TH4E C EA N AW( H R L I-). -( DO 1PRIN1 DBy W[II AAI (LO\NI AND' SON $TAMtIoRr) ~TUKA N I'IiAIIIN(, Ii Mate L-h Argtonut sailling in the open sea.-,3N Cs3 THE, OCEANT WORLD: BEING A DESCRIPTI VE HISTORY OF THE SEA AND ITS LIVINTG INHABITANTS.:.HIEFLY TRAN',-LATED FR(M "LA VIE ET LES MBEVRS PES ANDIAUYX' Bh- LOUIS FIGUIlER A UT1 iOF `1 "Fl WORLD Mi;EIORE, THE DELLUG)C, I"T1''TH VE6ETA BLE IVRLD,' AND (THER POPULAR NVOhURS. ILELUSTRATED BY FOUR HU NDRED AND TWNvt,~Y-SEVEN ENGRAVINGS. ChIEFLY IDESIG-NEl) UNDIERI THE' DIRECTION OF M\. (IIL BEVALETF, FlIOA SPEVIMTENS iN TILE,. MU(SE,]UMS OF PARIS. N-EW YORE: D.X APPLETON & CO., 445 BROADWAY. 18G8. I PRE FACE. "OUR PLANET is surrounded by two great oceans," says Dr. Maury, the eminent American savant: "the one visible, the other invisible; one is under foot, the other over head. One entirely envelopes it, the other covers about two-thirds of its surface." It is proposed in "THE OCEAN WonLD " to give a brief record of the Natural History of one of those great oceans and its living inhabitants, with as little of the nomenclature of Science, and as few of the repulsive details of Anatomy, as is consistent with clearness of expression; to describe the ocean in its majestic calm and angry agitation; to delineate its inhabitants in their many metamorphoses: the cunning with which they attack or evade their enemies: their instructive industry: their quarrels, their combats, and their loves. Tlie learned Schleiden eloquently paints the living wonders of the deep: "If we dive into the liquid crystal of the Indian Ocean, the most wondrous enchantments are opened to us, reminding us of the fairy tales of childhood's dreams. The strangely-branching thickets bear living flowers. Dense masses of Mieantdrlieas and Astreas contrast with the leafy, cup-shaped expansions of the Explanarias, and the variously-branching Mlladrepores, now spread out like fingers, now 1 \'I PTE,FA C 1. rising ill trlnk-like branlles, and now displaying an elegant array of interlacing tracery. The colouring surpasses everything; vivid greens alternate with brown and yellow; rich tints, ranging from purple and deepest blue to a pale reddish-brown. Brilliant rose, yellow, or peachcolo;lrel NRllipores overgrow the decaying masses: they themselves being interwoven with the pearl-coloured plates of the Retijores, rivalling the most delicate ivory carvings. Close by wave the yellow and lilac Sea-fans (Gor/oniat), perforated like delicate trellis-work. The bright sand of the bottom is covered with a thousand strange forms of sea-urchins and star-fishes. The leaf-like Flistr', and E.se1Ca)cl' adhere like mosses and lichens to the branches of coral-the yellow, green, and purple-striped limpets clinging to their trunks. The seaanemones expand their crowns of tentacula upon the rugged rocks or on flat sands, looking like beds of variegated ranunculuses, or sparkling like gigantic cactus blossoms, shining with brightest colours. "Around the branches of the coral shrubs play the humming-birds of the ocean: little fishes sparkling with red or blue metallic glitter, or gleaming in golden green or brightest silvery lustre; like spirits of the deep, the delicate milk-white jelly-fishes float softly through the charmed world. Here gleam the violet and gold-green Isab:lle, and the flaming yellow, black, and vermilion-striped Coqnuette, as they chase their prey; there the band-fish shoots snake-like through the thicket, resembling a silvery ribbon glittering with rose and azure hue. Then come the fabulous cuttle-fishes, in all the diaphanous colours of the rainbow, )but with no deafnite outline. " When day declines, with the shades of night this fantastic garden is lighted up with renewed splendour. Millions of microscopic medusae and crustaceans, like so many glowing sparks, dance through the gloom. The Sea-pen waves in a greenish phosphorescent light. TWhatever is beautiful or wondrous among fish es, Eihinoder; Js, ellyfishles and polipti an(ld oll7tscs, is crowded into the warm and crystal waters of the Tropical ocean." It is stated on the Title-page that "THE OCEAN AVORLD " is chiefly l' I'FAC 'i. vii translited f1rom M. Louis Figuier's two most recent works. In justice to that gentleman, we must explain this statement. The History of the Ocean is to a large extent, but not wholly, compiled from "La Terre et les lers," one of the volumes of M. Fignier's "Tableau de la Nature;" but the larger portion of the work is a free translation of that author's latest work, " La Vie et les aMeIurs des Animaux;" other chapters, such as "Life in the Ocean," the chapter on Crustaceans, and some others, are compiled from various sources; they will not be found in either of M. Figuier's volumes; but in other respects his text has been pretty closely followed. M. Figuier's plan is to begin the study of animals with the less perfect beings occupyillt the lower rounds of the Zoological ladder, his reason for doing so being an impression that the presence of the gradually perfecting animal structure, from the simplest organisms up to the more perfect forms, was specially calculated to attract the reader. "What can be more curious or more interesting to the mind," he asks, "than to examine the successive links in the uninterrupted chain of living beings which commence with the Infusoria and terminate in Man?" The work, he hopes, is not without the impress of a true character of novelty and originality; at least he knows no work in which the strange habits and special interests of the Zoophytes and Molluscs can be studied, nor any work in which an attempt is made to represent them by means of designs at once scientifically correct and attractive from the picturesque character of the illustrations, most of which have been made from specimens selected by Monsieur Ch. Bevalet from the various museums in Paris. One of these charming plain-speaking children we sometimes meet with lately said to M. Figuier. " They tell me thou art a vulgariser of Scienl((. What is that?" He took the child in his arms, and carried it to the window where there was a bleautiful rose-tree in blossom, and ilvitdcl it to pull;1 rose. viii P'IHL FACE. The child gathered the perfumed flower, not without pricking itself cruelly with the spines; then, with its little hands still bleeding, it went to distribute roses to others in the room. "Thou art now a vulgariser," said he to the child, "for thou takest to thyself the thorns, and givest the flowers to others!" The parallel, although exaggerated, is not without its basis of truth, and was probably suggested by the criticism some of his works have met with: the critics forgetting apparently that these works are an attempt to render scientific subjects popular, and attractive to the general reader. AV. S. O. L, N)~0N.,J(t/tti.(Ir/, l S6;S. CONTENTS. (I-IAlP'TE1 I. TBIE OCEAN..... Depth of the 'Soa. Co,1()lou Of thle 0C(2ai1 Phosphorescence. Local Colour.. CL A PTE P VI1. 1'A(,LI, 3 181 T(-biorion ttd... lsnidians.... IA... -Ic *. 12 *.. 123 I 126 1 7 CIIAPTElZI I1 Cua~sOF THlE O)CEAN Trade-whinds..... Gulf Stream.... Storm Trides....... Polar Seas Antarctic Scas. (iHAPTEll) HLI LIFE I~N THE (CEV~N' (JUAPTEP111v IV. Frorannnilera CIH1A Ii. I81 83 034 154 (II1AIPTERIIT VI. ZOANTIARU.......149 MTadlreporida...... 151 IPorites.......164 Actiniaria...... S Mkinyadi-nians....1.95 (IIAPTE-1 V11I. ACAEPILE..... M\eduisa~ 63 'lhizostona. 63 Vilellada (Jtcnophora. Eli-Il Cl-I A PT Et RIX. EAT NODERNMAlTA\ Asterits...... rI Il~l (1e I ciohili' 197 2 )15 221 * 231 0;256 261) 2t~2.2 1 2) (I( NIT'NItS. M~OLLUSCA. GENERAL DEFINITIO-N.... I1A (. E 3G3' CIIATTER XV. iM~OLLUSCOUS 1.TI.jOI CHAPTEL1 XVI. CEPUAILOPODOUS AMOLLUTSCA Acetabula Trentaculiltra.... CHIAPTEII X. MIOLLUSCOiDA..... Ttinicata..... Ascidians.... 441 445 47-1) ') 0 5 811 3 t2 CHAPTEIR Xf. ACEPH-ALOUS MOILUSCA... 319 ( streadm.......32 4 (iUAiTEII XII. ACEPtIALOUS IM.lts( lv tilidaw...... O I. 391I I-)1) CIEPHALOUS AMOLLUSCS... rTleir. Characteristics. CHAP~TER XVII. CRUSTACE:AN-S...... Getteral IDefinitioll. Crabs and Crayfish Lobsters...... J" IS f1 14I~S. (jE'NERAL 1)EFFNITION... CHlA PTER1 XVIII. CA~RILIAGINOUS 1FISHES. CN-clostomata.... Selaciiia...... Sturiona"I...... CHAPTFIA XIX. Lophoibra'nchib..n Ablonainales Acanthopteryg2ians 478 CIIAPTEII I XI 11. PULMONARY GASTEIROPOIDS... 31)3 Lirnneais....... 1) 4 NoN -;- 1) UIO~N0N Aiiy GASTElROPORS. 407 Buccinidie......41f; iPnrpura.......426; 1Pterocera.......436 4 1)9(1 501 521 522 578 1584 ILL USTR~A TION S. PLATE' I. THE ARGO.NIAUT SAILING BEFORE THE VVIND If. SPONGE FISHINNG ON THE COAST OF SYRIA III. CORAL FISHIN~G ON THE COAST OF- SICILY IV. CORAL ISLAN-D IN' THE POMI:OTOPAN,, ARCIHIPELAGO V. SEA. ANEMOINES (I.). VI. SEA A-NEMON-ES (II.). VII. AGALMA RURRA. VIII. GALEOLARIA Au-RAN,-TIACA. f X. SEA URCHIN-S... X. FIShINI-G FOR HO0LOTHURIA. XI. SYN-APTA DUVERN-,-EA. XII. DREDGIN-G FOR OYSTERS. XIII. OYSTER PARKS (N' LAKE FIuSARO XIV. PECTINIIDE XV. SPON-DYLUS.. XVI. A NODO10N T A XVII. TRIDACN~A GJGANTEA k XVI1I. V\ENUS AND CYTHIEREA XIX. SOLENIIDJE (Razor-fish). X X. TEMPLE OF SEFRATIS. XXI. CO-NUS... XXII. C Y PRAI-,A T., -PA P; (Frootispiece) 490 *.. 115 *.. 140 *.. 169 *.. 189 *.. 191 *.. 241 *.. 292 *.. 297 *. 301 335 *.. 337 *.. 347 *.. 3150 * *. 370 * *. 373 * * * 37 8 * *. 380 *.. 84 *.. 417 *.. 418 xii ILTLUSTIATI(ONS. PLATE PA (G XXIII. VOLTA......... 4 -XXIV. CAPTURE (OF A GIGANrTIC (CUTTI''-FIS...... XXV. SHARK FishING-....5 XXVI. STURGEON FISHING ON TiE, VOLGA......1 XXVII. FISHING FOR ]IIECT'IICAT, EELS....51 XXVIII. GREENLANDERS FIS HING FOR HALIITI'..... XXIX. TIHE HER]RING FISHERY.......;)6S XXX. A ROMAN FEAST.........S2 XXXI. FISHING FlOR T1 NNY IN PROVENCE...... 5 XXXII. FISHIN(G FOR;MACKEREL OFF THE CO)RNWA.LL (,AS'v... >90 THE OCEAN WORLD, CHAPTER I. THE OCEAN. 'ApoaTrosnv/v ev u p-" The best of all things is water."-PINDAr. WE have said that the sea covers nearly two-thirds of the surface of the earth. The calculation, as given by astronomers, is as follows: The surface of the earth is estimated at 31,625,625-,- square miles, that portion occupied by the waters being about 23,814,121 square miles, and that consisting of continents, peninsulas, and islands being 7,811,504 miles; whence it follows that the surface covered with water is to dry land as 3'8 is to 1'2. The waters thus cover a little more than seventenths of the whole surface. " On the surface of the globe," Michelet remarks, "water is the rule, dry land the exception." Nevertheless, the immensity and depth of the seas are aids rather than obstacles to the intercourse and commerce of nations; the maritime routes are now traversed by ships and steamers conveying cargoes and passengers equal in extent to the land routes. One of the features most characteristic of the ocean is its continuity; for, with the exception of inland seas, such as the Caspian, the Dead Sea. and some others, the ocean is one and indivisible. As the poet says, " it embraces the whole earth with an uninterrupted wave." lIep 7rraFav 0' elA'trrTrou.evo0 Yx:Ov aKOiJ7s-tS pev/;,aTI. Ias cnYLS iln J'rwC etlhems lViictli. The mean depth of the sea is not very exactly ascertained, but certain phenomena observed in the moveinent of tides are supposed to be incapable of explanatiomn withoult admitting a mean depth of three i- 2 4 THE1 OCEAN WORLD. thousand five hundred fathoms. It is true that a great numnler of deep sea soundings fall short of that limit; but, on the other hand, many others reach seven or eight thousand. Admitting that three thousand fathoms represents the mean depth of the ocean, Sir John Herschel finds that the volume of its waters would exceed three thousand two hundred and seventy-nine million cubic yards. This vast volume of water is divided by geographers into five great oceans: the Arctic, the Atlantic, Indian, Pacific, and Antarctic Oceans. The Arctic Ocean extends from the Pole to the Polar Circle; it is situated between Asia, Europe, and America. The Atlantic Ocean commences at the Polar Circle and reaches Cape Horn. It is situated between America, Europe, and Africa, a length of about nine thousand miles, with a mean breadth of two thousand seven hundred, covering a surface of about twenty-five million square miles, placed between the Old World and the New. Beyond the Cape of Storms, as Cape Horn may be truly called, it is only separated by an imaginary line from the vast seas of the south, in which the waves, which are the principal source of tides, have their birth. Here, according to Maury, the young tidal wave, rising in the circumpolar seas of the south, and obedient to the sun and moon, rolls on to the Atlantic, and in twelve hours after passing the parallel of Cape Horn is found pouring its flood into the Bay of Fundy, whence it is projected in great waves across the Atlantic and round the globe, sweeping along its shores and penetrating its gulfs and estuaries, rising and falling in the open sea two or three feet, but along the shore having a range of ten or twelve feet. Sometimes, as at Fundy on the American coast; at Brest on the French coast; and Milford Haven, and the mouth of the Severn in the Bristol Channel, rising and falling thirty or forty feet, "impetuously rushing against the aiores, bult gently stopping at a given line, and flowing back to its place when the word goes forth, Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther.' That which no human power can repel, returns at its appointed time so regularly and surely, that the hour of its approach and the measure of its mass may be predicted with unerring certainty centuries beforehand." The Indian Ocean, sometimes called Oceania, is bounded on the north by Asia, on the west by Africa, on the east by the peninsula of M1olucca, the Sunda Isles. and Australia. TH I SIA. The Pacific, or Great (cean, stretches from north to south, from the Arctic to the Antarctic Circle, being bounded on one side by Asia, the island of Sunda, and Australia; on the other by the west coast of America. This ocean contrasts in a striking manner with the Atlantic: the one has its greatest length from north to south, the other from east to west; the currents of the Pacific are broad and. slow, those of the other narrow and rapid; the waves of this are low, those of the other very high. If we represent the volume of water which falls into the Pacific by one, tlat received by the Atlantic will be represented by the figure 5. The Pacific is the calmest of seas; the Atlantic Ocean is the most stormy ocean. The Antarctic Ocean extends from the Antarctic Polar Circle to the South Pole. It is remarkable that one half of the globe should be entirely covered with water, whilst the other contains less of water than dry land. Moreover, the distribution of land and water, if, in considering the germ of the oceanic basins, we compare the hemispheres separated by the Equator and the northern and southern halves of the globe, is found to be very une(qual. Oceans communicate with continents and islands by coasts, which are said to be scarped when a rocky shore makes a steep and sudden descent to the shore, as in Brittany, Norway, and the west coast of the British islands. In this kind of coast certain rocky indentations encircle it, sometimes above, sometimes under water, forming a labyrinth of islands, as at the Land's End, Cornwall, where the Scilly Islands form a compact group of fiom one to two hundred rocky islets, rising out of a deep sea, or, in the case of the Channel, on the opposite coast of France, where the coast makes a sudden descent, forming steep clifis and leaving an open sea. The coast is said to be flat when it consists of soft argillaceous soil descending to the shore with a gentle slope. Of thlis description of coast there are two, namely, sandy beaches, and hillocks or dunes. What is the average depth of tile sea? It is difficult to give an exact answer to this question, because of the great difficulty met with in taking soundings, caused chiefly by the deviations of submarine currents. No reliable soundings have yet been made in water over five miles in depth. TIIl' OCEAN WVOILD). Laplace found, on astronomical consideration, that the mean depth of the ocean could not be more than ten thousand feet. Alexander von Humboldt adopts the same figures. Dr. Young attributes to the Atlantic a mean depth of a thousand yards, and to the Pacific, four thousand. Mr. Airy, the Astronomer Royal, has laid down a formula, that waves of a given breadth will travel with certain velocities at a given depth, from which it is estimated that the average depth of the North Pacific, between Japan and California, is two thousand one hundred and forty-nine fathoms, or two miles and a half. But these estimates fall far short of the soundings reported by navigators, in which, as we shall see, there are important and only recently discovered elements of error. Du Petit Thouars, during his scientific voyage in the frigate Venus, took some very remarkable soundings in the Southern Pacific Ocean: one, without finding bottom at two thousand four hundred and eleven fathoms; another, in the equinoctial region, indicated bottom at three thousand seven hundred and ninety. In his last expedition, in search of a north-west passage, Captain Ross found soundings at five thousand fathoms. Lieutenant Walsh, of the American Navy, reports a cast of the deep-sea lead, not far from the American coast, at thirty-four thousand feet without bottom. Lieutenant Berryman reported another unsuccessful attempt to fathom mid ocean with a line thirty-nine thousand feet in length. Captain Denman, of H. M. S. Hercald, reported bottom in the South Atlantic at the depth of forty-six thousand feet; and Lieutenant J. P. Parker, of the United States frigate Congress, on attempting soundings near the same region, let go his plummet, after it had run out a line fifty thousand feet long, as though bottom had not been reached. We have the authority of Lieutenant Maury for saying, however, that " there are no such depths as these." The under-currents of the deep sea have power to take the line out long after the plummet has ceased to sink, and it was before this fact was discovered that these great soundings were reported. It has also been discovered that the line, once dragged down into the depths of the ocean, runs out unceasingly. This difficulty was finally overcome by the ingenuity of Midshipman Brooke. Under the judicious patronage of the Secretary to the United States Navy. Mr. Brooke invented the simple and ingenious apparatus (Fig. 1), by which soundings are now made, in a manner DEP1T1 01F THE13 OCEAN. which not only establishes the depth, but brings up specimens of the bottom. The sounding-line in this apparatus is attached to a weighty rod of iron, the lower extremity of which contains a hollow cup for the reception of tallow or some other soft substance. This rod is passed through a hole in a thirty-two poulnd spherical shot, being supported ill its position by slings A, which are hooke( on to the line by the swivels a. When the rod strikes the: bottom, the tensioln, F'ig. 1 I;rouk's Sounidiii A paraltus tle line ceases, tile swivels are reversed, the slings 1 are throwni out of the hooks, the ball falls to the ground, and the rod, released from its weight, is easily drawn up, bringing with it portions of the bottom attached to the greasy lsttlan'e ill tle cup. I y m('is ot this apptaratus, specillins of the bottom have 1cen1 bIrought up fronm tlh depth of four miles. 8 THlE OCEAN WORLD. The greatest depth at which the bottom has been reached with this plummet is in the North Atlantic between the parallels of thirty-five and forty degrees north, and immediately south of the great bank of rocks off Newfoundland. This does not appear to be more than twenty-five thousand feet deep. " The basin of the Atlantic," says MIaury, " according to the deep sea soundings in the accompanying diagram, is a long trough separating the Old World from the New, and extending, probably, from pole to pole. In breadth, it contrasts strongly with the Pacific Ocean. From the top of Chimborazo to the bottom of tlie Atlantic, at the deepest place yet reached by the plummet in that ocean, the distance in a vertical line is nine miles." Could the waters of the Atlantic be drawn off, so as to expose to view this great sea gash which separates continents, and extends from the Arctic to the Antarctic Seas, it would present a scene the most rugged, grand, and imposing; the very ribs of the solid earth with the foundations of the sea would be brought to light, and we should have presented to us in one view, in the empty cradle of the ocean, ' a thousand fearful wrecks,' with the array of ' dead men's skulls, great anchors, heaps of pearls, and inestimable stones,' which, in the poet's eye, lie scattered on the bottom of the sea, making it hideous with the sight of ugly death." The depth of the 3Mediterranean is comparatively inconsiderable. Between Gibraltar and Ceuta, Captain Smith estimates the delpth at about five thousand seven hundred feet, and from one to three thousand in the narrow-r parts of the straits. Near Nice. Saussure found bottom at three thousand two hundred and fifty. It is said that the bottom is shallower in the Adriatic, and does not exceed a hundred and forty feet between the coast of Dalmatia and the mouths of the Po. The Baltic Sea is remarkable for its shallow waters, its maximum rarely exceeding six hundred feet. It thus appears that the sea has similar inequalities to those observed on land; it has its mountains, valleys, hills, and plains. The Deep Sea Sounding Apparatus of Lieutenant Brooke has already furnished some very remarkable results. Aided by it, Dr. Maury has constructed his fine orographic map of the basin of the Atlantic, which is probably as exact as the maps which represent Africa or Australia. I)EPTH OF TIlE OCEAN. 9 Dr. Maury has also published many charts, giving the depths of the ocean, the substance of which is given in the accompanying map, which represents the configuration of the Atlantic up to the tenth degree of south latitude, not in figures, as in Dr. Maury's charts, but in tints; diagonal lines from right to left, representing the shores of both hemispheres, indicate a depth of less than a thousand fathoms; from left to rig'ht, indicate bottom at one thousand to two thousand; horizontal lines, two to three thousand fathoms; cross lines show an average depth of three to four thousand fathoms; finally, the perpendicular lines indicate a depth of four thousand fathoms and upwards. Solid black Fig. 2. (hart of the Atlantic Ocean. indicates continents and islands; waving lines, surrounding both continents at a short distance from the shore, indicate the sands which surround the coast line at a little distance from the shore. The question is sometimes asked, What useful purpose is served by taking soundings at great depths? To this we may quote the answer of Franklin to a similar question, addressed to aeronauts-" What purpose is served by the birth of a child?" Every fact in physics is interesting in itself; it forms a rallying point, round Thich, sooner or later, others will meet, in order to establish some useful truth; and the 10 THE OCEAN WORLD) importance of making and recording deep sea soundings is established by the successful immersion of the transatlantic telegraph. At the bottom of the Atlantic there exists a remarkable plateau, extending from Cape Race in Newfoundland, to Cape Clear in Ireland, a distance of over two thousand miles, with a breadth of four hundred and seventy miles: its mean depth along the whole route is estimated at two miles to two miles and a half. It is upon this telegraphic plateau, as it has been called, that the attempt was made to lay down the cable in 1858, and it is on it that the enterprise has been so successfully completed, during the year 1866. The surface of this plateau had been previously explored by means of Brooke's apparatus, and the bottom was found to be composed chiefly of microscopic calcareous shells (Foraminifera), and a few siliceous shells (Diatoinacete). These delicate and fragile shells, which seemed to strew the bottom of the sea, in beds of great thickness, were brought up by the sounding-rod in a state of perfect preservation, which proves that the water is remarkably quiet in these depths,-an inference which is fully borne out by the condition in which the cable of 1858 was found, when picked up in 1866. The first exploration of this plateau was undertaken by the American brig Dolphin, which took a hundred soundings one hundred miles from the coast of Scotland, afterwards taking the direction of the Azores, to the north of which bottom was found, consisting of chalk and yellow sand, at nine thousand six hundred feet. To the south of Newfoundland, the depth was found to be sixteen thousand five hundred feet. In 1856, Lieutenant Berryman, of the American steamer Arctic, completed a line of soundings from St. John, Newfoundland, to Valentia, off the Irish coast, and in 1857, Lieutenant Dayman, of the English steamship Cyclops, repeated the same operation: this last line of soundings, the result of which is represented in the accompanying section, differed slightly froml that followed by Lieutenant Berryman. DEPTh ()01 TlHE OCEAN. 11 In the Gulf of Mexico, the depth does not seem to exceed seven thousand feet; the Baltic does not in any place exceed eleven hundred. The depth of the Mediterranean is, as we have said, very variable. At Nice, according to Horace de Saussure, the average depth is three thousand three hundred feet. Between the Dalmatian coast and the mouth of the Po, bottom is found at a hundred and forty feet. Captain Smith found soundings at from one thousand to nine thousand feet in the Straits of Gibraltar, and at ten thousand feet between Gibraltar and Ceuta, where the breadth exceeds sixteen miles. Between Rhodes and Alexandria, the greatest depth is ten thousand feet. Between Alexandria and Candia it is ten thousand three hundred. A hundred and twenty miles east of Malta it is fifteen thousand. The peculiar form of the Mediterranean has led to its being compared to a vast inverted tunnel. The Arctic Ocean has, probably, no great depth. According to Baron Wrangel, the bottom of the glacial sea, on the north coast of Siberia, forms a gentle slope, and, at the distance of two hundred miles from the shore, it is still only from ninety to a hundred feet. Nevertheless, in Baffin's Bay, Dr. Kane made soundings at eleven thousand six hundred feet. The inequalities of the basin of the Pacific Ocean are, comparatively, unknown to us. The greatest depth observed by Lieutenant Brooke in the great ocean is two thousand seven hundred fathoms, which he found in fifty-nine degrees north latitude and one hundred and sixtysix degrees east longitude. Applying the theory of waves to the billows propelled from the coast of Japan to California, during the earthquake of the 23rd of December, 1854, Professor Bache calculated that the mean depth of this part of the Pacific is fourteen thousand four hundred feet. In the Pacific Ocean, latitude sixty degrees south and one hundred and sixty degrees east longitude, he found soundings at fourteen thousand six hundred feet-about two miles and a half. Another cast of the lead in the Indian Ocean was made in seven thousand and forty fathoms, but without bringing up any soil fiom the bottom. Among the fragments brought up from the bottom of the Coral Sea, a remarkable absence of calcareous shells was noted, whilst the siliceous fragments of sponges were found in great quantities. Other soundings made in the Pacific, at a depth of four or five miles, were examined by Ehrenbcrg, who found a hundred and thirty-five differenlt 1)-' THE OCEAN \WORLD( II). forms of infusoria represented, and among them twenty-two species new to him. Generally speaking, the composition of the infusoria of the Atlantic are calcareous; those of the Pacific, siliceous. These animalcules draw from the sea the mineral matter with which it is charged-that is, the lime or silica which form their shell. These shells accumulate after the death of the animal, and form the bottom of the ocean. The animals construct their habitations near the surface; when they die, they fall into the depths of the ocean, where they accumulate in myriads, forming mountains and plains in iid ocean. In this manner, we may remark, ein passant, many of the existing continents had their birth in geological times. The horizontal beds of marine deposits, which are called sed7ient17ary ocks, and especially the cretaceous rocks and calcareous beds of the Jurassic and Tertiary periods, all result from such remains.* The sea level is, in general, the same everywhere. It represents the spherical form of our planet, and is the basis for calculating all terrestrial heights; but many gulfs and inlands open on the east are supposed to be exceptions to this rule: the accumulation of waters, pressed into these receptacles by the general movement of the sea from east to west, it is alleged, may pile up the waters, in some cases, to a greater height than the general level. It had long been admitted, on the faith of inexact observation, that the level of the Red Sea was higher than that of the Aediterranean. It has also been said that the level of the Pacific Ocean at Panama is higher by about forty inches than the mean level of the Atlantic at Chagres, and that, at the moment of high water, this difference was increased to about thirteen feet, while at low it is over six feet in the opposite direction. This has been proved, so far as the evidence goes, to be error in what concerns the difference in level of the Red Sea and Mediterranean, and the opening of the Suez Canal, which is near at hand, will probably furnish still more convincing proofs. It is probable that errors of measurement have also occurred, so far as the Pacific and Atlantic are concerned. It has been calculated that all the waters of the several seas gathered together would form a sphere of fifty or sixty leagues in diameter, and, supposing the surface of the globe perfectly level, that * World before tic Deluge." Second editioi. BLUE WAT EIH. 1; I these waters would submerge it to the depth of more than six hundred feet. Again, admitting the mean depth of the sea to be thirteen thousand feet, its estimated contents ought to be nearly two thousand two hundred and fifty millions of cubic miles of water; and, if the sea could be imagined to be dried up, all the sewers of the earth would require to pour their waters into it for forty thousand years, in order to fill the vast basins anew. If we could imagine the entire globe to be divided into one thousand seven hundred and eighty-six parts by weight, we should find approximately, according to Sir John Herschel, that the total weight of the oceanic waters is equivalent to one of these parts. The specific weight of sea water is a little above that of fresh water, the proportion being as a thousand to a thousand and twenty-seven. The Dead Sea, which receives no fresh water into its bosom to maintain itself at the same level as other seas, acquires a higher degree of saltness, and is equal to a thousand and twenty-eight. The specific gravity of sea water is about the same as the milk of a healthy woman. The colour of the sea is continually varying. According to the testimony of the majority of observers, the ocean, seen by reflection, presents a fine azure blue or ultramarine (cirulxeunm nmare). When the air is pure and the surface calm this tint softens insensibly, until it is lost and blended with the blue of the heavens. Near the shore it becomes more of a green or glaucus, and more or less brilliant, according to circumstances. There are some days when the ocean assumes a livid aspect, and others when it becomes a very pure green; at other times, the green is sombre and sad. When the sea is agitated, the green takes a brownish hue. At sunset, the surface of the sea is illlumined with tints of every hue of purple and emerald. Placed in a vase, sea water appears perfectly transparent and colourless. According to Scoresby, the Polar Seas are of brilliant ultramarine blue. Castaz says of the Mediterranean, that it is celestial blue, and Tuckey describes the equinoctial Atlantic as being of a vivid blue. Many local causes influence the colours of marine waters, and give them certain decided and constant shades. A bottom of white sand will communicate a greyish or apple-green colour to the water, if not 14 THE OCEAN WOILD. very deep; when the sand is yellow, the green appears more sombre; the presence of rocks is often announced by the deep colour which the sea takes in their vicinity. In the Bay of Loango the waters appear of a deep red, because the bottom is there naturally red. It appears white in the Gulf of Guinea, yellow on the coast of Japan, green to the west of the Canaries, and black round the Maldive group of islands. The Mediterranean, towards the Archipelago, sometimes becomes more or less red. The White and Black Seas appear to be named after the ice of the one and the tempests to which the other is subject. At other times, coloured animalcules give to the water a particular tint. The Red Sea owes its colour to a delicate microscopic alga (Trychodesmizniz erythrtnum), which was subjected to the microscope by Ehrenberg; but other causes of colouration are suggested. Some microscopists maintain that it is imparted by the shells and other remains of infusoria; others ascribe the colour to the evaporation which goes on unceasingly in that riverless district, producing salt rocks on a great scale all round its shores. In the same manner sea water, concentrated by the action of the solar rays in the salt marshes of the south of France, when they arrive at a certain stage of concentration take a fine red colour, which is due to the presence of some red-shelled animalcules which only appear in sea water of this strength. Strangely enough, these minute creatures die when the waters attain greater density by further concentration, and also if it becomes weaker from the effects of rain. Navigators often traverse long patches of green, red, white, or yellow coloured water, all of which are due to the presence of microscopic crustaceans, meduse, zoophytes, and marine plants; the Vermilion Sea on the Californian coasts is entirely due to the latter cause. The phenomena known as Phoslphorescence of the Sea, is due to analogous causes. This wonderful sight is observable in all seas, but is most frequent in the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Gulf, and other tropical seas. In the Indian Ocean, Captain Kingman, of the American ship Shooting Star, traversed a zone twenty-three miles in length so filled with phosphorescent animalcules that at seven hours forty-five minutes the water was rapidly assuming a white, milky appearance, and during the night it presented the appearance of a vast field of PI'HOSPHIORESCENCE OF THE SEAS. snow. " There was scarcely a cloud in the heavens," he continues, " yet the sky, for about ten degrees above the horizon, appeared as black as if a storm were raging; stars of the first magnitude shone with a feeble light, and the ' Milky Way' of the heavens was almost entirely eclipsed by that through which we were sailing." The animals which produced this appearance were about six inches long, and formed of a gelatinous and translucent matter. At times, the sea was one blaze of light, produced by countless millions of minute globular creatures, called.Noctiluct. The motion of a vessel or the plash of an oar will often excite their lucidity, and sometimes, after the ebb of tide, the rocks and seaweed of the coast are glowing with them. Various other tribes of animals there are which contribute to this luminous appearance of the sea. M. Peron thus describes the effect produced by Pyriosonma Aflanticmn, on his voyage to the Isle of France: " The wind was blowing with great violence, the night was dark, and the vessel was making rapid way, when what appeared to be a vast sheet of phosphorus presented itself floating on the waves, and occupying a great space ahead of the ship. The vessel having passed through this fiery mass, it was discovered that the light was occasioned by animalcules swimming about in the sea at various depths round the ship. Those which were deepest in the water looked like red-hot balls, while those on the surface resembled cylinders of red-hot iron. Some of the latter were caught: they were found to vary in size from three to seven inches. All the exterior of the creatures bristled with long thick tubercles, shining like so many diamonds, and these seemed to be the principal seat of its luminosity. Inside also there appeared to be a multitude of oblong narrow glands, exhibiting a high degree of phosphoric power. The colour of these animals when in repose is an opal yellow, mixed with green; but, on the slightest movement, the animal exhibits a spontaneous contractile power, and assumes a luminous brilliancy, passing through various shades of deep red, orange green, and azure blue." The phosphorescence of the sea is a spectacle at once imposing and magnificent. The ship, in plunging through the waves, seems to advance through a sea of red and blue flame, which is thrown off by the keel like so much lightning. Myriads of creatures float and play on the surface of the waves, dividing, multiplying, and reuniting, so as to form one vast field of fire. In stormy weather the luminous TIH1E OCEAN \WO(II). waves roll and break in a silvery foam. Glittering bodies, which might be taken for fire-fishes, seem to pursue and catch each other -lose their hold, and dart after each other anew. Front time immemorial, the phosphorescence of the sea has been observed by navigators. The luminous appearance presents itself on the crest of the waves, which in falling scatters it in all directions. It attaches itself to the rudder and dashes against the bows of the vessel. It plays round the reefs and rocks against which the waves beat, and on silent nights, in the Tropics, its effects are truly magical. This phosphorescence is due chiefly to the presence of a multitude of mollusks and zoophytes which seem to shine by their own light; they emit a fluid so susceptible of expansion, that in the zigzag movement pursued they leave a luminous train upon the water, which spreads with immense rapidity. One of the most remarkable of these minute mollusks is a species of Py 'osoma, a sort of mucous sac of an inch long, which, thrown upon the deck of a ship, emits a light like a rod of iron heated to a white heat. Sir John Herschel noted on the surface of calm water a very curious form of this phosphorescence; it was a polygon of rectilinear shape, covering many square feet of surface, and it illuminated the whole region for some moments with a vivid light, which traversed it with great rapidity. This phosphorescence may also result from another cause. When animal matter is decomposed, it becomes phosphorescent. The bodies of certain fishes, when they become a prey to putrefaction, emit an intense light. MM. Becquerel and Breschet have noted fine phosphorescent effects from this cause in the waters of the Brenta at Venice. Animal matter in a state of decomposition, proceeding from dead fish which floats on the surface of ponds, is capable of producing large patches of oleaginous matter, which, piled upon the water, communicates to a considerable extent the phosphorescent aspect. Whatever may be the case elsewhere, there are local causes which affect the colour of the waters in certain rivers, and even originate their names. The Guainia of the Rio Negro, or Black River, is of a deep brown, which scarcely interferes with the limpidity of its waters. The waters of the Orinoco and the Casiquaire have also a brownish colour. The Ganges is of a muddy brown, while the Djumna, which it receives, is green or blue. The whitish colour SALTNESS OF 'I'HE SEA. 17 belongs to the Rio Bianco, or White River, and to many other rivers. The Ohio in America, the Torgedale, the Goetha, the Traun at Ischl, and most of the Norwegian rivers, are of a delicate limpid green. The Yellow River and the Blue River in China are distinguished by the characteristic tint of their waters. The Arkansas, the Red River, and the Lobregat in Catalonia, are remarkable for their red colour, which, like the Dart and other English rivers, they owe to the earth over which they flow, or which their waters hold in suspension. The water of the sea is essentially salt, of a peculiar flavour, slightly acrid and bitter, and a little nauseous. It has an odour perfectly yai generis, and is slightly viscous. In short, it includes a great number of mineral salts and some other compounds, which give it a very disagreeable taste, and render it unfit for domestic use. It contains nearly all the soluble substances which exist on the globe, but principally chloride of sodium, or marine salt, and sulphates of magnesia, of potassium, and of lime. Pure water is produced by a combination of one volume of oxygen and of two volumes of hydrogen, or in weight 100 oxygen and 12 50 hydrogen. Sea water is composed of the same; but we find there, besides, other elements, the presence of which chemistry reveals to us. In 1000 grains of sea water the following ingredients are found: Water... 962-0 Chloride of odiumi.. 27'i Chloride of Ilagnesilul...'4 'Chloride of pot;assinml...... 4 l3ronii(l of magsia..... (01 Sulphate of n ll siagella. 1'2 Sutlphate of lile......... 0' Carbonate of lime......... Ictving a residuuml of.... '1(t()() consisting of sulphuretted hydrogen, hydrochlorate of ammonia, iodine, iron, copper, and even silver in various quantities and proportions, according to the locality of the specimen. In examining the plates of copper taken from the bottom of a ship at Valparaiso which had been long at sea, distinct traces of silver were found deposited by the sea. Finally, we find dissolved in the ocean a peculiar mucus, which seems of at mixed animal and vegetable natutre; organic matter (, Is T1Ell, O~CEAN WV()I-I). proceeding from the successive decomposition of innumerable generations of anlimals which have disappeared since the beginning of the world. This matter lhs been described by the Count MAarlsigli, who designates it sometimes under the name of ght, sometimes as an nctfciosity. The numerous salts which exist in the sea can neither be deposited in its bed, nor exhaled with the vapour, to be again poured upon the soil in showers of rain. Particular agents retain these salts in solution, transform them, and prevent their accumulation. Hence sea water always maintains a certain degree of saltness and bitterness, and the ocean continues to present the chemical characters which it hlas exhibited in all times, varying only in certain localities where more or less fresh water is poured into the sea basin from rivers: thus the saltness of the Mediterranean is greater than that of the ocean, probably because it loses more water by evaporation than it receives fiomn its freshwater affluents. For the opposite reason, the Black and the Caspian Seas are less charged with these salts. The Dead Sea is so strongly impregnated with salt that the body of a man floats on its surface without sinking, like a piece of cork upon fresh water. The supposed cause is excessive evaporation and the absence of rivers of any importance. The saltness of the sea seems to be generally less towards the Poles than the Equator; but there are exceptions to this law. In the Irish Channel, near the Cumberland coast, the water contains salt equal to the fortieth of its weight; on the coast of France, it is equal to one thirty-second; in the Baltic, it is equal to a thirtieth; at Teneriffe, a twenty-eighth; and off the coast of Spain, to a sixteenth. Again, in many places the sea is less salt at the surface than at the bottom. Ini the Straits of the Dardanelles, at Constantinople, the proportion is as seventy-two to sixty-two. In the AIediterranean, it is as thirtytwo to twenty-nine. It is also stated that as the salt increases at a certain depth, the water Lecomes less bitter. At the mouth of the great rivers it is scarcely necessary to add that the water is always less s;line than on shores which receive no supplies of fresh water; the same remark applies to sea water in the vicinity of polar ice, the melting of which is productive of much fresh water. A recent analysis of the water of the Dead Sea by M3. Roux gives about two pounds of salt to one gallonl of water. No mineral water, if we except tihat tllhe Salt Lake of Utah, is so lar1ge1 ilplmprlenatted with saline slubstances; the quantity of bromide of magnesiat is }'-. gramine SALT |NI1N]SS OF THE SEA. I to the litre. The water of the Dead Sea is, according to these proportions, the richest natural depository of bromide, which it might be made to furnish abundantly. The waters of the great Lake Utah and Lake Ourmiah in Persia are both highly saline. In Lake Ourmiah, as in the Dead Sea, the proportion of salt is six times greater than in the ocean. Many of our fresh-water lakes were probably salt originally, but have by degrees lost their saline properties by the mingling of their waters with those of the rivers which traverse or flow into them. Among the lakes which appear to have been divested of their saline properties may be mentioned the great lakes of Canadla and the Sea of Baikal, in all of which seals and other marine animals are still found, which have become acclimatized as the water gradually became fresh. The saltness of sea water increases its density, and at the same time its buoyancy, thus adapting it for bearing ships and other burdens on its bosom; moreover, to abbreviate slightly Dr. Maury's remark, ' the brine of the ocean is the ley of the earth." From it tlhe sea derives dynamical power, and its currents their main strength. It is the salt of the sea that imparts to its waters those curious anomalies in the laws of freezing and of thermal dilatation, that assist the rays of heat to penetrate its bosom; the salts of the sea invest it with adaptations which fresh water could not possess. In the latter case, the maximum density would be thirty-nine degrees five seconds instead of twentyfive degrees six seconds, when the dynamical force of the sea would lbe insufficient to put the Gulf Stream in motion. Nor could it regulate those climates we call marine. We have said that sea water contains nearly all the soluble substances which exist in the globe. " The water which evaporates friom the sea," says Youman, in his " Chemistry," " is nearly pure, containing but very minnte traces of salts. Falling as rain upon the land, it washes the soil, percolates through the rocky layers, and becomes charged with saline substances, which are borne seaward by the returning currents. The ocean, therefore, is the great depository of all substances that water can dissolve and carry down from the surface of the continents; and, as there is no channel for their escape, they would constanltly accumulate, were it not for the creatures which inhabit tle seas, and utilize the material thus brought within their reatch1. Thlese substances are chloride oft sodium or marine salt,,' -2 20 THE OCEAN AWOLD). sulphates of magnesia, potassa, lime, and other substances which the water of various seas is found to contain. In the year 1847, I made an analysis of water taken a few leagues from the coast at Havre, which gave the following result, from one litre (1 pint -760773):* ( ira'inImIes Chlolride of sodium......... 2570 Chloride of mag esiu........ 29 Sulphate of magnesia 2.-4(;2 Sulphate of lil... 1-210 Sulphate of potassa......... 094 Carbonate of lime......... 132 Silicate of soda... 017 lBromide of sodium.... 0103 1Brolmid( of magnlesium..... 0'030 Oxide of iron. ca:rbonate aml )phosplhat of mag- Only01 iesia, and oxide of mananese.... traces. 32 -'57 The water of the Mediterranean contains more salts than that of the ocean. The following are, according to M. Usiglio, who was one of a commission sent to examine the different kinds of salt water in the south of France, the component parts of one hundred gallons of Mediterranean water: 1 s. Clhloriile of sodliu,i......... 'L29'24 Chloride of p)otassimn.... 0405 Clllorile of magnaesium.... 3'219 Sulphate of magnesia........ 2477 Chloride of calcium......... 08 Sulplhate of lime..... 1 557 Carbo of lime....... 011. Bromide of sodium....... 0-5(; Protoxide of io......... (( Totail. 4373)5 We conclude, from the quantity of sea salt contained in the water of the ocean, that, if it were spread over the surface of the globe, it would form a layer of more than thirty feet in height. E Ixamnl C lparatitf lea Principales caulx Minlrales Salines (tI Frall(nce t l,'Allcmagnic, par 31M.,. Figni-r f MIialhe. Read at the Academic -ie Mede(1 cin. 23r,' 3ht' 31v3', I. SAILTNELSS OF THill SKA. 'I The salt contained in sea water gives it a greater density than fresh water; its average specific weight is 1-027. The density of the water of the Mediterranean is, according to M. Usiglio, 1 025 when at the temperature of seventy degrees. But the saltness of the sea varies very much under the influence of a great many local circumstances, among which we must count principally currents, winds favourable to evaporation, rivers coming from the continents, &c. It has been remarked that the sea is less salt towards the Poles than at the Equator; that the saltness increases, in general, with the distance from land, and the depth of the water; that the interior seas, such as the Baltic, the Black Sea, the White Sea, the Sea of Marmora, and the Yellow Sea, are less salt than the ocean. The Mediterranean is an exception to this last rule; it is, as we have seen, salter than the ocean. This difference is explained by the fact that the quantity of fresh water brought into it by rivers is less than that lost by evaporation. The Mediterranean must therefore grow salter with time, unless. its water is discharged into the ocean by a counter current, which would run under the current coming from the Atlantic by the Straits of Gibraltar. The Black Sea, on the contrary, the water of which has a density of only 1)013, receives from rivers more fresh water than it loses by evaporation. The saltness of this interior sea is only half as intense as that of the ocean. The Sea of Azov and the Caspian Sea are still less salt than the Black Sea. The following table shows the relative composition of the water in these three interior seas: Black Sea. Sea of Azov. Caspian Sea In 100 Gallons of Water. I)ensitv, l)ensity, Density, 1-0]:13. I 10()19. i 1-005. Chloride of sodium.. 14 019.) 9-658 36731 Chloride of potassium... 9-1892 0-1279 (0761 Chloride of magnesium.. 301-5 0-8870 0-6324 Sulphate of magnesi;a... 14704 0 742 12389 Sulphate of lime... 1047 0-2879 0-4903: Biicarbonate of nag'csia.. (2086 0-128() 0 0(129 Bicarbonate of liime. 364 0-0221 0-1705 l omidee of Imatnsiuilli. - 0'( -5 () -)0' traces 17'-f;66 18795 I 6-2942 ___II THl' OCIEAN WOEI ). In lakes without any outlet, as the Dead Sea, and the Lake of Ural, the degree of saltness has considerably augmented. Numerous experiments have proved that the water of the Dead Sea is six times salter than that of the ocean. MM. Boutron and O'Henry analysed, in April, 1850, after the rainy season, some water of the Dead Sea, taken at about two leagues fiom the mouth of' the Jordan; its density was then 1'10. The saltness of sea water makes it more fitted to carry ships, blecause its density is increased by the salts which are dissolved in it. Besides this, these salts contribute to prevent what is called the corruptioa of zvater, caused by decomposition of the organic matter contained in it. By the table representing the composition of the water of th, ocean and of that of the Mediterranean, we see that salts of lime and potassilm, as well as iodine and silicium, are only found in infinitely small quantities. Nevertheless, the lime and silicium contained in tll sea water are of very great importance, for these quantities, which appear to us so small in the table of a chemical analysis, become enormols ili the entire extent of the ocean. The marine plants take il tile lime, the silicium, the potassa, and the iodides wich ll are dissolved in the sea water; these mineral sub!stances enter into their textures. It is from tle carbonate of lime and silicium that the marine animals form their solid covering, their shell or carapace. Thle infasoria make use of the lime, siliciulm, and potassa for the same purpose. It is by the life and habits of the polypi that we explain these Coral Islam7s found in the sea, tle existence of which has been a subject of much astonishment, and ought, therefore, to find a place in this chapter. Tle Pacific and Indian Oceans are studeld(l with islands in a state of formation, which owe their origin to the polypi and corallines. These zoophytes extract from the sea water the lime and silicim which are ifond there in the state of soluble salts. In order to grow and develope, they must be continually under water. They are constantly producing calcareous deposits; these depesits rise rapidly, and at last reach the surface of the water. Then the seaweed and rubbish of all kinds that the sea carries along with it, arrested by these emerged masses, cover them with a layer of fertile soil which is soon covered with vegetation, as the birds and the waves lring seeds thither. The Coral Islands of the Pacific are folrmed in this way. O(,)IAI SLANI)S. These islands are in general well wooded. It is almost always tlhe case that the summits of the Coral Islands, which emerge simultaneously round another submarine summit, join and form a circuit in the shape of a ring, the centre of which is a little lake, in which are found large quantities of shells producing pearls and mother-of-pearl. The islands of Oeno and Whitsunday, in the archipelago of Pomotou, are of this kind. With time, this ring grows broader; the openings, which gave access to the interior lagoons, close; and when the little interior lake has been filled or dried up, the island becomes gradually like an ordinary island. The archipelagoes of the Maldives, Chagos, and the Laccadives, in the south of India, are all of madrepolic origin. Among those islands, designated under the name of (dtolls, there are some so recent that our fathlers mi(ght h]ave seen them rise from the bed of the ocean. These aggregations form numerous reefs. The large islands of this archipelago are surrounded by a barrier of reefs, the slow work of the polypi, which, rising at a certain distance from the coast, renders the approach very dangerous. The eastern coast of Australia, between nine and twenty-five degrees of south latitude, is provided with a belt of this sort. The coral bank, called the Great Barrier, is a thousand and sixty-two miles long, and las an average breadth of thilty miles, giving a surface of thirty-one thousand eight hundrlcd and sixty square miles. The walls formed by the polypi are always pperpendicular, and the sea is often of great depth in the neighbourhood of these islands. Sometimes the first plateau is destroyed, and lowered by the action of the water; the polypi then begin their edifice again upon this new base. The island of Tahiti rests on a volcanic shell, the summit of which is about a mile and a quarter above the level of the sea. Mr. Darwin has given a very interesting description of the atolls of the Sunda group. We borrow from this description solle details relative to these extraordinary formations. It was formerly believed that the circular structure of coral reefs was caused by old volcanic craters, upon which the polypi built up their edifices. But this theory does not accord with fact, and it seems, in general, difficult to believe in a volcanic upheaval of the ground as the base of madreporie formations; for the polypi cannot live under 24 TIHE OCEAN WOPLI). very deep water, and it would be impossible to admit that the bottom of the sea has everywhere risen to the same level. It is, therefore, more probable that the foundations of the Coral Islands are only natural elevations of the bottom of the sea, or submerged mountains, not far from the surface of which the polypi have taken possession, in order to raise their structures. It is a curious fact that the barriers of coral which run parallel to the coast are always separated by a broad canal, analogous to the lagoons in the atolls, and of a breadth varying from one to twelve miles. One of these reefs incloses at times a dozen rocky islands. In the island of Bolabola, the barrier is transformed into dry land; but the white line of enormous reefs, with small islands crowned with cocoa-nut trees scattered here and there, separates the dark ocean from the placid surface of the interior canal, whose limpid water bathes an alluvial soil covered with a tropical vegetation. This many-coloured riband stretches out at the foot of the wild and abrupt mountains of the centre. In the year 1858, 3Mr. Darwin explored in particular the island of Keeling, or of cocoa-nuts, to the south of Sumatra. It is formed of a circle of reefs, crowned by a wreath of very narrow islets, which leave towards the north a passage for ships. In the interior of the anchorage the water is a calm and transparent lagoon, so pure that the white and level bottom is clearly seen; this lagoon is many miles broad. Mr. Darwin landed with Captain Fitzroy upon an islet at the farther end of the lagoon, in order to see the waves break on the reefs to windward. The cocoa-nut palms formed festoons of emerald-green, clearly defined, against the deep blue of the sky; the flat. calcareous beach, with scattered blocks of white stone, was bathed by the foaming waves. Besides the substances named, sea water also contains, in infinitesimally small quantities, metals such as iron, copper, lead, and silver. The old copper collecting round the keels of ships sometimes contains so much silver that it has been thought worth extracting! A curious calculation has been attempted, based on the age of ships and the distance they have gone during all their voyages, to show that the sea contains in solution two million tons of silver.' * Sir J. Ilersehlcl's " PI'hsical (:co-ra'phy," pl. 22, Divcs tile basis 1an( d(etaiils of this etaleulatiol. CORAL ISLANDS. 2_ The following question is one that the uneducated often asks himself without being able to find a satisfactory answer; and the learned have not been more fortunate in their interrogations: Whence comes the salt and other substances held in solution in the ocean? In other terms, what is the cause of the saltness of sea water? Some persons take delight, very foolishly, in satisfying childish curiosity by silly answers. Born near the shores of the Mediterranean, with the sea always before my eyes, I once, when quite a child, addressed this question to those who were near me. Some persons, who pretended to be very clever, told me that the sea was salt, because certain ships were charged to throw into it regularly large pyramids of salt like those we see heaped up on the banks of our salt-pits. It is not irreverent to say that the theories presented by certain s(va(Its to account for the saltness of the sea are not much more to the purpose than the naive explanation with which I was answered in my childhood. Some of them, indeed, state that the salt is engendered spontaneously at the bottom of the sea; others, that the tributary rivers are sufficient to supply it. If our readers will turn back to the first few pages of " The World before the Deluge," they will understand the very simple geological explanation that we are going to give of the origin of different substances dissolved in sea water. In the first stage of our planet, before the watery vapours contained in the primitive atmosphere were condensed, and before they had begun to fall on the earth in the form of boiling rain, the shell of the earth contained an infinite variety of heterogeneous mineral substances, solme soluble in water, others not. When rain fell on the burning surface for the first time, the waters became charged with all the soluble substances, which were reunited and afterwards deposited; accumulating in the large depressions of the soil. The seas of the primitive globe were thus formed of rain water, holding in solution all that the earth had given up, collected in large basins. Chloride of sodium, sulphates of soda, magnesia, potassium, lime, and silicium, in the form of soluble silicate; in a word, every soluble matter that the primitive globe containe: formed part of the mineral contingent of this water. If we reflect that through all time up to the present day none of the general laws of nature have changed-if we consider that the soluble substances contained in tlle water of the primitive seas have remained there, TH'I OCEAN WVORLI). and that the fresh water of the rivers constantly replaces the water which disappears by evaporation-we have the true explanation of the saltness of sea water. " It is a very simple theory, it is true," adds M. Figuier, "but one that we have found nowhere, and the responsibility of which we therefore claim. The chloride of sodium is by no means the only substance dissolved in sea water. It contains, besides, many other mineral substances: in short, every soluble salt on the face of the globe, and, along with them, portions of different metals in infinitely small quantities." The mean temperature of the surface of the sea is nearly the same as the atmosphere, so long as no currents of heat or cold interpose their perturbing influence. In the neighbourhood of the Tropics, it appears that the surface of the water is slightly warmer than the ambient air, but experiments on the temperature of the sea from the surface to the bottom reveal, according to our author,: "some evidence which establishes a curious law. In very deep water a perfectly uniform temperature of four degrees below zero prevails, which corresponds, as physics have established, to the maximum density of water. Under the Equator this temperature exists at the depth of seven thousand feet. In the Polar regions, where water is colder at the surface, this temperature is maintained at four thousand six hundred feet. The isothermal lines of four degrees form a line of demarcation between the Zones, where the surface of the sea is colder, and those where it is warmer than the bed of four degrees below zero." This is more clearly shown in Fig. 4, which represents a section of the ocean, the curved line which touches two points at the surface indicating the depths where the temperature is constantly fixed at four degrees. Dr. Maury's account of this phenomenon is asserted with less confidence. The existence of an isotlher~mal floor of the ocean, as he calls it, was first sruggested by the observations of Kotzebue, Admiral Beechey. and Sir James C. Ross. "Its temperature, according to Kotzebue, is thirty-six degrees Fahr., or four degrees Cent.; the depth of this bed, of invariable and uniform temperature, is twelve hundred fathoms at the Equator; thence it gradually rises to the parallel of about fifty-six degrees north and south, when it crops out, and there the temperature of the sea fromn top to bottom is conjectured * " L;t Tcrrl et les Mors,"' p. 517. Trioiii:me ICd. VISE.S OF SALT SEAS. to lbe permanent at thirty-six degrees. The place of this outcrop, no dloubt, shifts with the seasons, vilrating north and sonth, after the manner of the Calm belts. Proceeding onwards to the Frigid zones, this aqueous stratum of an unchanging temperature dips again, and q, _ -O ~ Eqt Lato ',,90' 75' 5 1 0,00 1' 5 15~:0' 45~ 0 O 75f 00o" Poe - I 1! I — ' I o - Ce IFig. 4. TlhenMal Liles of (qual T(cmI)P(.tur(. continues to incline till it reaches the Poles at the depth of seven hundred and fifty iathoims; so that on the equatorial side of the outcrop the water al)ove the isothermal floor is the warmer, but in Polar seas the supernatant water is the colder." In the saline properties of sea water MIaury discovers one of the principal forces from which currents in the ocean proceed. "The brine of the ocean is the ley of the earth," he says; "froml it the sea derives dynamical powers, and its currents their main strength. Hence, to understand the dynamics of the ocean, it is necessary to study the effects of their saltness upon the equilibrium of the waves. Why is the sea made salt? It is the salts of the sea that impart to its waters those curious anomalies in the laws of freezing and of thermal dilatation. It is the salts of the sea that assist the ray-s of heat to Ipenetrate its bosom." The circulation of the ocean is indispensable to the distribution of temperature-to the maintenance of the meteorological and climatic conditions which rule the development of life; and this circulation could not exist-at least, the character of its waters would be conlpletely changed-if they were fresh in place of salt. "Let us imagine," says MA. Julien, "that the sea, now entirely composed of firesh wat( r, of one uniform temperature from tll Pole to the E'lUator, land from tlhe surface to 2,s THIE o()(EAN WORLD). its greatest depths; the solar heat would penetrate the liquid beds nearest to the Equator; it would dilate them, so as to raise them above their primitive level; by the single effect of gravitation, they would glide on the surface towards the polar zones. The absence of all solar radiation would tend, on the contrary, to cool and contract them without this tendency. An exchange would be established from the extremities towards the centre; in other words, a counter current of cold and heavy water, calculated to replace the losses occasioned by the action of solar radiation, would descend from the Poles, but quite maintaining itself beneath the light and warm current from the Equator." In a like system of general circulation, the physical properties of pure water, which attains its maximum of density four degrees below zero, would produce the most singular consequences. As its temperature rose above that point, the water would become lighter, having, consequently, a tendency to ascend towards the upper beds. After this, the equatorial current, meeting in its progress towards the Poles the cold water, would itself be cooled down; and when its temperature had reached four degrees below zero, being now heavier than the polar current, would change places with it, descending until it reached water equally dense, while the polar current would ascend. Hence would arise a sort of confusion of currents which would give to a fresh-water ocean the strangest results, disarranging every instant the regular circulation of its waters. It could not be so, however, in an ocean of salt water, which attains its maximum specific gravity at two degrees below zero. By evaporation at the surface it is concentrated and precipitated, and thus rendered denser than that immediately below the surface. It consequently sinks, while the lower beds come up to replace, in order to modify it, and in turn to be precipitated in the same manner. "In this manner we find established a continually ascending and descending movement, which carries down into the depths of ocean the water warmed at the surface by the solar rays of the Torrid zone. This double vertical current facilitates and prepares the grand horizontal current which puts these submarine reservoirs of heat in communication with the lower beds of the glacial sea. In the Arctic basin the clouds, the melted snow, and the great rivers, which have their mouths on the north of both continents, produce considerable quantities of fresh water, which, mixing with the waves of the Polar IVSES OF SALT' SEAS. 2i, Sea, form a bed of mean density light enough to maintain itself and flow off towards the Atlantic Ocean. These surface movements determine in the lower regions certain contrary movements, whence originate the powerful counter currents which ascend the Straits from Baffin's Bay and reappear in the mysterious Polynia of Kane, diffusing there its treasure of heat brought from intertropical seas." Dr. Kane, in his interesting Narrative, reports an open sea north of the parallel of eighty-two degrees which he and his party crossed a barrier of ice eighty miles broad to reach, and before he reached it the thermometer marked sixty degrees. Beyond this ice-bound region he found himself on the shores of an iceless sea, extending in an unbroken sheet of water as far as the eye could reach towards the Pole. Its waves were dashing on the beach with the swell of a great ocean; the tides ebbed and flowed. Now the question arises, Where did those tides have their origin? The tidal wave of the Atlantic could not have passed under the icy barrier which De Haven found so firm; therefore they must have been cradled in the cold sea round the Pole; in which case it follows that most, if not all, the unexplored regions about the Pole must be covered with deep water, the only source of strong and regular tides. Seals were sporting and waterfowl feeding in this open sea, as Dr. Kane tells us, and the temperature of the water which rolled in and dashed at his feet with measured beat was thirty-six degrees, while the bottom of the icy barrier of eighty miles was probably hundreds of feet below the surface level. "The existence of these tides," says Maury, "with the immense flow and drift which annually take place from the Polar Seas and the Atlantic, suggests many conjectures as to the condition of these unexplored regions. Whalemen have always been puzzled as to the breeding place of the great whale. It is a cold-water animal, and, following up the train of thought, the question arises, Is not the nursery for the great whale in this Polar Sea, which is so set about and hemmed in by a hedge of ice that man may not trespass there?" One or two points worthy of notice may be recorded here. Shallow water, and water near the coast, or covering raised sand-banks, is colder than water in the open sea. Alexander von Humboldt explains this phenomenon by supposing that deep waters of higher temperature reascend from the lowest depths and mingle with the upper beds. THE O(CEAN AV( ) L 1). Fogs are frequently formed over sand-banks, because tlhe cold water which covers them produces a local precipitation of atmospheric vapour. The contour of these fogs are perfectly defined when seen from a distance: they reproduce the form and accidents due to the submarine soil. Moreover, we often see clouds arrested over these ploints, which look from afar like the peaks of mountains. CHAPTER II. CU.lRENTS OF THE OCEAN. seels that sw(Nvel Ti'll tllh c-d'ckell's oakenll Ilmat." TI NNS ON. THE OCEAN is a scene of unceasing agitation; " its vast surface rises and falls," to use the image suggested by Schleiden, " as if it were gifted with a gentle power of respiration; its movements, gentle or powerful, slow or rapid, are all determined by differences of temperature." Heat increases its volume and changes the specific gravity of the water, which is dilated or condensed in proportion to tile change of temperature. In proportion as it cools, water increases in density, and descends into the depths until it reaches a constant temperature of four degrees twenty-five minutes lelow zero, which it preserves in all latitudes at the depth of a thousand yards, according to AM. D'Urville. If the water continues to cool, and reaches zero, it becomes lighter than it was at four degrees twenty-five minutes, and ascends in a state of congelation —a process which, by an admirable provision of nature, can only take place at the surface. So long as the temperature is above four degrees twenty-five minutes, water is light, and ascends to the surface, while colder water sinks to the bottom. Blow four degrees twenty-five minutes the process is reversed; the first phenomenon is always in force under the Equator, the second near the Poles. The evaporation, which is in continual operation in warm seas, forming vast rain-clouds at the expense of the sea, is colm)pensated by unceasing currents of colder water flowing from the Poles. This evaporation has a direct influence, morcover, onl the dlensity of se'a water, and is pointed ouit by Dr. Matury as a remarkable instance 3'2 0 - T'HE OCEAN \VORLD. of the compensations by which the oceanic waters are governed: "According to Rodgers' observations," he says, "the average specific gravity of sea water on the parallels of thirty-four degrees north and south, at a mean temperature of sixty-four degrees, is just what it ought to be, according to saline and thermal laws; but its specific gravity, when taken from the Equator at a mean temperature of eightyone degrees, is much greater than, according to the same laws, it ought to be-the observed difference being )0015, whereas it ought to be 0025. Let us inquire," he adds, "what makes the equatorial waters so much heavier than they ought to be. "The anomaly occurs in the trade-wind region, and is best developed between the parallel of forty degrees in the North Atlantic and the Equator, where the water grows warmer, but not proportionally lighter. The water sucked up by the trade-winds is fresh water, and the salt it contained, being left behind, is just sufficient to counteract by its weight the effect of thermal dilatation upon the specific gravity of water between the parallels of thirty-four degrees north and south. The thirsting of the trade-winds for vapour is so balanced as to produce perfect compensation, and a more beautiful instance than we have here stumbled upon is not, it appears to me, to be found in the mechanisml of the universe." The oceanic currents are due to a great number of causes: the duration and force of the winds, for instance; the rise and fall of tides all over the globe; the variations in the density of the waters; according to its temperature, and the evaporating powers of the atmosphere; the depth and degree of saltness to which we have already alluded; finally, to the variations of barometric pressure. The currents which furrow the ocean present a striking contrast with the immobility of the neighbouring waters; they form rivers of a determinate breadth, whose banks are formed by the water in repose, and whose course is often made quite perceptible by the vrachs and other aquatic plants which follow in their train. In order to comprehend the origin of these pelagic riivers, it is necessary to consider the laws which govern the atmospheric currents, in particular the tiade-winds. "Hence," says Maury, "iin studying the system of oceanic circulation, we set out with the very simple assumption, that from whatever part of the ocean a current is found to run, to that same part a current of equal volume is bound to C[TI'tRENTS UtF jTLIE OiIAN. return; for on this principle is bisedl the whole system of currents and counter currents." The differences of temperature between equinoctial land polar countries generate two opposing currents, the upper one proceeding from the Eqluator to the Poles, the lower one directed from the Poles towards the Eluator. On reaching the Equator, the cold current of air from the Poles is warmed and rarified, and ascends to the upper beds of the atmosphere, whence it is again led to its point of departure; there it is again cooled, and returns with the lower current towards the tropical regions. But the rotatory movement of the earth modifies the direction of these atmospheric currents. The movement by which it is carried from west to east being almlost nothingl at tle Poles, but inconceivably rapid under the Equator, it follows that the cold air, in proportion as it advances towards the Tropics, ought to incline a little towards the west. This is just what takes place with these counter currents. The north-east trade-wzids, which prevail in the northern hemisphere, move in a sort of spiral curve, turning to the west as they rush from the Poles to the Equator, and in the opposite direction as they move from the Equator towards the Poles; the immediate cause of this motion being the rotation of the earth on its axis. " The earth," says Dr. Maury, "moves from west to east. Now, if we imagine a particle of atmosphere at the North Pole, where it is (t )'est, to be put in motion in a straight line towards the Equator, we can easily see how this particle of air, coming fiom the very axis of diurnal rotation, where it did not partake of the diurnal motion, would, in consequence of its own:is ilnertih, find as it travelled south that the earth was slipping from under it, as it were, and it would appear to be coming froml the north-east and going towards the south-west; in other words, it would be a north-east wind." In the same manner, the upper currents of air, which proceed towards the Poles with equatorial rapidity, ought to outstrip the atmospheric beds, which are gifted with much smaller rapidity of motion towards the Poles, and turn them towards the east in consequence. These are tho south-west and north-west counter trade-winds, which, passing above the north7 ancl south-east tr (efcs, often sweep the surface of the sea in the latitudes of the Temperate zone. The two trwdes are separated by a belt more or less broad, where the fiiction experienced at the surface of the sea neutralizes their impulse towards the west; in general, thie current of air there is an ascending current. This belt, ] I4 THE OCEAN WORLD. which does not exactly correspond with the Equator, is called the Zone of Calns, where atmospheric tempests frequently occur, and the winds make the entire tour of the compass, which has acquired for them the name of tornadoes. The trade-winds, whose movement towards the west is retarded by the friction which the waves of the ocean oppose to them, communicate to these waves, by a sort of reaction, a tendency towards the west, or, to speak more exactly, towards the south-west in the northern hemisphere, and towards the north-west in the opposite hemisphere. The currents on the surface of the water which result from this reaction, reunite under the Equator, and form the grand equinoctial current which impels the waters of the east towards the west. This movement is stronger at the edges than in the middle of the current, because the force which produces it acts there with more energy: it results from this, that the currents bifurcate more readily when any obstacle presents itself to its movement. In the Atlantic Ocean, bifurcation takes place a little to the south of the Equator; the southern branch descends along the coast of Brazil, and probably returns by reascending along the west coast of Africa. The northern branch follows the coast of Brazil and Guiana, enters the Sea of the Antilles, and directs its course, reinforced by the current which reaches it from the north-east, into the Bay of Honduras, traverses the Yucatan Channel, and enters the Gulf of Mexico, whence it delouches by the Florida Channel, under the name of the Gulf Stream. Of this oceanic marvel Dr. Maury observes that "there is a river in the bosom of the ocean; in the several droughts it never fails, and in the mightiest floods it never overflows; its banks and its bottom are of cold water, while its current is of warm; it takes its rise in the Gulf of Mexico, and empties itself into the Arctic Seas. This mighty river is the Gulf Stream. In no other part of the world is there such a majestic flow of water; its current is more rapid than the Amazon, more impetuous than the Mississippi, and its volume is more than a thousand times greater. Its waters, as far as the Carolina coast, are of indigo blue; they are so distinctly indicated that their line of junction can be marked by the eye." Such is Dr. Maury's description of this powerful current of warm water, which traverses the Atlantic Ocean, and influences in no slight manner the climate of Northern Europe, and especially our own shores. The Gulf Stream thus described by the American savant issues from CURRENTS OF THE OCEAN. 35 the Florida Channel, with a breadth of thirty-four miles, and a depth of two thousand two hundred feet, moving at the rate of four and a half miles per hour. The temperature of the water in the vicinity is about thirty degrees Cent. From the American coast the current takes a north-east direction towards Spitzbergen, its velocity and volume diminishing as it expands in breadth. Towards the forty-third degree of latitude it forms two branches, one of which strikes the coast of Ireland and of Norway, whither it frequently transports seeds of tropical origin: it also warms the frozen waters of the glacial sea. The other branch, inclining towards the south, not far from the Azores, visits the coast of Africa, whence it returns to the Antilles. Throughout this vast circuit may be seen all sorts of plants and driftwood, with waifs and strays of every description borne on the bosom of the ocean. "Midway the Atlantic, in the triangular space between the Azores, Canaries, and Cape de Verd Islands, is the great Sargasso Sea, covering an area equal in extent to the Mississippi Valley: it is so thickly matted over with the Gulf Weed (Fucus Natans), that the speed of vessels passing through it is actually retarded, and to the companions of Columbus it seemed to mark the limits of navigation; they became alarmed. To the eye at a little distance it seemed sufficiently substantial to walk upon." These moving vegetable masses, always green, which tail off to a steady breeze, serving as an anemometer to the mariner, afford an asylum to multitudes of mollusks and crustaceans. The Gulf Stream plays a grand part in the Atlantic system. It carries the tepid water of the equinoctial regions into the high latitudes; beyond the fortieth parallel the temperature is sixteen degrees Cent. Urged by the south-west winds which predominate in that zone, its tepid waters mix with those of the Northern Sea, softening the rigour of the climate in these regions. To the south of the great bank of Newfoundland, the warm current, in vast volume rushing from the Florida Straits, meets the cold currents descending from the Arctic Circle through Baffin's Bay and the Sea of Greenland, running with equal velocity towards the south. A portion of these waters reascend towards the Pole along the western coast of Greenland. It is to this conflict of the polar and equatorial waters, that the formation of the banks of Newfoundland is ascribed. Each of these great currents having unceasingly deposited the debris carried in its bosom, the bank has been thus formed bit by bit in the concourse of ages. 36 THE OCEAN WORLD. The difference of temperature between the Gulf Stream and the waters it traverses gives birth inevitably to tempests and cyclones. In 1780 a terrible storm ravaged the Antilles, in which twenty thousand persons perished. The ocean quitted its bed and inundated whole cities; the trunks of trees, mingled with other debris, were tossed into the air; numerous catastrophes of this kind have earned for the Gulf Stream the title of the King of the Tempests. In consequence of the numerous nautical documents which have been placed at the command of the National Observatory of Washington, and the admirable use made of them by the late Naval Secretary and his assistants, the directions and range of these cyclones engendered by the Gulf Stream may be foreseen, and their most dangerous ravages turned aside. As an example of the utility of Dr. Maury's labours in settling the direction of storms in the traject of the Gulf Stream, we quote a well-known instance: In the month of December, 1859, the American packet San Francisco was employed as a transport to convey a regiment to California. It was overtaken by one of these sudden storms, which placed the ship and its freight in a most dangerous position. A single wave, which swept the deck, tore out the masts, stopped the engines, and washed overboard a hundred and twenty-nine persons, officers and soldiers. From that moment the unfortunate steamer floated upon the waters, a waif abandoned to the fury of the wind. The day after the disaster the San Francisco was seen in this desperate situation by a ship which reached New York, although unable to assist her. Another ship met her some days after, but, like the other, could render no assistance. When the report reached New York, two steamers were despatched to her assistance; but in what direction were they to go? what part of the ocean were they to explore? The luminaries of Washington Observatory were appealed to! Having consulted his charts as to the direction and limits of the Gulf Stream at that period of the year, Dr. Maury traced on a chart the spot to which the disabled steamer was likely to be driven by the current, and the course to be taken l)y the vessels sent to her assistance. The crew and passengers of the San Francisco were saved before their arrival. Three ships, which had seen their distressing situation, had been able to reach them, and the steamers sent to their assistance only arrived to witness the safety of the passengers and crew. But the point where the steamer foundered shortly after they were transferred to the CURRENTS OF THE OCEAN. 37 rescuing ships was precisely that indicated by Dr. Maury. If the ships sent to their assistance had reached in time, the triumph of SCIENCE would have been complete. The equinoctial currents of the Pacific are very imperfectly known. It is believed, however, that they traverse the Great Ocean in its whole length, and bifurcate opposite the Asiatic coast, where the weakest branch bends northward until it encounters the polar current from Behring's Straits, when it returns along the Mexican coast. The larger branch inclines towards the south, passing round Australia, where it is met by one or many counter currents coming from the Indian Ocean-of the complicated and dangerous nature of which both Cook and La Peyrouse speak. The cold waters from the Antarctic Pole are carried towards the Equator by three great oceanic rivers. The first bifurcates in forty-five degrees; one portion goes round Cape Horn; the other-Humboldt's current-ascends the Chilian and Peruvian coasts up to the Equator, ameliorating the rainless climate as it goes, and making it delightful. A second great current takes the direction of the African coast, and is divided at the Cape, ascending both the east and west coasts of Africa. On either side of the warm current which escapes from the intertropical parts of the Indian Ocean, but especially along the Australian coast, a polar current wends its way from the Antarctic regions, carrying supplies of cold water to modify the climate and restore the equilibrium in that part of the world. This cold current turns at first towards the west, then towards the south in the direction of Madagascar; more to the south still it is driven back by the polar current from Cape Horn. It is thus that the warm waters from the Bay of Bengal, pressed by the Indian polar current, circulate between Africa and Australia, one lateral branch of the current sweeping along the south coast of this vast continent. The monsoons which reign in the Indian Ocean tend still more to complicate the currents, already sufficiently intricate and confused. But it is not intended at present to occupy the reader's attention further with these questions of intricate currents. We have already spoken of a submarine current which appears to carry the waters of the Mediterranean into the Atlantic Ocean. Its existence is in some respects established by calculations, which prove 38 THE OCEAN WORLD. that the quantity of salt water supplied by the upper current through the Straits of Gibraltar is equal to seventy-two cubic miles per annum, while the quantity of fresh water brought down by the rivers is equal to six, and the quantity lost by evaporation to twelve cubic miles per annum. This would leave an annual excess of sixty-six cubic miles, if the equilibrium was not re-established by an under current flowing into the Atlantic. This hypothesis would appear to have been confirmed by a very curious fact. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, a Dutch brig, pursued by the French corsair Phoenix, was overhauled between Tangier and Tarifa, and seemed to be sunk by a single broadside; but, in place of foundering and going down, the brig, being freighted with a cargo of oil and alcohol, floated between the two currents, and, drifting towards the west, finally ran aground, after two or three days, in the neighbourhood of Tangier, more than twelve miles from the spot where she had disappeared under the waves. She had therefore traversed that distance, drawn by the action of the under current in a direction opposite to that of the surface current. This ascertained fact, added to some recent experiments, lend their support to the opinion which admits of the existence of an outward current through the Straits of Gibraltar. Dr. Maury quotes an extract from the "log" of Lieutenant Temple, of the United States Navy, bearing the same inference. At noon on the 8th of March, 1855, the ship Levant stood into Almeria Bay, where many ships were waiting for a chance to get westwards. Here he was told that at least a thousand sail were waiting between the bay and Gibraltar, "some of them having got as far as Malaga only to be swept back again; indeed," he adds, "no vessel had been able to get out into the Atlantic for three months past." Supposing this current to run no faster than two knots an hour, and assuming its depth to be four hundred feet only, and its width seven miles, and that it contained the average proportion of solid matter, estimated at one-thirtieth, it appears that salt enough to make eighty-eight cubic miles of solid matter were carried into the Mediterranean in those ninety days. "Now," continues Dr. Maury, " unless there were some escape for all this solid matter which has been running into the sea, not for ninety days, but for ages, it is very clear that the Mediterranean would long ere this have been a vat of strong brine, or a bed of cubic crystals." For the same reason, Dr. Maury considers it certain that there is an TIDES. 39 under current to the south of Cape Horn, which carries into the Pacific Ocean the overflowings of the Atlantic. In fact, the Atlantic is fed unceasingly by the great American rivers, while the Pacific receives no important affluent, but ought to be, and is, subjected to enormous losses, in consequence of the evaporation continually taking place at the surface. TIDES. Tides are periodical movements produced by the attraction of the sun and moon. This action, which influences the whole mass of the earth, is made manifest by the swelling movement of the waters. The attractive force exercised by the moon is three times that of the sun, in consequence of its approximation to the earth, as compared to the greater luminary. In order to comprehend the theory of tides, we shall first consider the lunar influences, putting aside for a moment the solar action. North Pole. South, Pole. J:ig. 5. Tlnnr Tide,. The attraction which the moon exercises upon any point on the earth's surface is in the inverse ratio of the square of its distance. If we draw a straight line from the moon passing through the centre of the earth, this line will meet the surface of the waters at two points, 40 T'IHE OCEAN WOuLD. diametrically opposite to each other-namely, z and N (Fig. 5); one of these points would be to the moon its zenith, the other its nadir. The point of the sea which has the moon in the zenith-namely, that above which the moon is perfectly perpendicular-will be nearest to the planet, and will consequently be more strongly attractive to the centre of the earth, while the points diametrically opposite to which the moon is the nadir will be more distant, and consequently less strongly attracted by that luminary. It follows that the waters situated directly under the moon will be attracted towards it, and form an accumulation or swelling at that point; the waters at the antipodes being less strongly attracted to the moon than to the centre of the earth, will form also a secondary swelling on the surface of the sea, thus forming a double tide, accumulating at the point nearest the moon and at its antipodes. At the intermediate points of the circumference of the globe, where the waters are not subjected to the direct attraction of the moon, the sea is at low water, as represented in Fig. 5. The earth, in its movement of rotation, presents, in the course of twenty-four hours, every meridian on its surface to the lunar attraction; consequently, each point in its turn, and at intervals of six hours, is either under the moon, or ninety degrees removed from it: it follows, that in the space of a lunar day-that is to say, in the time which passes between two successive passages of the moon on the same meridian-the oceanic waters will be at high and low tide twice in the month on every point of the surface of the globe. But this result of attraction is not exercised instantaneously. The moon has passed from the meridian of the spot before the waters have attained their greatest height; the flux reaches its maximum about three hours after the moon has culminated; and the watery mountain follows the moon all round the globe, from east to west, about three hours in its rear. It is obvious, however, that the great inequalities of the bottom of the sea; the existence of continents; the slopes of the coast, more or less steep; the different breadths of channels and straits; finally, the winds, the pelagic currents, and a crowd of local circumstances,-must materially modify the course of the tides. Nor is the moon the only celestial body which influences the rise and fall of the waters of the sea. We have already said that the sun asserts an influence on the waves. TIDES. 41 It is true that, in consequence of its great distance, this only amounts to a thirty-eight-hundredth part of that of the earth's satellite. The inequality which exists between the solar and lunar days-the latter exceeding the first by fifty-four minutes-has also the effect of adding to or subtracting from this force alternately. When the sun and moon are in conjuncltion (Fig. 6), or in opposition, that is to say, placed upon the same right line, their attraction on the sea is combined, and a spring tide is produced. This happens at the period of the syzygies-the period of new and full moon. At the period of the qutadrature, or the first and last quarters, the solar action, being Thie Sun. \, // -'-LiN- rlrtn, Pole., The Moon..S5/ / South 'ole. Fig. 6. TLnar-Solar Tides. opposed to that of lunar attraction, tends to produce a sensibly weaker tide. These effects are never produced instantaneously; but, the impulse once given, it will continue to influence the tides for two or three days, the highest and lowest tides being nearly in the proportion of 138 to 63, or of 7 to 3. The highest tides occur at the equinoxes, when the moon is in perigee; the lowest at the solstices, when it is in apogee. In our ports, and along the coast, the water rises twice in twenty-four hours, when it is said to be high water; when it retires, it is low water: they are respectively the flux and reflux of the waves. The tide is retarded every day about fifty minutes, the lunar day THE OCEAN WORLD). being twenty-four hours fifty minutes of mean time. If, for instance, it is high water to-day at two o'clock in the morning, that of the next day will take place at fifty minutes past two. Low water does not occur, however, at the half of the intermediate time; the flux is more rapid than the reflux: thus at Havre, Boulogne, and at corresponding places on this side of the Channel, it takes two hours and eight minutes more in retiring; at Brest, the difference is only sixteen minutes more than the flux. The daily retardation of high water by the passage of the moon in the meridian, at the equinoxes, is a constant quantity for the same locality, which can be determined by direct observation. The height of the tide varies in the different regions of the globe, according to local circumstances. The eastern coast of Asia and the western coast of Europe are exposed to extremely high tides; while in the South Sea Islands, where they are very regular, they scarcely reach the height of twenty inches. On the western coast of South America, the tides rarely reach three yards; on the western coast of India they reach the height of six or seven; and in the Gulf of Cambay it ranges from five to six fathoms. This great difference makes itself felt in our own and adjoining countries: thus, the tide, which at Cherbourg is seven and eight yards high, attains the height of fourteen yards at Saint MIalo, while it reaches the height of ten yards at Swansea, at the mouth of the Bristol Channel, increasing to double that height at Chepstow, higher up the river. In general, the tide is higher at the bottom of a gulf than at its mouth. The highest tide which is known occurs in the Bay of Fundy, which opens up to the south of the isthmus uniting Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. There the tide reaches forty, fifty, and even sixty feet, while it only attains the height of seven or eight in the bay to the north of the same isthmus. It is related that a ship was cast ashore upon a rock during the night, so high that at daybreak the crew found themselves and their ship suspended in mid-air far above the water! In the Mediterranean, which only communicates with the ocean by a narrow channel, the phenomena of tides is scarcely felt, and from this cause-that the moon acts at the same time upon its whole surface, which are not sufficiently abundant to increase the swelling mass of waters formed by the moon's attraction; consequently, the swelling remains scarcely perceptible. This is the reason why neither the TIDES. 4. Black Sea or White Sea present a tide, and the Mediterranean a very inconsiderable one. Nevertheless, at Alexandria the tide rises twenty inches, and at Venice this height is increased to about six feet and a half. Lake Michigan is slightly affected by the lunar attraction. Professor Whewell has prepared maps, in which the course of the tidal wave is traced in every country of the globe. We see here that it traverses the Atlantic, from the fiftieth degree of south latitude up to the fiftieth parallel north, at the rate of five hundred and sixty miles an hour. But the rapidity with which it proceeds is least in shallow water. In the North Sea it travels at the rate of a hundred and eighty miles. The tidal wave which proceeds round the coast of Scotland traverses the German Ocean and meets in St. George's Channel, between England and Ireland, where the conflict between the two opposing waves presents some very complicated phenomena. The winds, again, exercise a great influence on the height of the tides. When the impulse of the wind is added to that of the attracting planet, the normal height of the wave is considerably increased. If the wind is contrary, the flux of the tide is almost annihilated. This happens in the Gulf of Vera Cruz, where the tide is only perceptible once in three days, when the wind blows with violence. An analogous phenomenon is observable on the coast of Tasmania. The rising tide sometimes strikes the shore with a continuous and incredible force. This violent shock is called the surf. The swell then forms a billow, which expands to half a mile. The surf increases as it approaches the coast, when it sometimes attains the height of six or seven yards, forming an overhanging mountain of water, which gradually sinks as it rolls over itself. Bat this motion is not in reality progressive-it transports no floating body. The surf is very strong at the Isle of Fogo, one of the Cape de Verd Islands in the Indian Ocean, and at Sumatra, where the surf renders it dangerous and sometimes impossible to land on the coast. Fig. 7 represents the effects of the surf at Point du Raz, on the coast of Brittany, near Cape Finisterre. The winds adding their influence to these causes, give birth on the surface of the sea to waves or billows, which increase rapidly, rising in foaming mountains, rolling, bounding, and breaking one against the other. "In one moment," says Malte Brun, "the waves seem to carry sea-goddesses on its 44 'THE OCEAN WORVLD. breast, which seem to revel amid plays and dances; in the next instant, a tempest rising out of them, seems to be animated by its fury. They seem to swell with passion, and we think we see in them marine monsters which are prepared for war. A strong, constant, and equal wind produces long swelling billows, which, rising on the same line, advance with a uniform movement, one after the other, precipitating themselves upon the coast. Sometimes these billows are Fig. 7. Effects of Hurricane at Point du Raz, Cape Finisterre. suspended by the wind or arrested by some current, thus forming, as it were, a liquid wall. In this position, unhappy is the daring navigator who is subjected to its fury." The highest waves are those which prevail in the offing off the Cape of Good Hope at the period of high tide, under the influence of a strong north-west wind, which has traversed the South Atlantic, pressing its waters towards the Cape. "The billows there lift themselves up in long ridges," says Dr. Maury, "with deep hollows between them. They run high and fast, tossing Wt1I 1LPOOLS AND EDDIES. 4 5 their white caps aloft in the air, looking like the green hills of a rolling prairie capped with snow, and chasing each other in sport. Still, their march is stately, and their roll majestic. The scenery among them is grand. Many an Australian-bound trader, after doubling the Cape, finds herself followed for weeks at a time by these magnificent rolling swells, furiously driven and lashed by the " brave west winds." These billows are said to attain the height of thirty, and even forty feet; but no very exact measurement of the height of waves is recorded. One of these mountain waves placed between two ships conceals each Fig. s. Height of W'aves off the Cape of Good Hope. of them from the other-an effect which is partially represented in Fig.. In rounding Cape Horn, waves are encountered from twenty to thirty feet high, but in the Channel they rarely exceed the height of ninle or ten feet, except when they come in c,)ntact with some powerful resistilng obstacle. Thlls, when billows are dashed violently against the Eddystone Lighthouse, the spray goes right over the building, which stands at hundred and thirty fiet above the seal, and falls in torrents onl the roof. After tlh storm ofi Barbadoes ill 1780, some old gulls we'r' tlund,on the sh1ore, \wlic(h h;i(l been thrown lup firom the lottoml of tle sea lv the oi}'ce of the telmpests, THE OCEAN VWORL). If the waves, in their reflux, meet with obstacles, whirlpools and whirlwinds are the result-the former the terror of navigators. Such are the whirlpools known in the Straits of Messina, between the rocks of Charybdis and Scylla, celebrated as the terror of ancient mariners, and which were sung by Homer, Ovid, and Virgil: "Scylla latus dcxtrum, Sevum irrequieta Clarybdis, Infestat; vorat llec raptis revomitque carinas... Incidit in Scyllari, cupiens vitare Charybdim.' These rocks are better understood, and less redoubted in our days. At Charybdis, there is a foaming whirlpool; at Scylla, tie waves dash against the low wall of rock which forms the promontory, scarcely noticed by the navigator of our days. Another celebrated whirlpool is that of Euripus, near the Island of Euboea; another is known in the Gulf of Bothnia. But perhaps the best known rocky danger is the Maelstrom, whose waters have a gyratory movement, producing a whirlpool at certain states of the tide, the result of opposing currents, which change every six hours, and which, from its power and magnitude, is capable of attracting and engulfing ships to their destruction, although chiefly dangerous to smaller craft. To the combined effects of tides and whirlpools may also be attributed the hurricanes, so dreaded by navigators, which so frequently visit the Mauritius and other parts of the Indian Ocean. In periods of the utmost calms, when there is scarcely a breath to ruffle the air, these shores are sometimes visited by immense waves, accompanied by whirlwinds, which seem capable of blowing the ships out of the water, seizing them by the keel, whirling them round on an axis, and finally capsizing them. "At the period of the changing monsoon, the winds, breaking loose from their controlling forces, seem to rage with a fury capable of breaking up the very fountains of the deep." The hurricanes of the Atlantic occur in the months of August and September, while the south-west monsoon of Africa and the southeast monsoon of the West Indies are at their height; the agents of the one drawing the north-east trade-winds into the interior of Mexico and Texas, the other drawing them into the interior of Africa, greatly disturbing the equilibrium of the atmosphere. THE FIRST NAVIGATOR. 47 THE POLAR SEAS. The extreme columns of the known world are Mount Parry, situated at eight degrees from the North Pole, and Mount Ross, twelve degrees from the South Pole. Beyond these limits our maps are mute; a blank space marks each extremity of the terrestrial axis. Will man ever succeed in passing these icy barriers? Will he ever justify the prediction of the poet Seneca, who tells us that "the time will come in the distant future when Ocean will relax her hold on the world, when the immense earth will be open, when Tethys will appear amid new orbs, and where Thule (Iceland) shall no longer be the extreme limit of the earth?" " Venient annis Scecula seris quibus oceanus Vincula rerun laxet et ingens Pateat tellus, Tethysque novos Detegat orbes, nec sit terris Ultime Thule.'' Medea. No one can say; every step we have taken in order to approach the Pole has been dearly purchased; and it is not without reason that navigators have named the south point of Greenland, Cape Farewell. Of the number of expeditions, for the most part English, which have been fitted out, at the cost of nearly a million sterling, to explore the Frozen Ocean, one-twentieth have had for their mission to ascertain the fate of the lamented Sir John Franklin. The first navigator who penetrated to Arctic polar regions was Sebastian Cabot, who in 1498 sought a north-west passage from Europe to China and the Indies. Considering the date, and the state of navigation at that period, this was perhaps the boldest attempt on record. Scandinavian traditions attribute similar undertakings to the son of the King Rodian, who lived in the seventh century; to Osher, the Norwegian, in 873; and to the Princes Harold and Magnus, in 1150. Sebastian Cabot reached as high as Hudson's Bay, but a mutiny of his sailors forced him to retrace his steps. In 1500, Gaspard de Cortereal discovered Labrador; in 1553, Sir Hugh Willoughby Nova Zembla; and Chancellor the White Sea, about the same time. Davis visited in 1585 the west coast of Greenland, and two years later he discovered the strait which bears his name. In 1596 Barentz dis 4S THE OCEAN WORLD). covered Spitzbergen, which was again seen by Hendrich Hudson, who sailed up to and beyond the eighty-second parallel. Three years later Hudson gave his name to the great Labrador Bay, but he could get no farther. His crew also revolted, and he was left in the ship's launch with his son, seven sailors, and the carpenter, who remained faithful. Thus perished one of our greatest navigators. The Island of Jan Mayen was discovered in 1611; the channel which Baffin took for a bay, and which bears his name, was discovered in 1616. Behring discovered, in his first voyage in 1727, the strait which separates Siberia from America; he sailed through it in 1741, but his ship was stranded, and he himself died of scorbutic disease. In the year 1771 the Polar Sea was discovered by Hearne, a fur merchant; it was explored long after by Mackenzie. From the year 1810, when Sir John Ross, Franklin, and Parry turned their attention to the Arctic regions, these expeditions to the Polar Seas rapidly succeeded each other. In 1827 Parry reached the eighty-second degree of north latitude; and in 1845 Sir John Franklin, with the ships Erebus and Terror, and their crews, departed on their last voyage, from which neither he nor his companions ever returned. There is now no doubt that they perished miserably, after having discovered the north-west passage, which Captain M'Clure also discovered, coming from the opposite direction, in 1850. In 1855 the expedition of Dr. Elisha Kane found the sea open from the Pole. The Antarctic Pole had in the meantime attracted the attention of navigators. In 1772 the Dutch captain, Kerguelen, discovered an island which he took for a continent. In 1774 Captain Cook explored these regions up to the seventy-first degree of latitude. James Weddell, in a small whaler, sailed past this parallel in 1823. Biscoe discovered Enderby's Land in 1831. The Zele' and Astrolabe, under the command of Captain Dumont D'Urville, of the French Marine, and the American expedition, under Captain Wilkes, reached the same region in 1838. The former discovered Adelia's Land. Finally, in 1841, Sir James Clarke Ross, nephew of Sir John Ross, with the Er7ebus and Terror, penetrated up to the seventy-eighth degree south latitude. Here he discovered the volcanic islands which he named after his ships, and, farther to the south, a new continent or land, which he called Victoria's Land. THIE POLAR SlAS. 49 While these efforts were being made to penetrate the ice which surrounds the Antarctic Pole, a region having little which could attract human enterprise, the interests of commerce seemed to call for obstinate and persevering attempts to penetrate to the Arctic Pole. In spite of these numerous expeditions, however, which extend over two centuries, the regions round the North Pole are far from being known to geographers. The fogs and snows which almost always cover them were the source of many errors made by the earlier navigators. In his first voyage, made in 1818, Sir John Ross was led to think that Lancaster Sound was closed by a chain of mountains, which he called the Croker Mountains; but in the following year Captain Parry, in command of two ships, the Hecla and Griper, discovered that this was an error. This celebrated navigator discovered Barrow's Straits, Wellington Channel, and Prince Regent inlet; Cornwallis, Sir Byam Martin, and Melville Islands, to which the name of Parry's Archipelago has been given. In this short voyage he gathered more new results than were obtained by his successors during the next forty years,. He was the first to traverse these seas. Upon Sir Byani Martin Island he has described the ruins of some ancient habitations of the Esquimaux. He passed the winter on Melville Island. In order to attain his chosen anchorage in Winter's Bay, he was compelled to saw a passage in the ice of a league in length, which involved the labour of three days; but scarcely were they moored in their chosen harbour than the thermometer fell to eighteen degrees below zero. They carried ashore the ship's boats, the cables, the sails, and log-books. The masts were struck to the maintop; the rest of the rigging served to form a roof, sloping to the gunwale, with a thick covering of sail-cloth, which formed an admirable shelter from the wind and snow. Numberless precautions were taken against cold and wet under the decks. Stoves and other contrivances maintained a supportable degree of temperature. In each dormitory a false ceiling of impermeable cloth interposed to prevent the collection of moisture on the wooden walls of the ship. The crew were divided into comlpanies, each coi1 -pany being under the charge of an officer, charged with the daily inspection of their clothes and cleanliness-an essential protection against scurvy. As a measure of precaution, Captain Parry reduced by one-third the ordinary ration of bread; beer and wine were substituted for spirits; and citron and lemon drinks were served out daily TillE 0CEAAN \VW)IL~I. to the sailors. (Game was sometimes substituted to vary a repast worthy of Spartans. As a remedy against ezl nui, a theatre was fitted u)p and comedies acted, for which occasions Parry himself composed a vaudeville, entitled "The North-west Passage; or, the End of the Voyage." During this long night of eighty-four days, the thermometer in the saloons marked 28~, and outside 35 below zero, and for a few minutes actually reached 47. Some of the sailors had their Imembers frozen, from which they never quite recovered. One day the hut which served as an observatory was discovered to be on fire. A sailor who saved one of the precious instruments lost his hands in the effort; they were completely frost-bitten in the attempt. Nevertheless, the month of June arrived, and with it the opportunity of making excursions in the neighbourhood: it was found that, in Melville Island, the earth was carpeted with moss and herbage, with saxifrages and poppies. Hares, reindeer, the musk-ox, northern geese, plovers, white wolves and foxes, roamed around their haunts, disputing their booty with the crew. Captain Parry could not risk a second winter in this terrible region. He returned home as soon as the thaw left the passage open. In 18'21, Captain Parry undertook a second voyage with the Fury1/ and llecl(a. He visited Hudson's Bay and Fox's Channel. In his third voyage, undertaken in 1824, he was surprised by the frost in Prince Regent's Channel, and was constrained to pass the winter there. The Furety was dismantled, and, being found unfit for service, Captain Parry was obliged to abandon her and return to England. Accompanied by Sir James Ross, Parry again put to sea in the Ileclt, in April, 1826. On his third voyage, on leaving Table Island on the north of Spitzbergen, Parry placed his crew in the two training ships, Eltel)rpise and F1wecavoar; the first under his own command, the second under orders of Sir James Ross. Sometimes they sailed, sometimes hauled through the crust of the ice; sometimes the ice, which pierced their shoes, showed itself bristling with points, intersected into valleys and little hills, which it was difficult to scale. In spite of the courage and energy of their crews, the two ships scarcely advanced four miles a (day, while the drifting of the ice towards the south led them imperceptibly towards their point of departure. They reached latitude eighty-two degrees forty five minutes fifteen seconds, however, and this was the extreme point which they att.tined. T'IE POLAR SEAS. 51 In the month of May, 1829, Sir John Ross, accompanied by his nephew, James Clark Ross, again turned towards the Polar Seas. He entered Prince Regent's Channel, and there he fbund the Fury, which had been dismantled and abandoned by Parry, in these regions, eight years before. The provisions, which the old ship still contained, were quite a providential resource to Ross's crews. The distinguished navigator explored the Boothian Peninsuia, and passed four years consecutively in Port Felix, without being able to disengage his vessel, the Victory. This gave him ample leisure to become familiar with the Esquimaux. Sir John Ross, in his account of this long sojourn in polar countries, has recorded many conversations with the natives, which our space does not permit us to quote. From this terrible position he was extricated, and emerged with his crew from this icy prison, when all hope of his return had been abandoned. After being exposed to a thousand dangers, Ross and his crew were at last observed by a whaling ship, which received them on board, after many efforts to attract attention. On learning that the ship which had saved them was the Isabella, formerly commanded by Captain Ross, he made himself known. "But Captain Ross has been dead two years," was the reply. We need not repeat here the enthusiastic reception Captain Ross and his companions met with on their arrival in London. During an excursion made by the nephew of the Commander (afterwards Sir James Clark Ross), he very closely approached the North Magletic Pole. This was at eight o'clock, on the morning of the 1st of June, 1831, on the west coast of Boothia. The dip of the magnetic needle was nearly vertical, being eighty-nine degrees fiftyline seconds-one minute short of ninety degrees. The site was a low flat shore, rising into ridges from fifty to sixty feet high, and about a mile inland. Contrary to the judgment of many officers of experience in polar explorations, the last and most fatal of all the expeditions was undertaken by Sir John Franklin, with one hundred and thirty-seven picked officers and men, in the ships Erebls and Terror. The adventurers left Sheerness on the 26th of May, 1846, the ships having been strengthened in every conceivable way, and found in everything calculated to secure the safety of the expedition. On the 22nd of July the E 2 ~; t. -ib 52 THE OCEAN WORLD. ships were spoken by the whaler Enterprise, and, four days later, they were sighted by the Prince of Wales, of Hull, moored to an iceberg, waiting an opening to enter Lancaster Sound. There the veil dropped over the ships and their unhappy crews. In 1848, their fate began to excite a lively interest in the public mind. Expedition in search of them succeeded expedition, at immense cost, sent both by the English and American authorities, and by Lady Franklin herself, some of which penetrated the Polar Seas through Behring's Straits, while the majority took Baffin's Bay. In 1850, Captains Ommaney and Penny discovered, at the entrance of Wellington Channel, some vestiges of Franklin, which led to another expedition in 1857, which was got up by private enterprise, of which Captain M'Clintock had the command. Guided by the indications collected in the previous expedition, and intelligence gathered from the Esquimaux by Dr. Rae in his land expedition, Captain M'Clintock in the yacht Fox discovered, on the 6th of May, 1859, upon the north point of King William's Land, a cairn or heap of stones. Several leaves of parchment, which were 'buried under the stones, bearing date the 28th of April, 1848, solved the fatal enigma. The first, dated the 24th of May, 1847, gave some details ending with "all well." The papers had been dug up twelve months later to record the death of Franklin, on the 11th of June, 1847. The survivors are supposed to have been on their way to the mouth of the River Back, but they must have sunk under the terrible hardships to which they were exposed, in addition to cold and hunger. In September, 1859, Captain M'Clintock returned to England, bringing with him many relics of our lost countrymen, found in the theatre of their misfortunes. It only remains to us to say a few words on the latest voyages undertaken in the Polar Seas. After the return of Captain M'Clintock, in 1850, Captain M'Clure, leaving Behring's Straits, discovered the north-west passage between Melville and Baring's Island, which passage had been sought for without success during so many ages. He saw the thermometer descend fifty degrees below zero. In the month of October, 1854, he returned to England, and at a subsequent period it was ascertained with certainty that, before his death, Franklin knew of the other passage which exists to the north of America, to the south of Victoria Land, and Wollaston. THE' POLAR SEAS. The expddition of Dr. Kane entered Smith's Strait in 1853, and advanced towards the north upon sledges drawn by dogs; the mean temperature, which ranged between thirty degrees and forty degrees below zero, fell at last to fifty degrees. At eleven degrees from the Iole they found two Esquimaux villages, called Etah and Peterovik, then an immense glacier. A detachment, conducted by Lieutenant Morton, discovered, beyond the eightieth degree of latitude, an open channel inhabited by innumerable swarms of birds, consisting of swallows, ducks, and gulls, which delighted them by their shrill, piercing cries. Seals (phoca) enjoyed themselves on the floating ice. In ascending the banks, they met with flowering plants, such as Lychnis, tIespleris, &c. On the 24th of June, Morton hoisted the flag of the Antarctic, which had before this seen the ice of the South Pole on Cape Independence, situated beyond eighty-one degrees. To the north stretched the open sea. On the left was the western bank of the Kennedy Channel, which seemed to terminate in a chain of mountains, the principal peak rising from nine thousand to ten thousand feet, which was named Mount Parry. The expedition returned towards the south, and reached the port of Uppernavick exhausted with hunger, where it was received on board an American ship. Dr. Kane, weakened by his sufferings, from which he never quite recovered, died in 1 857. We cannot conclude this rapid sketch of events connected with the expeditions to the Arctic Pole without noting a geological fact of great and singular interest. When opportunities have presented themselves of examining the rocks in the regions adjoining the North Pole. it has been found that great numbers belong to the coal measures. Such is the case in Melville Island and Prince Patrick's Island. Under the ice which covers the soil in these islands coal exists, with all the fossil vegetable d 'bris which invariably accompany it. This shows that in the coal period of geology, the North Pole was covered with the rich and abundant vegetation, whose remains constitute the coal-fields of the present day; and proves to demonstration that the temperature of these regions was, at one period of the earth's history, equal to that of equatorial countries of the present day. What a wonderful change in the temperature of these regions is thus indicated! It is, indeed, a strange contrast to find coal formations under the soil covered by the polar ice. Let us suppose that human industry should dream of establishing itself in these countries, and 5;4 'TH, OCEAN WORILD). drawing from the earth the combustible so needed to make it habitable, thus furnishing the means of overcoming the rigorous climatic conditions of these inhospitable regions. The Antarctic Pole is probably surrounded by an icy canopy, not less than two thousand five hundred miles in diameter, and numerous circumstances lead to the conclusion that the vast mass has diminished since 1774, when the region was visited by Captain Cook. The Antarctic region can only be approached during the summer, namely, in December, January, and February. The first navigator who penetrated the Antarctic Circle was the Dutch captain, Theodoric de Gheritk, whose vessel formed part of the squadron commanded by Simon de Cordes, destined for the East Indies. In January, 1600, a tempest having dispersed the squadron, Captain'Gheritk was driven as far south as the sixty-fourth parallel, where he observed a coast which reminded him of Norway. It was mountainous, covered with snow. stretching from the coast to the Isles of Solomon. The report of Simon de Cordes was received with great incredulity, and the doubts raised were only dissipated when the New South Shetland Islands were definitively recognised. The idea of an Antarctic continent is, however, one of the oldest conceptions of speculative geography, and one wilch mariners and philosophers alike have found it most difficult to relinquish. The existence of a southern continent seemed to them to be the necessary counterpoise to the Arctic land. The Terra1t Altstlralis incogni;ita is marked on all the maps of Mercator, round the South Pole, and when the Dutch officer, Kerguelen, discovered, in 1772, the island which bears his name, he quoted this idea of Mercator as the motive which suggested the voyage. In 1774, Captain Cook ventured up to and beyond the seventy-first degree of latitude under the one hundred and ninth degree west longitude. He traversed a hundred and eighty leagues, between the fiftieth degree and sixtieth degree of south latitude, without finding the land of which mariners had spoken: this led him to conclude that mountains of ice, or the great fog-banks of the region, had been mistaken for a continent. Nevertheless, Cook clung to the idea of the existence of a southern continent. "I firmly believe," he says, ' that near the Pole there is land where most part of the ice is formed which is spread over the vast Southern Ocean. I cannot believe tlhat 'I'TH I'O(LAR SEAS. the ice could extend itself so far if it had not land ---— and I venture to say land of considerable extent-to the south. I believe, nevertheless, that the greater part of this southern continent ought to lie within the Polar Circle, where the sea is so encumbered with ice as to be unapproachable. The danger run in surveying a co;lst in these unknown seas is so great, that I dare to say no one will venture to go farther than I have, and that the land that lies to the south will always remain unknown. The fogs are there too dense; the snowstorms and tempests too frequent; the cold too severe; all the dangers of navigation too numerous. The appearance of the coast is the most horrible that can be imagined. The country is condemned by nature to remain unvisited by the sun, and buried under eternal hoar frost. After this report, I believe that we shall hear no more of a southern continent." This description of these desolate regions, to which the great navigator might have applied the words of Pliny, "Par13s minLdi a ndctura (damzcnatel et densa mers(a calif/ine," only excited the courage of his successors. In our days, several expeditions have been fitted out for the express survey of regions which may be characterised as the abode of cold, silence, and death. In 1833, a free passage opened itself into the Antarctic Sea. The Scottish whaling ship, commanded by James Weddell, entered the pack ice, and penetrated it in pursuit of seals; hut having, by chance, found the sea open on his course, he forced his way up to seventy-four degrees south latitude, and under the thirty-fourth degree of longitude, but the season was too advanced, and he and his crew retraced their steps. The voyage of Captain Weddell caused a great sensation, and suggested the possibility of more serious expeditions. Twelve years later three great expeditions were fitted out: one, under Dumont D'Urville, of the French Marine; an American expedition, under Captain Wilkes, of the United States Navy; and an English expedition, under Sir James Clark Ross. iDumont D'Urville, who perished so miserably in the railway catastrophe at Versailles in 1842, passed the Straits of Mlagellan on the 9th of January, 1838, having under his command the two corvettes Astrol(tb: and Zelee. Ite expected to find it as Weddell had descriled, and that, (after passing the first icy barrier, he should find an Olpen sea before lim. But he wals soon compelled to renounce this hople. The floatilng icel)ergs )became more anll mnor closely packed and dangerous. ;6 '1'H ' OCEAN WORKL). The southern icebergs do not circulate in straits and channels already formed, like those of the North Pole, but in enormous detached blocks which hug the land. Sometimes in shallow water they form belts parallel to the base of the cliffs, intersected by a small number of sinuous narrow channels. These icy cliffs present a face more or less disintegrated as they approximate to the rocky shore. The blocks of ice form at first huge prisms, or tabular, regular masses of a whitish paste; but they get used up by degrees, and rounded off and separated under the action of the waves, which chafe them, and their colour becomes more and more limpid and bluish. They ascend freely towards the north, in spite of the winds and currents which carry them towards the Equator. One year with another these floating icebergs accumulate with very striking differences, and it is only by a rare chance that they open up a free passage such as Captain Weddell had discovered. These floating islands of ice have been met with in thirty-five degrees south latitude, and even. as high as Cape Horn. The two French ships frequently found themselves shut up in the icebergs, which continued to press upon them, and driven before the north winds, until the south wind again dispersed their vast masses, enabling them to issue from their prison in health and safety. In some cases D'Urville found it necessary to force his ship through fields of ice by which he was surrounded and imprisoned, and to cut his way by force through the accumulating blocks, using the corvette as a sort of battering-ram. In 1838 he recognised, about fifty leagues from the South Orkney Isles, a coast, to which he gave the name of Louis Philippe's and Joinville's Land. This coast is covered with enormous masses of ice, which seemed to rise to the height of two thousand six hundred feet. Ross discovered still more lofty peaks, such as Mount Penny and Mount Haddington, rising about seven thousand feet. The English navigator states that this land is only a great island. The crew of D'Urville's ship being sickly and overworked, he returned to the port of Chili, whence he again issued for the Sguth Pole in the following January. On this occasion his approach was made from a point diametrically opposite to the former. He very soon found himself in the middle of the ice. He discovered within the Antarctic Circle land, to which lie gave the name of Adelia's Land. The long and lofty cliffs of this island or continent lie describes as 1being surrounded by a belt of THE POLAR SEAS. islands of ice at once numerous and threatening. D'Urville did not hesitate to navigate his corvettes through the middle of the band of enormous icebergs which seemed to guard the Pole and forbid his approach to it. For some moments his vessels were so surrounded that they had reason to fear, from moment to moment, some terrible shock, some irreparable disaster. In addition to this, the sea produces around these floating icebergs, eddies, which were not unlikely to draw on the ship to the destruction with which it was threatened at every instant. It was in passing at their base that D'Urville was able to judge of the height of these icy cliffs. "The walls of these blocks of ice," he says, "far exceed our masts and riggings in height; they overhang our ships, whose dimensions seem ridiculously curtailed. We seem to be traversing the narrow streets of some city of giants. At the foot of these gigantic monuments we perceive vast caverns hollowed by the waves, which are engulfed there with a crashing tumult. The sun darts his oblique rays upon the immense walls of ice as if it were crystal, presenting effects of light and shade truly magical and startling. From the summit of these mountains, numerous brooks, fed by the melting ice produced by the summer heat of a January sun in these regions, throw themselves in cascades into the icy sea. " Occasionally these icebergs approach each other so as to conceal the land entirely, and we only perceive two walls of threatening ice, whose sonorous echoes send back the word of command of the officers. The corvette which followed the Astrolabe appeared so small, and its masts so slender, that the ship's crew were seized with terror. For nearly an hour we only saw vertical walls of ice." Ultimately they reached a vast basin, formed on one side by the chain of floating islands which they had traversed, and on the other by high land rising three and four thousand feet, rugged and undulating on the surface, but clothed over all with an icy mantle, which was rendered dazzlingly imposing in its whiteness by the rays of the sun. The o!ficers could only advance by the ship's boats through a labyrinth of icebergs up to a little islet lying opposite to the coast. They touched the land at this islet; the French flag was planted, possession was taken of the new continent, and, in proof of possession, some portions of rock were torn from the scarped and denuded cliffs. These rocks are composed of quartzite andl gneiss. The southern continent, therefore, belongs to the primitive formation, while the northern region belongs in great part to 58 TI IE OC)(:AN \VfloULD). the transition, or coal formation. According to the map of Adelia's Land, traced by D'Urville over an extent of thirty leagues of country, the region is one of death and desolation, without any trace of vegetation. A little more to the north, the French navigator had a vague vision on the white lines of the horizon of another land, which he named Coast Clelr (Cote Clarie), the existence of which was soon confirmed by the American expedition under Commodore Wilkes. This officer has explored the southern land on a larger scale than any other navigator, but lie suffered himself to be led into error by the dense fogs of the region, and has laid down coast lines on his map where Sir James Ross subsequently found only open sea-an error which has very unjustly thrown discredit on the whole expedition. The English expedition entered this region on Christmas Day, 18-10, which was passed by Ross in a strong gale, with constant snow or rain. Soon after, the first icebergs were seen, having flat tabular summits, in some instances two miles in circumference, bounded on all sides by perpendicular cliffs. On New Year's Day, 1841, the ships crossed the Antarctic Circle, and reached the edge of the pack ice, which they entered, after skirting it for several days. On the 5th, the pack was passed through, amid blinding snow and thick fog, which on clearing away revealed an open sea, and on the 11th of January land was seen directly ahead of the ships. A coast line rose in lofty snowcovered peaks at a great distance. On a nearer view, this coast is thus described: "It was a beautifully clear evening, and two magnificent ranges of mountains rose to elevations varying from seven thousand to ten thousand feet above the level of the sea. The glaciers which filled their intervening valleys, and which descended from near the mountain summits, projected in many places several miles into the sea, and terminated in lofty perpendicular cliffs. In a few places the rocks broke through their icy covering, by which alone we could be assured tllat lava formed the nucleus of this, to all appearance, enormous iceberg. This antarctic land was named Victoria Land, in honour of the Queen. It was coasted up to latitude seventy-eight detrees sRuth, and near to this a magnificent volcanic mountain presented itself, rising twelve thousand feet above the level of the sea, which emittedl fliame aind smoke in splendid profusion. The flanks of this gigantic mountain were clothed with snow almost to the mlouth of the crater from which the flaming smoke issued. At a short distance, THll I'POLAR- SKIAS..)59 Ross discovered the cone of an extinct or, at least, inactive volcano nearly as lofty. He gave to these two volcanoes the names of his vessels, Erebus and Terror (Fig. 9)-names perfectly in harmony with the surrounding desolation. The ice-covered cliffs rose about a hundred and ninety feet high, and appear to be about three hundred feet deep, soundings being found at about four hundred fathoms. In the distance, towards the south, a range of lofty mountains were observed, which Ross named liMozmt Parry, in honour of his old Fjig. 9. lounts Erebus and T'Ierror. commander. When R'oss retraced his steps, the expedition had advanced as far as the seventy-ninth degree of south latitude. It may be said of polar countries, that they form a transition state between land and sea, for water is always present, although in a solid state; the surface is alwayis at a very low temperature, snow does not melt as it falls, and the sea is thus sometimes covered with a continuous sheet of frozen snow; sometimes with enormous floating blocks of ice which are driven by the currents. Meeting withl these floating masses (;O THE OCEAN WORL\)D. of ice is one of the dangers of polar navigation. Captain Scoresby has given a very detailed description of the different kinds of ice met with in the Arctic Seas. The ice-fields of this writer form extensive masses of solid water, of which the eye cannot trace the limits, some of them being thirty-five leagues in length and ten broad, with a thickness of seven to eight fathoms; but generally these ice-fields rise only four to six feet above the water, and reach from three to four fathoms beneath the surface. Scoresby has seen these ice-fields forming in the open sea. When the first crystals appear, the surface of the ocean is cold enough to prevent snow from melting as it falls. On the approach of congelation the surface solidifies, and seems as if covered with oil; small circles are formed, which press against each other, and are finally soldered together until they form a vast field of ice, the thickness of which increases from the lower surface. The water produced from melted ice is perfectly fresh-the result of a well-known physical cause. When a saline solution like sea water is congealed by cold, pure water alone passes into the solid state, the saline solution becomes more concentrated, increases in density, and, sinking to the bottom, remains liquid. Blocks of ice, therefore, in the Polar Seas, are always available for domestic use. There are, however, salt blocks of ice which are distinguished from fresh-water ice by their opaqueness and their dazzling white colour: this saltness is due to the sea water retained in its interstices. Scoresby amused himself sometimes by shaping lenses of ice, with which he is said to have set fire to gunpowder, much to the astonishment of his crew. The ice-fields, which are formed in higher latitudes, are driven towards the south by winds and currents, but sooner or later the action of the waves breaks them up into fragments. The edges of the broken icebergs are thus often rising and continually changing: these asperities and protuberances are called huzmmocks by English navigators; they give to the polar ice an odd, irregular appearance. Hummocks form themselves of the stray, broken icebergs which come in contact with each other at their edges, and thus form vast rafts, the pieces of which may exceed a hundred yards in length. When these icebergs are separated by open spaces, through which vessels can be navigated, the pack ice is said to be open. But it often happens that mountains of ice occur partly submerged, where one edge is retained under the principal mass, while the other is above the I'llE, PO'LAII SEAS. GI water. Scoresby once passed over a calf, as English mariners call these icy mountains, but he trembled while he did so, dreading lest it should throw his vessel, himself, and crew into the air before he could pass it. The aspect of the ice-fields vary in a thousand ways. Here it is an incoherent chaos resembling some volcanic rocks, with crevices in all directions, bristling with unshapely blocks piled up at random; there it is a strongly-marked plain, an immense mosaic formed of vast blocks of ice of every age and thickness, the divisions of which are marked by long ridges of the most irregular forms; sometimes resembling walls composed of great rectangular blocks, sometimes resembling chains of hills, with great rounded summits. In the spring, when a thaw sets in, and the fields begin to break up, the pieces of light ice which unite the great blocks into unique masses are the first to melt; the several blocks then separate, and the motion of the water soon disperses them, and the imprisoned ships find a free passage. But a day of calm is still sufficient to unite the dispersed masses, which oscillate and grind against each other with a strange noise, which sailors compare to the yelping of young dogs. When a ship is shut up in one of these floating ice-fields, inexplicable changes sometimes occur in the vast incoherent aggregations. Vessels, which think themselves immovable, are found in a few hours to have completely reversed their positions. Two ships shut in at a short distance from each other, were driven many leagues without being able to perceive any change in the surrounding ice. At other times ships are drawn with the floating ice-fields, like the white bears, who make long voyages at sea upon these monster vehicles. In 1777 the Dutch vessel, the WilltelmnTa, was driven with some other whaling ships from eighty degrees north back to sixty-two degrees, in sight of the Iceland coast. During this terrible journey the ships were broken up one after the other. Mlore than two hundred persons perished, and the remainder reached land with difficulty. Lieutenant De Haven, navigating in search of Sir John Franklin, was cauglht in the ice in the middle of the channel in Wellington Strait. During the nine months which he remained in captivity, he drifted nearly thirteen hundred miles towards the south; and the ship Resolute, abandoned by Captain Kellet in an ice-field of immense extent, was drifted towards the south with this vast mass to a much greater dist:ance. TII I J(A N VORLD. Some curious speculations are hazarded by Dr. Alaury, arising out of his investigations of winds and currents, facts being revealed which indicate the existence of a climate, mild by comparison, within the Antarctic Circle. These indications are a low barometer, a high degree of aerial rarefaction, and strong winds from the north. " The winds," lie says, " were the first to whisper of this strange state of things, and to intimate to us that the Antarctic climates are in winter very unlike the Arctic for rigour and severity." The result of an immense mazss of observation on the polar and equatorial winds reveals a marked difference in atmospherical movements north, as compared with the same movements south of the Equator; the equatorial winds of the northern hemisphere being only in excess between the tenth and thirteenth parallel, while those of the southern hemisphere are dominant over a zone of forty-five degrees, or from thirty-five degrees south to ten degrees north. " The fact that the influence of the polar indraught upon the winds should extend from the Antarctic to the parallel of forty degrees south, while that from the Arctic is so feeble as scarcely to be felt in fifty degrees north, is indicative enough as to the difference in degree of aerial rarefaction over the two regions. The significance of the fact is enhanced by the consideration that the ' brave west winds,' which are bound to the place of greatest rarefaction, rush more violently and constantly along to their destination than do the counter-trades of the northern hemisphere. Why should these polar-bound winds differ so much in strength and prevalence, unless there be a much more abundant supply of caloric, and, consequently, a higher degree of rarefaction, at one pole than at the other?" That this is the case is confirmed by all known barometrical observations, which are very much lower in the Antarctic than in the Arctic, and Dr. Maury thinks is doubtless due to the excess in Antarctic regions of aqueous vapour and this latent heat. "There is rarefaction in the Arctic regions. The winds show it, the barometer attests it, and the fact is consistent with the Russian theory of a Polynia in polar waters. Within the Antarctic Circle, on the contrary, the winds bring air which Las come over the water for the distance of hundreds of leagues all around; consequently, a large portion of atmospheric air is driven away from the austral regions by the force of vapour." CHAPTER III. LIFE IN THE OCEAN. " See \\hat a lovely shell, small and pure as a pearl, Frail, but a work divine, made so fairly well, With delicate spore and whorl, a miracle of design." TrNNYs)K. " THE appearance of the open sea," says Fredol, from whose elegant work this chapter is chiefly compiled, "far from the shore-the boundless ocean-is to the man who loves to create a world of his own, in which he can freely exercise his thoughts, filled with sublime ideas of the Infinite. His searching eye rests upon the far-distant horizon. He sees there the ocean and the heavens meeting in a vapoury outline, where the stars ascend and descend, appear and disappear in their turn. Presently this everlasting change in nature awakens in him a vague feeling of that sadness 'which,' says Humboldt, lies at the root of all our heartfelt joys.'" Emotions of another kind and equally serious are produced by the contemplation and study of the habits of the innumerable organised beings which inhabit the great deep. In fact, that immense expanse of water, which we call the sea, is no vast liquid desert; life dwells in its bosom as it does on dry land. Here this mystery reigns supreme in the midst of its expansions, luxuries, and agitations. It pleases the Creator. It is the most beautiful, the most brilliant, the noblest, and the most incomprehensible of His manifestations. Without life, the world would be as nothing. The beings endowed with it transmit it faithfully to other beings, their children, and their successors, which will be, like them, the depositaries of the same mysterious gift; the marvellous heritage thus traverses years (ald hundreds of years without losing its powers; the globe is redolent with the life which has been 64 'THE OCEAN WORLD. so bounteously distributed over it. In the words of Lamartine, "We know what produces life, but we know not what it is;" and this ignorance is perhaps the powerful attraction which provokes our curiosity and excites us to study. Every living being is animated by two principles, between which a silent but incessant combat is being carried on-life, which assimilates, and death, which disintegrates. At first, life is all powerful-it lords it over matter; but its reign is limited. Beyond a certain point its vigour is gradually impaired; with old age it decays; and is finally extinguished with time, when the chemical and physical laws seize upon it, and its organization is destroyed. But the elements, though inert at first, are soon reanimated and occupied with a new life. Every plant, every animal is bound up with the past, and is part of the future, for every generation which starts into life is only the corollary upon that which expires, and the prelude of another which is about to be borne. Life is the school of death; death is the foster-mother of life. Life, however, does not always exhibit itself at the moment of its formation. It is visible later, and only after other phenomena. In order to develope itself, a suitable soil or other medium must be prepared, and other determinate physical and chemical conditions provided. The presence and diffusion of living beings are no chance products; they follow rigorously an order of law. Speaking of the higher forms of animal life, the Duke of Argyll says, in his able and satisfactory work, " The Reign of Law,"-" In all these there is an observed order in the most rigid scientific sense, that is, phenomena in uniform connexion and mutual relations which can be made, and are made, the basis of systematic classification. These classifications are imperfect, not because they are founded on ideal connexions where none exist, but only because they fail in representing adequately the subtle and pervading order which binds together all living things." The knowledge of fossils has thrown great light upon the regular and progressive development of organization. The evolution of living beings seems to have commenced with the more rudimentary forms; the more ancient rocks, until very recently, had revealed no traces of lii, and what has been revealed tends to confirm this view. In the Cambrian rocks of Bray Head, county Wicklow, the Oldhamnia is a zoophyte of the simplest organization, and the Rhizapods iound near the bottom of the Azoic rocks of Canada are the lowest form of living types, LIFE IN THE OCEAN. 65 and it is only in beds of comparatively recent formation that complex organization exists. Vegetables first show themselves, and even among these the simplest forms have priority. Animals afterwards appear, which, as we have seen, belong to the least perfect classes. The combinations of life, at first simple, have become more and more complex, until the creation of man, who may be considered the masterpiece of organization. If we expose a certain quantity of pure water to the light and air in the spring, we should soon see it producing shades of a yellowish or greenish colour. These spots, examined through the microscope, reveal thousands of vegetable agglomerates. Presently thousands of animalcules appear, which swim about among the floating masses, nourishing themselves with its substance. Other animalcules then appear, which, in their turn, pursue and devour the first. In short, life transforms inanimate into organized matter. Vegetables appear first, then come herbivorous animals, and then come the carnivorous. Life maintains life. The death of one gives food and development to others, for all are bound up together-all assist at the metamorphoses continually occurring in the organic as in the mineral world, the result being general and profound harmony-harmony always worthy of admiration. The Creator alone is unchangeable, omnipotent, and permanent; all else is transition. The inhabitants of the water are much more numerous than those of the solid earth. "Upon a surface less varied than we find on continents," says Humboldt, " the sea contains in its bosom an exuberance of life of which no other portion of the globe could give us any idea." It expands in the north as in the south; in the east as in the west. The seas, above all, abound with it; in the bosom of the deep, creatures corresponding and harmonizing with each other sport and pay. Among these especially the naturalist finds instruction, and the philosopher subjects for meditation. The changes they undergo only impress upon our minds more and more a sentiment of thankfulness to the Author of the universe." Yes, the ocean in its profoundest deptlls-its plains and its mountains, its valleys, its precipices, even in its ruins-is animated and embellished by innumerable organized beings. These are at first plants, solitary or social, erect or drooping, spreading into prairies, grouped in F (;n '1THE OCEAN WORLD. patches, or forming vast forests in the oceanic valleys. These submarine forests protect and nourish millions of animals which creep, which run, whlich swim, which sink into the sands, attach themselves to rocks, lodge themselves in crevices, which construct dwellings for themselves, which seek for or fly from each other, which pursue or fight, caress each other lovingly, or devour each other without pity. Charles Darwin truly remarks somewhere that our terrestrial forests do not maintain nearly so many living beings as those which swarm in the bosom of the sea. The ocean, which for man is the region of asphyxia and death, is for millions of animals the region of life and health: there is enjoyment for myriads in its waves; there is happiness on its banks; there is the blue above all. The sea influences its numerous inhabitants, animal or vegetable, by its temperature, by its density, by its saltness, by its bitterness, by the never-ceasing agitation of its waves, and by the rapidity of its currents. We have seen in preceding chapters that the sea only freezes under intense cold, and then only at the surface, and that at the depth of five hundred fathoms the same permanent temperature exists in all latitudes. On the other hand, it is agreed that the agitations produced by the most violent storms are never felt beyond the depth of twelve or thirteen fathoms. From this it follows that animals and vegetables, by descending more or less, according to the cold or disturbing movements, can always reach a medium which agrees with their constitutions. The hosts of the sea are distinguished by a peculiar softness. Certain pelagic plants present only a very weak, feeble consistence; a great number are transformed by ebullition into a sort of jelly. The fles! of marine animals is more or less flaccid; many seem to consist of a diaphanous mucilage. The skeleton of the more perfect species is more or less flexible and cartilaginous; and it rarely attains, as to weight and consistency, the strength of bone exhibited by terrestrial vertebrate animals. Nevertheless, both the shells and coral produce1l in the bosom of the ocean are remarkable for their stony solidity. Among marine 1bodies, in short, we find at once the softest and hardest of organized substances. The separation of organized beings, nourished by the ocean, is LIFE IN THE OCEAN. 67 subjected to certain fixed laws. We never find on the coast, except by evident accident, the same species that we meet with far from the shore; nor on the surface, creatures whose habits lead them to hide in the depths of ocean. What immense varieties of size, shape, form, and colour, from the nearly invisible vegetation which serves to nourish the small zoophytes and mollusks, to the long, slender algae, of fifty, and even five hundred, yards in length! How vast the disparity between the microscopic infusoria and the gigantic whale! "We find in the sea," says Lacepede, " unity and diversity, which constitute its beauty; grandeur and simplicity, which give it sublimity; puissance and immensity, which command our wonder." In the following pages we shall figure and describe many inhabitants of the sea; but how many remain still to figure and describe! During more than two thousand years research has been multiplied, and succeeded by research without interruption. " But how vast the field," as Lamarck observes, "which Science has still to cultivate, in order to carry the knowledge already acquired to the degree of perfection of which it is susceptible!" "When the tide retires from the shore, the sea leaves upon the coast some few of the numberless beings which it bears in its bosom. In the first moments of its retreat, the naturalist may collect a crowd of substances, vegetable and animal, with their various characteristic colours and properties. The inhabitants of the coast find there their food, their commerce, and their occupations. At low water the nearest villages and hamlets send their contingents, old and young, men, women, and children, to the harvest. Some apply themselves to gathering the ribboned seaweed (Zostera), the membranous Ulva, the sombre brown Fuicus vesiculosiis, formerly a source of great wealth to the dwellers by the sea, being then much used in making kelp; others gather the small shells left on the sands; boys mount upon the rocks in search of whelks (Buccinum), mussels (Mytilus), detach limpets (Patella), and other edible marine animals, from the rocks to which they have attached themselves. On some coasts, shells, as ilactra, (Cytheria, and Bucartia, are sought, for their beauty. By turning the stones, or by sounding, the crevices of the rocks with a hook at the end of a lath, polypes and calmars are sometimes surprised-sometimes even sea and conger eels, which have sought refuge there; while the F 2 68 THE OCEAN WORLD. pools, left here and there by the retiring tide, are dragged by nets of very small mesh, in which the smaller crustaceous mollusks and small fish are secured. In the Mediterranean and other inland seas, where the tide is almost inappreciable, there exist a great number of animals and vegetables belonging to the deep sea, which the waves or currents very rarely leave upon the sea shore. There are others so fugitive, or which attach themselves so firmly to the rocks, that we can watch them only in their habitats. It is necessary to study them floating on the surface of the waves, or in their mysterious retirements. Hence the necessity that naturalists should study the living productions of the salt water even in the bosom of the ocean, and not on the sea shore. The means generally employed for this purpose is a drag-net,soundingline, and other engines suitable for scraping the bottom, and breaking the harder rocks. In a voyage which Milne Edwards made to the coast of Sicily, he formed the idea of employing an apparatus invented by Colonel Paulin, which consisted of a metallic casque provided with a visor of glass, and consequently transparent, which fixed itself round the neck by means of a copper collar made water-tight by stuffing-a diving-bell, in short, in miniature. It communicated with an airpump by means of a flexible tube. Four men were employed in serving the pump, two exercising it while the other two rested themselves. Other men hold the extremity of a cord, which was passed over a pulley attached at a higher elevation, and enabled them to hoist up the diver with the necessary rapidity in emergencies. A vigilant observer held in his hand a small signal cord. The immersion of the diver was facilitated by heavy leaden shoes, which assist him at the same time to maintain his vertical position at the bottom. M. Edwards made the descent with this apparatus in three fathoms' water with perfect success. He was thus enabled to study, in their most hidden and most inaccessible retreats, the radiate animals, mollusks, crustaceans, and annelids, especially their larvae and eggs, and by his descriptions to contribute most essentially to make known the functions, manners, and mode of development of certain inhabitants of the sea, whose sojourn and habits would seen to sequestrate them for ever from our observation. LIFE IN THE OCEAN. 69 Another and easier mode of studying the living creatures sheltered by the sea was first suggested by M. Charles des Moulins of Bordeaux, in 1830. The aquarium, which is charged with fresh or salt water, according to the beings it is intended to contain, serves the same purpose for the inhabitants of the deep which the aviary does for the birds of the air-cages of glass being used in place of iron wire or wicker-work, and water in place of atmospheric air. When a globe is filled with fresh water, and with mollusks, crustaceans, or fishes, it is observed, after a few days, that the water loses its transparency and purity, and becomes slightly corrupt. It necessarily follows that the water must be changed from time to time. Changing the water, however, causes much suffering, and even death to the animals. Besides, the new water does not always present the same composition, the same aeration, or the same temperature with that which is replaced. To obviate this defect, and taking a leaf out of Nature's book, M. Moulins proposed to put into the vase a certain number of aquatic plants floating or submerged - duckweed, for example-which would act upon the water in a direction inverse to that of the animals inhabiting it. It is known that vegetables assimilate carbon, while decomposing the carbonic acid produced by the respiration of animals, thus disengaging the oxygen indispensable to animal life. In this simple manner was the necessary change of water obviated. The same happy idea has been successfully applied to salt water, and aquariums for salt water plants and animals have been proposed on a great scale. That of the Zoological Gardens of Paris, in the Bois de Boulogne, inaugurated in 1861, is perhaps the largest in the world. It is a solid stone building of fifty yards in length by about twelve broad, presenting a range of forty reservoirs of Angers slate, running north and south. The reservoirs are nearly cubical, presenting in front the strong glass of Saint Gobain, which permits of the interior being seen. They are lighted from above; but the light is weak, greenish, uniform, and consequently mysterious and gloomy, giving a pretty exact imitation of the submarine light some fathoms down. Each reservoir contains about two hundred gallons of water. It is furnished with rocks disposed a little in the form of an amphitheatre, and in a picturesque manner. Upon the rocks, various species of marine vegetables are planted. The bottom is of shingle, gravel, and sand, in order to give certain animals a sufficiently natural retreat. 70 THE OCEAN WORLD. Ten of these reservoirs are intended for marine animals. The water employed is never changed, but it is kept in continual agitation by circulation, produced by a current of water led from the great pipe which feeds the Bois de Boulogne. This water, being subjected to a strong pressure, compresses a certain portion of air, which, being permitted to act on a portion of the sea water contained in a closed cylinder placed below the level of the aquarium, makes it ascend, and enter with great force into a reservoir, into which it is thrown from a small jet. The sea water thus pressed absorbs a portion of the air, which is drawn with it into the reservoir. A tube placed in a corner of the reservoir receives the overflow, and conducts it into a closed carbon filter, whence it passes into a gravelly underground reservoir, returning again to the closed cylinder. The water is once more subjected to the pressure of air, and again ascends to the aquarium. The cylinder being underground, a temperature equal to about sixteen degrees Cent., which is nearly the uniform temperature of the ocean, is easily maintained. During winter, the aquarium is heated artificially. CHAPTER: IV. ZOOPH'YTES. " Na.turle is 1inowlie'c' I re pI'r rflc'(tc tllhan in lier simallle \wOlrks." " Natira, lsltlaq n lmagis quaill in miniinis tota est.'' I'i, NY. IN these early pages it will not be out of place to offer a few considerations on animals in general, including the whole kingdom as well as the great divisions which form the subject of this particular volume. But nothin is less promising as a sul)ject of study than the whole animal series, nothinc more difficult than to seize upon any real analogy between beings of types so varied, of organization so dissimilar. The arrangements which naturalists have estallished in order to study and describe animals-the divisions, classes, orders, families, genera, and species-are admirable contrivances for facilitating the study of creatures numerous as thle sands of the sea shore. Without this precious means of logical distribution, the individual mind would recoil before the task of describing the inlnumerable phalanxes of contemporary animal life. But the reader must never forget that these methodical divisions are pulre fictions, due to human invention: they forrm no part of nature; for has not Linnacus told us that nature makes no leaps, zlfatu rle non( facdt sa(itets?-by which he means to tell u, that nature passes in a manner almost insensibly from one stage of organization to another, altogether irrespective of human systems. It is, however, when we come to watch the confines of ihe animal and vegetable kingdom that we realise how difficult it is tG seize the precise line of demarcation which separates the great kingcoms of Nature. We have seen in the " Vegetable Worldi " germs of the simplest organization, as in tle Cryltogamitl, spores, as in the Alga'. and fruitful THE OCEAN WVOILD. corpuscles, as in the Mosses, which seem to be invested with some of the characteristics of animal life, for they appear to be gifted with organs of locomotion, namely, vibratile cilia, by means of which they execute movements which are to all appearance quite voluntary. Alongside these, vegetable germs and fecundating corpuscles, known as antherozoides among the Algae, Mosses, and Ferns, which, when floating in water, go and come like the inferior animals, seeking to penetrate into cavities, withdrawing themselves, returning again, and again introducing themselves, and exhibiting all the signs of an apparent effort. Let us compare the Infusoria, or even the Polypi, Coral insects, and Gorgons, with these shifting vegetable organisms, and say if it is easy to determine, without considerable study, which is the plant and which the animal. The precise line of demarcation which it is so desirable to establish between the two kingdoms of Nature is indeed difficult to trace. The word zoophyte, to which this comparison introduces us, seems very happily applied: it is derived from the Greek word noov, animal, and oVTVl, pplant; and is, as it seems to us, quite worthy of being retained in Science, because it consecrates and materialises, so to speak, a sort of fusion between the two kingdoms of Nature at their confines. Let us guard ourselves, however, from carrying this idea too far, and, upon the faith of a happy word, altering altogether the true relations of created beings. In adopting the name zoo2phyte, to indicate a great division of the animal kingdom, the reader must not imagine that there is any ambiguity about the creatures designated, or that they belong at once to both kingdoms, or that they might be ranged indifferently in the one or the other. Zoophytes are animals, and nothing but animals; the justification for using a designation which signifies animal plant is, that many of them have an exterior resemblance to plants; that they divide themselves by offshoots, as some plants do, and are sometimes crowned with organs tinted with lively colours, like some flowers. This analogy between plants and zoophytes is nowhere more apparent than in the coral. Rooted in the soil and upon rocks, the form of its branches many times subdivided, above all, the coloured appendages which at certain periods so closely resemble the corolla of a flower, have all the form fand appearance of plants. Until the eighteenth century most naturalists classed the coral as Linnmr us did. without the least ZOO'PHYTES. hesitation, with analogous creations in the vegetable world. Reaumur long contended for the contrary opinion; but it is only in our day that the animal nature of the coral is satisfactorily established. The sea anemone may be cited as another striking example of the resemblance borne by certain inferior organisms to vegetables. We hold, then, that we are justified in using the word zoophyte to designate the beings which now occupy our attention. We shall not surprise our readers by telling them that the structure of the zoophyte, especially in its inferior orders, is excessively simple. They are the first steps in the scale of animal life, and in them a purely rudimentary organization was to be expected. In these beings-true types of animal life-the several parts of the body, in place of being disposed in pairs on each side of its longitudinal plane, as occurs in animals of a higher organization, is found to radiate habitually round an axis or central point, and this whether in its adult or juvenile state. Zoophytes have not generally an articulate skeleton, either exterior or interior, and their nervous system, where it exists, is very slightly developed. The organs of the senses, other than those of touch, are altogether absent in the greater part of beings which belong to this, the lowest class of the last division of the animal kingdom. Several questions arise here: Has the zoophyte sentiment, feeling, perception? Has it consciousness, sense, sensibility? The question is insoluble; it is an abyss of obscurity. The coral, or rather the aggregation of living beings which bear the name, are attached to the rock which has seen their birth, and which will witness their death: the infusoria, of microscopic dimensions, which revolve perpetually in a circle infinitesimally small. The Amiba, the marvellous Proteus, which in the space of a minute changes its form a hundred times under the surprised eyes of the observer, is, in truth, a mere atom charged with life. Yet all these beings have an existence to appearance purely vegetative. In their obscure and blind impulse, have they consciousness or instinct? Do they know what takes place at the three thousandth part of an inch from their microscopic bodies? To the Creator alone does the knowledge of this mystery belong. Il consequence of the numerous differences of structure which exist iallong zoophytes, some recent authors divide them into four classes: namely. Sponger, Ifuscsoriia, Acelephes, and Echinioder}m2. But, 74 74'THIE OCEAN WO] LD. following the best authorities whicl have recently treated of these animals, we shall divide them into I. PROTOZOA, including the ITnfusoria, Foraminiferat, and Spongyiadc. II. POLYPIFERA, including the Hydrte, Sertularia, and Pennatularie. III. ECHINODERIXATA, or Sea-urchins and Star-fishes. Our space will prevent our doing more than presenting to the reader in succession the most characteristic types of each of these groups. 1. THE PBIOTOZOA. The Protozoares represent animal life reduced to its most simple expression. They are organized atoms, mere animated and moving points, living sparks. As they are tle simplest forms of animal life as regards their structure, so also they are the smallest. Their microscopic dimensions hide them from our view. The discovery of the microscope was a necessary step to our becoming acquainted with these beings, whose existence was ignored by the ancient world, and only revealed in the seventeenth century by the discovery of the microscope. When armed with this marvellous instrument, applied to examine the various liquid mediums-as when Leuwenhoek, for example, applied the magnifying glass to the inspection of stagnant water, with its infusions of macerated vegetable and animal substances-when he scrutinized a drop of water borrowed from the ocean, from rivers, or from lakes, he discovered there a new world-a world which will be unveiled in these pages. Some modern writers believe that the Protozoa is a mere cellular organism, that being the principal and end of organization, such as we find it in the cellular vegetable. According to this hypothesis, the Protozoares would be the cellulars of the animal kingdom, as the Algae and Mushrooms are of the vegetable world. This idea is so far wrong, that it has been founded upon the empire of pure theory. "In reality," says Paul Gervais and Van Bleneden, "tlhe animals to which we extend it very rarely resemble elementary cellulars." The tissue of which the bodies of the Protozoa are composed is habitually destitute of cellular structure. They are formed of a sort of animated jelly, amorphous and diaphanous, and have received from Dujardin the name of Sarcoda, or soft-fleshed animals. ZOOPHYTES. Infinitely varied in their form, the Protozoares are furnished with vibratile cilia, which are organs of locomotion belonging to the lower animals inhabiting the liquid element. Their bodies are sometimes naked, sometimes covered with a siliceous, chalky, or membranous cuirass. They are divided into two great classes, the IhJizopoda and Infusoria. CLASS RHIZOPODA. Gervais and Van Beneden include under the name of Blhizopods, or foot-rooted animals (so called from pLta, root; 'ovs, 7ro6o<, footed animCls), those of the simplest organization, which may be characterised by the absence of distinct digestive cavities, and the presence of vibratile cilia, as well as by the soft parts of their tissues. This tissue emits prolongations or filaments which admit of easy extension, sometimes simple, sometimes branching. Occasionally we see these branching filaments withdraw themselves towards the mass of the body, disappear, and gradually melt into its substance in such a manner that the individual seems to absorb and devour itself. If, in exceptional cases, some of the superior animals, as the wolf, devour each other, the rhizopods go much farther: they devour themselves, so to speak! The rhizopods are found both in fresh and salt water. They live, as parasites, on the body of worms and other articulated animals. The class is divided into many orders. We shall speak here only of three; namely, the Amzibe, ForainiiTfera, and Noctiluea. THE AMIB2,E. In nearly all ancient animal and vegetable infusions, not quite putrid-upon all oozy beds covering bodies which have remained for some time in fresh or sea water-we find the singular beings which belong to this order. They are the simplest organisms in creation, being reduced to a mere drop of living matter. Their bodies are formed of a gelatinous substance, without appreciable organization. The quantity of matter which forms them is so infinitesimal, that it becomes incredibly diaphanous, and so transparent that the eye, armed with the microscope, traverses it in all directions, so that it is necessary to modify the nature of the liquid in which it is held in suspension, and introduce the phenomenon of refraction in order to observe them. It would be difficult to say exactly what is the form these creatures THE OCEAN WOI'TD. assume. They frequently have the appearance of small rounded masses, like drops of water; but, whatever their form may be, it is always so unstable, that it changes, so to speak, every moment, so that it is found impossible to make a drawing from the model under the microscope-the design must be finished by an appeal to memory. This instability is the characteristic manifestation of life in the Amiba, which are naked beings, without apparent organization; in fact, it occupies the first step in the scale of creation. The transparent immovable drop under consideration emits an expansion, and a lobe of a vitreous appearance upon its circumference, which, gliding like a drop of oil upon the object-glass of the microscope, begins by fixing itself to it as a supporting point, afterwards slowly attracting to itself the whole mass, and thus gradually increasing its bulk under the observer's eye. The Amiba, according to their dimensions and degree of development, successively emit a greater or smaller number of lobes, none of which are precisely alike, but, after having appeared for an instant, each successively re-enters into the common mass, with which it becomes completely incorporated. Variable in their respective forms, these lobes present appearances quite different in the several genera. They are more or less lengthy, more or less fringed, and often branching; sometimes they are filiform, sprouting in all directions over the animal mass, which rolls in the liquid like the husk of a small chestnut. If we ask how these animals are nourished, in which no digestive apparatus can be distinguished, the question is difficult to answer. It is thought that they are nourished by simple absorption, and by absorption only. In the interior of the gelatinous mass which constitute the animals, however, granules and microscopic portions of vegetables are frequently discovered. "We can conceive," says Dujardin, " how these objects have penetrated to the interior, if we remark, on the one hand, that in creeping on the surface of the glass, to which they adhere very exactly, the Aliba can be made to receive, by pressure, foreign substances into their own bodies, by means of the alternate contraction and extension of the various parts natural to them, and, on the other hand, that the gelatinous mass is susceptible of spontaneous depressions-here and there near to or even at the surface of the spherical cavities, which successively contract themselves and disappear in connection with the strange body which they have alsorl:ied." ZOOPHYTES. 77 The Amiba are often observed to be tinted red or green; this arises from the special colouring-matter which has been absorbed into its mass. The question arises, How do these creatures, so simple in their organization, propagate their species? We believe that they are chiefly multiplied by parting with a lobe, which, in certain conditions, is enabled to live an independent existence, and develope itself, thus forming a new individual. This is what naturalists term generation by division-fissip)arism or fission. The absence of a nutritive and reproductive apparatus in the <. Awt'ba, and the want of sta-:..... / bility in their forms, explain how nearly impossible it is to '.:!i i characterise as species the nu-.'r.jz merous individuals daily met;::,: ^ i wsith in infusions of organic ^ s"~eS l matter in stagnant water. In ^:,:^;,i order to distinguish some of the groups, Dujardin bases ' i his descriptions upon their 41.:?j; /it size and the general form into i j,: which they expand. 1 We shall be able to form Fig. 10. Amiba princeps (Ehrenberg), magnified 100 times. some idea of the appearance of these beings, rendered mysterious by their very simplicity, by throwing a glance upon the two accompanying figures (Figs. 10 and 11), borrowed from the Atlas of Dujardin's great work, " Les Zoophytes Infusoires," which we shall have occasion to quote ^^,^ | 1 more than once. \ i We have said that the Amiba change their form every few moments under the eyes of the observer. Fig. 11 repre- i ' sents the changes of form through which they pass, according to Dujarcin, Fig. 1 Vaius formsa f miba difflens n V (.11 ilelr), magnifiedl 400 times. when examined under the microscope. DIujardin points out very clearly the identity of structure between organisms like Amiba and such forms as Dilugia and Arcella. All 78 'TIlE OCEAN WORTL). these creatures are without trace of mouth or digestive cavity, and the entire body is a single cell, or aggregation of cells, which receive their nutriment by absorption; for, although the creatures have neither mouth nor stomach, yet, according to Professor Kolliker, it takes in solid nutriment, and rejects what is indigestible. When in its progress through the water one of these minute organisms approaches one of the equally minute Algce, from which it draws nourishment, it seizes the plant with its tentacular filaments, which it gradually encloses on all sides; the filaments, to all appearance, becoming more or less shortened in the process. In this way the captive is brought close to the surface of the body; a cavity is thus formed, in which the prey is lodged, which closes round it on all sides. In this situation it is gradually drawn towards the centre, and passes at last entirely into the mass. The engulfed morsel is gradually dissolved and digested. THE FORA3IIINIFERA. There is nothing small in Nature. The idea of littleness or greatness is a human conception-a comparison which is suggested by the dimensions of his own organs. Nature, on the other hand, compensates smallness by numbers. The result produced by the bones of some large animals is also accomplished by the accumulated spoils of millions of animalcules. The history of the Foraminifera is a striking example of this great truth. What, then, is a Foraminifer? It is a very small zoophyte, a shell nearly invisible to the naked eye; for, in general, its dimensions rarely exceed the two hundredth part of an inch; in short, it is strictly microscopic. Examine under a microscope the sand of the ocean, and it will be found that one-half of it consists of the debris of shells, of various but well-defined forms, each habitually pierced with a number of holes. To this they are indebted for their name Foraminifera, fromforamen, a hole. With these microscopic animalcules Nature has worked wonders in geological times; nor have the wonders ceased in our days. Many beds of the terrestrial crust consist entirely of the remains of Foraminifera. In the most remote ages in the history of our planet, these zoophytes must have lived in innumerable swarms in the seas of the period; they buried themselves in the bottoms of the seas, and their shells, heaped up during many ages, have finished by forming hills of great thickness and extent. We may say, to give an example, that ZOOPIHYTEES. 7(i during the Carboniferous period, a single species of these zoophytes has formed, in Russia alone, enormous beds of calcareous rock. Many beds of cretaceous formation are, in great part, composed of Foraminifera, and they exist in immense numbers in the white chalk which cover and form the vast moantains ranging from Champagne, in France, nearly to the centre of England. But it is to the Tertiary formation that these zoophytes have contributed the most enormous deposits. The greater part of the Egyptian pyramids is only an aggregation of Numnmidites. A prodigious number of Foraminifera present themselves in the tertiary deposits of the Gironde, of Italy, and of Austria. The chalk so abundant in the basin of Paris is almost entirely composed of Foraminifera. The remains of these creatures are so abundant in the Paris chalk, that M. d'Orbigny found upwards of fifty-eight thousand in a small block, scarcely exceeding a cubic inch of chalk, from the quarries of Chantilly. This fact, according to this author, implies the existence of three thousand millions of these zoophytes in the cubic metre (thirty-nine inches and a small fraction) of rock! As the chalk from these quarries has served to build Paris, as well as the towns and villages of the neighbouring departments, it may be said that Paris, and other great centres of population which surround it, are built with the shells of these microscopic animals. The sand of the littoral of all existing seas is so full of these minute but elegant shells, that it is often half composed of them. M. d'Orbigny found in three grammes (forty-six grains troy) of sand from the Antilles, four hundred and forty thousand shells of Foraminifera. Bianchi found in thirty grammes (four hundred and sixty-seven grains) from the Adriatic, six thousand of these shells. If we calculate the proportion of these beings contained in a cubic metre alone of sea-sand, we reach a figure which passes all conception. What would this be if we could extend the calculation to the ilmmensity of surface covered by the waves which surround the globe? 31. d'Orbignyhas satisfied himself, by microscopic examination of sands from all parts of the globe, that it is the debris of Foraminifera which form, in all existing seas, those enormous deposits which raise banks, obstruct the navigation in gulfs and straits, and fill up ports, as may be seen in the port of Alexandria. In common with the corals and madrepores, the Foraminifera are the great agents in 80 TIlE OCEAN W\OlLD. forming the isles which surge up under our eyes from the bosom oi the ocean in the warmer regions of the globe. Thus shells, scarcely appreciable to the sight, suffice by their accumulations to fill up seas, while performing a very considerable part in the great operations of Nature, although it may not be apparent to us. Our exact knowledge of the Foraminifera is of very recent date. Great numbers of minute particles, of regular and symmetrical form, were long distinguished on the sands of the sea shore. These corpuscular atoms early attracted the attention of observers. But with the discovery of the microscope, these small elegant shells, which were among the curiosities revealed by the instrument, assumed immense importance. We have stated that these corpuscles are nothing but the shell or solid framework of a crowd of marine animalculae: we may then consider them as living species analogous to the Ammonites and Nautilus of geological times. Linneus has placed them in this last genus, which would include, according to that author, all the multilocular shells. In 1804, Lamarck classed them among the molluscous cephalopods. But Alcide d'Orbigny, who has devoted long years study and observation, and may be considered the great historian of the Foraminifera, makes it appear that this mode of classification was inexact. Dujardin separated them altogether from the class of mollusks, and showed that they ought to be consigned to an inferior class of animals. These minute creatures, in short, are deficient in the true appendages analogous to feet, which exist in the higher mollusks. They simply possess filamentous expansions, very variable in their form. We have stated that the Foraminifera are of microscopic dimensions. With some trifling exceptions, this is generally true; but there exist a number of species which are visible to the naked eye. Such are the Nltimulites, spoken of above as entering into the composition of the stony masses of the Pyramids of Egypt. The Nummnulites pyramidas is circular in form, and about an inch in diameter. The Foraminifers found in the nummulite formation of Tremsted, in Bavaria, between Munich and Saltzberg, are still larger, being nearly double the size of the nummulite of the Pyramids; in short, they are the giants of this tribe of animals. After these remarks, we may venture to give some idea of the structure and classification of these beings, whose part in the work of creation have, in former times, been so considerable. FORAMINIFERA. 81 The bodies of the Foraminifera are formed of a gelatinous substance, sometimes entire and round, sometimes divided into segments, which can be placed upon a line, simple or alternate, wound up into a spiral form or rolled round its axis, like a ball. A testaceous envelope, modelled upon the segments, follows the various modifications of form, and protects the body in all its parts. From the extremity of the last segment of one or many openings of the shell, or of the numerous pores, issue certain long and slender filaments, more or less numerous, which are divided and subdivided over their whole length, like the spreading branches of a tree. They can attach themselves to external bodies with force enough to determine the progression of the animal. Being formed of transparent non-colouring matter, they may be said to be mere expansions, which vary in form and length according to the conditions of the ambient medium. The filaments have also very variable positions: sometimes they form an unique and retractile band, issuing from a single opening; sometimes they project themselves across from numerous little pores in the shell, which covers the last segment of the animal. These pores, or openings, give the name to the creatures under consideration. In conclusion, the filaments, con'tactile and variable in their form, which constitute the feet and arms of these little creatures, appear to. have something poisonous in them; it is stated that the Infusoria are at once paralysed in their motions when brought in contact with the minute arms of the Foraminifera. "It is probably by this means," says M5. Fredol, "that these creatures succeed in catching their prey. Is it not worthy of remark that these beings, however small their size and slight their form, are unpitying flesh-eaters? The smallest, the weakest, and the most microscopic animal in existence thus becomes, by means of a homceopathic dose of poison, a most formidable destroyer." Another singular observation on these little filaments or arms we owe to Dujardin. This naturalist observed that, when a miliola attempted to climb up the walls or sides of a vase, it could improvise, as it were, on the instant, and, at the expense of its own substance, a provisional foot, which stretched itself out rapidly and performed all the functions of a permanent member. The occasion served, this temporary foot seemed once more to return to the common mass, and was absorbed into the body. It would thus appear that with these minute 82 TIlE OCEAN WORLD. creatures the presence of a necessity gives the power to create an organ by the mere will of the creature, while man, with all his genius, cannot manufacture a hair. To the present day, however, we have not been able to discover any organ of nutrition in the Foraminifera; they have no stomach, properly so called, but Nature has gifted them with a peculiar tissue, at once gelatinous and contractile, and essentially simulative, which probably serves the same purpose. We have already said that the shells of these minute zoophytes vary much in form. They are generally many-chambered, each chamber communicating by pores in the walls; the different gelatinous parts of the animalcules are, in this manner, placed in continual communication with each other. Alcide d'Orbigny, to whom we owe almost all that is known of the class, has distributed them into six families, making the form of the shell the basis of their arrangement. These six families include sixty genera, and more than sixteen hundred species, the families being as follows:I. Monostega.-Animals consisting of a single segment. Shell of a single chamber. Fig. 12. Orbulina universa. II. Stichostega.-Animal in segments, arranged in a single line. Fig. 13. Diintaliina commniinis. Shell in chalbers, superimposed linearly on a straight or curved axis. FORAMINIFERA. 83 III. Helicostega.-Animal in segments, spirally arranged. Chambers piled or superimposed on one axis, forming a spiral erection. In Fig. 19 we have a horizontal section of Faujasina, in which the spiral convolutions are visible on the truncated half of the shell. Fig. 14. Operculina. Fig. 19. Faujasina. IV. Entomostega.-Animal composed of alternating segments forming a spiral. Chambers superimposed on two alternating axes, also forming a spiral. Fig. 15. Nummulitis lenticularis. 1 ig. 16. Cassidulina. V. Enallostega.- Animal formed of alternate segments. Non-spiral Fig. 17. Textilaria chambers disposecd alternately alojil two or tllrce axes, alo( noll-sl)inl. c 2 'I lI I1; () HUA AN \V ()It'1 ). Vi. gtitgt.- Inn'd loim11ed of s"egn citls wOullh1r~l(l olndII ax-is. (halwrii s foried irouiid a couitiio(l axis, each investing half the, Fig. 18 Spiriiilcuijii The simplest, form. of Fori'nninkif is illustratedl by Fig. 12 (Orbnilina unzceo) wich is a small spherical shdll 1 avingr a lateral aprtre tihe interior of which has teen. occupied hy the living jelly, to which the~ shedll owes its existence Tn. the second order, the shell. (Fig. 13), JDcolo//a conoooMUS, advances beyond tin.s sunpie type) by a process of' litiar budd ing, the first cell beinig sphierical, with an. openting throughi whelm at second segmnent, is, ormned, generaltly a little larger tlmuum lie( first. This, new growthI is successively fidflowed by others developcd lin time samne way, until. the organism attal-ns its inatulrity, whewn it exxhiblits at series of cells arrangecd end on end, in. a, slightly enrvcl 11ueC. lin the next group the genuniation tfiaks am sjpiad bias, pIroduciug the inautiluts shap~e which inis'led the tc~e uummtn minitlm4 lIn some c~ases. ill1 tIme, convolution are vsibe si /n/(iirI) I tes the external convollute, conceals those, pr vioisl' lOrinmc~d, as liti Auno~luii lcidieoloui-s (Fig. 15), (I a%'i~lo if lilli(I T iC ti 6)) ~ield(( ie( Fi.l'mdAlCol/Oi (Vbof~iw( d Oil i11miy F(hi. 2~ ), the latter ii mniiugI ar of, time cocenue lo)rnatiomi 'it thme quartz and greyst(oIl 01k,-o thll itiglhbouirliood of Paris" onle fi"gure represeuitiiig tim,dslo II cimtii aimt theo other a vertical section, wiVIle time sumimll figuire letwe r r smtsitin its natural. size,. lit mile oirtli ri the si mdoll is pial with thle chlamn1 ur ijuil11ateral.1 wtit 1Ii a avg all si mallet1o fu ime 1/5 o m1ea mtcrmiatchlcv( revcrJ the( suiceeeiiim amam the(- miw sgmoneims, airc anrram-ed alterniately omil F() A lXIIN IVEII'A\. o pposI I]IP Iite 5i'les of thw e ((il v Ii ic i5 ill ICl/imi( c ( lg. 17) thus ftormil~l" twV) Clf.nt s i~l 1atL'11( se(-gi iiiitts, ea;ch couiui((I d by a sii ile orifice. llhe'sixthi tan).iv (lithil'e entir-ely iii appea-rance (and~ structure itoin the othier Foramifiuiiira. Thtev are more opaque than the other orders, hiaviio' a reseiibhlance to white porcelain, which presents a rich (amherbirowui hue when viewed in traiisnnttd Ilcigt. They (are more, or less" )oblong, each new segiiieiit lein neary eqinil1 to the entiro length1 of the shell, so that the terminal orihice, presents litselJf alternately:it its opposite extremities, sometimes in one linifornm 1)1ane, Rs lin 8jn1i olociflinet (Fig. 18), and lhujasinoi (Figr. 119). At other limes each new Seoment, intead ofbIng e'xaettlv opuosite each other, is a liteo n Il. P-rofess,-or WVilliamson has shown that the sliell enclosiiig each niew segment is at first very thin; but as addlitional ca"lcareovis chuamilers;,,,,;,, v \1111mm.. Ii- 1. 'I -uxilt mid J. lklilw-.,Ie I'omleul. (Ouhl o lition ~t ( iihy eiwr;Ses flue iiew ~,(-mmration od'flth suit aliiiiu11l luit eXt(ilulS,~ ovei uhII II( liextueuIm of, Ihiue l~vI(\i1i1, i-)IY H;) ''THE OCEAN WORLD. shell. The exact manner in which this is accompllished is doubtful; but the Professor thinks it probable that the soft animal las the power of diffusing its substance over the shell, and thus depositing upon its surface additional layers of calcareous matter. The fossil Foraminifera are chiefly distinguished from recent and existing species by the size of the former. While the living forms range from one-fourth to the one-hundredth part of an inch, the tertiary strata abound in examples of Nuizmulites, varying from the eighth of an inch to the size of half-a-crown. The engraving is a drawing from Nature, by MM. d'Archaic and Haime, of a piece of nummulitic rock, of Nousse, in the Landes, in which a great variety of sizes and forms are exhibited. The Nummulina belong to the third family, or Helicostega, in which the outer convolutions completely embrace the earlier formed ones. Hence it is only by making microscopic sections, or thin slices, that their structure can be fully seen. When such a section is carried horizontally through the centre of the shell, the segments present a spiral arrangement, which, like the convolutions, are remarkable for their small size, and consequent great number. With respect to the distribution of the Foraminifera according to geological periods, we may briefly state that they have been found in every formation from the Silurian to the Tertiary. The species, at first Fii. 21. Siderolites calcitrapoidcs (Lamarck). very simple in their forms, begin to appear in increasing numbers in the carbonilfrous formations. They become more numerous, and, at the same time, more complex in their forms, in the Cretaceous period; they are still more diversified and appear to have multiplied much more rapidly in the Tertiary pIriod, where they attain the maximum of their numerical develolpent. In the celebrated quarries of St. Peter, at Mac(strecht, tlho Sitts slpicl*lllu l of S. com)ipi'esst. 7. l'lani verse sectioil of a canal of p. alJlla ris, showinig ti(,trliit io,f tl. (. ova paissinI aloip. tl(' canal.,. Ovum of,'<. )anlic(a scen latl rally -the cilihe alnterior. 9i. 'Ii'11n s:l ne >e oil t (li 1d, with; circle pr ucOl;c i by the ciliairy action. 10. Youiing Spolgia papillac is. the Archipelago, often confounded with the Venetian; the HIard BaI'rbaryi Sponig.e, called Gelina, which only comes by accident into France; the Sadlobica Spgjonge is of middling quality; finally, the Baha m< Sponqe, from the Antilles, is wanting in flexibility and a little hard, and is sold at a low price, having few useful properties to recommend it. Many species of Spongyi are described as inhabiting British seas, buit none of any commercial value. Regarding them as apolypiferous zoophytes, Dr. Grant has pointed out certain principles of analysis SPONGIA. 119 on which they may be grouped, according to the arrangement of the horny fibres, the calcareous and siliceous spiculh, and the distribution and formation of their pores and orifices. I. GROUPS OF WHICH THE CONSTITUENT STRUCTURE IS KNOWN. Spo'onia.-M3ass soft, elastic, more or less irregular in shape, very porous, traversed by many tortuous canals, which terminate at the surface in distinct orifices. Substance of the skeleton cartilaginous, fibres anastomosed in all directions, without any earthy spicula.Example, S. conuinun is (Fig. 40 [21 ). C(tlcisplongia (Blainville). —Mass rigid or slightly elastic, of irregular form, porous, traversed by irregular canals, which terminate on the surface in distinct orifices; skeleton cartilaginous, fibres strengthened by calcareous spicula, often tri-radiate.-Example, S. colmpressa (Fig. 40 [6]). Halispongia (Blainville).-Mass more or less rigid or friable, irregular, porous, traversed by tortuous irregular canals, which terminate at the surface in distinct orifices; substance cartilaginous, fibres strengthened by siliceous spicula, generally fusiform or cylindrical.Example, S. 2Jcpillaris (Grant) (Fig. 40 [3] ). SPorgyicla (Lamarek).-Mass more or less rigid or friable, irregular, porous, but not furnished with regular orifices or internal canals.Example, S. hitviotalis (Linn.). II. GROUPS DEPENDING ON CHARIACTERS OF SUIRFACE OR1 GENERAL FIGURE. Geodiat (Lamarck). -Fleshy mass, tuberous, irregular, hollow within, externally incrusted by a porous envelope, which bears a series of orifices in a small tubercular space.-Example, G. ribberosa (Schmeiger). Cawloptychium (Goldfuss). —Mass fixed, pedicled, the upper part expanded, agariciform, concave, and radiato-porose above, flat and radiato-sulcate below; substance fibrous.-Example, C. aygarisidioidetum (Goldfuss). Fossils from the chalk of Westphalia. Sii)'onir (Parkinson).-Mass polymorphous, free or fixed, ramose or simple, concave or fistulous above, porous at the surface, and penetrated by anastomosing canals, which terminate in sub-radiating orifices within the cup. lynrzeciuzm (Goldfuss). —Mass sub-globular, sessile, of a close fibrous 120 TIHE OCEAN WORLD. texture, forming ranlifiec canals which radiate from the base to the circumference. Summit with a central pit. Scyphia (Oken).-Mass cylindrical, simple, or branched, fistulous, ending in a large rounded pit, and composed entirely of a reticulated tissue. Eudec (Lamouroux).-Mass filiform, attenuated, sub-pedicellate at one end, enlarged and rounded at the other, with a large terminal pit; surface reticulated by irregular lacuna, minutely porous. Halirrhoa (Lamouroux). —Mass turbinated, nearly regular, circular, or lobate; surface porous; a large central pit on the upper face. Happcdii))lus (Lamouroux).-Mass fungiform, pedicellate below, expanding conically, with a central pit above; surface porous and irregularly excavated. Cnemzidimin (Goldfuss).-Mass turbinate, sessile. composed of close fibres and horizontal canals, diverging from the centre to the circumference; a central pit on the upper surface, cariose in the exterior and radiate at the margin. Ierea (Lamouroux).-Mass ovoid, sub-pedicellate, finely porous; pierced on the upper part by many orifices, the terminations of the internal tubes. Tethium; (Lamarck).-Mass sub-globose, tuberose, composed of a cariose firm substance, strengthened by abundance of siliciary spicula, fasciculated, and diverging from the centre to the circumference. CHAPTER VI. CORALLINES. "As for your pretty little seed-cups or vases, they are a sweet confirmation of the pleasure Nature seems to take in superadding elegance of form to most of her works. How poor and bungling are all the imitations of art! When I have the pleasure of seeing you next, we shall sit down-nay, kneel down-and admire these things."'-IHO;AIRT TO ELLIS. THE Alcyonaria are so designated from their principal type, that of the Alcyons. The fresh-water species are composed of a fleshy, sponge-like mass, consisting of vertical, aggregated, membranaceous tubes, which are open on the surface. In these tubes the polypes, which are Isidians, are located. The mouth is encircled with a single series of filiform tentacula, which, like those of the whole family, are depressed or incomplete on one side. The eggs are contained in the tubes, and are coriaceous and smooth. The tentacula of these polypes are generally eight, disposed somewhat like the barbs of a feather, and toothed on their edges like a saw, which has procured them the name of Ctenoceros, from the Greek word XTretS, a comb. Their bodies present eight perigastric lamellee; their polypier is often formed of spiculae. We shall see, farther on, that among the Gorgonidae the polypier ceases to be parenchymous-that is, spongy and cellular; that its axis assumes a horny and resistant consistence, which becomes stony in the corallines. In this last group, the external bed, which is the special lodging of the polypi, always remains soft on the surface. We shall have a general idea of the organization, manners, and mode of multiplication among the Alcyonaria when we come to treat of corals ard their strange history. The class Alcyonaria is divided into manly orders. We shall consider-I. The Tubiporinl. II. The Goroaffidm,. I I. The 'ennafttlid(ir. IV. The Aleyonar'iaf, properly so called. 122 THE OCEAN WORLD. I. TIHE TUBIPORIN,1E. form a group consisting of several species, which live in the bosom of tropical seas, in which the Coral Islands form so prominent a feature. The group is exclusively formed of the curious genus Tubipora. The Tubipora is a calcareous polypier, formed by a combination of distinct, regularly-arranged tubes, connected together at regulated distances by lamellar expansion of the same material. The aggregate formation resulting from this combination of tubes constitutes a rounded mass, which often attains a very considerable size. In Fig. 41 we have a representation of the zoophyte Tubipora musica and its product, which is sometimes designated by the vulgar name of SeaOrgan. In the engraving, 1 is the calcareous product, reduced to half its size; 2, is a portion in its natural size; 3, the tubes magnified, and containing the polype which occupies the summit of the tube, the 1 ' I'1)i, -o'a 11i11'ica (,0i 1.), h At tile laItllll'l izoe. w]iole of whicl cI stidltes thi curous polypier; 4, is the polype magitiied: 5, I lIC ],w'l Or collectioIn of tlentacula of the individuail polype. COtRALLINES. 123 Zoologists of the last century confounded all the species ot this genera inhabiting the tropical seas, making only one species, to which they gave the name of Tubipora mlusica. But it is now known that there are many species of TItbiljoric, readily distinguishable in a fresh condition by a difference in the colour of the polypes. The tissue of these singular beings is an intensely red colour. The disposition of their tubes in the style of organ pipes has always attracted the attention of the curious inquirer into the secrets of' Nature. I1. GOiGIONID)E. Milne Edwards divides this order into three natural groups:-I. The (lorgoidie. II. The Isiclians. III. The (Corallines. The Gor/qonti:ls are composed of two sub)sta;lces: the one external, Fl'4. l42. (Fi;orgon, (;orgonia fiabellum (Iimn.). sometimes gelatinous and fugitive; sometimes, on the contrary, cretaceous, fleshy, and more or less tenacious. Animated with life, this 124 1'ItIE OCEAN AWOLD. membrane is irritable and encloses the polype; it becomes friable or arenaceous in drying. The second substance, internal and central, sustains the first, and is called the axis. This axis presents a horny appearance, and was formerly believed to possess chemical characters analogous to the horns and hoofs of some of the vertebrated animals. It has recently been asserted that the tissues of these polypiers consist essentially of a particular substance which resembles horn, but which is called Corneine. A little carbonate of lime is sometimes found united with this substance, but never in a sufficient quantity to give it a stony consistence. This outer covering developes itself in con_ centric beds, between the portion of the axis previously formed and the internal surface of the sclerotic covering. The mode of growth in this axis presents great variations. Sometimes it remains simple and rises like a slender rod, sometimes it has numerous branches. It is arborescent when the branches and their accompaniments take different directions so as to constitute tufts. It is ptaniled when they arrange themselves on both sides of the stem or principal branches, after the manner of the ~ barbs of a feather. It is ftabellifonm when the Fig. 43. Fan Gorgon, magnified. branches rise irregularly under the same plane; reticitlated when branches are so disposed as to be attached to each other by net-work in place of remaining free. The Gor/onid&b are found in every sea, and always at considerable depths. They are larger and more numerous between the Tropics CORALLINES. 1_25) than in cold or even temperate climates. Some of these polypiers scarcely attain the twelfth of an inch in height, while others rise to the height of several feet. Fig. 44. 6oi-uonla vciticellata (Pdl. Formed in the bosom of the ocean, it is only necessary to behold these singular creations in order to admire the brilliant colours which decorate their semi-membranaceous branches. The brilliancy of their robes are singularly diminished, have almost entirely disappeared, 126 'THE OCEAN WORLD). indeed, when they make their appearance in the cases of our natural history collections. The Fant Gorgon, from the Antilles (Fig. 42), is a species which often attains the height of eighteen or twenty _ - inches, and nearly as much in breadth. The net-work of its interstices with its unequal and serried meshes, resembling fine lace, have led to its designation of Sea tFn. Its colour is yellow or reddish. In Fig. 43 we have the F[tn G0-orgo magnified to twice its natuy ^ ^ -- ^ 9 rat size, showing the curious details of its organization. < V ~Q X t The Whorled Gorgon (G. verticell(tda) 4< j ig i which is found in the Mediterranean, is yel-?,,. J g lowish in colour, and also of elegant form. It:i? s sometimes called the Sea Pen. This ( species is represented in Fig. 44, while., Fig. 45 represents a small branch magni fied four times, in order to give an exact idea of its form. Fig. 45. (orgonia verticellat.a The Gorgons are not known to be useful (Pallas), n magnified fuur tiincs... either in the arts or in medicine. They are ornamental in cabinets, and interesting both as objects of study and of zoological curiosity. ISIDIANS. The Isidw constitute an intermediate group between the Goorqons and Corallines. Their polypier is arborescent, but its axis is formed of articulations alternately calcareous and horny. The principal genus is that of the Isis, which is met with in the Indian Ocean, on the American coast, and in Oceania. The inhabitants of the Mlolucca Islands use these animals medicinally as a remedy in certain diseases; but as they use them for the most opposite maladies, it may be doubted if they are really efficacious in any medicinal point of view. The Isis corolloidis of Oceania has a polypier with numerous slender branches, furnished with cylindrical knots at intervals, contracted towards the middle, finely striated, and rose-coloured. Isis COR ALT,INE1IS. 127 hippuris, represented in Fig. 46, has a singular resemblance to the Common NMarsh Plant (Hippuris vu1lqaris). A7A );i ig. 4.. si' hip.,risi us to describe. e g p of C is c a s li T which furnishes matter hard, brilliant, and richly coloured, and much 1 '" i t Ij I Fig. 46. LIis hippuris. Four other species of Isidians are known. The isame family includes the genera of 3eliea and se, which, however, our limits forbid us to describe. The group of Corallines consist of a single genus, Coralliu%, having a common axis, inarticulate, solid, and calcareous, the typical species of which furnishes matter hard, brilliant, and richly coloured, and much sought after as an object of adornment. This interesting zoophyte and its product requires to be described with some detail. 128 THE OCEAN WORLD. From very early times, the coral has been adopted as an object of finery. From the highest antiquity also, efforts were made to ascertain its true origin, and the place assignable to it in the works of Nature. Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Pliny considered that the coral was a plant. Tournefort, in 1700, reproduced the same idea. Reaumur slightly modified this opinion of the ancients, and declared his opinion that the coral was the stony product of certain marine plants. Science was in this state when a naturalist, who has acquired a great name, the Count de Marsigli, made a discovery which threw quite a new light on the true origin of this natural product. He announced that he had discovered the flowers of the coral. He represented these flowers in his fine work, " La Physique de la Mer," which includes many interesting details respecting this curious product of the ocean. How could it be longer doubted that the coral was a plant, since he had seen its expanded flowers? No one doubted it, and Reaumur proclaimed everywhere the discovery of the happy Academician. Unhappily, a discordant note soon mingled in this concert. It even emanated from a pupil of Marsigli! Jean Andre de Peyssonnel was born at Marseilles in 1694. He was a student of medicine and natural history at Paris when the Academie des Sciences charged him with the task of studying the coral on the sea shore. Peyssonnel began his observations in the neighbourhood of Marseilles in 1723. He pursued it on the North African coast, where he had been sent on a mission by the Government. Aided by a long series of observations as exact as they were delicate, Peyssonnel demonstrated that the pretended flowers which the Count de Marsigli thought he had discovered in the coral, were true animals, and showed that the coral was neither plant nor the product of a plant, but a being with life, which he placed in the first 'round' of the zoological ladder. "I put the flower of the coral," says Peyssonnel, "in vases full of sea water, and I saw that what had been taken for a flower of this pretended plant, was, in truth, only an insect, like a little sea-nettle, or polype. I had the pleasure of seeing removed the claws or feet of the creature, and having put the vase full of water, which contained the coral, in a gentle heat over the fire, all the small insects seemed to expand. The polype extended his feet, and formed what MI. de Marsigli and I had taken for the petals of a flower. The calyx of CORALLINES. 129 this pretended flower, in short, was the animal which advanced and issued out of its cell." The observations of Peyssonnel were calculated to put aside altogether theories which had lately attracted universal admiration, but they were coldly received by the naturalists, his contemporaries. Reaumur distinguished himself greatly in his opposition to the young innovator. He wrote to Peyssonnel in an ironical tone: " I think (he says) as you do, that no one has hitherto been disposed to regard the coral as the work of insects. We cannot deny that this idea is both new and singular; but the coral, as it appears to me, never could have been constructed by sea-nettles or polypes, if we may judge from the manner in which you make them labour." What appeared impossible to Reaulmur was, however, a fact which Peyssonnel had demonstrated to hundreds by his experiments at Marseilles. Nevertheless, Bernard de Jussieu did not find the reasons lie urged strong enough to induce him to abandon the opinions he had formed as to their vegetable origin. Afflicted and disgusted at the indifferent success with which his labours were received, Peyssonnel abandoned his investigations. He even abandoned science and society, and sought an obscure retirement in the Antilles as a naval surgeon, and his manuscripts, which he left in France, have never been printed. These manuscripts, written in 1744, were preserved in the library of the Museum of Natural History at Paris. The title is comprehensive and sufficiently descriptive. It should be added, in order to complete the recital, that Relaumur and Bernard de Jussieu finally recognised the value of the discoveries and the validity of the reasoning of the niaturalist of Marseilles. When these illustrious saevarnts became acquainted with the experiments of Trembley upon the fresh-water hydrm; when they had themselves repeated them; when they had made similar observations on the sea anemone and alcyonidc; when they finally discovered that on other so-called marine plants animalcules were found, similar to the hydra, so admirably described by Trembley;-they no longer hesitated to render full justice to the views of their former adversary. While Peyssonnel still lived forgotten at the Antilles, his scientific labours were crowned with triumph at Paris; but it was a sterile triumph for him. Reaumur gave to the animalcules which construct the coral the name of Polypcs, and Poly/pier to the product itself, for such K 130 THE OCEAN WORLD. he considered the architectural product of the polypes. In other words, Reaumur introduced into Science the views which he had keenly contested with their author. But from that time the animal nature of the coralline has never been doubted. Without pausing to note the various authors who have given their attention to this fine natural production, we shall at once direct our attention to the organization of the animalcules, and the construction of the coral. M. Lacaze-Duthiers, professor at the Jardin des Plantes of Paris, published in 1864 a remarkable monograph, entitled "L'Histoire Naturelle du Corail." This learned naturalist was charged by the French Government, in 1860, with a mission, having for its object the study of the coral from the natural history point of view. His observations upon the zoophytes are numerous and precise, and worthy of the successor of Peyssonnel; but for close observation, practical conclusions, and popular exposition, the world is more indebted to Charles Darwin than to any other naturalist. A branch of livilg coral, if we may use the term, is an aggregation of animals derived from a first being by budding. They are united among themselves by a common tissue, each seeming to enjoy a life of its own, though participating in a common object. The branch seems to originate in an egg, which produces a young animal, which attaches itself soon after its birth, as already described. From this is derived the new beings which, by their united labours, produce the branch of coral or polypier. This branch is composed of two distinct parts: the one central, of a hard brittle and stony nature, the well-known coral of commerce; the other altogether external, like the bark of a tree, soft and fleshy, and easily impressed with the nail. This is essentially the bed of the living colony. IThe first is called the polypier, the second is Fig. 47. Living B[d of Coral of T (i -1 i s aft4er the entrnce of Cth the colony of polypes. This bed (Fig. 47) is PolSpes. much contracted when the water is withdrawn (,Lacaze-Duthiers.) from the colony. It is covered with salient mammals or protuberances, much wrinkled and furrowed. Each mammal encloses a polype, and presents on its summit eight COIRALLINES. 1.31 folds, radiating round a central pore, which presents a star-like appearance. This pore as it opens gives to the polypes the opportunity of coming out. Its edge presents a reddish calyx,,' like the rest of the bark, the festooned throat of which pre- ^, sents eight dentations. The polype itself (Fig. 48) is i r ': formed of a whitish membranous tube nearly cylindrical, x having an upper disk, surrounded by its eight tentacula, bearing many delicate fibres spreading out laterally. This assemblage of tentacula resembles the corolla of some flowers; its form is very variable, but always truly elegant. Fig. 49 (which is borrowed 'ig. 4s. 'T'hree polvis of the Colral. 0(Laca/ze-I)uthiprs. ) from MI. Lacaze-Duthiers' great (Lcze-)t work) represents one of these forms of the polypier. The arms of the polype are at times subject to violent agitation: the tentacula become much excited. If this excitement continues, the 4;,J.: t, tentacula can be seen to fold and ( ^ % i roll tlemselves up as shown in v, i Fig. 50. If we look at the expanded disk, we see that the eight tentacula attach themselves; to the body, describing a space perfectly circular, in the middle of which rises a small mammal. the summit of which is occupied by a small slit like two rounded lips. This is the mouth of the polypes, the form being very variable, but well represented in Fig. 50, where the organ under consideration is displayed.. Cll palrlp. (T1ca.o-llthielr.) 1 2 132 THE OCEAN WORLD. A cylindrical tube connected with the mouth represents the cesophagus or gullet; but all other portions of the digestive tube are very rudimentary. The oesophagus i connects the general cavity of 7 the body with the exterior, and looks as if it were suspended in the middle of the body by certain v B folds, which issue with perfect i.. symmetry from eight points of its circumference. The folds which thus fix the oesophagus form a series of cells, above each of which it attaches itself, and Fig. 50. Another form of the Coral Polype. supports an arm or tentaculum. (Lacaze-Duthiers.) Let us pause an instant over the soft and fleshy bark in which the polypes are engaged. Let us see also what are the mutual relations which exist between the several inhabitants of one of these colonies, how they are attached to one another, and what their connection with the polypier. The thick fleshy body, soft, and easily impressed with the finger, is the living part which produces the coral; it extends itself so as exactly to cover the whole polypier. If it perishes at any one point, that part of the axis which corresponds with the point no longer shows any increase. An intimate relation, therefore, exists between the bark and the polypier. If the bark is examined more closely, three principal elements are recognised-a common general tissue, some spiczua, and certain vessels. The general tissue is transparent, glossy, cellular, and contractile. The spiculie are very small calcareous concretions, more or less elongated, covered with knotted joints bristling with spines, and of regular determinate form (Fig. 51). They refract the light very vividly, and their colour is that of the coral, but much weaker in consequence of their want of thickness. They are uniformly distributed throughout the bark, and give to the coral ig.r 51. Coralline Spicula (Lacaze-Duthiers.) the fine colour which generally characterises it. The vessels constitute a net-work, which extends and repeats itself in the thickness of the crust. These vessels CORALLINES. 133 are of two kinds (Fig. 52); the one, comparatively very large, is imbedded in the axis, and disposed in parallel layers; the others are regular and much smaller. They form a net-work of unequal meshes, whiclh occupies the whole thickness of the external crust. This net-work has direct and important connection with the polypes on the one hand, and with the central substance which forms the axis on the other. It communicates directly with the general cavity 'ig. 52. (irculating Apparatus for the nutritive fluids in the Coral. (Lacazc-)uthiers.) of the body of the animal by every channel which approaches it, while the two ranges of net-work approach each other by a great number of anastolnosing processes. Such is the vascular arrangement of the coral. The circulation of alimentary fluids in the coral is accomplished by means of vessels near to the axis, without, however, directly anastomosing with the cavities containing the animalcules which live in the polypier; they only commninucate with those cavities by very delicate intermediary canals. The alimentary fluids they receive fiom the 134 3THE OCEAN WORLD. secondary system of net-work, which brings them into direct communication with the polypes. The alimentary fluids elaborated by the polypes pass into the branches of the secondary and irregular network system, in order to reach the great parallel tubes which extend from one extremity of the organism to the other, serving the same purpose to the whole community. When the extremity of a branch of living coral is torn or broken, a white liquid immediately flows from the wound, which mingles with water, and presents all the appearance of milk. This is the fluid aliment which has escaped from the vessel containing it, charged with the debris of the organism. What occurs when the bud produces new polypes? It is only round well-developed animals, and particularly those with branching extremities, in which this phenomenon is produced. The new beings resemble little white points pierced with a central orifice. Aided by the microscope, we discover that this white point is starred with radiating white lines, the edge of the orifice bearing eight distinctly traced indentations. All these organs are enlarged step by step until the young animal has attained the shrub-like or branched aspect which belongs to the compound polype. The tube is branching, and the orifices from which the polypes expand become dilated into cup-like cells. The coral of commerce, so beautiful and so appreciated by lovers of bijouterie, is the polypier. It is cylindrical, much channeled on the surface, the lines usually parallel to the axis of the cylinder, the depressions sometimes corresponding to the body of tle animal. If the transverse section of a polypier be examined, it is found to be regularly festooned on its circumference. Towards its centre certain sinuosities appear, sometimes crossing, sometimes trigonal, sometimes in irregular lines, Fig. 53. Section of a Eranch of Coral. (Lacaze-Duthiers.) and in the remaining mass are reddish folds alternating with brighter spaces which radiate fromn the centre towards the circumference (Fig. 53). In the section of a very red coral, it will be observed that the colour CORALLiNES. 135 is not equally distributed, but separated into zones more or less deep in colour, containing very thin preparations which crack, not irregularly, but parallel to the edge of the plate, and in such a manner as to reproduce the festoons on the circumference. From this it may be deduced that the stem increases by concentric layers being deposited, which mould themselves one upon the other. In the mass of coral certain small corpuscles occur, charged with irregular asperities, much redder than the tissue into which they are plunged. These are Fig. 54. Birth of the Corallillc Larva. (Lacaze-)uthiers.) much more numerous in the red than in the light band, and they necessarily give more strength to the general tint. To the mode of reproduction in the coral polypes, so well described by Lacaze-Duthiers, we can only devote a few lines. Sometimes, according to this able observer, the polypes of the same colony are all either male or female, and the branch is uniseezxal; in others there are both male and female, when the branch is bise.ital. Finally, but very rarely, polypes are found uniting both sexes. The polype is viviparous; that is to say, its eggs become embryos inside the polypes. The larvae remain a certain time in the general LTHI OCEAN WORLD. cavity of the polypes, where they can be seen through its transparency, as exhibited in Fig. 54. Aided by the magnifying powers of the microscope, coral larva may here be perceived through the transparent membranous envelope. From this position they escape from the mouth of the mother in the manner represented in the upper branch. The animal then resembles a little white grub or worm, more or less elongated. The larva is, however, still egg-shaped or ovoid; moreover, it is sunk in a hollow cavity, and covered with cilia, by the aid of which it can swim. Sometimes one of its extremities becomes enlarged, the other remaining slender and pointed. Upon this an opening is formed communicating with the interior cavity: this is the mouth. The larva swim backwards; that is to say, with the mouth behind. It is only at a certain period after birth that the coral polype fixes itself and commences its metamorphoses, which consist essentially in a change of form and proportions. The buccal extremity is diminished and tapers off, whilst the base swells, and is enlarged-it becomes discoid; the posterior surface of this sort of disk is a plane, the front representing the mouth, at the bottom of a depression edged with a great cushion. Eight mammals or swellings now appear, corresponding to the chambers which divide the interior of the disk: the worm has taken its radiate form. Finally, the mammals are elongated and transformed into tentacula. In Fig. 55 a young coral polype is represented fixed upon a bryozoare, a name employed by Ehrenberg for 1r i ^ zoophytes having a mouth and anus. ___/ It forms a small disk, the fortieth i..: ~l part of an inch in diameter, and having its spicula already coloured red Fi. 56 shows the successive fobrms of the young polypes in "1"" "/. t~ ~. the m'ogressive phases of their de' J 's t'';i ifl^3 velopment-being a young coralline ' polype fixed upon a rock still conF yi. 5.. e 100's ttatl.to ' tracted. Fig. 57 is a similar coralline attached to a rock and expanding its tentacula. It also represents a small pointed rock covered with polypes and polypiers of the natural size and of different slapes, but CIORALLINE1S. all young, and indicating the definite collective beings are to assume. The simple isolated state of the animal, whose phases of development we have indicated, does not last long. It possesses the property of producing new beings, as we have already said, 1 by budding. But how is the polypier formed? If we take a very young branch, we find in the centre of the thickness of the crust a nucleus or stony form of development which the Fig. 56. A youlng Coral Polype fixed upon; lock. (Lacaze-Duthiers.) substance resembling an agglomeration of spicula. When they are sufficient in number and size, these nuclei form a kind of stony plate, which is imbedded in the thickness of the tissues of the animal. These Tlamil, at first quite flat, assume in the course of their development a horse-shoe shape. Figs. 59 and ^,' }'' 60 will give the reader some idea. I of the form in which the young "' -!;-': ', polypiers present themselves. Fig. ' vp,-57 Younl Coal Plypeattoihedtoa r59 represents the corpuscles in a i. 57- aound Coral Polype attached to a Itock allld explant edl. (lacaze-l)uthiers.) which the polypiers have their origin; Fig. 60, the rudimentary form of the coralline polypier. Our information fails to convey any precise notion of the time necessary for the coral to acquire the various proportions in which it presents itself. Darwin, who examined some of these creatures very minutely, tells us that "several genera (Flustra, Eschara, Cellaria, Cresia, and others) agree in -..:- - having singular movable organs at- Fig. 5s. A aRock covlerle with yoiung,oral r * Plpesa Pol pierI. (Laca;ze- )tihieis.) tached to their cells. The organs in the greater number of cases very closely resemble the head of a vulture; but the lower mandible can be opeifed much wider than a 138 THE OCEAN WORLD). real bird's beak. The head itself possesses considerable powers of movement, by means of a short neck. In one zoophyte the head itself was fixed, but the lower jaw free; in another. Xit was replaced by a tri/.. ' angular hood, with a beautifully- fitted trapdoor, which evidently answered to the lower mandible. In the greate nunnber of species each cell was provided with | i -- J one head, but in others each cell had two. " The young cells at Fig. 59. Corplucl:s from Fig. t). First form lf the the end of the branches which originate the Polypier. Polypier. (Lacaze-Di thiers.) of these corallines contain quite immature polypi, yet the vulture heads attached to them, though small, are in every respect perfect. When the polypus was removed by a needle from any of the cells, these organs did not appear to be in the least affected. When one of the vulture-like heads was cut off from a cell, the lower mandible retained its power of opening and closing. Perhaps the most singular part of their structure is, that when there are more than two rows of cells on a branch, the central cells were furnished with these appendages of only one-fourth the size of the outside ones. Their movements varied according to the species; but in some I never saw the least motion, while others, with the lower mandible generally wide open, oscillated backwards and forwards at the rate of about five seconds each turn; others moved rapidly and by starts. When touched with a needle, the beak generally seized the point so firmly that the whole branch might be shaken." In the Cresia, Darwin observed that each cell was furnished with a long-toothed bristle, which had the power of moving very quickly: each bristle and each vulture-like head moving quite independently of each other; sometimes all on one side, sometimes those on one branch only moving simultaneously, sometimes one after the other. In these actions we apparently behold as perfect a transmission of will in the zoophyte, though composed of thousands of distinct polypi, as in any (I'WO1ALLINES. 139 distinct animal. " What can be more remarkable," he adds, " than to see a plant-like body producing an egg, capable of swimming about and choosing a proper place to adhere to, where it sprouts out into branches, each crowded with innumerable distinct animals, often of complicated organization!-the branches, moreover, sometimes possessing organs capable of movement independent of the polypi." Passing to the coral fishing, it may be said to be quite special, presenting no analogy with any other fishing in the European seas, if we except the sponge fisheries. The fishing stations which occur are found on the Italian coast and the coast of Barbary; in short, in most parts of the Mediterranean basin. In all these regions, on abrupt rocky beds, certain aquatic forests occur, composed entirely of the red coral, the most brilliant and the most celebrated of all the polypiers, Coralizum decus liquidi! During many ages, as we have seen, the coral was supposed to be a plant. The ancient Greeks called it the daighlter of the sea (KopdXXtov c6po op X6\), which the Latins translated into corralilm or (orcliutm. It is now agreed among naturalists that the coral is constructed by a family of polypi living together, and composing a polypier. It abounds in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, where it is found at various depths, but rarely less than five fathoms, or more than a hundred and fifty. Each polypier resembles a pretty red leafless under-shrub bearing delicate little star-like radiating white flowers. The axes of this little tree are the parts common to the association; the flowrets are the polypes. These axes present a soft reticulated crust, full of little cavities, which are the cells of the polypi, and are permeated by a milky juice. Beneath the crust is the coral, properly so called, which equals marble in hardness, and is remarkable for its striped str urface, its bright red colour, and the fine polish of which it is susceptible. The ancients believed that it was soft in the water, and only took its consistence when exposed to the air: ' Sic et coraliurn, quo primum contigit auras Tempore, durescit." OVI1. The fishing is chiefly conducted by sailors from Genoa, Leghorn, and Naples, and it is so fatiguing, that it is a common saying in Italy that a sailor obliged to go to the coral fishery should be a thief or an assassin. The saying is a gratuitous insult to the sailor, but conveys a good idea enough of the occupation. 140 THE OCEAN WORLD. The barks sent to the fishing range from six to fifteen tons; they are solid, and well adapted for the labour; their rig is a great lateen sail, and a jib or staysail. The stern is reserved for the capstan, the fishers, and the crew. The fore part of the vessel is reserved for the requirements of the patron or master. The lines, wood, and irons employed in the coral fisheries are called the engine: it consists of a cross of wood formed of two bars, strongly lashed or bolted together at their centre; below this a great stone is attached, which bears the lines, arranged in the form of a sac. These lines have great meshes, loosely knotted together, resembling the well-known swab. The apparatus carries thirty of these sacs, which are intended to grapple all they come in contact with at the bottom of the sea. They are spread out in all directions by the movement of the boat. The coral is known to attach itself to the summit of a rock and to develope itself, forming banks there, and it is to these rocks that the swab attaches itself so as to tear up the precious harvest. Experience, which in time becomes almost intuitive, guides the Italian fisher in discovering the coral banks. The craft employed in the great fishery have a patron or captain, the bark having a poop with a crew of eight or ten sailors, and in the season it is continued night and day. The whole apparatus, and mode of using it, is shown in PL. II. When the patron thinks that he has reached a coral bank, he throws his engine overboard. As soon as the apparatus is engaged, the speed of the vessel is retarded, the capstan is manned by six or eight men, while the others guide the helm and trim the sails. Two forces are thus brought to act upon the lines, the horizontal action of the vessel and the vertical action of the capstan. In consequence of the many inequalities of the rocky bottom, the engine advances by jerks, the vessel yielding more or less according to the concussion caused by the action of the capstan or sail. The engine seizes upon the rugged rocks at the bottom, and raises them to let them fall again. In this manner the swab, floating about, penetrates beneath the rocks where the coral is found, and is hooked on to it. To fix the lines upon the coral and bring them home, is a work of unheard-of labour. The engine long resists the most energetic and repeated efforts of the crew, who, exposed almost naked to the burning sun of the MIediterranean, work the capstan to which the cable and engine are attached, while the patron urges and excites them to increased exertion, and olthe Coast ofSciy PlatO~j.~C ai J\LJ1" c~ro' tril, r,,, q CORALLINES. 141 the sailors trim the sail and sing with a slow and monotonous tone a song, the words of which improvise in a sort of psalmody the names of the saints most revered among the seafaring Italian population. The lines are finally brought home, tearing or breaking blocks of rock, sometimes of enormous size, which are brought on board. The cross is now placed on the side of the vessel, the lines are arranged on the deck, and the crew occupy themselves in gathering the results of their labour. The coral is gathered together, the branches of the precious zoophyte are cleansed, and divested of the shells and other parasitic products which accompany them; finally, the produce is carried to and sold in the ports of Messina, Naples, Genoa, or Leghorn, where the workers in jewelry purchase them. Behold, fair reader, with what hard labour, fatigue, and peril, the elegant bijouterie with which you are decked is torn from the deepest bed of the ocean! III. 'T'HE PENNATULID.E, ORI SEA-PEN. This curious family received from Cuvier the name of Swimmting polypi, and from Lamarck that of Floaftig 2polypi. The name of Pennatule, by which they are generally known, is taken from their resemblance to a quill, penna. In the words of Lamarck, " it seems as if Nature, in forming this composite animal, had wished to copy the external form of a bird's feather." Our fishermen call it the cock's comb, which is not inapt, but less expressive of its peculiarities. This polypier is "from two to four inches in length, of a uniform purplish-red colour, except at the hip or base of the stalk, where it is pale orange-yellow; the skin is thickish, very tough, and of a curious structure, being composed of minute crystalline cylinders, densely arranged in straight lines, and held together by a tenacious glutinous matter, the cylinders being about six inches in diameter, in length straight and even, or sometimes slightly curved, and of a red colour, which communicates itself to the zoophyte." (Johnston.) The animals by which it is formed constitute colonies, which, however, are only attached to the rocks by an enlarged basis; it appears to live generally at the bottom of the sea; its root, if we can use the term, buried in the sands or mud; its polypiferous portion sallying out into the water. The agitation of the waves and the fishermen's nets often displace these aggregates of creation, and then they float at various depths in the bosom of the ocean. 142 1THE OCEAN WORLD. The stalk of the polypier is hollow in the centre, having a long slender bone-like substance, which is white, smooth, and square, but tapering at each extremity to a fine point. The polypi, which are fleshy and white, are provided with eight long retractile tentacula, beautifully ciliated on their inner edge with two series of short processes strengthened with crystalline spicula. The mouth in the centre of the tentacula is somewhat angular, bounded by a white ligament, a process from which encircles the base of each tentaculum, which thus seems to issue from an aperture. The ova lie between the membranes of the pinnae; they are globular, of a yellowish colour, and by a little pressure can be made to pass through the mouth. The polypi are distributed with more or less regularity in such a manner that one of the extremities of the common axis is always naked: this part has been compared to the tubulous part of a feather. The stem, common to the colony, is a solid central axis, more or less developed, which is covered with a fleshy fibrous substance, susceptible of dilation and contraction. The Pencatulid*c comprehend three genera; namely, those witl polypes on bipinnate wings, having-according to Dr. JohnstonPolypidoms plumose, in.. Penatula. Polypidomns virgate, or wand-shaped. Virgularia. Polypes, unilateral and sessile... r,- * ^, ' Pavonaria. Polypidom, linear-elongate... In the genus Pennatbla, the polypes are disposed in transverse rows upon the outer and inner edge, in a series of prolongations in the form of a feather. These winged species of polypiers are somewhat scythe-shaped, well developed, and furnished with a great quantity of pointed spiculme, which are constituted of bundles at the base of the calyx. The space between the two rows of appendages is sometimes a tissue, sometimes scaly, sometimes granulous. Of the Pennatulac five species are known, and all of them appear to be gifted with phosphorescent properties. We may note among these species Pennatula spinosa (Fig. 61), which inhabits the Mediterranean, and takes its name from its colour; Pennatula phosplhorea, which abound in most European seas, being found in great plenty, clinging to the fishermen's lines round our own northern shores, more especially when they are baited with mussels. P. phosphlorea is of a reddish purple, the base of the smooth stalk pale; the raches roughened with close-set papilla, and furrowed down CORALLINES. 14: the middle; pinne close; polype oils uniserial, tubular, with spinous apertures. (Sibbald.) Bohadsch says the Pennatulew swim by means of their pinnae, which they use as fishes do their fins. Ellis says, "it is an animal that swims about in the sea, many of them having a muscular motion as they swim along;" these motions being effected, as he tells us in another place, by means of the pinnules or feather-like fins," evidently designed by Nature to move the animal backward or forward in the sea." Cuvier tells us they have the power of ' moving by the contraction of the fleshy -i \ 4 part of the polypidom, and also by the: q, combined action of its polypes. Dr. -.. Grant says, "a more singular and beau-?tiful spectacle could scarcely be conceived than that of a deep purple P. phosphorea with all its delicate transparent polypi expanded, and emitting _ their usual brilliant phosphorescent light, sailing through the still and dark abyss, by the regular and syn-? - chronous pulsations of the minute fringed arms of the whole polypi;"' while Linnaeus tells us that "the phosphorescent sea-pens which cover the bottom of the ocean cast so strong a light, that it is easy to count the fishes and worms of various kinds which l sport among them." Lamarck, Schweigger, and other. ig.;i. sea-ienPennatias,inpn. naturalists, however, reasoning from (Edes.) what is known of other compound animals, deny the existence of this locomotive power in these zoophytes; "and there is little doubt," says Dr. Johnston, "that these authors are right, for, when placed in a basin of sea water, the Penlnatule are never observed to change their position; they remain in the same spot, and lie with the same side up or down, just as they have been placed. They inflate the body until it becomes to a considerable degree transparent, and 144 THE OCEAN WORILI. only streaked with intercepted lines of red, which distend at one place and contract at another; they spread out the pinnw, and the polypes expand their tentacula, but they never attempt to swim, or perform any process of locomotion." P. mirabilis is common in the east and north coasts of Scotland. The virgularias differ from the pennatula chiefly in their development, relative to the axis of the colony and the shortness of the pinnme, which carry the polypes; and in this, that no spicule enter into the composition of its softer parts. V. mirabilis is found in the North Sea, on the coast of Scotland, and as far north as Norway. In Zetland it is known as the sea-rush. It is abundant in Belfast Lough, but, from its brittle nature, perfect specimens are difficult to obtain. "It seems," says Sowerby, "to represent a quill stripped of its feathers. The base looks like a pen in this as in other species, swelling a little way from the end, and then tapering. The upper part is thicker, with alternate semicircular pectinated swellings, larger towards the middle, tapering upwards, and terminating in a thin bony substance, which passes through the whole extent, and is from six to ten inches in length." In a communication to Dr. Johnston, from Mr. R. Patterson of Belfast, commenting on Miiller's figure of Virguilaria, he tells us that in the longest specimen he had, no two plumes were precisely alikeso unlike, indeed, that the artist copying one, could not for a moment hesitate, after raising her eyes from her paper, to look at the animal, as to which she was copying. Its short waving and deeply dentated wings are of a brilliant yellow. The polypes, which appear upon their lobes, are whitish, transparent, and form a fringe of small diaphanous white stars (Figs. 62 and 63). We may figure to ourselves a slender wand-like and much-elongated polypier, carrying only a non-contractile polype on one side, which would give us an idea of the Pavonaria, of which we know only one species, which is from the Mediterranean. Virgztlaria mirabilis is undoubtedly one of the finest polypiers found in the ocean. Two series of half-moon shaped wings, obliquely horizontal, are placed symmetrically round an upright axis. They embrace the stem somewhat in the manner termed petiolate by botanists, clasping it alternately; or, shall we say, like two broad ribbons rolled round a stem in an inverse direction, in such a manner as to CORALLINES. 145 't i0 1 ig. 62. lI o- wige(1 Viigularia Xrgiari a ^l-;ac/~ ^^- ~ *^ ^f,^VV J/ /*~~-( G^,cte~ ^ ^ft ^PiS~ *'z,^ ^/y *~g 62 ^Joc-\~inrt rnrlii (T:m lck produce the effect of two opposing flights of stairs. These wings are waving, vandyked, and fringed on their outer,~. 1 edge, and of a brilliant yellow; the dentature of the fringe being the lodging of their pretty little polypes, which display occasionally their gaping mouths and expanded gills. The polypes are white and semi-transparent. When they display their rays, the margin of Fi.r. 63. 1Branchlof Virgularid-, unl~Lrg;d. each wing presents an edging of silvery stars. The Umbelulltarial have a very long stem, supported by a bone (Fig. (14) of the same length, and terminated at the summit only by a cluster of polypes. They have been found in the Greenland and other northern seas. The VeretillLiu, whi ch inhabit tlhe Mediterranean (Fig. 65), have a simple cylindrical 'is.4. UG e IIlaria reckll,.l body, without branchia, and L 14(6 THE OCEAN WORLD. a rudimentary polypier, furnished with very large polypes of a whitish colour. IV. THE ALCYONAPIA PROPEO. The beings which compose this group have the fleshy polypier always adherent, without axis or solid interior stem. They are divided into four families or tribes. One of these, the Comnularia, are zoophytes, and live in isolation, or gathered together in small numbers on the surface of a common membraniform am. ~,: expansion. The Cornularia cornucopia live on the coast of Naples, C. crassa on " 'g_ thle Algerian coast. Other genera make t/' their appearance on the coast of Scotland, of Norway, in the Red Sea, and in the;' l Indian Ocean they appear in great numhers. 7I, l In the Alcyonaria, properly so called,. B / i'" the polypier is very thick, of a semi-cartilaginous consistence, granular, and rough ' - to the touch., ff The genus Alcyonium is numerous in species and widely dispersed. A. digitatum is very common on our coasts, and on / j many parts of the coast scarcely a stone ' JB )y, or shell is dredged up from deep water S I which does not serve as a support to some one or more species of Alcyonium. It is known by various popular names by our llf sea-side population, such as cow's paps, from its resemblance to the teats of the cow-dead man's fingers, from the occaFig. 65. Veretillum cynomorium sional resemblance of its finger-like lobes (Lamarck). to a man's fingers. The polypidom is a simple obtuse process, the outer skin of which is tough and coriaceous, studded all over with star-like figures, which on examination are found to be divided into eight rays, indicating the number of the polypi enclosed in its transparent vesicular membrane. It is dotted with minute calcareous grains, and marked with eight ( H'AI'LLIN S. 147 longitudinal lines or septa, stretching between the membrane and the central stomach, which divide the intermediate space into an equal number of compartments. These lines not only extend to the base of the tentacula, but run across the anal disk, and terminate in a central mouth. The tentacula are short, obtuse, ciliate on the margins, and strengthened at their roots by numerous crystalline spicula. The polype cells are oval, placed just under the skin, and are the terminating points of certain long canals which traverse the whole polypier. The polypes, which are distributed over the whole surface, can withdraw into the cavities; they are, besides, of an extremely vital sensibility: the least shock impresses itself on the tentacula, the impulse of a wave even producing contraction; in response, the animal, which is well developed, sallies out perceptibly, but immediately retires again to hide itself in the cell. We find on the coast, in the Channel, and in the North Sea, AlcyoniZm ( igitUatu, the mass of which is of a reddish white, ferruginous, or orange; A. stellactlm, found on the shores of the Mediterranean, is expanded in its upper part, narrow towards its base, very rough on the surface, and rose-coloured; A. )a.lmatuzm is cylindrical, branching at the summit, of a deep red, except at the base, where it is yellow: this is met with in the Mediterranean. We may note as a type, altogether different from any yet touched upon, the Xephtys, in which the polypier is a coriaceous tissue bristling with spicule over its whole surface. In A. Chabroli, the polypier is squat, with thick spreading arms covered with lobiliform branches, the tubercular polypier of which are columnar and obtuse, the sicula green, and the tentacula of the polypes yellow. " On a cursory view," says Dr. Johnston, "the polypodium of the three Iamilies embraced appear very dissimilar, and accordingly, by many recent authors, they have been scattered over the class, and placed widely asunder. The affinity between them, however, is generally acknowledged, and had been distinctly i erceived by some of the earliest zoophytologists. Thus Bohadsch found so much in common in the typical pennatule and a species of Alcyonimntm, that he has not hesitated to describe them as members of the same genus; and, although the more systematic character of Pallas prevented him from falling into this error, if error it can be called, he did not the less recognise the relationship between the genera or families. Pallas also L 2 148 THE OCEAN WORLD. tells us that his Pennatula cynomoriuim differs from the Alcyonium only in this, that the former is a movable and the latter a fixed polypidom; and he saw with equal clearness the connection which exists between these genera and the shrub-like Gorgon ia. Of the Peninztla mlirabilis he had doubts whether it was not rather a species of Gorgonia, until he perceived that the stem was attenuated at each end and free; and of the Sea-pens generally, Ellis remarks that they are 'a genus of zoophytes not far removed from the Gorgonias, on account of their polype mouths, as well as having a bone in the inside and flesh without.' 'On the other hand, the Gorgonie seem,' says Pallas, 'with the exception of their horny skeleton, to be nearly similar in structure to the Alcyonia; but as there are species of Gorgonia which are suberose internally, and almost of a uniform medullary consistence, even this mark of distinction fails to separate the tribes, and we have little left to guide us in arranging these esculent species excepting their external habits.'" "With most polypiers," says Fredol, "the elementary individual, in spite of the adhesion established among them, possesses a vital energy all its own; it is in some respects quite independent. They have each its own particular will, which it is difficult to mistake for a common will; but it is not thus with the Pennatula. Their association consists of a non-adherent polypier, which moves-obscurely, it is true-but still it moves. To what does this lead? To this: that the parts which they possess in common, in place of being horny or calcareous-that is, completely inert-are fleshy, with contractile powers; that is to say, animated. Consequently, the polypes of the Pennatula are less independent of each other than the coral polypes, which have a central, perhaps a sensible organ, common to all, which binds them to each other, giving a certain unity to their acts. The Coralline polypiers have no will; the Pennzatda have. (HAPTER VII. ZOANTHAIlIA, O(i ANIMAL FLOWEES. i'I saw the living pile asccndi The mausoleum of its architcts, Still dying upwards as their labour closed: Slime the material, but the slime was turned To adamant by their petrific touch." MONTGrcoERY'S Pelican Island. THE zoophytes which constitute the class Zoantharia are quite great personages. Some of them are eighteen or twenty inches long; at the same time, others scarcely exceed the eighth part of an inch in length. They live in all seas, and seem to have existed through many ages of the earth's history; they appear at an early geological period, and they have performed an important part in its formation; we shall s e that, with great numbers of them, parts cut off from their bodies continue to live and become new individuals. The name of Zoatnthharia was first given to the class by Gray; but here we give it a somewhat wider signification, embracing under it the madrepores and starred stones of Lasueur, who is reminded of a field enamelled with small flowers when he sees the little polypes of Porites AsIroides in full blow. "But it is only," says Johnston, "when they lie with their upper disk expanded, and their tentacula displayed, that they solicit comparison with the boasts of Flora; for, when contracted, the polypes of the madrepores conceal themselves in their calcareous cups, and the actiniae hide their beauty, assuming the shape of an obtuse cone or hemisphere of a fleshy consistence, or elongating themselves into a sort of flabby cylinder that indicates a state of relaxation and indolent repose." These zoophytes are flesh-eaters, and consume quantities truly 150 THE (OCEAN WOtIjD. prodigious, of animals such as the crustaceans, worms, and small fishes. They are all marine, nearly all attached to the same spot for life, and they live in colonies. Some few are isolated and live by themselves, either free or attached to the soil. They differ altogether from the animals belonging to the Alcyonaria by their disposal of, and mode of multiplying, tentacula. These appendages in the Zoantharia never present the bpilniate arrangement which is observable in the Alcyonatria. They are habitually simple, and, if they present ramifications, these are only exceptional. In nearly every instance, the tentacles exist to the number of twelve, eighteen, twenty-four, and even larger numbers, which form a sort of concentric crown to the animal. Zoantha thalassacnthos (Leson), which has given its name to the group, consists of large turf-like tufts of coral attached to a rock. Its animalcules are packed closely together, and their expanded flowerlike heads have a curious resemblance to a mass of flowers in full bloom. They are borne on bending root-like stems of pure white, interlacing one with the other, surmounted by a fusiform or spindle-shaped body, pediculate and swelling towards the middle, but truncate at the summit, of a reddish-brown colour, marked with longitudinal stripes more highly coloured; its consistence is firm and parchment-like. From tile body issues a tube, narrow, muscular, contractile, and red in colour, terminating at the summit in eight elongated arms or tentacula, of a pure yellow, traversed by a nervure of the same colour. The edges of these arms are fringed with fine pinna, parallel to each other, of a bright maroon colour, and resembling the barbs of a feather. According to Lesson, the arms of this Zotantha are kept unceasingly in motion, which produces in the water small oscillating currents, in the course of which the animalcules on which the polypi feed are precipitated into the stream leading to their mouths. The tendency to produce a calcareous polypier is a property almost universal with animals of this class. Zoologists are agreed in dividing them into three very distinct orders-namely, the AXTIPATHIDjE, consisting of the genera Antlipathes, Cirr2ipathes, and S'eipathes, in which the polypier is of a horny consistence; the nADREPORID2E, in which the polypier is calcareous and stony; finally, the ACTINIDXE, which produce no polypiers. ZOANTI.1 1AIA. 151. ANT11A'THID.. We need not dwell upon this group, which is comparatively uninteresting. They correspond with the family of Gorgonidx among the Alcyoaria, which they resemble in having the central axes branching after the manner of a shrub; but the polypi have the mouth surrounded with a crown of six simple tentacula. The axis is of a harder and denser tissue than that of the Gorgons, and presents on its surface small spiniform projections. The polypiferous crust, with which they are covered, is in general very arenaceous, and is so easily detached, that it is rare to see in collections anything but the denuded skeleton of the colony. In A. arborea, the polypier is fragile and brittle; when dry, the branches, always slender and delicate, resemble the barbs of a feather. The colour is of a deep black, or rather bistre and terra de sienna tint. Under a powerful lens, the extremities of the branches appear to be covered with small spines, and the trunk is formed of oval and irregular concentric beds, which are the zones of growth. Its consistence is firm, so that it can be worked up and converted into chaplets for pearls and other bijouterie: it is known in commerce as backl coral. AADREPORIDAE. The lMadrepora are better known than their congeners. They are sometimes, but erroneously, designated corals, since the coral forms no part of this group. The Madrepores are remarkable for the calcareous crust which always surrounds their tissue, and determines the formation of their polypier. They are in other respects easily recognised by the star-like structure of their polypier, in which may always be distinguished a visceral chamber, the circumference of which is furnished with perpendicular lamina or partitions, which are always directed towards the axis of the body. When sufficiently developed they constitute, by their assemblage, a star-like body formed of a great number of rays. The polypier is always calcareous. The consolidation of the envelope of each polype produces at first a kind of sh:eath, to which Milne Edward& has given the name of the wall. The partitions which proceed from the interior towards the axis of the visceral chamber occupy the subtentacular cells; the terminal and open portion designated the calyx is 152 'I2THE OCEAN WO LI). in organic continuity with the polype, which has retired thither more or less completely as into a cell. Milne Edwards remarks that the polypiers of the MJaLdrelpora present in their structure five principal modifications, due in part to the fundamental number of which the chambered cells are the multiple, and in part to the mode of division in the visceral chamber, and finally to the manner in which its tissue is constituted. 1I. Edwards avails himself of this peculiarity of structure in order to divide the AMadrepores into fixed sections; namely, iMdre'poes apores, 3Iadrepores perJors, IMadrepores tabnies, ]Madrepores tuberleux, and Mlladrepores rutqueux. In the group of Aporous 3Madrepores, the polypier is perhaps the most highly organized. We find there a well-developed and very perfect wall, and a well-developed visceral apparatus. The calyx is neatly starred; the number of rays in the earlier stages being six, which soon afterwards reach from twelve to twenty-four. The cells between the chambers are sometimes open in all their depth, sometimes more or less shut up by transverse plates; these, being independent of each other, are never reunited in the breadth of the visceral cavity, so that they constitute discoid plates such as we find in tabular and rugtose Madrepores. The animals belonging to this group, which may be characterised as steltiforn or star-like, are very abundant in every sea, and in several geological formations. They constitute many families, among which may be noted the MILLEPORINA of Ehrenberg, the polypier of which Dr. Johnston describes as "calcareous, fixed, plant-like, branching or lobed, with cells scattered over the whole surface, distinct, sunk in little fosses. obscurely stellate, the lamelle narrow and almost obsolete." (JOHNSTON'S Zoophytes, vol. i. p. 194.) In Tiurbinolia, the animal is simple, conical, striped, furrowed externally with larger and smaller ribs, the mouth surrounded by numerous tentacula, and solidified by a calcareous polypier, which is free, conical, and also furrowed externally; attenuated at the base, but enlarged at the summit, and terminating in a shallow radiated lamelltr cup or cell. Several species have been dredged off the coast of Cornwall, and the west coast of Scotland and Ireland. T. melletiana is described as coral-white, wedge shaped, somewhat compressed, with interspaces or ribs equidistant, smooth, and glossy. Above, the ribs turn over the edge, and are continued into the centre of the enlarged cup, forming its lamelle. "That the zoophyte must have lived for some time after having become a movable thing, is ZOANTIIA IA. 153 proved," says Dr. Johnston, " by the ribs being continued beyond or round the point of attachment." The specimen here described was dredged alive, and Professor Forbes says of it that " it is a most interesting and beautiful species, the more so as it is certainly identical with Defrance's Tur1binolia melletitna, found in both the crag formations." The Cariyoplhilic! (Lamarck), from Kcapva, a nut, and f6Xov, a leaf, have the polypier permanently fixed, simple, striated longitudinally, and the summit hollowed into a lamellated star-like cup; the animal, actinialike, is provided with a simple, or doul)le crown of tentacula, projecting from the surface of star-like, cylindrical, cone-shapelI cells. In C. 'Fi,. i66. Caryophillia cyathus (lnam rckil cyathzis (Lamarck) (Fig. 66), which inhabits the Mediterranean, the polypes are of a greyish colour, the tentacula streaked with black. The polypier is erect and upright, sometimes cylindrical, and generally so firmly attachled to the rock as to seem a part of it. The lamelle are of three kinds: one large and prominent, between every pair of which there are three, sometimes five, smaller ones, the centre one being divided into two portions forming an inner series. The lamellae are arched entire and striated on the sides, whence the margin appears somewhat crenelated. "It is found," says Mr. Couch, "of all sizes, from a mere speck to an inch in height. In a very young state, it is sometimes found parasitical on Alcl llyoniumll digfitatlm, on shells, and on the stalks of seaweeds; but as these substances are very perishable. and 154 THE yOCEAN WORILD. offer no solid foundation, large specimens are never found on them. In its young state the animal is naked, and measures about the fifteenth of an inch in diameter, and about the thirty-second of an inch in height. In the earliest state in which I have seen the calcareous polypidom, there were four small rays, which were free or unconnected down to the base; in others I have noticed six primary rays, but in every case they were unconnected with each other. Other rays soon make their appearance between those first formed; they are mere calcareous specks at first, but afterwards increase in size. The first union of rays is observed as a small calcareous rim at the base of the polype, which afterwards increases in height and diameter with the age of the animal." The animals of this interesting polypier are vividly described by Dr. Coldstream, in a communication to Dr. Johnston, as he observed them at Torquay:"When the soft parts are fully expanded," he says, "the appearance of the whole animal closely resembles an actinia. When shrunk, they are almost entirely hid amongst the radiating plates. They are found pendent," he adds, " from large boulders of sandstone, just at low-water mark. Sometimes they are dredged from the middle of the bay. Their colour varies considerably. I have seen the soft parts white, yellowish, orange-brown, reddish, and of a fine apple-green. The tentacula are usually paler." The Catryoplhyllhx are sometimes dredged from great depths; Professor Travers dredged one in eighty fathoms, and Dr. Johnston remarks that the existence of an animal so vividly coloured at so great a depth is worthy of remark. " When taken," says the professor, " the animal was scarcely visible, being contracted; when expanded, the disk was conspicuously marked by two dentated circles of bright applegreen, the one marginal and outside the tentacula, the other at some distance from the transverse and linear mouth. In the dark, the animal gave out a few dull flashes of phosphorescent light." In addition, we may mention the assertion of iMr. Swainson, that C. raCiZea, common in the Mediterranean, is occasionally found on the Cornish coast; but Dr. Johnston thinks it improbable that it could have escape: the attention of Mr. Couch and Mr. Peach, had it been so. As belonging to this family, we present here illustrations of Flcahelluin pauvoaz1iaia,,l Lesson (Fig. ()7). ZOANTHAIlA. 155 Of the Occalil;e, the animal is unknown, but is contained in 2 1 Fig. 67. Flabellum pavoninum (lesson). 1. Vertical position. 2. Upper edg-, with its piates and median thread. 3. Form of the animal. Y. ~I"L ~~~) - il ~cl Illr~~ ~r~~ -I~~LI- LI~C~_ regular round radiated cells, more or less prominent, and scattered on the surface of a solid, compact, fixed tree-like polypier. The individuals dispose themselves in ascending spiral lines, and appear to be regularly dispersed on the surface of the several branches. I The typical species, 0. virguifeas, iormerly known as the White Coral, although itt differs widely in reality fromr the true Coral, both in its structure and by its star-like polypiferous cells (Fig. 68), is found in the Mediterranean and also in the equatorial seas. Over the specimen we see (2) a portion of a branch magnified, in order that / i the reader may appreciate 1 numerically the fo:rm of' o polype over its cells. i;S. Occlilta vilinct Li ln.tc The species formerly namled 0',l-u//i i/(l,/'loJ/;tb si.,s and whichl now 15I-) THlE OCEAN WORLD. bU-ars the name of Slylaster ftabellijoirmJi, which is represented ini Fig,. 69. Stylaster flabelliformis~ (L anarck'. Fig. (5,wl iea xcellent idea of these arboreseent zoophytes. Z( )ANTITA1I I1A.1 1;;7 It is a polypier in form of a fan, with many very unequal branches; the larger branches are smooth, the middle-sized are covered with small points. This fine zoophyte is found in the seas which surround the Isle of Bourbon and the Mauritius. a fine example of which is to be seen in the collection of the Museum of Natural History of Paris. ASTrl.EACEA. How diversified are the forms of aquatic life! "Nature revels in these diversities," to paraphrase the saying of one of the ancient kings of France. Ilere are animals, the frame of which might have leen Fig. 70. Astrea punctil'era (Iamarck). designed by a geometrician. They are called Sea-stars (Astrea). Their resemblance to the well-known figure was too striking to escape the observation of naturalists; but the organization of these creatures of the ocean is far from being rigorously regular, for Nature rarely employs perfectly straight lines, giving an evident preference to circles and waving lines. Sea-stars are anmeals without vertebra, very frequently depressed or pentagonal, with arms nearly equal, and dispersed in rays, which are more or less triangular. The animal has habitually five arms. They live at an immense depth in the ocean. In the exploring survey in the Atlantic, preparatory to laying down the Atlantic Telegraph cable, several star-fishes were discovered at the depth of more than two hundred and fifty fathoms, belonging to species of which traces are 0ii 158 'lTHlE OCEAN WOIl]). found in some of the oldest geological strata. They are essentially marine animals, there being nothing found in fresh water at all resembling them. The Astrea are inhabitants of the Indian Ocean, where they are found in a great variety of forms, which has led to their subdivision into many genera by Messrs. Milne Edo\ards and J. Haime. The animals are short, more or less cylindrical, with rounded mouth placed in the centre of a disk, covered with a few rather short tentacula; the cells are shallow, with radiating lamelle in Astrea e puizctifei( (Fig. 70), forming by their union a many-formed polypier, which often encrusts other bodies. In short, this polype may be described as a parasite, for it generally attaches to some other bodies, and it is by no means unusual to meet with shells attached to shells. The Mleandrila differ from the Astreas in having the surface Fig. 71. Meandrina cerebriformis (Lanlarck). hollowed out into shallow sinuous elongated cells, furnished on each side of the mesial line with hooked lamella~, ending against one or ZOAN THA IA. I.1 other of the ridges with separate valleys; the polypier, which is calcareous, being fixed, simple, and inversely conical when young, and globular when old. The animals have each a distinct mouth, and lateral series of short tentacula; they are contained in shallow cells, meeting at the base, and forming by their union long and tortuous hollows. Mleandt:vina cerebriforis (Fig. 71), so called from its resemblance to the folds of the brain, is a native of the American Seas. The Fulnia, so called by Lamarek from their resemblance to the ^-1 - - -, r 'a. ' - ".' A n'?..'S I __ M ---; lrl~: I I, "., -- - ^,!. \.^ i / -,., 1 - -0q ~ ~` Fig. 72. Fungia echinata (Milne Edwards). vegetable Fungi, are too remarkable in their appearance to be passed over in silence. The major part of the species only occur in recent geological strata. Nevertheless some of the species were very numerous in the Cretaceous period, and even find representatives in the Silurian period; it is this group in which Madrepores of great size are found. The family, as we have already said, take their names from their supposed resemblance to the Mushroom. "But," says Peyssonnel, "there is this difference between terrestrial and marine mushrooms 160 rTHE OCEAN WORLD. that the former have leaflets below, and those of the ocean have them above (Fig. 72). These leaflets are only expansions of the Madrepores. Now, although I have not actually examined these petrified Mushrooms of the sea, I have no reason to doubt but that they are true genera or species of Madrepores, containing, like others, the zoophytes which form them. In my travels in Egypt, in 1714 and 1715, I never heard it said that the Nile could produce them." In Fig. 73. Fungia agariciformis (Lamarck). this last remark, Peyssonnel makes allusion to the opinion entertained by many ancient authors, that the Fungia were productions of the Nile. The animal is gelatinous or membranous, generally simple, depressed, and oval, with mouth superior and transverse, in a large disk, which is covered by many thick cirrhiform tentacula; the polypier is rendered solid internally by a calcareous solid deposit of a simple figure, having a star of radiating, acutely-pointed lainelle above, and simple rays, full of wrinkles, beneath. There are nine species, mostly ZOANTHARIA. 161 natives of the Indian Seas, which De Blainville arranges in three groups, according as they are simple and circular, simple and compressed, or complex and oblong. In Fungia echinata, represented in Fig. 72, we have a species which inhabits the Indian and Chinese Seas. It belongs to the last group, being oblong in form, convex above, and concave below. The hollow, from which the lamelle or chamber-walls proceed, are of considerable length; the toothed partitions are very irregular, thin and prickly, resting upon their lower edge, in order to leave the concave portion of the field free to a host of excrescences, resembling the roof of a grotto studded with small stalactites. The conformation of the softer parts of this polypier has been described by many travellers. The upper portion of the body of the animal, corresponding to the lamelliform part of the polypier, is furnished with scattered tentacula, very long in some species, and remarkably short in others. These tentacula appear to terminate in a small sucker. The animal seems to recover its position with difficulty, when overturned. In order to complete our description of these curious madrepores, we may refer to Fungia agariciformis, represented in Fig. 73. This remarkable species inhabits the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, and is here represented with its polypes. De Blainville gave the name of MADREPOREA to the second group of his stony Zoantharia, placing them after the Mladrephyllix. The products of this section are generally arborescent, with small, partially lamelliform cells, which are constantly porous in the interstices of the walls of the cells, this being its most important characteristic. Thus the visceral apparatus constitutes the essential part of the polypier, presenting no side plates, the visceral chamber being open from the base to the summit, and neither filled with dissepiments, pulpy matter, nor with tabula. The history of these inhabitants of the deep is extremely obscure, and will probably always remain so; the most beautiful of their productions are intertropical, and consequently beyond the reach of discriminating observers during the life of the animal. Solander proposed to divide the genus according to certain characteristics in the growth of the polypier, and De Blainville has rearranged the groups formed by Lamarck, Lamouroux, and Goldfuss, with special reference to the soft parts of the animals figured by Lesueur, Quoy, Gaimard, and others, who have observed them in their native state. M 'THIE O)CEAN TWOPLT). The perforated Zoanthar-ia form three very natural families: the Eupsanmmide, the Macldreporidfe, and the PoritidT. The first have the solid parts of the polypes, simple or complex, with well-developed lamellar portions, the central column spongiose, walls granular, semiribbed, and perforated. The second are composite, increasing by gemmation; walls spongy and porous; septa lamellous, and well Fig. 74. I)endrophyllia ramea, half natural size (D)e lhlainvill). developed. In the third the visceral chambers are divided ilto two equal parts by the principal septa, which are more developed than the others, meeting by their inner edge. The Dendropliyllit (Fig. 74) are conspicuous among the EIpsanmmidx. We shall describe three genera, the two first of which belong to the MADREPOREA, and the last to the family of the Porides. Dendrophyllia ra',ea, represented in Figs. 75 and 76, is an elegant Z(OA\NTHA PIA. I G:0 madrepore of the Mediterranean. Its polypier presents a very large trunk charged with short ascending branches; it usually attains to about a yard and a half in height. The polypes are provided with a great number of tentacula, in the centre of which the month is placed. They are deeply buried in the cells, which radiate from numerous unequally saillant plates. Peyssonnel, who had seen the polype of this colony, says: "I may observe that the extremities or summits of the branching madrepore, the species in question, which in the Provencal we call Sea-fennel, is soft and tender, filled with a glutinous and transparent mucons thread, similar to that which the snail leaves on its Fig. 75. D)endrophyllia ramea (D)e Blainville). Fi- 76. A part magnifi(d. Natural size, with polypiprs. path. These extremities are of a fine yellow colour, five or six lines in diameter; soft, and more than a finger's breadth in length. I have seen the animal nestling in them; it seemed to be a species of cuttlefish or sea-nettle. The body of this sea-nettle must have filled the centre; the head being in the middle, surrounded by many feet or claws, like those of the cuttle-fish. The flesh of this animal is very delicate, and is easily reduced to the form of a paste, melting almost under the touch." The madrepores abound in all intertropical seas, taking a consider able part in the constitution of the reefs which form the coral and madreporic islands so conspicuous in the ocean. The tree-like Deridrqopipyllia (D. ramea, Figs. 75 and 76) have cells of considerable rl 2 164 T'HE OCEAN WORLD). depth, radiating into numerous lamelle, forming a widely-branching arborescent polypier, externally striated, internally furrowed, and truncate at the extremities. The animals are actiniform, furnished with numerous cleft tentacula, in the centre of which is the poly* gonal mouth. In the Lobophyllia, the tentacula, are cylindrical, the cells conical, sometimes t te b, aelongated and sinuous, as three fet high, with a breadth of twenty inches, a sub-a thcirculaickr openof two toig aerminnatding the few.. branches of the polypier, *:" which is fixed, turbinate, Seaand striated. The Planta pitchadrepore, -sha planed fleshy aniaginea (Lamarck), is imperfectly defined, slightly radiating by n interestin rexa ysple; tw he polypier presenting any-formed, composed of a reti d ad itself, as i Fi 77 in, '.i P tufts with slender and:..':. prolific branches. -:In M1adrepora palmata, vulgarly named Fig. 77. MIadrepora plantaginea (Lamarck). Neptune's Car, we have a large and beautiful species, whose expanding branches are flat, round at the base, and forming in lobes, whose length is often as much as three feet high, with a breadth of twenty inches, and a thickness of two to two and a half: this fine madrepore is found in the Caribbean Sea and among the Antilles. PonIrEs. The Porites are madrepores produced by a pitcher-shaped fleshy animal, with twelve short tentacula; the cells are unequally polygonal, imperfectly defined, slightly radiating by thread-like pointed rays, with prickles placed at intervals. The polypier is polymorphous or many-formed, composed of a reticulated and porous tissue, the indi ZOANTHARIA. 16;35 viduals forming it being always completely united together. Externally it presents the figure of an irregular trellis-work, more or less loosely connected in its meshes. As a type of this organization, we give a figure of the Forked Porites (P. furcata, Fig. 78), of the natural size. The branches are generally dichotomous, that is, rising in pairs obtusely lobed. In some of the species the rays are more Fig. 78. Porites furcata (Lamarck), natural size. fully marked, and resemble a bed of miniature anemones thickly crowded together, as in Gonispora columna, in which the polypes have a central mouth, round which the twelve short tentacula radiate; the polypier is stony, fixed, branched, or lobed, having a free surface covered with a great number of regular stars, which are highly characteristic, and cannot be confounded with those of an astrea or madrepore. In the Tabulate Madreporides, the polypier is essentially composed 1.(;6 TltE OCEAN WORLI). of a highly-developed mural system. The visceral chambers are divided into a series of stages or stories, by perfect diaphragms or plates placed transversely, the plates depending from the walls and forming Ferfect horizontal divisions, extending from one wall of the general cavity to the otheL. In order that the reader may form some idea of the Tabulate MIadrepores, one of the polypiers known as iillepored s is here represented. The millepores were first separated Fig. 79. Milel'pora alcicornis (Linn.), one-fourth natural size. from the madrepores by Linnaeus, along with a great number of species distinguished by the minuteness of their pores or polypiferous cells (Fig. 79), represented above, as nearly allied, and, perhaps, identical, with Dr. Johnston's Cellepora cervicornis, a species found in deep water on the Devonshire and Cornwall coasts, and, indeed, all round our west coast. "A single specimen of this millepore is about three inches in height," says Dr. Johnston, "and solewhat miore in breadth. It rises froml a broad flattened base, and begins immediately to expand and divide into kneed branches or broad seg ZOANTHARIA. 167 ments, many of which anastomose, so as to form arches and imperfect circles. The extreme segments are dilated and variously cut, sometimes truncate, both sides being perforated with numerous pores just visible to the naked eye, and arranged in rows; the pores circular, and level with the surface on the smooth and newly-formed parts; but in the older parts they form apertures of urceolate cells, which appear to be formed over the primary layer of cells, giving to the surface a roughish or angular appearance. The orifice is simple, contracted, with a very small denticle on one side; the thickness of the branches varies from one half to two lines; the interior is cellular; the new parts are formed of two layers of horizontal cells, but the older parts are thickened by cells superimposed on the primary layers." Millepora ulonilifbormis is a species which attaches itself to the branches of the gorgons, and forms there a series of little rounded or lateral lobes. The animal is unknown, the cells very small, unequal, completely immersed, obsoletely radiate and scattered; the polypier fixed, cellular within, finely porous and reticulated externally, extending into a palmated form. Of tuberous or wrinkled madrepores, which consist almost entirely of fossil species chiefly belonging to the Silurian formation, we shall only note Cyathop2hyh11t. as one of the best known species. There is no spectacle in Nature more extraordinary, or more worthy of our admiration, than that now under consideration. These zoophytes, whose history we are about to investigate-these wretched beings gifted with a half-latent life only-these animalcules so small and so fragile-labour silently and incessantly in the bosom of the ocean, and, as they exist in innumerable aggregated masses, their cells and solid axes finish by producing in the end enormous stony masses. These calcareous deposits increase and multiply with such incalculable rapidity, that they not only cover the submarine rocks as with a carpet, but they finish by forming reefs, and even entire islands, which rise above the surface of the ocean in a manner remarkable at once for their form and the regularity with which they repeat themselves. In noting the Indian and Pacific Oceans, navigators had long been struck with the appearance of certain earthy bases, which presented a conformation altogether singular. In 1601, Pyrard de Laval, speaking of the Malouine (now the Falkland) Islands, said: " They are divided 168 THE OCEAN WORLD. into thirteen provinces, named atollons, which is so far a natural division in that place, that each atollon is separated from the other, and contains a great number of smaller islands. It is a marvel to see each of these atollons surrounded on all sides by a great bank of stonewalls such as no human hands could build on the space of earth allotted to them. These atollons are almost round, or rather oval, being each about thirty leagues in circumference, some a little less, others a little more, and all ranging from north to south, without any one touching the other. There is between them sea channels, one broad, the other narrow. Being in the middle of an atollon, you see all around you this great stone bank, which surrounds and protects the island from the waves; but it is a formidable attempt, even for the boldest, to approach the bank and watch the waves as they roll in and break with fury upon the shore." Since the publication of Laval's description, many circular isles, or groups of islands, analogous to these atollons, since called atolls, have been discovered in the Pacific Ocean and other seas. The naturalist Forster, who accompanied Cook in his voyage round the world, first made known the more remarkable characteristics of these gigantic formations. He perfectly comprehended their origin, which he was the first to attribute to the development of the calcareous zoophytic polypier. After Forster, many other naturalists -Lamouroux, Chamisso, Quoy, Gaimard, Ehrenberg, Ellis, Darwin, Couthony, and Dana-have furnished Science with many precious lessons on the natural history of coral islands and madreporic reefs. We can only glance at a few of the more remarkable genera of these interesting creatures. "Those occupying the same polypier," says Fredol, "live in perfect harmony; they constitute a family of brothers, physically united in the closest bonds of union. They occupy the same dwelling, each having its separate chamber; but the power of abandoning it is denied them. Attached each to its cell, they are driven to trust in Providence for the food which never fails them; moreover, what is eaten by each mouth profits the whole community. Urged on by a wonderful instinct, the polypes labour together at the same work; isolated, they would be weak and helpless; in combination, they are strong." M. Lacaze-Duthiers has even demonstrated that Antipathes glaberrima, Gorgonia tuberculata (Lamarck), Leiopathes glaberrinia AT Z;7 MMRN REE EfE EmE. Age Alf, I CORALLINES. 169 (Gray), and Leiopathes Lamarckii (Haime), were present on the same polypier, the Gerardia of Lamarck. It is thus recognised that, under the general denomination of polypiers, very distinct species are found, some being of the Hydra type, others belonging to the Plumnularia. The first are very common on our coast: they include the Tubularia, the Camnpanularia, and the Sertzlaria. The Reed Tubularia (T. indivisa) produces a remarkably curious polypier: its numerous stems are horny, yellow, and marked at intervals with irregular knots, resembling the joints of a straw. Their lower extremity is tortuous, and apt to adhere to foreign bodies; the upper part is nearly upright, and slightly flexuous, the whole resembling some flowering plant, without leaves or lateral branches. The Campanpularias are altogether different; the end of the branches whence the polypes issue are broad and bell-shaped, C. dichotoma presenting a stem of brownish colour, thin as a silken thread, but strong and elastic. The polypes are numerous, a branch eight inches in height being inhabited by as many as twelve hundred individuals. The Sertularias have a horny stem, sometimes simple, sometimes branching, and may easily be mistaken for small plants. Their name is derived from the Latin serturn, a bouquet; and, indeed, they can only be described as trees in miniature, with branches yellow and semi-transparent, each tree having seven, eight, twelve, or twenty small panicles, each of which will contain about five hundred animalcules, the tree itself containing probably ten thousand associated polypes. Occasionally Sertularia argentea is said to afford shelter and employment for a hundred thousand of these creatures. S. falcata, having all the grace and elegance of the delicate and slender Mimosa, is now placed among the Bryozoares. The minute cells in which the polypes are lodged are not always arranged in the same manner. Sometimes the cells occupy one side only; in other instances they occupy both; sometimes they are grouped like the pipes of an organ, at others they are ranged spirally round the stem, or arranged at intervals, forming horizontal rings round it. The Alcyonaria are very common on some parts of our coast, where scarcely a stone or shell is dredged up that does not support one or more specimens known to the fishermen as " cow's paps," "dead men's fingers," and other popular names. This round and lobed fleshy mass is quite a colony in itself; placed in pure sea water, it very soon pre 70O THE OCEAN WORLD. sents certain yellow or grass-like points, which gradually expand and display themselves in their native transparent and animated coralline. Each of these polypes have eight dentate petals, in the centre of which is the mouth; the body of the polype is tubular, varying externally in length, traversed internally throughout its entire mass by a tissue studded with reddish spiculae, and furrowed with small reed-like ribbons, common to all the individuals of the association. Among the Tubiporide may be noted Tubipora musica (Linnaeus), from the Indian Ocean, characterised by its stony tubes, simple, numerous, straight or flexible, parallel, and slightly radiating, of a fine purple, and united together at intervals by transverse bands, so as to resemble the pipes of an organ. The polype is a brilliant grass green, according to Peron; the tentacula furnished on each side with two or three rows of granulous fleshy papillae, to the number of sixty to eighty (Lesson). The Gorgonia is studded with calcareous or siliceous spiculae which form a crust in drying. This crust is friable, and frequently preserves the colours more or less brilliant which characterise it. Their cells are sometimes hollowed out of the plain surface; sometimes they occur in the projecting mammals; these are smooth, rough, or scaly-sometimes pendent the one from the other. The polypiers attach themselves to solid bodies, sometimes even to each other, grafting themselves or interlacing each other in all directions. In colour they are whitish, pure white, yellow, and apple-green; their shades, passing from olive-brown to deep blue, from vermilion to violet, and from pale yellow to pearly-grey. Each tube or cell contains an individual. The cells are more or less deep, according to the species. The polypes are composed generally of a hidden portion more or less tubular, and of a star-like portion more or less displayed. This latter portion presents from eight to twelve soft and granulous wattles, susceptible of expansion, like the petals of a flower. When these appendages are displayed. they often attain twice the height of the body; in this state they are nearly transparent, except towards the extremity. They extend or compress these wattles, dilate or contract the mouth according to their wants; but their digestive tube is firmly soldered to the cell, while the axis which supports the cells is motionless. What a singular combination is here presented! Trees, one-half of which are animated, growing at the bottom of the sea; animalcules, one-half of CORALLINES. 171 which is imprisoned, and riveted to their person; their stomachs in the bark, their arms on a branch, their movements perfect repose! These minute silent workers are active and indefatigable; their task is to separate the salt and other chemical particles from the waters of the ocean, and, while feeding themselves, secrete and organise the axis which bears their lodging. They love the warmer regions of the ocean; in colder regions, the results of their labours are extremely limited: the one forms a sward of submarine life, which carpets the rocks; the other produces animated stalactites, great shrubs, whole forests of small trees. The electric cable, which unites Sardinia to the Genoese fort, was so encrusted with polypiers and bryozoares, that certain portions taken from the water for repairs had attained the size of a small barrel. The atolls present three unfailing and constant peculiarities. Sometimes they constitute a great circular chain, the centre of which is occupied by a deep basin, in direct communication with the exterior sea, tlhough one or many breaches of great depth. These are the atolls, described more than two centuries ago by Pyrard de Laval; sometimes they surround, but at some distance, a small island, in such a manner as to constitute a sort of skeleton or girdle of reefs; finally, they may form the immediate edging or border of an island or continent. In this last case, they are called fringing littorals, or edging reefs. At the distance of a few hundred yards only from the edge of some of these reefs, the sea is of such a depth that the sounding-lead has failed to reach the bottom. In order to give an idea of the general form of these atolls, although they are rarely so regular, the reader is referred to PL. III., which represents one of these islands of the Pomotouan Archipelago, in the Indian Ocean. It represents the island of Clermont-Tonnerre, figured by Captain Wilkes in the American Exploring Expedition. The exterior girdle of rocks here surrounds a basin nearly circular. Such is the general form-the typical form, so to speak-of the coral isles, of which this is a fair representation. The zoophytes which form these mineral accumulations belong to diverse groups, and nowhere have the results of observations made upon these atolls been more minutely described than in Mr. Darwin's remarks on the grand Cocos Island situated to the south of Sumatra, in the Indian Ocean. 172 T'HE OCEAN WORLD. No writer, it seems to us, has reasoned on these atolls more comprehensively than the author of the " Origin of Species." "The earlier voyagers," he says, "fancied that.the coral-building animals instinctively built up their great corals to afford themselves protection in the inner parts; but so far is this from the truth, that those massive kinds, to whose growth on the exposed outer shores the very existence of the reef depends, cannot live within the lagoon, where other delicatelybranching kinds flourish. Moreover, in this view, many species of distinct genera and families are supposed to combine for one end; and of such a combination not a single instance can be found in the whole of Nature. The theory that has been most generally received is, that atolls are based on submarine craters, but when the form and size of some of them are considered, this idea loses its plausible character. Thus, the Suadiva atoll is forty-four geographical miles in diameter in one line by thirty-four in another; Rimsky is fifty-four by twenty miles across; Bow atoll is thirty miles long, and, on an average, six miles broad. This theory, moreover, is totally inapplicable to the Northern Maldivian atolls in the Indian Ocean, one of which is eightyeight miles in length, and between ten and twenty in breadth." The various theories which had been propounded failing to explain the existence of the coral islands, Mr. Darwin was led to reconsider the whole subject. Numerous soundings taken all round the Cocos atoll showed that at ten fathoms the prepared tallow in the hollow of the sounding-rod came up perfectly clean, and marked with the impression of living polypes. As the depth increased, these impressions became less numerous, but adhering particles of sand succeed, until it was evident that the bottom consisted of smooth sand. From these observations, it was obvious to him that the utmost depth at which the coral polypes can construct reefs is between twenty and thirty fathoms Now, there are enormous areas in the Indian Ocean in which every island is a coral formation raised to the height to which the waves can throw up fragments and the winds pile up sand; and the only theory which seems to account for all the circumstances embraced, is that of the subsidence of vast regions in this ocean. " As mountain after mountain and island after island slowly sunk beneath the water," he says, " fresh bases would be successively afforded for the growth of the corals. I venture to defy anyone to explain in any other manner how it is possible that numerous islands should be distributed throughout CORALLINES. 173 vast areas, all the islands being low, all built of coral absolutely requiring a foundation within a limited depth below the surface." The Potites, according to Mr. Darwin, form the most elevated deposits of those which are situated nearer the level of the water: Mlillepora complanata also enters into the formation of the upper banks. Various other branched polypiers present themselves in great numbers in the cavities left by the Porites and lMillepora crossing each other. It is difficult to identify species occupying themselves in the deeper parts, but, according to Darwin, the lower parts of the reefs are occupied by polypes of the same species as in the upper parts; at the depth of eighteen fathoms and upwards, the bottom consists alternately of sand and polypiers. The total breadth of the circular reef or ring which constitute the atoll of the Keeling's or Cocos Island varies from two hundred to five hundred yards in breadth. Some little parasitic isles form themselves upon the reefs, at two or three hundred yards from their exterior edge, by the accumulation of the fragments thrown up here during great storms. They rise from two to three yards above the sea level, and consist of shells, polypiers, and sea urchins, the whole consolidated into hard and solid rock. Mr. Darwin's description of a kind of Sea-pen, Virgularia Patagonia, throws some curious light on the habits of these creatures. " This zoophyte consists of a thin, straight, fleshy stem, with alternate rows of polypi on each side, and surrounding an elastic stony axis, varying in length from eight inches to two feet. The stem at one extremity is truncate, but at the other is terminated by a vermiform fleshy appendage. The stony axis, which gives strength to the stem, may be traced at the extremity into a mere vessel filled with granular matter. At low water, hundreds of these zoophytes might be seen projecting like stubble, with the truncate end upwards, a few inches above the surface of the muddy sand. When touched or pulled, they suddenly drew themselves in with force, so as nearly, or quite, to disappear. By this action, the highly elastic axis must be bent at the lower extremity, where it is naturally slightly curved; and I imagine it is by this elasticity alone that the zoophyte is enabled to rise again through the mud. Each polypus, though closely united to its brethren, has a distinct mouth, body, and tentacula. Of these polypi, in a large specimen there must be many thousands, yet we see that they act by one movement. They have also one central axis connected with a 174 T'IHlE OCEAN WORLD. system of obscure circulation, and the ova are produced in an organ distinct from the separate individuals. For,"' adds Mr. ]arwin, in a note, "the cavities leading from the fleshy compartments of the extremity were filled with a yellow pulpy matter which, under a microscope, consisted of rounded semi-transparent grains aggregated together into particles of various sizes. All such particles, as well as separate grains, possessed the power of rapid motion, generally revolving round different axes, but sometimes progressive." The description of the Island of Cocos or Keeling is as follows: "The ring-formed reef of the lagoon island is surmounted, in the greater part of its length, by linear islets. On the northern, or leeward side, there is an opening through which vessels can pass to the anchorage within. On entering, the scene was very curious, and rather pretty; its beauty, however, entirely depended on the brilliancy of the surrounding colours. The shallow, clear, and still water of the lagoon, resting in its greater part on white sand, is, when illumined by a vertical sun, of the most vivid green. This brilliant expanse, several miles in width, is on all sides divided, either by a line of snow-white breakers from the dark heaving waters of the ocean, or from the blue vault of heaven by the strips of land crowned by the level tops of the cocoa-nut tree. As a white cloud here and there affords a pleasing contrast to the azure sky, so in the lagoon bands of living coral darken the emerald-green water. " The next morning I went ashore on Direction Island. The strip of dry land is only a few hundred yards in width; on the lagoon side there was a white calcareous beach, the radiation from which, under this sultry climate, was very oppressive. On the outer coast, a solid broad flat of coral rock served to break the violence of the open sea. Excepting near the lagoon, where there is some sand, the land is entirely composed of rounded fragments of coral. In such a loose, dry, stony soil, the climate of the intertropical regions alone could produce so vigorous a vegetation. On some of the smaller islets, nothing could be more elegant than the manner in which the young and fullgrown cocoa-nut trees, without destroying each other's symmetry, were mingled into one wood. A beach of glittering white sand formed a border to those fairy spots. " The natural history of these islands, from its very paucity, possesses peculiar interest. The cocoa-nut tree, at the first glance, seems to CORALLINES. T15) compose the whole wood; there are, however, five or six other trees. One of these grows to a very large size, but, from the extreme softness of its wood, it is useless; another sort affords excellent timber for shipbuilding. Besides the trees, the number of plants is exceedingly limited, and consist of insignificant weeds. In my collection, which includes, I believe, nearly the perfect Flora, there are twenty species, without reckoning a moss, lichen, and fungus. To this number two trees must be added, one of which was not in flower, and the other I only heard of. The latter is a solitary tree of its kind, and grows near the beach, where, without doubt, the one seed was thrown up by the waves. ' The next day I employed myself in examining the very interesting yet simple structure and origin of these islands. The water being unusually smooth, I waded over the flat of dead rock as far as the living mounds of coral, on which the swell of the open sea breaks. In some of the gulleys and hollows there were beautiful green and other coloured fishes, and the forms and tints of many of the zoophytes were admirable. It is excusable to grow enthusiastic over the infinite number of organic beings with which the sea of the Tropics, so prodigal of life, teems; yet I must confess, I think those naturalists who have described in well-known words the submarine grottoes, decked with a thousand beauties, have indulged in rather exuberant language. "I accompanied Captain Fitzroy to an island at the head of the lagoon; the channel was exceedingly intricate, winding through fields of delicately-branched corals. At the head of the lagoon we crossed a narrow islet, and found a great surf breaking on the windward coast. I can hardly explain the reason, but there is, to my mind, much grandeur in the view of the outer shores of these lagoon islands. There is a simplicity in the barrier-like beach, the margin of green bushes and tall cocoa-nuts, the solid flat of dead coral-rock, strewed here and there with great loose fragments, and the line of furious breakers, all rounding away towards either hand. The ocean, throwing its waters over the broad reef, appears an invincible, all-powerful enemy; yet we see it resisted and even conquered by means which at first seem most weak and inefficient. It is not that the ocean spares the rock of coral; the great fragments scattered over the reef, and heaped on the beach whence the tall cocoa-nut springs, plainly bespeak the unrelenting power of the waves. Nor are any periods of 176 THE OCEAN WORLD. repose granted; the long swell caused by the gentle but steady action of the trade-winds, always blowing in one direction over a wide area, causes breakers almost equalling in force those during a gale of wind in the temperate regions, and which never cease to rage. It is impossible to behold these waves without feeling a conviction that an island, though built of the hardest rocks-let it be porphyry, granite, or quartz —would ultimately yield and be demolished by such an irresistible power. Yet these low, insignificant coral islets stand, and are victorious; for here another power, as an antagonist, 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 into a symmetrical structure. Let the hurricane tear up its thousand huge fragments, yet what will that tell against the accumulated labour of myriads of architects at work night and day, month after month? Thus do we see the soft and gelatinous body of a polypus, through the agency of the 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." We have said that madreporic or coralline formations affect three forms, to which the names of atolls, barrier reefs, and fringing reefs have been applied. We have spoken of atolls; we shall now say a few words on barrier and fringing reefs. Barrier reefs are formations which surround the ordinary islands, or stretch along their banks. They have the form and general structure of atolls. Like atolls, the barrier reefs appear placed on the edge of a marine precipice. They rise on the edge of a plateau which looks down on a bottomless sea. On the coast of New Caledonia, only two lengths of his ship from the reef, Captain Kent found no bottom in a hundred and fifty fathoms. This was verified at Gambier Island in the Pacific Ocean, in Qualem Island, and at many others. According to Mr. Darwin, the barrier reef situated on the western coast of New Caledonia is four hundred miles long; that along the eastern coast of Australia extends almost without interruption for a thousand miles, ranging from twenty or thirty to fifty or sixty miles from the coast. As to the elevation of the islands thus surrounded with reefs, it varies considerably. The Isle of Tahiti rises six thousand eight hundred feet above the level of the sea; the Isle of Maurua to CORALLINES. 177 six hundred; Aituaki to three hundred; and Manonai to about fifty feet only. Around the Isle of Gambier the reef has a thickness of a thousand and sixty feet, at Tahiti of two hundred and thirty. Round the Fiji Islands it is from two to three thousand. The fringing reefs immediately surrounding the island, or a portion of it, might be confounded with the barrier reefs we have been describing, if they only differed in their smaller breadth; but the circumstance that they abut immediately on the coast in place of being separated by a channel or lagoon more or less deep and continuous, proves that they are in direct communication with the slope of the submarine soil, and permits of their being distinguished from the barrier reefs. The dangerous breakers which surround the Mauritius are a striking example of the fringing reef. This island is almost entirely surrounded by a barrier of these rocks, the breadth of which varies from a hundred and fifty to three hundred and thirty feet; their rugged and abrupt surface is worn almost smooth, and is rarely uncovered at low water. Analogous reefs surround the Isle of Bourbon; all round this island the polypiers construct on the volcanic bottom of the sea detached mammalons, which rise from a fathom to a fathom and a half above the water. Madreporic coasting reefs present themselves also on the eastern coast of Africa and of Brazil. In the Red Sea, reefs of polypiers exist which may be ranked among the madreporic coasting reefs, in consequence of the limited breadth of the gulf. Ehrenberg and Hemprich examined a hundred and fifty stations in the Red Sea, all of which had outlying fringing reefs of this description. It may be asked, With what rapidity are these coral and madreporic banks formed, so as to become atolls and fringing reefs? To answer this question even approximately is very difficult. On the coast of the Mauritius, according to M. d'Archaic,* the learned professor of the Jardin des Plantes, the edge of the reef is produced by Madrepora corynmbosa, M. pocillifera, and two species of Astrea, which pursue their operations at the depth of from eight to fifteen fathoms. At the base is a bank of Seriatopora, from fifteen to twenty fathoms in * "Cours ed Paleontologio Stratigraphiquc.' N 1,TS 'TH-lE (!('EAN WO(RL). height. At the bottom, the sand is covered with Seriatopora. At twenty fathoms we also meet with fragments of Md(repolora. Between twenty and forty fathoms the bottom is sandy, and the sounding-rod brings up great fragments of Cartyol)hylla. According to MMI. Quoy and Gaimard, the Astreass, which, as these naturalists consider, constitute the greater part of the reefs, cannot live beyond four or five fathoms deep. Millepora atlcicornis extends from the surface to the depth of twelve fathoms; the 3cadrelpores and Seriato)pores down to twenty fathoms. Considerable masses of lfeandcrina have been observed at sixteen fathoms; and a C;aryoj)hyl1a has been brought up from eighty fathoms in thirty-three degrees south latitude. Among the polypiers which do not form solid reefs, Mr. Darwin mentions Cellaria,, found at a hundred and ninety fathoms deep, Gorgo/ni(t at a hundred and sixty, Coi rclines at a hundred, 3lillepora at from thirty to forty-five, Sertularias at forty, and Tabld)ipora at ninety-five fathoms. According to Dana, none of the species which form reefs-namely, iclldreporao, MIillepora, Porites, Astreas, and IMea drizeas-can live at a greater depth than eighteen fathoms. It is only near the surface of the water that the zoophytes which produce minerals and form madreporic banks put forth their powers; the points most exposed to the beating of the waves is that which is most favourable to their growth; it is there that the Astreras, Porites, and iillepores most abound. The proportionate increase of the structures, according to Mr. Darwin, depends at once upon the species which construct the reefs and upon various accessary circumstances. The ordinary rate of increase of the madrepores, according to Dana, is about an inch and a half annually; and, as their branches are much scattered, this will not exceed half an inch in thickness of the whole surface covered by the madrepore. Again, in consequence of their porosity, this quantity will be reduced to three-eighths of an inch of compact matter. It is, besides, to be noted that great spaces are wanting; the sands filling up the destroyed part of the polypier are washed out by the currents in the great depths where there are no living polypiers, and the surface occupied by them is reduced to a sixth of the whole coralline region, which reduces the preceding three-eighths to one-sixth. The shells and other organic debris will probably represent a fourth of the total produce in relation to polypiers. In this manner, taking everything into account, the mean increase of a reef cannot exceed the eighth of CO)ALLIN ES. 17)0 an inch annually. According to this calculation, some reefs which are not less than two thousand feet thick would require for their formation a hundred and ninety-two thousand years. It is necessary to add, however, that in favourable circumstances the increase of the masses of polypier may be lmuch more rapid. Mr. Darwin speaks of a ship which, having been wrecked in the Persian Gulf, was found, after being submerged only twenty months, to be covered with a bed of polypiers two feet in thickness; he also mentions experiments made by Mr. Allen on the coast of Madagascar, which tend to prove that in the space of six months certain polypiers increased nearly three feet. We proceed to the theoretic explanation of these curious mineral formations. Naturalists and navigators have been much divided in opinion as to the true origin of these madreporic islands. Most of them have admitted that these enormous banks are composed of the mineral spoils and earthy detritus of the madrepores and corals, which, developing themselves in their midst, or upon the bed of the ocean, multiplying and superposing themselves, age after age, and generation after generation, have finally concluded by forming deposits of this immense extent. The growth of the vast madreporic column would be finally arrested by the want of water when its summit approached the level of the sea. It is thus that Forster, Peron, Flinders, and Chamisso have explained the formation of the (folls and cmadrep2oric reefs. This opinion has also found a supporter, in our times, in the French admiral, Du Petit Thouars. But lie objects, with reason, that the polypiers cannot live at the prodigious depth of sea at which the base of these islets lie. It has therefore been found necessary to seek for another cause to satisfy the diverse conditions of tlhe phenomena, and explain, at the same time, the strange circular arrangement of these islands, which is almost constant, and which it is essential to keep in view. Sir Charles LTell was of opinioni that tile base of an atoll was always thle crater of an ancient submlarine volcano, which, when crowned with corals and madrepores, would naturally reproduce this circular wall formed of heaped-up polypiers. This theory snlluposes the existelnce of volcanic craters in the x2 180 'I'-HE OCEAN WORI)LD. neighbourhood of all the coral islands. It is quite certain that these islands are often found not far from extinct volcanoes, and Sir Charles Lyell has published a very curious map in connection with the subject; nevertheless, the coincidence does not always exist. We have already remarked on the theory by which Mr. Darwin seeks to explain the complicated conditions of the phenomena. The explanation proposed accounts for the known facts, as well as the present appearance of the madreporic islands. The circular atolls and madreporic banks which are disposed as a sort of girdle, are principally formed of por'iles, millepora, and acstrea, zoophytes which cannot exist at any great depth in the ocean, but which swarm on the rocks at some few fathoms only below the limits of the tide. These animals, by means of their accumulated debris, soon form a sort of coating round the island, which constitutes the littoral reefs: this marginal tongue or shoulder, according to Mr. Darwin, is the first stage in the existence of a madreporic island. At this point the author introduces a geological cause, namely, a great subsiding movement of the soil, in which the madreporic colony is sunk under the water. It is evident that after submersion the zoophyte will only continue to develope itself on the upper surface, and within the limits which its nature prescribes. The madrepores exhibiting their greatest vitality at the points most exposed to the fury of the waves, it will be near the outer edge of the reef that the development will be most rapid. If the subsidence of the island thus surrounded should still continue, as mountain after mountain and island after island slowly sink beneath the water, fresh bases would be successively afforded for the growth of the corals, and the outer edge elevated by their continual labour, thus transforming the space into a sort of circular lagune. The madreporic deposits would thus form an isolated girdle, and the lagune, which occupies the centre, would become deeper and deeper in proportion to the lowering of the soil. This is the second stage of the madreporic isle. The existence of the atolls are thus subordinated to two principal conditions: the progressive subsidence of the shore washed by the sea, and the existence of coral formed of stony polypiers, the growth and multiplication of which are extremely rapid. It follows from this that madreporic isles cannot exist in all seas; that they only have their birth in the Torrid zone, or at least near CORALLINES. 181 the Tropics, for it is only in these regions where the warmth exists, so necessary to their development, that the madrepores show themselves in greatest abundance. The great field of madreporic formations, in short, are found in the warm parts of the Pacific Ocean. It is from this point, as from a common centre, round which are ranged the series of madreporic isles and islets, that it will be useful, in concluding this chapter, to trace their geographical distribution. We borrow the materials for this from Alilne Edwards's tableaux of their distribution in the principal seas of the world. It is, as we have said, only in the warm parts of the Pacific Ocean that the great mass of these islands are found. They give birth towards the south to the group of atolls known as the archipelago of the Bashee Islands, the extreme limit of the region being the Isle of Ducie. A multitude of other islands of the same nature are sparsely scattered over the sea, up to the east coast of Australia. There are enormous areas here, in which every single island is of coral formation; and is raised to the height at which the waves can throw up fragments. The Radack group is an angular square, four hundred miles long by two hundred and forty broad. Between this group and the Low Archipelago itself, eight hundred and forty miles by four hundred and twenty, there are groups and single islands covering a linear space of more than four thousand miles. To the north of the Equator, the archipelago of the Caroline Islands constitute a very considerable group of madreporic formation, comprehending upwards of a thousand, extending in a broad belt over nearly forty degrees of longitude. On the other hand, all along the coast of the American continent, round the Galapagos and the Isle of Paques, we find no trace of them. The reason assigned is, that in these regions a great current of cold water, flowing from the Antarctic Pole, so much lowers the temperature of tlhe sea, that the zoophytes no longer possess the requisite vigour. We still meet with atolls in the Chinese Seas, and madreporic barrier reefs are alundant round the Marianne and Philippine Islandls. These marglinal reefs form also an1 ilmmense( tract, from the Isle of Timor, along the south cofast of Sumatra, up to the island of Nicobar, in the Bay of Bengal. To the west of tlh Indian Peninsula, the Maldive and Laccadive 182 1THE OCEAN WORLD. Islands form the extremity of another group of atolls, and important madreporic reefs, which extend towards the south, by the Maldives and the Chagos Islands; they consist of low coral formations, densely clothed with cocoa-nut trees. The Maldives, the most southerly cluster, include upwards of a thousand islands and reefs; the Laccadives, seventeen in number, are of similar origin. The Saya de Malha bank, towards the south-east, constitutes a further group of madreporic islets. Finally, the coast of the Mauritius, of Madagascar, of the Seychelles, and even the African continent, from the northern extremity of the Mozambique Channel to the bottom of the led Sea, are studded with numerous reefs of the same nature. They fail, however, almost completely, along the coast of the Asiatic continent, where, among others, the waters of the Euphrates, the Indus, and the Ganges, enter the sea, and diversify its inhabitants. The western coast of Africa, and the east coast of the American continent, are almost entirely destitute of great madreporic reefs, but they abound in the Caribbean Seas. In the Gulf of Mexico, where the vast fresh-water current of the Mississippi debouches into the sea, they are unknown. It is principally on the north coast and upon the eastern flanks of the chain of West Indian Islands that the madreporic reefs show themselves in these regions. The polypes which have produced these vast ranges of islands would be set down, at first sight, as the most incapable objects in creation for accomplishing it. In the case of the Penatzulidwe, the skin is coriaceous, strengthened with calcareous particles; the interior is a fibrous net-work containing a transparent jelly in the squares, and permeated by a certain number of longitudinal cartilaginous tubes; the soft part is uniformly gelatinous, but the skin is also coriaceous, with a great number of calcareous spicula placed parallel to one another, adding greatly to its strength and consistency. The polypes are placed in this external fleshy crust; their position being marked by an orifice on the surface, distinguished by eight star-like rays, which open when the upper portion of the body is forced outwards, in which state it resembles a cylindrical bladder or nipple crowned with a fringe of tentacula, which surround the mouth. Under this orifice is the stomach, occupying the centre of' the cylinder. The space between this stomach and the outer envelope is divided A(ITINIAR IA. 1S; into eight equal compartments or cells by as many thin septa, originating in a labial rim or lip between the bases of the tentacula, which descend through the cylinder attached on the one side to the inner tunic of the body, and on the other to the stomach, which is thus retained in its position. The protruding portion of the polype is very delicate, the internal viscera being, as it were, enclosed in a bladder formied of two very thin membranes ill intimate union, so transparent as to permit a view of their arrangement. At the base of the body, where thickest, it coalesces with the base of the adjacent polype; thus constituting the common cortical portion into which each animalcule retreats at will, by a process in many respects resembling that by which a snail draws in its horns. In the greater number of Asteroid+e this common portion secretes carbonate of lime, which is deposited in the meshes of its tissues either in granules or in crystalline spiculh, which imparts a solid consistency to the whole. The inner tissue meanwhile continues unaltered, being prolonged throughout the polypiferous mass, lining the cell, the abdominal cavity, and the longitudinal canals which permeate the whole polypier, as well as the tubular net-work with which the spaces between the canals is occupied. It is among these inner tissues that the buds or gemrme are generated, by whose increase and evolution the polype mass is enlarged, the shape and size depending on the manner in which the buds are evolved; for in some, as in Penuatuli7c, determinate spots only have the appropriated organization, while in others, as in Alcyonitztn, the generative faculty appears to be undefined and more diffused. THE ACTINIARIA. Here we leave the group of polypes which form united families. The Sea Anemones, of which the Actin'ti are the type, consist of Zoatlhaires, which produce no )polypiers, that is to say, of polypes whose coveringl remains always soft, and in whose interior nothing solid is produced. is s order is usually divided into two families-the Actliniad,C having the tentacles in uninterrupted circles, wvitl no corallum, and the Miyijehu, having globose bodies, and very short tentacula. The modern aquarium exposes the spectator to many wonderful 184 THE OCEAN WORLD. surprises. Coiled up against the transparent crystal walls of the basin. he observes living creatures of the most brilliant shades of colour, and more resembling flowers than animals. Supported by a solid base and cylindrical stem, he sees them terminate like the corolla of a flower, as in the petals of the anemone: these are the animals we call Sea Anemones-curious zoophytes, which, as all persons familiar with the sea shore may have observed, are now seen suspended from the rocks, and presently buried at the bottom of the sea, or floating on its surface. These charming and timid creatures are also called Actinia, as indicating their disposition to form rays or stars, from the Greek aK'7lv, a ray. The body of these animals is cylindrical in form, terminating beneath in a muscular disk, which is generally large and distinct, enabling them to cling vigorously to foreign bodies. It terminates above in an upper disk, bearing many rows of tentacles, which differ from each other only in their size. These tentacles are sometimes decorated with brilliant colours, forming a species of collarette, consisting of contractile and often retractile tubes, pierced at their points with an orifice, whence issue jets of water, which is ejected at the will of the animal. Arranged in multiples of circles, they distribute themselves with perfect regularity round the mouth. These are the arms of this species of zoophyte. The mouth of the Actinia opens among the tentacles. Oval in form, it communicates by means of a tube with a stomach, broad and short, which descends vertically, and abuts by a large opening on the visceral cavity, the interior of which is divided into little cells or chambers. These cells and chambers are not all of the same dimensions; in parting from the cylindrical walls of the body, they advance, the one increasing, the others getting smaller, in the direction of the centre. Moreover, they have many kinds of cells, which dispose themselves in their different relations with great regularity-their tentacula, which correspond with them, being arranged in circles radiating more or less from the centre. The stomach of the sea anemones fulfills a multitude of functions. At first, it is the digestive organ; it is also the seat of respiration; and is unceasingly moistened by the water, which it passes through, imbibes, and ejects. The visceral cavity absorbs the atmospheric air contained in the water; for the stomach is also a lung, and through the same organ ACTINIARIA. 185 it ejects its young! In short, the reproductive organs, the eggs, and the larve, are all connected with the tentacles or arms. In the month of September the eggs are fecundated, and the larva or embryos developed. As Fredol says in " La Monce de la Mer," " these animals bear their young, not upon their arms, but in their arms. The larva generally pass from the tentacula into the stomach, and are afterwards ejected from the mouth along with the rejecta of their food-a most singular formation, in which the stomach breathes, and the mouth serves the purposes of accouchement-facts which it would be difficult to believe on other than the most positive evidence." "The Daisy-like Anemones (Sagartia bellis-Gosse), in the Zoological Gardens of Paris," says Fredol, "frequently throw up little embryos, which are dispersed, and attach themselves to various parts of the aquarium, and finally become miniature anemones exactly like the parent. An actinia which had taken a very copious repast ejected a portion of it about twenty-four hours later, and in the middle of the ejected food were found thirty-eight young individuals." According to Dalyell, an accouchement is here a fit of indigestion. The lower class of animals have, in fact, as the general basis of their organization, a sac with a single opening, which is applied, as we have seen, to a great variety of uses. It receives and rejects; it swallows and it vomits. The vomiting becomes necessary and habitual-the normal condition, in short, of the animal-and is perhaps a source of pleasure to it, for it is not a malady, but a function, and even a function multiplied. In the sea anemone it expels the excrement, and lays its eggs; in others, as we have seen, it even serves the purposes of respiration; so that the animal flowers may probably be said to enjoy their regular and periodical vomit. The sea anemones multiply their species in another manner. On the edge of their base certain bud-like excrescences may often be observed. These buds are by and by transformed into embryos, which detacl themselves from the mother, and soon become individuals in all respects resembling her. This mode of reproduction greatly reselmbles some of the vegetative processes. Another and very singular mode of reproduction has been noted by AMr. Hogg in the case of Actinia ceillet. Wishing to detach this anemone from the aquarium, this gentleman used every effort to effect his purpose; but only succeeded, after violent exertions, in tearing the lower part of the 186 THEf OCEAN WORLD. animal. Six portions remained attached to the glass walls of tlhe aquarium. At the end of eight days, attempts were again made to detach these fragments; but it was observed, with much surprise, that they shrank from the touch and contracted themselves. Each of them soon became crowned with a little row of tentacula, and finally each fragment became a new anemone. Every part of these strange creatures thus becomes a separate being when detached, while the mutilated mother continues to live as if nothing had happened. In short, it lhas long been known that the sea anemones may be cut limb from limb, mutilated, divided, and subdivided. One part of the body cut off is quickly replaced. Cut off the tentacles of an actinia, and they are replaced in a short time, and the experiment may be repeated indefinitely. The experiments made by M1. Trembley of G eneva upon1 the fresh-water polypi were repeated by the Abbe Dicquemare in the sea anemones. He mutilated and tormented them in a hunldred ways. The parts cut off continued to live, and the mutilated creature had the power of reproducing the parts of which it had been deprived. To those who accused the Abbe of cruelty in thus torturing the poor creatures, he replied that, so far from being a cause of suffering to them, " he had increased their term of life, and renewed their youth." The Actiniadm vary in their habitat from pools near low-water mark to eighteen or twenty fathoms water, whence they have been dredged up. " They adhere," says Dr. Johnston, " to rocks, shells, and other extraneous bodies by means of a glutinous secretion from their enlarged base, but they can leave their hold and remove to another station whensoever it pleases them, either by gliding along with a slow and almost imperceptible movement (half an inch in five minutes), as is their usual method, or by reversing the body and using the tentacula for the purpose of feet, as Reaumur asserts, and as I have once witnessed; or, lastly, inflating the body with water, so as to render it more buoyant, they detach themselves, and are driven to a distance l)y the random motion of the waves. They feed on shrimps, small crabs, whelks, and similar shelled mollusca, and probably on all animals brought within their reach whose strength or agility is insufficient to extricate them from the grasp of their numerous tentacula; for as these organs can b)e inflected in any direction, and greatly lengthened, they are capable of beilg applied to every point, and adhere by suction with consider ACTINIAP IA. able tenacity, throwing out, according to Gaertner, of their whole surface a number of extremely minute suckers, which, sticking fast to the small protuberances of the skin, produce the sensation of roughness, which is so far fromn being painfil that it even cannot be called disagreeable. "The size of the prey is frequently in unseemly disproportion to the preyer, being often equal iln bulk to itself. I had once brought me a specimen of A. cr'~sicor;,is, that might have b)een originally two inches in diameter, whic had somehllow co)lntrived to swallow a valve of Pectin maixiaus of the size of an ordinary saucer. The shell, fixed within the stomach, was so placld as to divide it completely into two halves, so that the bdcy, 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 atrophy, tile animal had availed itself of what undoubtedly had been a very untoward accident to increase its enjoyment and its chance of double f ire. A new mouth, furnished with two rows of numerous tentacula, was opened up on 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!" The sea anemones pass nearly all their life fixed to some rock, to which they seem to have taken root. T'here they live a sort of unconscious and obtuse existence, gifted with an instinct -o obscure that they are not even conscious of the prey in their vicinity until it is actually in contact, when it seizes it in its mouth and swallows it. Nevertheless, though habitually adherent, they can move, gliding and creeping slowly by successive contractile and relaxing movements of the body, extendilng one edge of their base and relaxing the opposite one. At the approach of cold weather the Actiaiade descend into the deepest water, where they find a more agreeable temperature. We have said that the sea anemones are scarcely possessed of vital instinct; but they are capa)le of certain voluntary movements. Under the influence of light, they expand their tentacles as the daisy displays its florets. If the animal is touched, or the water is agitated in its neighbourhood, the tentacles close immediately. These tentacles appear occasionally to serve the purpose of oflensive arms. The hand of the man who has touched them becomes red land inflamed. 188 THE OCEAN WORLD. M. Hollard has seen small mackerel, two to three inches long, perish when touched by the tentacles of the Green Actinia (Conmactis viricisAllman). This is a charming little animal; "the brilliancy of its colours and the great elegance of its tentacular crown when fully expanded," says Professor Allman, "render it eminently attractive; hundreds may often be seen in a single pool, and few sights will be retained with greater pleasure by the naturalist than that presented by these little zoophytes, as they expand their green and rosy crowns amid the algae, millepores, and plumy corals, co-tenants of their rockcovered vase." The toxological properties of the Actinia have been attributed to certain special cells full of liquid; but M. Hollard believes that these effects are neither constant enough nor sufficiently general to constitute the chief function of these organs, which are found in all the species and over their whole surface, external and internal. Though quite incapable of discerning their prey at a distance, the sea anemone seizes it with avidity when it comes to offer itself up a victim. If some adventurous little worm, or some young and sluggish crustacean, happens to ruffle the expanded involucrum of an actinia in its lazy progress through the water, the animal strikes it at once with its tentacles, and instinctively sweeps it into its open mouth. This habit may be observed in any aquarium, and is a favourite spectacle at the "Jardin d'Acclimitation " of Paris at noon on Sunday and Wednesday, when the aquatic animals are fed. Small morsels of food are thrown into the water. Prawns, shrimps, and other crustaceans and zoophytes inhabiting this medium, chase the morsels as they sink to the bottom of the basin; but it is otherwise with the Actinia; the morsels glide downwards within the twentieth part of an inch of their crown without its presence being suspected. It requires the aid of a propitious wand, directed by the hand of the keeper, to guide the food right down on the animal. Then its arms or tentacles seize upon the prey, and its repast commences forthwith. The Actinia are at once gluttonous and voracious. They seize their food with the help of the tentacula, and engulf in their stomach, as we have seen, substances of a volume and consistence which contrast strangely with their dimensions and softness. In less than an hour, M. Hollard observed that one of these creatures voided the shell of a mussel, and disposed of a crab all to its hardest parts; nor I Plate V.-Sea A.\ ironcs. 1, 2, 3. A. sulcatta. 4. Vise.1 actis saucu Elichcr( 5. Aciasi alia. 6. A. I'cmissiasa. i. A. ssscCasll-ssrscc. 5~. A. ataci~st ii. 5,. tcoasactis viss~is-. ACTINTAIIVA. 189 was it slow to reject these hard parts, by turning its stomach inside out, as one might turn out one's pocket, in order to empty it of its contents. We have seen in Dr. Johnston's account of A. crassicornis that when threatened with death by hunger, from having swallowed a shell which separated it into two halves, at the end of eleven days it had opened a n ew mouth, provided with separate rows of tentacula. The accident which, in ordinary animals, would have left it to perish of hunger, became, in the sea anemone, the source of redoubled gastronomical enjoyment. " The anemones," Fredol tells us, "are voracious, and full of energy; nothing escapes their gluttony; every creature which approaches them is seized, engulfed, and devoured. Nevertheless, with all the power of their mouth, their insatiable stomachs cannot retain the prey they have swallowed. In certain circumstances it contrives to escape, in others it is adroitly snatched away by some neighbouring marauder more cunning and more active than the anemone. In PL. IV. are represented the principal species of Anemone usually observed in the aquarium. Figs. 1, 2, and 3, A. sulcafta, is surmised by Johnston to be the young of A. effoeta (Linn.) It is also quoted as a synonyme of Anthea cereas, from Drayton's stanza: " Anthea of the flowers, that hath a general chnrge, And Syrinx of the weeds, that grow upon the marge." Fig. 4, Phymactis Sanctw Helenc (Edw.); Fig. 5, A. capensis (Lesson); Fig. 6, A. Peruviatna (Lesson); Fig. 7, A. Sancti C(atherine; Fig. 8, A. amet7hystina (Quoy); Fig. 9, Comactis viridis (Milne Edwards). "It is sometimes observed in aquariums that a shrimp, which has seen the prey devoured from a distance, will throw itself upon the ravisher, and audaciously wrest the prey from him and devour it before his eyes, to his great disappointment. Even when the savoury morsel has been swallowed, the shrimp, by great exertions, succeeds in extracting it from the stomach. Seating itself upon the extended disk of the anemone, with its small feet it prevents the approach of the tentacles, at the same time that it inserts its claws into the digestive cavity and seizes the food. In vain the anemone tries to contract its gills and close its mouth. Sometimes the conflict between the sedentary zoophyte and the vagrant crustacean becomes serious. 190 0THE OCEAN WOR11). When the former is strong and robust, the aggression is repelled, and the shrimp runs the risk of supplementing the repast of the anemone.:' If the actinias are voracious, they can also support a prolonged period of fasting. They have been known to live two and even three years without having received any nourishment.* Although the sea anemone is said to be delicate eating, man derives very little benefit from them in that respect. In Provence, Italy, and Greece, the Green Actinia is in great repute, and Dicquemare speaks of A. crassicornis as delicate food. " Of all the kinds of sea anemones, I would prefer this for the table; being boiled some time in sea water, they acquire a firm and palatable consistence, and may then be eaten with any kind of sauce. They are of an inviting appearance, of a light shivering texture, and of a soft white and reddish hue. Their smell is not unlike that of a warm crab or lobster." Dr. Johnston admits the tempting description, and does not doubt their being not less a luxury than the sea urchins of the Greeks, or the snails of the Roman epicures, but he was not induced to test its truth. Rondeletius tells us, having, as Dr. Johnston thinks, A. crassicornis in view, that it brings a good price at Bordeaux. Actinia diCantus also is good to eat, quoth Dicquemare, and Plaucus directs the cook to dress it after the manner of dressing oysters, with which it is frequently eaten. Actinia cormiacea is found in the market at Rochefort during the months of January, February, and March. Its flesh is said to be both delicate and savoury. With these general considerations, we proceed to note some of the more remarkable genera and species of these interesting creatures. Among these, the species represented in Pif. IV. are those usually seen collected in such aquariums as those of the Zoological Gardens of London and the Gardens of Acclimatization of Paris. The first section of the ActiniadCt, according to Milne Edwards, includes the Common Actinia, the feet of which are broad and adherent, the lateral walls soft and imperforate. To this section belongs, among others, the genera Anemonic'a, Actinia, and Mletridiitn. The Green Actinia (A viicdis) has very numlerous tentacula, sometimes as many as two hundred, exceeding in length the breadth of the body, of a fine brownish or olive green, and rose-coloured at the extremity. * "On (n a vu vivrie dcux et onmeln tr(is ains, salns rccevoil'r dei nouIitille."I e (IeS Aulimk.n', p. 117. i I Plate VI.-Sea Anemones. 1 tiidiih. 2.1 CcesgIiaes.Atiniia bicolor. 4.Sgartia viduata. 3.Cr6 p~su. Actinia picta 7. Actinia equina. 8. Sac;.artia roiek. '3. Sazartia coccinea. ACTINIAPII A. 191 'The trunk is of' a greyish green or brown; the disk is brown with greenish rays. This species is plentiful in the Mediterranean and in the Channel. When attached to the vertical sides of a rock, a little below the surface of the water, in which position it is often seen on thle shores of the MIediterranean, the tentacles hang suspended as if the animal had no power to display them in their radiate form; but when fixed horizontally in a calm sea, they are spread out in all directions, and are kept in a state of continual agitation; its long manelike tentacula, fully expanded, float and lbalance themselves in the water in spite of the action of the waves, presenting a most interesting spectacle as it displays its beauties a few feet below the passing boat. A. (di(ilth s (Ellis), having a numl)er of synonymes, is represented in PL. V. Fig. I; its body is smooth and cylindrical; the disk marked in the centre with clavate radiating bands; tcntacula numerous, irregular, the outer small, and forming round the margin a thick filamentous fringe. This species attaches itself to rocks and shells in deep water, or within low-water mark, to which it permanently attaches itself, and cannot be removed without organic injury to the base. When contracted, the body presents a thick, slhcrt, sub-cylindrical form, about three inches long, and one and a half in diameter, and about five inches when fully expanded; the skin is smooth, of an uniform olive, whitish, cream, or flesh colour. The centre of the disk is ornamented with a circle of white bands, radiating from the mouth, the lamelle running across, the circumference being perceptible through the transparent skin. From the narrow, colourless interspaces between the lamellt the tentacula originate. " They are placed," says Dr. Johnston, "between the mouth and the margin, which is encircled by a dense fringe of incontestable beauty, composed of innumerable short tentacula or filaments, forming a thick, furry border." In PL. V. Fig. 2 we have probably Gaertner's Anlt7ea cereels, the body of which is a light chestnut colour, smooth, sulcated lengthwise, with tentacula rising from the disk to the number, in aged animals, of two hundred. Sacgartita vi(1tatL-Gesse (Fig. 4) Las the body adherent, cylindrical, without a skin, destitute of warts, emitting capsuliferous filaments from pores; nettling-threads short, densely armed with a brush of hairs; tentacles conical. A. pictu (PL. IV. Fig. (1), which Professor Edward Forbes changes to Adamsiat pa)lliatla, is described ly Mr. Adams, who first disco-veredl it, "as lonitudi ]92 THE OCEAN WORLD. nally sulcated, having the edges of the base crenated; the lower part an obscure red, and the upper part transparent white, marked with fine purple spots; the outer circumference of the aperture has a narrow stripe of pink. When expanded, the superior division of the body seems formed of membrane. From perforated warts placed without order on the outer coat, issued white filamentous substances variously twisted together." "I have observed," he adds, "similar bodies ejected from the mouths of all the species of this genus which have fallen within my notice." A. mesembryanthemum (Johnston).-The A. equina of Lesson (PL. IV. Fig. 6), known in France as the Cul d'ane, is extremely common in the Channel on rocks between the tide marks. It attaches itself chiefly to rocks beaten by the waves and exposed to view at the moment of reflux. The body is from two to three inches in height, and from an inch to an inch and a half in diameter; hemispherical when contracted, it resembles a bell perforated at the summit, dilated into a cylinder. When fully extended the tentacula are nearly equal to the height of the body, of a uniform liver colour, or olive green, and sometimes streaked with blue, having a greenish line either continuous or in spots, the base generally of a greenish colour encircled with an azure blue line, often streaked with red. The tentacula are terminated by a small pore. Its colour is variable, but generally it is of a violet-red. Sometimes it presents round spots of a fine green; at other times it is only of a greenish hue; the edge of the feet have a narrow border of red, with green and blue beneath. 3Metridium dianthus has a thick body with russet grey skin, the disk strongly lobed, thin and transparent round the mouth; the tentacula very numerous, very short, and occupying a broad, strong zone upon the disk. The mesial lines are whitish and wide apart; externally they are closer, papiliform, and brown. This species is found on stones and shells in the North Sea and in the Channel. The verrucous, or warty section of the Actiniada, have the lateral walls of the body covered with agglutinated tubercles, and welldeveloped feet. To this section belongs the Coriaceous Cereus, Actinia crassicornis (Johnston), and A. senilis (Hollard and Dicquemare), which seems to vary in habit. Hollard describes them as frequently buried in the sands on the shore, while Cocks describes them " as attaching ACTINIA IA. 19)3 themselves to shells and stones in deep water, or attached on the littoral to the sides of rocks, in crevices, or on the face of clean stones in sheltered places." The body is variegated, green, and red; the tentacles thick, short, and greyish, with broad roseate bands. The Anemones belonging to the fourth section, or tap-rooted actinia, have the base small, and terminating in a ronnded point, and the body mnch elongated, as in E lldua irdsia COli l -lssphat (Fig. 80), in which the body is non-adherent somewhat wormvlike having the month and tentaculas seated ros; on a retractile colmn, the lower extremity inflated, membranous, and retractile. In the great f amily of the Actinaiarians, pilne Edwards forms a special group of the Phyllactin.i In this group the polypes are simple, fleshy, and present;at once simple and composite tentacnla. Snch is Phyllactdis 2criacexr, (Fig. 81), which t is found i Fig. hEdwaia Calimorlla (G.sc. the neighbonrhood.of Rio Janeiro. The zoophyte fixes itself upon the rocks on the sea shore, and covers itself with sand. Its trunk, of cylindrical form, is of a flesh-colonr, with vertical lines, ha ving red points. The interior tentacles form two simple elongateds rocws; te exterior tentacles are spatnlate and lobed, not very unlike the leaves of the oak. Another group, that of the Thalassianthidm, is distinguished from the preceding by having all its tentacula short, pinnate, and branching, or papilliferois. One species only is known, T. asfer, of a slate colour, which inhabits the Rel Sea. In the last group of Actiniadme, as arranged by Milne Edwards, the polypes occur in clusters, and are multiplied by buds, rising from a common creeping, rootlike, fleshy base; they thus present a sort of coriaceous polypier, as in Zowinfhus socialis (Fig. 82). In the British Channel this species, which Dr. Johnston has named Z. Couchii, after Mr. Couch, jun.,is founid along the Cornish coast, on flat slates and rocks, 0 194 THE OCEAN WORLD. in deep water, and from one to ten leagues from the shore. It is very small, resembling both in shape and size a split pea. When living, its surface is plain but glandular, becoming corrugated when preserved. When semi-expanded, which is its favourite state, it elevates itself to twice its ordinary height, becoming contracted about the middle, like an hour-glass. When the creature is fully expanded, the tentacula become distended and elongated to about the length of the transverse Fig. sl. Phyllactis pratexta (Dana). natural size. diameter of the body; and they are generally darker at their extremities than towards the base. Like all the ActiniadTe, the present species possess a power of considerably altering its shape; sometimes the mouth is depressed, and at others it is elevated into an obtuse cone. "This is one of the most inactive of its order," says Mr. A. Couch; "for, whether in a state of contraction or expansion, it will remain so for many days without apparent change. In its expanded state a touch will make it contract, and it will commonly remain so for many ACTINIARIA. 195 days." The trailing connecting-band is flat, thin, narrow, glandular, and of the same texture as the polype, sometimes enlarging into small papillary eminences, which, as they become enlarged, become developed into polypes. Fig. 82. Zoanthus socialis (Cuvier), natural size. MINYADINIANS. The Minyadinians seem to represent among the Zoanthairia the form peculiar to the Pennatula among the Alcyonians. In the case of Fig. 83. Blue Minyade. Minyas crerulea (Cuvier), natural size. these animals, the base of the body, in place of extending itself in a disk-like form, in order to grapple with the rock and other projections o 2 196 THE OCEAN WORLD. at the bottom of the sea, turns itself inwards, forming a sort of purse, which seems to imprison the air. From this results a sort of hydrostatic apparatus, aided by which the animals can float in the water and transport themselves from one place to another. The Blue Minyade (3MIiyas cyanea-Fig. 83) will serve as a type of this family; its globose, melon-like form is of azure blue, studded with white wart-like excrescences; it is flattened at its two extremities in its state of contraction, and it has three rows of tentacula, which are short, cylindrical, and white. The internal organs are of a delicate rose colour. Cuvier places this species among the Echinodermata, but the observations of Lesueur and Quoy, who were acquainted with the living animal, place it among the Actiniadae. Many of the species, which are usually fixed, are still capable of swimming and of inflating their suctorial disks; therefore it is by no means certain that the free habit of Min1/yas cyeanea is constant. CHAPTER VIII. ACALEPH]E, OR SEA NETTLES. "In nova fert animus imutatis dicere formas corpora."-OvID, MI1T. THE class Acalephae, from a/ca\X7j0, a nettle, so called from the stinging properties which many of them possess, include a great number of radiate animals of which the Medusae are the type. They form the third class of Cuvier's zoophytes. The Acalephae, forming the first order, are characterised as floating and swimming in the sea by means of the contraction and dilation of their bodies, their substance being gelatinous, without apparent fibres. The great genus Medusae is characterised by having a disk, more or less convex above, resembling a mushroom or expanded umbrellathe edges of the umbrella, as well as the mouth and suckers, being more or less prolonged into pedicles, which take their place in the middle of the lower surface; they are furnished with tentacula, varying in form and size, which have given rise to many subdivisions, with which we need not concern ourselves. The substance of the disk presents an uniform cellular appearance internally, but, the cellular substance being very soft, no trace of fibre is observable. Taken from the sea and laid upon a stone, a Medusa weighing fifty ounces will rapidly diminish to five or six grains, sinking into a sort of deliquescence, from which Spalanzani concluded that the sea water penetrated the organic texture of its substance, and constituted the principal volume of the animal. Those which have cilia round their margins have also cellular bands running along their bases, and most of the projectile and extensile tentacula and 198 THE OCEAN WNORLD. filaments have sacs and canals containing fluids at their roots. Suckers are also found at the extremities, and along the sides of these tentacles in several genera are suckers, by which they are able more securely to catch their floating prey, or to anchor themselves when at rest. The indications of nerves or nervous system are too slight to be received as evidence, although Dr. Grant observed some structure which he thought could only belong to a nervous system, and Ehrenberg thought he observed eyes in Mledutsa aurita, as well as a nervous circle formed of four ganglion-like masses disposed round the mouth. But most naturalists seem to be of opinion that touch is the only sense of which any conclusive proof can be advanced. Here we behold a class of bell-shaped semi-transparent organisms, which float gracefully in the sea-a great family of fragile, wandering animals, constituted in a most extraordinary manner. They look like floating umbrellas, breeches, or, better still, floating mushrooms, the footstalk replaced by an equally central body, but divided into divergent lobes at once sinuous, twisted, and fringed, so that one is at first tempted to take them for a species of root. The edges of the umbrella or mushroom are entire or dentate, sometimes elegantly figured, often ciliate, or provided with long filiform appendages which float vertically in the water. Sometimes the animal is uncoloured, and limpid as crystal; sometimes it presents a slightly opaline appearance, now of a tender blue, or of a delicate rose colour; at other times it reflects the most brilliant and vivid tints. In certain species the central parts only are coloured, showing brilliant reds and yellows, blues or violets, the rest being colourless. In others the central mass seems clothed in a thin iridescent or diaphanous veil, like the light evanescent soap-bubble, or the transparent glass shade wvhich covers a group of artificial flowers. The Acalephae are animals without consistence, imbued with much water, so that we can scarcely comprehend how they resist the agitation of the waves and the force of the currents; the waves, however, float without hurting them, the tempest scatters without killing them. When the sea retires, or they are withdrawn from their native waters, their substance dissolves, the animal is decomposed, they are reduced to nothing; if the sun is ardent, this disorganisation occurs in the twinkling of an eye, so to speak. ACALEPHIE. 199 When the Meduse travel, their convex part is always kept in advance, and slightly oblique. If they are touched while swimming, even lightly, they contract their tentacula, fold up their umbrella, and sink into the sea. Like Ehrenberg, 31T. Kolliker thought he discovered visual and auditory organs in an Oceania, and Gegenbauer thought he detected them in other genera, such as Rhizostoma and Pelagia. The eyes are said to consist of certain small, hemispherical, cellulose, coloured masses, in which are sunk small crystalline globules, the free parts of which are perfectly naked. The supposed auditory apparatus is seated close to these organs; they are small vesicles filled with liquid; the eyes having neither pupil nor cornea, and the ears without opening or arch. But it is in their reproduction that these evanescent beings present the most marvellous phenomena. At one period of the year the Mledusae are charged with numbers of very minute eggs, of the most lively colours, which are suspended in large festoons from their floating bodies. In some cases these eggs develop themselves grafted to their bodies, and are only detached at maturity. In other cases the larvae produced bear no resemblance to the mother; they are elongated and vermiforn, broad at their extremity; we speak of the microscopic leeches, which have vibratile cilia, scarcely perceptible, by which they execute the most lively motions. At the end of a certain time they are transformed into polypes, and furnished with eight tentacula. This preparatory sort of animal seems to possess the faculty of reproduction by means of certain buds or tubercles which develop themselves on the surface of the body, and also by filaments which start up here and there, so that a single individual originates a numerous colony. Tils polype is subjected to a transformation still more remarkable; its structure becomes complex, its body articulate, and it seems to be composed of a dozen disks piled one upon the other, like the jars of a voltaic pile; the upper disk is convex, and is separated from the colony after a convulsive effort; it becomes free, and an excessively small, star-like Medusa is the result; every disk, that is, every individual, is isolated one after the other in the same manner. Thus of the sexual zoophytes which propagate their kind according to the usual laws; but others engender young which have no resemblance to the parent zoophyte at all: in this respect they are neuter, 200 'THE OCEAN WORLD. that is, non-sexual or agamous. These are produced by budding, or fissiparity, from individuals like themselves. They can also give sexual distinctions; but before this change takes place the creature, which was simple, is transformed into a composite animal, and it is from its disaggregation that individuals having sexual organs are produced, the process being that which has been called alternate generation. It goes on in a perfectly regular manner, although it is a fact that the young never resemble their mothers, but their grandmothers. This great family of Zoophytes Gosse divides into: Discophora, having the body in the form of a circular disk, more or less convex and umbrella-shaped, moving by alternate contractions and expansions of the disk. C(te',opihoor, body cylindrical, moving by means of many parallel rims of cilia set in longitudinal lines on the surface. SolpAonoplhora, body irregular, without central digestive cavity like the others, having sucking organs, and moving by means of a contractile cavity, or by air-vessels. The Discophora are again subdivided into Gynnoiht7halmata, having the eye-specks uncovered or wanting, a great central digestive 4'/ MOM Fig. 81. iF erea violacea, natural size (Milne Edwards). cavity, circulating vessels proceeding to the margin quite simple or branched; land Sttclyaopol(htfallittta ]having the eye specks protected by ACALEPH E. 201 membranous hoods, or lobed coverings, circulating vessels much ramified, and united with a network. Of the Gymnophthalmata we have an example in TEquerea violacea (Fig. 84), in which the disk is slightly convex, glass-like in appearance, and furnished all round with very short, slender, thread-like, violet coloured tentacula; with circulating vessels, eight in number, quite simple, and ovaries placed on them; pedluncle wide, expanding into many broad and long fringed lobes. Fig. 85. Auriculated aurelius, one-third natural size. Aurelia aurita (Lank.) Cyanea aurita (Cuvier). The Steganophthalmata include the [lfedusade proper, in which the umbel is hemispherical, with numerous marginal tentacles, eight eyes covered by lobes, four ovaries, four chambers, four fringed arms, witl a central and four lateral openings. Aurelia aurita (Fig. 85) is here represented as a type of the group; it is plentiful in the Baltic, and has been carefully studied by the Swedish naturalists. Rosenthal has made its anatomy his special study. Sars has also made it the subject of observations. In the samle giroup we find thll Pelagi cya(neallt 202 THE OCEAN WORLD. of Peron, whose body is globose, scolloped with eight marginal teintacles, peduncles ending in four leaf-like, furbelowed arms, united at the base, having four ovaries, and appendages to the stomach, without orifices. The Pelagia, as the name implies, belong to the deep sea. P. noctiluca has a transparent, glass-like disk, of a reddish-brown colour and warty appearance. It is found in the Mediterranean, about the coast near Nice, and is still more plentiful on the coast of Sicily, and on the African coast. Another species, P. p1)nopyra, is very common in the Atlantic and Pacific, between the Tropics. The naturalist Lesson met whole banks of them in the equatorial ocean, about the twentyseventh degree north latitude and the twenty-second degree west longitude. During the night, this species emits a brilliant phosphoric light, and living individuals, which Lesson succeeded in preserving, exhibited great luminosity in the dark. This medusa is remarkable for its semi-spherical disk, slightly depressed, umbilicate at the summit, a little compressed at the edges, and densely bristling on the surface with small elongated warts, but regularly festooned along the edges. In colour it is a delicate rose. The animals which constitute this class of Zoophytes, and, in former times, so curious and so imperfectly known, were designated Polypomedlusi, in order to remind us that at one time they were called Meduse, and at others ranged among the Polypes. It has, however, been recently discovered that, shortly after they issue from the egg, these zoophytes show themselves in the form of polypes, and that, at a later period, they assume the animal form, to which we give the name of mediusT. These animals are, then, true proteans: hence the very considerable difficulty of studying them-difficulties which have long reduced naturalists to despair. Even now their history is too obscure and too complicated to justify us in presenting it, except in its general features. We shall, therefore, content ourselves here with a description of the best known species of the class only-those, namely, which have particularly attracted the attention of naturalists, and which are, at the same time, of a nature to interest our readers. The class of Discophorm may be divided into four orders or families, namely: I. THE HYDRAIIDE, having l single, naked, gelatinous, sub-cylindrical, but very con ACALEPHAE. 2 03 tractile stems, mutable in form, month encircled with a single series of granulous filitormn tentacula. II. SERTULATRIADJS, plant-like, horny polypiers, rooted and variously branched, filled with semi-fluid organic pull), the polypes contained within sessile cells disposed along the sides of tle main stem or branchlets, but never terminal. III. MmIEDSADi. Umbel hemispherical, with marginal tentacula; having eight eyes covered by lobes. four ovaries, four cells, four fringed arms, a central opening, and four lateral openings. IV. SIPHINOPHORA, liaving the animals double, and bell-shaped, one fitting into the cavity of the other; in Dyphyes the animal has a large air-vessel with numerous tentacula; in Phlysalia, the animal stretches over a cartilaginous plane. The true form of the Medusa does not appear in the two first orders. HYDRAIDlE. The Hydraidme are, according to modern naturalists, Discophorte arrested in their development. They comprehend the single genus Hydra, of which many species are known, whose habits and metamorphoses it will be our object to particularise. Hydra vztlgaris inhabits stagnant ponds and slowly-running waters. It is of an orange-brown or red colour, the intensity of the colour depending on the nature of its food, becoming almost blood-red when fed on the small crimson worms and larvae to be found in such' places. M. Laurent even succeeded in colouring them blue, red, and white, by means of indigo, carmine, and chalk, without any real penetration of the tissue, the buds from them acquiring the same colour as the mother, while the colour of the ova retains its natural tint, even when the Hydra mother has been fed with coloured substances during the progress of this mode of reproduction. The tentacula, usually seven or eight in number, never exceed the length of the body, tapering insensibly to a point. IHydra viridis, the fresh-water polype, being more immediately within the sphere of our observation, naturally presents itself to our notice. It is common in ponds and still waters. It was noticed by Pallas, who was of opinion that offspring was produced from every part of the body. De Blainville, on the contrary, was of opinion that offspring was always produced from the same place; namely, at the junction of that part which is hollow and that which is not. Van der Ho6ven, the Leyden professor, agrees with Pallas, and Dr. Johnston's opinions accord with Pallas. The green Hydra is common all over Europe, in 201 THE OCEAN WORLD. habiting brooks filled with herbage-attaching itself particularly to the duckweed of stagnant ponds, and more especially to the under surface of the leaf. The animal is reduced to a small greenish tubular sac, closed at one of its extremities, open at the other, and bearing round this opening from six to ten appendages, very slender, and not exceeding a line in breadth. The tubulous sac is the body of the animal (Fig. 87).!I e Fig. 86. Hydra vulgaris. 1. Hydra with ova and young, unhatched. 2. Egg ready to burst its shell. 3. Hydra of natural size attached to a piece of floating wood. The opening is at once its mouth and the entrance to the digestive canal; the appendages, the tentacula or arms. The Hydras have no lungs, no liver, no intestines, no nervous system, no heart. They have no organ of the senses, except those which exist in the mouth and the skin. The arms or branches are hollow internally, and communicate with the stomach. They are provided with vibratile cells, furnished with a great number of tuberosities disposed spirally, and containing in their interior a number of capsules provided ACALEPHIE. 205r each with a sort of fillet. These threads, which are of extreme tenacity, are thrown out when the animal is irritated by contact with any strange body. We may see these filaments wrapping themselves round their prey, sometimes even penetrating its substance, and effectually subduing the enemy. The green Hydra has thus a very simple organisation. Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to say the animal /l r N,, I ' )\ \ + & Fig. 87. Hydra viridis (Trembley). 1. Hydra magnified, bearing an embryo ready to detach itself. 2. Animal, natural size. 3. Bud much magnified. 4. Bud, natural size. was imperfect, for it possesses everything necessary for its nourishment and for the propagation of its species. There are learned men who have composed hundreds of volumes, who have published whole libraries-naturalists and physicists who have written more than Voltaire ever penned, but whose names are utterly forgotten. On the other hand, there are some who have left only two or three monograms, and yet their names will live for ever. Of this number is the Genevois, A. Trembley. This writer published in 1744 a " Memoir on the Fresh-water Polypes." In this little work he 206 THE OCEAN WORLD. recorded his observations on some of these animals of smallest dimensions. He limited himself even to two sets of experiments: he turned the fresh-water polypes outside in, and he multiplied it by cutting it up. These experiments upon this little creature, which few persons had seen, have sufficed to secure immortality to his name. Trembley was tutor to the two sons of Count de Bentinck. He made his observations at the country-house of the Dutch nobleman, and he had, as he assures us, "frequent occasion to satisfy himself, in the case of his two pupils, that we can even in infancy taste the pleasures derivable from the studies of Nature!" Let us hope that this thought, uttered by a celebrated naturalist, who spoke only from what he knew himself, may remain engraved on the minds of our younger readers. Trembley established by his observations, a thousand times repeated, that Hydra viridis can be turned outside in, as a glove may be, and so completely that what was the external skin of the zoophyte becomes its internal skin, and this without injury to the animal, which a day or two after this revolution resumes its ordinary functions. Such is the vitality of these little beings that the external skin soon fulfills all the functions of a stomach, digesting its food, while the intestinal tube expanding its exterior performs all the functions of an external skin; it absorbs and respires. But we shall leave Trembley to relate his very remarkable experiments. "I attempted," he says, " for the first time to turn these polypes inside out in the month of July, 1741, but unsuccessfully. I was more successful the following year, having found an expedient which was of easy execution. I began by giving a worm to the polype, and put it, when the stomach was well filled, into a little water which filled the hollow of my left hand. I pressed it afterwards with a gentle pinch towards the posterior extremities. In this manner I pressed the worm which was in the stomach against the mouth of the polype, forcing it to open-continuing the pinchingpressure until the worm was partly pressed out of the mouth. When the polype was in this state I conducted it gently out of the water, without damaging it, and placed it upon the edge of my hand, which was simply moistened, in order that the polype should not stick to it. I forced it to contract itself more and more, and, in doing so, assisted in enlarging the mouth and stomach. I now took in my right hand a thick and pointless boar's bristle, which I held as a lancet is held in bleeding. I approached its thicker end to the posterior extremity of the ACALEPHE. 207 polype, which I pressed until it entered the stomach, which it does the more easily since it is empty at this place and much enlarged. I continued to advance the bristle, and, in proportion as it advanced, the polype became more and more inverted. When it came to the worm, by which the mouth is kept open on one side, and the posterior part of the polype is passed through the mouth, the creature is thus turned completely inside out; the exterior superficies of the polype has become the interior." The poor animal would be justified in feeling some surprise at its new situation-disagreeably surprised we may add, for it makes every imaginable effort to recover its natural position, and it always succeeds in the end. The glove is restored to its proper form. "I have seen polypes," says Trembley, " which have recovered their natural exterior in less than an hour." But this would not have served the purpose of our experimenter. He wished to know if the polypes thus turned outside in could live in this state; he had consequently to prevent it from rectifying itself, for which purpose a needle was run through the body near the mouth-in other words, he impaled the creature by the neck. "It is nothing for a polype only to be spitted," says Trembley. It is in fact a very small thing, as we shall see, for thus reversed and spitted they live and multiply as if nothing had happened. "I have seen a polype," says this ingenious experimenter, "turned inside out, which has eaten a small worm two days after the operation. I have fed one in that state for more than two years, and it has multiplied in that condition. "Having experimented successfully myself, I was desirous of having the testimony of others capable of forming opinions on the subject. AM. Allamanc was persuaded to put his hand to the work, which he did with the same success I had met with. He has done more, having succeeded in permanently turning specimens which had been previously turned, and which continue to live in their re-inverted state; he has seen them eat soon after both operations; finally, he has turned one for the third time, which lived some days, but perished without having eaten anything, although it did not appear that its death was the result of the operation." We have said that the Hydra viridis has neither brain, nervous system, heart, muscular rings, lungs, nor liver; the organs of the 208 THE OCEAN WORLD. senses-namely, those of sight, hearing, and of smell —have also been denied them. Nevertheless, they act as if they possessed all these senses. Oh Nature! how hidden are thy secrets, and how the pride of man is humbled by the mysteries which surround thee-by the spectacles which strike his eyes, and which he attempts in vain to explain! Trembley states that the fresh-water polypes, having no muscular ring, can neither extend or contract themselves, nor can they walk. If touched, or if the water in which they are immersed is suddenly agitated, they are certainly observed to contract more or less forcibly, and even to inflect themselves in all directions; and by this power of extension, of contraction and inflection, they contrive to move from place to place; but these movements are singularly slow, the utmost space they have been observed to traverse being about eight inches in the twenty-four hours. Painfully conscious of his powers of progression, however, he has found means of remedying it, and the aquatic snail is his steed; he creeps upon the shell of this mollusc, and by means of this improvised mount he will make more way in a few minutes than he would in a day by his own unassisted efforts. The Hydra viridis, although destitute of organs of sight, are nevertheless sensible of light; if the vase containing them is placed partly in shade and partly in the sun, they direct themselves immediately towards the light; they appreciate sounds; they attach themselves to aquatic plants and other floating bodies. Without eyes, without brain, and without nerves, these animals lie in wait for their prey, recognise, seize, and devour it. They make no blunder, and only attack where they are sure of success. They know how to flee from danger; they evade obstacles, and fight with or fly before their enemies. There are, then, some powers of reflection, deliberation, and premeditated action in these insignificant creatures; their history, in short, is calculated to fill the mind with astonishment. Trembley insists much upon the address which the Hydra employs to secure its prey: by the aid of its long armsl, small animals, which serve to nourish it, are seized, for it is carnivorous, and even passably voracious. Worms, small insects, and larva of dipterous insects are its habitual prey. When a worm or woodlouse in passing its portals happens to touch them, the polype, taking the hint, seizes upon the AA L EP HIAE. 209 wanderer, twiling its flexible arms round it, and, directing it rapidly towards its molnth, swallows it. Trembley anused himself by feeding the Hydra, while he observed the manner in which it devoured its prey. " When its arms were extended, I have put into the water a woodlouse or a small worm. As soon as the woodlouse feels itself a prisoner it struggles violently, swimming about, and drawing the arm which holds it from side to side; but, however delicate it may appear, the arm of the polype is capable of considerable resistance; it is now gradually drawn in, and other arms come to its assistance, while the polype itself approaches its prey; presently the woodlouse finds itself engaged with all the arms, which, by curving and contracting, gradually but inevitably approach the mouth, in which it is soon engulfed." Frddol also notices a singular fact. "The small worms. even when swallowed by the polype," he says, "frequently try to escape; but the ravisher retains them by plunging one of its arms into the digestive cavity! What an admirable contrivance, by which the worms are digested while the arm is respected!" The food of the fresh-water Hydra influences the colour of their bodies in consequence of the thinness and transparency of their tissues; so that the reddish matter of the woodlouse renders them red, while other food renders them black or green, according to its prevailing colour! The multiplication of these creatures takes place in three different ways: 1. By eggs. 2. By buds, after the manner of vegetables. 3. By separation, in which an individual may be cut into two or many segments, each reproducing an individual. We shall only say a few words on the first mode of reproduction. The eggs, according to Ehrenberg, come to maturityin the H. viridis at the base of the feet, where the visceral cavity terminates. They are carried during seven or eight days, and determine by their fall the death of the animal. When the Hydra has laid its eggs, according to M. Laurent, it gradually lowers itself until it covers them with half its body, which, spreading out and getting proportionably thin, passes into the condition of a horny substance, that glues the eggs disposed in a circle round the body to plants and other foreign substances. She ends her career by dying in the midst of her ova. Trembley has studied with great care the mode of reproduction by budding —a prtcess which seems to prevail in the summer months. P 210 T'HE OCEAN WORL[D. The buds which are to form the young polype appear on the surface of the body as little spherical excrescences terminating in a point. A few steps further towards maturity, and it assumes a conical and finally a cylindrical form. The arms now vbegin to push out at the anterior extremity of the young animal; the posterior extremity by which it is attached to the mother contracting by degrees, until it appears only to touch her at one point. Finally, the separation is effected, the mother and the young acting in concert to produce the entrance of this interesting polypule into the world. Each of them take with their head and arms a strong point of support upon some neighbouring body; and a small effort suffices to procure the separation: sometimes the mother charges herself with the effort, sometimes the young, and often both. When the young polype is separated from the mother, it swims about, and executes all the movements peculiar to adult animals. The entrance into life and the virile age takes place with these beings at one and the same moment. Infancy and youth are suppressed in this little world. So long as the young polype remains attached to the mother, she is the nurse; by a touching change, the young polype nurses her in his turn. In short, the stomach of the mother and her young have communication; so that the prey swallowed by the parent passes partially into the stomach of her progeny. On the other hand, while still attached to the mother, the little ones seize the prey, which they share in their turn with their parent by means of the communication Nature has arranged between the two organisms. In the course of his experiments Trembley states another fact still more remarkable. Upon a young polype still attached to its mother he observed a new polype or polypule, and upon this unborn creature was another individual. Thus three generations were appended to the mother, who carried at once her son, her grandson, and great-grandson. "In observing the young polypes still attached to their mother," says Trembley, " I have seen one which had itself a little one which was just issuing from its body; that is to say, it was a mother while yet attached to its own mother. I had in a short time many young polypes attached to their mothers which had already liad three or four little ones, of which some were even perfectly formed. They fished ACALE l 1'I.E. 211 for woodlice like others, and they ate thelm. Nor is this all. I have seen a mother-polype which had carried its itiird generation,. Fromn the little one which she had produced issued another little one, and from this a third." Charles Bennet, the naturalist of Geneva, says wittily, that a polype thus charged with all its descendants constitutes a living genealogical tree. We have just spoken of turning polypes inside out! If one of these creatures is thus operated upon while it hears its young on the surfiee of its body, such of them as are sufficiently advanced continue to increase; although they find themselves in this sudden manner imprisoned in an internal cavity, they re-issue subsequently by the mouth. Those less advanced at the moment of reversal issue by little and little from the maternal sac, and complete their career of development on the newly-made exterior. The third and most extraordinary mode of reproduction in the polypes has been discovered by Trembley in the case of the green Hydra. So surprised was this naturalist at the strange anomalies which surrounded these creatures, that he began to have doubts, and gravely to ask the question, Was this polype an animal? Is it a plant? In order to escape from this state of indecision, it occurred to him to cut a Hydra into pieces. Concluding that plants alone could reproduce themselves by slips, he waited the result of the experiment for the conclusion he sought. On the 25th of November, 1740, he cut a polype into sections. "I put," he tells us, " the two parts into a flat glass, which contained water four or five lines in depth, and in such a manner that each portion of the polype could be easily observed through a strong magnifying glass. It will suffice to say that I had cut the polype transversely, and a little nearer to the anterior. On the morning of the day after having cut the polype, it seemed to me that on the edges of the second part, which had neither head nor arms, three small points were issuing fronm these edges. This surprised me extremely, and I waited with impatience for the moment when I could clearly ascertain what they were. Next day they were suficiently developed to leave no doubt on my mind that they were true arms. The following day two new arms made their appetarance, and, some days after, a third appeared, and I could now tiLace no dilference between tlie first and second half of the polype which I had cut." 21 2 'THE OCEAN WORLD. This is assuredly one of the most startling facts belonging to natural history. Divide a fresh-water polype into five or six parts, and at the end of a few days all the separate parts will be organised, developed, and form so many new beings, resembling the primitive individual. Let us add, that the polype which should thus have lost fivesixths of its body, the mutilated father of all this generation, remains complete in itself; in the interval, it has recuperated itself and recovered all its primitive substance. After this, if a Hydra vulygaris wishes to procure for itself the blessings of a family, it has only one thing to do: cut off an arm; if it desire two descendants, let it cut the arm in two parts; if three, let it divide itself into three; and so on ad infiniteum. "Divide one of the animals," says Trembley, "and each section will soon form a new individual in all respects like the creature divided." "A whole host of polypes hewn into pieces," says Fredol, "will be far from being annihilated." " On the contrary," we may say, in our turn, " its youth will be renewed, and multiplied in proportion to the number of pieces into which it has been divided." "The same polype," says Trembley, "may be successively inverted, cut into sections, and turned back again, without being seriously injured." If a green Hydra is cut into two pieces, and the stomach is cut off in the operation, the voracious creature will, nevertheless, continue to eat the prey which presents itself. It gorges itself with the food, without troubling itself with the loss which it has sustained; but the food no longer nourishes it, for it merely enters by one opening, passes through the intestinal canal, and escapes by the other. It realises Harleville's pleasantry of M. de Crac's horse, in the piece of that name, which eats unceasingly, but never gets any fatter. All these instances of mutilation, resulting in an increase of life, are very strange. The naturalists to whom they were first revealed could scarcely believe their own eyes. Reaumur, who repeated many of Trembley's experiments, writes as follows: "I confess that when I saw for the first time two polypes forming by little and little from that which I had cut in two, I could scarcely believe my eyes; and it is a fact that, after hundreds of experiments, I never could quite reconcile myself to the sight." In short, we know nothing analogous to it in the animal kingdom. About the same period Charles Bennet writes: " We can only judge ACALEPt'HE. 213 of things by comparison, and have taken our ideas of animal life from the larger animals; and an animal which we cut and turn inside out, which we cut again, and it still bears itself well, gives one a singular shock. How many facts are ignored, which will come one day to derange our ideas of subjects which we think we understand! At present we just know enough to be aware that we should be surprised at nothing." Notwithstanding the philosophic serenity which Bennet recommends, the fact of new individuals resulting from dividing these fresh-water polypes was always a subject of profound astonishment, and of neverending meditation. SERTULARIADES. All Hydraidae, with the exception of the Hydra and a few other genera, are marine productions, varying from a few lines to upwards of a foot in height, attaching themselves to rocks, shells, seaweeds, and corallines, and to various species of shell-fish. Many of them attach themselves indiscriminately to the nearest object, but others slow a decided preference. Thuiaria thrya attaches itself to old bivalves; T'lioa halecuia prefers the larger univalves; Antemnllariaade ltin(tL attaches itself to coarse sand on rocks; Laomedea geniculuata delights in the broad frond of the tangle; Plumldaria ca therina atttaches itself in deep water to old shells, corallines, and asciclians, growing in a manner calculated to puzzle the naturalist, as it did Crabbe, the poet, who writes of it: "Ilnvolved in sea-wrack, here you find a race Which science, doubting, knows not where to place; On shell or stone is dropp'd the embryo seed, And quickly vegttteus a vital breed." Sertllaric a lpumila, on the other hand, loves the commoner and coarser wracks. "The choice," says Dr. Johnston, " may in part be dependent on their habits, for such as are destinecl to live in shallow water, or oil a shore exposed by the reflux of every tide, are, in general, vegetable parasites; while the species which spring up in deep seas must select between rocks, corallines, or shells." There seems to be a selecl'on even as to the position on the rocks. According to Lamouroux, some polypiers always occupy the southern slopes, and never that towards 214 THE OCEAN WORLD. the east, west, or north; others, on the contrary, growo only on these exposures, and never on the south, altering their position, however, according to the latitude, and its relation to the Equator. The Sertcuariadct have a horny stem, sometimes simple, sometimes so branching that they might readily enough be mistaken for small plants, their branches being flexible, semi-transparent, and yellow. Their name is lerived from Serclai, a bouquet. Each Sartularia has seven, eight, twelve, or twenty small panicles, each containing as many as five hundred animalcules; thus forming, sometimes, an association of ten thousand polypes. "Each plume," says Mr. Lister, in reference to a specimen of Plhlzadaria ciista ta, "might comprise from four to five hundred polypi;" "and a specimen of no unusual size now before me," says Dr. Johnston, " with certainly not fewer cells on each than the larger number mentioned, thus giving six thousand as the tenantry of a single polypidoml, and this on a small species." On Serhdlaria argeatea, it is asserted, polypiers are found on which there exist not less than eighty to a hundred thousand. Each colony is composed of a right axis, on the whole length of which the curved branches are implanted, these being longest in the middle. Along each of these branches the cells, each containing a polype, are grouped alternately. The head of the animal is conical, the mouth being at the top surrounded by twenty to twenty-four tentacles. These curious beings have no digestive cavity belonging to themselves; the stomach is common to the whole colony-a most singular combination, a single stomach to a whole group of animals! Never have the principles of association been pushed to this length by the warmest advocates of commlunism. Certain species belonging to the colony, which seem destined to perpetuate the race, have not the same regular form. Destitute of mouth and tentacles, they occupy special cells, which are larger than the others. The entire colony is composed exclusively of individuals, male or female. "We have traced Serfzdaria cupressina through every stage of its development," say Messrs. Paul Gervais and Van Beneden. " At the end of several days, the embryos are covered with very short vibratile cells; their movement is excessively slow; then, from the spheroid form which they take at first, they get elongated, and take a cylindrical form, all the body inclining lightly sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left. The vibratile cells fading afterwards, ACAL,. IP fHt.E. 215 the embryo attaches itself to some solid body, a tubercle is formed, and the base extends itself as a disk. At the same time that the first rudiments of the polype appear, the disk-like tubercle throws out on its flanks a sort of bud, and a second polype soon shows itself; its surface is hardened; the polypier appears in its turn, and the same process of generation is repeated; a colony of Sertutlacriadc is thus established at the summit of a discoid projection. At the end of fifteen days the colony, which has been forming under our eyes, consists of two polypes and a bud, which already indicates a third polype. The seacypress, as this species is called, is robust, with longish branches decidedly fan-shaped, the pinne being closer and nearly parallel to each other. The cells form two rows, nearly opposite, smooth and pellucid. The branches in some specimens are gracefully arched, bending as it were under the load of pregnant ovaries which they carry, arranged in close-set rows along the upper side of the pinnae. They are found in deep water on the coast of Scotland, and as far south as the Yorkshire coast and the north of Ireland. The cells, which are the abode of the polypes, are riot always alike in their distribution. Sometimes they are ranged on two sides, sometimes on one only. Sometimes they are grouped like the small tubes of an organ, at other times they assume a spiral form round the stem, or they form here and there horizontal rings round it." MEDUSADYE. The Medusme comprehend, not only the animals so designated in the days of Cuvier under that name, but also the polypes known as Tutblauiadr c and Campanlcariadwc. If we walk along the sea shore, after the reflux of the tide, we may often see, lying immovable upon the sands, disk-like, gelatinous masses of a greenish colour and repulsive appearance, from which the eye and the steps instinctively turn aside. These beings, whose blubber-like appearance inspire only feelings of disgust when seen lying grey and dead on the shore, are, however, when seen floating on the bosom of the ocean, one of its most graceful ornaments. These are Meduse. When seen suspended like a piece of gauze or an azure bell in the middle of the waves, terminating in delicate silvery garlands, we cannot but admire their iridescent colours, or deny that these 216 THEIE OCEAN WOt1LD. objects, so forbidding in some of their aspects, rank, in their natural localities, among the most elegant productions of Nature. We could not better comnmence our studies of these children of the sea than by quoting a passage from the poet and historian Iichelet: "Amlong the rugged rocks and lagunes, where the retiring sea has left many little animals which were too sluggish or too weak to follow, some shells will be there left to themselves and suffered to become quite dry. In the midst of them, without shell and without shelter, extended at our feet, lies the animal which we call by the very inappropriate name of the Medusa. Why was this name, of terrible associations, given to a creature so charming? Often have I had my attention arrested by these castaways which we see so often on the shore. They are small, about the size of my hand, but singularly pretty, of soft light shades, of an opal white; where it lost itself as in a cloud of tentacles-a crown of tender lilies-the wind had overturned it; its crown of lilac hair floated above, and the delicate umbel, that is, its proper body, was beneath; it had touched the rock-dashed against it; it was wounded, torn in its fine locks, which are also its organs of respiration, absorption, and even of love..... The delicious creature, with its visible innocence and the iridescence of its soft colours, was left like a gliding, trembling jelly. I paused beside it, nevertheless: I glided my hand under it, raised the motionless body cautiously, and restored it to its natural position for swimming. Putting it into the neighbouring water, it sank to the bottom, giving no sign of life. I pursued my walk along the shore, but at the end of ten minutes I returned to my medusa. It was undulating under the wind; really it had moved itself, and was swimming about with singular grace, its hair flying round it as it swam; gently it retired from the rock, not quickly, but still it went, and I soon saw it a long way off." Of all the zoophytes which live in the ocean there is none more numerous in species or more singular in their matter, more odd in their form or more remarkable in their mode of reproduction, than those to which Linnceus gave the name of Medusa, from the mythical chief of the Gorgons. The seas of every latitude of the globe furnish various tribes of these singular beings. They live in the icy waters which bathe Spitzbergen, Greenland, and Iceland; they multiply under the fires of the Equator, and the frozen regions of the south nourish nume ACALIPIL'LE. 217 rous species. They are, of all animals, those which present the least solid substance. Their bodies are little else than water, which is scarcely retained by al imperceptible organic netork k; it is a transparent jelly, llmost without consistence. It is a true sea-water jelly," says tleaumur, writing ni 1710, "having little colour or consistence. If we take a morsel in our hands, the natural heat is sufficient to dissolve it into water." Spallanzani could only withdraw five or six grains of the pellicle of a medusa weighing fifty ounces. From certain specimens weighing from ten to twelve pounds, only six to seven pennyweights could be obtained of solid matter, accordilng to Fredol. " Mr. Telfair saw an enormous medusa which had been abandoned on the beach at Bombay; three days after, the animal began to putrefy. To satisfy his curiosity he got the neighbouring boatmen to keep an eye upon it, in order to gather the bones and cartilages belonging to the great creature, if by chance it had any; but its decomposition was so rapid alnd complete that it left no remains, although it required nine months to dissipate it entirely." "Floatinlg on the bosom of the waters," says Fredol, " the medusa resembles a bell, a pair of breeches, an umbrella, or, better still, a floating mushroom, the stool of which has here been separated into lobes more or less divergent, sinuous, twisted, shrivelled, fiinged, the edges of the cap being delicately cut, and provided with long threadlike appendages, which dcescend vertically into the water like the drooping branches of the weeping willow." The gelatinous substance of which the body of the Medusa is formed is somletimes colourless and limlpid as crystal; sometimes it is opaline, and occasionally of a bright blue or pale rose colour. In certain species the central lparts are of a lively red, blue, or violet colour, while the rest of the body is of a diaphanous hue. This diaphanous tissue, often decked in the finest tints, is so fragile, that when abandoned by the wave oni the beach, it melts and disappears without leaving a trace of its having existed, so to speak. Nevertheless, these firagile creatures, these living soap-bubbles, make long voyages on the surface of the sea. Whilst the sun's rays suffice to dissipate alnd even annihiliate its vaporous substance on solme inhospitable beach, they abalndon themselves without fear during their entire life to the agitated waves. The whales which haunt round the 218 THE OCEAN VWOLD. Hebrides are chiefly nourished by Meduse which have been transported by the waves in innumerable swarms from the coast of the Atlantic to the region of whales. " The locomotion of the mledusa, which is very slow," says De Blainville, "and denotes a very feeble muscular energy, appears, on the other hand, to be unceasing. Since their specific gravity considerably exceeds the water in which they are immerged, these creatures, which are so soft that they probably could not repose on solid ground, require to agitate constantly in order to sustain themselves in the fluid which they inhabit. They require also to maintain a continual state of expansion and contraction, of systole and diastole. Spallanzani, who observed their movements with great care, says that those of translation are executed by the edges of the disk approaching so near to each other that the diameter is diminished in a very sensible degree; by this movement a certain quantity of water contained in the body is ejected with more or less force, by which the body is projected in the inverse direction. Renovated by the cessation of force in its first state of development, it contracts itself again, and makes another step in advance. If the body is perpendicular to the horizon, these successive movements of contraction and dilatation cause it to ascend; if it is more or less oblique, it advances more or less horizontally. In order to descend, it is only necessary for the animal to cease its movements; its specific gravity secures its descent." It is, then, by a series of contractions and dilatations of their bodies that the Medusme make their long voyages on the surface of the waters. This double movement of their light skeleton had already been remarked by the ancients, who compared it to the action of respiration in the human chest. From this notion the ancients called them Sea Lungs. The Medusae usually inhabit the deep seas. They are rarely solitary, but seem to wander about in considerable battalions in the latitudes to which they belong. During their journey they proceed forward, with a course slightly oblique to the convex part of their body. If an obstacle arrests them, if an enemy touches them, the umbrella contracts, and is diminished in volume, the tentacles are folded up, and the timid animal descends into the depths of the ocean. We have said that the Medusae constitute in the Arctic seas one of the principal supports of the whale. Their innumerable masses sometimes cover many square leagues in extent. They show themselves ACALE1,Jl'HAE. '219 and disappear by turns in the same region, at determlinate epochsalternations which depend, no doubt, on the ruling of the winds and currents which carry or lead theml. "The barks which navigate Lake Thau meet," says Fredol, " at certain yeiiods of the year with numerous colonies of a species about the size of a small melon, nearly transparent-whitish, like water when it is mixed with a shade of aniseed. One would )be tempted to take these animals at first for a collection of floating lmuslin bonnets." The Meclusae are furnished with a mouth placed habitually in the midcdle of the neck. This mouth is rarely unoccupied. Small molluscs, young crustaceans, and worms, form their ordinary food. In spite of their shape, they are most voracious, and snap up their prey all at one mouthful, without dividing it. If their prey resists and disputes with it, the Medusa which has seized it holds fast, and remains motionless, and, without a single movement, waits till fatigue has exhausted and killed its victim, when it can swallow it in all security. In respect to size, the Medusre vary immensely. Some are very small, while others attain more than a yard in diameter. Many species are phosphorescent during the night. Most Medusadae produce an acute pain when they touch the human body. The painful sensation produced by this contact is so general in this group of animals, that it has determined their designation. Until very recently all the animals of the group have been, after Cuvier, designated under the name of Acalepht, or sea nettles, in order to remind us that the sensation produced is analogous to that occasioned by contact with the stinging leaves of the nettle. According to Dicquemare, who made experiments on himself in this matter, the sensation produced is very like that occasioned by a nettle, but it is more violent, and endures for half an hour. "In the last moments," says the abbe, " the sensation is such as would be produced by reiterated but very weak prickings. A considerable pain pervaded all the parts which had been touched, accompanied by pustules of the same colour, with a whitish point." " The sea-bladder," says Father Feuillee, "occasions me, on touching it, a sudden and severe pain, accompanied with convulsions." " During the first voyage of the Princess Louise round the world," to quote Fredol, "Meyen remarked a magnificent physalia, which passed near the ship. A young sailor leapt naked into the sea, to 220 THE OCEAN WORLD. seize the animal. Swimming towards it, he seized it; the creature surrounded the person of its assailant with its numerous thread-like filaments, which were nearly a yard in length; the young man, overwhelmed by a feeling of burning pain, cried out for assistance. He had scarcely strength to reach the vessel and get aboard again, before the pain and inflammation were so violent that brain fever declared itself, and great fears were entertained for his life.' Fig. 88. Chrysaora Gaudichaudi. The organization is much more complicated than early observers were disposed to think it. During many ages naturalists were inclined to imagine,.with Reauniur, that the Medusae were mere masses of organized jelly, of gelatinized water. But when Courtant Dumeril tried the experiment of injecting milk into their cavities, and saw the liquid penetrating into true vessels, lie began to comprehend that ACALEPILE. these very enigmatical beings were worthy of serious study-the study of subsequent naturalists, such as Cuvier, De Blainville, Ehrenberg, Brandt, Makel-Eschscholtz, Sars, Milne Edwards, Forbes, Gosse, andl other modern naturalists, who have demonstrated what richness of structure is concealed under this gelatiniform and simple structure in the Aledusm; at the same time they have revealed to us most mysterious and incredible facts as connected with their metamorphoses. Among the Meduse proper, the most common are Aurelia, Pelagia, and Chrysaora. In the latter, C. Gaudicliudi (Fig. 88), the disk is hemispherical, festooned with numerous tentacles, attached to a sac-like stomach, opening by a single orifice in the centre of the peduncle, with four long, furbelowed, unfringed arms. Gaudichaudi's Chrysaora is found round the Falkland Islands. The disk forms a regular half-sphere, very smooth, and perfectly concave, forming a sort of canopy in the shape of a vault. The circle which surrounds it is divided into sections by means of vertical lines, regularly divided, of a reddish blrown colour, which forms an edging to the umbrella-like disk. Twelve broad regular festoons form this edging. From the summit of these lobes issue twelve bundles of very long, simple, capillary tentacles, of a bright red. The peduncle is broad and flat, perforated in the middle, to which are attached four broad foliaceous arms. RHIZOSTOIA. The Medusme which bear the name of Rhizostoma have the disk hemispherically festooned, depressed, without marginal tentacles, peduncle divided into four pairs of arms, forked, and dentated almost to infinity, each having at their base two toothed auricles. Such is Rl izo.toma C(mvierii of Peron (Fig. 89), the disk of which is of a bluishwhite, like the arms, and of a rich violet over its circumference. This beautiful zoophyte is found plentifully in the Atlantic, living in flocks, which attain a great size. It is common in the month of June on the shores of the Saint Onge; in August on the English coast; and along the strand of every port in the Channel they are seen in the month of October in thousands, where they lie high and dry upon the shore on which they have been thrown by the force of the winds. 922 999 rjHE OCEAN NVOIJAD. Such also is R. Aldrovandi (Fig. 90), which appears all the year round in calm weather. It is an animal much drecaded by bathers. It possesses an urticaceous apparatus, which produces an effect similar to the stinging-nettle when applied to the skin. If the animal touches the fisherman at the moment of being drawn from the water, it is apt to inflame the part and raise it into pustules. Fig. 89. Rhizostoma Civieli. Catssiopea and Cephea are two other types 1belonging to the same group. In Cassiopea Andromeda (Fig. 91), belonging to the first, the disk is hemispherical, but much depressed, without marginal tentacles or peduncle, but with a central disk, with four to eight half-moonshaped orifices at the side, and throwing off eight to ten branching arms, fringed with retractile sucking disks. (l7Pjha Ci/clophort, ACALEPHI,. 292,) Peron (Fig. 92), is another very remarkable form of these strangely constituted organisms. Having presented to the reader certain characteristic types of M[edusadme, we proceed to offer some general remarks upon the organization and functions of these strange creatures. We have, in short, Ft'ig. 90. h1,izosioma Aldrovaiidi. selected these types because they hlive L):en special objects of anatomical and physiological study to some of our best naturalists. The Medusae have no other means of breathing but through the skin. We remark all over the body of these zoophytes certain cutaneous elongations, disposed so as to favour the exercise of the breathing function. Certain marginal fringes of extended surface, as well as the tentacle, are the special seats of tlhe apparatus. The 22 - THE OCEAN W\ORL). organs of digestion also present arrangements peculiar to themselves; the mouth is placed on the lower part of the body, and is pierced at the extremity of a trumpet-like tube, hanging sometimes like the tongue of a bell. The walls of the stomach, again, are fiunished with a multitude of appendages, which have their origin in the cavity of the organ, and which are very elastic. The stomach, furnished with these vibratile cells, appears to secrete a juice whose function is to attack the food and render it digestible. Fig. 91. Cassiopea Andromeda (Tilesius). In some of the Medusadre the central mouth is absent altogether. With the Rhizostoma, for instance, the stomachal reservoir has no inferior orifice; it communicates latterly with the canals which descend through the thickness of the arms, and open at their extremities through a multitude of small mouths. These are the root-like openings from which the animals derive their name of Rhizostoma, from the Greek words pia., root, and -ro-La, mouth. The arms of the Rhizostoma are usually eight in number, the free ACALE1PHA1. 225 extremities of each being slightly enlarged; in these arms many small openings or mouths occur, which are the entrances to so many ascend Fig. 92. Cephea Cyclophora. ing canals conmmunicating with larger ol:es, as the veins do in the Q - G THE OCEAN WORLD. higher animals: the common trunk canal is thus formed, which directs itself to the stomach, receiving in its way thither all the lateral branches. A very distinct circulation exists in the M3eduse. The peripheric part of the stomach suffers the nourishing liquid which has been elaborated in the digestive cavity to pass: this fluid then circulates through numerous canals, the existence of which have been clearly traced. It is also a singular fact, that organs of sense seem to have been discovered in these Medusae, which early observers believed to be altogether destitute of organization. " During my sojourn on the banks of the Red Sea," says Ehrenberg, in his work on the M3edusa aurita, "although I had many times examined the brownish bodies upon the edge of the disk of the Medusae, it is only in the month past that I have recognised their true nature and function. Each of these bodies consists of a little yellow button, oval or cylindrical, fixed upon a thin peduncle. The peduncle is attached to a vesicle, in which the microscope reveals a glandular body, yellow when the light traverses it, but white when the light is only reflected on it. From this body issue two branches, which proceed towards the peduncle or base of the brown body up to the button or head. I have found that each of these small brown bodies presents a very distinct red point placed on the dorsal face of the yellow head, and when I compare this with my other observations of similar red points in other animals, I find that they greatly resemble the eyes of the Rotifera and Entomostraca. The bifurcating body placed at the base of the brown spot appears to be a nervous ganglion, and its branches may be regarded as optic nerves. Each pedunculated eye presents upon its lower face a small yellow sac, in which are found, in greater or smaller numbers, small crystalline bodies clear as water." The presence of a red pigment in very fine grains is an argument in favour of the existence of visual organs in these zoophytes, for the small crystals disseminated in the interior of the organ would no doubt perform the part of refracting light which is produced by crystalline in the eyes of vertebrated animals. Moreover, it is found that there are marginal corpuscles analogous to these brown spots in other species of Medusae. They are of a palish yellow, or quite colourless, and enclose sometimes a single, sometimes many calcareous corpuscles. When they are colour ACALEPHEA. 227 less, some naturalists have rather taken them for ears reduced to their most simple expression. The Medusam are not absolutely destitute of nervous system. We have seen that they have ganglions and probably optic nerves. Ehrenberg also states that they have ganglions at their base, which furnish them with nervous filaments. Without entering further into the details of their delicate and complicated structure, we shall pause briefly on their mode of reproduction. We shall find here physiological phenomena so remarkable as to appear incredible, had not the researches of modern naturalists placed the facts beyond all doubt. " Which of us," says M. de Quatrefages, "would not proclaim the prodigy, if he saw a reptile issue from an egg laid in his court-yard which afterwards gave birth to an indefinite number of fishes and birds? Well, the generation of the IAedus-e is at least as marvellous as the fact which we have imagined." Let us note, for example, what takes place with the Rose Aurelia, a beautiful medusa, of a pale rose colour, with nearly hemispherical disk, from four to five inches in diameter, whose edge is furnished with short russet-brown tentacles; taking for our guide the eloquent and learned author of the " Metamorphose in Men and Animals," M. de Quatrefages. The Medusa, designated under the name of Rose Aurelia, lays eggs which are characterised by the existence of three concentric spheres. These eggs are transformed into oval larve, covered with vibratile cells, having a slight depression in front. They swim about for a short time with great activity, much like the infusoria, which they strikingly resemble in other respects. At the end of forty-eight hours the movements decrease. Aided by the depression already noted, the larva attaches itself to some solid body, fixing itself to it at this point by the assistance of a thick mucous matter. A change of form soon takes place: it becomes elongated; its pedicle is contracted, and its free extremity swells into a club-like shape. An opening soon presents itself in the centre of this extremity, through which an internal cavity appears. Four little mammals have now appeared on the edge, which are elongated in the manner of arms. Others soon follow: these are the tentacles of a polype: the young infusoria has become a polype! The polype increases by buds and shoots, just like a strawberry Q 2 '228 THE OCEAN WORLD). plant, which throws out its slender stems in all directions, covering all the neighbouring ground. The young Medusa lives some time under this form. Then one of the polypes becomes enlarged and its form cylindrical. This cylinder is divided into from ten to fourteen superposed rings. These rings, at first smooth, form themselves into festoons, and separate into bifurcated thongs; the intermediate lines become channeled. The animal now resembles a pile of plates, cut round the edges. In a short time each ring is stirred at the free edge of its fringe: this becomes contractile. The rings are individualised. Finally, these annular creatures, obscure in their lives, isolate themselves. When detached, they begin to swim: from that time they have only to perfect and modify their form. From being flat, they become concave on the one side and convex on the other. The digestive cavity-the gastro-vascular canals-become more decided; the mouth opens, the tentacles are elongated, the floating marginal cirri become more and more numerous; and now, after all these metamorphoses, the Medusa appears: it perfectly resembles the mother. TUBULARI1)PE. We have already said that recent researches have led to a separation of a class of animals from the Sertularia, and to their being united with the Medusae. Of these creatures we formerly only knew one of the forms, namely, the polype form; or, rather, the first stage of it. During their earliest clays they possess a polypier, furnished with tentacles, and a bell-shaped body. During their medusoid age, they present a central stomach, with four canals in the form of a cross, and four to eight tentacles with cirri. The animals constitute the Tubularidle, comprehending many genera; among others the Tubularia and Campanularia, in studying which Van Beneden of Louvain discovered most interesting facts connected with the subject of alternate generation. The class of zoophytes ranged among the Tubularia have the power of secreting an inverting tube of a horny nature, in which the fleshy body can move up and down, expanding its tentacles over the top. Others of them give forth buds, each of which takes the form of a polype, and these, beilng permanent, give it a shrub-like or branched ACALEPIL'tE. 229 appearance; it is now a compound polypier. The tube is branched, and the orifices from which the polypes expand usually dilate into cups or cells. 1this is the condition of the Tubulari-cazmpanzlaricadagroups, which are numerous round our own coast and in the Channel. The Tubularia are plant-like and horny, rooted by fibres, tubular, and filled with a semi-fluid organic pulp; polypes naked and fleshy, protruding from the extremity of every branchlet of the tube, and armed with one or two circles of smooth filiform tentacles; bulbules soft and naked, germinating from the base of the tentacles; embryo medusiform. "Some modern authors," says Frdol, "assure us that the tree-like form of these polypiers is a degraded and transitory form of the Melusae. The MIedusa originates the polypier, the polypier becomes a medusa." TaLbularia ramea so perfectly resembles an old tree in miniature, deprived of its leaves, that it is difficult to believe it is not of a vegetable origin; it is now a vigorous tree in miniature, in full flower, rising from the summit of a brown-spotted stem, with many branches and tufted shoots, terminating in so many hydras of a beautiful yellow or brilliant red. T. i'amosc, of a brownish colour and horny substance, rising six inches, is rooted by tortuous, wrinkled fibres, with flexible, smooth, and thread-like shoots, branching into a doubly permeate form. In T. i'ndivisa the tubes are clustering; its numerous stems are horny, yellow, and from six to twelve inches in height, about a line in diameter, and marked with unequal knots from space to space, like the stalk of the oat-straw with the joints cut off. Their lower extremity is tortuous, attaching itself readily to shells and stones in deep water, flourishing in deep muddy bottoms, and upright as a flower, fixed by the tapering root-like terminations of its horny tube: a flowering animal, having, however, neither flower nor branch. At the summit of each stem, a double scarlet corolla is developed of ftoom five to thirty-five petals, in rows, the external one spreading, those in the interior rising in a tuft; a little below, the ovarium appears, drooping when ripe like a bunch of orange-coloured grapes. After a time the petals of the corolla fade, fall, and die, and a bud replaces them, which produces a new polype; and so on. This succession determines the length of the stem. Each apparent flower throws out a small tube, which terminates it, and each addition adds one joint more to the axis, which it increases in length. The Campanularie differ considerably from the above, the ends of 230 THE OCEAN WORLD. their branches, whence the polypes issue, being enlarged into a bell-like shape, whence their name. C. dichotoma is at once the most delicate and most elegant of the species. It presents a brownish stem, thin as a thread of silk, but strong and elastic. The polypes are numerous: upon a tree eight or nine inches high there may be as many hundreds. C. volubilis is a minute microscopic species, living parasitically on corallines, sea-weed, and shelled animals. The stem is a capillary corneous tube, which creeps and twists itself upon its support, throwing out at alternate intervals a long slender stalk, twisted throughout or only partially, which supports a bell-shaped cup of perfect transparency, and prettily serrated round the brim. Dr. Johnston found the antennae of a crab so profusely infested with them as to resemble hairy brushes. It is furnished, according to Hassall, with a delicate joint or hinge at the base of each little cup —a contrivance designed, it is imagined, to enable the frail zoophyte the better to elude the rude contact of the element in which it lives, by allowing it to bend to a force which it cannot resist. The Campanulariae increase by budding; the buds being found in much the same manner as in the Hydra. It is a simple excrescence, which, in due time, takes the form of the branch from which it proceeds. These buds have their birth at certain distances, and form a polypier. SIPHONOPHORA. Alongside the Medusae naturalists place certain marine zoophytes which are equally remarkable for their beauty and for their curious structure, the latter being so complicated that their true organization long remained unknown. They were known, until very recently, under the designation of Hydrostatic Acalephae, or Hydra-medusme. They are known in our days as Siphonophorae. These inhabitants of the deep are graceful in form, and are distinguished by their delicate tissues and brilliant colours. Essentially swimmers, supported by one or many vessels filled with air-true swimming-bladders, more or less numerous, and of variable form-they float upon the waves, remaining always on the surface, whatever may be the state of the sea. They are natural skiffs, and quite incapable of immersion. The Siphonophoram form four orders or families; namely, the Diphydct, double-bell shaped ACALEPHIE. 231 animals, one fitting into the cavity of the other; Physaliade, having large oblong air-vessels and numerous tentacles of several forms, long, and pendant from one end of the shell, with a wrinkled crest; Vilelladt, animals stretching over a cartilaginous plate with a flat body, an oblique, vertical, cartilaginous crest above, a tubular mouth below, and surrounded by numerous short tentacles; Physojlhora, consisting of a slender and vertical axis, terminating in an air-bladder, carrying laterally swimming-bladders, which lose themselves amongst a bundle of slender white filaments. VILELLADAE. The Vilella assemble together in great shoals; in tropical seas and even in the Mediterranean they may be seen in fine weather floating Fig. 93. Vilella limbosa (Ianlarck). on the surface of the waves. As described by De Blainville, the body is oval or circular,, and gelatinous, sustained in the interior of the dorsal disk by a solid sub-cartilaginous frame, provided on the lower surface of the disk with extensible tentacular cirri. The family includes four genera; namely, Vilella, the Holothuria of the Chinese, which the reader will most readily comprehend from the brief description we shall give of the Mediterranean Vilella (V. lim1bos — Fig. 93), 22) THE OCEAN WORLD. which has been very minutely examined by M. Charles Vogt, of Geneva, from whose work on the "Inferior Animals of the Alediterranean" our details are borrowed. V. spircans, sometimes called V. liibosa, was discovered in the Mediterranean, between Monaco and Mentone, by Forskahl, who most erroneously took it for a holotharia. On the upper surface of the animal is a hydrostatic apparatus, the object of which is to maintain its equilibrium in the ambient element. This apparatus consists of a shield and a crest, organs of which MI. Vogt gives a very detailed description; but it is on the under surface that the principal organs of the Vilella are exhibited. These are not seen when the animal swims, because under such circumstances the vertical, oblique crest only is visible. The lower surface is concave, with a sort of mesial nucleus, presenting at the extremity of a trumpet-like prolongation, whitish and contractile, a sort of central mouth, surrounded by tentacular cirri, the external row being much longer than the internal ones. This was formerly thought to be the stomach of the Vilella. In the present day, this appendage is known to be the central polype around which are grouped other whitish and much smaller appendages, the base being surrounded by little yellow bunches. These are supposed to be the reproductive organs. Between the crest and the shield numerous free tentacles present themselves, vermiform in appearance, cylindrical, and of a skyblue colour, which are kept in continual motion. The Vilella is therefore not an isolated individual, but a group or colony, in which the individuals intended to be reproductive are the most numerous, and occupy the inferior parts. The central polype, by its size and structure, is distinguishable at the first glance from all the other appendages of the lower surface of the body. It is a cylindrical tube, very contractile and pear-shaped, swollen into a: round ball, or considerably elongated. Its mouth is round and much dilated; it opens in the cylindrical or trumpet part, which is contained in a sac in- the form of elongated fusci, clothed in the whitish integuments which formed the body of the polype when perfect. At the bottom of the sac two rows of openings are observed, which lead to a vascular network extending over the whole body; the membranous parts, while affecting various conditions in their arrangement, are nevertheless in direct commlunication with all the reproductive individuals. ACALEPH.,lE. It is a general characteristic of all colonies of polypi that the digestive cavities of the individuals composing them meet and inosculate in a common vascular system. The Vilella present the same conformation. Only in their case the vascular system is extended horizontally, this being the essential character of the union of all the individuals constituting the colony, with the canals common to all, in which the nourishing fluids circulate, elaborated for all and by all. It is a true picture of social communism realised by Nature. The central polype is alone destined to absorb the food. M. Vogt has always found in its interior cavity fragments of the shells of crustaceans, the remains of small fishes; and he has often seen the hard parts which resist digestion discharged through the trumpetlike opening. This central polype nourishes itself and also all the others, but is itself sterile. The tentacles are hollow cylinders, completely closed at the extremity. These are strong muscular tubes of considerable thickness, the interior of which is filled with a transparent liquid. They are enveloped in a strong membrane of a deep blue colour. The epidermis is furnished with small stinging capsules, formed of a sac with comparatively thick walls. If this sac is compressed under the microscope it explodes, opening at a determinate part, and throwing out an apparatus forming a long stiff filament, which is implanted on a conical channel and surrounded with points. " I know not," says M. Vogt, " if all this machinery can re-enter the capsule after it has exploded; but I presume that the animal can extend itself and withdraw at pleasure. A tentacule of Vilella sufficiently compressed presents a surface bristling with these cirri, so as to resemble a brush. The tentacles themselves are in continual motion, and I have no reason to doubt that the observation of Lesson, who saw them cover small crustaceans and fishes, may be perfectly true. These stinging organs doubtless serve the same purpose as with other animals of the same class; namely, to kill the prey which the tentacles have enabled them to secure." Thus the Yilellm have their javelins, as the Greek and Roman warriors had, and a lasso, as the cavaliers of Mexico and Texas have. The reproducing individuals form the great mass of the appendages attached to the under surface of the Vilella. The form of the individuals is much more varied, inasmuch as they are extremely 234 TIIE OCEAN WORL). contractile. Nevertheless, they have considerable resemblance to the corolla of a hyacinth. These reproductive individuals are, then, at the same time nurses. The Medusae originating by budding in the case of those reproductive individuals, constitute the sexual state of the Vilellae. They exist, in short, in two alternate states: the one sexual, producing eggs; in this state they are isolated individuals of the Medusadee, which never group themselves or form colonies: the other aggregate state is non-sexual, and in it they form swimming colonies, under the special designation of Vilelle. The Vilellae, so called by Lamarck, are found widely diffused in the seas of Europe, Asia, America, and Australia. One species, V. limbosa, is often taken on the southern coasts of England. The animals are also met with far at sea, and often huddled together in considerable masses, old and young together. Such is a brief account of the strange facts to which the careful study of the lower class of marine animals initiates us. Naturalists range along with them the Rataria and Porpita. The Rataria have the body oval or circular, sustained by a compressed sub-cartilaginous framework, much elevated, having a muscular, movable, longitudinal crest below, and provided in the middle with a free proboscidiform stomach and a single row of marginal tentacular suckers. De Blainville was inclined to consider the very small animals which Eschscholtz termed Rataria as young and undeveloped Vilell. M. Vogt doubts not that the Ratarie are young Vilellae which have acquired, by little and little, the elliptical form, but that the limb is only furnished at a later period to the reproductive individuals. These Ratariae are engendered, according to Vogt, by the naked-eyed Medusae born of the Vilelle, and owe their existence to the eggs produced by these Medusae. The Porpitc e constitute, like the Vilelle, colonies of floating animals furnished with a cartilaginous, horizontal, and rounded skeleton, but they are destitute of crest or veil. The body is circular and depressed, slightly convex above, with an internal circular cartilaginous support, having the surface marked by concentric strir crossing other radiating stria3; the upper surface being covered by a delicate membrane only. The body is concave below; the under surface is firnished with a ACALEPHA2. 235 great number of tentacles, the exterior ones being longest, and also with small cilia, each terminating in a globule, which sometimes contains air; the interior tentacles are shorter, simple, and fleshy. In the centre of these tentacula is the mouth, in form of a small proboscis, leading to a simple stomach surrounded by a somewhat glandular substance. The editors of the last edition of the "Regne Animal" only mention one species-P. gigantea, a native of the Mediterranean and other warm seas, of a beautiful blue colour. Lamarck gives four species. De Blainville and others consider with Cuvier that they are only varieties, which Eschscholtz re-unites under one species. In Fig. 94 we have represented P. pacifica (Lesson), the disk of which is twelve lines in diameter, ing the tentacles. This with a brilliant argentine nacre. The membranous fold which surrounds it is cut into, leaving light and perpressed, very thin and fecig. 94. Popita pacifica (Lesson). sea. "It is of a cleer of life," says Lesson, is perfectly analogous to that ti iniparvan. Their disk laid flaced n the ower part of the r-le, are of a perfect hyaline white. This beautiful Porpita was discovered by Lesson on the Peruvian coast, where it occurs in swarms closely packed on the surface of the sea. "Its manner of life," says Lesson, "is perfectly analogous to that of the Vilella. Their locomotion on the sea is purely passive, at least in appearance. Their disk laid flat on the surface upon the water-line, leaves them to float freely and in a horizontal direction, the irritable arms hanging all round them." 2836 TFHIF OCEAN WORLDI. PHYSOPHORA. This family includes the Physophora, properly so called, the Aga Fig..95. Physopbora hydrostatica (Forskahi). lian h tphanomia, for the hsoy of which we, are indebted to ACALEPH.E. 237 the curious observations of M. Vogt. Fig. 95 is a representation of Physophora /hydrostatica, after M. Vogt's memoir. We see that the animal is composed of a slender vertical axis, terminating in an aerial bladder, carrying laterally certain vesicles, known as swimmingballs, which terminate in a bundle of whitish slender threads. The aerial bladder is brilliant and silvery, punctured with red spots. The swimming-bladders are encased in a transparent and somewhat cartilaginous capsule, which is continued into the common median trunk, the latter being rose-coloured, hollow, and very contractile; in short, it presents very delicate muscular fibres, which expand themselves on the external fan of the capsule, and is closed on all sides. The swimming-bladders are of a glass-like transparency, and of a firm, compact tissue. They are attached obliquely and alternately upon a common axis, presenting an exterior curvature, a round opening, furnished with a fine, muscular, and very contractile limb, and arranged like the iris of the eye. Their power of resistance is increased by certain horny hollow threads, which are in direct communication with the cavity of the vertical trunk, and have their origin in a common circular canal. "The animal," says Vogt, " is enabled to guide itself in any direction by means of the swimming apparatus or air-bags. These, on opening, are filled with water, which is again ejected in the contractile movement, for their movements may be compared to that of the umbrella of the Medusa. It is the violent expulsion of this liquid which enables the animal to advance diagonally through the water, a kind of motion which is the consequence of its organization; for where both rows of air-bags are working in the direction of the axis of the trunk, the organism will incline to the side which works most, but always in such a manner that the aerial vesicle will be borne forward." In its lower parts the trunk expands, becomes flat, and winds itself in a spiral. It is hollow, and encloses a transparent viscous liquid, in which very small granules are observed, which appear to be the result of digestion. This disk is attached to three different sorts of appendages; we shall first address ourselves to the tentacles. These form a crown or bundle of vermiform appendages, of a reddish colour, over an inch in length, and which are kept continually in motionl: these are formed of a glass-like cartilagillolus substance; 238 THE OCEAN WORLD. they are conical tubes, closed on all parts except at the point where the tentacle is attached to the disk. Their cavity is filled with the granulous liquid already mentioned. On the under surface of the disk, and to the inside of these tentacles, the polypes and fishinglines are attached. The anterior part of the polype is formed of a glass-like substance, which changes its form in the most varied and surprising manner. It bears a roundish mouth at its summit. In its posterior part the polype presents a straight hollow stem, of reddish colour; but near to -.... ) - ( Fig. 96. P. hydrostatica, with a portion of the disk, three polypes, and reproductive clusters attached. this red stem we find a thick tuft of cylindrical appendages, from the middle of which springs the extensible and contractile filaments which Vogt calls the fishing-lines (fil pecheur), and of which he has given the following very strange account: " Each of these appendages consists of an assemblage of cylindrical tubes somewhat resembling and analogous to a filament of confervae. All these tubes are traversed by a continuous canal, which originates in the internal cavity of the stem of the polype. Each fragment of the line is capable of a prodigious extent of elongation and contraction, but where completely drawn back the pieces fold themselves up ACALEPHIE. somewhat in the manner of a pocket foot-rule. It is to the combined effect of contraction and the unfolding of the pieces that these lines owe the marvellous changes of length which they present." In Fig. 96 are represented the polypes and fishing-lines of P. hydrostatica, with a portion of the disk and two pairs of reproductive clusters. In this figure it will be observed that each fragment or joint has implanted, near the articulation, a secondary line, which bears the stinging organ. Each of these filaments consists of three parts: a straight stem, muscular, contractile, and hollow, the cavity of which communicates with that of the trunk which carries it; a middle part, a sort of tube containing, in a considerable internal cavity, a transparent liquid; finally, an inflated stinging organ, which terminates the apparatus. This last is egg-shaped, and consists internally of a hyaline substance of cartilaginous consistence, in the interior of which we find a great cavity, which opens from within, near the base of the capsule; to the inside of this cavity a second muscular sac is attached all round the opening of the capsule, in such a manner that the opening leads directly into the cavity of the sac. This cavity conceals in its interior a long filament usually rolled up in a spiral, as illustrated in Fig. 97, where the two urticant capsules of the stinging apparatus of Physophora hydrostatica are represented, one of them being a section, magnified by twelve diameters. This spirally rolled-up filament consists of a large quantity of very small, hard, sabre-shaped, corpuscular bodies, supported the one against the other, and having their points turned inwards. These objects Vogt terms "urticant sabres:" the extremity of the filament consists of curved corpuscles, larger, of a brownish yellow, very strong, and with a double point. M. Vogt had also opportunities of observing the action of these stinging capsules. He has seen them burst naturally, and he has also obtained artificially the same result. In the former case the filament issues from the opening left at the base of the capsule with a sort of explosion. " The use," he says, " of the fishing-lines becomes evident when we see a Physophora in repose in a vase large enough for its full development; then it takes a vertical position; the lines elongate themselves more and more, by unfolding one by one the secondary lines with stinging capsules, and the Physophora now resembles a flower posed upon a tuft of roots, o40 rTHE OCEAN WOR)LD. with extremely long and delicate rootlets reaching the bottom of the vase. But in the case of the Physophora the living roots are in continual motion. Each line is elongated, foreshortened, and contracted in a thousand ways. The least movement of the water causes the stinging capsules to be suddenly drawn up, the lines hauled in most rapidly being those near the crown of tentacles. This continuous play of the lines has no other object than to attract the prey destined iI\\ I J Fig. 97. Offensive apparatus of IPhysophora hydrostatica. to feed the polype, and we cannot find any better comparison for them than the fishing-lines to which they have been compared. The moment that some small microscopic medusae, larve, or crustaceans come within the sphere of those redoubted lines, it is at once surrounded, seized, and led with irresistible force towards the mouth of this polype by a gentle and gradual contraction of the line; the stinging organs, complicated as we have seen them to be in the Phy 410 I IC) I / L. t~ ACALEPH.1E. 241. sophora, thus serve the same purpose as the stinging organs disposed on the arms of the Hydrme, or on the external surface of the tentacles and prolific polypes of the Vilelle. Can there be any animal form more graceful than Agalma rubra, which is reproduced in Plate VII. from Vogt's Memoir? T'his beautiful creature is colmmon in the Mediterranean, on the coast near Nice, from November till the month of May. Towards the middle of December Vogt found nearly fifty individuals in the space of an hour, opposite to the Port of Nice, all following the same current; a prodigious quantity of Salple, Medusae, and small Pteropodean Mollusks accompanying them. "I know nothing more gracefil," says Vogt, "than this Agalma as it floats along near the surface of the waters, its long, transparent, garland-like lines extended, and their limits distinctly indicated by bundles of a brilliant vermilion red, while the rest of the body is concealed by its very transparency; the entire organism always swims in a slightly oblique position near the surface, but is capable of steering itself in any direction with great rapidity. I have had in my possession some of these garlands more than three feet in length, in which the series of air-bags measured more than four inches, so that in the great vase in which I kept them the column of swinmming bags touched the bottom, while the aerial vesicle floated on the surface. Immnediately after its capture tile columns contracted themselves to such a point that they were scarcely perceptible, but when left to repose in a spacious vase, all its shrunken appendages deployed themselves round the vase in the most graceful manner imaginable, the column of swimming-bladders remnaining immovable in their vertical position, the air-bags at the surflce, while the cifferent appendages soon began to play. The polypes, planted at intervals along the common trunk of rose-colour, began to agitate themselves in all directions, taking a thousand odd forms; the reproductive individuals, like the tentacles, were contracting and twisting themselves about like so many worms; the tentacles were stirred, the ovarian clusters began to dilate and contract, the spermatic air-bells agitated tlhe waters with their umbrellas, like the Medusmt; but what most excited my curiosity, was the continuous action of the fishing-lines, which continued to unroll and contract in a most surprising mannler, retiriung altogetler sometimes with the utmost precipitation. All who have witnessed 1t 2A 2 'THE OCEAN WORLD. these living colonies detach themselves reluctantly from the strange spectacle, where each polype seems to play the part of the fisherman who throws his line, furnished with baited hooks, withdrawing it when he feels a nibble, and throwing again when he discovers his disappointment. These efforts continue in full vigour for two or three days, and I have succeeded sometimes in feeding them with the small crustaceans which swarm on our coasts." Of the " personelle" of these colonies a few words will not be misplaced. The common axis of the Agalma is a hollow muscular tube, the length of which may be three feet, and its breadth an eighth or tenth of an inch; it is traversed by a double current of granulous liquid; at its summit is the aerial vesicle; beneath are the swimming vessels. These are disposed along the trunk in a double series, attaining sometimes the number of sixty; their structure is analogous to the same organs in the Physophora. In examining the posterior portion of the trunk, traversing polypes are observed at intervals, whose base is surrounded by a cluster of reddish grains, each of which is armed with a line, and with its surrounding filament, terminating in a tendril of a red vermilion colour, which is a perfect arsenal of offensive and defensive arms. There we find " sabres " of divers sizes, and poniards of various forms, the whole constituting a truly formidable stinging apparatus. These warlike engines, these arms of attack and defence with which man surrounds himself, Nature has freely bestowed on these little creatures with which the ocean swarms in some places. It might be said that, after having created these graceful creatures to ornament and decorate the depths of the ocean, the Creator was so pleased with His work that He furnished them with arms for their protection and defence against all attacks from without. Among these creatures we may note the pretty Apolemia con torta of Milne Edwards (Fig. 98), which also inhabits the Mediterranean, and particularly the coast of Nice, and is no less admirable in its structure than Agalyma riubra. This elegant species is often met with in the Gulf of Villafranca near Nice, and has been figured and described by Milne Edwards, Charles Vogt, and also by 3I. de Quatrefages, who asks the reader " to figure to himself an axis of flexible crystal, sometimes more than a mntre (forty inches), all round which are attached, by means of long peduncles or footstalks equally trans A( ALE I'HilE. 243) parent, some hIndreds of bodies, sometimes elongated, sometimes flat and formed like the bnd of a flower. If we add to this garland of pearls of a vivid red colour, an infinity of fine filaments, virying in thickness, and give lif'e andl miotion to all these parts, we have even now only a very slight and imperfect idea of the marvellous organism." The Fig. 98. Apolemia contorta, one-third natural size (Milne Edwards). air-bells in Apolemzici contort consist of a m:nass having the form of an elongated egg cut in the middle. They are arranged iln a vertical series of twelves, and the axis which supports them is terminated by the aerial vesicle. This axis is always arranged in a spiral form, even in its greatest expansion, is of a fine rose tint, and flattened into the form of a ribbon; it is m-arked in all its length with asperities or hollow dimples, in which the filiamental allpendages originate. R 2 244 'THLI OC)(EIAN WAV(LD. The nursing polypes have been called poboscidiferons organs by Mr. Milne Edwards, who has studied them carefully. They are rendered conspicuous at a glance by the bright red colour of their digestive cavity and their extreme dilatability. At the base of their -- stems the very delicate fila7 ments called fishing-lines are I attached, which are furnished I ith a multitude of stinging. tendrils of a reddish colour. i These tendrils slightly re/t ^ ^l semuble those of the Agalmnu, l. W S, and the sabre-like weapons 4a/ g( 1;: i are not wanting. Between the nursing poly-!.,: \ X::-I pes are placed in pairs the reproductive individuals, havl 1i;)ng the form of an elongated tube very dilatable, and closed /; ^ j at the free end. They have, '.l t;ll 1 then, no mouth Milne 7: i \ 1: EdCwardds calls these vesicular J,\ ~ ~.: appendages," and M.Kcelliker, /1 tentacle,. The buds arranged i at the base of each prolific S individual vary; but, accord-,,:: ing to AI. Yogt, they are always there in pairs-a male Fig. 99. Apolflmia contorta, Fi-. Iou. A\l)teiia conmagnified12 titmes. torta, pr)oductive and female at the base of paigr, iniifed 12 tinies. oi rpiducoxprl, Il1gliiet 12 time.l each stem. Figs. 99 and 100 represent the colony we have eiideavoured to describe, 99 being the nursing individual of Apolenia colt/or't, magnified twelve times, 100 representing the reproductive pair under the same mlagnifying power. THE DIPHYDE. We have seen that the Physophora, the Agalmac, and the Apolemiic have for the use of tle colony a vast number of Swimming vesicules ACALEPIHA:. 24r) and a terminal aerial vesicule. It is munch the same in the Prays or Diphydce. In this family a great number of natatory vesicles are connected with the terminal aerial vesicle, as in Fig. 101, Praya diphys. This species is widely diffused in the sea which bathes the Nicean coast, but it is very difficult to procure perfect specimens. M. Vogt Fig. Ill. Prava d(liphys (lllainville). found fragments more than three feet long which swam on the surface, and was in its state of contraction not more than a finger's length. This species has been met with at Porta della Praya and at San Yago, one of the Cape de Verde islands. The colony of the Praya presents two great locomotive bell-shaped masses, between which the common trunk is suspended, and to which it can retire. This cylindrical trunk, which is thin and transparent, 241; THE OCEAN \\ORLD. carries from space to space certain groups very exactly circumscribed and individualised. Each of these groups consists of a nursing polype, having its fishing-line with a special floating air-bladder, a reproductive bud male or female, and a protecting casque enveloping the whole. Another species having a great resemblance to the PFraya is Galeolari-a ac rauniztica (Plate VIII.) or Orange Galeolaria, which is represented on the opposite page, borrowed from the fine " Memoir of the Inferior Animals of the Mediterranean," by Charles Vogt. Here we find only two great floating bladders placed at each extremity of a common trunk, and serving the purpose of a locomotive apparatus to the whole colony. This trunk carries in like manner polypes placed at regular intervals forming isolated groups, provided each with its protecting plates. But there is no special swimming apparatus for each of these groups. Moreover, each colony is either male or female. PHYSALIA. Let us finally note among the Siphonophorme a zoophyte which has attracted great attention, and has been described nnder many names. Sailors call it the sea-bladder, from its resemblance to that organ; it is also known as the Portuguese man-of-war, from its fancied resemblance to a small ship as it floats along under its tiny sail. Naturalists after Eschscholtz call it PhrysaliCa uhiciulus, from the Greek word uvcraX', a bubble, and ntriculus from its stinging powers. It was long thought that the Physalia was an isolated individual. But, according to recent researches, they form, like the species already described, an animal republic. Let us imagine a great cylindrical bladder dilated in the middle, attenuated and rounded at its two extremities, of eleven or twelve inches in length, and from one to three broad. Its appearance is glassy and transparent, its colour an imperfect purple, passing to a violet, then to an azure above. It is surmounted by a crest, limpid and pure as crystal, veined with purple and violet in decreasing tints. Under the vesicle float the fleshy filaments, waving and contorted into a spiral form, which sometimes descend perpendicularly like so many threads of celestial blue. Sailors believe that the crest which Pflate VIII.-Galeolaria aurantiaca. (Volgt.) I x iL - k s Ip, iI / 4 ACALEPHfE. 247 surmounts the vesicle performs the office of a sail, and that they tell the navigator " how the wind blows," as they say. With all respect to the sailors, the bladder-like form, with its aerial crest, is only a hydrostatic apparatus, whose office is to lighten the animal, and modify its specific gravity. Mr. Gosse thinks otherwise however. "This bladder," says Gosse, in his "Year by the Sea-side," "is filled with air, and therefore floats almost wholly on the surface. Along the upper side, nearly from end to end, runs a thin edge of membrane, which is capable of being erected at will to a considerable height, filly equal at times to the entire width of the bladder, when it represents an arched fore-and-aft sail, the bladder being the hull. From the bottom of the bladder, near the thickest extremity, where there is a denser portion of the membrane, depends a crowded mass of organs, most of which take the form of very slender, highly contractile movable threads, which hang down into the deep to a depth of many feet, or occasionally of several yards. "The colours of this curious creature are very vivid; the bladder, though in some parts transparent and colourless, and in some specimens almost entirely so, is in general painted with richest blues and purple, mingled with green and crimson to a smaller extent, these all being, not as sometimes described, iridescent or changeable, but positive colours independent of the incidence of light, and, for the most part, possessing great depth and fulness. The sail-like, erectile membrane is transparent, tinted towards the edge with a lovely rosepink hue, the colours arranged in a peculiar fringe-like manner. When examined anatomically, the bladder is found to be composed of two walls of membrane, which are lined with cilia, and have between them the nutritive food which supplies the place of the blood. Besides this, the double membrane is turned in or inverted like a stocking prepared for putting on; and thus there is a bladder within a bladder, both having double walls; the inner (p2eeiictfocyst) much smaller than the outer (1menwcItop)hone), and contracted at the point where it is turned in to the almost imperceptible orifice. The inner sends up closed tubular folds into the crest, which, being arrested by the membranous walls of the outer sac, give to the sail that appearance of verticle wrinkles which is so conspicuous." When it is filled with air the body is almost projected out of the water. In order to descend it is necessary to compress itself or dispel 248 THE OCEAN WOILD. the air, in part, for the centre of gravity in the animal is displaced, according as the air isesile o in te esile or in te crest. When the last is distended it rises out of the water, and becomes nearly vertical; in short, it then becomes a sort of sail. The floating appendages beneath the body are of divers kinds. Some of these are reproductive individuals; some are nurses; some are tentacles; finally, there are organs designated under the name of Sondles by French naturalists; probes or suckers, we may call them, forming offensive and defensive arms truly formidable; for these elegant creatures are terrible antagonists. Dutertre, the veracious historian of the Antilles, relates the following: "This 'galley' (our Physalia), however agreeable to the sight, is most dangerous to the body, for I can assert that it is freighted with the worst merchandise which floats on the sea. I speak as a naturalist, and as having made experiments at my own personal cost. One day, when sailing at sea in a small boat, I perceived one of these little 'galleys,' and was curious to see the form of the animal; but I had scarcely seized it, when all its fibres seemed to clasp my hand, covering it as with birdlime, and scarcely had I felt it in all its freshness (for it is very cold to the touch) when it seemed as if I had plunged my arm up to the shoulder in a cauldron of boiling water. This was accompanied with a pain so strange that it was only with a violent effort I could restrain myself from crying aloud." Another voyager, Leblond, in his " Voyage aux Antilles," relates as follows: "One day I was bathing with some friends in a bay in front of the house where I dwelt. While my friends fished for sardines for breakfast, I amused myself by diving, in the manner of the native Carribeans, under the wave about to break; having reached the other side of one great wave, I had gained the open sea, and was returning on the top of the next wave towards the shore. My rashness nearly cost me my life: a Physalia, many of which were stranded upon the beach, fixed itself upon my left shoulder at the moment the wave landed me on the beach. I promptly detached it, but many of its filaments remained glued to my skin, and the pain I experienced immediately was so intense that I nearly fainted. I seized an oil flask which was at hand, and swallowed one half, while I rubbed my arm with the other: this restored me to myself, and I returned to the house, where two hours of repose relieved the pain, which disappeared altogether during the night." ACALEPH.LE. 2-1. Mr. Tlennett, who accompanied the exploring expedition under Admiral Fitzroy as naturalist, ventured to test the powers of the Physalia. " On one occasion," he says, " I tried the experiment of its stinging powers upon myself, intentionally. When I seized it by the bladder portion, it raised the long cables by muscular contraction of the bands situated at the base of the feelers, and, entwining the slender appendages about my hand and finger, inflicting severe and peculiarly pungent pain, it adhered most tenaciously at the same time, so as to be extremely difficult of removal. The stinging continued during the whole time that the minutest portion of the tentacula remained adherent to the skin. I soon found that the effects were not confined to the acute pungency inflicted, but produced a great degree of constitutional irritation: the pain extended upwards along the arm, increasing not only in extent but in severity, apparently acting along the course of the absorbents, and could only be compared to a severe rheumatic attack. The pulse was accelerated, and a feverish state of the whole system produced: the muscles of the chest, even, were affected; the same distressing pain being felt on taking a full respiration as obtains in a case of acute rheumatism. The secondary effects were very severe, continuing for nearly three-quarters of an hour; the duration being probably longer in consequence of the time and delay occasioned by removing the tentacula from the skin, to which they adhered, by the aid of the stinging capsules, with an annoying degree of tenacity. On the whole being removed, the pain began to abate; but during the day a peculiar numbness was felt, accompanied by an increased temperature in the limb on which the sting had been inflicted. For some hours afterwards the skin displayed white elevations or weals on the parts stung similar to those resulting from the poison of the stinging nettle. The intensity of the pain depends in some degree upon the size and consequent power of the creature. After it has been removed from the water for some time, the stinging property, although still continuing to act, is found to have perceptibly diminished. I have observed also, that this irritative power is retained for some weeks after the death of the animal in the vesicles of the cables, and even linen cloth which l4as been used for wiping off the adhering tentacles, when touched, still retained the pungency, although it had not the power of producing such violent constitutional irritation." 2,50 THE OCEAN WORLD. The question has been much agitated, without being positively resolved, whether the Physalia are venomous or not: if they can kill or make sick the man or animal which swallows them. Listen to the opinions of M. Ricord-Madiana, a physician of Guadaloupe, who made direct experiments with a view to settling the question. " Many inhabitants of the Antilles," he says, "say that the ' galleys' are poisonous, and that the negroes mlake use of them, after being dried and powdered, to poison both men and animals. The fishermen of the islands also believe that fish which have swallowed them become deleterious and poison those who eat them, a prejudice which has been adopted by many travellers, and has even found its way into scientific books. We can state, as the result of direct experiment, that though the 'galley' will burn the ignorant hand which is touched by its tentacles, when dried in the sun and pulverized, it becomes mere grLins of dead matter, producing no effect whatever upon the animal economy." On the other hand, we read in P. Labat's Voyage, vol. ii., p. 31, " that the becune should not be eaten without some precaution, for this fish being extremely voracious, greedily devours all that cones within its reach in and out of the water, and it often happens that it meets and swallows 'galleys,' which are very caustic, and a violent poison. The fish does not die, but its flesh absorbs the venom and poisons those who eat it." " There is every reason to believe," says M. Leblond, in the work already quoted, " that the sardine, as well as many other species of fish, after having ate the tentacles of the ' galley,' acquires a poisonous quality. Supping at an auberge on one occasion, with other persons, a becune was served up, of which gastronomers are very fond, and which is usually perfectly harmless: five persons partook of it, and immediately afterwards exhibited every symptom of being poisoned. This was manifested by a burning heat in the region of the stomach. I bled two of them: one was cured by vomiting; one other would take nothing but tea and some culinary oil. The colic continued during the night, and had disappeared in the morning, but he entertained so great a horror of water, that during the remainder of the voyage a glass of it presented to himi made him turn pale." M. Leblond concludes, from this and other facts, that the fishes which eat the Physalia become a poison for those who eat them, although it does not appear that lie had any evidence of the fish having ate the galley," or any other poison. ACALEI1LE.I'H2. 251 " Let us report our own experiments," continues M. Ricord-Madiana. "I. I had placed a ' galley' in the sun, in order to dry and pulverize it. A nest of ants were there who devoured the whole of it. Now, many persons in the islands think that these insects will not touch venomousi fishes. " II. Another ' galley,' which I had left on the table in my laboratory, was attacked by a number of great flies, who deposited their eggs there; these were duly hatched, and the larva fed on the decomposed zoophyte. "III. On the 12th of July, 1823, I saw on the sands in the Bay between Saint Mary and La Goyave, at Guadaloupe, many Physalia recently cast ashore. Having a dog with me, with the assistance of my servant, I made him swallow the freshest of them, with all its filiform tentacles, pushing it down his throat, while my servant held his mouth open; five minutes after, the dog exhibited symptoms of great pain on the edges of its lips, it foamed at the mouth and rubbed it in the sand, or upon the grass, leaping about, passing its paws over its jaws, and exhibiting every symptom of excessive pain. I mounted my horse, and, in spite of its sufferings, the poor animal followed me as it was wont. After twenty minutes, when its sufferings seemed over, I had a piece of bread which I gave it, and it ate it with appetite, swallowing it without any difficulty; it only seemed to feel the pain on the edges of its mouth: it was well enough all day, and had evacuations which gave no indication that the Physalia had any influence over the digestive organs. Next day, and the day following, it was as well as usual, exhibiting no signs of inflammation either in the mouth or throat. "IV. On the 20th of the same month, I took two ' galleys' on the sea-shore and cut them in pieces; then, with a spoon, I had them forced down the throat of a puppy, which still sucked its mother; this strong dose of Physalia had no effect upon it, the tentacles having probably been surrounded, by the fleshy parts of the animal in dividing it, so as not to touch the mouth: it seems probable, therefore, that the internal mucous is capable of subduing the irritation, which is so distressing when applied to membranes exposed to the external air. We swallow some things with impunity, which we could not support in the mouth if the burning substance remained there. "V. I have also procured many 'galleys' since these experiments, 252 THUE OCEAN WO(ILD. and having placed them in a glass-tube, left them to dry and had them pulverized; twenty-five grains of this powder administered to a very young dog produced no deleterious effects. Twice this quantity administered to a young cat produced no more, nor has this surprised me, for, if the fresh animal has no poisonous properties, how can it be supposed that drying the zoophyte can have increased its poisonous properties, if it really possesses them? On the contrary, it is more reasonable to suppose that, by desiccation, the deleterious principle from any animal, whether Physalia or Holot7l1ria, should lose infinitely in its principle by evaporation, and other changes that heat and air produce in the process of drying. "VI. I have had a 'galley' cut into pieces, and got a fat young chicken to swallow them. It caused no inconvenience. Three hours after, I had the chicken killed and roastedc; then I ate it, and made my servant eat it too. Neither of us experienced any inconvenience from it, a certain proof that it is not from eating Physalia that the fish becomes poisonous. "VII. I put twenty-five grains of powdered Physalia in a little 'bouillon;' I swallowed the dose without the least fear, and I felt no inconvenience from it." After these experiments, which are certainly quite conclusive, what are we to think of the story related of a certain M. Tebe', the managing partner of a house in G-uadaloupe, who fell a victim to his cook, who is said, after having sought in vain to poison him with the rasping of his nails, which he had spread carefully over the roasted fish daily served up for dinner, determined, seeing that lie had signally failed by other means, to put into his soup a pulverized Physalia. An hour after his repast, this gentleman appeared in the burgh of Lamnantin, at a little distance from his habitation, and, while entering the city with some friends, he was seized with violent pains in the stomach and intestines, racking him as if by the most corrosive poison. His illness increased until the next day, when he died, under the most excruciating pains. On examination, the stomach land intestines were found to be violently inflamed and corroded, as if he had been poisoned with arsenic, and I have no doubt that it was with this poison, or some other corrosive substance, that M. Tebe really was poisoned. The negroes never make known the substance with which they commit a poisoning; they confess all but the truth, which they ACALEPHI.E.);.) are sworii never to reveal-the means they employ, so far as the Fig. 1 02. Pihysalia utriculius (Esclischioltz). poisoning10 mlateria'l is euneceriied are, never coummunicated by confession 2')4 rTHlE OCEAN \VWOI[I). The habits of the Physalia are still imperfectly known, but among the many strange forms of brilliant colour and elegant contour, which swarm in the warmer parts of the ocean, " none," says Gosse, " take a stronger hold on the falncy of the beholder, certainly none is more familiar than the little thing he daily marks floating in the sun-lit waves, as the ship glides swiftly by, which the sailors tell him is the Portuguese man-of-war. Perhaps a dead calm has settled over the sea, and he leans over the bulwarks of the ship scrutinizing the oceanrover at leisure, as it hastily rises and falls on the long, sluggish heavings of the glassy surface. Then he sees that the comparison of the stranger to a ship is a felicitous one, for at a little (Fig. 102) distance it might well be mistaken for a child's mimic boat, shining in all the gaudy painting in which it left the toy-shop. "Not unfrequently, one of these tiny vessels comes so close alongside, that, by means of the ship's bucket, with the assistance of a smart fellow, who has jumped into tl'e 'chains' with a bolit-hook, it is captured, and brought on deck for examination. A dozen voices are, however, lifted, warning you by no means to touch it, for well the experienced sailor knows its terrible powers of defence. It does not now appear so like a ship as when it was at a distance. It is an oblong bladder of tough membrane, varying considerably in shape, for no two agree in this respect; varying also in size, from less than an inch to the size of a man's hat. Once, on a voyage to Mobile, when rounding the Florida reef, I was nearly a whole day passing through a fleet of these little Portuguese men-of-war, which studded the smooth sea as far as the eye could reach, and must have extended for many miles. They were of all sizes within the limits I have mentioned." Generally, there is a conspicuous difference between the two extremities of the bladder, one end being rounded, the other more pointed, or terminating in a small knob-like swelling or 1eak-shaped excrescence, where there is a minute orifice; sometimes, however, no such excrescence is visible, and the orifice cannot be detected. "That wonderful river," continues Mr. Gosse, in his nervous, eloquent style, " with a well-defined course through the midst of the Atlanticthat Gulf stream-brings on its warm watters many of the denizens of tropical seas, and wafts them to the shores on which its waves impinge. Hence it is that so many of the proper pelagic creatures are from time to time observed on the coasts of Cornwall and Devon. The Portu ACALEPHE. guese man-of-war is among them, sometimes paying its visit in fleets, more commonly in single stranded hulks. Scarcely a season passes without one or more of these lovely strangers occurring in the vicinity of Torquay. Usually," he adds in a note, " in these stranded examples the tentacles and suckers are much mutilated by washing on the shore. The fishermen, who pick them up, always endeavour to make a harvest of their capture, not by selling, but by making an exhibition of them." The Physalia seem to be gregarious in their habits, herding together in shoals. Floating on the sea between the tropics in both oceans, they may be seen now carried along by currents, now driven by the trade-winds, dragging behind tliem their long tentacular appendages, and conspicuous by their rich and varied colouring, from pale crimson to ultramarine blue. " Certainly," says Lesson, " we can readily conceive that a poetical imagination might well compare the graceful form of the Physalia to the most elegant of sailing-vessels, even if it careened to the wind under a sail of satin, and dragged behind it deceitful garlands which struck with death every creature which suffered itself to be attracted by its seductive appearance." If fishes have the misfortune to come in contact with one of these creatures, each tentacule, by a movement as rapid as a flash of light, or sudden as an electric shock, seizes and bennmbs them, winding round their bodies as a serpent winds itself round its victim. A Physalia of the size of a walnut will kill a fish much stronger than a herring. The flying fish and the polypes are the habitual prey of the Physalia. Mr. Bennett describes them as seizing and benumbing them by means of the tentacles, which are alternately contracted to half an inch, and then shot out with amazing velocity to the length of several feet, dragging the helpless and entangled prey to the sucker-like mouths and stomach-like cavities concealed among the tentacles, which he saw filled while he looked on. Dr. Wallach thinks Mr. Bennett must have been mistaken in what he saw; " because he has observed that in a great number of instances the Physalia is accompanied by small fishes which play around and among the depending tentacles without molestation. He has in so many cases seen this, and even witnessed the actual contact of the fishes with the tentacles, with no inconvenience to the former, that he too hastily concludes that the urticating organs are innocuous." "Surely," says Gosse, " the premises by no means warrant such an inference. There is no antagonism between the two 256; THE OCEAN WORLD. series of facts witnessed by such excellent observers; the venomous virulence of these organs has been abundantly proved by many naturalists, myself among the number, and Mr. Bennett to his cost, as already narrated. We can only suppose that the injection of the poison is under the control of the Physalia's will, and the impunity of the bold little fishes is sufficiently accounted for." Among the Physalia captured on our coast, one was obtained at Tenby, by Mr. Hughes, who has given a report of the capture, in which he mentions a circumstance as "normal," which excited Mr. Gosse's curiosity; it was said to be accompanied by "its attendant satellites, two Vilelle. In reply to his inquiries, Mr. Hughes says, " My authority for the association of the Vilella with Physalia is Jenkins, the collector of Tenby, who was attending me when it was found. The Physalia was taken by me first; and, while I was admiring it, I noticed that Jenkins continued his search for something. Immediately afterwards, he came up with the Vilella in his hand, at the same time stating they were generally found with the Portuguese man-of-war. As I had found him very honest and truthful in his dealings with me, I accepted his information as correct." CTENOPHORA. We have now reached the last class of polypes; those, namely, which Cuvier designates Iydrostatic Acalepha, and which De Blainville calls the Ciliobiranchit. The body of these polypes present marginal fringes furnished with vibratile cilia, which are swimming organs. Moreover, as these vibratile fringes are inserted directly over the principal canal, in which the nourishing fluid circulates, they ought necessarily to concur in the act of respiration, by determining the renewal of the water in contact with the corresponding portion of the tegumentary membrane. The class may be divided into three orders or families, namely, Beroe, Ccllianirea, and Cestea. The creatures belonging to these three orders swarm in the deep sea; they often appear quite suddenly, and in vast numbers, in certain localities. The Berces of Forskahl have been studied with great care W-\AATTl 1.-1i'1 257 by Mr. Milne Edwards. They inhabit the Gulf of Naples, and other parts of the Mediterranean; the sailors of Provence call them Seacucumbers. The body (Fig. 103), cylindrical in form, is of a pale rose colour, thickly studdedl with small reddish sl)(ots, so nullerous as to appear point entirely puncturell eith ll._ them. It presents eigllt blue sides, -ith velry fi e w ___ le vibratile cils. which )v their reflection produce al1l =_ —_ the colours of the raill- h = = — ~~-~ bow. The substance of tlhe dee body is gelatinous, its ape- = e -a pearance glass-like; its i - form varies accorfling S a s the aniBmal is i n _o til1 ' --- or repose. Fometimes it = __swells up like a hall, Imam sometimes it reverse itself, so as to reselmlle a bell; at others it is elongated and cylindrical; at. its lower extremity it presents a large mouth; at its upper extremity is found a small nipple, having at (Ird Fig. 103. Beros Forskahli (Edwvards). its base a spherical ipoint of a reddish colour, enlelosing many crystalloid corlpuscles, which rest upon a sort of nervous ganglionl, whose physiologrical function is not very well determined. A vast stomach, considering its size, occupies the whole interior of the body of the Ber6e: the circulation is also much developed in this zoophyte. The circulating apparatus contains a moving fluid charged with a multitude of circular, colourless globules, which flows from a vascular ring round the month towards the summnit of the body; in the interior are eight superficial canals, which flow under the ciliated sides?, and re-descend 1)y two much deeper canals; lbut the Ber6es hlave no hearft. Ber(;-e ozt!(,/ is a ieautltiful 2.5 THE OCEAN WOIRLD. species, seldom exceeding three inches and a half in length, and two and a half in its larger transverse diameter; is described by Browne, in his "Jamaica," as "of an oval form, obtusely octangular, hollow, open at the larger extremity, transparent, and of a firm gelatinous consistence; it contracts and widens with great facility, but is always open and expanded when it swims or moves. The longitudinal radii are strongest in the crown or smallest extremity where they rise from a very beautiful oblong star, and diminish gradually from thence to the margin, each being furnished with a single series of short, slender, delicate appendages, or limbs (cilia), that move with great celerity in all directions, as the creature pleases to direct its flexions, and in a regular accelerated succession from the top to the margin. It is impossible to express the liveliness of the motions of those delicate organs, or the beautiful variety of colour which rise from them to play to and fro in the rays of the sun; nor is it easy to express the speed and regularity with which the motions succeed each other from one end of the rays to the other." " The grace and beauty which the entire apparatus presents in the living animal," says Gosse, "or the marvellous ease and rapidity with which it can be alternately contracted, extended, and bent at an infinite variety of angles, no verbal description can sufficiently treat. Fortunately the creature is so common in summer and autumn on all our coasts, that few who use the surface can possibly miss its capture. It is worthy of a poet's description, which it has received: 'When first extracted from her native brine, Behold a round, small mass of gelatine, Or frozen dewdrop, void of life and limb; But round the crystal'goblet let her swim 'Midst her own elements; and lo! a sphere Banded from pole to pole; as diamond clear, Shaped as bard's fancy shapes the small balloon, To bear some sylph or faiy beyond the moon. From all her bands see lurid fringes play, That glance and sparkle in the solar ray With iridescent hues. Now round and round She whirls and twirls; now mounts, then sinks profound.' DRT3ITMOND. Beside the Ber6e, naturalists place the Cydippa, which is frequently confounded with the former. The Cydippe are globulous or eggshaped, furnished with eight rows of cils, corresponding with as many ACALELPIITtA2. 2;.9 sections more or less distinct, and terminated by two long filiform tentacles issuing from the base of the zoophyte and fringed on the sides. "It is," says Gosse, "a globe of pure colourless jelly, about as big as a small marble, often with a wart-like swelling at one of its poles, where the mouth is placed. At the other end there are minute orifices, and between the two passes the stomach, which is flat or wider in one diameter than the other." Cydippa pilens, found abundantly in the spring on the Belgian coast, is so transparent that it is scarcely visible in the water, where it seems to be a living, moving crystal. C. densa, which abounds in the Mediterranean, is of a crystalline white, with rows of reddish cirrhi, terminating in two tentacles, much longer and coloured red; it is about the size of a hazel-nut, and phosphorescent. Within the clear substance of the Cydi)ppa, on each side of the stomach, there is a capacious cavity, which communicates with the surface, and within each cavity is fixed the tentacle, of great length and very slender, which the animal can at pleasure shoot out of the orifice and suffer to trail through the water, shortening, lengthening, twisting, twining, or contracting it into a tiny ball at will, or withdrawing it into its cavity, short filaments being given off at intervals over the whole length of this attenuated white thread-like apparatus, each of which can also be lengthened or shortened, and coiled individually. These proceed only from one side of the thread-like tentacle, although, at a casual glance, they seem to proceed now from one side, now from the other. CALLIANIRA. The Callianira form a sort of connecting-link between the Beroes and the Cestidtc. Their bodies are smooth and regular, verticallyelongated, compressed on one side and as if lobated on the other; in substance they are gelatinous, hyalin, and tubular, obtuse at both extremities, with buccal openings between the prolongations of the side, and two pair of conical appendages resembling wings, capable of expansion, on the edges of which two rows of vibratory cilia are ranged. A great transversal opening presents itself at one of the extremities, a small one at the other. The animal is furnished with two branching tentacles, but without cilia. s2 )6o 'THE OCEAN WORLD. CESTIDDE. In Cestlu, or Venus's Girdle, as it is vulgarly called, we have a long, gelatinous, riblon-like body, fine, regular, and very short, but much extended on each side, while the edges are furnished with a double row of cilia; the lower surface is also furnished with cils, but much smaller in size and number. On the middle of the lower edge is the mouth, opening into a large stomach. This alimentary canal runs across the middle of its length, and from it extends, as in the Medusae, a series of gastric canals, which carry the nutriment into all Fig. 104. Cestum veneris (Lesueur). parts of the body. There are many species of Cestum; among them the best known is C. veneris (Fig. 104), which is found in the Mediterranean, particularly in the sea which bathes the coasts of Naples and Nice, where the fishermen call it the sea-sabre-sabe e de me'. This curious zoophyte unwinds itself on the bosom of the waters, like a scarf of iridescent shades. It is the scarf of Yenus traversing the waves, under the fiery rays of the sun, which has coloured it with a thousand reflections of silver and azure blue. 261 CHAPTER IX. ECHINODERMATA. "Ultra magis pisces et Echinos aequora celent."-Itor. Ep. IN their " Natural History of the Echinodermata," Messrs. Hupe and Dujardin divide this vast natural group into five orders or families, namely: 1, Asteroidec, which includes the true star-fishes; 2, Crinoidte, stone lilies, calcareous, stem composed of movable pieces; 3, Ophitirte, having the disk much depressed, the rays simple, and furnished with short stems; 4, ELchinidse, comprehending the animals known as seaeggs, or sea-urchins, distinguished by their rounded form and absence of arms; 5, Holothzuroil'd, with soft lengthened cylindrical body, covered with scattered suckers. The Echinodermata, from the Greek words eX;zvos, rough, and 8epxa, skin; indicating an animal bristling with spines like the hedgehog's. They are animals sometimes free, sometimes attached by a stem, flexible or otherwise, and radiating, that is, presenting an appearance more or less regular in all its parts, after the manner of a circle or star, its form being globular, egg-shaped, cylindrical, or like a pentagonal plate; or, lastly, like a star, with more or less elongated branches, which secrete either in all their tissues or only in the integument very numerous symmetrical calcareous plates of solid matter, sometimes forming an internal skeleton or regular shell covered with a more or less consistent skin, often pierced with holes, from which the feet or tentacula issue; they are frequently furnished with appendices of various kinds, such as prickles, scales, &c. The organisation of the Echinodermata is the most perfect of all the zoophytes, serving as a transition between them and animals of more );2 '1TH I OCEAN WORLD. complicated frame. They have a digestive and vascular system, and a muscular system is almost always present; in short, they have internal or external respiratory organs, and a rudimentary nervous system has been detected in many of the species. The nutritive system is very simple, presenting in most of the family a single orifice in the centre of the lower surface of the body, destitute of teeth, performing the functions both of mouth and anus. De Blainville says that "the liver is apparent and rather considerable in the star-fishes, forming bunches occupying the whole circumference of the stomach, and extending to the cavities of the appendages where these exist." The mouth and gullet is admirably adapted for securing the testaceous mollusks, and other substances on which they feed. Reproduction in the Echinodermata appears to be moncecious. Ovaries are, as far as is known, the only organs of generation. They vary in number in different species. The sexes are usually separate: the young are produced by eggs, the embryo of which undergo important metamorphoses. Immediately after birth, the young asterine have a depressed and rounded body, with four club-shaped appendages or arms at their anterior extremity. When they are a little more developed, papille may be observed on the upper surface, in fine radiating rows: after twelve days the fine rays begin to increase, and after eight days more two rows of feet, or tentacula, are developed under each ray, which assist in the locomotion of the animal by alternate elongation and contraction, performing also the office of suckers. Like most other zoophytes, they have the power of reproducing parts of their bodies which may have been accidentally destroyed. ASTERIAS, OR STAR-FISHES. As to the animal which commonly and sometimes scientifically bears the name of Star-fish, in walking on the sea-shore at low tide, your eyes have often seen this strange creature half buried in the sand. It is so regular and geometrical in its form that it has more the appearance of being the production of man's hand than of a creation which breathes and moves. The divine geometrician who created it never realised a creature more regularly finished in shape, or more perfectly harmonious in symmetry. ECIH il)DERMAT'A. o63 The star-fish has five perfectly equal arms. They resemble a cross of honour, which has five branches. The star of the brave, the star of holour —these somewhat trivial words recall, nevertheless, the resemblance which exists between the two objects; doubtless, man has here taken Nature for his copy. It must, however, be remarked that, though five is the general number of lines in the star-fish, this number is not constant; it varies with different genera, species, and even with Fig. 105. Asterias rubens (Lamarck). individuals. The connection of the arms with the disk presents equally remarkable differences. In the genus Culcita, the disk is so much developed that it constitutes, so to speak, the entire animal, whilst the arms form only a slight protuberance upon its circumference. In the genera Lzidia, on the contrary, the disk is reduced to minimum, whilst the arms are of great length and very slender. The colours of the star-fish vary greatly; they vary from a yellowishgrey, a yellow-orange, a garnet-red, to a dark violet, as their name indicates. 2G4 TiHE OCEAN WO)ILD. Satr-fislhes are exclusively and essentially beings of the sea; they are never seen in fresh water; they dwell amongst the submarine herbage, seeking for sandy coasts; they generally are found at moderate depths, but there are some species which are found at the great depth of a hundred and fifty fathoms. Asterias are met with in almost every sea and under all latitudes, but they are most numerous and their forms are more richly varied in the seas of tropical regions. There are about a hundred and forty species described. The body of the Asteria is supported by a calcareous envelope composed of juxta-posed pieces at once various and numerous. The number of these pieces is estimated at more than eleven thousand in the Red Sea Starfish (Asterias r'nbens, Fig. 105), a species very Fig. 1i16. Asterias aurantiaca (Lamarck). common in Europe. The bodyZ of the Aslerias rebens is likewise furnished witlI spines, grltmules, and tubercules, the shape, number, ECHINODERMATA.. t265 and disposition of which serve to characterise the genera and the species. Another species, Asterias aurantiaca, will give an exact idea of the general type of animals of this order. This zoophyte, which is represented in Fig. 106, is common in the northern seas; it has five rather long arms, furnished with spines which are of an orange colour-hence its name. When we see one of these animals stranded upon the shore, it appears to be entirely destitute of all power of progression. But the star'-fish is not always immovable; it is provided with an apparatus for locomotion, which appears to serve at the same time the purposes of respiration; for Nature is very economical in her gifts to the least-organised beings; she bestows upon them feet, with respiratory organs, or lungs, which have the power of locomotion. The muscular system, as already stated, is almost always present in the Echinodermata, but the organs of locomotion are very various, the principal being the membranous tubes usually termed feet, or ambulacra, which issue from the ambulacral apertures; but besides these, the rays themselves are movable, and in animals which are free to move from place to place these are used for the purpose. Thus in the common star-fish the rays may be bent towards the upper or lower surface of the disk, so as to facilitate its advance either in water over small spaces or up the vertical face of rocks. These ambulacra are very numerous, disposed in rows along the under surface of the rays; thus in A. aurantiaca there are two simple rows of feet attached to each ray, and the vesicular part is deeply cleft into two lobes; while in A. rzubens (Fig. 105) there are two double rows on each ray, and each foot has one undivided vesicle. Each of these ambulacra consists of two parts, an internal and generally vesicular portion placed within the body, and a tubular portion outside, projecting from the surface through an aperture in the skin or shell, the tube being closed at the extremity, and terminating in a sucker, usually in the form of a disk slightly depressed in the centre. The feet are thus muscular fleshy cylinders, hollow in the centre, and very extensible; by means of them the animal draws itself forward. The foot is extended by the contraction of its internal vesicle, which forces the fluid into the hollow tube, or, where the vesicle is wanting, by projecting the fluid into the tube by a communicating vessel. The tubular part is thus distended and elongated, 26(i THE OCEAN WORLD. and again retracts itself by means of its muscular fibres, by which action the fluid is forced back into the interior. In progression the animal extends a few of its feet, attaches its suckers to the rocks or stones, then, by shortening its feet, it draws its body forward. The progression of the Asterias is thus very slow, and so regular that only the closest observation enables the spectator to discover the movement which produces it. Like the movements of the hands of a watch, the eye cannot quite follow it. When an obstacle presents itself-if, for example, a stone comes in its way-it raises one of the rays in order to obtain a point of support, then a second ray, and, if necessary, a third,-and thus the animal creeps over the stone with as much ease as if it walked over the smooth sands. In the same way the animal creeps up perpendicular rocks, which is accomplished by means of these ambulacra and suckers. Fr dol says: "If an Asteria is turned upon its back it will at first remain immovable, with its feet shut up. Soon, however, out come the feet, like so many little feelers; it moves them backward and forward, as if feeling for the ground; it soon inclines them towards the bottom of the vase, and fixes them one after the other. When it has a sufficient number attached the animal turns itself round. It is not impossible, whilst walking on the sea-shore, to have the pleasure of seeing one of these star-fishes walking upon the sand. A day rarely passes without one of them being thrown upon the strand by the tide, and then abandoned by the retreating waters. Generally they are left dead, this is not always the case, however; they are sometimes only benumbed. Place them in a vase full of seawater, or simply in a pool on the shore, and you will sometimes see them recover from this death-like condition, and execute the curious movements of progression which we have described. The motions of an Asterias thus saved form a very curious spectacle. The mouth of this animal is situated on the lower surface of the disk. At this point the constitutive pieces of the carapace leave a circular space, covered by a fibrous resistant membrane, pierced at the centre by a rounded opening. This opening is sometimes armed with hard papille, which play the part of teeth. The mouth almost directly abuts on the stomach, which is merely a globular sac, filling nearly all the central portion of the visceral cavity. "Thus," says Mr. Milne Edwards, "in Asteracanthion glaccialis the stomach is globulous, but imperfectly divided into two parts by a E(HINOD1)E R'MATA. 2(j7 fold of its internal membrane; the first chamber, thus limited, appears to be more especially devoted to the transformation of the elementary matter into a liquid paste, which passes, in small portions, into the upper chamber. This is continued upwards through a small intestine, and communicates laterally with five cylindrical prolongations, which each divide themselves again into two much elongated tubes, furnished with a double series of hollow branches, each terminating in a culde-sac." These organs advance into the interior of the rays or arms of the Asterias. Imagine, then, an animal bearing digestive tubes in its arms-the same organ serving for digestion and progression. What lessons in economy does not the study of Nature teach us! The products of digestion find an absorbent surface of great extent in the rays of the Asterias. They ought necessarily to pass rapidly from it into the circumjacent nourishing fluid. T'he star-fishes are very voracious; they even attack mollusks which are covered with shells. M1. Pouchet mentions having taken eighteen species of Venus intact, each being six lines in length, from the stomach of one large Asterias which he dissected upon the shores of the Mediterranean. It is now even said that the star-fishes eat many oysters. Ancient naturalists were not ignorant that the star-fish was capable of eating oysters; but they believed that they waited for the moment when the bivalve would open its valves to introduce one of their rays into the opening. They imagined that having thus put one foot into the otler's domicile, they soon put four, and finished by reaching and devouring the savoury inhabitant of the shell. Modern observations have modified the ideas of former naturalists upon this point. In order to obtain possession of and swallow an oyster, it appears that the star-fish begins its approaches by bringing its mouth to the closed edges of the oyster-shell; this done, with the assistance of a particular liquid which its mouth secretes, it injects a few drops of an acrid or venomous liquid into the interior of the oyster-shell, which forces it to open its valves. An entrance once obtained, it is not long before it is invaded and ravaged. Professor Rymer Jones gives another explanation of the transaction. According to this naturalist the oyster is seized between the rays of his ravisher, and held under his mouth by the aid of his suckers; the Asteria then inverts its stomach, 268 THE OCEAN VWOlLD. according to the professor, and envelopes the entire oyster in its inmost recesses, while, doubtless, distilling a poisonous liquid. The victim is thus forced to open its shell, and becomes the prey of the enemy which envelopes it. Whatever may be the modes of procedure employed by the starfish, it is now clearly ascertained, however incredible the fact may at first appear, that it swallows oysters in the same manner as is practised at the oyster shop. This little being, formed of five arms, and without any other apparent member, accomplishes a work which man is quite unable to execute-it opens an oyster without an oyster-knife. If reasoning man had no other means of nourishment than oysters, and was without a knife to open them, it is very certain that with all his genius he would be puzzled how to get at the inaccessible and savoury bivalve so obstinately closed against him. The star-fish devours dead flesh of all kinds; their sole occupation is to feed themselves, and they keep up an incessant and active chase after all sorts of corrupt animal matter. The Asterias thus performs in the bosom of the sea the same part that certain birds and insects play on shore; they are its scavengers, and feed their bodies upon the carcases of animals which, if abandoned to the action of the elements, would become a cause of infection. In the same manner that certain animals render the air healthy, the Asterias help, on a considerable scale, to keep the sea which shelters them in a pure and healthy state. Zoologists are not agreed upon the manner in which respiration operates on the star-fishes. Nevertheless they think that the principal part in this phenomenon devolves upon the sub-cutaneous branchie which in each ray constitute two double series of bladders. The function of circulation is equally unknown. The vascular apparatus is sufficiently developed in this zoophyte, and appears to have for its centre an elongated canal with muscular walls, which may with justice be honoured with the name of heart. A little ring surrounding the oesophagus, and from which issue certain delicate white chords, which are prolonged into the furrows of the arms, present us with all that can be designated a nervous system in the star-fishes. Among organs of sense we may mention, as the apparatus of touch, the tentacular (anbultacrair(a, as well as those which are disseminated upon the dorsal surface of the disk. The eyes are ECHIJ NODEiRMAT`A. 2i!) considered to be certain bright red points which are situated at the extremity of the arms and on the under surface-a most singular position for the organs of sight. The eyes must, besides, be very imperfect, for they possess no crystalline. Ehrenberg insists upon the existence of eyes in some species, attributing the function to those red spots however; while Rlymer Jones attributes the indications in which this originates to an extremely delicate sense of touch in the star-fishes. Professor Edward Forbes, while he admits the existence of ganglions in the nervous system to be extremely doubtful, seems, by the frequent use of the terms eye and eyelids, to admit that the specks in question were visual organs; the weight of authority inclines therefore to Ehrenberg's view, that if not eyes in the strict sense of the term, they serve the purposes of vision, modified and adapted to the wants of the animal. The star-fishes have distinct sexes, with individual differences; their eggs, which are round and reddish, undergo curious phases of development. They produce little worm-like creatures, covered with vibratile hairs, like the infusoria, which swim about with great vivacity; these little creatures are subject to considerable changes. In the year 1835 IA. Sars described, under the name of Bipinnaria asterigera, an enigmatical animal resembling a polype from the arms at one extremity of the body, while the other terminated in a tail, furnished with two fins; but it was chiefly remarkable as having an Asterias attached to the extremity which carried the arm; he expressed an opinion, which was soon placed beyond any doubt, that this bipinnaria was an Asterias in its course of development. The egg becomes a sort of infusoria, the infusoria becomes a bipinnaria, and this produces the Asterias. In short, the bipinnaria does not become an Asterias by any metamorphoses analogous to that so well known amongst insects-the butterfly, for example-but becomes, so to speak, the foster-mother or nurse to the bipinnaria. The larva is large, and it is at the cost of a very small internal rudiment of this larva that the Asterias is developed: the Asterias robs the larva of its stomach and intestines, and turns it into a visceral apparatus for its own use. But the Asterias makes itself a mouth of any of the pieces most remote from the primitive mouth of the larva. Thus the bipinnaria divides itself; it gives its stomach and intestines, and keeps its cesophagus and mouth, and it can live several days after the Asterias is detached from it. 270 THE OCEAN WOLD). Can anyone imagine the existence of a being with only a mouth and oesophagus, which has neither stomach nor intestines, because another animal has possessed itself of them for its own use? The study of the lower animals abounds in surprises of this kind. It is a chain of unforeseen facts; of natural impossibilities; of realised points necessarily reversing all notions obtained in the study of beings which have a higher place in the animal scale. The history of the star-fishes would be incomplete were we to omit mentioning the most remarkable traits of their organisation with which naturalists are acquainted. The animals exhibit in the highest degree the vital phenomena of dismemberment and restoration, that is to say, of the faculty of reconstructing organs which they have lost. These arms, the structure of which is so complicated, and which protect such important organs, may be destroyed by accident. The animal troubles itself little at this mutilation: if he loses an arm it disquiets him but little; another is immediately procured. We often see in our collections of Asterias specimens wanting in symmetry because they have been taken before the new members which are in process of development have attained their definite length. Professor Rymer Jones mentions an instance of redintegration very complete and most ceurious. This naturalist had an isolated ray of Asterias which he had picked up; at the end of five days he observed that four little rays and a mouth had been produced; at the end of a month the old ray was completely destroyed, and this apparently useless fragment had been replaced by a new being, quite perfect, with four little symmetrical branches. This faculty of reproducing organs, which we have noted in describing the fresh water polypes, the sea anemone, &c., exists also in many other zoophytes, but in none more strikingly than in the Asterias. But a still more startling fact remains to be mentioned: one more strange and more mysterious, for it does not belong to the physical or organic order, but appears to belong to the moral world. The star-fishes commit suicide! Certain of these animals appear to escape from dangers which menace them by self-destruction. This power of putting an end to existence we only find on the highest and lowest steps of the animal scale. Man and the star-fishes have a common moral platform, and it is that of self-destruction! This power of dismemberment, however, seems to be confined to the Opihrocoma and Luidia-at least, it is only carried out to its full extent in these genera. EICHINOD)EJI1\1ATA. 2 '2)71 Mysteries of Nature, who can sound your depths? Secrets of the moral world, what being but God has the privilege of comprehending you? A large species of Star-fish (Luidia fragillissima), which inhabits the English seas, has this instinct of suicide to a great extent. The following account by Professor Edward Forbes of an attempt to capture a Luidia gives a good illustration of its powers:-" The first time that I took one of these creatures," the professor says, " I succeeded in placing it entire in my boat. Not having seen one before, and being ignorant of its suicidal powers, I spread it out on a rowing bench, the better to admire its form and colours. On attempting to remove it for preservation, to my horror and disappointment I found only an assemblage of detached members. My conservative endeavours were all neutralised by its destructive exertions; and the animal is now badly represented in my cabinet by a diskless arm and an armless disk. Next time I went to dredge at the same spot I determined not to be cheated out of my specimen a second time. I carried with me a bucket of fresh water, for which the star-fishes evince a great antipathy. As I hoped, a Luidia soon came up in the dredge-a most gorgeous specimen. As the animal does not generally break up until it is raised to the surface of the sea, I carefully and anxiously plunged my bucket to a level with the dredge's mouth, and softly introduced the Luidia into the fresh water. Whether the cold was too much for it, or the sight of the bucket was too terrific, I do not know; but in a umoment it began to dissolve its corporation, and I saw its limbs escaping through every mesh of the dredge. In my despair I seized the largest piece, and brought up the extremity of an arm with its terminal eye, the spinous eyelid of which opened and closed with something exceedingly like a wink of derision." The mind remains confounded before such spectacles, and we can only say, with Mallebranche, "It is well to comprehend clearly that there are some things which are absolutely incomprehensible." This is doubtless the reason that in collections of natural history we rarely find star-fishes, and especially the Luidia, entire; the moment the animal is seized by fisherman or amateur, in its terror or despair it breaks itself up into small fragments. To preserve them whole they must be killed suddenly, before they have time to be aware of their danger. For this purpose, the moment they are drawn from the sea they must be plunged into a vase of cold fresh water; this saltless _272 THE OCEAN WORLD. liquid is instant death to these creatures, which in this condition perish suddenly before they have time to mutilate themselves. The star-fish is a curious ornament in our natural history collections, but in this state they represent very imperfectly the elegance and particular grace of this curious type. To understand the star-fishes, they must be seen in an aquarium, where we can admire the form, figure, movements, and manners of these marvellous beings. The Asterias is the constellation of the sea. It is said that heaven, reflected during the night on the silvery surface of the ocean, let one of the stars which decorate the resplendent vaults fall into its depths. CRINoiDEA. We quoted the maxim of Linneus in the earlier pages of this volume, that Nature makes no leaps. Nature proceeds by means of insensible transitions, rising by degrees from one organic form to another. Most of the animals hitherto described are immovably fixed to some solid object; at least, such is their condition in the adult state. We are about to describe zoophytes, free of all fetters; animals " which walk in their strength and liberty." Between zoophytes fixed to the soil, like the corals, gorgons, and aggregate zoophytes, such as sea-urchins and holothurias, Nature has placed an intermediate race, namely, the Crinoidea, a class of zoophytes which are attached to a rock by a sort of root armed with claws, having a long flexible stem, which enables them to execute movements in the circle limited only by the length of this stem, just as the ox or goat in our paddocks is confined by its tether to the space circumscribed by the length of its rope. Let the reader picture to himself a star-fish borne upon the summit of a flexible stem firmly rooted in the soil, and he has a general idea of the zoophytes which compose the order of the Crinoidea. Naturalists of the seventeenth century bestowed the name of stone lilies on these curious products. This rather poetical image proves that the conformation of these creatures had at an early period attracted observation, presenting the naturalist with the most curious of his lessons. The encrinites raise, as from the dead, a whole world buried in the abyss of the past. At the present time only two genera ECHINODERMATA. 273 of these zoophytes exist, whilst in the early ages of the world the ocean must have swarmed with them. Encrinites abounded in the seas during the transition and secondary epoch. It was one of the most numerous of the animal tribes which inhabited the salt waters of the ancient world. In traversing some parts of France, we tread under our feet myriads of these beings, whose calcareous remains form vast beds of rock. The encrinites gradually disappeared from the ancient seas; their species were diminished as the globe became older or modified in its conditions, so that at the present time only a few types remain in our seas-such as the Comvatula of the Mediterranean; Pentacrina, the Medusa's-head of the Antilles; and the European Pentacrinus-all of them very rare, and probably destined soon to disappear, carrying with them the last reminiscence of the zoological races of the ancient world: and here lies the real interest which the Crinoidea presents to the thinking man. The encrinites most common in the fossil state are Pentacrinus fasciculosus, belonging to the lias; Apiocrinus Boissyanus, which is found in the oolite or jurassic rocks; and Encrinus liliformis, which appertains to the Triassic period. These three fixed zoophytes seem to have existed in great numbers during the first ages of the world-namely, the Silurian period. They attained their maximum of development during the Devonian age, when their numbers began to decrease. According to M. I)'Orbigny, there are thirty-nine genera found in the paleozoic rocks, two in the triassic, seven in the jurassic, five in the cretaceous, and only one in the tertiary strata. Of all these genera only one, namely, Pentacrinus, is found in the modern epoch to represent the varied forms of these the first inhabitants of the seas. The free Crinoi'da, that is, those not rooted to the soil by a stem, of which the Comzatula may be considered the type, only appeared at a later period. They are absent in the palaeozoic and triassic rocks, but appear to have attained their maximum of development in the jurassic period. The numerous fossilized remains of these curious creations, which abound in different rocks, attracted the attention of learned men at an early period. The encrinites were among the eariest objects of scientific description. As early as the sixteenth century, the celebrated mineralogist, George Agricola, mentions them under the names of Enzrochites. Trociiites, and Astroites. At the same time, and since T 274 7THE I O CEAN WVOILTI). that epoch, the Crinoide, ]which we know by the name of stone-lilies and which characterises the Mllsuseh7elktc7l rocks, have been known under the name of Enchrinus, from Kpltov, a lily. During the eighteenth century the works upon the CrinoidT were very numerous, though not very correct. They sometimes reported these organic remains to be vegetable; sometimes they were beings allied to the star-fishes; at,, /:,i, others they were the vertebral column of fishes. Towards the I:.:,,,+:^iy y:ear 761, however, Guettard, ' ';,... I II f one of the most learned natur'''' x. alists of his time, understood @,,' - [ sent from Martinique under ' { i / parison of the living individual - t:.l winth tbhe fossil fragment de^ ' scribed by his pre decessors, and A ^of w^hich le had specimens A / ^l;,' in his collections, enabled him to ascertain the real origin t ' f Oof the fossil Enchrinoide. -\ <<^ J The beautiful fragment which still exists in the Museum of i H Wl Natural History at Paris has 'N^ long been considered unique, 7, but it is now known that:;| others exist in different mur seums. Since that date the: 0Crinoidae have been examined,.., and described by observers such Fig. 107. Pentacrinus caput Medus (M ller). a e as TMiller, Forbes, D'Orbigny, and Pictet, of whose discoveries the following is a brief resume: "T he species of fixed Crinoidae actually living are Petacriizus caput 11ECHINODE )1MATA. C7) Medlusae (Fig. 107), and Pentaccinus Euiroltus (Fig. 108). These curious zoophytes resemble a flower borne upon a stem, which terminates in an organ called the calyx, but which is, properly speaking, the head of the animal. Arms, more or less branching, spring front &r, 1'I *@m 1i '-' Fig. 108. Pentacrinms Elropanus (Thompson). this calyx, their ramifications, so formed, consisting of many pieces articulated to each other. The calyx is supported by a stem, varying in height, formed of pieces secreted by the living tissues which surround them. The articulations of this stem are usually very numerous, T 2 27, THE OCEAN WORLD. cylindrical, and present a series of rays striated upon their articulated faces. In Pentacerinus they are prismatic and pentagonal; that is, they present five projecting angles, and on their articulated face a star with five branches, or, better still, a rose with five petals. At the base of the stem of this animal-plant, in many of the Crinoidma we find a sort of spreading root, which is implanted in the rocks, and is capable of growing by itself, of nourishing the stem, and of producing new ones. The root and sterm of the fixed encrinites seem to indicate that the animal can only live with the head erect. Their normal condition is thus quite different from that of any other of the Echinoderms, almost all of which keep their months invariably directed downwards. The MIedusae heads are chiefly found on rocky beds, or in the midst of banks of corals, at great depths. There, firmly fixed by their roots, their long stems raise themselves vertically; then, with expanded calyx and long-spreading arms, they wait for the prey which passes within their reach in order to seize it. The Pentacrinius cac ut Miledsxt have, as we have said, been fished up from great depths in the Antilles. Its very small calyx is borne upon a stem of from eighteen to twenty inches in height, terminating in long movable arms, the internal surface of which bear its tentacles in a groove. In the middle of the arms is a mouth, and at the side the orifice for the expulsion of the digested residuum. In the Medusa head and European Pentacrine (P. Euzrop)twus, Fig. 108), the presence of a digestive apparatus has been distinctly traced. It is a sort of irregular sac, with a central mouth on the upper surface, and another orifice situated at a little distance from the mouth, and evidently intended as an outlet for the products of digestion. The arms of these creatures, which are spreading or folded up according to their wants, are provided with fleshy tentacula, which, serving at once as organs of absorption and as vibratile cils, are at the same time organs of respiration. Such are these curious beings: they occupy a sort of middle or transition state between animals permanently fixed to some spot and those capable of motion, representing in our own times the last remains of extinct generations. Every type of the Crinoidet furnished with arms present' incontestable examples in their mode of reproduction or redintegration-that is, of the power of restoring those parts of the body broken or destroyed by accident; but as we have already drawn the attention of the reader to this strange l:CHINUDE RLMATA. faculty of renewing organs which many of the zoophytes possess, we will not here enlarge further upon the subject. The Crinoidm are not all like the two species which have been described. There is an entire family of animals belonging to this class; namely, the Coimatala, which are fixed in their early days, but separate themselves from the rooted stem in their adult age, and, throwing off the bonds imposed on their youth, live side by side with the asterias, with whose company they seem much pleased. The encrinites and the star-fishes thus live in company, and that at prodigious depths, and under a body of water which no light can reach. Imagine the existence of animals which pass their lives in such eternal funereal darkness. The family of Comatula are found in the seas of both hemispheres. Their bodies are flat-a large calcareous plate formed like a cuirass upon their backs-presenting, besides, cirri composed of numerous curling articulations, the last of which terminates in a hook. The ventra] surface presents two orifices: the one in the centre corresponding to a mouth, the other evidently intended for the discharge of the products of digestion. This animal is provided with five arms, which diverge directly from the centre plate or cuirass. The branches of these arms have ainbllacral grooves, comprehending a double row of fleshy tentacles, in the centre of which is the ambulacral groove, properly so called, clothed with vibratile cils over their whole surface. These cils or hairs guide the current which drives the various substances on which it feeds; such as the organic corpuscles of sea-weeds, and microscopic animalcules floating in the sea, towards its mouth. They are also powerful aids to respiration. The movements of these curious creatures are very slow, their only object being to catch the bodies of animals and marine plants, or, by extending or contracting their arms, to feel their way through the water to some new locality. Sometimes, also, in order to change their feeding-ground, the Comatula abandon the submarine forests, herbage, and sea wracks; and float through the water, moving their arms with considerable rapidity in search of a new station. The Mediterranean Comatula (Fig. 109) is largely diffused on the European shores of the Mediterranean. Its spreading arms extend to three or four inches; its colour purple, shaded, and spotted with white upon the ventral surface. 278 THE OCEAN WOULD. Were a traveller to tell us that he had seen animals drop their eggs upon forests of stone; that these eggs, after executing their progressive evolutions, finally become individuals in all respects like their parents, which attach themselves to the soil by a root like any flower of the fields, or to the mother-stem like the branch of a tree, until in due course they attained the adult state, when the flexible band which holds them fixed either to the soil or parent-stem breaks, and the Fig. 109. Comatula M5editerranea (Lamarck), natural size. animal, now free, launches itself into the liquid medium, and goes to live a proper and independent existence;-in listening to a recital so opposed in appearance to the ordinary laws of Nature, we should be inclined to tax the narrator of such incredible facts with error or folly. Nevertheless all these facts are now perfectly established. The being which presents these marvels has nothing of the fabulous about it. It is the Comiatula Jlfediterrczanea: it lives at the bottom of the sea, the surface of which is incessantly tracked by our vessels. I C`11NODERMATA. 2 79 OPHIURADIE. The Ophiuras are thus named from two Greek words (oOt.s, a serpent, and oupa, a tail), from their fancied resemblance to the tail of a serpent. These zoophytes are met with in almost every sea, but chiefly in those of temper;ate regions; they are very common on every shore, and have been remarked by fishermen from the earliest times on account of their singular form, the disposition of their arlm, which resemble the tail of a lizard, and by the singularity of their movements. The general characteristics of this remarkable group of Echinodermata, as described by Dujardin and Hupe, are as follows: They are radiary marine animals creeping at the bottom of the sea, or upon marine plants. In form they present a sort of coriaceous disk, which is either bare or covered with scales, which contains all the viscera, and of five very flexible simple or branching arms, each sustained by a series of vertebral internal pieces, naked or covered with granules, scales, or bristles. Certain fleshy tentacula thrown out laterally are organs of respiration. The mouth is situated in the middle of the lower surface of the disk, and opens directly into a stomach in the shape of a sac; it is circumscribed by five re-entering angles corresponding with the intervals of the arms, having a series of calcareous pieces, which perforn the function of jaw-bones. This mouth is prolonged by five longitudinial clefts, garnished with papille or calc~areous pieces, whichl correspond to one of the arms. A series of calcareous pieces in the shape of vertebrae spring from the extremity of each of these clefts, which occupy all the interior of the arms, having a furrow in the middle of the ventral surface for the reception of a nursing vessel, and laterally between their expansions are certain cavtities, fiom0 whence issue certain fleshy retractile tentacula; the visceral cavity opens b1y one or two clefts on the ventral surface of each side of the base of the arms. The Ophiuradal move themselves by briskly contracting their arms so as to produce a succession of undulations analogous to those by which a serpent creeps along. Some of these zoophytes are rather active; but others attach themselves by their arms to the branches of certain other polypes, like the Gorgons, and remain immovable for a considerable time, waiting their prey somewhat like a spider in the midst of his web. 280 'THE OCEAN WORLD. The family of Ophiuradae is divided into two great sections: that of the Ophiura, which comprehends several genera, amongst others that which gives its name to the family, and that of the Euryalina or Asterophytes. The family of Ophiurade constitute a group distinguished by their five simple, articulated, very mobile, and non-ramified arms, which Fig. 110. Ophiocoma Russei (Lutken), natural size. are attached to a small disk or shield plate, with flexible thread-like cirri between the rays. Ophiura natta is very common, and has been known from very early times in European seas. It is of a greenish colour, with transverse bands, which become more obscure upon the arms as the distance from the disk increases. This disk is from six to seven-eighths of an inch in size, the upper part covered with unequal plates, in shape like tiles; the arms are four times the length of the ECHINODERIMATA. 2'81 diameter of the disk, very slender and tapering. The zoophyte to which Lamarck gave the name of Oplhitura fragile has now its place among the Ophisthrix, the specific name, indicating a particularity of structure in all these small creatures derived from their fragile formation. In short, these beings have so little consistency that they crumble, as it were, under the touch, and become reduced to pulp under the slightest pressure. In Fig. 110 we give the representation of an Ophiura of the natural size, which Lutken has since called Ophiocomn Fig. 111. Asterophyton verrucosum (Lamarck). Rzussei. This Echinoderm, which lives in the seas of the Antilles, is furnished with five very flexible rays, which are armed with from three to four rows of spines, those on the upper part of the body being very hard ones; the body and arms of this creature are of reddish brown, streaked with a great number of little white lines. The principal type of the Euryalina is the curious and complex Asterophyton verrucosum of Lamarck. They include animals remarkable for the extremely complicated development of their arms-the T'1E OCEAN AWOVILD. very multiplied ramifications of these, towards the extremities, being divided into many thousand very slender appendages, the principal use of which is doubtless locomotion, but at the same time they constitute a series of living thread-like fillet which seem intended to seize tlld close upon the animals which serve as prey to this little flesh-eater. The Astcerop tyfon verrucoslni, which is represented in Fig. 111, is yellowish; its disk about four inches, its arms sixteen to eighteen. It inhabits the Indian Ocean. Another species, EItryFail arcboreseenls, is met with on the coasts of Sicily and other parts of the Mediterranean. Nothing can be more elegant than these animated disks, which resemble nothing so much as a delicate piece of lace-a piece of living lace moving in delicate festoons in the bosom of the ocean. ECHINID.E. The siJngulair;sh:ape of the EchinidrM, or Sea-urchins, and the spiny prolongations with which their bodies are covered, has in all ages attracted the attention of naturalists. Aristotle applied to them the name eZivo,, which signifies urchin. When, however, one sees the body of one of these animals throvwn on the sea shore. it is difficult, at first, to find a reason for this designation. The bldy of the sea-urchin is furnished with a species of spine. It is a sort of shell, nearly spherical, empty in the interior, its surface presenting reliefs admirable for their regularity-an egg-shell sculptured by Divine hands. In order to see the urchin with its spines, it is necessary to seize it in the water at the bottom of the sea, where it rolls and moves its little prickly mass; it is then only that the real urchin, the prickly sea-urchin, is to be seen, bristling with prickles, and strongly resembling, to compare the physical with the mental, those amiable mortals whose character is so well depicted in the saying, " Whom they rub they prick." In his book on 'i The Sea," 3ichelet puts the following conversation into the mouth of a sea-urchin: "I am born without ambition," says the modest Ichinoderm. "I ask for none of the brilliant gifts possessed by those gentlemen the molluscs. I would neither make mother-of-pearl nor pearls; I have no wish for brilliant colours, a luxury which would point me out; still less do I desire the grace of your giddy MIedusas, the waving charm of whose flaming locks attracts observation and exposes one to shipwreck. ECHI:Cl OD EIRIMATA. 283~ Oh mother! I wish for one thing only: to be-to be without these exterior and compromising appendages; to be thick-set, strong, and round, for that is the shape in which I should be the least exposed; in short, to be a centralised being. I have very little instinct for travel. To roll sometimes from the surface to the bottom of the sea is enough of travel for nme. Glued firmly to my rock, I could there solve the problem, the solution of which your future favourite, man, seeks for in vain-that of safety. To strictly exclude enemies and admit all friends, especially water, air, and light, would, I know, cost me some labour and constant effort. Covered with movable spines, Fiy. 1 '2. 1clilnns iai[tillatlt (lmniarck), natural size. enemies will;avoid me. Now, bristling like a bear, they call me aln urchin." Let us now look a little more closely at the general structure of the sea-urchins-in zoological language, Echinidae. The body of the sea-urchin is globular in form, slightly egg-shaped, or of a disk slightly swollen. It consists essentially of an exterior shell or solid carapace, clothed in a slight membrane furnished with vibratile cils. This carapace is formed of an assemblage of contiguous polygonal plates, adhering together by their edges. Their arrangement is such that the test or shell may be divided into vertical zones, each springing 284 THE OCEAN WOlLD. from a central point on the summit; terminating at a point of the spheroid, diametrically opposite-namely, the circumference of the buccal orifice. These vertical zones are of two kinds, some larger and others straighter, each zone consisting of a double row of plates, the first charged with movable spines, the second pierced with holes disposed in regular longitudinal series, from which emerge certain fleshy tentacula which, as we shall see presently, serve as feet to the animal. When armed with these bristling spines, the sea-urchins resemble the hedgehogs; but when the spines are down, they look very much like a melon or an egg, to which their shape and calcareous nature have sometimes led to their being compared by the vulgar as well as by the learned. We shall give a tolerably exact idea of the two different aspects which the carapace of the urchin presents, when the spines are erect and lowered, by reference to Fig. 112 (Eclhizus mamillatns), which represents the animal bristling with spines, and Fig. 113, in which the same species Fig. 113. Echinus mamillatus. Sea Lichen without spines, natural. ize. is represented after death, when deprived of these weapons of defence: and how complicated these defences must be! It has been calculated that more than ten thousand pieces, each admirably arranged and united, enter into the composition of the shell of the sea-urchin, to which no other can be compared. To abbreviate slightly Gosse's description of that wonderful piece of mechanism, the sea-urchin: "A globular hollow box has to be made, of some three inches in diameter, the walls of which shall be scarcely thicker than a wafer, formed of unyielding limestone, yet fitted to hold the soft tender parts of an animal which quite fills the cavity at all ages. But in infancy the animal is not so big as a pea, and it has to attain its adult dimensions. ECHINOI)EIMATlA. 285 The box is never to be cast off or renewed; the same box must hold the infant and veteran urchin. The limestone can only increase in size by being deposited. Now the vascular tissues are within, and the particles they deposit must be on the interior walls. To thicken the walls from within, leaves less room in the cavity; but what is wanted is miore room, ever more and more. The growing animal feels its tissues swelling day by day, by the assimilation of food: its cry is,' Give me space! a larger house, or I die!' How is this problem solved? Ah! there is no difficulty. The inexhaustible wisdom of the Creator has a beautiful contrivance for the emergency. The box is not made in one piece, nor in ten, nor a hundred. Six hundred distinct pieces go to make up the hollow case; all accurately fitted together, so that the perfect symmetry of the outline remains unbroken; and yet, thin as their substance is, they retain their relative positions with unchanging exactness, and the slight brittle box retains all requisite strength and firmness, for each of these pieces is enveloped by a layer of living flesh; a vascular tissue passes up between the joints, where one meets another, and spreads itself over the whole exterior surface." This being so, the glands of the investing tissue secrete lime from the sea water, and deposits it after a determinate and orderly pattern on every part of the surface. Thus the inner face, the outer face, and each side and angle of polyhedron, grow together, and the form characteristic of the individual is maintained with immutable mathematical precision. The dimensions and shape of these prickles are very variable. In certain Echinidme they are three or four times the diameter of the body. In the urchin, properly so called, they are only threefourths or four-fifths that diameter. They sometimes resemble short bristles. These defensive weapons have tubercles for supports, which are arranged on the surface of the animal with perfect regularity. At the base they present a small head separated by compression. This head is hollow on its lower face, presenting a cavity adapted to a tubercle of the shell. Each of the prickles, notwithstanding its extreme minuteness, is put in action by a muscular apparatus. In the prickles, or spines and tentacula (ambulacra, feet suckers) we see the external organs of the Echinodermata. The former are instruments of defence and progression; the latter, strange as it may appear, serve them to walk with. When it is considered that each of these prickles is put in motion by several muscles, it is THE OCEAN WORLD. impossible to repress our wonder and surprise at the prodigious number of organs brought into action in the sea-urchin. More than twelve hundred prickles have been counted upon the shell of Echinus esculenits, a representation of which is given in Fig. 114. If we add to this first supply of spines other smaller and in some sort accessary spines, we shall arrive at a total of three thousand prickles. Each sea-urchin thus bears as many weapons as ten squadrons of lancers. When it is considered, further, that in each sucker or ambulacra there Fig. 114. Echinus esculentus (Lamarck), natural size. exist not less than a hundred tubes, each having an orifice, you will have a total of four thousand visible appendages upon the body of an animal of very small dimensions. If it is considered, finally, that no shell exists more admirably symmetrical, elegant, or more highly ornamental than the carapace of the urchin, it will readily be admitted that Nature has been most prodigal in her gifts to one of the humblest beings in creation-a creature which passes its existence in crawling in obscurity at the bottom of the sea. What elegance of form, EC[IPINODEIlMATA. 2ST eternally hidden from the eyes of man, sleeps under the heavy mass of water; and yet man imagines that everything in Nature has been created for his use and for his glory. M. Hupe records a somewhat curious observation in connection with the spines, which serve as a means of defence to our Echinodermata. He found a small mollusc, of the genus Stelifecra, which had sought shelter in Leixidaris in;zler}ialis, an urchin, native of Australia; in a word, the interior of one of these prickles had been hollowed and enlarged so as to serve as a retreat for this improvised guest. What unexpected facts does the study of animals present! Nature has bestowed a protecting armour upon one little being; another still smaller animal discovers this and places itself for shelter under the protection of these levelled bayonets! Numerous anecdotes are told of them. Thus: A man ignorantly put into his mouth one of these creatures, with all its prickles, and, being detected, thought himself, in his pride, compelled to swallow it because he was being looked at; immediately his mouth was full of blood. The next day he was in such a state of suffering that he could neither eat nor drink, and for a long time his life could only be preserved by nourishing injections of soup, cream, and rice. Now let us see by what organic mechanism the urchin contrives to transport itself and walk. The tentacula, or suckers, are hollow internally, and, as we have said, are provided with small muscles. By the influx of liquid which they inclose they become inflated throughout all their prickles, in such a manner that they can attach themselves to any solid body, at the will of the animal, by means of their terminal suckers. Fredol, in " Le Monde de les Mers," thus explains the urchin's mode of progression: "Let us imagine," he says, "one of these creatures to be at rest; all its spines are immovable, and all its filaments repose within the shell; some of these involuntarily escape; they extend themselves and feel the ground all round them; others follow, but the animal is firmly fixed. If it wishes for change of place, the anterior filaments contract themselves, whilst the hinder ones loosen their hold, and the shell is carried forward. The seaurchin can thus advance with ease, and even rapidity. During his progression the suckers are only slightly aided by the spines. It can travel either on the back or stomach; whatever their posture, they have always a certain number of prickles, which carry them, and 288 THE OCEAN WORL). suckers, with which they attach themselves. In certain circumstances the animal walks by turning upon itself, like a wheel in motion." Nothing is more curious than to see a sea-urchin walk upon smooth sand. But for the colour, it might be mistaken for a chestnut with its bristling envelopes, the spines serving as feet to put the little round prickly mass in motion. They have even been observed to form themselves into a ball, and roll along like a globular fagot of prickles. One of the most singular organs of the sea-urchin is its mouth. It is monstrous. Placed underneath the body, it occupies the centre of a soft space invested with a thick resisting membrane: it opens and shuts incessantly, showing five sharp teeth (Fig. 115), projecting from the surface, the Fig. 115. Buccal armature of Echinuslividus. edges meeting at a point, as represented here, supported and protected by a very complicated framework, which has received the name of Aristotle's Lantern (Fig. 116). Fig. 115 represents Echinus lividus in its normal state; the other shows the masti/ catory organs, that is to say, Aristotle's Lantern. To give the reader a raumore complete idea of the o as t l al organ in the seai,x7 urchin, let him glance at one from the southern s e o t ease, )estraiter os aceus, represented in Fig. 117, Fig. 116. asticating apparatus of Echinus lividu an out lin e of the entire animal, the buccf apparatus being placed under the shell, which has been broken in Fig. 116, so as to lay this organ bare. The shape of the Clypeasler rosaceus is oval, straighter in front, and thick and rounded at the edges. It is more common and more largely distributed than any other living species, and it is supplied with four or six ambulacra, or feet. | (11 N1 ODE I[ MATI'A. I never could understand why tl-,e dental litamleworlk of the seaurchin has been called Aristotle's Lantern, for this formidalle apparatus resembles the front view of a battery of cannon more than a lantern. It consists of a series of pieces designated by the names of colmpass, scythe, pyrainil, and plunutla, which it would serve no useful purpose to describe. We have said that the mouth of thle urchin is monstrous in prollportioa to its size, andl the teethl of proportionate dtimeiinsicns. As these project firom a very formidable lmouth, one can easily be,assured of the sharp- Fw. 117. (:ly-el.It... 11' im.,s.k). ness of their extremities by intruding his finjgers,on them. Illn aict, it i 11 (e CeSmaryV thll-t these organs shonld be singularly powerfful, because. as we shall seei farther on, the sea-uirchin makes incisioins in the solid rock With theml, and hollows out shelter for ]imself. Thre stroiing and shalrp teeth grow at the base in proportion as they are used at thle Ipoints, as is tie case with sonc of, the rodent mammalia. Ily this mea:ns they are always sa]rp and in good{ condition. Five group:Ts of )1sweml`i muscles are used to woik thise terrible grinders. To this fbrmidable mouth is attachled arn ovscplnmgns orn guile't, ltiid an intetine wlich extends along tmhe interior waslls of tlie carapnc., describing tIlme circuimfiere.ee of its principal contour. The regimen of the E.hminid~t is still impelc: