islands which
-faces the Pole, and of the channels, which opening far to the
-north, lead to its profoundest, and seemingly impenetrable depths.
-All these discoveries are of little commercial value, it is true,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_509" id="Page_509">� 509 �</a></span>
-for no trading vessel will ever plough those desert seas; but it is
-no small advantage to a nation to have to register such pages in
-her annals, and to leave them as a legacy and an example to
-future generations.</p>
-
-<p>The series of modern South Polar expeditions was opened in
-1819 by Smith's casual discovery of New South Shetland.
-Soon afterwards a Russian expedition under Lazareff and Bellinghausen
-discovered (January, 1821), in 69� 3&#8242; south lat., the
-islands Paul the First and Alexander, the most southern lands
-that had ever been visited by man.</p>
-
-<p>The year after, Captain Weddell, a sealer, penetrated into the
-icy sea as far as 74� 15&#8242; south lat. three degrees nearer to the
-pole than had been attained by the indomitable perseverance of
-Cook. Swarms of petrels animated the sea, and no ice impeded
-his progress, but as the season was far advanced, and Weddell
-apprehended the dangers of the return voyage, he steered again
-to the north. In 1831 Biscoe discovered Enderby Land, and
-soon afterwards Graham's Land, to which the gratitude of geographers
-has since given the discoverer's name.</p>
-
-<p>Then follows Balleny who in 1839 revealed the existence of
-the group of islands called after him, and of Sabrina Land (69�
-south lat.).</p>
-
-<p>About the same time three considerable expeditions appear in
-the southern seas, sent out by France, the United States, and
-England.</p>
-
-<p>Dumont D'Urville discovered <i>Terre Louis Philippe</i> (63� 30&#8242;
-south lat.) in February, 1838, and <i>Terre Ad�lie</i> (66� 67&#8242; south
-lat.) on the 21st of January, 1840.</p>
-
-<p>Almost on the same day, Wilkes, the commander of the
-United States exploring expedition reached a coast which he
-followed for a length of 1500 miles, and which has been called
-Wilkes' Land, to commemorate the discoverer's name. But of all
-the explorers of the southern frozen ocean, the palm unquestionably
-belongs to Sir James Ross, who penetrated farther towards
-the Pole than any other navigator before or after, and followed
-up to 79� south lat. a steep coast, whose enormous glaciers
-stretched far out into the sea. In 77� 5&#8242; south lat. he witnessed
-a magnificent eruption of Mount Erebus, the Etna of the extreme
-south. The enormous columns of flame and smoke rising
-two thousand feet above the mouth of the crater, which is elevated
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_510" id="Page_510">� 510 �</a></span>
-12,000 feet above the level of the sea, combined, with the
-snow-white mountain-chain and the deep blue ocean, to form a
-scene, the magnificence of which seemed to be enhanced by the
-reflection that no human eye had ever witnessed its beauty, as
-most likely none will ever witness it again. As all the efforts of
-the gallant leader to penetrate still farther to the south were
-baffled by a mighty ice-barrier, forming an uninterrupted mural
-precipice for the length of several hundred miles, he yielded to
-the invincible obstacles of nature, and returned to more genial
-climes. It is worthy of notice, that Sir James Clark Ross had
-accompanied Parry on his sledge-expedition to the North Pole,
-and thus acquired the unique distinction of having approached
-<i>both</i> poles nearer than any other man.</p>
-
-<p>Whether the lands discovered by Wilkes, D'Urville, Biscoe,
-Balleny, and Ross form a continuous continent, or belong to a
-large group of islands behind which an open sea extends to the
-very Pole, is a question which most likely will never be solved,
-as its determination can never be of the least use to mankind.</p>
-
-<p>The numerous scientific voyages of circumnavigation achieved
-during the course of the present century are far more important,
-with regard to the welfare and progress of humanity, than the
-researches which have been made in the icy wildernesses of the
-north and south. New lands and isles of great extent have indeed
-not been discovered by these expeditions, but they have contributed
-not less largely to the advancement of geography and the
-natural sciences.</p>
-
-<p>The wonders of oceanic life have first been shown in a more
-distinct light by the labours of Chamisso, Meyen, Lesson, Darwin,
-Gray, Hooker, Robinson, Dana, &amp;c., who accompanied Kotzebue,
-Freycinet, Fitzroy, Ross, &amp;c., on their world-encircling course;
-and numerous coasts and groups of islands, situated in the
-remotest seas, and formerly only superficially known, have been
-accurately measured and traced on the map by the distinguished
-hydrographers who took part in those far-famed voyages.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_511" id="Page_511">� 511 �</a></span></p>
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_512" id="Page_512">� 512 �</a><br /><a name="Page_513" id="Page_513">� 513 �</a></span></p>
-
-<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX">INDEX</a></h2>
-
-<div class="center">
-[ <a href="#A">A</a> ][ <a href="#B">B</a> ][ <a href="#C">C</a> ][ <a href="#D">D</a> ][ <a href="#E">E</a> ][ <a href="#F">F</a> ][ <a href="#G">G</a> ][ <a href="#H">H</a> ][ <a href="#I">I</a> ]<br />
-[ <a href="#J">J</a> ][ <a href="#K">K</a> ][ <a href="#L">L</a> ][ <a href="#M">M</a> ][ <a href="#N">N</a> ][ <a href="#O">O</a> ][ <a href="#P">P</a> ][ <a href="#Q">Q</a> ][ <a href="#R">R</a> ]<br />
-[ <a href="#S">S</a> ][ <a href="#T">T</a> ][ <a href="#U">U</a> ][ <a href="#V">V</a> ][ <a href="#W">W</a> ][ <a href="#Y">Y</a> ][ <a href="#Z">Z</a> ]
-</div>
-
-<p class="p0">
-<a id="A"></a><span class="smcap">Aar</span> glacier, formation and dissolution of the, <a href="#Page_75">75</a><br />
-Acaleph&aelig;, 348. <i>See</i> Jelly-fishes<br />
-Acephala, their organisation, <a href="#Page_299">299</a><br />
-&mdash; their food, <a href="#Page_305">305</a><br />
-&mdash; their enemies, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a><br />
-Acorn-shell, the, <a href="#Page_244">244</a><br />
-Actini&aelig;, <a href="#Page_361">361</a><br />
-Actinozoa, <a href="#Page_363">363</a><br />
-Adriatic, depth of the, <a href="#Page_8">8</a><br />
-&mdash; tides of the, <a href="#Page_43">43</a><br />
-Africa, length of coast-line of, <a href="#Page_4">4</a><br />
-&mdash; circumnavigated by the Ph&#339;nicians, <a href="#Page_444">444</a><br />
-&mdash; Hanno's discoveries on the west coast of, <a href="#Page_444">444</a><br />
-Agar-agar, or artificial edible birds'-nests of Java, <a href="#Page_402">402</a><br />
-Agricola, Julius, sails round Scotland, <a href="#Page_422">422</a><br />
-Air-bladder of fishes, <a href="#Page_189">189</a><br />
-Air-currents. <i>See</i> Winds<br />
-Albatross, <a href="#Page_163">163</a><br />
-Albion, New, discovery of, <a href="#Page_467">467</a><br />
-Alcyonarians, <a href="#Page_363">363</a><br />
-Alexander the Great, maritime discoveries resulting from the conquests of, <a href="#Page_447">447</a><br />
-Alexandria, the Pharus or lighthouse of, <a href="#Page_89">89</a><br />
-Alg&aelig;, <a href="#Page_390">390</a><br />
-&mdash; changes produced by, in the colour of the sea, <a href="#Page_19">19</a><br />
-&mdash; Russian official collecting, <a href="#Page_392">392</a><br />
-Alligators, <a href="#Page_172">172</a><br />
-Amalfi, maritime trade of, <a href="#Page_449">449</a><br />
-&mdash; decline of, <a href="#Page_449">449</a><br />
-Amazon river, tides of the, <a href="#Page_43">43</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; quantity of water which it pours into the ocean, <a href="#Page_75">75</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; discovery of the river, <a href="#Page_460">460</a><br />
-America, length of coast-line of, <a href="#Page_4">4</a><br />
-&mdash; salmon of Russian America, <a href="#Page_221">221</a><br />
-&mdash; discovery of, by Columbus, <a href="#Page_457">457</a><br />
-&mdash; account of early navigation along the shores of, <a href="#Page_457">457</a><br />
-Amerigo Vespucci, his discoveries, <a href="#Page_460">460</a><br />
-Ammodyte, or launce, <a href="#Page_230">230</a><br />
-Ammonites, <a href="#Page_437">437</a><br />
-Am&#339;b&aelig;, <a href="#Page_379">379</a><br />
-&mdash; simplicity of their structure, <a href="#Page_380">380</a><br />
-Anabas of the dry tanks, <a href="#Page_193">193</a><br />
-Anchovy, <a href="#Page_214">214</a><br />
-Angler, or sea-devil, <a href="#Page_203">203</a><br />
-Annelides, marine, <a href="#Page_262">262</a><br />
-&mdash; general remarks on the, <a href="#Page_262">262</a><br />
-&mdash; their beauty, <a href="#Page_263">263</a><br />
-&mdash; their food, <a href="#Page_264">264</a><br />
-&mdash; their enemies, <a href="#Page_265">265</a><br />
-&mdash; tubicole, <a href="#Page_266">266</a><br />
-Anson, Commodore, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_483">483</a><br />
-Aphrodita, or sea-mouse, <a href="#Page_264">264</a><br />
-Arab commerce and maritime discovery, <a href="#Page_452">452</a><br />
-Arctic discovery, <a href="#Page_474">474</a>, <a href="#Page_496">496</a><br />
-&mdash; winter passed by Barentz, <a href="#Page_478">478</a><br />
-Argand, his improvement in marine illumination, <a href="#Page_90">90</a><br />
-Argonaut, <a href="#Page_280">280</a><br />
-Argus, Scotch or Shetland, <a href="#Page_333">333</a><br />
-Ascidia mammillata, <a href="#Page_322">322</a><br />
-Asia, length of coast-line of, <a href="#Page_4">4</a><br />
-Asteri&aelig;, <a href="#Page_335">335</a><br />
-Astr&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_373">373</a><br />
-Atlantic Ocean, depth of the, according to Maury, <a href="#Page_7">7</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; temperature of the, <a href="#Page_14">14</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; fury of the Atlantic surge, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; enormous fucus banks, or floating meadows of the, <a href="#Page_397">397</a><br />
-Atolls, or lagoon islands, <a href="#Page_374">374</a><br />
-Auburn, site of the village of, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br />
-Auks, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a><br />
-Australia, length of coast-line of, <a href="#Page_4">4</a><br />
-&mdash; discoveries in, <a href="#Page_480">480</a>, <a href="#Page_486">486</a><br />
-Avosets, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a><br />
-Azores, discovery of the, <a href="#Page_456">456</a><br />
-<br />
-<a id="B"></a><span class="smcap">Back's</span> arctic voyages, <a href="#Page_507">507</a><br />
-Baffin, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_483">483</a><br />
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_514" id="Page_514">� 514 �</a></span>
-Baffin's Bay, discovery of, <a href="#Page_483">483</a><br />
-Balani, <a href="#Page_244">244</a><br />
-Balanus ovularis, <a href="#Page_244">244</a><br />
-&mdash; balanoides, <a href="#Page_244">244</a><br />
-Balboa, Vasco Nu�ez de, sketch of him and his discoveries, <a href="#Page_464">464</a><br />
-Baleen of the whale, <a href="#Page_98">98</a><br />
-Balleny, his discoveries, <a href="#Page_509">509</a><br />
-Baltic, depth of the, <a href="#Page_8">8</a><br />
-Band-worm, the great, <a href="#Page_264">264</a><br />
-Barentz, William, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_476">476</a><br />
-Barnacles, <a href="#Page_244">244</a><br />
-&mdash; their attacks on the whale, <a href="#Page_17">17</a><br />
-Barnacle goose, <a href="#Page_146">146</a><br />
-Barrow's Straits, discovery of, <a href="#Page_505">505</a><br />
-Basaltic pillars of Fingal's Cave, <a href="#Page_46">46</a><br />
-Bassora, foundation of the town of, <a href="#Page_452">452</a><br />
-Bastidas, Roderigo de, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_461">461</a><br />
-Beachy Head, <a href="#Page_5">5</a><br />
-Bear, white, said to attack the whale, <a href="#Page_100">100</a><br />
-&mdash; organisation of the polar bear, <a href="#Page_10">10</a><br />
-&mdash; attacks Barentz's men, <a href="#Page_478">478</a><br />
-Bear Islands, discovery of, <a href="#Page_477">477</a><br />
-Behring, his maritime discoveries and death, <a href="#Page_484">484</a><br />
-Belemnites, <a href="#Page_437">437</a><br />
-Bellrock lighthouse, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; height of the waves at the, <a href="#Page_28">28</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; in the storm of 1807, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br />
-Benin, discovery of, <a href="#Page_456">456</a><br />
-Bermudas, depth of the sea near the, <a href="#Page_7">7</a><br />
-Bird Island, discovery of, <a href="#Page_490">490</a><br />
-Bird's-foot sea-star, <a href="#Page_335">335</a><br />
-Birds'-nests, edible, of Java, <a href="#Page_399">399</a><br />
-&mdash; mode of gathering them, <a href="#Page_399">399</a><br />
-&mdash; agar-agar, or artificial birds'-nests, <a href="#Page_402">402</a><br />
-Birds of passage, <a href="#Page_171">171</a><br />
-Birkenhead, the Great Float at, <a href="#Page_91">91</a><br />
-Biscoe, his discoveries, <a href="#Page_509">509</a><br />
-Bivalves, or acephalous mollusca. <i>See</i> Acephala<br />
-Black-skimmer, or cut-water, the, <a href="#Page_144">144</a><br />
-Blocks, erratic, of Greenland and Spitzbergen, <a href="#Page_76">76</a><br />
-Bojador, Cape, doubling of, for the first time, <a href="#Page_455">455</a><br />
-Bonito, the, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a><br />
-Booth, Mr. Felix, <a href="#Page_503">503</a><br />
-Boothia Felix, discovery of, <a href="#Page_503">503</a><br />
-Borda, his improvements in marine illumination, <a href="#Page_90">90</a><br />
-Borer, the, <a href="#Page_231">231</a><br />
-Botallack, submarine mine, <a href="#Page_91">91</a><br />
-Botrylli, <a href="#Page_324">324</a><br />
-Bougainville, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_483">483</a><br />
-Boundaries of the ocean. <i>See</i> Limits of the ocean<br />
-Brachiopods, <a href="#Page_315">315</a><br />
-Brazils, discovery of the, <a href="#Page_460">460</a><br />
-Breakwater of Cherbourg, <a href="#Page_90">90</a><br />
-&mdash; of Plymouth, <a href="#Page_90">90</a><br />
-&mdash; moles of Portland, Holyhead, ind Alderney, <a href="#Page_90">90</a><br />
-Bream, sea, <a href="#Page_415">415</a><br />
-Bristol Channel, high tides of the, <a href="#Page_38">38</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; marine fauna, <a href="#Page_414">414</a><br />
-Britannia Tubular Bridge, <a href="#Page_91">91</a><br />
-Bryozoa, <a href="#Page_316">316</a><br />
-Buchan, Captain, his arctic discoveries, <a href="#Page_497">497</a><br />
-Buffadero, the marine cave of the, <a href="#Page_52">52</a><br />
-Bullhead, river, its parental affection, <a href="#Page_195">195</a><br />
-Burgomaster-bird, <a href="#Page_159">159</a><br />
-Butthorn, the, <a href="#Page_335">335</a><br />
-Byron, Commodore, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_483">483</a><br />
-<br />
-<a id="C"></a><span class="smcap">Cabot</span>, John and Sebastian, their discoveries, <a href="#Page_459">459</a><br />
-Cachalot, or sperm-whale, its organisation, 102-104<br />
-&mdash; its food, <a href="#Page_104">104</a><br />
-Ca'ing whale, the, <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
-Calamary, <a href="#Page_272">272</a><br />
-Caledonia, New, discovery of, <a href="#Page_490">490</a><br />
-California, discovery of, <a href="#Page_472">472</a><br />
-Callao, colour of the sea near, <a href="#Page_20">20</a><br />
-Calling crabs, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a><br />
-Calms, or doldrums, causes of, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br />
-Calycophorid&aelig;, <a href="#Page_352">352</a><br />
-Canada acquired by France, <a href="#Page_461">461</a><br />
-Canary Islands probably known to the Ph&#339;nicians, <a href="#Page_444">444</a><br />
-Cano, Sebastian el, first performs the circumnavigation of the globe, <a href="#Page_469">469</a><br />
-Cape de Verd Islands, depth of the sea near the, <a href="#Page_7">7</a><br />
-Capelins, <a href="#Page_162">162</a><br />
-Capri, 'azure cave' at, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
-Carcinas m&aelig;nas, metamorphosis of, <a href="#Page_258">258</a><br />
-Caribbean Sea, crystalline clearness of the, <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br />
-Carinaria, <a href="#Page_287">287</a><br />
-Carrigeen (Chondrus crispus), <a href="#Page_399">399</a><br />
-Carteret, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_483">483</a><br />
-Cartier, Jacques, voyages of, <a href="#Page_461">461</a><br />
-Caryophyllia, <a href="#Page_370">370</a><br />
-Cat-fish, or sea-wolf, <a href="#Page_415">415</a><br />
-Catalonians, their maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_452">452</a><br />
-Caves, marine, <a href="#Page_45">45</a><br />
-&mdash; Fingal's Cave, 45-48<br />
-&mdash; azure cave of Capri, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
-&mdash; the Antro di Nettuno, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
-&mdash; the Cave of Hunga, 49-51<br />
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_515" id="Page_515">� 515 �</a></span>&mdash; cave of the Skerries, <a href="#Page_51">51</a><br />
-&mdash; the Souffleur, or Blower, <a href="#Page_52">52</a><br />
-&mdash; the Buffadero, <a href="#Page_53">53</a><br />
-Caviar, <a href="#Page_217">217</a><br />
-Cellulari&aelig;, <a href="#Page_319">319</a><br />
-Cephalopods, their organisation, <a href="#Page_271">271</a><br />
-&mdash; their locomotion, <a href="#Page_274">274</a><br />
-&mdash; their food, <a href="#Page_277">277</a><br />
-&mdash; their enemies, <a href="#Page_277">277</a><br />
-&mdash; their great size in some cases, <a href="#Page_379">379</a><br />
-&mdash; the Norwegian kraken, <a href="#Page_279">279</a><br />
-&mdash; the argonaut, <a href="#Page_280">280</a><br />
-&mdash; the nautilus, <a href="#Page_281">281</a><br />
-&mdash; the cephalopods of the primitive ocean, <a href="#Page_282">282</a><br />
-Cessart, De, his breakwater at Cherbourg, <a href="#Page_90">90</a><br />
-Cetaceans, general remarks on the organisation of the, <a href="#Page_95">95</a><br />
-&mdash; food of whales, <a href="#Page_98">98</a><br />
-&mdash; their enemies, <a href="#Page_99">99</a><br />
-&mdash; large Greenland whale, <a href="#Page_101">101</a><br />
-&mdash; the rorqual, or fin-back, <a href="#Page_101">101</a><br />
-&mdash; the antarctic smooth-back, <a href="#Page_102">102</a><br />
-&mdash; sperm-whale, <a href="#Page_102">102</a><br />
-&mdash; the narwhal, or unicorn-fish, <a href="#Page_106">106</a><br />
-&mdash; the dolphin, <a href="#Page_107">107</a><br />
-&mdash; the porpoise, <a href="#Page_108">108</a><br />
-&mdash; the grampus, <a href="#Page_108">108</a><br />
-&mdash; history of the whale-fishery, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
-&mdash; the ca'ing whale, <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
-Cetochilus australis, banks of the, in the Pacific, <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br />
-Ceylon, or Taprobane, discovery of, <a href="#Page_447">447</a><br />
-Ch&aelig;todon rostratus, <a href="#Page_203">203</a><br />
-Chancellor's discovery of the White Sea, <a href="#Page_474">474</a><br />
-&mdash; his death, <a href="#Page_475">475</a><br />
-Charybdis, vortex of, <a href="#Page_41">41</a><br />
-Chelura tenebrans, <a href="#Page_247">247</a><br />
-Chelyosoma, <a href="#Page_323">323</a><br />
-Chepstow, high tides at, <a href="#Page_38">38</a><br />
-Cherbourg, breakwater of, <a href="#Page_90">90</a><br />
-Chili, upheaving of the coast of, <a href="#Page_10">10</a><br />
-Chincha Islands, statistics of the guano trade of the, <a href="#Page_169">169</a><br />
-Chiton squamosa, <a href="#Page_285">285</a><br />
-Chlorosperme&aelig;, or green sea-weeds, <a href="#Page_391">391</a><br />
-Chondrus crispus, or carrigeen, <a href="#Page_399">399</a><br />
-Circumnavigation of the globe first performed by Sebastian el Cano, <a href="#Page_469">469</a><br />
-Clavellina producta, <a href="#Page_322">322</a><br />
-Climate, influence of the Gulf Stream on that of the west European coasts, <a href="#Page_51">51</a><br />
-&mdash; variety of climates in similar latitudes, <a href="#Page_52">52</a><br />
-&mdash; Peruvian cold stream, <a href="#Page_53">53</a><br />
-&mdash; Japanese stream, <a href="#Page_54">54</a><br />
-&mdash; influence of forests on climates, <a href="#Page_78">78</a><br />
-&mdash; power of man over climate, <a href="#Page_78">78</a><br />
-Climbing fishes, <a href="#Page_193">193</a><br />
-Clio borealis, <a href="#Page_298">298</a><br />
-Clouds, formation of, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br />
-Coast-line of the sea, length of, <a href="#Page_4">4</a><br />
-Coasts, different formation of, <a href="#Page_5">5</a><br />
-&mdash; destructive power of the sea on all, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br />
-Cockle, the, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a><br />
-Cocoa-nut crab of the East Indies, <a href="#Page_254">254</a><br />
-Cod, the, <a href="#Page_415">415</a><br />
-&mdash; curing the cod, <a href="#Page_216">216</a><br />
-&mdash; cod-liver oil, <a href="#Page_216">216</a><br />
-C&#339;lenterata, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a><br />
-Col&aelig;us of Samos, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_446">446</a><br />
-Colour of the sea, <a href="#Page_17">17</a><br />
-&mdash; the azure cave at Capri, <a href="#Page_18">18</a><br />
-&mdash; changes produced by alg&aelig; and sea-worms, <a href="#Page_19">19</a><br />
-Columbus, his discovery of America, <a href="#Page_457">457</a><br />
-Compass, mariner's, invention of the, <a href="#Page_451">451</a><br />
-Composition of sea-water, <a href="#Page_12">12</a><br />
-Cone-shell, orange, <a href="#Page_288">288</a><br />
-Conger-eels, <a href="#Page_222">222</a><br />
-Congo, discovery of, <a href="#Page_456">456</a><br />
-Constructions, marine, 80-91<br />
-Cook, Captain, his voyages and discoveries, <a href="#Page_485">485</a><br />
-&mdash; his first voyage, <a href="#Page_486">486</a><br />
-&mdash; discovery of the Society Islands, <a href="#Page_486">486</a><br />
-&mdash; of the east coast of New Holland, <a href="#Page_486">486</a><br />
-&mdash; his second voyage, and discoveries, <a href="#Page_492">492</a><br />
-&mdash; his third voyage, <a href="#Page_491">491</a><br />
-&mdash; his death, <a href="#Page_462">462</a><br />
-Cook's Strait, discovery of, <a href="#Page_486">486</a><br />
-Conochilus volvox, <a href="#Page_268">268</a><br />
-Coral, spotted, of the Indian Ocean, <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br />
-Coral, <a href="#Page_366">366</a><br />
-&mdash; deep sea, <a href="#Page_367">367</a><br />
-&mdash; fishing of the Mediterranean, <a href="#Page_367">367</a><br />
-Coral-reefs, <a href="#Page_374">374</a><br />
-&mdash; barrier-reef of Australia, <a href="#Page_374">374</a><br />
-&mdash; how they become habitable for man, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a><br />
-Coralline zone, <a href="#Page_413">413</a><br />
-Cordova, his discoveries, <a href="#Page_491">491</a><br />
-Cormorants, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a><br />
-Cortereal, Gaspar, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_460">460</a><br />
-Cortereal, John Vaez, his discoveries, <a href="#Page_458">458</a><br />
-Cortereal, Miguel, <a href="#Page_461">461</a><br />
-Cortes, his conquest of Mexico, <a href="#Page_461">461</a><br />
-Coryniad&aelig;, <a href="#Page_358">358</a><br />
-Crabs, <a href="#Page_246">246</a><br />
-&mdash; legs of crabs, <a href="#Page_251">251</a><br />
-&mdash; larv&aelig; of crabs, <a href="#Page_258">258</a><br />
-Cross-fish, the common, <a href="#Page_334">334</a><br />
-Crustacea, by what are they distinguished from the insects and spiders? 243<br />
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_516" id="Page_516">� 516 �</a></span>&mdash; their respiratory organs, <a href="#Page_244">244</a><br />
-Ctenophora, <a href="#Page_358">358</a><br />
-Cuba discovered, <a href="#Page_459">459</a><br />
-&mdash; circumnavigated for the first time, <a href="#Page_461">461</a><br />
-Curlew, the, <a href="#Page_143">143</a><br />
-Currents, ocean, <a href="#Page_54">54</a><br />
-&mdash; causes of, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a><br />
-&mdash; the equatorial stream, <a href="#Page_56">56</a><br />
-&mdash; the Gulf Stream, <a href="#Page_57">57</a><br />
-&mdash; influence of the Gulf Stream, <a href="#Page_60">60</a><br />
-&mdash; the cold Peruvian stream, <a href="#Page_62">62</a><br />
-&mdash; the Japanese stream, <a href="#Page_63">63</a><br />
-&mdash; beneficial influence of the ocean currents, <a href="#Page_64">64</a><br />
-Cushion star-fishes, <a href="#Page_335">335</a><br />
-Cuttle-fish, <a href="#Page_275">275</a><br />
-&mdash; ova of the, <a href="#Page_278">278</a><br />
-Cuvier's classification of fishes, <a href="#Page_188">188</a><br />
-Cyclobranchiata, <a href="#Page_285">285</a><br />
-Cyclones, causes of, <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br />
-Cymospiras, <a href="#Page_266">266</a><br />
-<br />
-<a id="D"></a><span class="smcap">Dampier</span>, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_483">483</a><br />
-Darien, Gulf of, discovered, <a href="#Page_461">461</a><br />
-Darwin's theory of the formation of lagoon islands, <a href="#Page_375">375</a><br />
-Davis, John, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_476">476</a><br />
-Depth of the sea, <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br />
-&mdash; of the Atlantic, according to Maury, <a href="#Page_7">7</a><br />
-&mdash; American mode of sounding in deep water, <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br />
-&mdash; telegraphic plateau between Newfoundland and Ireland, <a href="#Page_7">7</a><br />
-&mdash; measurement of depth by the rapidity of tide-wave, <a href="#Page_8">8</a><br />
-Dew, formation of, <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br />
-Diatomace&aelig;, <a href="#Page_402">402</a><br />
-&mdash; their importance in reference to the existence of animal life in high latitudes, <a href="#Page_403">403</a><br />
-Diaz, Bartholomew, his discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, <a href="#Page_476">476</a><br />
-Diazona violacea, <a href="#Page_324">324</a><br />
-Diodons, <a href="#Page_178">178</a><br />
-Diogenes hermit-crab, <a href="#Page_254">254</a><br />
-Diphyes, <a href="#Page_352">352</a><br />
-Discovery, maritime, progress of, 441. <i>See</i> Maritime Discovery<br />
-Diu, Portuguese settlement of, <a href="#Page_462">462</a><br />
-Divers, <a href="#Page_150">150</a><br />
-Docks of London and Liverpool, <a href="#Page_91">91</a><br />
-Dogfish, <a href="#Page_200">200</a><br />
-Dolphins, <a href="#Page_107">107</a><br />
-Donax, <a href="#Page_301">301</a><br />
-Dory, <a href="#Page_242">242</a><br />
-Dragon-weever, <a href="#Page_204">204</a><br />
-Drake, Sir Francis, his discoveries, <a href="#Page_473">473</a><br />
-Duck family, <a href="#Page_146">146</a><br />
-Dugong, <a href="#Page_117">117</a><br />
-&mdash; skeleton of the, <a href="#Page_118">118</a><br />
-&mdash; female dugong of Ceylon, <a href="#Page_119">119</a><br />
-Dunes, formation of, <a href="#Page_5">5</a><br />
-Dunwich, destruction of the coast at, <a href="#Page_30">30</a><br />
-D'Urville, Dumont, his discoveries, <a href="#Page_509">509</a><br />
-Dusky Bay, discovery of, <a href="#Page_487">487</a><br />
-Dutch, their attempts to discover a North-West passage to India, <a href="#Page_474">474</a>, <a href="#Page_476">476</a><br />
-<br />
-<a id="E"></a><span class="smcap">Earth-rind</span>, the giant book of the, <a href="#Page_432">432</a><br />
-&mdash; formation of a solid earth-crust by cooling, <a href="#Page_432">432</a><br />
-Echinus, or sea-urchin, <a href="#Page_337">337</a><br />
-&mdash; mammillated, <a href="#Page_338">338</a><br />
-&mdash; edible, <a href="#Page_338">338</a><br />
-&mdash; dental apparatus of sea-urchins, <a href="#Page_339">339</a><br />
-Eddystone lighthouse, the, <a href="#Page_81">81</a><br />
-&mdash; Winstanley's structure, <a href="#Page_81">81</a><br />
-&mdash; Rudyerd's, <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br />
-&mdash; Smeaton's, <a href="#Page_83">83</a><br />
-Edward's Island, Prince, discovery of, <a href="#Page_491">491</a><br />
-&mdash; Land, <a href="#Page_415">415</a><br />
-Eel, the common, <a href="#Page_225">225</a><br />
-&mdash; conger, <a href="#Page_228">228</a><br />
-&mdash; the murry, or mur&aelig;na, <a href="#Page_229">229</a><br />
-Eendragt's Land, discovery of, <a href="#Page_480">480</a><br />
-Eider-duck, <a href="#Page_146">146</a><br />
-Electric eel, <a href="#Page_202">202</a><br />
-Endeavour Strait, discovery of, <a href="#Page_486">486</a><br />
-Enderby Land, discovery of, <a href="#Page_509">509</a><br />
-English navigation, retrospective view of, <a href="#Page_459">459</a><br />
-&mdash; attempts to discover the North-West passage, <a href="#Page_474">474</a><br />
-Enteromorph&aelig;, <a href="#Page_391">391</a><br />
-Eolis coronata, <a href="#Page_284">284</a><br />
-Eozoon canadense, 381 <i>note</i><br />
-Equatorial ocean-current, <a href="#Page_57">57</a><br />
-Equinoctial line crossed for the first time, <a href="#Page_456">456</a><br />
-Erebus, Mount, discovery of, <a href="#Page_509">509</a><br />
-Eschar&aelig;, <a href="#Page_317">317</a><br />
-Espiritu Santo, discovery of the Archipelago of, <a href="#Page_480">480</a>, <a href="#Page_490">490</a><br />
-Esquimaux in his kayak, <a href="#Page_120">120</a><br />
-Euripus, phenomenon produced by the tides of the, <a href="#Page_44">44</a><br />
-Europe, length of coast-line of, <a href="#Page_4">4</a><br />
-Euryale, warted, <a href="#Page_333">333</a><br />
-Evaporation, movement of the waters through, <a href="#Page_65">65</a><br />
-Extent of the ocean, <a href="#Page_1">1</a><br />
-<br />
-<a id="F"></a><span class="smcap">Falkland</span> Islands, sea-weeds at, <a href="#Page_396">396</a><br />
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_517" id="Page_517">� 517 �</a></span>Fan-bearer, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a><br />
-Feather-star, the rosy, <a href="#Page_330">330</a><br />
-Fernandez, Juan, his discoveries, <a href="#Page_473">473</a><br />
-Fierasfer, <a href="#Page_340">340</a><br />
-File-fish, <a href="#Page_232">232</a><br />
-Fin-crab, spotted, <a href="#Page_252">252</a><br />
-Fin-fish, or northern rorqual, <a href="#Page_101">101</a><br />
-Fingal's Cave, 45-48<br />
-&mdash; &mdash; popular belief as to its workmanship, <a href="#Page_48">48</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; Sir W. Scott's description of it, <a href="#Page_48">48</a><br />
-Fire, sea of, <a href="#Page_434">434</a><br />
-Fish, consumption of, in London, 237 <i>note</i><br />
-Fish River, Great, course of, traced, <a href="#Page_507">507</a><br />
-Fishes, general remarks on, <a href="#Page_186">186</a><br />
-&mdash; their locomotive organs, <a href="#Page_187">187</a><br />
-&mdash; Cuvier's classification of fishes, 188 <i>note</i><br />
-&mdash; fins, <a href="#Page_188">188</a><br />
-&mdash; air-bladder, <a href="#Page_189">189</a><br />
-&mdash; skin of, <a href="#Page_190">190</a><br />
-&mdash; beauty of tropical, <a href="#Page_191">191</a><br />
-&mdash; gills of, <a href="#Page_191">191</a><br />
-&mdash; circulation of the blood of, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a><br />
-&mdash; climbing, <a href="#Page_193">193</a><br />
-&mdash; parental affection of, <a href="#Page_194">194</a><br />
-&mdash; organs of sense, <a href="#Page_196">196</a><br />
-&mdash; offensive weapons of, <a href="#Page_198">198</a><br />
-&mdash; numerous enemies of, <a href="#Page_207">207</a><br />
-&mdash; luminous, <a href="#Page_422">422</a><br />
-Flamingoes, <a href="#Page_142">142</a><br />
-Flat-fishes, <a href="#Page_235">235</a><br />
-Florence, its commercial grandeur, <a href="#Page_450">450</a><br />
-Flounder, <a href="#Page_238">238</a><br />
-Flying-fishes, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a><br />
-Flying-gurnard, <a href="#Page_206">206</a><br />
-Foraminifera, <a href="#Page_378">378</a><br />
-&mdash; their immense numbers, <a href="#Page_378">378</a><br />
-&mdash; simplicity of their structure, <a href="#Page_380">380</a><br />
-&mdash; various forms of Foraminifera, <a href="#Page_381">381</a><br />
-Forbes, Professor Edward, on the four zones of marine life on the British coasts, <a href="#Page_408">408</a><br />
-Forests, influence of, on the formation and retention of atmospherical precipitations, <a href="#Page_76">76</a><br />
-&mdash; formation of, <a href="#Page_77">77</a><br />
-&mdash; influence of, on climates, <a href="#Page_78">78</a><br />
-Franklin, Sir John, his arctic voyages, <a href="#Page_501">501</a><br />
-&mdash; his last voyage, <a href="#Page_508">508</a><br />
-Fresnel, his improvements in marine illumination, <a href="#Page_90">90</a><br />
-Frigate-bird, <a href="#Page_155">155</a><br />
-Frobisher, Martin, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_475">475</a><br />
-Frog-fish, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a><br />
-Fuci, <a href="#Page_392">392</a><br />
-&mdash; fucus banks, or floating meadows, of the Atlantic 397<br />
-Fulmar, the, <a href="#Page_195">195</a><br />
-<br />
-<a id="G"></a><span class="smcap">Gades</span>, Ph&#339;nician town of, <a href="#Page_444">444</a><br />
-Ga�ta, maritime trade of, <a href="#Page_451">451</a><br />
-Gama, Vasco de, doubles the Cape of Good Hope, <a href="#Page_462">462</a><br />
-Gannet, or soland goose, <a href="#Page_156">156</a><br />
-Gar-fish, <a href="#Page_223">223</a><br />
-Garry, Cape, discovery of, <a href="#Page_503">503</a><br />
-Gasteropods, <a href="#Page_282">282</a><br />
-&mdash; respiratory apparatus, <a href="#Page_283">283</a><br />
-&mdash; growth of their shells, <a href="#Page_289">289</a><br />
-&mdash; mode of locomotion, <a href="#Page_289">289</a><br />
-&mdash; their food, <a href="#Page_294">294</a><br />
-&mdash; organs of sense, <a href="#Page_295">295</a><br />
-&mdash; their enemies, <a href="#Page_297">297</a><br />
-&mdash; their use to man, <a href="#Page_296">296</a><br />
-Genoa, maritime grandeur of, <a href="#Page_450">450</a><br />
-Geographical distribution of marine life, <a href="#Page_405">405</a><br />
-Georgia, South, discovery of, <a href="#Page_490">490</a><br />
-Germany, its climate at the time of the Romans and at the present time, <a href="#Page_78">78</a><br />
-Glaciers, formation and dissolution of, <a href="#Page_75">75</a><br />
-&mdash; the Aar glacier, <a href="#Page_75">75</a><br />
-&mdash; of Greenland and Spitzbergen, <a href="#Page_76">76</a><br />
-Glaucus, <a href="#Page_283">283</a><br />
-Globe-fish, <a href="#Page_232">232</a><br />
-Goa, Portuguese settlement of, <a href="#Page_462">462</a><br />
-Goby, the black, <a href="#Page_194">194</a><br />
-Goniaster, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a><br />
-Good Hope, Cape of, discovery of, <a href="#Page_457">457</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; first doubled, <a href="#Page_462">462</a><br />
-Goodwin Sands, <a href="#Page_9">9</a><br />
-Goose, sea, various kinds of, <a href="#Page_146">146</a><br />
-Gorgonid&aelig;, <a href="#Page_365">365</a><br />
-Grampus, the, <a href="#Page_108">108</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; anecdote of one, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
-Grass wrack (Zostera marina), <a href="#Page_391">391</a><br />
-Great crab, <a href="#Page_251">251</a><br />
-Grebes, the, <a href="#Page_150">150</a><br />
-Greenland, depression of the coast of, <a href="#Page_10">10</a><br />
-&mdash; olive colour of the water of the Greenland seas, <a href="#Page_20">20</a><br />
-&mdash; glaciers of, <a href="#Page_76">76</a><br />
-&mdash; whale-fishery of, <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br />
-&mdash; discovery of, <a href="#Page_457">457</a><br />
-Grijalva, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_461">461</a><br />
-Guano of the Chincha Islands, <a href="#Page_169">169</a><br />
-&mdash; statistics of the trade of, <a href="#Page_170">170</a><br />
-Guillemot, black, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a><br />
-Guinea, New, discovery of, <a href="#Page_473">473</a><br />
-Gulf Stream, the, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; its influence on the climate of the west European coasts, <a href="#Page_59">59</a><br />
-Gulls, sea, <a href="#Page_157">157</a><br />
-G�nnbjorn, his discovery of Greenland, <a href="#Page_457">457</a><br />
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_518" id="Page_518">� 518 �</a></span>Gurnard, <a href="#Page_414">414</a><br />
-<br />
-<a id="H"></a><span class="smcap">Haddock</span>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a><br />
-Hag. glutinous, <a href="#Page_231">231</a><br />
-Haiti discovered, <a href="#Page_459">459</a><br />
-Halibut, <a href="#Page_236">236</a><br />
-Hanno, the Carthaginian, his voyage, <a href="#Page_444">444</a><br />
-Harp-shell, <a href="#Page_288">288</a><br />
-Hartburn, site of the village of, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br />
-Hartog, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_480">480</a><br />
-Hassar, land journeys of the, <a href="#Page_194">194</a><br />
-Hawaii, discovery of the island of, <a href="#Page_492">492</a><br />
-Hebrides, New, discovery of the, <a href="#Page_480">480</a>, <a href="#Page_490">490</a><br />
-Henry, Prince, of Portugal, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_453">453</a><br />
-Hermit-crabs, <a href="#Page_254">254</a><br />
-Herrings, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a><br />
-Herring-crab, <a href="#Page_256">256</a><br />
-Herring-fishery, <a href="#Page_208">208</a><br />
-&mdash; history of the, <a href="#Page_209">209</a><br />
-&mdash; statistics of the, <a href="#Page_210">210</a><br />
-Herring-gull, <a href="#Page_158">158</a><br />
-Hervey's Islands, discovery of, <a href="#Page_487">487</a><br />
-Hindustan, circumnavigation of, <a href="#Page_447">447</a><br />
-Hippocamp, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a><br />
-Hippopus, <a href="#Page_315">315</a><br />
-Hoar-frost, causes of, <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br />
-Hogg, James, his experiments with salmon, <a href="#Page_219">219</a><br />
-Holland, devastations caused by storm-tides on the coast of, <a href="#Page_35">35</a><br />
-Holland, New, discoveries of, <a href="#Page_473">473</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; Cook's discoveries in, <a href="#Page_486">486</a><br />
-Holothuri&aelig;, <a href="#Page_339">339</a><br />
-Homer, his picture of the breaking of the waves against the shore, <a href="#Page_27">27</a><br />
-Hood's Island, discovery of, <a href="#Page_489">489</a><br />
-Hooded seal of northern seas, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-Huatulco, sea-cave of, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a><br />
-Hudson, Henry, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_481">481</a><br />
-&mdash; his unfortunate end, <a href="#Page_482">482</a><br />
-Hudson's Bay, discovery of, <a href="#Page_481">481</a><br />
-Hump-back whales, <a href="#Page_102">102</a><br />
-Hunga, cave of, 49-51<br />
-Hyal&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_298">298</a><br />
-Hyde, site of the village of, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br />
-<br />
-<a id="I"></a><span class="smcap">Ianthin&aelig;</span>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a><br />
-Ice-bear, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a><br />
-Icebergs, formation of, <a href="#Page_76">76</a><br />
-&mdash; erratic blocks carried away by, <a href="#Page_76">76</a><br />
-Iceland, salmon of, <a href="#Page_220">220</a><br />
-&mdash; discovery and colonisation of, <a href="#Page_361">361</a><br />
-Ichthyosaurus, <a href="#Page_438">438</a><br />
-Inachus K&aelig;mpferi of Japan, <a href="#Page_259">259</a><br />
-India, Portuguese discovery in, <a href="#Page_462">462</a><br />
-Indian Ocean, spotted corals in the, <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br />
-Indus, sudden rising of the spring-tide at the mouth of the, <a href="#Page_42">42</a><br />
-Inferobranchiata, <a href="#Page_284">284</a><br />
-Infusoria, marine, <a href="#Page_383">383</a><br />
-Insects, marine, <a href="#Page_261">261</a><br />
-Isinglass, <a href="#Page_216">216</a><br />
-Isis hippuris, <a href="#Page_369">369</a><br />
-Ivory of the walrus, <a href="#Page_132">132</a><br />
-<br />
-<a id="J"></a><span class="smcap">Jamaica</span> discovered, <a href="#Page_459">459</a><br />
-Japanese ocean-stream, the, <a href="#Page_63">63</a><br />
-Java, gathering of edible birds'-nests on the south coast of, <a href="#Page_399">399</a><br />
-Jelly-fishes, <a href="#Page_345">345</a><br />
-&mdash; their anatomical structure, <a href="#Page_345">345</a><br />
-&mdash; their size and colours, <a href="#Page_356">356</a><br />
-&mdash; their indirect use to man, <a href="#Page_357">357</a><br />
-&mdash; their phosphorescence, <a href="#Page_420">420</a><br />
-&mdash; the Velella, <a href="#Page_353">353</a><br />
-&mdash; the Portuguese man-of-war, <a href="#Page_354">354</a><br />
-John Dory, <a href="#Page_415">415</a><br />
-<br />
-<a id="K"></a><span class="smcap">Kamtschatka</span>, salmon of, <a href="#Page_220">220</a><br />
-Keeling Island, subsidence of the coast at, <a href="#Page_10">10</a><br />
-Kerguelen's Land, discovery of, <a href="#Page_491">491</a><br />
-Kilda, St., bird-catching on, <a href="#Page_164">164</a><br />
-King-crab, <a href="#Page_246">246</a><br />
-Kittiwake, or tarrock, the, <a href="#Page_158">158</a><br />
-Kraken, the Norwegian, <a href="#Page_279">279</a><br />
-<br />
-<a id="L"></a><span class="smcap">Labrador</span>, discovery of, <a href="#Page_459">459</a><br />
-Ladrone Islands, discovery of the, <a href="#Page_468">468</a><br />
-Lagoon islands, <a href="#Page_374">374</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; Darwin's theory of the formation of, <a href="#Page_375">375</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; how they became habitable for man, <a href="#Page_376">376</a><br />
-Lamantins of the Atlantic Ocean, <a href="#Page_117">117</a><br />
-Laminaria, region of the great, or tangle forests, <a href="#Page_393">393</a><br />
-Laminari&aelig;, <a href="#Page_393">393</a><br />
-Lampreys, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a><br />
-Land-crabs, <a href="#Page_250">250</a><br />
-Landscapes, submarine, <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br />
-&mdash; in the Caribbean Sea, <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br />
-&mdash; on the coast of Sicily, <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br />
-La Perouse, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_493">493</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; his fate, <a href="#Page_493">493</a><br />
-Launces, <a href="#Page_230">230</a><br />
-Le Maire, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_480">480</a><br />
-Leprali&aelig;, <a href="#Page_318">318</a><br />
-Lessonias, of the Falkland Islands, <a href="#Page_396">396</a><br />
-Level of the ocean, does it remain unchanged, and every where the same? 11<br />
-Licmophora, or fan-bearer, <a href="#Page_402">402</a><br />
-Life, marine, geographical distribution of, <a href="#Page_405">405</a><br />
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_519" id="Page_519">� 519 �</a></span>&mdash; dependence of all created beings upon space and time, <a href="#Page_406">406</a><br />
-&mdash; influences which regulate the distribution of marine life, <a href="#Page_407">407</a><br />
-&mdash; the four bathymetrical zones of marine life on the British coasts, according to the late Professor Edward Forbes, of Edinburgh, <a href="#Page_408">408</a><br />
-&mdash; first wakening of life in the bosom of the ocean, <a href="#Page_435">435</a><br />
-Lighthouses, <a href="#Page_80">80</a><br />
-&mdash; the Eddystone lighthouse, <a href="#Page_81">81</a><br />
-&mdash; the Bellrock, or Inchcape, lighthouse, <a href="#Page_85">85</a><br />
-&mdash; the Skerryvore lighthouse, 85-89<br />
-&mdash; the Pharus of Alexandria, <a href="#Page_89">89</a><br />
-&mdash; progress of marine illumination, <a href="#Page_90">90</a><br />
-Lily encrinites, <a href="#Page_340">340</a><br />
-Limacina arctica, <a href="#Page_298">298</a><br />
-Limits of the ocean, progressive changes in the, <a href="#Page_9">9</a><br />
-&mdash; Goodwin Sands, <a href="#Page_10">10</a><br />
-&mdash; alluvial deposits, <a href="#Page_10">10</a><br />
-&mdash; upheaving of coasts, <a href="#Page_10">10</a><br />
-&mdash; subsidence, <a href="#Page_10">10</a><br />
-&mdash; temple of Serapis, <a href="#Page_11">11</a><br />
-&mdash; level of the sea everywhere the same, <a href="#Page_11">11</a><br />
-Limnori&aelig;, <a href="#Page_247">247</a><br />
-Limpet, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a><br />
-Limuli, or king-crabs, <a href="#Page_246">246</a><br />
-Ling, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a><br />
-Ling-thorn, <a href="#Page_335">335</a><br />
-Lithophytes, <a href="#Page_373">373</a><br />
-Liverpool Docks, <a href="#Page_91">91</a><br />
-Lizards of the sea, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a><br />
-&mdash; serpent-lizard, <a href="#Page_435">435</a><br />
-Lobsters, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a><br />
-Loggerheaded duck or goose, <a href="#Page_148">148</a><br />
-London Docks, <a href="#Page_91">91</a><br />
-Long-tailed duck, <a href="#Page_148">148</a><br />
-Lophobranchii, the, <a href="#Page_233">233</a><br />
-Louse, whale, <a href="#Page_101">101</a><br />
-Lucernarid&aelig;, <a href="#Page_350">350</a><br />
-Luminous marine animals, <a href="#Page_418">418</a><br />
-Lump-sucker, <a href="#Page_415">415</a><br />
-<br />
-<a id="M"></a><span class="smcap">Mackerel</span>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a><br />
-Macrocystis pyrifera, <a href="#Page_393">393</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; Mr. Darwin's description of it at Tierra del Fuego, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a><br />
-Madeira, depth of the sea near, <a href="#Page_1">1</a><br />
-&mdash; discovery of, <a href="#Page_505">505</a><br />
-Maelstrom, the, <a href="#Page_41">41</a><br />
-Magellan, Ferdinand, his discoveries, <a href="#Page_467">467</a>, <a href="#Page_468">468</a><br />
-Magellan's Straits, discovery of, <a href="#Page_468">468</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; harmony of animal life in the islands of, <a href="#Page_490">490</a><br />
-Magilus antiquus, <a href="#Page_291">291</a><br />
-Malacca Islands, discovery of the, <a href="#Page_462">462</a><br />
-Malo, St., high tides of, <a href="#Page_38">38</a><br />
-Mammaria scintillans, <a href="#Page_275">275</a><br />
-Manatee, the, <a href="#Page_116">116</a><br />
-Mantis crab, spotted, <a href="#Page_256">256</a><br />
-Marco Polo, his travels and discoveries, <a href="#Page_453">453</a><br />
-Maritime discovery, progress of, <a href="#Page_441">441</a><br />
-&mdash; discoveries of the Ph&#339;nicians, <a href="#Page_443">443</a><br />
-&mdash; expedition of Hanno, <a href="#Page_444">444</a><br />
-&mdash; circumnavigation of Africa, under Pharaoh Necho II., <a href="#Page_444">444</a><br />
-&mdash; Ophir, <a href="#Page_339">339</a><br />
-&mdash; Col&aelig;us of Samos and Pytheas of Massilia, <a href="#Page_340">340</a><br />
-&mdash; expedition of Nearchus, <a href="#Page_447">447</a><br />
-&mdash; circumnavigation of Hindostan, under the Ptolemies, <a href="#Page_447">447</a><br />
-&mdash; voyages of discovery of the Romans, <a href="#Page_453">453</a><br />
-&mdash; consequences of the fall of the Roman empire, <a href="#Page_448">448</a><br />
-&mdash; Amalfi, <a href="#Page_449">449</a><br />
-&mdash; Pisa, Venice, and Genoa, <a href="#Page_449">449</a><br />
-&mdash; resumption of maritime intercourse between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, <a href="#Page_451">451</a><br />
-&mdash; discovery of the compass, <a href="#Page_451">451</a><br />
-&mdash; Marco Polo, <a href="#Page_453">453</a><br />
-&mdash; other discoveries, <a href="#Page_453">453</a><br />
-&mdash; Prince Henry of Portugal, <a href="#Page_454">454</a><br />
-&mdash; discovery of Porto Santo and Madeira, <a href="#Page_455">455</a><br />
-&mdash; doubling of Cape Bojador, <a href="#Page_455">455</a><br />
-&mdash; discovery of the Azores, <a href="#Page_456">456</a><br />
-&mdash; the line crossed for the first time, <a href="#Page_456">456</a><br />
-&mdash; Benin and Congo discovered, <a href="#Page_456">456</a><br />
-&mdash; and the Cape of Good Hope, <a href="#Page_457">457</a><br />
-&mdash; discovery of America, <a href="#Page_457">457</a><br />
-&mdash; and of Iceland, <a href="#Page_457">457</a><br />
-&mdash; Greenland, <a href="#Page_457">457</a><br />
-&mdash; discoveries of John and Sebastian Cabot, <a href="#Page_459">459</a><br />
-&mdash; retrospective view of the beginnings of English navigation, <a href="#Page_461">461</a><br />
-&mdash; Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci, <a href="#Page_460">460</a><br />
-&mdash; Vincent Ya�ez Pinson, <a href="#Page_460">460</a><br />
-&mdash; Cortes, <a href="#Page_461">461</a><br />
-&mdash; Verazzani, <a href="#Page_461">461</a><br />
-&mdash; Jacques Cartier, <a href="#Page_461">461</a><br />
-&mdash; the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean, <a href="#Page_462">462</a><br />
-&mdash; Balboa's discovery of the Pacific Ocean, <a href="#Page_466">466</a><br />
-&mdash; Magellan, <a href="#Page_467">467</a><br />
-&mdash; Sebastian el Cano, the first circumnavigator of the globe, <a href="#Page_469">469</a><br />
-&mdash; Pizarro and Cortes, <a href="#Page_470">470</a><br />
-&mdash; Urdaneta, <a href="#Page_472">472</a><br />
-&mdash; Juan Fernandez, <a href="#Page_473">473</a><br />
-&mdash; Mendoza, <a href="#Page_473">473</a><br />
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_520" id="Page_520">� 520 �</a></span>
-&mdash; Drake, <a href="#Page_473">473</a><br />
-&mdash; Willoughby and Chancellor, <a href="#Page_474">474</a><br />
-&mdash; Martin Frobisher, <a href="#Page_475">475</a><br />
-&mdash; Davis, <a href="#Page_476">476</a><br />
-&mdash; Barentz, <a href="#Page_476">476</a><br />
-&mdash; Quiros, <a href="#Page_480">480</a><br />
-&mdash; Torres, <a href="#Page_480">480</a><br />
-&mdash; Schouten, Le Maire, and others, <a href="#Page_480">480</a><br />
-&mdash; Tasman, <a href="#Page_480">480</a><br />
-&mdash; Henry Hudson, and his unfortunate end, <a href="#Page_481">481</a><br />
-&mdash; Baffin, <a href="#Page_481">481</a><br />
-&mdash; Dampier, <a href="#Page_483">483</a><br />
-&mdash; Anson, Behring, Byron, Wallis, Carteret, and Bougainville, <a href="#Page_483">483</a><br />
-&mdash; Cook's voyages, 485-492<br />
-&mdash; arctic discovery, <a href="#Page_496">496</a><br />
-Marquesas de Mendoza Islands, discovery of the, <a href="#Page_473">473</a><br />
-Mauritius, sea-cave on the, <a href="#Page_52">52</a><br />
-Mediterranean Sea, depth of the, <a href="#Page_8">8</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; height of the, <a href="#Page_12">12</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; temperature of the, <a href="#Page_14">14</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; colour of the, <a href="#Page_18">18</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; sides of the, <a href="#Page_43">43</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; Ph&#339;nician trade in the, <a href="#Page_443">443</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; decline of trade in the, <a href="#Page_33">33</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; resumption of maritime intercourse between the Mediterranean and the Adriatic, <a href="#Page_449">449</a><br />
-Medusid&aelig;, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a><br />
-Melanosperme&aelig;, or olive-coloured sea-weeds, <a href="#Page_392">392</a><br />
-Melville Island, discovery of, <a href="#Page_500">500</a><br />
-Mendana, Alvaro, his discoveries, <a href="#Page_473">473</a><br />
-Menezes, Don Jorge de, his discoveries, <a href="#Page_473">473</a><br />
-Merganser, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_404">404</a><br />
-Mexico, discovery of the coast of, <a href="#Page_461">461</a><br />
-&mdash; conquest of, by Cortes, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>, <a href="#Page_472">472</a><br />
-Microscopic life of the ocean, <a href="#Page_378">378</a><br />
-Mines, submarine, <a href="#Page_91">91</a><br />
-Mitre shells, <a href="#Page_288">288</a><br />
-Mollusca, <a href="#Page_270">270</a><br />
-&mdash; general remarks on, <a href="#Page_270">270</a><br />
-Monsoons, north-east, <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br />
-&mdash; south-west, <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br />
-Moon, influence of the, on the tides, <a href="#Page_446">446</a><br />
-Mother-of-pearl, <a href="#Page_313">313</a><br />
-Mullet, grey, <a href="#Page_415">415</a><br />
-Murex haustellum, <a href="#Page_291">291</a><br />
-Murry, or mur&aelig;na, <a href="#Page_229">229</a><br />
-Mussels, edible, <a href="#Page_307">307</a><br />
-&mdash; history of, <a href="#Page_307">307</a><br />
-&mdash; 'bouchots,' or mussel-parks, <a href="#Page_307">307</a><br />
-Myxine, the, <a href="#Page_231">231</a><br />
-<br />
-<a id="N"></a><span class="smcap">Naples</span>, maritime trade of, <a href="#Page_449">449</a><br />
-Narwhal, or unicorn-fish, <a href="#Page_106">106</a><br />
-Nautilus, <a href="#Page_280">280</a><br />
-&mdash; the pearly, <a href="#Page_281">281</a><br />
-Nearchus, voyage of, <a href="#Page_447">447</a><br />
-Necho II., Pharaoh, of Egypt, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_444">444</a><br />
-Nelson, Horatio, pursuing a polar bear, <a href="#Page_138">138</a><br />
-Neptune's ruffles, <a href="#Page_318">318</a><br />
-Nereis, the, <a href="#Page_263">263</a><br />
-Nereocystis lutkeana, the, of Norfolk Bay and Sitcha, <a href="#Page_397">397</a><br />
-Nettuno, Antro di, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
-Newfoundland, discovery of, <a href="#Page_459">459</a><br />
-Noctiluca miliaris, <a href="#Page_425">425</a><br />
-Norfolk, rapid destruction of the cliffs of, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br />
-Norfolk Island, discovery of, <a href="#Page_490">490</a><br />
-North Sea, depth of the, <a href="#Page_8">8</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; colour of the, <a href="#Page_18">18</a><br />
-North-West Passage, attempts of the Dutch and English to discover the, <a href="#Page_474">474</a><br />
-Norway, treaty of commerce concluded with, <a href="#Page_459">459</a><br />
-Nova Zembla, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>, <a href="#Page_477">477</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; sufferings of Barentz and his crew during a winter at, <a href="#Page_478">478</a><br />
-Nudibranchiata, <a href="#Page_284">284</a><br />
-Nummulina discoidalis, <a href="#Page_378">378</a><br />
-<br />
-<a id="O"></a><span class="smcap">Oar-weeds</span>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a><br />
-Ocean, the primitive, <a href="#Page_433">433</a><br />
-Ojeda, discoveries of, <a href="#Page_460">460</a><br />
-Oliva hispidula, <a href="#Page_290">290</a><br />
-Onychoteuthis, arms and tentacles of an, <a href="#Page_274">274</a><br />
-Ophir, the, of the Ph&#339;nicians, <a href="#Page_445">445</a><br />
-Ophiurid&aelig;, or snake-stars, <a href="#Page_331">331</a><br />
-Orkney Islands, whirlpools among the, <a href="#Page_42">42</a><br />
-Ormus, taken by the Portuguese, <a href="#Page_462">462</a><br />
-Ostend, oyster-parks of, <a href="#Page_309">309</a><br />
-Otarian seals, <a href="#Page_126">126</a><br />
-Oyster, <a href="#Page_307">307</a><br />
-&mdash; account of the oyster-trade, <a href="#Page_308">308</a><br />
-&mdash; catchers, <a href="#Page_143">143</a><br />
-&mdash; oyster-dust, <a href="#Page_310">310</a><br />
-&mdash; pearl, <a href="#Page_311">311</a><br />
-<br />
-<a id="P"></a><span class="smcap">Pacific Ocean</span>, depth of the, <a href="#Page_7">7</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; height of the, <a href="#Page_12">12</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; discovery of the, <a href="#Page_466">466</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; Cook's voyages in, <a href="#Page_492">492</a><br />
-Paguri, <a href="#Page_254">254</a><br />
-Palisser Islands, discovery of the, <a href="#Page_489">489</a><br />
-Palmas, Cape, colour of the sea near, <a href="#Page_20">20</a><br />
-Palmyra, <a href="#Page_445">445</a><br />
-Parrot-fishes, <a href="#Page_372">372</a><br />
-Parry, Sir John, his arctic discoveries, <a href="#Page_500">500</a><br />
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_521" id="Page_521">� 521 �</a></span>Patagonia, discovery of, <a href="#Page_484">484</a><br />
-Pea-crab, <a href="#Page_253">253</a><br />
-Pearl-oyster, <a href="#Page_311">311</a><br />
-Pearls, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a><br />
-Pectinibranchiata, <a href="#Page_288">288</a><br />
-Pectunculus, <a href="#Page_302">302</a><br />
-Pegasus, swimming, <a href="#Page_207">207</a><br />
-Pelamid, <a href="#Page_224">224</a><br />
-Pelamys bicolor, <a href="#Page_183">183</a><br />
-Pelicans, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a><br />
-Penguins, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a><br />
-&mdash; species of, <a href="#Page_153">153</a><br />
-Pentacrinus briareus, <a href="#Page_330">330</a><br />
-Periwinkle, <a href="#Page_411">411</a><br />
-Peru, visited by Pizarro, <a href="#Page_471">471</a><br />
-&mdash; conquered by him, <a href="#Page_472">472</a><br />
-Peruvian ocean-current, the, <a href="#Page_62">62</a><br />
-Petrels, <a href="#Page_160">160</a><br />
-&mdash; stormy, <a href="#Page_162">162</a><br />
-Philippine Islands, discovery of the, <a href="#Page_468">468</a><br />
-Philodina roseola, <a href="#Page_269">269</a><br />
-Ph&#339;nicians, maritime discoveries of the, <a href="#Page_443">443</a><br />
-&mdash; their progress in the arts and sciences, <a href="#Page_445">445</a><br />
-Pholades, <a href="#Page_304">304</a><br />
-Pholas dactylus, <a href="#Page_301">301</a><br />
-&mdash; Pliny's accounts of its phosphorescence, <a href="#Page_431">431</a><br />
-&mdash; striata, <a href="#Page_302">302</a><br />
-Phosphorescence of the sea, causes of, <a href="#Page_418">418</a><br />
-&mdash; of various marine animals, <a href="#Page_418">418</a><br />
-Phyllosoma, <a href="#Page_258">258</a><br />
-Physali&aelig;, the, <a href="#Page_354">354</a><br />
-Physophorid&aelig;, <a href="#Page_353">353</a><br />
-Pilchards, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a><br />
-Pilot-fish, <a href="#Page_225">225</a><br />
-Pinn&aelig; of the Mediterranean, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a><br />
-Pinson, his discoveries, <a href="#Page_460">460</a><br />
-Pipe-fishes, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a><br />
-Pisa, maritime trade of, <a href="#Page_449">449</a><br />
-Pizarro, sketch of him and his companions, <a href="#Page_469">469</a><br />
-Plaice, <a href="#Page_238">238</a><br />
-Plants, marine, <a href="#Page_390">390</a><br />
-Plectognaths, <a href="#Page_232">232</a><br />
-Plesiosaurus, the, <a href="#Page_438">438</a><br />
-Pleuronectid&aelig;, or flat-fishes, <a href="#Page_235">235</a><br />
-Pliny, his geographical knowledge, <a href="#Page_448">448</a><br />
-Plover, the, <a href="#Page_144">144</a><br />
-Plymouth breakwater, in the great storm of 1824, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br />
-Polycystina, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a><br />
-Polynesia, length of coast-line of, <a href="#Page_4">4</a><br />
-Polyps, <a href="#Page_345">345</a><br />
-Polyzoa, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a><br />
-Porcupine-fish, <a href="#Page_232">232</a><br />
-Porpoise, <a href="#Page_108">108</a><br />
-Portland, destructive action of the sea at, <a href="#Page_31">31</a><br />
-Porto Santo, discovery of, <a href="#Page_455">455</a><br />
-Portuguese man-of-war, <a href="#Page_354">354</a><br />
-Poulp, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a><br />
-Prontzchitschew, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_483">483</a><br />
-Protozoa, <a href="#Page_378">378</a><br />
-Pteroceras, <a href="#Page_290">290</a><br />
-Pteropods, their organisation and mode of life, <a href="#Page_298">298</a><br />
-&mdash; the butterflies of the ocean, <a href="#Page_299">299</a><br />
-Ptolemies, maritime discoveries of the, <a href="#Page_447">447</a><br />
-Ptolemy, the geographer, his knowledge of the globe, <a href="#Page_449">449</a><br />
-Ptygura melicerta, <a href="#Page_267">267</a><br />
-Puffins, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a><br />
-Purbeck, destruction of the cliffs at, <a href="#Page_31">31</a><br />
-Pyrosoma atlantica, its phosphorescence, <a href="#Page_420">420</a><br />
-Pyrosomes, <a href="#Page_325">325</a><br />
-Pytheas of Massilia, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_446">446</a><br />
-<br />
-<a id="Q"></a><span class="smcap">Quantity</span> of the waters contained within the bosom of the ocean, <a href="#Page_8">8</a><br />
-Quiros, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_480">480</a><br />
-Quito, coast of, discovery of, <a href="#Page_470">470</a><br />
-<br />
-<a id="R"></a><span class="smcap">Racer</span>, or rider-crab, the, <a href="#Page_251">251</a><br />
-Rain, formation of, <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br />
-&mdash; inequality of, <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br />
-&mdash; its return to the sea, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br />
-Rays, <a href="#Page_240">240</a><br />
-Razor-shell, <a href="#Page_303">303-306</a><br />
-R�, oyster-trade of, <a href="#Page_311">311</a><br />
-Reculver, destruction of the coast at, <a href="#Page_30">30</a><br />
-Red Sea, height of the, <a href="#Page_12">12</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; red alg&aelig; of the, <a href="#Page_20">20</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; Ph&#339;nician trade on the, <a href="#Page_445">445</a><br />
-Reef-building corals, <a href="#Page_374">374</a><br />
-Regent Inlet, Prince, discovery of, <a href="#Page_500">500</a><br />
-Reptiles of the sea, <a href="#Page_172">172</a><br />
-Rhodosperms, Floride&aelig;, or red sea-weeds, <a href="#Page_398">398</a><br />
-&mdash; their habitat, <a href="#Page_398">398</a><br />
-Richardson, Sir John, his arctic voyages, <a href="#Page_501">501</a><br />
-Rivers, phenomena presented by the mixture of salt and fresh water in, <a href="#Page_16">16</a><br />
-&mdash; quantities of water which rivers pour into the ocean, <a href="#Page_75">75</a><br />
-Rock-goose, <a href="#Page_149">149</a><br />
-Roggewein, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_483">483</a><br />
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_522" id="Page_522">� 522 �</a></span>Rome, ancient, maritime discoveries of, <a href="#Page_448">448</a><br />
-Rorqual, northern, or fin-fish, <a href="#Page_101">101</a><br />
-&mdash; its food, <a href="#Page_102">102</a><br />
-Ross, Sir James, on the height of waves, <a href="#Page_28">28</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; &mdash; his discoveries, <a href="#Page_509">509</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; John, his arctic discoveries, <a href="#Page_500">500</a>, <a href="#Page_503">503</a><br />
-Rotifera, the, <a href="#Page_267">267</a><br />
-Rudyerd, Mr., his lighthouse on the Eddystone rocks, <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br />
-<br />
-<a id="S"></a><span class="smcap">Saavedra</span>, Alvaro de, his discoveries, <a href="#Page_473">473</a><br />
-Sabrina Land, discovery of, <a href="#Page_509">509</a><br />
-Sagittaria, discovery of the island of, <a href="#Page_480">480</a><br />
-Sail-fluke, <a href="#Page_239">239</a><br />
-Salangana caves in Java, <a href="#Page_399">399</a><br />
-Salmon, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a><br />
-&mdash; trade, <a href="#Page_220">220</a><br />
-&mdash; salmon-spearing, <a href="#Page_219">219</a><br />
-&mdash; growth of the salmon, <a href="#Page_219">219</a><br />
-&mdash; abundance of salmon, <a href="#Page_220">220</a><br />
-&mdash; introduced into Australia and New Zealand, <a href="#Page_221">221</a><br />
-Salmon-leaps, <a href="#Page_218">218</a><br />
-Salp&aelig;, <a href="#Page_325">325</a><br />
-&mdash; their alternating generations, <a href="#Page_327">327</a><br />
-Salts of the sea, <a href="#Page_12">12</a><br />
-Sand-crab, American, <a href="#Page_252">252</a><br />
-Sandhopper, <a href="#Page_246">246</a><br />
-Sand-stars, <a href="#Page_332">332</a><br />
-Sandwich Land, discovery of, <a href="#Page_490">490</a><br />
-&mdash; Islands, discovery of, <a href="#Page_490">490</a><br />
-Sardinia, stalactite caves of the island of, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
-Sargasso Sea, the, <a href="#Page_397">397</a><br />
-Saurians of the past seas, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_438">438</a><br />
-Scari, or parrot-fishes, <a href="#Page_372">372</a><br />
-Schouten, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_480">480</a><br />
-Scissor-bill, <a href="#Page_144">144</a><br />
-Scoopers, <a href="#Page_143">143</a><br />
-Scoresby, his arctic voyages, <a href="#Page_497">497</a><br />
-Scyll&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_283">283</a><br />
-Scythe, the, <a href="#Page_415">415</a><br />
-Sea-anemones, <a href="#Page_361">361</a><br />
-Sea-bear, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a><br />
-Sea-birds, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a><br />
-&mdash; their vast numbers, <a href="#Page_142">142</a><br />
-Sea-cask, <a href="#Page_142">142</a><br />
-Sea-cucumbers, <a href="#Page_339">339</a><br />
-Sea-devil of the Pacific, <a href="#Page_241">241</a><br />
-Sea-ear, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a><br />
-Sea-elephant, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-Sea-fox, <a href="#Page_99">99</a><br />
-Sea-hare, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a><br />
-Sea-horse, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a><br />
-Sea-lemon, <a href="#Page_284">284</a><br />
-Sea-lion, <a href="#Page_128">128</a><br />
-Sea-mat, leaf-like, <a href="#Page_316">316</a><br />
-Sea-mew, <a href="#Page_157">157</a><br />
-Sea-otter, <a href="#Page_139">139</a><br />
-&mdash; chase of the, <a href="#Page_139">139</a><br />
-Sea-pen, <a href="#Page_364">364</a><br />
-&mdash; its phosphorescence, <a href="#Page_426">426</a><br />
-Sea-pie, the, <a href="#Page_144">144</a><br />
-Sea-pinks, <a href="#Page_391">391</a><br />
-Sea-scurfs, <a href="#Page_318">318</a><br />
-Sea-snail, purple, <a href="#Page_290">290</a><br />
-Sea-snakes, <a href="#Page_183">183</a><br />
-Sea-squirts, <a href="#Page_323">323</a><br />
-Sea-swallows, <a href="#Page_157">157</a><br />
-Sea-urchin, <a href="#Page_337">337</a><br />
-Sea-weeds, <a href="#Page_391">391</a><br />
-&mdash; luminous, <a href="#Page_423">423</a><br />
-Sea-wolf, <a href="#Page_197">197</a><br />
-Seals and walruses, <a href="#Page_117">117</a><br />
-&mdash; food of, <a href="#Page_120">120</a><br />
-&mdash; statistics of seal-fishery, <a href="#Page_121">121</a><br />
-&mdash; various kinds of, <a href="#Page_123">123</a><br />
-Seine, sudden rising of the spring-tides at the mouth of the, <a href="#Page_42">42</a><br />
-Seleucid&aelig;, maritime discoveries of the, <a href="#Page_42">42</a><br />
-Seleucus Nicator, his circumnavigation of Hindostan, and discovery of Taprobane, or Ceylon, <a href="#Page_447">447</a><br />
-Semen Deshnew, the Cossack, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_483">483</a><br />
-Sepia. <i>See</i> Cuttle-fish<br />
-Serapis, temple of, <a href="#Page_11">11</a><br />
-Serpents of the seas, <a href="#Page_183">183</a><br />
-Serpulas, <a href="#Page_266">266</a><br />
-Sertularia, <a href="#Page_347">347</a><br />
-Shakspeare's Cliff, destructive action of the sea on, <a href="#Page_30">30</a><br />
-Sharks, <a href="#Page_198">198</a><br />
-&mdash; Greenland shark, an enemy of the whale, <a href="#Page_99">99</a><br />
-&mdash; luminous, <a href="#Page_330">330</a><br />
-Sheldrake, or burrow duck, <a href="#Page_148">148</a><br />
-Sheppey, Isle of, rapid decay of the coast of the, <a href="#Page_30">30</a><br />
-Sherringham, ravages of the sea on the coast at, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br />
-Shetland Islands, fury of the Atlantic waves at the, <a href="#Page_28">28</a><br />
-Shetland, New South, discovery of, <a href="#Page_509">509</a><br />
-Ship-worm (teredo), <a href="#Page_302">302</a><br />
-Shore-crab, <a href="#Page_251">251</a><br />
-Siberia, Cook's visits to the coasts of, <a href="#Page_492">492</a><br />
-Sicily, submarine landscapes of the coast of, <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br />
-Siphonostomata, <a href="#Page_245">245</a><br />
-Skerries, cave in the, <a href="#Page_51">51</a><br />
-Skerryvore lighthouse, <a href="#Page_85">85</a><br />
-Skimmer, <a href="#Page_144">144</a><br />
-Sledge-journey, arctic, <a href="#Page_502">502</a><br />
-Sly, <a href="#Page_202">202</a><br />
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_523" id="Page_523">� 523 �</a></span>Smeaton, John, his lighthouse on the Eddystone rocks, <a href="#Page_83">83</a><br />
-Smooth-back whale, the antarctic, <a href="#Page_102">102</a><br />
-Snake-stars, <a href="#Page_437">437</a><br />
-Snow-goose, <a href="#Page_146">146</a><br />
-Society Islands, discovery of the, <a href="#Page_486">486</a><br />
-Soland goose, <a href="#Page_156">156</a><br />
-Solasters, <a href="#Page_334">334</a><br />
-Sole, <a href="#Page_237">237</a><br />
-&mdash; skin of the, <a href="#Page_190">190</a><br />
-Solen, or razor-shell, <a href="#Page_304">304</a><br />
-Solis, Juan de, his discoveries, <a href="#Page_461">461</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; &mdash; his death, <a href="#Page_461">461</a><br />
-Solomon Islands, discovery of the, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>, <a href="#Page_483">483</a><br />
-Souffleur, or blower, the marine cave of the, <a href="#Page_52">52</a><br />
-Soundings, American method of taking, in deep water, <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br />
-South Sea Islands, discovery of the, <a href="#Page_474">474</a><br />
-Speckled diver, <a href="#Page_145">145</a><br />
-Sperm-whale, or cachalot, <a href="#Page_102">102</a><br />
-Spiders, marine, <a href="#Page_260">260</a><br />
-Spitzbergen, discovery of, <a href="#Page_477">477</a><br />
-Spondylus, royal, <a href="#Page_314">314</a><br />
-Sponge-crab, <a href="#Page_249">249</a><br />
-Sponges, <a href="#Page_385">385</a><br />
-&mdash; their remarkable growth, <a href="#Page_385">385</a><br />
-&mdash; habitat of the common sponge, <a href="#Page_388">388</a><br />
-Sprat, the, <a href="#Page_214">214</a><br />
-Springs, origin of, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br />
-&mdash; mineral waters, <a href="#Page_74">74</a><br />
-Springs of fresh water in the bottom of the sea, <a href="#Page_17">17</a><br />
-Staffa, island of, <a href="#Page_46">46</a><br />
-Stalactite caves of the island of Sardinia, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
-Star-fishes, <a href="#Page_328">328</a><br />
-&mdash; their organisation, <a href="#Page_328">328</a><br />
-Star-gazer fish, <a href="#Page_202">202</a><br />
-Sterlet of the Volga, <a href="#Page_217">217</a><br />
-Stevenson, Mr. Alan, his Skerryvore lighthouse, <a href="#Page_86">86</a><br />
-Stevenson, Mr. Robert, his lighthouse on the Bell Rock, <a href="#Page_85">85</a><br />
-Stickleback, parental affection of the, <a href="#Page_195">195</a><br />
-Stone-corals, <a href="#Page_373">373</a><br />
-Storm, the great, of 1703, <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br />
-Storm-tides, <a href="#Page_34">34</a><br />
-&mdash; devastations of, on flat coasts, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a><br />
-Strand-birds, <a href="#Page_143">143</a><br />
-&mdash; migration of, <a href="#Page_144">144</a><br />
-&mdash; food of, <a href="#Page_144">144</a><br />
-Strombus pes pelicani, <a href="#Page_290">290</a><br />
-Sturgeons, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a><br />
-&mdash; caviar, <a href="#Page_217">217</a><br />
-Sucking-fish, <a href="#Page_203">203</a><br />
-Suffolk, rapid decay of the cliffs of, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br />
-Sun-fish, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a><br />
-&mdash; its luminousness, <a href="#Page_422">422</a><br />
-Sun, his influence on the tides, <a href="#Page_37">37</a><br />
-Sun-star fish, <a href="#Page_334">334</a><br />
-Surgeon-fish, the, <a href="#Page_205">205</a><br />
-Sweden, gradual upheaving of the coast of, <a href="#Page_10">10</a><br />
-Sword-fish, an enemy of the whale, <a href="#Page_99">99</a><br />
-&mdash; his weapon, <a href="#Page_201">201</a><br />
-Synch&aelig;ta baltica, <a href="#Page_269">269</a><br />
-<br />
-<a id="T"></a><span class="smcap">Tahiti</span>, discovery of, <a href="#Page_484">484</a><br />
-Tailor-bird, the, <a href="#Page_143">143</a><br />
-Taprobane, or Ceylon, discovery of, <a href="#Page_447">447</a><br />
-Tartessus, Ph&#339;nician town of, <a href="#Page_444">444</a><br />
-Tasman, Abel, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_480">480</a><br />
-Tasmania, discovery of, <a href="#Page_481">481</a><br />
-Tectibranchiata, <a href="#Page_284">284</a><br />
-Temperature of the sea, <a href="#Page_13">13</a><br />
-&mdash; at various parts of the surface of the globe, <a href="#Page_14">14</a><br />
-Teredo navalis, <a href="#Page_302">302</a><br />
-Thames, progress of the tide-wave in the, <a href="#Page_43">43</a><br />
-Thornbacks, <a href="#Page_240">240</a><br />
-Thresher, or sea-fox, an enemy of the whale, <a href="#Page_99">99</a><br />
-Thunder-stones, <a href="#Page_437">437</a><br />
-Tide-wave, measurement of the depth of the sea by the rapidity of the, <a href="#Page_8">8</a><br />
-&mdash; progress and course of the, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a><br />
-Tides, the, <a href="#Page_32">32</a><br />
-&mdash; description of the phenomenon, <a href="#Page_32">32</a><br />
-&mdash; devastations of storm-floods on flat coasts, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a><br />
-&mdash; knowledge of the ancients respecting the tides, <a href="#Page_35">35</a><br />
-&mdash; fundamental causes of the tides revealed by Kepler and Newton, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a><br />
-Tides, height of the, at various places, <a href="#Page_38">38</a><br />
-&mdash; vortices caused by the: the Maelstrom, Charybdis, &amp;c., <a href="#Page_41">41</a><br />
-&mdash; the phenomena of the Euripus, <a href="#Page_44">44</a><br />
-Tierra del Fuego, masses of sea-weed at, <a href="#Page_394">394</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; &mdash; rounded by Schouten and Le Maire, <a href="#Page_480">480</a><br />
-Tonga, discovery of, <a href="#Page_481">481</a><br />
-Top, agglutinating, <a href="#Page_296">296</a><br />
-Tornadoes, causes of, <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br />
-Tornatella fasciata, <a href="#Page_290">290</a><br />
-Torpedo, the, <a href="#Page_201">201</a><br />
-Torres, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_480">480</a><br />
-Torso Rock, the, <a href="#Page_9">9</a><br />
-Tortoise-shell, <a href="#Page_180">180</a><br />
-Tortoises, <a href="#Page_176">176</a><br />
-Trade-winds, the, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br />
-Transparency of the sea at Capri, <a href="#Page_18">18</a><br />
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_524" id="Page_524">� 524 �</a></span>&mdash; &mdash; &mdash; &mdash; in the Indian Ocean, <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br />
-&mdash; &mdash; &mdash; &mdash; in the Caribbean, <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br />
-Trepang, or Biche de Mer, <a href="#Page_340">340</a><br />
-&mdash; mode of curing, <a href="#Page_340">340</a><br />
-&mdash; the fishery in the Feejee Islands, <a href="#Page_342">342</a><br />
-Tridacna, the gigantic, <a href="#Page_314">314</a><br />
-Trigger-fish, <a href="#Page_233">233</a><br />
-Trilobites, <a href="#Page_436">436</a><br />
-Trunk-fish, <a href="#Page_232">232</a><br />
-Tubiporid&aelig;, <a href="#Page_370">370</a><br />
-Tubulibranchiata, <a href="#Page_292">292</a><br />
-Tunicata, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a><br />
-Tunny, the, <a href="#Page_221">221</a><br />
-&mdash; stripe-bellied, <a href="#Page_224">224</a><br />
-Turbot, the, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a><br />
-Turn-stone bird, <a href="#Page_144">144</a><br />
-Turtles, <a href="#Page_173">173</a><br />
-&mdash; catching turtles in the island of St. Thomas, <a href="#Page_172">172</a><br />
-Tynemouth Castle, destruction of the coast near, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br />
-Typhoons, causes of, <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br />
-Tyrian dye, <a href="#Page_446">446</a><br />
-<br />
-<a id="U"></a><span class="smcap">Ulv&aelig;</span>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a><br />
-Unicorn-fish, or narwhal, <a href="#Page_106">106</a><br />
-Urasters, <a href="#Page_334">334</a><br />
-Urdaneta, first reaches Acapulco from Manilla, <a href="#Page_472">472</a><br />
-<br />
-<a id="V"></a><span class="smcap">Vancouver's</span> discoveries, <a href="#Page_472">472</a><br />
-Van Diemen's Land, discovery of, <a href="#Page_480">480</a><br />
-Vanikoro, island of, <a href="#Page_493">493</a><br />
-Velell&aelig;, the, <a href="#Page_353">353</a><br />
-Venice, maritime grandeur of, <a href="#Page_450">450</a><br />
-Verazzani, voyage of, <a href="#Page_461">461</a><br />
-Vermetus, <a href="#Page_291">291</a><br />
-Virgularia mirabilis, <a href="#Page_365">365</a><br />
-Vogtia pentacantha, <a href="#Page_353">353</a><br />
-<br />
-<a id="W"></a><span class="smcap">Wales</span>, Cape Prince of, discovery of, <a href="#Page_491">491</a><br />
-Wallis, his maritime discoveries, <a href="#Page_483">483</a><br />
-Walrus, or morse, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a><br />
-&mdash; anecdote of a fight with, <a href="#Page_130">130</a><br />
-&mdash; ivory of the, <a href="#Page_132">132</a><br />
-Walton, his mussel-beds in France, <a href="#Page_307">307</a><br />
-Water-snakes, <a href="#Page_183">183</a><br />
-Water-spouts, causes of, <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br />
-Waves of the ocean, <a href="#Page_24">24</a><br />
-&mdash; wave-motion as distinct from water motion, <a href="#Page_25">25</a><br />
-&mdash; height and velocity of storm-waves, 26-28<br />
-&mdash; Homer's picture of the breaking of the waves against the shore, <a href="#Page_26">26</a><br />
-&mdash; Scoresby on the height of waves in the open sea, <a href="#Page_27">27</a><br />
-&mdash; force and height of the waves on rocky coasts, <a href="#Page_28">28</a><br />
-&mdash; instances of the destructive action of the tidal waves on coast-lines, 28-31<br />
-Weddell, Captain, his voyages, <a href="#Page_509">509</a><br />
-Weevers, <a href="#Page_204">204</a><br />
-Wellington Channel, discovery of, <a href="#Page_500">500</a><br />
-Wentle-trap, Chinese, <a href="#Page_289">289</a><br />
-Whalebone, <a href="#Page_96">96</a><br />
-Whale-fishery, history of the, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
-Whales. <i>See</i> Cetaceans<br />
-Whelks, <a href="#Page_292">292</a><br />
-Wilkes, Captain, on the height of waves, <a href="#Page_28">28</a><br />
-Wilkes, his explorations, <a href="#Page_509">509</a><br />
-Willoughby, Sir Hugh, his unfortunate arctic voyage, <a href="#Page_474">474</a><br />
-Winds, origin of, <a href="#Page_66">66</a><br />
-&mdash; trade-winds, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br />
-&mdash; calms, or doldrums, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br />
-&mdash; monsoons, <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br />
-&mdash; typhoons, tornadoes, &amp;c., <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br />
-&mdash; water-spouts, <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br />
-Wing-shells, <a href="#Page_304">304</a><br />
-Winstanley, Mr., his lighthouse on the Eddystone rocks, <a href="#Page_81">81</a><br />
-Winter Harbour, discovery of, <a href="#Page_500">500</a><br />
-Wolf-fish, <a href="#Page_197">197</a><br />
-Wolstenholme Sound, elevation of the coast at, <a href="#Page_10">10</a><br />
-Worm-shell, <a href="#Page_291">291</a><br />
-<br />
-<a id="Y"></a><span class="smcap">Yorkshire</span>, wearing away of the coast of, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br />
-Yucatan, first exploration of, <a href="#Page_461">461</a><br />
-<br />
-<a id="Z"></a><span class="smcap">Zostera</span> marina, <a href="#Page_391">391</a><br />
-</p>
-
-
-<p class="smaller center pmt2 pmb4">
-PRINTED BY<br />
-SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE<br />
-LONDON<br />
-</p>
-
-
-
-<div class="trans_notes">
-<p class="caption2">Transcriber's Note</p>
-
-
-<p>Minor typos have been corrected. Most words that sometimes have
-hyphenations and other times non-hyphenated were left as written.
-Illustrations were repositioned to not split paragraphs. An assumed
-missing end quotation was added on <a href="#Page_353">page 353</a>.</p>
-</div>
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-<pre>
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