190 A T LA N T IC OC EAN . Dec. 18.3.3.
on this part five most minute cups are placed, which seem
to act in the same maimer as the suckers on the arms of the
cuttle-fish. As the animal lives in the open sea, and probably
wants a place of rest, I suppose this beautiful structure
is adapted to take hold of the globular bodies of the Medusa;,
and other floating marine animals.
In deep -water, far from the land, the number of living
creatures is extremely small : south of the latitude .35°, I
never succeeded in catching any thing besides some beroe,
and a few species of minute Crustacea belonging to the En-
tomostraca. In shoaler water, at the distance of a few
miles from the coast, very many kinds of Crustacea and
some other animals were numerous, but only during the
night. Between latitudes 56° and 57° south of Cape
Horn the net was put astern several times; it never,
however, brought up any thing besides a few of two extremely
minute species of Entomostraca. Yet whales
and seals, petrels and albatross, are exceedingly abundant
throughout this part of the ocean. It has always been
a source of mystery to me, on what the latter, which live
far from the shore, can subsist. I presume the albatross,
like the condor, is able to fast long; and that one good feast
on the carcass of a putrid whale lasts for a long siege of
hunger. It does not lessen the difficulty to say, they feed
on fish; for on what can the fish feed ? It often occurred to
me, when observing how the waters of the central and intertropical
parts of the Atlantic,* swarmed with Pteropoda, Crustacea,
and Radiata, and with their devourers the flying-fish,
and again with their devourers the bonitos and albicores,
that the lowest of these pelagic animals perhaps possess
the power of decomposing carbonic acid gas, like the members
of the vegetable kingdom.
While sailing in these latitudes on one very dark night,
* F rom m y e x p e rie n c e , w h ic h h a s b e e n b u t little , I s h o u ld sa y t h a t th e
A tla n tic was fa r m o re pro lific th a n th e Pacific, a t le a s t, th a n in th a t imm
en s e o p e n a re a , b e tiv e e n th e w e s t co a st o f A m e ric a a n d th e e x tr em e
e a s te rn isles o f P o ly n e sia .
Dec. 1833. p i i o s r i i o u E S C E N C E o f t h e s e a . 191
the sea presented a wonderful and most beautiful spectacle.
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 liy 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.
As we proceed further southward, the sea is seldom phosphorescent;
and off Cape Horn, I do not recollect more
than once having seen it so, and then it was far from being
brilliant. This circumstance probably has a close connexion
with the scarcity of organic beings in that part of the ocean.
After the elaborate paper* by Ehrenberg, on the phosphorescence
of the sea, it is almost superfluous on my part to
make any observations on the subject. I may however add,
that the same torn and irregular particles of gelatinous matter,
described by Ehrenherg, seem in the southern as well
as in the northern hemisphere, to be the common cause of
this phenomenon. The particles were so minute as easily
to pass through fine gauze; yet many]were distinctly visible
by the naked eye. The water when placed in a tumbler
and agitated gave out sparks, but a small portion in a
watch-glass, scarcely ever was luminous. Ehrenberg states,
that these particles all retain a certain degree of irritability.
My observations, some of which were made directly after
taking up the water, would give a different result. I may
also mention, that having used the net daring one night I
allowed it to become partially dry, and having occasion
twelve hours afterwards, to employ it again, I found the
whole surface sparkled as brightly as when first taken out
of the water. It does not appear probable in this case, that
the particles could have remained so long alive. I remark
* A n a b s tr a c t is g iv en in N o . IV . o f th e M a g a z in e o f Z o o lo g y a n d
B o ta n y .
il
•ÍÍU
31 1'