THE
SEA
AND
ITS LIVING
WONDERS
NOTICE
right of translation into French is reserved by the Author. All necessary
steps for securing the Copyright have been taken.
ARCTIC
THE SEA
AND
ITS LIVING WONDERS
A POPULAR ACCOUNT OF
THE MARTELS OF THE DEEP
AND OF THE
PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY FROM THE
EARLIEST AGES TO THE PRESENT TIME
BY
DR. G. HARTWIG
AUTHOR OF “THE TROPICAL WORLD " “THE HARMONIES OF NATURE’’
“THE POLAR WORLD’’ AND “THE SUBTERRANEAN WORLD”
fifth edition
WITH NUMEROUS WOODCUTS AND PLATES
LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1876
LONDON : PRINTED BV
SPCTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW- STREET SQUARE
AND PARLIAMENT STREET
WELLCOME INSTITUTE
LIBRARY
Coll.
welMQmec
Call
No.
<S>H
PREFACE
TO
THE THIRD AND FOURTH EDITIONS.
Nothing can be more agreeable to an author anxious to
O
merit the suffrages of the public, than the opportunity
afforded him, by a new edition, of correcting past errors
or adding improvements to his work. Should any one of
my readers think it worth his while to compare ‘ The
Sea,’ such as it now is, with what it formerly was, I have
no doubt he will do me the justice to say that I have
conscientiously striven to deserve his approbation.
Two new chapters— one on Marine Constructions, the
other on Marine Caves — have been added ; those on the
Molluscs and Coelenterata (Jelly-fishes, Polyps) almost
entirely re-written ; and those on Pishes, Crustaceans,
Microscopic Animals, the Geographical Distribution of
Marine Life, and the Phosphorescence of the Sea, con-
siderably enlarged ; not to mention a number of minor
improvements dispersed throughout the volume.
Great attention has also been paid to the Illustrations,
many of questionable value having been omitted in the
present edition, to make room for a number of others.
VI
PREFACE.
which will be found of great use for the better under-
standing of the text.
In one word, I have done my best to raise my work
to the standard of the actual state of science, and to
render it, as far as my humble abilities go, a complete
epitome of all that the general reader cares to know
about the marvels of the deep.
G. Hart wig.
Salon Villas, Ludwigsburg:
June 30, 1873.
PEEFACE
TO
THE FIRST TWO EDITIONS.
For years my daily walks have been upon the beach, and
I have learnt to love the ocean as the Swiss mountaineer
loves his native Alps, or the Highlander the heath-covered
hills of Caledonia. May these feelings have imparted
some warmth to the following pages, and serve to render
the reader more indulgent to their faults !
G. Hartwig.
Gottingen: July 17, 1860.
CONTENTS
PART I.
THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
CHAPTER I.
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE SEA.
Extent of the Ocean. — Length of its Coast- Line.— Mural, Rocky, and Flat Coasts.
—How deep is the Sea ? — Average Depth of the Atlantic Ocean. — The Tele-
graphic Plateau between Newfoundland and Ireland. — Measurement of Depth
bv the Rapidity of the Tide-Wave. — Progressive Changes in the Limits of the
Ocean. — Alluvial Deposits. — Upheaving. — Subsidence.— Does the Level of the
Sea remain unchanged, and is it everywhere the same ? — Composition and
Temperature of Sea-Water. — Its intrinsic Colour. — The Azure Grotto at Capri.
— Modification of Colour owing to Animals and Plants. — Submarine Landscapes
viewed through the Clear Waters ..... Page 3
CHAPTER II.
THE WAVES OF THE OCEAN.
Waves and the Mode of their Formation. — Height and Velocity of Storm-Waves,
on the High Seas, according to the Calculations of Scoresby, Arago, Sir James
Ross, and Wilkes. — Their Height and Power on Coasts. — Their Destructive
Effects along the British Shore. — Dunwich. — Reculver. — Shakspeare’s Cliff. 24
CHAPTER III.
THE TIDES.
Description of the Phenomenon. — Devastation of Storm-Floods on Flat Coasts. —
What did the Ancients know of the Tides ? — Their Fundamental Causes revealed
by Kepler and Newton. — Development of their Theory by La Place, Euler, and
Whewell. — Vortices caused by the Tides. — The Maelstrom. — Charybdis. — The
Barre at the mouth of the Seine. — The Euripus . . . .32
VI 11
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
MARINE CAVES.
Effects of the Sea on Rocky Shores. — Fingal’s Cave. — Beautiful Lines of Sir
Walter Scott.— The Antro di Nettuno. — The Cave cf Hunga. — Legend of its
Discovery. — Marine Fountains.— The Skerries. — The Souffleur in Mauritius. —
The Buffadero on the Mexican Coast ..... Page 45 •
CHAPTER V.
OCEAN CURRENTS.
Causes of the Oceanic Currents.- — The Equatorial Stream. — The Gulf Stream. —
Its Influence on the Climate of the West European Coasts.— The Cold Peruvian
Stream. — The Japanese Stream . . . . . .54
CHAPTER VI.
THE AERIAL AND TERRESTRIAL MIGRATIONS OF THE WATERS.
Movements of the Waters through Evaporation. — Origin of Winds. — Trade-Winds.
—Calms. — Monsoons. — Typhoons. — Tornadoes. — Water-Spouts. — The Forma-
tion of Atmospherical Precipitations. — Dew. — Its Origin. — Fog. — Clouds. — Rain.
— Snow. — Hail. — Sources. — The Quantities of Water which the Rivers pour into
the Ocean. — Glaciers and their Progress. — Icebergs. — Erratic Blocks. — Influence
of Forests on the Formation and Retention of Atmospherical Precipitations.—
Consequences of their excessive Destruction. — The Power of Man over Climate.
— How has it been used as yet? . . , „ . .65
CHAPTER VII.
MARINE CONSTRUCTIONS.
Lighthouses. — The Eddystone.— Winstanley’s Lighthouse, 1696. — The Storm ol
1703. — Rudyerd's Lighthouse destroyed by Fire in 1755. — Singular Death of
one of the Lighthouse Men. — Anecdote of Louis XIV. — Smeaton. — Bell Rock
Lighthouse. — History of the Erection of Skerryvore Lighthouse. — Illumination
of Lighthouses. — The Breakwater at Cherbourg. — Liverpool Docks.— The
Tubular Bridge over the Menai Straits. — The Sub-oceanic Mine of Botallack. 80
PART II.
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
CHAPTER VIII. ‘
THE CETACEANS.
General Remarks on the Organisation of the Cetaceans. — The Large Greenland
Whale.— His Food and Enemies. — The Fin-Back or Rorqual. — The Antarctic
Whale, — The Sperm Whale. — The Unicorn Fish. — The Dolphin. — Truth and
Fable. — The Porpoise. — The Grampus. — History of the Whale Fishery . 95
CONTENTS.
IX
CHAPTER IX.
SEALS AND WALRUSES.
The Manatees and the Dugongs. — The Seals and the Esquimaux. — King Menelaus
in a Seal’s Skin. — Barbarous Persecutions of the Seals in Behring’s Sea and the
Pacific. — Adventures of a Sealer from Geneva. — The Sea Calf. — The Sea Bear.
— His Parental Affection. — The Sea Lions. — The Sea Elephant. — The Arctic
Walrus. — The Boats of the “Trent” fighting with a Herd of Walruses. — The
White Bear. — Touching Example of its Love for its Young. — Chase of the Sea
Otter ......... Page 117
CHAPTER X.
SEA-BIRDS.
Their Vast Numbers— Strand-Birds. — Artifices of the Sea-Lark to protect its
Young. — Migrations of the Strand-Birds. — The Sea-Birds in General. — The
Anatidie.— The Eider Duck. — The Sheldrake.— The Loggerheaded Duck. —
Auks and Penguins. — The Cormorant. — Its Use by the Chinese for Fish-
catching. — The Frigate Bird. — The Soland Goose. — The Gulls. — The Petrels. —
The Albatross. — Bird-catching on St. Kilda. — The Guano of the Chincha
Islands 142
CHAPTER XI.
THE REPTILES OF THE OCEAN.
The Saurians of the Past Seas. — The Anatomical Structure of the Turtles. — Their
Size. — Their Visits to the Shores. — The Dangers that await their Young. —
Turtles on the Brazilian Coast. — Prince Maximilian of Neuwied and the
Turtle. — Conflicts of the Turtles with Wild Dogs and Tigers on the Coast
of Java. — Turtle-catching on Ascension Island. — Tortoise-shell. — The Ambly-
rhynchus cristatus. — Marine Snakes.— The Great Sea-Snake . . 172
CHAPTER XII.
THE MARINE FISHES.
General Observations on Fishes. — Their Locomotive Organs — Tail — Fins.—
Classification of Fishes by Cuvier. — Air-Bladder. — Scales. — Beauty of the
Tropical Fishes. — The Gills. — Terrestrial Voyages of the Anabas and the
Hassar. — Examples of Parental Affection. — Organs of Sense. — Offensive
Weapons of Fishes. — The Sea-Wolf. — The Shark. — The Saw-Fish. — The Sword-
Fish. — The Torpedo. — The Star-Gazer. — The Angler. — The Chsetodon Ros-
tratus. — The Remora, used for catching Turtles. — Defensive Weapons of
Fishes. — The Weever. — The Stickleback. — The Sun-Fish. — The Flying-Fish. —
The numerous Enemies of the Fishes. — Importance and History of the Herring
Fishery. — The Pilchard. — The Sprat. — The Anchovy. — The Cod. — The Stur-
X
CONTENTS.
geons. — The Salmon.— The Tunny. — The Mackerel Family. — The Eel.— The
Murey. — The Conger. — The Sand-Launce. — The Plectognaths. — The Sea-
Horse. — The Pipe-Fish. — The Flat-Fishes. — The Pays. — The Fecundity of
Fishes ........ Page 186
CHAPTER XIII.
CRUSTACEA.
CRABS— LOBSTERS.
How are they distinguished from the Insects ? — Barnacles and Acorn-shells. —
Siphonostomata. — Entomostraca. — Iving-Crab. — Edriophthalmia. — Sandhoppers.
— Thoracostraca. — Compound Eye of the higher Crustaceans. — Respiratory
Apparatus of the Decapods. — Digestive Organs. — Chelae or Pincers. — Distribu-
tion of Crabs. — Land Crabs. — The Calling Crab. — Modifications of the Legs in
different species. — The Pinna and Pinnotheres. — Hermit Crabs. —The Lobster.
— The Cocoa-nut Crab. — The Shrimp. — Moulting Process. — Metamorphoses of
Crabs. — Victims and Enemies of the Crustaceans. — Their Fecundity. — Marine
Spiders and Insects ....... 243
CHAPTER XIV.
MARINE ANNELIDES.
The Annelides in general. — The Eunice sanguinea. — Beauty of the Marine Annt-
lides. — The Giant Nemertes. — The Food and Enemies of the Annelides. — The
Tubicole Annelides. — The Rotifera. — Their Wonderful Organisation. — The
Synehaeta Baltica . . . . . . . .262
CHAPTER XV.
MOLLUSCS.
The Molluscs in general.— The Cephalopods. — Dibranchiates and Tetrabranchiates
— Arms and Tentacles. — Suckers. — Hooked Acetabula of the Onychoteuthis. —
Mandibles. — Ink Bag. — Numbers of the Cephalopods — Their Habits — Their
Enemies — Their Use to Man — Their Eggs. — Enormous size of several species.
— The fabulous Kraken.— The Argonaut. — The Nautili. — The Cephalopods of
the Primitive Ocean. — The Gasteropods. — Their .Subdivisions. — Gills of the
Nudibranchiates. — The Pleurobranchus plumula.— The Sea-Hare. — The Chitons.
— The Patellae. — The Haliotis or Sea-Ear. — The Carinariae. — The Pectini-
branchiates. — Variety and Beauty of their Shells. — Their Mode of Locomotion.
— Foot of the Tornatella and Cyclostoma. — The lanthinae. — Sedentary Gastero-
pods.— The Magilus. — Proboscis of the Whelk. — Tongue of the Limpet. —
Stomach of the Bulla, the Scyllaea, and the Sea-Hare. — Organs of Sense in the
Gasteropods — Their Caution — Their Enemies — Their Defences — Their Use to
Man. — Shell-Cameos. — The Pteropods — Their Organisation and Mode of Life.
— The Butterflies of the Ocean. — The Lamellibranchiate Acephala — Their
Organisation. — Siphons. — The Pholades.— Foot of the Lamellibranchiates. —
The Razor-Shells. — The Byssus of the Pinnae. — Defences of the Bivalves —
Their Enemies. — The common Mussel. — Mussel Gardens. — The Oyster. —
Oyster Parks. — Oyster Rearing in the Lago di Fusaro. — Formation of new
CONTEXTS.
XI
Oyster Banks. — Pearl-fishing in Ceylon.— How are Pearls formed? — Tha
Tridacna gigas. — The Teredo navalis. — The Brachiopods. — The Terebratulae. —
The Polyzoa. — The Sea-Mats. — The Escharas. — The Lepralise. — Bird's Head
Processes. — The Tunicata. — The Sea-Squirts. — The Chelyosoma. — The Botrylli.
—The Pyrosomes. — The Salpse. — Interesting Points in the Organisation of the
Tunicata ........ Page 270
CHAPTER XVI.
ECHINODERMATA.
STAR-FISHES, SEA-URCHINS, AND SEA-CUCUMBERS.
The Star-Fishes —Their Feet or Suckers. — Voracity of the Asterias. — The Rosy
Feather-Star. — Brittle and Sand-Stars. — The real Sea-Stars of the British
Waters. — The Sea-Urchins. — The Pedicellariae. — The Shell and the Dental Ap-
paratus of the Sea-Urchins. — The Sea-Cucumbers. — Their strange Dismember-
ments.— Trepang-fishing on the Coast of North Australia. — In the Feejee
Islands ...... ... 328
CHAPTER XVII
CCEEENTERATA.
POLYrS AND JELLY'-FISHES.
Thread-cells or Urticating Organs. — Sertulariae. — Campanulariadae. — Hydrozoic
Acalephae. — Medusidae. — Lucernariadse. — Calycophoridse. — The Velella.— The
Portuguese Man-of-war. — Anecdote of a Prussian Sailor. — Alternating Fixed
and Free-swimming Generations of Hydrozoa.— Actinozoa. — Ctenophora — Their
Beautiful Construction. — Sea-anemones. — Dead Man’s Toes. — Sea-pens. — Sea-
rods. — Red Coral. — Coral Fishery. — Isis hippuris. — Tropical Lithophytes. —
History of the Coral Islands — Darwin’s Theory of their Formation — The
progress of theii Growth above the level of the Sea . . . 345
CHAPTER XVIII.
PROTOZOA.
The Foraminifera. — The Amcehse. — Their Wonderful Simplicity of Structure. — The
Polycystina. — Marine Infusoria. — Sponges. — Their Pores — Fibres and Spiculae —
The Common Sponge of Commerce . . . . .378
CHAPTER XIX.
MARINE PLANTS.
The Algee. — Zostera marina. — The Ulvae and Euteromorphae. — The Fuci. — The
Laminarise. — Macrocystis pyrifera. — Description of the Submarine Thickets at
Tierra del Fuego. — Nereocystis lutkeana. — The Sargasso Sea.— The Gathering
of edible Birds’-nests in the marine Caves of Java. — Agar-Agar. — The Florideae.
• — The Diatomacese. — Their importance in the economy of the Seas . 390
Xll CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XX.
THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF MARINE LIFE.
The Dependence of all created Beings upon Space and Time. — The Influences
which regulate the Distribution of Marine Life. — The four Bathymetrical Zones
of Marine Life on the British Coasts, according to the late Professor Edward
Forbes of Edinburgh. — Abyssal Animals. — Bathybius HaecJcelii. — Deep-Sea
Sponges and Shell-Fish.— Vivid Phosphorescence of Deep-Sea Animals. — Deep-
Sea Shark Fishery — The “ Challenger.” .... Page 405
CHAPTER XXI.
THE PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE SEA.
Its Causes. — Noctiluca miliaris. — Phosphorescent Annelides and Beroes. —
Intense Phosphorescence of the Pyrosoma atlantica. — Luminous Pholades. —
The luminous Shark. — Phosphorescent Algae. — Citations from Byron, Coleridge,
Crabbe, and Scott . . . . . . . .423
CHAPTER XXII.
THE PRIMITIVE OCEAN.
The Giant-Book of the Earth-rind. — The Sea of Fire. — Formation of a solid
Earth-crust by cooling. — The Primitive Waters. — First awakening of Life
in the Bosom of the Ocean. — The Reign of the Saurians. — The future
Ocean ......... 433
PART III.
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Maritime Discoveries of the Phoenicians. — Expedition of Hanno. — Circumnaviga-
tion of Africa under the Pharaoh Necho. — Colaeus of Samos. — Pytheas of
Massilia. — Expedition of Nearchus.— Circumnavigation of Hindostan under
the Ptolemies. — Voyages of Discovery of the Romans.— Consequences of the
Fall of the Roman Empire. — Amalfi. — Pisa. — Venice. — Genoa. — Resump-
tion of Maritime Intercourse between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. — -
Discovery of the Mariner’s Compass. — Marco Polo. . . . 443
CHAPTER XXIV.
Prince Henry of Portugal. — Discovery of Porto Santo and Madeira. — Doubling of
Cape Bojador— Discovery of the Cape Verde Islands.— Bartholomew Diaz. —
Vasco de Gama. — Columbus. — His Predecessors. — Discovery of Greenland by
CONTENTS.
X1U
Giinnbjorn. — Bjorne Herjulfson. — Leif. — John Vaz Cortereal. — John and
Sebastian Cabot. — Retrospective View of the Beginnings of English Navigation.
— Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci. — Vincent Yanez Pinson. — Cortez. — Verazzani.
— Cartier. — The Portuguese in the Indian Ocean . . . Page 4.34
CHAPTER XXV.
Vasco Nunez de Balboa. — His Discovery of the Pacific, and subsequent Fate. —
Ferdinand Magellan. — Sebastian el Cano, the first Circumnavigator of the
Globe. — Discoveries of Pizarro and Cortez. — Urdaneta. — Juan Fernandez. —
Mendoza. — Drake. — Discoveries of the Portuguese and Dutch in the Western
Pacific. — Attempts of the Dutch and English to discover North-East and North-
West. Passages to India. — Sir Hugh Willoughby and Chancellor. — Frobisher. —
Davis. — Barentz. — His Wintering in Nova Zembla. — Quiros. — Torres. —
Schouten. — Le Maire. — Abel Tasman. — Hudson. — Baffin. — Dampier.— Anson.
— Byron. — Wallis and Carteret. — Bougainville .... 464
CHAPTER XXVI.
What had Cook’s Predecessors left him to discover ? — His first Voyage. — Discovery
of the Society Islands, and of the East Coast of New Holland. — His second
Voyage. — Discovery of the Hervey Group. — Researches in the South Sea. — The
New Hebrides. — Discovery of New Caledonia and of South Georgia. — His
third Voyage. — The Sandwich Islands. — New Albion. — West Georgia. —
Cook's Murder.— Vancouver. — La Peyrouse .... 483
CHAPTER XXVII.
Scoresby. — The Arctic Navigators. — Ross. — Parry. — Sufferings of Franklin and
his Companions on his Overland Expedition in 1821. — Parry’s Sledge-journey
to the North Pole. — Sir John Franklin. — M‘Clure. — Kane. — M‘Clintock. —
South Polar Expeditions. — Bellinghausen. — Weddell. — Biseoe. — Balleny. —
Dumont d'Urville. — Wilkes. — Sir James Ross. — Recent Scientific Voyages of
Circumnavigation ........ 496
XV
Description of the Frontispiece.
ARCTIC SLEDGE-JOURNEY.
The sledge plays a very conspicuous part in the history of arctic discovery, as it
enables the bold investigators of the icy wildernesses of the North to penetrate hi
many places, impervious to navigation, to establish depots of provisions for future
emergencies, or even becomes the means of saving their lives when their ship has
been lost or hopelessly blocked up. Whenever dogs can be had, these useful
animals are made use of for the transport. Our plate represents one of these
Eledging parties threading its way through blocks of ice, and gives a good idea of
the difficulties they have to encounter.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATES.
Arctic Sledge-Journey . . Frontispiece.
FACING PAGE
The Souffleur Rock, Mauritius . 52
Lighthouse and Waterspout . 65
Australian Sea-Bears . . .117
The Boats of H.M.S. “ Trent ”
attacked by Walruses . . 131
FACING PAGE
Penguins 142
Subaqueous Life — Sticklebacks
and Nest . . . .195
Kussian Official collecting Algae . 392
MAP.
Map of the Globe, showing the direction of the Ocean Currents, Cotidal Lines, &c.
facing page 3.
WOODCUTS.
PAGE
knnelidans : —
Aphrodita, or Sea-Mouse . 264
Nereis .... 263
Serpula, attached to a Shell . 266
Beachy Head .... 5
Bell Rock Lighthouse . . . 86
Eirds : —
Albatross, Wandering . . 163
Auk . . , . .168
Great .... 151
Avoset .... 146
Barnacle Goose . . . 146
Cormorant, common . .155
Curlew .... 143
Eider Duck . . . .146
Flamingo . . . .142
Gannet, common . . .156
Great Crested Grebe . .150
Guillemot, Black . . .165
(winter plumage) . . 167
Herring Gulls . . . 158
Hooded Merganser . . 404
Pelican . . . 116, 154
Penguins .... 152
Petrel, Broad-billed . . 160
Fork-tailed . . .160
Stormy . . .162
Plover . . . .144
Puffins . . . 165, 167
Eed-breasted Merganser . 149
Scissor-bill (Rhynchops nigra) 1 44
Sheldrake . . . 148
Skimmer, Black . . .169
a
XV111
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
PAGE
Birds — continued :
Crustaceans — continued :
Snow Goose
146
Spotted Mantis-Crab
256
Speckled Diver
145
Stenopus hispidus
261
Tailor-bird ....
143
Whale-Louse
.
101
Birds of Passage
171
Crustaceans and Oysters
,
256
Bones of the Anterior Fin of a
Dental Apparatus of the Sea-
Whale
96
Urchin, viewed from above
339
Coelenterata : —
Ear, Human
196
Alcyonidium elegans .
363
Ear of the Perch
196
Astraea ....
373
Echinodermata : —
Caryophyllia
370
Cross-Fish, common
334
Chrysaora hysoscella .
357
Eatable Trepang .
340
Coryniadae ....
358
Goniaster .
336
Ctenophora ....
360
Lily-Encrinite
330
Diphyes appendieulata
353
Sand-Star .
332
Grey Sea-Pen
365
Sea-Urchin .
337
Isis hippuris
369
Edible .
338
Jelly Fishes . 349, 350,
351
Mammillated
338
Lucernalia auricula
352
Warted Euryale .
333
Medusae . . 349, 350,
351
Eddystone Lighthouse
84
Physalia caravella
355
Esquimaux in his Kayak
120
Physophora Philippii .
356
Fingal’s Cave
47
Red Coral ....
367
Fishes : —
Sertularia tricuspidata
347
Ammodyte, or Launce .
230
Stone Corals . . 373, 374
Anabas of the dry tanks
192
lubipora Musica .
370
Anchovy
214
Velella ....
354
Angler
203
Virgularia mirabilis
365
Bonito
223
Vogtia pentacantha
353
Cod .
215
Compound Foraminiferous Proto-
Conger Eel .
228
zoon, magnified
380
Diodon
205
Crustaceans : —
Dory .
242
American Sand-Crab .
252
Electric Eel
202
Balanus ovularis, and group of 244
European Sly
203
Barnacle . . .101
244
Fierasfer
340
Calling-Crab of Ceylon
251
File-Fish . ,
232
Chelura tenebrans
247
Flounder
238
^Diogenes Hermit-Crab
254
Flying Fish
156, 206,
224
Dromia vulgaris .
249
Frog-Fish .
192
Jamaica Land-Crab
250
Gar-Fish
223
King Crab ....
246
Globe-Fish .
232
Large-clawed Calling-Crab .
250
Gurnard
. 197, 414
Limnoria lignorum
247
Haddock
. ,
215
Metamorphosis of Carcinus
Halibut
.
236
Moenas ....
258
Herring
. 101, 208
Pea-Crab ....
253
Lamprey
231
Phyllosoma
258
Ling .
215
Pinna Augustana
253
Mackerel
222
Sandhopper
246
Mullet, Grey
415
Scyllarus equinoxialis .
248
Red
. 197, 415
square facets of .
247
Mvxine
231
Spotted Fin-Crab
252
Perch, internal ear of the
196
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
XIX
PAGE
PAGE
Fishes — continued :
Mammals — continued :
Picked Dog-Fish .
.
200
Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus) 134
Pilchard
212
Porpoise . .
. 108
Pilot-Fish .
225
Rorqual
. 101
Plaice ....
238
Sea-Otter
. 140
Porcupine-Fish .
232
Seal . . .
119, 123, 135
Salmo Rossii
220
Greenland .
. 123
Salmon
415
Walrus
. 129, 135
Sand-Eel
415
Whale, common .
. 97
Saw-Fish
201
Whale, Spermaceti
. 102, 115
Sea-Horse .
234, 344
Mollusks : —
Shark, Blue
200
Argonaut
. 280
Hammer-headed .
199
Ascidia mammillata
. 322
White .
198
Banded Dipper .
. 141
Short Sun-Fish .
232,
422
Bivalve deprived of its shell,
Sole . . . .
237
to show its various open-
portion of skin of,
high-
ings
. 300
ly magnified
.
190
Botryllus
. 324
Sturgeon, common
217
Bulla .
. 294
Surgeon-Fish
205
Calamary
. 272
Swimming Pegasus
207
Carinaria
. 287
Sword-Fish .
99,
201
Cellularia .
. 319
Thornback .
240
Chelyosoma Maeleayanum 323, 327
Torpedo
. .
201
Chinese Wentle-trap (Sea-
Toxotes Jaculator
203
lari a pretiosa) .
. 289
Trunk-Fish
.
232
Chiton squamosus
. 285
Tunny
221
Clavellina producta
. 322
Turbot
237
Clio borealis
. 98
Wolf-Fish .
197
Cockle, common .
. 303, 306
Foraminifera, various forms of .
381
Cuttle-Fish (Sepia)
. 104, 275
Fossils : —
Diazona violacea .
. 324
Ammonite .
437
Donax
. 301
Belemnite .
437
Edible Mussel
. 307
Ichthyosaurus communis 172,
438
Edible Oyster
. 308
Pentacrinus Briareus,
por-
Eolis .
. 284
tion of
330
Eschara cervicornis
. 318
Plesiosaurus
438
Gorgeous Doris .
. 235
Trilobite
436
Haliotis
. 287
Hill at the Rapid on Bear
Lake
Harp-shell .
. 288
River (North-West Territory,
Hippopus maculatus
. 315
North America)
23
Ianthina communis
. 290
H. M. S. “Resolute” lying
to in
Leaf-like Sea-mat
. 316, 317
the North Atlantic .
24
Limpet and Shell
286, 292, 411
Ice-Bear approaching the
‘Do-
Magilus antiquus
. 291
rothea ” and “Trent ”
137
Mitre-shells
. 288
Japan Junks
63
Murex haustellum
. 291, 296
Liemophora flabellata .
403
Oliva hispidula .
. 290
Mammals : —
Onychoteuthis
. 274
Dolphin
107
Orange Cone -shell
. 288
Dugong
117
Pearl-Oyster
. 312
female, of Ceylon .
119
Pearly Nautilus .
. 280
Manatee
117
Periwinkle . .
. . 411
XX
LIST • OF ILLUSTRATIONS,
PAGE
TAGE
Mollusks — continued
Reptiles — continued, :
Petunculus .
302
Tortoise ....
174
Pholas striata
302
Turtle, Green
170
Pinna ....
305
Hawk’s Bill .
180
Poulp (Octopus) .
272, 273
Loggerhead . . .
176
Pteroceras seorpio
290
Water-Snake
183
Retepora cellularis
318
Rocky Mountains at the bend of
Salpa ....
326
the Bear Lake River
79
Scyllsea
283
Rotifera : —
Sea-Hare, compound stomach
Conochilus volvox
268
of .
295
Philodina roseola
269
Sepia ....
104, 275
Ptygura melicerta
267
Solen, or Razor-Shell .
304
Saw of the Saw-Fish .
100
Strombus pes pelicani .
290
Sea-Fowl Shooting
168
Syllsea, gizzard of
294
Skeleton of the Dugong
118
Tiara ....
283
of the Perch
188
Tridaena gigas
314
of the Seal ....
119
Whelk
413
of the Tortoise
174
Worm-shell
291
Skerryvore Lighthouse
89
Muscles and Electric Batteries of
Skull and Head of Walrus .
129
the Torpedo .
202
Skull of Whale, with the Baleen .
98
Nervous Axis of an Annelidan
262
Surirella constricta
402
Noctiluca miliaris
419
Theoretic representation of the
Ova of the Cuttle-Fish
278
Circulation in Fishes
192
Protozoa : — -
Theoretic representation of the
Amoeba
379
Circulation in Mammals and
Forauinifera
381
Birds .....
175
Halina papillaris
386
Theoretic representation of the
Infusoria, marine
384
Circulation in Reptiles
175
Nummulina discoidalis
378
Torso Rock, near Point Deas
Polycistina .
383
Thomson, in the Arctic Ocean .
9
Sponges
385
Sockets with teeth, of Echinus
Tethea
385, 386
esculentus ....
339
Rrptiles : —
Urticating organs of Coelenterata
346
Alligator Lucius . ,
173
Water-Spouts . . 69, 70
PART I.
TiiE
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
B
MfP.verest.
Comparative View
of the
Ttunrhin
M A IP OIF THE GIL '0 IF IF
Dhawalatf
Principal; Elevations
0nhYoV
Eastern. Hernispli
SEMIS FSlliES
Slicrwiug; tlte
MW»ML [FEAT 0 RES oifTTWE HAM ID)
V AND THE DIRECTION OF THE S
. \ xjc:ka>?' cuiMns, /
\ . COTIDAU LINES / /
Jarvahtr
Chamalan
Compiled "by /A
LLER /
k £ ■'(,
\ F.R.G.S. /
LB nil;
fra A s Erm,t
.Gardner l.
S ar 9
Jtri pcs*
••"IIIIIU
l>'~ illanuuS1-
l.amtili,.
Clippenon I-
Jo rial
“ rren t
Walker* /.
G.oC Guinea
fara^'niaiL
Gatnpagos
' I h. -■ '■ ■
■ ■
/ Aarhaen ^
L.Kyimiu^
Kiluniliiiljil)
AiliuirnllT
• Sty iielle
Amirunte .
am
*’ra^zL,mi
Ajc(U-'‘f
“,5*3 MS
i or oil l'
t/'emoro j
Wntltou l.
.1. o.'/i Sh eikh
''•-lira,
e rnu rule l
CuSren
Amsterdam •
> Kemp IA
■ LV’,,a \
the distribution of
Active Volcanoes
mill the region's, visited
\;iilrl,t£j
Weller Sculp
34 Red. lion. Squat
Reference to Currents &<
The Arrows indicate the direction or' the Currents . those
with points at both ends thus - IC a', show that the
Current alternates with the Seasons ?f. -Winter Sr Summer. 1
The npures attached indicate the Velocity of the Current.
'Nantic Miles in 14 hours 1 The liphr. curved lines crossing
the Ocean are Coridal lines and the roman, nurnerals
attached, indicate the time'of Hioh Water at Me* A Full Moon.
underline/! lice
Adnntj/
y/
* / ' 1
Volcanoes art bulicand ,ka
Vulcanic Oiler, at . ‘
CHAPTER I.
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE SEA.
Extent of the Ocean. — Length of its Coast-Line. — Mural, Rocky, and Elat Coasts.
— How deep is the Sea ? — Average Depth of the Atlantic Ocean. — The Tele-
graphic Plateau between Newfoundland and Ireland.' — Measurement of Depth
by the Rapidity of the Tide-Wave. — Progressive Changes in the Limits of the
Ocean. — Alluvial Deposits. — Upheaving. — Subsidence. — Does the Level of the
Sea remain unchanged, and is it everywhere the same? — Composition and
Temperature of Sea-Water. — Its intrinsic Colour. — The Azure Grotto at Capri.
— Modification of Colour owing to Animals and Plants. — Submarine Landscapes
viewed through the Clear Waters.
Of all the gods that divide the empire of the earth, Neptune
rules over the widest realms. If a giant-hand were to uproot the
Andes and cast them into the sea, they would he engulphed in
the abyss, and scarcely raise the general level of the waters.
The South American Pampas, hounded on the north by
tropical palm-trees, and on the south by wintry firs, are no
doubt of magnificent dimensions, yet these vast deserts seem
insignificant when compared with the boundless plains of earth -
encircling ocean. Nay ! a whole continent, even America or
Asia, appears small against the immensity of the sea, which
covers with its rolling waves nearly three-fourths of the entire
surface of the globe.
A single glance over the map shows us at once how very un-
equally water and land are distributed. In one part we see
continents and islands closely grouped together, while in another
the sea widely spreads in one unbroken plain ; here vast penin-
sulas stretch far away into the domains of ocean, while there
immense gulfs plunge deeply into the bosom of the land. At
first sight it might appear as if blind chance had presided over
this distribution, but a nearer view convinces us that providen-
4
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
tial laws have established the existing relations between the
solid and fluid surfaces of the earth. If the sea had been much
smaller, or if the greatest mass of laud had been concentrated
in the tropical zone, all the meteorological phenomena on which
the existence of actual organic life depends would have been so
different, that it is doubtful whether man could then have
existed, and certain that, under those altered circumstances,
he never would have attained his present state of civilisation.
The dependence of our intellectual development upon the ex-
isting configuration of the earth, convinces us that Divine wisdom
and not chaotic anarchy has from all eternity presided over the
destinies of our planet.
The length of all the coasts which form the boundary between
sea and land can only be roughly estimated, for who has
accurately measured the numberless windings of so many
shores? The entire coast line of deeply indented Europe and
her larger isles measures about 21,600 miles, equal to the cir-
cumference of the earth ; while the shores of compact Africa
extend to a length of only 14,000 miles. I need hardly point out
how greatly Europe's irregular outlines have contributed to the
early development of her superior civilisation and political pre-
dominance. The coasts of America measure about 45,000 miles,
those of Asia 40,000, while those of Australia and Polynesia
may safely be estimated at 16,000. Thus the entire coast-line
of the globe amounts to about 136,000 miles, which it would
take the best pedestrian full twenty-five years to traverse from
end to end.
How different is the aspect of these shores along which
the ever-restless sea continually rises or falls ! Here steep
rock-walls tower up from the deep, while there a low sandy
beach extends its flat profile as far as the eye can reach. While
some coasts are scorched by the vertical sunbeam, others are
perpetually blocked up with ice. Here the safe harbour bids
welcome to the weather-beaten sailor, the light-house greets him
from afar with friendly ray ; the experienced pilot hastens to guide
him to the port, and all along the smiling margin of the land
rise the peaceful dwellings of civilised man. There, on the con-
trary, the roaring breakers burst upon the shore of some dreary
wilderness, the domain of the savage or the brute. What a
wonderful variety of scenes unrolls itself before our fancy as it
DIFFERENT FORMATION OF SEA-COASTS.
6
roams along the coasts of ocean from zone to zone ! what
changes, as it wanders from the palm-girt coral island of the
Beechy Head.
tropical seas to the melancholy strands where, verging towards
the poles, all vegetable life expires ! and how magnificently grand
does the idea of ocean swell out in our imagination, when we,
consider that its various shores witness at one and the same
time the rising and the setting of the sun, the darkness of night
and the full blaze of day, the rigour of winter and the smiling
cheerfulness of spring !
The different formation of sea-coasts has necessarily a great
influence on commercial intercourse. Bold mural coasts, rising
precipitously from the deep sea, generally possess the best
harbours. Bocky shores also afford many good ports, but
most frequently only for smaller vessels, and of difficult access,
on account of the many isolated cliffs and reefs which charac-
terise this species of coast formation.
In places where high lands reach down to the coast, the im-
mediate depth of the sea is proportionably great ; but wherever
the surface rises gently landwards, the sea-bed continues with a
corresponding slope downwards. On these flat coasts the tides
roll over a sandy or shingly beach ; and here the aid of human
industry is frequently required to create artificial ports, or to
prevent those already existing from being choked with sand.
On many flat coasts the drift-sand has raised clanes, wearying
6
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OP THE SEA.
the eye by their monotonous uniformity ; on others, where these
natural bulwarks are wanting, artificial embankments, or dykes
protect the lowlands against the encroachments of the sea, or else
the latter forms vast salt-marshes and lagunes. On some coasts
these submerged or half-drowned lands have been transformed
by the industry of man into fertile meadows and fields, of which
the Dutch Netherlands afford the most celebrated example ; while
in other countries, such as Egypt, large tracts of land once cul-
tivated have been lost to the sea, in consequence of long misrule
and tyranny.
How deep is the sea ? How is its bottom formed ? Does
life still exist in its abyssal depths ? These mysteries of ocean,
which no doubt floated indistinctly before the mind of many an
inquisitive mariner and philosopher of ancient times, have only
recently been subjected to a more accurate investigation. Their
solution is of the highest importance, both to the physical
geographer, whose knowledge must necessarily remain incom-
plete until he can fully trace the deep-sea path of oceanic
currents, and to the zoologist, to whom it affords a wider in-
sight into the laws which govern the development of the
innumerable forms of life with which our globe is peopled.
The ordinary system of sounding by means of a weight at-
tached to a graduated line, and “ armed ” at its lower end with
a thick coating of soft tallow, so as to bring up evidence of its
having reached the bottom in a sample of mud, shells, sand,
gravel, or ooze, answers perfectly well for comparatively shallow
water, and for the ordinary purposes of navigation, but it
breaks down for depths much over 1000 fathoms. The weight
is not sufficient to carry the line rapidly and vertically to the
bottom ; and if a heavier weight be used, ordinary sounding
line is unable to draw up its own weight along with that of the
lead from great depths, and gives way, so that by this means no
information can be gained as to the nature of the sea-bottom.
To obviate this difficulty, several ingenious instruments have
been invented, such as the “ Bull-dog ” sounding machine, which
is so contrived that on touching the bottom the weight becom s
detached, while at the same time a pair of scoops, closing upon
one another scissorwise on a hinge, and permanently attached
DEEP SOUNDINGS.
7
to the sounding-line, retain and are able to bring up a sample
of the bottom.
With the aid of steam, dredging has also been successfully
carried down to 2,435 fathoms, so that the ocean bed may be-
come in time as well known to us as the bed of the Mersey or
the Thames.
Both sounding and dredging at great depths are, however,
difficult and laborious tasks, which can only be performed under
very favourable circumstances, and require a vessel specially
fitted at considerable expense.
Many of the early deep soundings in the Atlantic, which
reported the astonishing depths of 46,000 or even 50,000 feet,
are now known to have been greatly exaggerated. In some
cases bights of the line seem to be carried along by submarine
currents, and in others it is found that the line has been
running out by its own weight only, and coiling itself in a
tangled mass directly over the lead. These sources of error
vitiate very deep soundings ; and consequently, in the last chart
of the North Atlantic, published on the authority of Bear-
Admiral Bichards in November 1870, none are entered beyond
4000 fathoms, and very few beyond 3000.
“ The general result,” says Professor Wyville Thomson,* “ to
which we are led by the careful and systematic deep-sea sound-
ings which have been undertaken of late years is that the depth
of the sea is not so great as was at one time supposed, and does
not appear to average more than 2000 fathoms (12,000 feet),
about equal to the mean height of the elevated table-lands of
Asia.
“ The thin shell of water which covers so much of the face of
the earth occupies all the broad general depressions in its crust,
and it is only limited by the more abrupt prominences which
project above its surface, as masses of land with their crowning
plateaux and mountain ranges. The Atlantic Ocean covers
30,000,000 of square miles, and the Arctic Sea 3,000,000, and
taken together they almost exactly equal the united areas of
Europe, Asia, and Africa — the whole of the Old World — and yet
there seem to be few depressions on its bed to a greater depth
than 15,000 or 20,000 feet — a little more than the height of
Mont Blanc ; and, except in the neighbourhood of the shores,
* “The Depths of the Sea,” p. 228.
8
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
there is only one very marked mass of mountains, the volcanic
group of the Azores.”
Accurate soundings are as yet much too distant to justify
a detailed description of the bed of the Atlantic. I will merely
state that after sloping gradually to a depth of 500 fathoms to
the westward of the coast of Ireland, in lat. 52° N., the bottom
suddenly dips to 1700 fathoms, at the rate of from about 15 to
19 feet in the 100. From this point to within about 200
miles of the coast of Newfoundland, where it begins to shoal
again, there is a vast undulating plain averaging about 2000
fathoms in depth below the surface — the “ telegraph plateau ”
on which now rest the cables through which the electric power
transmits its marvellous messages from one world to another.
Our information about the beds of the Indian, the Antarctic,
and the Pacific Oceans is still more incomplete, but the few
trustworthy observations which have hitherto been made seem
to indicate that neither the depth nor the nature of the bottom
of these seas differs greatly from what we find nearer home.
The inclosed and landlocked European seas are very shallow
when compared with the high ocean : the Mediterranean, how-
ever, has in some parts a depth of more than 6000 feet ; and
even in the Black Sea, the plummet sometimes descends to
more than 3000 feet ; while the waters of the Adriatic every-
where roll over a shallow bed.
The researches of Mr. Russell on the swiftness of the tide-wave,
showing that the rapidity of its progress increases with the
depth of the waters over which it passes, afford us another means,
besides the sounding line, of determining approximately the
distance of the sea-bottom from its surface. According to this
method, the depth of the Channel between Plymouth and
Boulogne has been calculated at 180 feet; and the enormous
rapidity of the flood wave over the great open seas (300 miles
an hour and more) gives us for the mean depth of the Atlantic
14,400 feet, and for that of the Pacific 19,500.
Natural philosophers have endeavoured to calculate the
quantity of the waters contained within the vast bosom of the
ocean ; but as we are still very far from accurately knowing the
mean depth of the sea, such estimates are evidently based upon
a very unsubstantial foundation.
So much at least is certain, that the volume of the waters of
THE GOODWIN SANDS.
9
the ocean as much surpasses all conception, as the number of
their inhabitants, or of the sands that line their shores.
The boundaries of the ocean are not invariable ; while in
some parts it encroaches upon the land, in others it retreats
from the expanding coast. In many places we find the sea
perpetually gnawing and undermining cliffs and rocks; and
Torso Rock, near Point Teas Thomson, in the Arctic Ocean.
sometimes swelling with sudden rage, it devours a broad expanse
of plain, and changes fertile meads into a dreary waste of
waters. The Groodwin Sands, notorious for the loss of many a
noble vessel, were once a large tract of low ground belonging to
Earl Groodwin, father of Harold, the last of our Saxon kings; and
being afterwards enjoyed by the monastery of St. Augustine at
Canterbury, the whole surface was drowned by the abbot’s
neglect to repair the wall which defended it from the sea. In
spite of the endeavours of the Dutch to protect their flat land
by dykes against the inundatory waters, the storm-flood has
more than once burst through these artificial boundaries, and
converted large districts into inland seas.
But the spaces which in this manner the dry land has gra-
dually or suddenly lost, or still loses, to the chafing ocean are
largely compensated for in other places, by the vast accumulations
10
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OP THE SEA.
of mud and sand, which so many rivers continually carry along
with them into the sea. Thus at the mouths of the Nile, of the
Granges, and of the Mississippi, large alluvial plains have been
deposited, which now form some of the most fruitful portions of
the globe. The whole Delta of Egypt, Bengal, and Louisiana,
have thus gradually emerged from the waters.
The volcanic powers, which once caused the highest mountain
chains to rise from the glowing bosom of the earth, are still
uninterruptedly active in changing its surface, and are gradually
displacing the present boundaries of sea and land, upheaving
some parts and causing others to subside.
On the coast of Sweden, it has been ascertained that iron
rings fixed to rocks which formerly served for the fastening of
boats are at present much too high. Flat cliffs on which, ac-
cording to ancient documents, seals used to be clubbed while
enjoying the warm sunbeam, are now quite out of the reach of
these amphibious animals. In the years 1731, 1752, and 1755,
marks were hewn in some conspicuous rocks, which after the
lapse of half a century were found to have risen about two feet
higher above the level of the sea. This phenomenon is confined
to part of the coast, so that it is clearly the result of a local and
slowly progressive upheaving.
Whilst a great part of Scandinavia is thus slowly but steadily
rising, the shores of Chili have been found to rise convulsively
under the influence of mighty volcanic shocks. Thus after the
great earthquake of 1822, the whole coast, for the length of a
hundred miles, was found to be three or four feet higher than
before, and a further elevation was observed after the earthquake
of Feb. 21st, 1835.
While to the north of Wolstenholme Sound, Kane remarked
signs of elevation, a converse depression was observed as he
proceeded southwards along the coast of Greenland, Esquimaux
huts being seen washed by the sea. The axis of oscillation
must be somewhere about 77° N. lat.
At Keeling Island, in the Indian Ocean, Mr. Darwin found
evidence of subsidence. On every side of the lagoon, in which
the water is as tranquil as in the most sheltered lake, old cocoa-
nut-trees were undermined and falling. The foundation-posts
of a store-house on the beach, which the inhabitants had said
stood seven years before just above high-water mark, were now
THE TEMPLE OF SEEAPIS.
11
daily washed by the tide. Earthquakes had been repeatedly
remarked by the inhabitants, so that Darwin no longer doubted
concerning the cause which made the trees to fall, and the
store-house to be washed by the daily tide.
On the columns of the temple of Serapis, near Puzzuoli, the
astonished naturalist sees holes scooped out by Pholades and
Lithodomas, twenty-four feet above the present level of the sea.
These animals are marine testacea, that have the power of
burying themselves in stone, and cannot live beyond the reach
of low-water. How then have they been able to scoop out those
hieroglyphic marks so far above the level of their usual abodes ?
for surely marble originally defective was never used for the
construction of so proud an edifice. Alternate depressions and
elevations of the soil afford us the only key to the enigma.
Earthquakes and oscillations, so frequent in that volcanic region,
must first have lowered the temple into the sea, where it was
acted upon by the sacrilegious molluscs, and then again their
upheaving powers must have raised it to its present elevation.
Thus, even the solid earth changes its features, and reminds
us of the mutability of all created things.
There can be no doubt that, in consequence of the perpetual
increase of alluvial deposits, and of the volcanic processes I have
mentioned, the present boundaries of ocean must undergo great
alterations in the course of centuries, and the general level of
the sea must either rise or fall ; but the evidence of history proves
to us that, for the last 2000 years at least, there has been no
notable change in this respect.
The baths hewn out in the rocks of Alexandria, and the stones
of its harbour, have remained unaltered ever since the founda-
tion of the city by the Macedonian conqueror ; and the ancient
port of Marseilles shows no more signs of a change of level than the
old sea-walls of Cadiz. Thus, all the elevations and depressions
that have occurred in the bed of ocean, or along its margin,
and all the mud and sand that thousands of rivers continually
carry along with them into the sea, have left its general level
unaltered, at least within the historic ages. However great their
effects may appear to the eye that confines itself to local changes,
their influence, as far as the evidence of history reaches, has
been but slight upon the immensity of the sea.
Geodesica) operations have proved that the level of the ocean,
12
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
with the exception of certain enclosed seas of limited extent,
is everywhere the same. The accurate measurements of Cora-
boeuf and Delcros show no perceptible difference between the
level of the Channel and that of the Mediterranean. In the
course of the operations for measuring the meridian in France,
M. Delambre calculated the height of Eodez above the level
of the Mediterranean at Barcelona, and its height above the ocean
which washes the foot of the tower of Dunkirk, and found the
difference to be equal to a fraction of a yard.
The measurements which, at Humboldt’s suggestion, General
Bolivar caused to be executed by Messrs. Lloyd and Filmore,
prove that the Pacific is, at the utmost, only a few feet higher
than the Caribbean Sea, and even that the relative height of the
two seas changes with the tides.
The long and narrow inlet of the Red Sea, which, according
to former measurements, was said to be twenty-four or thirty
feet higher than the Mediterranean seems, from more recent and
accurate investigations, to be of the same level, and thus to
form no exception to the general rule.
The salts contained in sea water, and to which it owes its peculiar
bitter and unpleasant taste, form about three and a half per cent,
of its weight, and consist principally of common table salt(chloride
of sodium), and the sulphates and carbonates of magnesia and
lime. But, besides these chief ingredients, there is scarcely a
single elementary body of whicli traces are not to be found in
that universal solvent. Wilson has pointed out fluoric combina-
tions in sea water, and Malaguti and Durocher (Annales de
Chimie, 1851) detected lead, copper, and silver in its composi-
tion. Tons of this precious metal are dissolved in the vast
volume of the ocean, and it contains arsenic sufficient to poison
every living thing.
Animal mucus, the product of numberless creatures, is mixed
up with the sea water, and it constantly absorbs carbonic acid
and atmospheric air, which are as indispensable to the marine
animals and plants as to the denizens of the atmospheric
ocean.
In inclosed seas, communicating with the ocean only by
narrow straits, the quantity of saline particles varies from that
TEMPERATURE OF THE SEA.
13
of the high seas. Thus the Mediterranean, when evaporation is
favoured by heat, contains about one half per cent, more salt
than the ocean ; while the Baltic, which, on account of its
northern position, is not liable to so great a loss, and receives
vast volumes of fresh water from a number of considerable
rivers, is scarcely half so salt as the neighbouring North Sea.
In the open ocean, the perpetual circulation of the waters
produces an admirable equality of composition : yet Dr. Lenz,
who accompanied Kotzebue in his second voyage round the
world, and devoted great attention to the subject, found that
the Atlantic, particularly in its western part, contains a some-
what larger proportion of salts than the Pacific ; and that the
Indian Ocean, which connects those vast volumes of water, is
more salt towards the former than towards the latter.
As water is a bad conductor of caloric, the temperature of the
seas is in general more constant than that of the air.
The equinoctial ocean seldom attains the maximum warmth of
83°, and has never been known to rise above 87°; while the sur-
face of the land between the tropics is frequently heated to
129°. In the neighbourhood of the line, the temperature of the
surface-water oscillates all the year round only between 82° and
85°, and scarce any difference is perceptible at different times of
the day.
The wonderful sameness and equability of the temperature of
the tropical ocean over spaces covering thousands of square
miles, particularly between 10° N. and 10° S. lat.. far from the
coasts, and where it is not intersected by pelagic streams,
affords, according to Arago, the best means of solving a very
important, and as yet unanswered question, concerning the
physics of the globe. “ Without troubling itself,” says that
great natural philosopher, “about mere local influences, each
century might leave to succeeding generations, by a few easy
thermometrical measurements, the means of ascertaining whether
the sun, at present almost the only source of warmth upon the
surface of the earth, changes his physical constitution, and varies
in his splendour like most stars, or whether he has attained a
permanent condition. Great and lasting revolutions in his
shining orb would reflect themselves more accurately in the
14
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OP THE SEA.
altered mean temperature of those ocean plains than in the
changed medium warmth of the dry land.”
The warmest part of the ocean does not coincide with the
Equator, but seems to form two not quite parallel hands to the
north and south.
In the northern Atlantic, the line of greatest temperature (87°
F.) which on the African coast is found but a little to the north of
the Equator, rises on the north coast of South America as high
as 12° N. lat., and in the Gfulf of Mexico ranges even beyond the
tropic. The influence of the warmth-radiating land on inclosed
waters is still more remarkable in the Mediterranean (between
30° and 44° N. lat.) where during the summer months a temper-
ature of 84° and 85° is found, three degrees higher than the
medium warmth of the open tropical seas.
While in the torrid zone the temperature of the ocean is
generally inferior to that of the atmosphere, the contrary takes
place in the Polar seas. Near Spitzbergen, even under 80° N.
lat., Graimard never found the temperature of the water below
-1- 33°. Between Norway and Spitzbergen the mean warmth of
the water in summer was +39°, while that of the air only
attained +37°.
In the enclosed seas of the Arctic Ocean, the enormous accu-
mulation of ice, which the warmth of a short summer is unable
totally to dissolve, naturally produces a very low temperature of
the waters. Thus, in Baffin’s Bay, Sir John Boss found during
the summer months only thirty-one days on which the tempe-
rature of the water rose above freezing point.
In the depths of the sea, even in the tropical zone, the water
is found of a frigid temperature, and this circumstance first led
to the knowledge of the submarine polar ocean currents ; “ for
without these, the deep sea temperature in the tropics could
never have been lower than the maximum of cold, which the
heat-radiating particles attain at the surface.” *
It was formerly believed that while the surface temperature —
which depended upon direct solar radiation, the direction of
currents, the temperature of winds, and other temporary causes —
might vary to any amount, at a certain depth the temperature
was permanent at 4° C., the temperature of the greatest density
of fresh water. Late investigations, however, have led to the
* Humboldt’s “ Kosmos.”
LOCALISED CURRENTS.
15
conclusion that instead of there being a permanent deep layer
of water at 4° C., the average temperature of the deep sea in
temperate and tropical regions is about 0° C., the freezing point
of fresh water.
In the atmospheric ocean, aeronauts not seldom meet with
warm air currents flowing above others of a colder temperature ;
while, according to a general law, the warmth of the air con-
stantly diminishes as its elevation above the surface of the sea
increases.
Similar exceptions to the general rule are met with in the
ocean. In moderate depths sometimes the whole mass of water
from the surface to the bottom is abnormally warm, owing to
the movement in a certain direction of a great body of warm
water, as in the “warm area” to the north-west of the Hebrides,
where, at a deptli of 500 fathoms, the minimum temperature was
found to be 6° C. On the other hand, the whole body of
water is sometimes abnormally cold, as in the “ cold area,” be-
tween Scotland and Faeroe, where, at a depth of 500 fathoms,
the bottom temperature is found to average —1° C.* The only
feasible explanation of these enormous differences of tempera-
ture, amounting to nearly 13° F. in two areas freely communi-
cating with one another, and in close proximity, is that in the area
to the north-west of the Hebrides a body of water warmed even
above the normal temperature of the latitude flows northwards
from some southern source, and occupies the whole depth of that
comparatively shallow portion of the Atlantic, while an arctic
stream of frigid water creeps from the north-eastward into the
trough between Faeroe and the Shetland Islands, and fills its
deeper part in consequence of its higher specific gravity. There
can be no doubt that similar phenomena occur in various parts
of the ocean, and that the deep seas are frequently intersected
by streams differing in temperature from the surrounding
waters.
In some places, owing to the conformation of the neighbour-
ing land or of the sea-bottom, superficial warm and cold cur-
rents are circumscribed and localised, thereby occasioning the
singular phenomenon of a patch or stripe of warm and a patch
of cold sea meeting in an invisible but well-defined line.
* “ The Depths of the Sea,” by Professor Wyville Thomson, p. 307.
16
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
The temperature of the sea apparently never sinks at any
depth below — 3’5° C. This is about the temperature of the
maximum density of sea water, which contracts steadily till just
above its freezing point ( — 3-67° C.), when kept perfectly still.
If we include in the tropical seas all that part of the ocean
where the surface temperature never falls below 68° F., and
where consequently living coral reefs may occur, we find that it
nearly equals in size the temperate and cold ocean-regions
added together. This distribution of the waters over the surface
of the globe is of the highest importance to mankind ; for the
immense extent of the tropical ocean, where, of course, the
strongest evaporation takes place, furnishes our temperate zone
with the necessary quantity of rain, and tends by its cooling
influence to diminish the otherwise unbearable heat of the
equatorial lands.
The circumstance of ice being lighter than water also con-
tributes to the habitability of our earth. Ice is a bad con-
ductor of heat ; consequently it shields the subjacent waters
from the influence of frost, and prevents its penetrating to
considerable depths. If ice had been heavier than water,
the sea-bottom, in higher latitudes, would have been covered
with solid crystal at the very beginning of the cold season ;
and during the whole length of the polar winter, the per-
petually consolidating surface-waters would have been con-
stantly precipitated, till finally the whole sea, far within the
present temperate zone, would have formed one solid mass of
ice. The sun would have been as powerless to melt this pro-
digious body, as it is to dissolve the glaciers of the Alps, and
the cold radiating from its surface would have rendered all the
neighbouring lands uninhabitable.
The mixture of the water of rivers with that of the sea pre-
sents some hydrostatic phenomena which it is curious enough
to observe. Fresh water being lighter, ought to keep at the
surface, while the salt water, from its weight, should form the
deepest strata. This, in fact, is what Mr. Stephenson observed
in 1818 in the harbour of Aberdeen at the mouth of the Dee,
and also in the Thames near London and Woolwich. By taking
up water from different depths with an instrument invented for
the purpose, Mr. Stephenson found that at a certain distance
FRESH-WATER SPRINGS.
17
from the mouth the water is fresh in the whole depth, even
during the flow of the tide, but that a little nearer the sea fresh
water is found on the surface, while the lower strata consist of
sea water. According to his observations it is between London
and Woolwich that the saltness of the bottom begins to be per-
ceptible. Thus, below Woolwich the Thames, instead of flowing
over a solid bed, in reality flows upon a liquid bottom formed
by the water of the sea, with which no doubt it is more or less
mixed.
Mr. Stephenson is of opinion that, at the flow of the tide, the
fresh water is raised as it were in a single mass by the salt water
which flows in, and which ascends the bed of the river, while
the fresh water continues to flow towards the sea.
Where the Amazon, the La Plata, the Orinoco, and other
giant streams pour out their vast volumes of water into
the ocean, the surface of the sea is fresh for many miles from
the shore ; but this is only superficial, for below, even in the bed
of the rivers, the bitterness of salt water is found.
It is a curious fact, that in many parts of the ocean, fresh-
water springs burst from the bottom of the sea. Thus, in the
Gulf of Spezzia, and in the port of Syracuse, large jets of fresh
water mingle with the brine ; and Humboldt mentions a still
more remarkable submarine fountain on the southern coast of
Cuba, in the Gulf of Xagua, a couple of sea miles from the shore,
which gushes through the salt water with such vehemence, that
boats approaching the spot are obliged to use great caution.
Trading vessels are said sometimes to visit this spring, in order
to provide themselves in the midst of the ocean with a supply
of fresh water.
The sea is not colourless ; its crystal mirror not only reflects
the bright sky or the passing cloud, but naturally possesses a pure
bluish tint, which is only rendered visible to the eye when the
light penetrates through a stratum of water of considerable
depth. This may be easily ascertained by experiment. Take a
glass tube, two inches wide and two yards long, blacken it inter-
nally with lamp-black and wax to within half an inch of the end,
the latter being closed by a cork. Throw a few pieces of white
porcelain into this tube, which, after being filled with pure
c
18
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
sea- water, must be set vertically on a white plate, and then,
looking through the open end, you will see the white of the
porcelain changed into a light blue tint.
In the Gulf of Naples, we find the inherent colour of the
water exhibited to us by Nature on a most magnificent scale.
The splendid “ Azure cave,” at Capri, might almost be said to
have been created for the purpose. For many centuries its
beauties had been veiled from man, as the narrow entrance is
only a few feet above the level of the sea, and it was only
discovered in the year 1826, by two Prussian artists accidentally
swimming in the neighbourhood. Having passed the portal,
the cave widens to grand proportions, 125 feet long, and 145
feet broad, and except a small landing place on a projecting rock
at the farther end, its precipitous walls are on all sides bathed
by the influx of the waters, which in that sea are most remarkably
clear, so that the smallest objects may be distinctly seen on the
light bottom at a depth of several hundred feet. All the light
that enters the grotto must penetrate the whole depth of the
waters, probably several hundred feet, before it can be re-
flected into the cave from the clear bottom, and it thus
acquires so deep a tinge from the vast body of water through
which it has passed, that the dark walls of the cavern are
illumined by a radiance of the purest azure, and the most
differently coloured objects below the surface of the water are
made to appear bright blue. Had Byron known of the exist-
ence of this magic cave, Childe Harold would surely have sung
its beauties in some of his most brilliant stanzas.
All profound and clear seas are more or less of a deep blue
colour, while, according to seamen, a green colour indicates
soundings. The bright blue of the Mediterranean, so often
vaunted by poets, is found all over the deep pure ocean, not
only in the tropical and temperate zones, but also in the regions
of eternal frost. Scoresby speaks with enthusiasm of the splendid
blue of the Greenland seas, and all along the great ice-barrier
which under 77° S. lat. obstructed the progress of Sir James
Boss towards the pole, that illustrious navigator found the waters
of as deep a blue as in the classical Mediterranean. The North
Sea is green, partly from its water not being so clear, and partly
from the reflection of its sandy bottom mixing with the essen-
tially blue tint of the water. In the Bay of Loanga the sea has
DISCOLORATION OF TIIE SEA FROM ALGJ3.
19
the colour of blood, and Captain Tuckey discovered that this
results from the reflection of the red ground-soil.
But the essential colour of the sea undergoes much more
frequent changes over large spaces, from enormous masses of
minute algce, and countless hosts of small sea-worms, floating
or swimming on its surface.
“ A few days after leaving Bahia,” says Mr. Darwin, “ not far
from the Abrolhos islets, the whole surface of the water, as it
appeared under a weak lens, seemed as if covered by chipped
bits of hay with their ends jagged. Each bundle consisted of
from twenty to sixty filaments, divided at regular intervals by
transverse septa, containing a brownish-green flocculent matter.
The ship passed several bands of them, one of whieh was about
ten yards wide, and, judging from the mud-like colour of the
water, at least two and a half miles long. Similar masses of floating
vegetable matter are a very common appearance near Australia.
During two days preceding our arrival at the Keeling Islands,
I saw in many parts masses of flocculent matter of a brownish
green colour, floating in the ocean. They were from half to
three inches square, and consisted of two kinds of microscopical
confervas. Minute cylindrical bodies, conical at each extremity,
were involved in large numbers in a mass of fine threads.”
“ On the coast of Chili,” says the same author, “ a few leagues
north of Conception, the ‘Beagle’ one day passed through great
bands of muddy water ; and again, a degree south of Valparaiso,
the same appearance was still more extensive. Mr. Sulivan,
having drawn up some water in a glass, distinguished by the
aid of a lens moving points. The water was slightly stained, as
if by red dust, and after leaving it for sometime quiet, a cloud
collected at the bottom. With a slightly magnifying lens, small
hyaline points could be seen darting about with great rapidity,
and frequently exploding. Examined with a much higher
power, their shape was found to be oval, and contracted by a
ring round the middle, from which line curved little setae pro-
ceeded on all sides, and these were the organs of motion. Their
minuteness was such that they were individually quite invisible
to the naked eye, each covering a space equal only to the one-
thousandth of an inch, and their number was infinite, for the
smallest drop of water contained very many. In one day we
passed through two spaces of water thus stained, one of which
20
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
alone must have extended over several square miles. The
colour of the water was like that of a river which has flowed
through a red clay district, and a strictly defined line separated
the red stream from the blue water.”
In the neighbourhood of Callao, the Pacific has an olive-green
colour, owing to a greenish matter which is also found at the
bottom of the sea, in a depth of 800 feet. In its natural state
it has no smell, but when cast on the fire, it emits the odour of
burnt animal substances.
Near Cape Palmas, on the coast of Guinea, Captain Tuckey’s
ship seemed to sail through milk, a phenomenon which was
owing to an immense number of little white animals swimming on
the surface, and concealing the natural tint of the water.
The peculiar colouring of the Eed Sea, from which it has
derived its name, is owing to the presence of a microscopic alga,
sui generis, floating at the surface of the sea and even less
remarkable for its beautiful red colour than for its prodigious
fecundity.
I could add many more examples, where, either from minute
algae or from small animals, the deep blue sea suddenly appeared
in stripes of white, yellow, green, brown, orange or red. For
fear, however, of tiring the reader’s patience, I shall merely
mention the olive green water, which covers a considerable part
of the Greenland seas. It is found between 74° and 80° N. lat.,
but its position varies with the currents, often forming isolated
stripes, and sometimes spreading over two or three degrees of
latitude. Small yellowish Medusae, of from one-thirtieth to one-
twentieth of an inch in diameter are the principal agents that
change the pure ultramarine of the Arctic Ocean into a muddy
green. According to Scoresby, they are about one-fourth of
an inch asunder, and in this proportion a cubic inch of
water must contain 64, a cubic foot 110,592, a cubic fathom
23,887,872, and a cubic mile nearly twenty-four thousand
billions! From soundings made in the situation where these
animals were found, the sea is probably more than a mile deep ;
but whether these substances occupy the whole depth is un-
certain. Provided, however, the depth to which they extend
be about 250 fathoms, the immense number of one species
mentioned above may occur in a space of two miles square ;
and what a stupendous idea must we form of the infinitude of
SUBMARINE LANDSCAPES.
21
marine life, when we consider that those vast numbers, beyond
all human conception, occupy after all only a small part of the
green-coloured ocean which extends over twenty or thirty
thousand square miles! It is here that the giant whale of the
north finds his richest pasture-grounds, which at the same time
invite man to follow on his track. A small red crustacean
( Getocliilus australis) which forms very extensive banks in the
Pacific, and in the middle of the Atlantic about 40° S. lat., affords
a similar supply of food to the whales frequenting those seas,
and exposes them to the same dangers.
When the sea is perfectly clear and transparent, it allows the
eye to distinguish objects at a very great depth. Near Mindora,
in the Indian Ocean, the spotted corals are plainly visible under
twenty-five fathoms of water. The crystalline clearness of the
Caribbean sea excited the admiration of Columbus, who in the
pursuit of his great discoveries ever retained an open eye for
the beauties of nature. “In passing over these splendidly adorned
grounds,” says Schopf, “ where marine life shows itself in an
endless variety of forms, the boat, suspended over the purest
crystal, seems to float in the air, so that a person unaccustomed
to the scene easily becomes giddy. On the clear sandy bottom
appear thousands of sea-stars, sea-urchins, molluscs, and fishes
of a brilliancy of colour unknown in our temperate seas. Fiery
red, intense blue, lively green, and golden yellow perpetually
vary ; the spectator floats over groves of sea-plants, gorgonias,
corals, alcyoniums, flabellums, and sponges, that afford no less
delight to the eye, and are no less gently agitated by the heaving
waters, than the most beautiful garden on earth when a gentle
breeze passes through the waving boughs.”
With equal enthusiasm De Quatrefages expatiates on the
beauties of the submarine landscapes on the coast of Sicily.
“ The surface of the waters, smooth and even like a mirror,
enabled the eye to penetrate to an incredible depth, and to
recognise the smallest objects. Deceived by this wonderful
transparency, it often occurred during my first excursions, that I
wished to seize some annelide or medusa, which seemed to swim
but a few inches from the surface. Then the boatman smiled,
took a net fastened to a long pole, and, to my great astonishment,
plunged it deep into the water before it could attain the object
which I had supposed to be within my reach. The admirable
22
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
clearness of the waters produced another deception of a most
agreeable kind. Leaning over the boat, we glided over plains,
dales, and hillocks, which, in some places naked and in others
carpeted with green or with brownish shrubbery, reminded us of
the prospects of the land. Our eye distinguished the smallest
inequalities of the piled-up rocks, plunged more than a hundred
feet deep into their cavernous hollows, and everywhere the
undulations of the sand, the abrupt edges of the stone-blocks,
and the tufts of algae were so sharply defined, that the wonder-
ful illusion made us forget the reality of the scene. Between us
and those lovely pictures we saw no more the intervening
waters that enveloped them as in an atmosphere and carried our
boat upon their bosom. It was as if we were hanging in a
vacant space, or looking down like birds hovering in the air
upon a charming prospect. Strangely formed animals peopled
these submarine regions, and lent them a peculiar character.
Fishes, sometimes isolated like the sparrows of our groves, or
uniting in flocks like our pigeons or swallows, roamed among
the crags, wandered through the thickets of the sea-plants,
and shot away like arrows as our boat passed over them.
Caryophyllias, Grorgonias, and a thousand other zoophytes
unfolded their sensitive petals, and could hardly be distinguished
from the real plants with whose fronds their branches intertwined.
Enormous dark blue Holothurias crept along upon the sandy
bottom, or slowly climbed the rocks, on which crimson sea-stars
spread out immoveably their long radiating arms. Molluscs
dragged themselves lazily along, while crabs, resembling huge
spiders, ran against them in their oblique and rapid progress, or
attacked them with their formidable claws. Other crustaceans,
analogous to our lobsters or shrimps, gambolled among the fuci,
sought for a moment the surface waters to enjoy the light of
heaven, and then by one mighty stroke of their muscular tail,
instantly disappeared again in the obscure recesses of the deep.
Among these animals whose shapes reminded us of familiar
forms appeared other species, belonging to types unknown in
our colder latitudes: Salpce, strange molluscs of glassy trans-
parency, that, linked together, form swimming chains; great
Beroes, similar to living enamel ; Diphyce hardly to be dis-
tinguished from the pure element in which they move, and
finally, Stephanomice, animated garlands woven of crystal and
SUBMARINE LANDSCAPES.
23
flov/ers, and which, still more delicate than the latter, disap-
pear as they wither, and do not even leave a cloud behind them
in the vase, which a few moments before their glassy bodies had
nearly entirely filled.”
Jlill at the Rapid on Bear Lake River. (North-West Territory,
North America.)
‘24
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
CHAP. II.
THE WAVES OF THE OCEAN.
Waves and the Mode of their Formation.— Height and Velocity of Storm-Waves,
on the High Seas, according to the Calculations of Scoreshy, Arago, Sir James
Ross, and Wilkes — Their Height and Power on Coasts — Their Destructive
Effects along the British Shore. — Dunwich. — Reculver. — Shakspeare’s Cliff.
After having admired the sea in the grandeur of its expanse,
and the profundity of its depths, I shall, in this and the two
following chapters, examine in what manner the perpetual cir-
culation of its waters is maintained.
“ The movements of the sea,” says Humboldt, “ are of a three-
fold description : partly irregular and transitory, depending
H.M.S. “ Resolute ” lymg-to in the North Atlantic.
upon the winds, and occasioning waves; partly regular and
periodical, resulting from the attraction of the sun and the moon
WAVES, THEIR MODE OF FORMATION. 2/5
(ebb and flood) ; and partly permanent, though of unequal
strength and rapidity at different periods (oceanic currents).”
Who has ever sojourned on the coast, or crossed the seas, and
has not been delighted by the aspect of the waves, so graceful
when a light breeze curls the surface of the waters, so sublime
when a raging storm disturbs the depths of the ocean?
But it is easier to admire the beauty of a wave than clearly
to explain its nature, so as to convey an accurate or sufficiently
general conception of its formation to the reader’s mind. Those
who are placed for the first time on a stormy sea, discover with
wonder that the large waves which they see rushing along with
a velocity of many miles an hour do not carry the floating body
along with them, but seem to pass under the bottom of the ship
with scarcely a perceptible effect in carrying the vessel out of
its course.
In like manner, the observer near the shore perceives that
floating pieces of wood are not carried towards the shore with
the rapidity of the waves, but are left nearly in the same place
after the wave has passed them as before. Nay, if the tide be
ebbing, the waves may even be observed rushing with great
velocity towards the shore, while the body of water is actually
receding, and any object floating in it is carried in the opposite
direction to the waves out to sea.
What, then, is wave-motion as distinct from water-motion?
The force of the wind, pushing a given mass of water out of its
place into another, dislodges the original occupant, which is
again pushed forward on the occupant of the next place, and
so on. As the water-particles crowd upon one another, in the
act of going out of their old places into the new, the crowd
forms a temporary heap visible on the surface of the fluid, and
as each successive mass is displacing the one before it, the un-
dulation or oscillatory movement spreads farther and farther
over the waters. Wave-motion is, in fact, the transference of
motion without the transference of matter : of form without the
substance, of force without the agent.
The strongest storm cannot suddenly raise high waves, they
require time for their development. Fancy the wind blowing
over an even sea, and it will set water-particles in motion
all over the surface, and thus give the first impulse to the
2<>
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OP THE SEA.
formation of small waves. Numberless oscillations unite their
efforts, and create visible elevations and depressions. Mean-
while, the wind is constantly setting new particles in motion ;
long before the first oscillations have lost their effect, countless
others are perpetually arising, and thus the sum of the pro-
pelling powers is constantly increasing, and gradually raising
mountain-waves, until their growth is finally limited by the
counterbalancing power of the earth’s attraction.
As the strength of the waves only gradually rises, it also loses
itself only by degrees, and many hours after the tornado has
ceased to rage, mighty billows continue to remind the mariner
of its extinguished fury. The turmoil of waters awakened by
the storm propagates itself hundreds of miles beyond the space
where its howling voice was heard, and often, during the most
tranquil weather, the agitated sea proclaims the distant war of
the elements.
The velocity of waves depends not only on the power of the
impulse, but also on the depth of the subjacent waters, as I have
already mentioned in the preceding chapter.
For this reason, as increased velocity augments the power of
the impulse, the waves in the Atlantic or Pacific, the mean
depth of which may be estimated at 12,000 or 18,000 feet,
attain a much greater height than in the comparatively shallow
North Sea.
The breaking of tbe waves against the shore arises from their
velocity diminishing with their depth. As the small flat wave
rolls up the beach, its front part, retarded by the friction of
the ground, is soon overtaken by its back, moving in swifter
progression, and thus arises its graceful swelling, the toppling
of its snow-white crest, and finally its pleasant prattle among
the shingles of the strand. This is one of those pictures of
nature which Homer describes with such inimitable truth in
various places of his immortal poems : he paints with admirable
colours the slow rising of the advancing wave, how it bends
forward with a graceful curve, and, crowning itself with a
diadem, of foam,' spreads like a white veil over the beach,
leaving sea-weeds and shells behind, as it rustles back again
into the sea.
The height which waves may attain on the open sea has
HEIGHT OF WAVES.
27
been accurately investigated by the late Rev. Dr. Scoresby,
during two passages across the Atlantic in 1847 and 1848.
“In the afternoon of March 5th, 1848,” says that eminent
philosopher, “ I stood during a hard gale upon the cuddy-roof
or saloon deck of the ‘ Hibernia a height, with the addition of
that of the eye, of 23 feet 3 inches above the line of flotation
(the ship’s course being similar to that of the waves). I am not
aware that I ever saw the sea more terribly magnificent; the
great majority of the rolling masses of water was more than 24
feet high, (including depression as well as altitude, or reckoning
above the mean-level, more than 12 feet). I then went to the
larboard paddle-box, about 7 feet higher (30 feet 2 inches up
to the eye), and found that one half of the waves rose above
the level of the view obtained.
“ Frequently I observed long ranges (200 yards), which rose so
high above the visible horizon, as to form an angle estimated at
two or three degrees when the distance of the wave’s summit was
about 100 yards from the observer. This would add near 13
feet to the level of the eye, and at least one in half-a-dozen
waves attained this altitude. Sometimes peaks or crests of
breaking seas would shoot upward, at least 10 or 15 feet higher.
“ The average wave was, I believe, fully equal to that of my
sight on the paddle-box, or more than 15 feet, and the mean
highest waves, not including the broken or acuminated crests,
rose about 4o feet above the level of the hollow occupied at the
moment by the ship. It was a grand storm-scene, and nothing
could exceed the pictorial effect of the partial sunbeams break-
ing through the heavy masses of clouds.” From the time
taken by a regular wave to pass from stern to stem. Dr. Scoresby
calculated its velocity at 2875 feet in each minute, or 32-67
English statute miles in an hour. The mean length of the
wave-ridges, was from a quarter to a third of a mile.
To those who might be inclined to doubt the accuracy of these
measurements, the remark may suffice that our celebrated
countryman had been for years engaged in the northern whale-
fishery, where he had ample opportunities for practising his eye
in measuring distances. Besides, the conclusions of many other
trustworthy observers coincide with the evaluations of Dr.
Scoresby.
28
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
Thus Captain Wilkes, commander of the U. S. Exploring
Expedition, found the height of the waves near Orange Har-
bour, where they rose higher and more regular than at any
other time during the cruise, to be thirty-two feet (depression
and altitude), and their apparent progressive motion about
twenty-six and a half miles in an horn.
Sir James Ross calculated the height of the waves on a strongly
agitated sea at twenty-two feet, and, according to the French
naturalists who sailed in the frigate “ La Venus,” on her voyage
round the world, the highest waves they met with never exceeded
that measure.
Thus, according to the joint testimony of the most eminent
nautical authorities, the waves in the open sea never attain the
mountain-height ascribed to them by the exuberant fancy of
poets or exaggerating travellers. But when the tempest surge
beats against steep crags or rocky coasts it rises to a much
more considerable height. The lighthouse of Bell Rock, though
112 feet high, is literally buried in foam and spra}r to the very
top during ground-swells, even when there is no wind. On the
20th November, 1827, the spray rose to the height of 117 feet
above the foundation or low-water mark, which, deducting
eleven feet for the tide that day, leaves 106 feet for the height
of the wave. The strength of that remarkable edifice may be
estimated from the fact, that the power of such a giant billow
is equivalent to a pressure of three tons per square foot.
In the Shetland Islands, which are continually exposed to the
full fury of the Atlantic surge (for no land intervenes between
their western shores and America), every year witnesses the
removal of huge blocks of stone from their native beds by the
terrific action of the waves. “In the winter of 1802,” says
Dr. Hibbert, in his description of that northern archipelago, “ a
tabular-shaped mass, eight feet two inches by seven feet, was
dislodged from its bed and removed to a distance of from
eighty to ninety feet, I measured the recent bed from which a
block had been carried away the preceding winter (a.d. 1818),
and found it to be seventeen feet and a half by seven feet, and
the depth two feet eight inches. The removed mass had been
borne to a distance of thirty feet, when it was shivered into
thirteen or more lesser fragments, some of which were carried
DESTRUCTIVE EFFECTS OF WAVES.
‘29
still farther from 30 to 120 feet. A block nine feet two inches
by six feet and a half, and four feet thick, was hurried up the
acclivity to a distance of 150 feet.”
The great storm of 1824, which carried away part of the
breakwater at Plymouth, lifted huge masses of rock, from two
to five tons in weight, from the bottom of the weatherside and
rolled them fairly to the top of the pile. One block of lime-
stone weighing seven tons was washed round the western ex-
tremit}' of the breakwater, and swept to a distance of 150 feet.
In 1807, during the erection of the Bell Rock lighthouse, six
large blocks of granite which had been landed on the reef were
removed by the force of the sea and thrown over a rising-
ledge to the distance of twelve or fifteen paces, and an anchor
weighing about twenty-two hundredweight was cast upon the
surface of the rock.
With such examples before our eyes, we cannot wonder that
in the course of centuries all shores exposed to the full shock
of the waves, lashing against them with every returning tide,
should gradually be wasted and worn away. One kind of stone
stands the brunt of the elements longer than another, but
ultimately even the hardest rock must yield to the rage of the
billows, which when provoked by wintry gales, batter against
them with ail the force of artillery.
Thus, all along our coasts we find innumerable instances of
their destructive power. Tynemouth Castle now overhangs the
sea, although formerly separated from it by a strip of land, and
in the old maps of Yorkshire we find spots, now sandbanks in
the sea, marked as the ancient sites of the towns and villaa'es
of Auburn, Hartburn, and Hyde. The cliffs of Norfolk and
Suffolk are subject to incessant and rapid decay. At Sherring-
ham, Sir Charles Lyell ascertained, in 1829, some facts which
throw light on the rate at which the sea gains upon the land.
There was then a depth of twenty feet (sufficient to float a
frigate) at one point in the harbour of that port, where only
forty-eight years ago there stood a cliff fifty feet high with
houses upon it ! If once in half a century,” remarks the great
geologist, “ an equal amount of change were produced suddenly
by the momentary shock of an earthquake, history would be
filled with records of such wonderful revolutions of the earth’s
surface ; but if the conversion of high land into deep sea be
30
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OP THE SEA.
gradual, it excites only local attention.” On the same coast,
the ancient villages of Shipden, Wimpwell, and Eccles have
disappeared, several manors and large portions of neighbour-
ing parishes having gradually been swallowed up; nor has
there been any intermission, from time immemorial, in the
ravages of the sea along a line of coast twenty miles in
length in which these places stood. Dunwich, once the most
considerable seaport on the coast of Suffolk, is now but a
small village with about one hundred inhabitants. From the
time of Edward the Confessor, the ocean has devoured, piece
after piece, a monastery, seven churches, the high road, the
town-hall, the gaol, and many other buildings. In the sixteenth
century not one-fourth of the ancient town was left standing,
yet, the inhabitants retreating inland, the name has been pre-
served,—
“ Stat magni nominis umbra,” —
as has been the case with many other ports, when their ancient
site has been blotted out.
The Isle of Sheppey is subject to such rapid decay, that the
church at Minster, now near the coast, is said to have been in
the middle of the island fifty years ago, and it has been con-
jectured that at the present rate of destruction, the whole isle
will be annihilated before the end of the century.
Another remarkable instance of the destructive action of
the tidal surge is that of Reculver, on the Kentish coast, an
important military station in the time of the Romans, now
nothing but a ruin and a name. So late as the reign of
Henry VIII., Reculver was still a mile distant from the sea ;
but, in 1780, the encroaching waves had already reached the
site of the ancient camp, the walls of which, cemented as they
were into one solid mass by the unrivalled masonry of the
Romans, continued for several years after they were under-
mined to overhang the sea. In 1804, part of the churchyard
with the adjoining houses was washed away, and then the
ancient church with its two lofty spires, a well-known land-
mark, was dismantled and abandoned as a place of worship.
Shakspeare’s Cliff at Dover has also suffered greatly from the
waves, and continually diminishes in height, the slope of the
hill being towards the land. About the year 1810, there was
shakspeare’s cliff.
31
an immense landslip from this cliff, by which Dover was shaken
as if by an earthquake, and a still greater one in 1772.
Thus the fame of the poet is likely to outlive for many
centuries the proud rock, the memory of which will always
be entwined with his immortal verse : —
“ How fearful,
And dizzy ’tis to east one’s eyes so low !
The crows, and choughs, that wing the midway air,
Show scarce so gross as beetles : half way down
Hangs one that gathers samphire ; dreadful trade !
Methinks, he seems no bigger than his head.
The fishermen, that walk upon the beach,
Appear like mice ; and yon tall anchoring bark,
Diminish’d to her cock ; her cock, a buoy
Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge,
That on th’ unnumber’d idle pebbles chafes,
Cannot be heard so high.”
The peninsulas of Purbeck and Portland, the cliffs of Devon-
shire and Cornwall, the coasts of Pembroke and Cardigan, the
stormy Hebrides, Shetland and Orcadia, all tell similar tales of
destruction, a mere summary of which would swell into a
volume.
During the most violent gales the bottom of the sea is said
by different authors to be disturbed to a depth of 300, 350, or
even 500 feet, and Sir Henry de la Beche remarks that when
the depth is fifteen fathoms, the water is very evidently dis-
coloured by the action of the waves on the mud and sand of
the bottom. But in the deep caves of ocean all is tranquil, all
is still, and the most dreadful hurricanes that rage over the
surface leave those mysterious recesses undisturbed.
32
PHYSICAL GEOGEAPHY OF THE SEA.
CHAP. III.
THE TIDES.
Description of the Phenomenon. — Devastations of Storm-Floods on Flat Coasts. —
What did the Ancients know of the Tides ? — Their Fundamental Causes revealed
by Kepler and Newton. — Development of their Theory by La Place, Euler, and
Whewell. — -Vortices caused by the Tides. — The Maelstrom. — Charybdis. — The
Barre at the mouth of the Seine. — The Euripus.
Living on the sea-coast would undoubtedly be deprived of one of
its greatest attractions, without the phenomenon of the tides,
which, although of daily recurrence, never loses the charm of
novelty, and gives constant occupation to the fancy by the life,
movement, and perpetual change it brings along with it. How
wonderful to see the sandy plain on which, but a few hours ago,
we enjoyed a delightful walk, transformed into a vast sheet of
water through which large vessels plough their way! How
agreeable to trace the margin of the rising flood, and listen to
its murmurs ! Those of the rustling grove or waving cornfield
are not more melodious. And then the variety of interesting
objects which the reflux of the tide leaves behind it on the
beach — the elegantly formed shell, the feathery sertularia, the
delicate fucoid, and so many other strange or beautiful marine
productions, that may well challenge the attention of the most
listless lounger.
But the spectacle of the tides is not merely pleasing to the
eye, or attractive to the imagination ; it serves also to rouse the
spirit of scientific inquiry. It is indeed hardly possible to wit-
ness their regular succession without feeling curious to know by
what causes they are produced, and when we learn that they are
governed by the attraction of distant celestial bodies, and that
their mysteries have been so completely solved by man, that he
is able to calculate their movements for months and years to
come, then indeed the pleasure and admiration we fee! at their
DESCRIPTION OF TIDES.
33
aspect must increase, for we cannot walk upon the beach with-
out being constantly reminded that all the shining worlds that
stud the heavens are linked together by one Almighty power,
and that our spirit, which has been made capable of unveiling
and comprehending so many of the secrets of creation, must
surely possess something of a divine nature !
On all maritime coasts, except such as belong to mediterra-
nean seas not communicating freely with the ocean, the waters
are observed to be constantly changing their level. They regu-
larly rise during about six hours, remain stationary for a few
minutes, and then again descend during an equal period of time,
when after having fallen to the lowest ebb, they are shortly
after seen to rise again, and so on in regular and endless succes-
sion. In this manner twelve hours twenty-four minutes elapse
on an average from one flood to another, so that the sea twice
rises and falls in the course of a day, or rather twice during the
time from one passage of the moon through the meridian to the
next, a period equivalent on an average to 1 j-g-g-g day, or nearly
twenty-five hours. Thus the tides retard from one day to
another; least at new and full moon, when our more active satel-
lite accomplishes her apparent diurnal motion round the earth
in twenty-four hours, thirty -seven minutes; and most at half-
moon, when, sailing more leisurely through the skies, she takes
full twenty-five hours and twenty-seven minutes to perform her
daily journey.
As the retarding of the tides regularly corresponds with the
retarding of the moon, they always return at the same hour
after the lapse of fourteen days, so that at the end of each of
her monthly revolutions, the moon always finds them in the
same position. The knowledge of this fact is extremely useful
to navigators, as it is easy to calculate the time of any tide in a
port by knowing when it is high-water on the days of new and
full moon.
The height of the tides in the same place is as unequal and
changing as the period of their intervals, and is equally depen-
dent on the phases of the moon, increasing with her growth, and
diminishing with her decrease. New and full moon always
cause a higher rising of the flood (spring-tide), followed by a
deeper ebb, while at half-moon the change of level is much less
considerable (neap-tide). Thus in Plymouth, for instance, the
D
34
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
neap-tides are only twelve feet high, while the ordinary spring-
tides rise to more than twenty feet.
The highest tides take place during the equinoxes ; and
eclipses of the sun and moon are also invariably accompanied
by considerable floods, a circumstance which cannot fail to add
to the terror of the ignorant and superstitious when a mysterious
obscurity suddenly veils the great luminaries of the sky. It
has also been remarked that the tides are stronger or weaker,
according as the moon is at a greater or smaller distance from
the earth.
Thus as the height of the floods is always regulated by the
relative position of the sun and moon, and the movements of
these heavenly bodies can be calculated a long time beforehand,
our nautical calendars are able to tell us the days when the
highest spring-tides may be expected.
This however can only be foretold to a certain extent, as the
tidal height not only depends upon the attraction of the heavenly
bodies, but also upon the casual influences of the wind, which
defies all calculation, and of the pressure of the air. Thus Mr.
Walker observed on the coasts of Cornwall and Devonshire that
when the barometer falls an inch, the level of the sea rises
sixteen inches higher than would otherwise have been the case.
When a strong and continuous wind blows in an opposite
direction to the tide-wave, and at the same time the barometer
is high, the curious spectators will therefore be deceived in their
expectations, however promising the position of the attracting
luminaries may be ; while an ordinary spring-tide, favoured by
a low state of the barometer and chased by a violent storm
against the coast, may attain more than double the usual
height. When all favourable circumstances combine, an event
which fortunately but rarely occurs, those dreadful storm-tides
take place, as menacing to the flat coasts of the Netherlands as
an eruption of Etna to the towns and hamlets scattered along
its base, for here also a vast elementary power is let loose
which bids defiance to human weakness. It is then that the
rebel sea affords a spectacle of appalling magnificence. The
whole surface seethes and boils in endless confusion. Gigantic
waves rear their monstrous heads like mighty Titans, and hurl
their whole colossal power against the dunes and dykes, as if,
impelled by a wild lust of conquest, they were burning to devour
MAGNIFICENCE OF STORM-TIDES.
35
the rich alluvial plains which once belonged to their domain.
Far inland, the terrified peasant hears the roar of the tumul-
tuous waters, and well may he tremble when the mountain-waves
come thundering against the artificial barriers, that separate his
fields from the raging floods, for the annals of his country relate
many sad examples of their fury, and tell him that numerous
villages and extensive meads, once flourishing and fertile, now
lie buried fathom-deep under the waters of the sea.
Thus, on the first of November, 1170, the storm-flood, bursting
through the dykes, submerged all the land between the Texel,
Medenblik, and Stavoren, formed the island of Wieringen, and
enlarged the openings by which the Zuiderzee communicated
with the ocean. The inundations of 1232 and 1242 caused, each
of them, the death of more than 100,000 persons, and that of
1287 swept away more than 80,000 victims in Friesland alone.
The irruption of 1395 considerably widened the channels between
the Flie and the Texel, and allowed large vessels to sail as far
as Amsterdam and Enkhuizen, which had not been the case
before. Whilst reading these accounts, we are led to compare
the inhabitants of the Dutch lowlands with those of the fertile
fields and vineyards that clothe the sides of Vesuvius : both
exposed to sudden and irretrievable ruin from the rage of
two different elements, and yet both contented and careless
of the future ; the first behind the dykes that have often given
way to the ocean, the latter on the very brink of a menacing
volcano.
The tides which sometimes cause such dreadful devastations
on the shores of the North Sea are, as is well known, incon-
siderable, or even hardly perceptible in the Mediterranean, and
thus many years passed ere the Greeks and Romans first wit-
nessed the grand phenomenon. The Phoenicians, the merchant
princes of antiquity, who at a very early period of history
visited the isolated Britons, —
“ Penitus toto dirisos orbe Britannos, ” —
and sailed far away into the Indian Ocean, were of course well
acquainted with it ; but it first became known to the Greeks
through the voyage of Colseus, a mariner of Samos, who, accord-
ing to Herodotus, was driven by a storm through the Straits of
Hercules into the wide Atlantic 600 years before Christ. About
3G
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
seventy years after this involuntary discovery, the Phoceans of
Massilia, or Marseilles, first ventured to follow on the track of
Colseus for the purpose of trading with Tartessus, the present
Cadiz ; and from that time remained in constant commercial
intercourse with that ancient Phoenician colony.
With what eager attention may their countrymen have
listened to the wondrous tale of the alternate rising and sinking
of the ocean ! Such must have been the astonishment of our
forefathers when the first Arctic voyagers told them of the
floating icebergs, and of the perpetually circling sun of the
high northern summer.
Thus the tides became known to the Massilians about five
centuries before Christ, but in those times of limited interna-
tional intercourse, knowledge travelled but slowly from place to
place ; so that it was not before the conquests of Alexander,
which first opened the Eed Sea and the Persian Gulf to Grecian
trade, that the great marine phenomenon began to attract the
general attention of philosophers and naturalists.
The flux and reflux of the sea is evidently so closely connected
with the movements and changes of the moon, that the intimate
relations between both could not possibly escape the penetrating
sagacity of the Greeks. Thus we read in Plutarch, that Pytheas
of Marseilles, the great traveller who sailed to the north as far as
the Ultima Thule, and lived in the times of Alexander the Great,
ascribed to the moon an influence over the tides. Aristotle ex-
pressed the same opinion, and Caesar says positively (Commen-
taries, Be Bel. Gcd. book iv. 29,) that the full-moon causes
the tides of the ocean to swell to their utmost height. Strabo
distinguishes a three-fold periodicity of the tides according to
the daily, monthly, and annual position of the moon, and Pliny
expresses himself still more to the point, by saying that the
waters move as if obeying the thirsty orb which causes them
to follow its course.
This vague notion of obedience or servitude was first raised
o
by Kepler to the clear and well defined idea of an attractive
power. According to this great and self-taught genius, all
bodies strive to unite in proportion to their masses. “ The earth
and moon would mutually approach and meet together at a
point, so much nearer to the earth as her mass is superior to
that of the moon, if their motion did not prevent it. The moon
WHAT DID THE ANCIENTS KNOW OF TIDES ?
37
attracts the ocean, and thus tides arise in the larger seas. If
the earth ceased to attract the waters, they Avould rise and flow
up to the moon.”
The general notion of a mutual attraction, however, did no
more than point out the way for the solution of the problem,
and it was reserved to our great Newton to accomplish the
prophecy of his great predecessor, “ that the discovery of the true
laws of gravitation would be accomplished in a future generation,
when it should please the Almighty Creator of nature to reveal
her mysteries to man.”
Newton was the first who proved that the tide-generating
power of a celestial body arises from the difference of the at-
traction it exerts on the centre and the surface of the earth.
Thus it was at once made clear how the water not only rises on
the surface facing the moon, but also on the opposite side of the
earth, as in the latter case the moon acts more strongly on the
mass of the earth than on the waters which cover the hemisphere
most distant from her. The evident consequence is that the
earth sinks (so to say), on the surface turned from the moon,
whereby a deepening of the waters, or, in other words, a rising of
the tide, is occasioned.
It now also became clear how the moon, whose attractive
power upon the earth is 160 times smaller than that of the
sun, is yet able to occasion a stronger tide, since, from her
proximity to the earth, she attracts the surface more forcibly
than the centre with the thirtieth part of her power, while the
distant sun occasions a difference of attraction on these two
points equal only to one twelve-thousandth part of her attrac-
tive force.
Now also a full explanation was first given why the highest
tides take place at new and full moon : that is, when the moon
stands between the sun and the earth ; or the latter between the
sun and the moon ; as then the two celestial bodies unite their
powei’S ; while at half-moon the solar tide corresponding with
the lunar ebb, or the lunar tide with the solar ebb, counteract
each other.
But even Newton explained the true theory of the tides only
in its more prominent and general features, and the labours of
other mathematicians, such as MacLaurin, Bernoulli, Euler,
La Place, and Whewell, were required for its further development,
38
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
so as fully to explain all the particulars of the sublime phe-
nomenon.
The reproach has often been made to science, that she
banishes poetry from nature, and disenchants the forest and
the field ; but this surely is not the case in the present instance,
for what poetical fiction can fill the soul with a grander image
than that of the eternal restlessly-progressing tide-wave, which,
following the triumphant march of the sun and moon, began as
soon as the primeval ocean was formed, and shall last uninter-
ruptedly as long as our solar system exists !
Were the whole earth covered with one sea of equal depth,
the tides would regularly move onwards from east to west, and
everywhere attain the same height under the same latitude.
But the direction and the force of the tide-wave are modified by
many obstacles on its way, such as coast-lines and groups of
islands, and it has to traverse seas of very unequal depth and
form. Flat coasts impede its current by friction, while it rolls
faster along deep mural coasts. From all these causes the
strength of the tides is very unequal in different places.
They are generally low on the wide and open ocean. Thus
the highest tides at Otaheiti do not exceed eleven inches, three
feet at St. Helena, one foot and a half at Porto Rico.
But when considerable obstructions oppose the progress of the
tide-waves, such as vast promontories, long and narrow channels,
or bays of diminishing width, and mouths of rivers directly facing
fts swell, it rises to a very great height. Thus, at the bottom of
Fundy Bay, which stretches its long arm between Nova Scotia
and New Brunswick, the spring-tides rise to sixty, seventy, or
even one hundred feet, while at its entrance they do not exceed
nine feet, and their swell is so rapid as frequently to sween
away cattle feeding on the shore.
The Bristol Channel and the bay of St. Malo in Brittany, are
also renowned for their high tides. Near Chepstow, the flux
is said sometimes to reach the surprising height of seventy feet,
and at St. Malo the floods frequently rise to forty and fifty feet.
When the water is low, this small seaport town appears sur-
rounded on all sides by fantastically shaped cliffs covered with sea-
weeds and barnacles. Pools of salt water interspersed here and
there among the hollowed stones, or on the even ground between
them, and harbouring many curious varieties of marine animals,
THE TIDES AT ST. MALO.
39
are the only visible signs of the vicinity of the ocean, whose hoarse
murmurs are heard resounding from afar. But an astonishing
change takes place a few hours after, when the town, surrounded
by the sea, would be a complete island, but for a long, narrow
causeway called “ the Sillon ,” which connects it with the main-
land. On the side fronting the open sea, the tide breaks with
tremendous rage against the strong buttresses that have been
raised to oppose its fury, rises foamingly to a height of thirty or
forty feet, and threatens the tardy wanderer as he loiters on the
narrow causeway. The cliffs that erewhile were seen to sur-
round the town are now hidden under the waters, some few
excepted, that raise their rugged heads like minute islands above
the circumambient floods. The opposite side of the cause-
way is also washed by the sea; but here its motions are less
tumultuous, for after having broken against numberless rocks and
made a vast circuit, it scarce retains a vestige of its primitive
strength. On this side lies the vast, but deserted harbour of
St. Malo, completely dry at ebb-tide; a wide sea during the
flood.
Two eminent French authors, Chateaubriand and Lamennais,
were born at St. Malo, and there can be no doubt that the
imposing spectacle I have briefly described must have greatly
contributed to the widening of their intellectual horizon. Daily
witnesses from their early childhood of one of the grandest phe-
nomena of nature in all its wild sublimity, the boundless and
the infinite soon grew familiar to their mind, enriching it with
splendid imagery and bold conceptions.
Although the sun and the moon exert some attraction upon
the smaller and inclosed seas, yet the development of a power-
ful flood-wave necessarily requires that the moon should act
upon a sufficiently wide and deep expanse of ocean. Even the
Atlantic is not broad enough for this purpose, as its equatorial
width measures no more than one eighth of the earth’s circum-
ference : and the Pacific itself, notwithstanding its vast area, is
so studded with islands and shallows, that it presents a much
more obstructed basin for the action of the tide-wave than
might be expected, from its apparent dimensions and equatorial
position.
Thus it is in the Southern Ocean, where the greatest unin-
terrupted surface of deep water is exposed to the influence
40 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
of the moon, that we must look for the “ chief cradle of the
tides” From this starting point they flow on all sides to the
northward, progressing like any other wave that arises on a
small scale in a pond from a gust of wind, the throwing of
a stone, or any other cause capable of producing an undulating
movement on the surface of the waters.
The tide-wave, which ultimately reaches our shores, arrives
at the Cape of Good Hope thirteen hours after it has left
Van Diemen’s Land, and thence rolls onward in fourteen or
fifteen hours to the coasts of Spain, France, and Ireland. It
penetrates into the North Sea by two different ways. One of
its ramifications turns round Scotland and thence flows onwards
to the south, taking nineteen or twenty hours for the passage
from Galway to the mouth of the Thames. A tide-wave, for
instance, which appears at five in the afternoon on the west
coast of Ireland, arrives at eight near the Shetland Islands,
reaches Aberdeen at midnight, Hull at five in the morning, and
Margate at noon.
The other ramification of the same tide-wave, taking the
shorter route through the Channel, had meanwhile preceded
it by twelve hours, having reached Brest about five o’clock of
the afternoon (at the same time that the northern branch
appeared at Galway), Cherbourg at seven, Brighton at nine,
Calais at eleven, and the mouth of the Thames at midnight.
Thus, in this southern corner of the North Sea, two tide-
waves unite that belong to two successive floods ; the Scotch
branch having started twelve hours sooner from the great
Southern Ocean than the Channel branch, which thus results
from the next following tide. The meeting of the two branches
naturally gives rise to a more considerable rising of the waters,
so that this circumstance, by allowing large ships to sail up
the Thames, may be considered as one of the fundamental
causes of the grandeur of London.
In other parts of the North Sea, where the two tide-waves
appear at different times, the contrary takes place, for the
ebb of the one coinciding with the rising of the other, they
naturally weaken or even neutralise each other. This occasions
the low tides on the coast of Jutland, in Denmark, where they
are scarcely higher than in the Mediterranean, and explains
the otherwise startling fact of there being a space in the North
TIDES IN' THE NORTH SEA THE MAELSTROM.
41
Sea where no periodical rise and fall of the waters whatsoever
takes place.
Thus we see that the relations of the tides in the North Sea,
with regard to height and time, are of a somewhat complicated
nature, which could only he explained after the numerous
observations (amounting to more than 40,000) made by order
of the British Government in all parts of the world, under
the direction of Professor Whewell, had proved that all the
floods of the seas chiefly proceed from the great tide-wave of
the Southern Ocean, which, by its numerous ramifications in
narrow seas or through groups of islands and by the unequal
rapidity of its progress, according to the depth or shallowness
of the waters it traverses, occasions all the seeming anomalies
which were quite inexplicable by the simple Newtonian theory.
As every twelve hours a new tidal-wave originates in the
Southern Ocean which regularly follows in the same track as
its predecessor, the tides everywhere succeed each other in
regular and equal periods, and can thus everyAvhere be cal-
culated beforehand.
In narrow straits or in the intricate channels which wind
through clusters of islands, different tidal-waves meeting from
opposite directions give rise to more or less dangerous whirl-
pools. One of the most famous of these vortices, though incon-
siderable in itself, is the renowned Charybdis, which gave so
much trouble to Ulysses on his passing through the strait
which separates Sicily from Italy, but is at present an object
of fear scarcely even to the poor fisherman’s boat.
A much grander whirlpool, owing its celebrity, not to the
fictions of poetry, but to the magnificent scale on which it has
been constructed by nature, is the renowned Maelstrom, situated
on the Norwegian coast in 68° N. lat., and near the island of
Moskoe, from whence it also takes the name of Moskoestrom.
It is four geographical miles in diameter, and in tempestuous
weather its roar, like that of Niagara, is said to be heard several
miles off. John Ramus gives us a terrible description of its
fury, and mentions that in the year 1645 it raged with such
noise and impetuosity, that on the island of Moskoe, the very
stones of the houses fell to the ground. He tells us also that
whales frequently come too near the stream, and, notwith-
standing their giant strength, are overpowered by its violence,
42
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OP THE SEA.
but, unfortunately adds, that it is impossible to describe their
howlings and bellowings in their fruitless struggles to dis-
engage themselves — impossible, no doubt, as whales happen to
have no voice at all !
According to more modern travellers, such as the celebrated
geologist Leopold von Buch, the Maelstrom is far from being
so terrible as depicted by Bamus and other friends of the
marvellous ; so that, except during storms and spring-tides,
large ships may constantly cross it without danger. The
Norwegian fishermen are even said frequently to assemble on
the field of the Maelstrom on account of the great abundance
of fishes congregating in those troubled waters, and fearlessly
to pursue their avocations, while the whirlpool moves their
boats in a circular direction.
Sir Robert Sibbald describes a very remarkable marine whirl-
pool among the Orkney islands, which would prove dangerous
to strangers, though it is of no consequence to the people who
are used to it. It is not fixed to any particular place, but arises
in various parts of the limits of the sea among these islands.
Wherever it appears, it is very furious, and boats would in-
evitably be drawn in and perish with it, but the people who
navigate them are prepared for it and always carry a bundle of
straw or some such matter in the boat with them. This they
fling into the vortex which immediately swallows it up, and,
seemingly pleased with this propitiatory offering, subsides into
smoothness, but soon after re-appears in another place.
A remarkable and sudden rising of the spring-tide takes
place at the mouth of several rivers, for instance, the Indus
(where the surprising phenomenon nearly caused the destruction
of the fleet of Alexander the Great), the Hooghly, the Dordogne,
&c. In the Seine it is observed on a scale of great magnitude.
While the tide gradually rises near Havre and Harfleur, a giant
wave is suddenly seen to surge near Quilleboeuf, spanning the
whole width of the river (from 30,000 to 36,000 feet). After
this migh'y billow has struck against the quay of Quilleboeuf,
it enters a more narrow bed and flows stream-upwards with
the rapidity of a race horse, overflowing the banks on both
sides, and not seldom causing considerable loss of property by
its unexpected appearance. The astonishment it causes is in-
creased when it takes place during serene weather, and without
THE MEDITERRANEAN THE ADRIATIC.
43
any signs of wind or storm. A deafening noise announces and
accompanies this sudden swelling of the waters, which owes its
first origin to the silent action of gravitation, and is the result
of the diminishing velocity of the tide-wave over a shallow
bottom.
While the tide-wave advances over the deep and open seas
with an astonishing rapidity, its progress up the channel of a
river is comparatively very slow, partly on account of the reason
just mentioned, and partly from its meeting a current flowing
in an opposite direction.
Thus, the tide takes no less than twelve hours for its progress
from the mouth of the Thames to London, about the time it
requires to travel all the way from Yan Diemen’s Land to
the Cape of Good Hope. Consequently, when it is high-water
at the mouth of the Thames at three o’clock in the afternoon,
for instance, we have not high-water at London Bridge bel'ore
three o’clock in the following morning, when it is again high
water at the Nore. But, in the mean time, there has been low
water at the Nore and high water about half-way to London,
and while the high water is proceeding to London, it is ebbing
at the intermediate places, and is low water there when it is
high water at London and at the Nore. If the tide extended
as far beyond London as London is from the Nore, we should
have three high waters with two low waters interposed. The
most remarkable instance of this kind is afforded by the gi-
gantic river of the Amazons, as it appears by the observations
of Condamine and others, that, between Para, at the mouth of
the colossal stream, and the conflux of the Madera and Maranon,
there are no less than seven simultaneous high waters with six
low waters between them. Thus, four days after the tide-wave
was first raised in the Southern Ocean, its last undulations
expire deep in the bosom of the South American wilds.
The Mediterranean is generally supposed to be tideless, but
this opinion is erroneous; and in the Adriatic, the flux of the
sea is far from being inconsiderable, for, at Venice, the dif-
ference between high and low water is sometimes no less than
six or even nine feet. Mr. W. Trevelyan, during a summer
residence in the old port of Antium, on the Roman coast, found
from a series of accurate observations, that the tides regularly
succeed each other and attain a height of fourteen inches.
44
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
In the eastern Mediterranean new measurements have proved
that they are still more considerable, while in the western part
of that inclosed sea they are almost imperceptible.
The differences of level caused by the Mediterranean tides,
are indeed too inconsiderable to attract the general notice of the
inhabitants on the coast, but in the famed Euripus, the narrow
channel which separates the island of Euboea or Negropont from
continental Greece, the tide produces the striking phenomenon
of very irregular fluctuations of the waters, from one end of the
channel to the other.
This phenomenon was of course completely inexplicable to
the ancient philosophers, and Aristotle is even said to have
drowned himself in the Euripus in a fit of despair, since, with
all his prodigious sagacity, he could not possibly solve the
mystery. For us, who know that peculiar formations of the
sea-bed and coasts are capable of considerably augmenting the
force of the floods, and that tidal waves rushing into a narrow
channel in opposite directions, and at different times, must
necessarily produce irregular fluctuations of the waters, the
phenomenon of the Euripus has ceased to be a mystery.
45
CHAP. IV.
MARINE CATES.
Effects of the Sea on Rocky Shores. — Fingal’s Care. — Beautiful Lines of Sir
Walter Scott. — The Antro di Nettuno. — The Cave of Hunga — Legend of its
Discovery. — Marine Fountains.- — The Skerries. — The Soufffeur in Mauritius.—
The Buffadero on the Mexican Coast.
Whoever has only observed the swelling of the tide on the flat
coasts of the North Sea, has hut a faint idea of the Titanic
power which it developes on the rocky shores of the wide ocean.
Even in fair weather, the growing flood, oscillating over the
boundless expanse of waters, rises in tremendous breakers, so
that it is impossible to behold their fury without feeling a con-
viction that the hardest rock must ultimately be ground to
atoms by such irresistible forces.
Day after day, year after year, they renew their fierce attacks,
and as in the high Alpine valleys the tumultuous torrents rush-
ing from the glaciers tear deep furrows in the flanks of the
mountains, thus it is here the sea which stamps the seal of its
might on the vanquished rocks, corrodes them into fantastic
shapes, scoops out wide portals in their projecting promontories,
and hollows out deep caverns in their bosoms.
Here, also, water appears as the beautifying element, deco-
rating inanimate nature with picturesque forms, and the sea
nowhere exhibits more romantic scenes than on the rocky shores
against which her waves have been beating for many a mil-
lennium. How manifold the shapes into which the rocky shores
are worn ! how numberless the changes which each varying
season, nay, every hour of the day with its constant alternations
of ebb and flood, of cloud and sunshine, of storm or calm,
produces in their physiognomy ! Our coasts abound in beauties
such as these ; but pre-eminent above all other specimens of
Ocean’s fantastic architecture is Fingal’s Cave, which may well
challenge the world to show its equal.
46
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OP THE SEA.
From afar, the small island of Staffa, rising precipitously from
the sea, seems destitute of all romantic interest, but on ap-
proaching, the traveller is struck with the remarkable basaltic
columns of which it is chiefly composed. Most of them rest
upon a substratum of solid shapeless rock, and generally form
colonnades upwards of fifty feet high, following the contours of
the inlets or promontories, and overtopped with smaller hillocks.
Along the west coast of the island they are tolerably irregular,
but on the south side Staffa appears as an immense Gothic
edifice, or rather as a forest of gigantic pillars seemingly ar-
ranged with all the regularity of art. The admiration they
cause is, however, soon effaced when the vast cave to which the
remote islet owes its world-wide celebrity bursts upon the view.
Fancy a grotto measuring 250 feet in length by 53 in width at
the entrance, and spanned by an arch 117 feet high, which,
though gradually sloping towards the interior, still maintains a
height of 70 feet at the farthest end of the cavern ! The walls
consist of rows of huge hexagonal basaltic pillars, which seem
regularly to diminish according to the rules of perspective.
The roof of the vault is formed of the remnants of similar
columns, whose shafts have beyond a doubt been torn away by
the sea, which, destroying them one after the other, has gra-
dually excavated this magnificent temple of Nature. All their
interstices, like those of the pillars, are cemented with a kind of
pale yellow spar, which brings out all the angles and sides of
their surfaces, and forms a pleasing contrast with the dark
purple colour of the basalt.
The whole floor of the cave is occupied by the sea, the depth
of which, even at its farthest end, is above six feet, during ebb-
tide ; but it is only in perfectly calm weather that a boat is able
to venture into the interior, for when the sea is any way turbu-
lent (and this is generally the case among the stormy Hebrides)
it is in danger of being hurled against the walls of the grot and
dashed to pieces. Under these circumstances, the only access
into the cave is by a narrow dyke or ledge running along its
eastern wall, about fifteen feet above the water. It is formed of
truncated basaltic pillars, over which it is necessary to clamber
with great caution and dexterity, as they are always moist and
slippery from the dashing spray. Frequently there is only
room enough for one foot, and while the left hand grasps that
FINGAL'S CAVE.
47
pillars, which form the pavement of the pathway, and betrays
by a peevish hissing his ill humour at being disturbed in his
solitary retreat by the intrusion of man.
the narrow path ultimately widens into a more roomy and
slanting space formed of the remains of more than a thousand
perpendicular truncated shafts. The back wall consists of a
range of unequally sized pillars, arranged somewhat like the
tubes of an organ. hen the waves rush with tumultuous fury
of the guide, it is necessary to hold fast with the right to a
pillar of the wall. As this difficult path is most dangerous in
the darkest part of the cave, but few tourists are bold enough
to trust themselves to it, for the least false step must infallibly
precipitate the adventurous explorer into the seething caldron
below. Sometimes a cormorant, fearless of any accident of this
kind, has built his nest upon the top of one of the truncated
Fingal’s (Jave.
48
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OP THE SEA.
into the cave and dash their flakes of snow-white foam against
its wall, it seems as if the gigantic instrument, touched by an
invisible hand, were loudly singing the triumphs of ocean.
Among the beauties of this matchless cave, the clear light
must not be forgotten, which, penetrating through the w'ide
portal, produces an agreeable chiaro-oscuro even at its farthest
end, so that the eye is able to seize at one glance the full
majesty of the splendid hall ; nor the pure air which, constantly
renewed by the perpetual alternations of the tides, is very
different from the chilly dampness which generally reigns in
subterranean caverns.
When we consider the resemblance which from its regularity
this magnificent work of nature bears to a production of human
art, we cannot wonder at its having been ascribed to mortal
architecture. But as men of ordinary stature seemed too weak
for so colossal an enterprise, it was attributed to a race of
giants, who constructed it for their chief and leader, Fingal,
so renowned in Gaelic mythology. This belief still lingers
among the primitive people of the neighbourhood, though
some, being averse to pagan Goliahs, ascribe its workmanship
to St. Columban.
The patriotic muse of Walter Scott, who visited the cave in
1810, rises to more than ordinary warmth while describing
“ That -wondrous dome.
Where, as to shame the temples deck'd
By skill of earthly architect,
Nature herself, it seemed, would raise
A minster to her Maker’s praise !
Not for a meaner use ascend
Her columns, or her arches bend ;
Nor of a theme less solemn, tells
That mighty surge that ebbs and swells,
And still between each awful pause
From the high vault an answer draws
In varied tones, prolonged and high,
That mocks the organ’s melody.
Nor doth its entrance front in vain
To old Iona’s holy fane,
That Nature’s voice might seem to say,
‘ Well hast thou done, frail child of clay,
Thy humble powers that stately shrine
Task’d high and hard — but witness mine ! ’ ”
Lord of the Isles, canto iv. stanza 10.
THE CAVE OF HUNG A.
49
The Mediterranean has likewise its marine grottoes of world-
wide celebrity, its azure cave of Capri,* which I have previously
described, and its Antro di Nettuno, in the island of Sardinia,
about twelve miles from the small seaport of Alghero. Unfortu-
nately this superb grotto is very difficult of access, for any wind
between the north-west and the south prevents an entry, so that
the Algherese assert that 300 out of the 365 days it is impossible
to enter it. The first vaulted cavern, forming an antechamber
about thirty feet high, has no peculiar beauty, but on crossing a
second cavern, in which are about twenty feet of beautifully clear
water, and then turning to the left, one finds oneself in an
intricate navigation among stalactites with surrounding walls
and passages of stalagmites of considerable height. Having
passed them and proceeding westerly, one reaches another
cavern with a natural column in its centre, the shaft and capital
of which, supporting the immense and beautifully fretted roof,
reminds one of those in the chapter-house of the cathedral at
Wells, and the staircase of the hall at Christ Church, Oxford.
It stands, the growing monument of centuries, in all its massive
and elegant simplicity with comparatively speaking few othei
stalagmites to destroy the effects of its noble solitude. In
parts of the grotto are corridors and galleries, some 300 and
400 feet long, reminding one of the Moorish architecture of the
Alhambra. One of them terminates abruptly in a deep cavern
into which it is impossible to descend ; but among many other
interesting objects is a small chamber the access to which is
through a very narrow aperture. After climbing and scram-
bling through it, one finds oneself in a room the ceiling of
which is entirely covered with delicate stalactites, and the sides
with fretted open work, so fantastical that one might almost
imagine that it was a boudoir of the Oceanides, where they
amused themselves with making lime lace. Some of the
columns in different parts of the grotto are from seventy to
eighty feet in circumference, and the masses of drapery droop-
ing in exquisite elegance are of equally grand proportions.
If a rare chance was required to discover the narrow opening
in the cliffs of Capri, behind which one of the loveliest spee-
tacles of nature lies concealed, we well may wonder how the
famous cave of Hunga in the Tonga Archipelago ever became
* Chap. i. p. 18.
15
50
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
known, as its entrance even at low water is completely hidden
under the surface of the sea. Mariner, to whom we owre our
first knowledge of this wonderful play of nature, relates that
while he was one day rat-hunting * in the island of Hunga with
king Finow, who at that time reigned over Tonga, the barbarian
monarch took a fancy to drink his katva f in the cave. Mariner,
who bad absented himself for a few moments from the company,
was very much astonished when, returning to the strand, he saw
one chieftain after another dive and disappear. He had but
just time to ask the last of them what they were about.
“ Follow me,” answered the chieftain, “ and I will show thee a
place where thou hast never been before, and vrhere Finow and
his chieftains are at present assembled.” Mariner immediately
guessed that this must be the celebrated cave of which he had
frequently heard, and, anxious to see it, he immediately followed
the diving chieftain, and swimming close after him under the
water, safely reached the opening in the rock through which he
emerged into the cave. On ascending to the surface, he imme-
diately heard the voices of the company, and still following his
guide, climbed upon a projecting ledge on which he sat down.
All the light of the cave was reflected from the sea beneath,
but yet it was sufficient, as soon as the eye had become accus-
tomed to the twilight, to distinguish the surrounding objects.
A clearer light being, however, desirable. Mariner once more
dived, swam to the strand, fetched his pistol, poured a good
quantity of powder on the pan, wrapped it carefully up in tapa-
cloth and leaves, and, providing himself with a torch, returned
as quickly as possible to the cave. Here he removed the cloth,
a great part of which was still quite dry, and igniting it by the
flame of the powder made use of it to light his torch. This
was probably the very first time since its creation that the cave
had ever been illumined by artificial light. Its chief compart-
ment, which on one side branched out into two smaller cavities,
seemed to be about forty feet wide and the mean height above
the water amounted to as much. The roof was ornamented in
a remarkable manner by stalactites resembling the arches and
fantastic ornaments of a Gothic hall. According to a popular
* A favourite pastime of the Polynesian chiefs.
t An intoxicating beverage extracted from the Piper methystieum, a species of
pepper plant.
THE CAVE OP HUNG A.
61
tradition, the chieftain who first discovered this remarkable cave
while diving after a turtle, used it subsequently as a place of
refuge for his mistress to screen her from the persecutions of
the reigning despot. The sea faithfully guarded his secret :
after a few weeks of seclusion, he fled with his beloved to the
Feejee Islands, and on his returning to his native home after
the death of the tyrant, his countrymen heard with astonish-
ment of the wonderful asylum that had been revealed to him
by the beneficent sea-gods. Lord Byron adopted this graceful
tale as the subject of his poem “ The Island, or Christian and
his Comrades,” and has thus described the cave, no doubt
largely adorning it from the stores of his brilliant fancy :
“ Around she pointed to a spacious cave,
Whose only portal was the keyless wave
(A hollow archway, by the sun unseen,
Save through the billows’ glassy veil of green,
On some transparent ocean holiday,
When all the finny people are at play).
“ Wide it was and high ;
And showed a self-born Gothic canopy.
The arch upreared by Nature’s architect,
The architrave some earthquake might erect ;
The buttress from some mountain’s bosom hurl’d,
When the poles crash’d and water was the world ;
Or harden’d from some earth-absorbing fire,
While yet the globe reek’d from its funeral pyre.
The fretted pinnacle, the aisle, the nave,
Were there, all scoop’d by darkness from her cave.
There, with a little tinge of fantasy,
Fantastic faces mopp’d and mow’d on high ;
And then a mitre or a shrine would fix
The eye upon its seeming crucifix.
Thus Nature played with the stalactites,
And built herself a chapel of the seas.’’
Ou many rocky shores the ocean has worn out subterraneous
channels in the cliffs against which it has been beating for ages,
and then frequently emerges in water-spouts or fountains from
the opposite end. Thus, in the Skerries, one of the Shetland
Islands, a deep chasm or inlet, which is open overhead, is con-
tinued under ground and then again opens to the sky in the
middle of the island. When the water is high, the waves rise
up through this aperture like the blowing of a whale in noise
and appearance.
52
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
A similar phenomenon is exhibited on the south side of the
Mauritius, at a point called <c The Souffleur,” or “ The Blower.”
“ A large mass of rock,” says Lieutenant Taylor,* u runs out
into the sea from the mainland, to which it is joined by a neck
of rock not two feet broad. The constant beating of the tre-
mendous swell, which rolls in, has undermined it in every direc-
tion, till it has exactly the appearance of a Gothic building with
a number of arches. In the centre of the rock, which is about
thirty-five or forty feet above the sea, the water has forced two
passages vertically upwards, which are worn as smooth and
cylindrical as if cut by a chisel. When a heavy sea rolls in,
it of course fills in an instant the hollow caverns underneath,
and finding no other egress, and being borne in with tremen-
dous violence, it rushes up these chimneys and flies, roaring
furiously, to a height of full sixty feet. The moment the wave
recedes, the vacuum beneath causes the wind to ruslj into the
two apertures with a loud humming noise, which is ^heat'd at
a considerable distance. My companion and I arrived there
before high water, and, having climbed across the neck of rock,
we seated ourselves close to the chimneys, where I proposed
making a sketch, and had just begun when in came a thunder-
ing sea, which broke right over the rock itself and drove us
back much alarmed.
“ Our negro guide now informed us that we must make haste
to recross our narrow bridge, as the sea would get up as the
tide rose. We lost no time and got back dry enough ; and I
was obliged to make my sketches from the mainland. In about
three-quarters of an hour the sight was truly magnificent. I
do not exaggerate in the least when I say that the waves rolled
in, long and unbroken, full twenty-five feet high, till, meeting the
headland, they broke clear over it, sending the spray flying over
to the mainland; while from the centre of this mass of foam,
the Souffleur shot up with a noise, which we afterwards heard
distinctly between two and three miles. Standing on the main
cliff, more than a hundred feet above the sea, we were quite
wet. All we wanted to complete the picture was a large ship
going ashore.”
A similar phenomenon, on a still more grand and majestic
scale, occurs near Huatulco, a small Mexican village on the
* Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, vol. iii. 1833.
THE SOUFFLEUR.
This plate shows the sea beating against some hollow rocks on the coast of the
Mauritius, and producing the remarkable phenomenon called “ The Souffleur,” or
“ The Blower,” water-spouts issuing from the wave-worn cavities of the cliff to a
considerable height, and with a noise distinctly audible at a distance of three
miles.
THE BUFFADEKO.
53
coast of the Pacific. On sailing into the bay one hears a dis-
tant noise, which might be taken for the spouting of a gigantic
whale, or the dying groans of a bull struck by the sharp steel
of the matador, or the rolling of thunder. Anxious to know
the cause, “ It is the Buffadero,” answer the boatmen, pointing
to a fantastically-shaped rock towards which they are rowing.
On approaching, a truly magnificent spectacle reveals itself ; for
a colossal fountain springs from an aperture in the rock to a
bight of 150 feet, and after having dissolved in myriads of gems,
returns to the foaming element which gave it birth. This
beautiful sight renews itself as often as the breakers rush
against the rock, and must be of unequalled splendour when a
tornado sweeps across the ocean and rolls its giant billows into
the hollowed bosom of the cliff.
54
CHAP. V.
OCEAN CURRENTS.
Causes of the Oceanic Currents. — The Equatorial Stream. — The Gulf Stream. —
Its Influence on the Climate of the West European Coasts. — The Cold Peruvian
Stream. — The Japanese Stream.
Perpetual motion and change is the grand law, to which the
whole of the created universe is subject, and immutable stability
is nowhere to be found, but in the Eternal mind that rules and
governs all things. The stars, which were supposed to he fixed
to the canopy of heaven, are restless wanderers through the
illimitable regions of space. The hardest rocks melt away
under the corroding influence of time, for the elements never
cease gnawing at their surface, and dislocating the atoms of
which they are composed. Our body appears to us unchanged
since yesterday, and yet how many of the particles which formed
its substance, have within these few short hours, been cast off
and replaced by others. We fancy ourselves at rest, and yet a
torrent of blood, propelled by an indefatigable heart, is con-
stantly flowing through all our arteries and veins.
A similar external appearance of tranquillity might deceive
the superficial observer, when sailing over the vast expanse of
ocean, at a time when the winds are asleep, and its surface is
unruffled by a wave. But how great would be his error ! For
every atom of the boundless sea is constantly moving and
changing its place ; from the depth to the surface, or from the
surface to the depth; from the frozen pole to the burning
equator, or from the torrid zone to the arctic ocean ; now rising
in the air in the form of invisible vapours, and then again de-
scending upon our fields in fertilising showers.
The waters are, in fact, the greatest travellers on earth ; they
know all the secrets of the submarine world ; climb the peaks
CAUSES OF OCEAN CURRENTS.
55
of inaccessible mountains, shame the flight of the condor as he
towers over the summit of the Andes, and penetrate deeper into
the bowels of the earth than the miner has ever sunk his shaft.
Leaving their wanderings through the regions of air to the
next chapter, I shall now describe the principal ocean currents,
the simple, but powerful agencies by which they are set in
motion, their importance in the economy of nature, and their
influence on the .climate of different countries.
Even in the torrid zone, the waters of the ocean, like a false
friend, are warm merely cn the surface, and of an almost icy cold-
ness at a considerable depth. This low temperature cannot be
owing to any refrigerating influence at the bottom of the sea,
as the internal warmth of the earth increases in proportion to its
depth, and the waters of profound lakes, in a southern climate,
never show the same degree of cold as those of the vast ocean.
The phenomenon can thus only arise from a constant sub-
marine current of cold water from the poles to the line, and
strange as it may seem, its primary cause is to be sought for in
the warming rays of the sun, which, as we all know, distributes
heat in a very unequal manner over the surface of the globe.
Heat expands all liquid bodies, and renders them lighter ;
cold increases their weight by condensation. In consequence of
this physical law, the waters of the tropical seas, rendered
buoyant by the heat of a vertical sun, must necessarily rise and
spread over the surface of the ocean to the north and south,
whilst colder and heavier streams from the higher latitudes
flow towards the equator along the bottom of the ocean, to re-
place them as they ascend.
In this manner, the unequal action of the sun calls forth a
general and constant movement of the waters from the poles to
the equator, and from the equator to the poles ; and this per-
petual migration is one of the chief causes by which their purity
is maintained. These opposite currents would necessarily flow
direct to the north or south, were they not deflected from their
course by the rotation of the earth, which gradually gives them
a westerly or easterly direction.
The unequal influence of the sun in different parts of the
globe, and the rotation of the earth, are, however, not the only
causes by which the course of ocean-currents is determined.
Violent storms move the waters to a considerable depth, and
66
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
retard the flow of rivers, and thus it is to be expected that con-
tinuous winds, even of moderate strength, must have a tendency
to impel the waters in the same direction.
The steady trade-winds of the tropical zone, and the prevail-
ing westerly winds in higher latitudes, consequently unite their
influence with that of the above mentioned causes, in driving
the waters of the tropical seas to the west, and those of the
temperate zones to the east.
The tides also, which on the high seas generally move from
east to west, promote the flow of the ocean in the same
direction, and thus contribute to the westerly current of the
tropical seas.
Nor must we forget that the obstacles which the ocean -
cui'rents meet on their way ; such as intervening lines of coast,
sand banks, submarine ridges, or mountain chains, have a great
influence upon their course, and may even give them a dia-
metrically opposite direction to that which they would otherwise
have followed.
Having thus briefly mentioned the origin and causes of the
currents, which intersect the seas like huge rivers, I shall now
describe such of them as are most important and interesting in
a geographical point of view.
In the northern part of the Atlantic, between Europe, North
Africa, and the New World, the waters are constantly perform-
ing a vast circular or rotatory movement. Under the tropics
they proceed like the trade-winds from east to west, assisting
the progress of the ships that sail from the Canaries to South
America, and rendering navigation in a straight line from Car-
thagena de Indias to Cumana (stream upwards) next to im-
possible. This westerly current receives a considerable addition
from the Mozambique stream, which, flowing from north to
south between Madagascar and the coast of CafFraria, proceeds
round the southern extremity of Africa, and after rapidly ad-
vancing to the north, along the western coast of that continent,
as far as the island of St. Thomas, unites its waters with those
of the equatorial current, and continues its course right across
the Atlantic. In this manner the combined tropical streams
reach the eastern extremity of South America (Cape Roque),
where they divide into two arms. The one flowing to the south
follows the south-eastern coast, and gradually takes a south-
THE GULF-STREAM.
57
easterly direction, between the tropic of Capricorn and the
month of the La Plata river, beyond the limits of the trade-
winds. Its traces show themselves to the south-east of the Cape
of Good Hope, and are finally lost far in the Indian Ocean.
The northern arm of the equatorial stream flows along the
north-eastern coast of South America ; constantly raising its
temperature under the influence of a tropical sun, and progress-
ing with a rapidity of a hundred miles in twenty-four hours (six
feet and a half in a second), after having been joined by the
waters of the Amazon river. Thus it continues to flow to the
east, until the continent of Central America opposes an in-
vincible barrier to its farther progress in this direction, and
compels it to follow the windings of the coast of Costa Pica,
Mosquitos, Campeche, and Tabasco. It then performs a vast
circuit along the shores of the Mexican Gulf, and finally
emerges through the Straits of Bahama into the open ocean.
Here it assumes a new name, and forms what navigators call
the Gulf-stream, a rapid current of tepid water, which, flowing
in a diagonal direction, recedes farther and farther from the
coast of North America as it advances to the north-east. Under
the forty-first degree of latitude it suddenly bends to the east,
gradually diminishing in swiftness, and at the same time in-
creasing in width.
Thus it flows across the Atlantic, to the south of the great
bank of Newfoundland, where Humboldt found tine temperature
of its stream several degrees higher than that of the neighbour-
ing and tranquil waters, which form, as it were, the banks of the
warm oceanic current. Ere it reaches the western Azores, it
divides into two arms, one of which is driven, partly by the
natural impulse of its stream, but principally by the prevail-
ing westerly and north-westerly winds, towards the coasts of
Europe; while the other, flowing towards the Canary Islands and
the western coast of Africa, finally returns into the equatorial
current.
In this manner the waters are brought back to the point from
which they came, after having performed a vast circuit of 20,000
miles, which it took them nearly three years to accomplish.
According to Humboldt’s calculations, a boat left to the current,
and moving along without any other assistance, wmuld require
about thirteen months to float from the Canary Islands to the
6~8
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
Caribbean Sea as far as Caraccas. From Caraccas to the
Straits of Florida, it would remain another ten months on the
way, for though the direct distance is but short, the current has
to perform an enormous circuit of 2500 miles, and flows but
slowly in those confined seas. But the accumulated waters
having now to force their passage through the narrow channel
between Cuba and the Bahama Islands on one side, and Florida
on the other, attain so considerable a velocity, that the whole
distance from the Havannah to the Bank of Newfoundland, is
traversed in forty days. During this passage the Gulf-stream
particularly deserves its name, and is easily distinguished from
the surrounding waters by its higher temperature and its vivid
dark blue colour. Numerous marine animals of the tropical
seas, — the flying fish, the neat velella, the purple ianthina, the
crosier nautilus, accompany it to latitudes which otherwise would
prove fatal to their existence ; and, trusting its tepid stream,
float or swim along to the north or the north-east.
At the extremity of the Bank of Newfoundland, it becomes
broader, wavers more or less in its course, according to the
prevailing winds, and at the same time decreases in rapidity, so
that the boat would most likely still require from ten to eleven
months for this last station of its journey, ere it once more
reached the Canary Islands.
The direction of the Gulf-stream explains to us how the pro-
ductions of tropical America are so frequently found on the
shores of the Eastern Atlantic. Humboldt relates that the
main-mast of the “ Tilbury,” a ship of the line, wrecked during
the seven years’ war on the coast of San Domingo, was carried
by the Gulf-stream to the North of Scotland ; and cites the still
more remarkable fact, that casks of palm oil belonging to the
cargo of an English vessel, which foundered on a rock near Cape
Lopez, likewise found their way to Scotland, having thus twice
traversed the wide Atlantic ; first borne from east to west by the
equatorial current, and then carried from west to east, between
45° and 55° N. latitude, by means of the Gulf-stream.
Major Rennell (“Investigation of Currents ”) relates the pere-
grinations of a bottle, thrown overboard from the “Newcastle,”
on the 20th of January, 1819, in lat. 38° 52', and long. 66° 20',
and ultimately found on the 2nd of June, 1820, on the shoje
of the Island of Arran.
ESQUIMAUX DEIFTED TO SHETLAND.
59
On the 16th of April, 1853, another bottle cast into the
waters in the vicinity of the Bank of Newfoundland, on the
loth of March, 1852, was found near Bayonne, not far from the
mouth of the Adour.
On the coasts of Orcadia, a sort of fruit, commonly known by
the name of Molucca, or Orkney beans, are found in large
quantities, particularly after storms of westerly wind.
These beans are the produce of West Indian trees ( Anacar -
dium occiaentale), and find their way from the woods of Cuba
and Jamaica, to the Ultima Thule of the ancients, by means of
the Gulf-stream.
Large quantities of American drift-wood are transported by
the same current to the dreary shores of Iceland, — a welcome gift
to the inhabitants of a region where the highest tree is but a
dwarfish shrub, and cabbages of the size of an apple are raised,
as a great rarity, in the governor’s garden.
A short time before Humboldt visited the island of Teneriffe,
the sea had thrown out the trunk of a North American cedar-tree
( Gedrela odorata), covered with the mosses and lichens that had
grown upon it in the virgin forest.
The Gulf-stream has even contributed to the discovery of
America, for it is well known that Columbus was strengthened
in his belief in the existence of a western continent, by the
stranding on the Azores of bamboos of an enormous size, of
artificially carved pieces of wood, of trunks of a species of
Mexican pine, and of the dead bodies of two men, whose features,
resembling neither those of the inhabitants of Europe nor of
Africa, indicated a hitherto unknown race. But not only life-
less and inanimate objects find their way across the wide At-
lantic by means of the Gulf-stream and its spreading waters ;
the living aborigines of the distant regions of America have also
sometimes been driven towards the coasts of Europe by the
combined action of the currents and the winds. Thus, James
Wallace tells us that, in the year 1682, a Greenlander in his
boat was seen by many people near the south point of the
island of Eda, but escaped pursuit. In 1684 another Green-
land fisherman appeared near the island of Wistram. An Es-
quimaux canoe, which the current and the storm had cast ashore,
is still to be seen in the church of Burra. In Cardinal Bembo’s
“ History of Venice,” it is related that, in the year 1508, a small
60
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
boat with seven strange-featured men, was captured by a French
vessel in the North Sea. The description given of them cor-
responds exactly with the appearance of the Esquimaux ; they
were of a middle-size, of a dark colour, and had a broad face with
spreading features, marked with a violet scar. No one under-
stood their language. They were clothed in seal-skins. They
ate raw flesh, and drank blood as we do wine. Six of these
men died on the journey; the seventh, a youth, was presented
to the King of France, who at that time was residing at Orleans.
' The appearance of so-called Indians on the coast of the
German Sea, under the Othos and Frederic Barbarossa, or even,
as Cornelius Nepos, Pomponius Melas, and Pliny relate, at the
time when Quintus Metellus Celer was proconsul in Gaul,
may be explained by similar effects of the current and continu-
ous north-easterly winds. A king of the Boians made a present
of the stranded dark-coloured men to Metellus Celer. Gomara,
in his “ General History of the Indies,” expresses a belief that
these Indians were natives of Labrador, which would be doubly
interesting as the first instance recorded in history of the natives
of the Old and the New World having been brought into contact
with each other. We can easily account for the appearance of
Esquimaux on the North European coasts in former times ; as
during the eleventh and twelve centuries, their race was much
more numerous than at present, and extended, as we know,
from the researches of Bask and Finn Magnussen, from Labrador
to the good Winland, or the shores of the present State of
Massachusetts and Connecticut.
If we compare the climates on the opposite coasts of the
Northern Atlantic, we find a remarkable difference in favour of
the Old World. The frozen regions of Labrador, lie under the
same degree of latitude as Plymouth, where the myrtle and
laurel remain perpetually verdant in the open air. In New
York, which has a more southern situation than Rome, the
winter is colder than at Bergen in Norway, which lies 20°
farther to the north. While on the northern coasts of the old
continent, the waters remain open a great part of the year,
even beyond the latitude of 80°, the ice never completely thaws
on the opposite shores of Greenland. What a contrast between
the Feroe islands, where the harbours are never frozen, where
fertile meadows afford pasturage to numerous flocks of sheep.
INFLUENCE OF THE GULF-STREAM ON CLIMATES.
61
and even crops of barley reward the labours of the husbandman,
and the frightful wildernesses on the shores of Hudson’s Straits!
— and yet both are situated under the same latitude of 62°.
The milder winter and earlier spring which characterise the
north-west coast of Europe, are due, in some measure, to the
prevailing westerly winds ; but there can be no doubt that they
are mainly owing to the influence of the Gulf-stream, which, as
we have seen, conveys the heated waters of the Mexican Gulf
far to the north-east, and thus imparts warmth to the climate
of our native isle. In both seas, on the contrary, which bound
the peninsula or island of Greenland, icy currents descend, and
continue their course to the south, along the coasts of North
America. Near Newfoundland their temperature, in May, is
found to be 14° lower than that of the air, and even in spring
and the early summer they carry along with them immense ice-
blocks, which are frequently drifted as far south as the latitude
of New York, and finally disappear in the Gulf-stream.
It is evident that the cold of winter must be increased, and
the spring retarded along the North American coasts by these
cold streams, just as the coasts of Europe are favoured by
streams of a contrary nature ; and thus the ocean-currents go a
great way to explain the remarkable differences of climate
between the opposite shores of the Northern Atlantic.
On this occasion I cannot omit directing the reader’s atten-
tion to the influence which the far-distant barrier of Central
America has upon the climate of Great Britain. Supposing yon
narrow belt of land to be suddenly whelmed under the ocean,
then instead of circuitously winding round the Gulf of Mexico,
the heated waters of the equatorial current would naturally
flow into the Pacific, and the Gulf-stream no longer exist. We
should not only lose the benefit of its warm current, but cold
polar streams, descending farther to the south would take its
place, and be ultimately driven by the westerly winds against
our coasts. Our climate would then resemble that of New-
foundland, and our ports be blocked up during many months,
by enormous masses of ice. Under these altered circumstances,
England would no longer be the grand emporium of trade and
industry, and would finally dwindle down from her imperial
station to an insignificant dependency of some other country
more favoured by Nature.
62
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
On examining other coast-lands, in different parts of the
globe, we shall everywhere find the influence of the reigning
currents producing analogous effects to those I have already
mentioned.
The Southern Atlantic is not warmed like the European seas
by tepid streams, it is exposed on all sides to the free afflux of
the cold waters of the Antarctic Ocean, and during the summer
months to the influence of drift ice. Thus, the southern ex-
tremity of America, Terra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands,
South Georgia, Sandwich Land, and other isles of the southern
ocean, have a much colder climate than the European coasts
and islands situated under the same latitude.
Let us for instance compare the temperature of the Falkland
Islands and of Port Famine in the Straits of Magellan, with
that of Dublin, which is situated at an equal distance from the
line.
Mean Temperature.
Latitude
Winter.
Summer.
Annual.
Dublin
. 53° 21' N.
+ 4-0° R.
15-3°
9-6°
Port Famine
. 53° 38' S.
+ 0.6
10-0
6-3
Falkland Islands .
. 52° 0' S.
4-36
11-8
8-24
Feroe Islands
. 62° 2' N.
3-9
11-6
7-1
Thus the climate of the Falkland Islands is, as we see, not
very different from that of the Feroe Islands, although the
latter lie ten degrees farther from the equator.
In the Pacific Ocean, as well as in the Atlantic, we find a
westerly current filling the whole breadth of the tropical zone,
from the coast of America to that of Australia and the Indian
Archipelago. The best known of its affluxes is the cold Peru-
vian stream, which, emerging from the Polar Sea, flows with
great rapidity along the shores of Chili and Peru, and does not
take a westerly direction, before reaching the neighbourhood of
the line. It has everywhere a remarkably low temperature,
comparatively to the latitude, and this sufficiently accounts for
the equal and temperate climate on the coasts of Chili and Peru.
Thus, the mean temperature of Callao (12° S. lat.) is only 20° E.
while in Eio Janeiro (23° S. lat.), though so much farther from
the line, the annual warmth rises to 2 3-2° R.
In the beginning of November, Humboldt found at Callao
the temperature of the sea within the current not higher than
15‘5°, while outside the stream it rose to 26° or even 28‘5° R.
THE JAPANESE STREAM. 63
•
Even in the vicinity of the equator, after the current has
already assumed a westerly direction, its mean temperature does
not exceed 205.° But as it advances towards the west, its tem-
perature gradually rises to 27° or 28°.
On the western banks of the Pacific the equatorial stream
divides into several branches. Part of its waters flow to the
south, a greater quantity penetrates through the channels of
the south Asiatic Archipelago into the Indian Ocean, the re-
mainder turns to the north-east, on the confines of the Chinese
Sea, leaves the eastern coast of the Japanese Islands, and then
Japan Junks.
spreads its warm waters under the influence of north westerly
winds over the northern part of the Pacific. Thus the Japanese
stream plays here the same part as the Gfulf-stream in the
Atlantic, and exerts a similar, though less mighty influence
over the climate of the west coast of America, as it is neither so
large nor so warm, and, having to traverse a wider ocean, in
higher latitudes, naturally loses more of its heat during the
passage.
It is owing to this stream that Sitcha enjoys a mean annual
temperature of + 7° R., while Nain in Labrador, situated under
the same latitude, is indebted to the Greenland current for a
summer of-f7’8°, a winter of — lS’S0, and a miserable annual
temperature of — 3-6°. On the west coast of North America
F
f>4
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
the analogous trees grow 3° or 4° nearer to the pole, and the
aboriginal tribes go naked as far to the north as 52°, a simplicity
of toilet that would but ill suit the Esquimaux of Labrador.
Besides their beneficial influence on different climates the
ocean-currents tend to equalise, or to maintain the equilibrium
of the saline composition of sea-water, and thus secure the
existence of numberless marine animals. Their movements
also contribute to the formation of sand-banks, where at certain
seasons legions of fishes deposit their spawn and invite the per-
secutions of man.
The rapidity of currents is very different, but always impor-
tant enough to be taken into account by navigators. The well-
informed seaman makes use of them to traverse wide spaces
with greater rapidity, and, after an apparently circuitous course,
arrives sooner and more safely at his journey’s end than the
ignorant steersman, who vainly endeavours to strive against
their power.
Pavonia Lactuca, with Polypes
m Natural Poamori.
LIGHTHOUSE AND WATER-SPOUTS.
A Lighthouse on a rocky shore is represented as just lighted, the twilight
having become darkened by a sudden storm, during which the phenomena of
“ water-spouts” occur, which are represented to the left of the Lighthouse.
THE WINDS.
6/5
CHAP. VI.
THE AERIAL AND TERRESTRIAL MIGRATIONS OF TIIE WATERS.
Movements oftheWaters through Evaporation. — Origin of Winds. — Trade-Winds. —
Calms.— Monsoons. — Typhoons.—1 Tornadoes. — W ater-Spouts. — The F ormation
of Atmospherical Precipitations. — Dew — Its Origin.— Fog.— Clouds. — Pain. —
Snow.— Hail Sources. — The Quantities of Water which the Rivers pour into the
Ocean. — Glaciers and their Progress. — Icebergs. — Erratic Blocks. — Influence of
Forests on the Formation and Retention of Atmospherical Precipitations.—
Consequences of their excessive Destruction. — -The Power of Man over Climate.
— How has it been used as yet ?
Neither storms nor ocean-currents, nor ebb and flood, however
great their influence, cause such considerable movements of the
waters, or force them to wander so restlessly from place to place
as the silent and imperceptible action of the warming sunbeam.
In every zone evaporation is constantly active in impregnating
the atmosphere with moisture, but the chief seat of its power is
evidently in the equatorial regions, where the vertical rays of
the great parent of light and heat plunge, day after day, into
the bosom of ocean, and perpetually saturate the burning air
with aqueous vapours.
In this chapter I intend following these invisible agents of
fertility and life, as they lightly ascend from the tropical seas,
and accompanying them in their various transformations, until
they once more return to the bosom of their great parent. A
cursory view of the benefits they confer on the vegetable
and animal world, as they wander over the surface of the land,
will, I hope, agreeably occupy the reader, and serve to increase
his admiration for that deep and dark blue ocean without
which all organic life would soon be extinct upon earth.
I begin with a few words on the winged carriers of marine ex-
halations, the winds, which, although now and then detrimental or
fatal to individuals by their violence, largely compensate for these
fi6 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
local injuries, by the constant and inestimable benefits they
confer on the whole body of mankind.
On taking a comprehensive view of their origin, we find
that, like the oceanic currents, they are chiefly caused by the
unequal influence of solar warmth upon the atmosphere under
the line and at the poles. In the torrid zone, the air, rarefied
by intense heat, ascends in perpendicular columns high above
the surface of the earth, and there flows off towards the poles, in
the same manner as in a vase filled with cold water and placed
over the flame of a lamp, the warmed liquid rises from the
bottom and spreads over the surface.
But cold air-currents must naturally come flowing in an
opposite direction from the poles to the equator to fill up the
void, as in the example I have cited, colder and consequently
heavier water comes streaming down the sides of the vase to
replace the liquid which is rising in the centre under the
influence of heat.
Thus the unequal distribution of solar warmth over the
surface of the earth evidently generates a constant circulation
of air from the equator to the poles, and from the icy regions to
the tropics, and by this means the purity of the atmosphere is
chiefly maintained. The sun is not only the great fountain of
warmth, he is also the universal ventilator ; he not only calls
forth animal life, but at the same time, by a simple and admirable
mechanism, provides for its health by constantly renewing the air,
which is essential to its existence.
If caloric were the sole agent which influences the direction
of the winds, or if the earth were one uniform plain, the opposite
air-currents I have mentioned would naturally flow straight to the
north and south ; but their course is modified or diverted, in the
same manner as that of the ocean-currents by the rotation of
the globe. Thus, the cold air-current (polar-stream) which
comes rushing upon us from the Arctic regions, is felt in our
latitude as the biting east or north-east wind, so trying to our
nerves and organs of respiration, while we enjoy the warm
air-current from the tropics as the mild western or south-western
breeze.
But besides the rotation of the earth, there are many other
local influences by which the winds are deflected from their
course, or by whose agency partial air-currents are called forth.
THE CALMS.
fi 7
Among these we particularly notice high chains of mountains,
the unequal capacity of sea and land in absorbing and re-
taining heat, which gives rise to sea and land breezes ; the
increasing or diminishing power of the sun in different seasons
by which the equilibrium of the air is modified in many coun-
tries, the difference of radiation from a sandy desert or a forest,
electrical discharges from clouds, Ac. &c.
Although subject to many of these local disturbances, the
winds generally blow with an astonishing regularity in the
tropical zone ; while in our variable climate the polar and
equatorial stream . are engaged in a perpetual strife, now bring-
ing us warmth and moisture from the south and west, now cold
and dryness from the north and east.
Thus, in the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean we find the trade-
winds perpetually blowing from the east, the north-east trade-
wind between 9° and 27° N. lat., and the south-east trade-wind
between 3° N. lat and 25° S. lat. It was by their assistance that
Columbus was enabled to discover America, and that the wretched
barks of Magellan traversed the wide deserts of the Pacific from
end to end.
Between these two regions of the trade-winds lies the dreaded
zone or girdle of the equatorial calms (doldrums), where long
calms alternate with dreadful storms, and the sultry air weighs
heavily upon the spirits.
“ Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down,
’Twas sad as sad could be ;
And we did speak, only to break
The silence of the sea.
“ Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath, nor motion,
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.”
On their polar limits, the trade-wind zones are again girdled
with calm belts, the horse latitudes, whose mean breadth is
from ten to twelve degrees. The boundaries of these alternating
regions of winds and calms are not invariably the same, on the
contrary, they are perpetually moving to the north or south,
according to the position of the sun.
From 40° N. lat. to the pole, westerly winds begin to be
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OP THE SEA.
«8
prevalent, and in the Atlantic Ocean their proportion to the
easterly winds is as two to one.
In the Northern Indian Ocean and in the Chinese Sea we alsa
find the trade-wind, which is there called the north-east monsoon;
here, however, it only blows from October to April, as during
the summer terrestrial influences prevail which completely divert
it from its course.
From the wide plains of central Asia, glowing with the
rays of a perpetually unclouded sun, the rarefied air rises
into the higher regions. Other columns of air rush from the
equator to fill up the void, and cause the trade-wind to vary
its course, and change into the south-western monsoons of the
Indian Ocean, which blow . from May to September. The
regularly alternating monsoons materially contributed to the
early development of navigation in the Indian seas, and con-
ducted the Greeks and Romans as far as Ceylon, Malacca, and
the Gulf of Siam. Similar monsoons, or deflections from the
ordinary course of the trade-winds, occur also in the Mexican
Gulf, in the Gulf of Guinea, and in that part of the Pacific
which borders on Central America, through the influence of
the heated plains of Africa, Utah, Texas, and New Mexico.
The passage from one monsoon to the other is of course only
gradual, since the land also is only gradually heated and cooled.
Thus at the change of the monsoon, an atmospheric war ot
several weeks’ continuance occurs, during which the trade-wind
and the monsoon measure their strength, and calms alternate
with dreadful storms (typhoons, cyclones, tornadoes).
According to the researches and observations of Franklin,
Cooper, Redfield, Reid, &c. &c., these storms are great rotatory
winds, that move along a curved line in increasing circles. In
the northern hemisphere, the rotatory movement follows a direc-
tion contrary to that of the hands of a clock ; while the opposite
takes place in the southern hemisphere. The knowledge of the
laws which regulate the movements of storms is of great impor-
tance to the mariner, since it points out to him the direction he
has to give his ship to gain the external limits of the tornado,
and thus to remove it from danger.
Water-spouts are formed by two winds blowing in opposite
directions, and raising or sucking up the water in their vortex
They generally form a double cone ; the superior part with its
WATER-SPOUTS.
60
apex downwards, consisting of a dense cloud, while the inferior
cone, the apex of which is turned upwards, consists of water,
which is thus sometimes raised to a height of several hundred
feet.
Water-spouts seldom last longer than half-an-hour. Their
course and movements are irregular ; straight forwards ; in zig-
zag lines; alternately rising and falling; stationary; slow; or
progressing with the rapidity of thirty miles an hour. The ro-
70
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA
tatory movement is also variable ; its power is often very great,
but sometimes water-spouts pass over small vessels without in-
juring them. They are more frequent near the coast than on
the high seas ; and are more commonly seen in warm climates.
They seem to occur particularly in regions where calms frequently
alternate with storms, which is not to be wondered at, since they
owe their origin to miniature storms or whirlwinds.
How do the aqueous vapours with which evaporation impreg-
nates the atmosphere, again descend upon the surface of the
earth ?
Everybody knows that when in summer a bottle filled with
cold water is brought into the room, it soon gets covered with
thick dew-drops, which presently trickle down its sides, although
it was perfectly dry on entering. Whence does this moisture
come from ? Not from the inside of the bottle as ignorant
people might imagine, but from the surrounding atmosphere ; in
consequence of the capacity of the air to absorb and retain mois-
ture, increasing or diminishing, as its temperature grows warmer
or colder.
Thus when the cold bottle is introduced into the room, the
warm sheet of air, which is in immediate contact with its surface,
immediately cools, and being no longer able to retain all the
moisture with which it was impregnated, is obliged to deposit it
on the sides of the vessel. This familiar example suffices to
explain the formation of dew, rain, hail, snow, hoar-frost, and
CAUSES OF DEW.
71
all other atmospherical precipitations. They all result from the
influence of some refrigerating cause upon the air ; such as the
passage of a warm current into a cooler region ; the influx of a
cold wind ; a cold-radiating chain of high mountains ; a forest,
and so forth.
The very name of dew is refreshing, and calls forth a host of
pleasing ideas, associated as it is with the memory of serene skies
and sunny mornings. How beautiful are its diamonds glittering
in all the colours of the rainbow, on verdant meads, or on the
blushing petals of the rose. How suggestive of all that is lovely,
pure, and innocent !
Poetry is of older date than prose, and bards have suog long
before philosophers inquired. Thus, although the children of
song from Homer and Theocritus to Byron and Wordsworth so
frequently mention dew in their immortal strains, it is only in
our time that its formation has been fully explained by
Dr. Wells, who in a very ingenious and masterly essay on this
subject, first proved that it results from the ground radiating or
projecting heat into free space, and consequently becoming
colder than the neighbouring air. During calm and clear
nights, the upper surfaces of grass-blades, for instance, radiate
their caloric into the serene sky, from which they receive
none in return. The lower parts of the plant, being slow
conductors of heat, can only transmit to them a small portion
of terrestrial warmth, and their temperature consequently
falling below that of the circumambient a/tmosphere, they con-
dense its aqueous vapours. Clouds on the contrary compensate
for the loss of heat the grass sustains from radiation, by reflect-
ing or throwing back again upon the terrestrial surface, the
caloric which would else have been dissipated in a clear sky, and
this is the reason why dew does not fall, or but slightly falls
during clouded nights. It is easy to conceive why none is formed
in windy weather, as then the air in contact with the ground is
constantly removed ere it has time to cool so far as to compel it
to part with its moisture. We can also understand why dew is
more abundant in autumn and spring than at any other season ;
as then very cold nights frequently follow upon warm days ; and
why it is most copious in the torrid zone, as in those sultry regions
the air is more saturated with moisture than anywhere else, and
the comparatively cold nights are almost constantly serene and
72
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
calm. Hoar-frost is nothing but congealed dew, and owes its
formation to the same causes.
When warmer air-currents are cooled by being transported
into colder regions, or from any other refrigerating cause, a great
part of their moisture generally condenses into small vesicles,
but very little heavier than the surrounding atmosphere,
which then becomes visible under the form of clouds, those
great beautifiers of our changing skies, that frequently trace
such picturesque, gorgeous, or singular groups and landscapes
in the aerial regions. The inhabitants of countries where the
heavens are monotonously serene, may well envy us the charms
of a phenomenon which in some measure affords us compensar
tion for so many disagreeable vicissitudes of the weather. Who
that has admired at sunset the light clouds so beautifully fringed
with silver and gold, or glowing with the richest purple, and
loves to follow them in all their wonderful and fantastic trans-
formations, will deny that they are the poesy and life of the skies,
the awakeners of pleasing fancies and delightful reveries ?
Thin wreaths of clouds have been observed, by travellers that
have ascended the most elevated mountains, floating high above
the peak of Chimborazo or Dhawalagiri, and thus shows us to
what an amazing altitude the emanations of ocean are carried
by the ascending air-current.
Sometimes when light clouds pass into a warmer atmosphere,
they gradually dissolve and vanish ; more frequently the accu-
mulating moisture, too heavy to continue floating in the air, or
condensed by electrical explosions, descends upon the earth in
rain, which, with few exceptions, visits every part of the globe,
either in its liquid form or congealed to snow or hail. But the
quantity of rain which annually falls in different regions is very
unequal, and strange to say, it is not most considerable in those
countries whose climate enjoys an unenviable notoriety for its
•clouded atmosphere and the great number of its rainy days.
In the tropical regions it is generally only about the tifne of the
summer solstice that abundant showers of rain fall regularly every
afternoon, while the rest of the year, the sky is uninterruptedly
serene ; but during the short period of the rainy season, a far
greater quantity of water is precipitated upon the earth, than
in the temperate zones.
While on the island of Guadaloupe, the annual quantity of
MIGRATIONS OF THE WATERS.
73
rain amounts to 274"2 French inches, and to 283'3 at Maha-
buleshwar, on the western declivity of the Gfhauts, which, as far
as has hitherto been ascertained, is the place where most rain
descends ; only from 35 to 40 inches fall on the western coast
of England, where the skies are chronically weeping.
It is a remarkable circumstance that the annual quantity of
rain which falls in the same place remains about the same from
year to year ; so that by an admirable balancing of conflicting
influences, nature seems to have provided for stability in a pro-
vince which of all others might be supposed most open to the
caprices of chance.
Having thus followed the exhalations of ocean to the end of
what may be called the first stage of their journey, and seen
them descend in a condensed form upon the surface of the dry
land, I will now accompany them in their ulterior progress to
the bosom of the seas. A great part of them have many trans-
formations and changes to undergo ere they can accomplish
their return ; repeatedly rising in vapours from the solid earth,
and falling in showers upon its surface; or circulating through
the tissues of organic life : but after all these intermediate stages
and delays, they ultimately find their way into rivulets or
streams, which after many a meander restore them to the vast
reservoir from which they arose.
The waters that descend upon solid rocks, or fall in large
quantities upon abrupt declivities, immediately flow into the
brooks or rivers ; but when they gently and gradually alight
upon a porous soil, they are absorbed by the earth, and, dis-
placing in virtue of capillary attraction, and of their superior
.weight, the air which fills the interstices between its solid
particles, sink deeper and deeper until they meet with a solid
and impenetrable stratum. If this forms a hollow basin, they
naturally settle in the cavity ; whence they are slowly displaced
by fresh accessions and evaporation ; but if its deepest declivity
lies somewhere near the surface, they gradually gush forth
under the form of sources or springs, having unequal distances
to perform before they can reach the orifice. If no fresh supply
of water falls, ere the most distant particles have reached their
journey’s end, the source dries up : but if new atmospheric
precipitations continually take place, the source is perennial,
although naturally of unequal strength at different times.
74
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
The temperature of springs varies from icy coldness to boiling
heat. Cold springs arise when the waters, by which they are
fed, descend from high mountains or do not penetrate a great
way into the bowels of the earth ; but if the filtering waters
reach a depth which is constantly of a higher temperature, they
then gush forth in the form of warm or even boiling springs.
A crowd of agreeable associations attaches itself to the idea
of sources and springs, for they are generally both pleasing and
useful to man. How we long in summer for the refreshing
waters of the cool fountain issuing from the mountain side, and
murmuring through the woods. The lover of nature spends
hours near some solitary spring, and forgets the flow of time, as
he observes the bubbling and listens to the sweet music of its
crystal waters. A luxuriant vegetation marks their progress,
though all around be burnt up by the scorching sun. Along
their margin many a wild flower blooms, and herbs and shrubs
and trees rejoice in a more vivid green, and statelier growth.
There also congregate such members of the finny race, as
delight in cooler streams of untainted purity, and birds love to
build their nests among the sheltering foliage. Thus a little
world forms around the gushing spring, and shows on a dimi-
nutive scale, how all that lives and breathes depends upon the
liquid element for its existence.
While the waters filter through the earth they naturally
dissolve a variety of substances, and all springs are more or
less mixed with extraneous particles. But many of them, par-
ticularly such as are of a higher temperature and consequently
arise from deeper strata, contain either a larger quantity or
so peculiar a combination of mineral substances as to acquire
medicinal virtues of the highest order, and to become objects
of importance to a large portion of mankind. Numberless
invalids annually flock to the hygeian fountains which nature
unceasingly pours forth from her mysterious laboratory, and
are by them restored to the enjoyments of a pleasurable ex-
istence.
How truly wonderful is the chain of processes which first
raises vapours from the deep, and eventually causes them to
gush forth from the entrails of the earth, laden with blessings
and enriched with treasures more inestimable than those the
miner toils for !
MOTION OF GLACIERS.
75
Although a river generally has its source in mountainous
regions, it must be remembered that all the waters that descend
upon the territory of which it forms the lowest level, gradually
find their way into its current. Thus, the monarch of all
streams, the Amazon River, is the natural drain of a territory
thirty times larger than England. Thousands of rivulets and
brooks, fed by the waters which descend from the slopes of
thousands of glens and valleys, or filter through the vast forest-
plains that rise but a few feet above their surface, all contribute
to swell the majesty of its current. Its sources are in reality
wherever, on that vast extent of land, water descends and drains
into any one of its innumerable affluents. When we hear that
on an average the river of the Amazons alone restores every
minute half a million of tons of water to the ocean, and then
consider the countless number of streams all alike active, that
are scattered over the globe, we may form a faint idea of the
vast quantity of vapours which are constantly rising from the
deep, and of the magnitude of these silent operations of nature.
Yet such is the immensity of ocean, that supposing all the waters
it constantly loses, never to return again into its bosom, it
would require thousands of years of evaporation to exhaust the
immensity of its reservoirs!
It might be supposed that the waters which congeal on the
sides of mountains covered with perennial snow, or fill
Alpine valleys in the form of glaciers, were eternally fixed on
earth — but there also we are deceived by delusive appearances
of immobility. Every year the glacier slowly but restlessly
makes a step forwards into the valley, and while its lower end
dissolves, new supplies of snow constantly feed it from above.
It has been calculated by Agassiz that the ice masses of the
Aar glacier require 133 years to perform their descent from its
summit to its inferior extremity — a distance of ten miles — so
that their sojourn in that chilled valley far surpasses that of the
oldest patriarch of the mountains. How great must be their
delight when they at last are liberated from the spell which so
long enchained them, and freely bound along on their way to
Ocean ! How they must shudder at the idea of once more
returning to their desolate prison, and long for the perpetual
warmth of spicy groves and tropical gardens !
In the colder regions of the earth, in Greenland or Spitz-
76
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
bergen, immense glaciers frequently fill the valleys that open on
the sea, descend even beyond the water’s edge, and, as they
move along, their overhanging masses separate from their base
and plunge into the deep with a crash louder than thunder.
The icebergs that drift about the Arctic seas, and are annually
conveyed by the currents into lower latitudes, are formed in
this manner. Huge blocks of granite, detached by atmo-
spherical vicissitudes from the higher mountains and precipitated
on the surface of the glaciers, frequently float on the broad back
of an iceberg far away from the spot where they seemed rooted
for eternity. As their crystal support melts away in its progress
to warmer climes, these rocky fragments, which have been
appropriately named erratic blocks, fall to the bottom of the sea
hundreds or even thousands of miles from the starting point of
their journey. Thus the great bank of Newfoundland is covered
with stones from distant Greenland, raised high in the air by
volcanic power myriads of years ago, and now condemned to an
equally long repose below the surface of ocean. When will
they rise again above the waters, and what further changes will
they have to undergo ere their compacted atoms resolve them-
selves into dust and assume new forms ? But, however remote
their dissolution, it will inevitably come, for Time is all-powerful,
and has an eternity to work out his changes.
The large blocks of stone that so wonderfully migrate on the
wandering iceberg form but a small and insignificant portion of
the terrestrial spoils which are transported to ocean by the
returning waters. Every river is more or less laden with
earthy particles which its current carries onwards to the sea
and deposits at its mouth. In course of time their accumu-
lation, as I have already mentioned, forms large tracts of fertile
territory encroaching upon the maritime domains.
I shall end with a few words on the influence of forests in
attracting or retaining the atmospherical moisture, as it is a
subject of great importance in the economy of nations, and
shows us how much it is in the power of man to improve or to
defeat the provisions of nature in his favour.
Forests always cool the neighbouring atmosphere, for their
foliage offers an immense warmth-radiating surface, so that the
vapours readily condense above them and descend in frequent
showers. At the same time their roots loosen the soil, and the
INFLUENCE OF FORESTS ON CLIMATES.
77
successive falling of their leaves forms a thick layer of humus,
which has an uncommon power in attracting and retaining
moisture. Their thick canopy of verdure also prevents the
rays of the sun from penetrating to the ground, and absorbing
its humidity. Thus the soil on which forests stand is constantly
saturated with water, and becomes the parent of perennial
sources and rills, that spread fertility and plenty far from the
spot where they originated.
The rain-attractive influence of forests did not escape the at-
tention of Columbus, who ascribed the frequent showers which
refreshed and cooled the air, as he sailed along the coasts of
Jamaica., to the vast extent and density of the woods that
covered the mountains of that island. On this occasion he
mentions in his journal that formerly rain had been equally
abundant on Madeira, the Canaries, and the Azores, before their
shady forests were felled or burnt by the improvident settlers.
The wanton destruction of woods has entailed barrenness on
countries renowned in former times for their fertility. The
mountains of Greece were covered with trees during the great
epoch of her history, and the well-watered land bore abundant
fruits, and sustained a numerous population. But man reck-
lessly laid waste the sources of his prosperity. Along with the
woods, many brooks and rivulets disappeared, and ceased to
water the parched plains. The rain gradually washed the
vegetable earth from the sides of the naked hills, and condemned
them to sterility. When the snow of the mountains began to thaw
under the warm breath of spring, it was now no longer retained
by the spongy soil of the forests, and gradually dissolved under
their cover ; but, rapidly melting, filled with its impetuous
torrents the bed of the rivers, and overflowing their banks,
spread ruin and devastation far around.
Unfortunately, forests when once destroyed are not so easily
restored, and it requires many centuries ere the bared mountain
side reassumes its pristine vesture of shady woods. First
lichens, mosses, and other thrifty herbs, content to feed upon
nothing, have to prepare a scanty humus for the reception of
more pretentious guests. In course of time some small stunted
shrub makes its appearance here and there in some peculiarly
favoured spot, and after all requires vast powers of endurance
to maintain itself on the niggard soil, exposed to the full enmity
G
78
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
of wind and weather. This paves the way for a more vigorous
and fortunate offspring; and as every year adds something to
the vegetation on the mountain’s side, and opposes increasing
obstacles to the winds, the falling leaves and decaying herbage
accumulate more and more, until dwarfish trees first find a
sufficiency of soil to root upon, and finally, the proud monarch
of the forest spreads out his powerful arms and raises his
majestic summit to the skies.
While Greece and Asia Minor have seen their fertility de-
crease or vanish 'with the trees that once covered their hills,
other countries have improved as their vast woods have been
thinned by the axe of the husbandman. In the time of the
Eomans all Germany formed one vast and continuous forest,
and its climate was consequently much more rigorous than it
is at present. All the low grounds were covered with imper-
vious morasses, and the winter is described by historians in
terms like those we should employ to paint the cold of Siberia.
But the scene gradually changed as tillage usurped the sylvan
domain. The excessive humidity of the soil diminished, the swamps
disappeared, and the heat of the sea, penetrating into the bosom of
the earth, developed its productive powers. Thus the chestnut
and the vine now thrive and ripen their fruits on the hanks of
the Rhine and the Danube, where 2000 years ago they could not
possibly have existed. But Germany would also see her fertility
decline, if the destruction of the forests which still crown the
brow of many of her hills should continue in a considerable
degree. Numerous rivulets would then be dried up during the
warm season, in consequence of the more rapid descent and
thaw of vernal rains and wintry snows, and most likely, refresh-
ing summer showers would be far less frequent. Even now
the inundations which almost annually desolate the banks of
the Elbe, the Oder, and the Rhine, are ascribed by competent
judges to the excessive clearing of the forests in the mountainous
countries where those rivers originate. These few examples
suffice to prove to us the power of man in modifying the climates
of the earth, and the vast importance of the study of terrestrial
physics. By planting or destroying woods, he is able to compel
nature to a more equitable distribution of her gifts. In marshy
and low countries, he may remove the superfluous waters by
drainage, and increase the productiveness of arid plains by
DRAINAGE AND IRRIGATION.
79
judicious irrigation. Thus man is the lord and master of the
earth ; but hitherto he has done but little to reap all the advan-
tages he might have obtained from his dominion, or even used
it to his own detriment. Drainage, irrigation, and a judicious
management of forest-lands, are only beginning to be under-
stood even among the most enlightened nations. A great part
of our damp island still remains undrained, and we allow the
rivers of India to pour their waters into the sea, instead of
diverting them upon her thirsty plains. But there can be no
doubt that as knowledge increases, man will gradually learn to
provide every soil with the exact measure of humidity that is
requisite to make it bring forth its fruits in the greatest abun-
dance. Views such as these teach us, that, far from having at-
tained the summit of civilisation, we are still on the threshold
of her temple, and that most likely our descendants will look
down upon our present condition as we do upon that of our
barbarous ancestors.
Rocky Mountains at the bend of hear Lake River.
« 2
80
CHAP. VII.
MARINE CONSTRUCTIONS.
Lighthouses. — The Eddystonc. — Winstsmley’s Lighthouse, 1696. — The Storm of
1703. — Rudyerd's Lighthouse destroyed by Fire in 1755 — Singular Death of
one of the Lighthouse Men. — Anecdote of Louis XIV. — Smeaton. — Bell Rock
Lighthouse. — History of the Erection of Skerryvore Lighthouse. — Illumination
Lighthouses. — The Breakwater at Cherbourg. — Liverpool Docks. — The Tubular
Bridge over the Menai Straits. — The Sub-oceanic Mine of Botallack.
In one of the finest passages of “ Childe Harold,” Byron contrasts
the gigantic power of the sea with the weakness of man. He
describes the resistless billows contemptuously playing with the
impotent mariner — now heaving him to the skies, now whelm-
ing him deep in the bosom of the tumultuous waters ; he mocks
the vain pride of our armadas, which are but the playthings of
ocean, and points with a bitter sneer at the wrecks with which he
strews his shores. A less misanthropic mood or a more truthful
view of things might have prompted the wayward poet to celebrate
the triumphs of man over the brute strength of the winds and
waves ; how, guided by the compass, he boldly steers through
the vast waste of waters, how he excavates the artificial harbour,
or piles up the breakwater to protect his 'bark against the destruc-
tive agencies of the billow and the storm, or how he erects the
lighthouse to point out the neighbourhood of dangerous shoals
or the entrance of the friendly port.
The various constructions planned and executed by man to
disarm the turbulent or perfidious seas of a great part of their
terrors, are indeed among the noblest monuments of his archi-
tectural genius, nor are any more deserving of universal ap-
plause and gratitude. Who has ever performed a winter voyage
homewards over the wide Atlantic and not felt a thrill of delight
when the first bright flash of light beamed over the dark waters
and welcomed him back to his native isle ? or what generous
mind has ever experienced this feeling without devoting the
THE EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE.
81
tribute of its thanks to the wise and beneficent men whose
energy and perseverance have succeeded in lighting every head-
land or estuary of our rugged coast? So completely has this
been done, that in the dark and stormy night, almost as well
as in the brightest day, the homeward-bound ship need not
approach danger without receiving friendly warning, for her
pathway is illuminated by gigantic fire-beacons so thickly set
that when one fades to the sight a new one rises to the view.
Among the numerous lighthouses with which the genius of
humanity has encircled our native shores, the Eddystone, the
Bell Rock, and the Skerryvore, are pre-eminent for the vast diffi-
culties that had to be surmounted in their construction, situated
as they are upon solitary rocks, exposed to the full fury of the
insurgent waves ; and should by some revolution all other monu-
ments erected by man be swept away from the surface of our
land, and these alone remain, they would suffice to testify to
future ages that these islands were once inhabited by a highly
civilised and energetic race, one well worthy to lay claim to the
dominion of the seas.
At the distance of about twelve miles and a half from Plymouth
Sound, and intercepting, as it were, the entrance of the Channel,
the Eddystone rocks had been for ages a perpetual menace to
the mariner. The number of vessels wrecked on these perfidious
shoals must have been terrible indeed, it being even now a com-
mon thing in foggy weather for homeward-bound ships to make
the Eddystone Lighthouse as the first point of land of Great
Britain, so that in the night and nearly at high water, when the
whole range of the rocks is covered, the most careful pilot might
run his ship upon them, if nothing was placed there by way of
warning. As the trade of England increased, the number of
fatal accidents naturally augmented, rendering it more and more
desirable to crest the Eddystone with a tutelary beacon ; yet years
elapsed before an architect appeared bold enough to undertake
the task. At length, in 1696, Mr. Winstanley, a country gentle-
man and amateur engineer, made the first attempt of raising a
lighthouse on those sea-beaten rocks, but as he was possessed
of more enterprise than solid knowledge, the structure be erected
was deficient in every element of stability. Yet such was the
presumption of the man that he was known to express a wish
that the fiercest storm that ever blew might arise to test the
82
rnYSlCAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
solidity of the fabric. The elements took him at his word, for
while on a visit of inspection to his lighthouse the dreadful
storm of November 26, 1703, arose, the only storm which in
our latitude has equalled the rage of a tropical hurricane.
“No other tempest,” says Macaulay in his Essay on Addison,
“ was ever in this country the occasion of a Parliamentary
address or of a public fast. Whole fleets had been cast away.
Large mansions had been blown down. One Prelate had been
buried beneath the ruins of his palace. London and Bristol had
presented the appearance of cities just sacked. Hundreds of
families were still in mourning. The prostrate trunks of large
trees and the ruins of houses still attested in all the southern
counties the fury of the blast.” No wonder that a tempest
like this swept away the ill-constructed lighthouse like the
“ unsubstantial fabric of a vision,” and that neither poor Mr.
Winstanley nor any of his companions survived to recount the
terrors of that dreadful night.
Strange to say, the task of rebuilding the Eddystone light-
house, which was now felt as a national necessity, once more
devolved, not upon a professed architect, but upon a Mr.
Rudyerd, a linendraper of Ludgate Hill, the son of a Cornish
vagrant, who had raised himself by his talents and industry from
rags and mendicancy to a station of honourable competence.
The choice, however, was not ill made, for, with the assistance of
two competent shipwrights, the London tradesman constructed
an edifice which, though mainly of timber, was so firmly bolted
to the rock with iron branches that for nearly half a century it
resisted the fury of the billows, and might have withstood them
for many a year to come had it not been rapidly and conrpletely
destroyed by fire. This catastrophe, which happened on
December 2, 1755, was marked by a strange accident, for while
one of the light-keepers was engaged in throwing up water
four yards higher than himself, a quantity of lead, dissolved
by the heat of the flames, suddenly rushed like a torrent from
the roof, and falling upon his head, face, and shoulders,
burnt him in a dreadful manner. Having been conveyed
to the hospital at Plymouth, he invariably told the surgeon
who attended him, that he had swallowed part of the lead
while looking upward ; the reality of the assertion seemed
quite incredible, for who could suppose it possible that anv
JOHN SM EATON.
83
human being could exist after receiving melted lead into the
stomach, much less that he should afterwards be able to bear the
hardships and inconvenience from the length of time he was
in getting on shore before any remedies could be applied. On
the twelfth day, however, the man died, and having been opened
a solid piece of lead, which weighed above seven ounces, was
found in his stomach.*
Another interesting anecdote is attached to the history of
Eudyerd’s lighthouse. Louis XIV. being at war with England
while it was being built, a French privateer took the men at
work upon it and carried them to France, expecting, no doubt, a
good reward for the achievement. His hopes, however, were
doomed to a grievous disappointment, for while the captives
lay in prison, the transaction reached the ears of the monarch.
Who immediately ordered them to be released and the captors
to be put in their place ; declaring that though he was at war
with England, he was not at war with mankind. He therefore
directed the men to be sent back to their work with presents ;
observing that the Eddystone lighthouse was so situated as to
be of equal service to all nations navigating the Channel. It
is gratifying to meet with this trait of natural generosity in
a mind long since obscured by the bigotry which prompted
the revocation of the Edit de Nantes.
After these repeated disasters, the rebuilding of Eddystone
lighthouse, in a more substantial manner than had hitherto been
effected, was now no longer confided to amateur ingenuity, but
to John Smeaton, an eminent civil engineer, one of those men
who by originality of genius and strength of character are so well
entitled to rank among the worthies of England. From his
early infancy Smeaton (born May 28, 1724) gave tokens of the
extraordinary abilities which were one day to render his name
illustrious. Before he attained his sixth year his playthings
were not the playthings of children but the tools which men em-
ploy : before he was fifteen he made for himself an engine for
turning, forged his iron and steel, and had self-made tools of
every sort for working in wood, ivory, and metals. At eighteen
he by the strength of his genius acquired the art of working
in most of the mechanical trades, and such was his untiring zeal
* A full account of this extraordinary circumstance was sent to the Royal
Society, ^nd printed in vol. xlix. of their Transactions, p. 477.
84
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
that a part of every day was generally occupied in forming some
ingenious piece of mechanism. In 1753, his various inventions
and improvements had already attracted such notice that he was
elected member of the Royal Society ; and when, a few years
later, the accident happened which burnt down the Eddystone
lighthouse to the ground, he was at once fixed upon as the person
most proper to rebuild it A better choice could not possibly
hddystone Lighthouse.
have been made, for Smeaton’s lighthouse, firm as the rock on
which it stands, has now already braved the storms of more than
a century, and will no doubt continue to brave them for many
ages to come. Of him it may well be said “ exegit monumentum
aere perennius,” for to him is due the honour of having fixed the
best form to be given to a marine lighthouse, and even now the
Eddystone beacon-tower remains a model which has hardly been
surpassed by the taller and more graceful edifices of Bell Rock
THE BELL ROCK LIGHTHOUSE.
85
and Skerryvore. Nothing could exceed the patient ingenuit}7,
the sagacity, and forethought with which that great engineer
mortised his tall tower to the wave-worn rock, and then dove-
tailed the whole together, so as to make rock and tower prac-
tically one stone, and that of the very best form for deadening
the action of the wave. Nor must we forget that our great marine
lighthouses, of which Smeaton gave the model, are as remark-
able from an artistic as from a utilitarian point of view, as
s pleasing to the man of taste as to the friend of humanity. “ It is
to be regretted,” says, with perfect justice, the author of an excel-
lent article in the Quarterly Review,* “ that these structures are
placed so far at sea that they are very little seen, for they are,
taken altogether, perhaps the most perfect specimens of modern
architecture which exist. Tall and graceful as the minar of an
Eastern mosque, they possess far more solidity and beauty of con-
struction ; and, in addition to this, their form is as appropriate
to the purposes for which it was designed as anything ever done
by the Greeks, and consequently meets the requirements of
good architecture quite as much as a column of the Parthenon.”
Covered to the height of fifteen feet at spring tide, and
little more than a hundred yards in its extent, the famous
Bell Rock, or Inchcape, facing the Frith of Tay at a distance of
twelve miles at sea, was as dangerous to the navigation of the
eastern coast of Scotland as the Eddystone had been to the
entrance of the Channel. To erect a tower on a spot like this
was an undertaking of no common boldness, but, fired by
Smeaton’s example, Mr. Robert Stevenson no less gloriously
succeeded in converting what for ages had been a source of
danger into a beacon of safety.
On the opposite coast of Scotland, and placed in the same
parallel of latitude as Bell Rock, the Skerryvore Reef had a name
equally dreaded by the mariner. Situated considerably farther
from the mainland than the Bell Rock, it isless entirely submerged,
some of its summits rising above the level of high water, though
the surf dashes over them ; but the extent of foul ground is much
greater, and hidden dangers, even in fine weather, beset the in-
tervening passage between its eastern extremity and Tyree, from
which island it is distant some eleven miles. In rough weather
the sea which rises there is described as one in which no ship
* No. 228.
86 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
lrl livp This terrible reef, so fatal to many a gallant baik,
“o of a lighthouse most desixable, yet -h
“ the difficulty of the case that although so loug ago as .814
was tne arnica J Skerryvore, it was not before
"u — u, sou of the famous architect of
It Bell Rock sea-toWer,
That difficulty was not conhned to the pos .
Bell Book Lighthouse.
of the reef itself, as the neighbouring island of Tyree afforded
no resource, and all the materials for the building, even the stone
itself had to be transported from distant quarters. At length,
all preliminary arrangements being settled, the engineer reached
the rock and commenced his work, in June 1838, by erecting a
barrack-house upon stilts-a sort of dovecot perched on poles-
hiffii out of the water on the reef, close to the proposed ate of
th“ lighthouse. The erection of this barrack fully occupied
THE SKERRY YORE LIGHTHOUSE.
87
first summer ; and, lest it might be supposed that this was but
little work for so long a time, it may be as well to remark that,
such was the turbulence of the sea that between August 7 and
September 11, it had only been possible to be 165 hours on the
rock. Much inconvenience was occasioned by the hard and
slippery nature of the volcanic formation of the Skerry vore, to
which the action of the sea had given the appearance and the
smoothness of a mass of dark-coloured glass, so that the foreman
of the masons compared the operation of landing on it to that of
climbing up the neck of a bottle. When we consider how often,
by how many persons, and under what circumstances of swell
and motion, this operation was repeated, we must look upon
this feature of the spot as an obstacle of no slight amount.
At length, after much danger and difficulty, the barrack was
completed, but the first November storm swept it away and
utterly annihilated the work of the season. Iron stancheons
had been drawn, broken, and twisted like the wires of a
champagne bottle ; the smith’s iron anvil had been transported
eight yards from where it was left ; and a stone three-fourths
of a ton was lifted out from the bottom of a hole and sent
towards the top of the rock.
Mortified, but nothing daunted by this disaster, which gave
him a warning of the tremendous power he had to contend with,
Mr. Stevenson prepared during the winter for the labours of
1839, which, besides the re-erection of the barrack on an im-
proved plan, chiefly consisted in the levelling or blasting of a flat
surface of forty-two feet diameter on the top of the rock from
which the lighthouse was to arise. This foundation pit was in
itself a work of no small magnitude, as it required for its ex-
cavation the labours of 20 men for 217 days, the firing of 296
shots, and the removal into deep water of 2,000 tons of material.
The blasting, from the absence of all cover and the impossibility
of retiring to a distance farther in any case than thirty feet, and
often reduced to twelve, demanded all possible carefulness.
The only precautions available were a skilful appointment of
the charge and the covering the mines with mats and coarse net-
ting made of old rope. Every charge was fired by or with the
assistance of the architect in person, and no mischief occurred.
The year 1840 had now arrived, and the construction of the
lighthouse was about to begin Quarriers and labourers had been
88
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
busily employed in cutting blocks of stone in the quarries.
Carpenters were diligently engaged in making wooden moulds
for each lighthouse block wherewith to guage its exact mathe-
matical figure. In April, a reinforcement of thirty-seven masons
from Aberdeen arrived at Tyree — men expert in the difficult
work of dressing granite — and, on April 30, the first visit was
made to the rock. To the great joy of all, the barrack con-
structed in the previous season was found uninjured, though a
mass of rock weighing about five tons had been detached from
its bed and carried right across the foundation pit by the
violence of the waves. In this barrack the architect and his
party now took up their quarters, which from the frequent flood-
ing of the apartments with water and from the heavy spray that
washed the walls were anything but agreeable. “ Once,” says the
gallant engineer,* “ we were fourteen days without communica-
tion with the shore or the steamer, and during the greater part
of that time we saw nothing but white fields of foam as far as
the eye could reach, and heard nothing but the whistling of the
wind and the thunder of the waves, which was at times so loud as
to make italmost impossible to hear anyone speak. Such a scene,
with the ruins of the former barrack not twenty yards from us,
was calculated to inspire the most desponding anticipations ; and
I well remember the undefined sense of dread that flashed on my
mind, on being awakened one night by a heavy sea which struck
the barrack and made my cot swing inwards from the wall, and
was immediately followed by a cry of terror from the men in the
apartment above me, most of whom, startled by the sound and
the tremor, sprang from their berths to the floor, impressed with
the idea that the whole fabric had been washed into the sea.”
This spell of bad weather, though in summer, well-nigh out-
lasted their provisions ; and when at length they were able to
make the signal that a landing would be practicable, scarcely
twenty-four hours’ stock remained on the rock. The landing of
the heavy stones from the lighters was a work of no small dif-
ficulty, considering the slippery nature of the rock, and as the
loss of one dressed stone would frequently have delayed the
whole progress of the building, the anxiety was incessant. On
July 4, the building of the tower really commenced. Six courses
* Account of Skerryvore Lighthouse, by Alan Stevenson, Engineer to the
Northern Lighthouse Board. Edinburgh, 1848.
THE PIIARUS OF ALEXANDRIA.
89
of masonry carried the building to the height of 8 feet 2 inches
before the autumnal gales terminated the work of 1840, and an
excellent year’s work it was. The saying that “ what is well
begun is half done ” was illustrated here. Next year’s work was
comparatively easy — so that in 1842 the tower rose to its full
height of 138 feet, and the year after the light was shedding its
Tne Skerryvore Lighthouse.
beneficent rays over the thirty miles of watery waste that sur-
round the hidden rocks of Skerryvore.
Well may we be proud of men like Smeaton and the
Stevensons ; but, while justly admiring their architectural skill,
their perseverance, and their courage, we must not forget to
offer the just tribute of our gratitude to the eminent natural
philosophers without whose ingenious optical inventions the
most splendid sea-towers would be comparatively useless. The
Pharus or lighthouse of Alexandria was, probably with justice,
PO
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
reckoned among the seven wonders of the world, and its several
stories, rising on marble columns to the height of 400 feet,
must have presented an imposing spectacle, but I strongly
suspect that the rude brazier on the summit of the majestic
pile bore the same proportion to the lighthouse lanterns of our
time as the wretched coasting-craft of the ancient Greeks to the
ocean steamers of the present day. Among the names of those
who have contributed most effectually to the progress of marine
illumination Argand, Borda, and Fresnel are conspicuous. The
hollow cylindrical wick of the first was a sudden and immense ad-
vance in the art of economical and effective illumination. The
second, by his invention of the parabolic mirror, multiplied the
effect of the unassisted flame by 450, and the refracting lens of
Fresnel so admirably concentrates the light as to project its warn-
ing beams to the wonderful distance of thirty or thirty-five miles
In former ages the efforts of man to provide a refuge to the
mariner from the fury of the raging gale were feeble and in-
significant. Content with the harbours that nature had provided,
it was then thought quite sufficient to line a river-bank with
quays or to enclose a natural pond by walls. The idea of raising
colo:sal breakwaters by casting whole quarries into the deep, or
of extending artificial promontories far into the bosom of the
ocean, is of modern date, and would have appeared chimerical
not only to the ancients but to our fathers not a century ago.
The first great work of this description is the famous break-
water planned by De Cessart in 1783, and terminated in
1853, which has converted the open roadstead of Cherbourg
into a land-locked harbour. Rising from a depth of 40 feet
at low spring tides, on a coast where the floods attain a height
of 19 feet, it opposes a front of 12,700 feet to the fury of the
storm, and carries 250 pieces of the heaviest cannon on its for-
midable brow.
It far surpasses in extent and boldness of construction the
breakwater at Plymouth, nor will it be eclipsed by the moles now
forming at Portland, Holyhead, and Alderney; but although
it is a more impressive spectacle to see man struggling with the
ocean and producing calmness and shelter in the midst of the
raging storm, than to contemplate his operations where he has
no such adversaries to subdue, still such buildings as those just
described are neither the largest nor the most expensive works
SUBMARINE MINES.
91
required for the accommodation of shipping. Witness the
Cyclopean grandeur of the Liverpool docks or of the Great Float
at Birkenhead, which alone covers an area of water of 121 acres,
and whose portals, with a clear opening of 100 feet, will admit
the largest screw-steamer or sailing ship the wildest imagination
has yet conceived. Six millions of money is the cost- of this
one work alone — more than would be required to raise a pyramid
like that of Cheops — and even this sum is a trifle when com-
pared with what has been spent on the harbours of Liverpool,
London, and other great commercial cities.
Not satisfied with erecting his lighthouses on wave-worn rocks
or defying the waves with his colossal breakwaters, man spans
bridges over arms of the sea and excavates mines under the
abysses of the deep. The locomotive now rolls full speed 100
feet above high water over the strait which separates Anglesea
from the mainland; and in Botallack and several other Cornish
mines the workman, while resting from his subterranean labours,
hears the awful voice of the ocean rolling over his head.
“ In all these submarine mines,” says Mr. Henwood, “ I have
heard the dashing of the billows and the grating of the shingle
when in calm weather. I was once, however, underground in
Wheal Cock during a storm. At the extremity of the level
seaward some eighty or one hundred fathoms from the shore,
little could be heard of its effects, except at intervals, when the
reflux of some unusually large wave projected a pebble outward,
bounding and rolling over the rocky bottom. But when standing
beneath the base of the cliff, and in that part of the mine where
but nine feet of rock stood between us and the ocean, the heavy
roll of the large boulders, the ceaseless grinding of the pebbles,
the fierce thundering of the billows, with the crackling and
boiling as they rebounded, placed a tempest in its most appalling
form too vividly before me ever to be forgotten. More than
once doubting the protection of our rocky shield, we retreated
in affright, and it was only after repeated trials that we had
confidence to pursue our investigations.” Yet the miners,
accustomed from their early youth to the fierce and threatening
roaring of the stormy sea, pursue their work from year to year,
never doubting that the thin roof which separates them from a
watery grave will continue to protect them, as it has shielded
their fathers before them.
PART II.
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
h
do
CHAP. VIII.
THE CETACEANS.
General Remarks on the Organisation of the Cetaceans. — The Large Greenland
Whale. — His Food and Enemies. — The Fin-Back or Rorqual. — The Antarctic
Whale. — The Sperm Whale. — The Unicorn Fish. — The Dolphin. — Truth and
Fable. — The Porpoise. — The Grampus. — History of the "Whale Fishery.
Of all the living creatures that people the immensity of ocean,
the cetaceans, or the whale family, are the most perfect. Their
anatomical construction renders them in many respects similar
to man, and their heart is susceptible of a warmth of feeling
unknown to the cold-blooded fishes ; for the mother shows signs
of attachment to her young, and forgets her own safety when
some danger menaces her offspring. Like man, the cetaceans
breathe through lungs, and possess a double heart, receiving and
propelling streams of warm red blood. The anatomical structure
of their pectoral fins bears great resemblance to that of the
human arm, as the bony structure of those organs equally consists
of a shoulder-blade, an upper arm, a radius and ulna, and five
fingers.
But the arm, which in man moves freely, is here chained to the
body as far as the hand, and the latter, which, in obedience to
human volition and intellect, executes such miracles of industry
and art, is here covered with a thick skin, and appears as a broad
undivided fin or flapper. Yet still it is destined for higher
service than that of a mere propelling oar, as it serves the
mother to guide and shield her young. The lower extremities
are of course wanting, but their functions are performed by the
mighty horizontal tail, by whose powerful strokes the un-
wieldy animal glides rapidly through the waters.
The cetaceans distinguish themselves, moreover, from the fishes
by the bringing forth of living young, by a greater quantity of
blood, by the smoothness of their skin, under which is found a
n 2
:)6
THE IX HABITANTS] OF THE SEA.
thick layer of fat, and by their simple or double blow-hole, which
is situated at the top of the head, and corresponds to the nostrils
of the quadrupeds, though not for
the purpose of smelling, but
merely as an organ of respiration.
Our knowledge of the ceta-
ceans is still very incomplete ; and
this is not to be wondered at, when
we consider that they chiefly dwell
in the most inaccessible parts of
the ocean, and that when met with,
the swiftness of their movements
rarely allows more than a flighty
view of their external form. Thus
their habits and mode of living
are mostly enveloped in obscurity ;
and while doubtless many ceta-
ceans are to the present day un-
known, one and the same species
has not seldom been described
under different names, to the no
small confusion of the Datura list.
The cetaceans are either with-
out a dental apparatus, or pro-
vided with teeth. The former, or
the whalebone whales, have two
blow-holes on the top of the head,
in the form of two longitudinal
fissures ; while in the latter,
(sperm-whales, unicorn-fish, dol-
phins,) which comprise by far the
greater number of species, there
Bones of the Anterior Fin of a Whale. is bllt 0De transversal Spout-hole,
In all whales the larynx is con-
tinued to the spouting canal, and deeply inserted or closely
imbricated within its tube. Thus no tones approaching to a
voice can be emitted except through the spiracles, which are
encumbered with valves, and evidently badly adapted for the
transmission of sound. Scoresby assures us that the Green-
land whale has no voice, and Bennett frequently noticed sperm
THE CETACEAXS.
97
whales suffering from extreme alarm and injury, but never
heard any sound from them beyond that attending an ordinary
respiration.
The whalebone whales are either smooth-backs (Balaenae), or
fin-backs (Balaenopterae), having a vertical fin rising from the
lower part of the back. To the former belongs the mighty
Greenland- Whale (Balama mysticetus)., the most bulky of
living animals, and of all cetaceans the most useful and im-
portant to man. Its greatest length, according to Scoresby, is
from sixty to seventy feet, and round the thickest part of its
body it measures from thirty to forty feet, but the incessant
persecutions to which it is subjected scarcely ever allow it to
attain its full growth.
The whale being somewhat lighter than the medium in which it
swims, its weight may be ascertained with tolerable accuracy ;
and Scoresby tells us that a stout animal of sixty feet weighs
about seventy tons, allowing thirty to the blubber, eight or ten
to the bones, and thirty or thirty-two to the carcase. The light-
ness of the whale, which enables it to keep its crown, in which
the blow-hole is situated, and a considerable extent of back
above the water, without any effort or motion, is not only owing
to its prodigious case of fat, but also to the lightness of its
bones, most of which are very porous and contain large quantities
of fine oil ; an admirable provision of nature for the wants of a
creature destined to breathe the atmospheric air, and to skim its
food from the surface of the waters.
The unsightly animal shows disproportion in all its organs.
While the tail fin measures twenty-four feet across, the pectoral
fins or paddles are no more than six feet long. The monstrous
head forms about the third of the whole body, and is furnished
with an equally monstrous mouth, which on opening exhibits a
cavity about the size of an ordinary ship’s cabin. The leviathans
of the dry land, the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the hippopo-
tamus, are provided with tusks and teeth corresponding to their
size — huge weapons fit for eradicating trees or crushing the bone-
harnessed crocodile ; but the masticatory implements of the giant
of the seas are scarcely capable of dividing the smallest food.
Instead of teeth, its enormous upper jaw is beset with about 500
laminae of whalebone, ranged side by side, two-thirds of an inch
apart, the thickness of blade included, and resembling a frame
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
5>8
Skull of Whale, with the Baleen.
of saws in a saw-mill. Their interior edges are covered with
fringes of hair ; externally they are
curved and flattened down, so as to
present a smooth surface to the lips.
The largest laminae, situated on both
sides of the jaw, attain a length of
fifteen feet, and measure from twelve
to fifteen inches at their base ; in
front and towards the back of the
mouth they are much shorter.
Besides these, there are suspended from the palate many other
small laminae of the thickness of a quill, a few inches long, and
likewise terminating in a fringe. Thus the whole roof of the
mouth resembles a shaggy fur, under which lies the soft and
spongy tongue, a monstrous mass often ten feet broad and
eighteen feet long.
This whole formation is beautifully adapted to the peculiar
nourishment of the whale, which does not consist, as one might
suppose, of the larger fishes, but of the minute animals, (Medusa',
Entomostraca, Clio borealis, and other
pteropod molluscs,) with which its pas-
ture-grounds in the northern seas abound.
To gather food, it swims rapidly with open
mouth over the surface ; and on closing
the wide gates, and expelling the foaming
streams, the little creatures remain en-
tangled by thousands in the fringy thicket
as in a net; there to be crushed and bruised
by the tongue into a savoury pulp. Fancy the vast numbers
requisite to keep a monster of seventy tons in good condition.
The back of the whale is usually of a fine glossy black, marked
with whitish rays, which have some resemblance to the veins of
wood. This mixture of colours presents an agreeable appearance,
especially when the back of the fish is illuminated with the rays
of the sun. The under part of the trunk and of the lower jaw
is of a dead white. The skin is about an inch thick, and covers
a layer of fat of fifteen inches; a most excellent coat for keeping
the whale warm and increasing its buoyancy, but at the same
time the chief cause which induces man to pursue it with the
deadly harpoon.
Clio borealis.
ENEMIES OF THE WHALE
99
The usual march of the whale over the waters is rarely more
than four miles an hour, but its speed increases to an astonishing
rapidity when terror or the agonies of pain drive it madly through
the sea.
In its sportive humours it is sometimes seen to spring out of
the water, and to remain suspended for a moment in the air.
On falling back again into the sea, high foam-crested fountains
spout forth on all sides, and mighty waves propagate the tumult
in widening circles over the troubled ocean. Or else it raises its
bulky head vertically on high, so that the deceived mariner
fancies he sees some black rock looming out of the distant waters.
But suddenly the fancied cliff turns round and brandishes play-
fully its enormous flukes in the air, or lashes the waters with
such prodigious power, that the sound rolls far away like thunder
over the deserts of the ocean.
Strange to say, the giant is of so cowardly a nature, that the
sight of a sea-bird often fills him with the greatest terror, and
causes him to avoid the imaginary danger by a sudden plunge
into the deep.
Besides man, a vast number of enemies, great and small,
persecute the whale and embitter his life.
The Sword-fish (. Xphias Gladius ) and the Thresher or Sea-
fox, a species of shark ( G archarias Vulpes ), often attack him
conjointly and in packs. As soon as his back appears above
the water, the threshers, springing several yards into the air,
descend with great violence upon the object of their rancour,
and inflict upon him the most severe slaps with their long tails,
the sound of which resembles the report of distant musketry.
The sword-fish, in their turn, attack the distressed whale,
stabbing from below ; and thus beset on all sides, and bleeding
from countless wounds, the huge animal, though dealing the
most dreadful blows with its enormous tail, and lashing the
crimsoned waters into foam, is obliged to succumb at last.
The Greenland Shark ( Squalus borealis) is also one of the
bitterest enemies of the whale, biting and annoying it while
living, and feeding on it when dead. It scoops hemispherical
pieces out of its body nearly as big as a man’s head, and continues
scooping and gorging lump after lump, until the whole cavity of
its belly is filled. It is so insensible of pain, that, though it has
been run through the body, and escaped, yet after a while
100
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
Scoresby has seen it return to banquet again on the whale at the
very spot where it received its wounds. The heart, as is fre-
quently the case with gluttons, bears no proportion to its vast
capacity of stomach ; for it is very small, and performs only six
or eight pulsations in a minute, continuing its heating for some
hours after having been taken out of the body. The body also,
though separated into any number of parts, gives evidence of life
for a similar length of time. It is therefore so difficult to kill,
that it is actually unsafe to trust the hand in its mouth though
the head be separated from the body.
Strange to say, though the whale-fishers frequently slip into
the water where sharks abound, Scoresby never heard an instance
of their having been attacked by one of these voracious monsters.
Perhaps they are loth to attack man, looking upon him as their
best purveyor.
Fishermen relate that the whale and saw-fish, whenever they
come together, engage in deadly combat ; the latter invariably
making the attack with inconceivable fury.
“ The meeting of these champions proud
Seems like the bursting thunder cloud.”
The whale, whose only defence is his tail, endeavours to strike
his enemy with it ; and a single blow would prove mortal. But the
saw-fish, with astonishing agility, shuns the tremendous stroke,
bounds into the air, and returns upon his huge adversary, plung-
ing the rugged weapon with which he is furnished into his back.
The whale is still more irritated by this wound, which only
becomes fatal when it penetrates the fat ; and thus pursuing and
pursued, striking and stabbing, the engagement only ends with
the death of one of the unwieldy combatants.
Even the white-bear is said to attack the whale, watching his
THE RORQUAL.
101
approach to the sea-shore ; but the enmity of the narwhal is
evidently fabulous, as botli cetaceans may frequently be seen
together in perfect harmony.
Besides these formidable attacks of what may be considered
as more or less noble foes, the whale is constantly harassed by
the bites of the vilest insects. A large species
of louse adheres by thousands to its back, and
gnaws this animated pasture-ground, so as to
cover it frequently with one vast sore. In the
summer, when this plague is greatest, numbers
of aquatic birds accompany the whale, and settle
1 1 Whale Louse
on his back, as soon as it appears above the
water, in order to feed upon these disgusting parasites.
Barnacles often cover the whale in such masses, that his
black skin disappears under a whitish mantle, and even sea-
weeds attach themselves to his vast jaws, floating like a beard,
and reminding one of Birnam’s wandering forest.
As its name testifies, the home of the Greenland whale is
confined to the high northern seas, where it has been met with
in the open waters or along every ice-bound shore as far as man
has penetrated towards the Pole. The southern limit of its
excursions seems to be about 60° N. lat, It never visits the
North Sea, and is seldom found within 200 miles of the British
coasts. Its favourite resorts are the so-called whale-grounds,*
between 74° and 80° N. lat., where the warmth, imparted to the
water by the Gulf-stream, favours the multiplication of the
small marine animals which form the nourishment of the
Leviathan of the seas.
Sometimes open spaces in the ice, abounding in minute
crustaceans and medusae, attract a larger number of whales, but
the huge creature cannot be said to live in larger herds or asso-
ciations.
The Fin-fish or northern Korqual ( Balcenoptera hoops, mus-
culus) attains a greater length than the sleek-backed Greenland
whale, but does not equal it in bulk, having a more elongated
form and a more tapering head. Its whalebone is much shorter
and coarser, being adapted to a different kind of food, for, de-
spising the minute medusae and crustaceans which form the food
of its huge relation, the more nimble rorqual pursues the herring
* * See page 20.
102
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
and the mackerel on their wandering path. Like the blubber-
whale, the fin-back is black above, white below, but distinguishes
itself by long and numerous blood-red streaks or furrows, run-
ning under the lower jaw and breast as far as the middle of the
belly. This is the species of whale which not unfrequently
strands on our shores, for though an inhabitant of the Arctic
seas, it wanders farther to the south than the Greenland whale.
It is seldom harpooned, for the produce of oil is not equivalent
to the expense, the risk, and the danger attending its capture.
In the southern hemisphere, the Antarctic Smooth-backed
Whale ( B . antarctica), a species similar to the Greenland whale,
though of less bulk, is the chief object of the fisherman’s pur-
suit. It hangs much about the coasts in the temperate lati-
tudes, and loves the neighbouring seas, where the discoloured
waters afford the richest repasts, but is not known in the central
parts of the Pacific. In the spring it resorts to the bays on the
coasts of Chili, South Africa, the Brazils, Australia, New Zea-
land, Van Diemen’s Land, &c. &c., where it is attacked either
by stationary fishermen, or by whalers, who at that time leave
the high seas.
Farther towards the pole Hump-backs and Fin-backs abound ;
but these are far from equalling the former in value. When
Dumont d’Urville, returning from his expedition to the south
pole, told the whalers whom he found in the Bay of Talcahuano
of the great number of cetaceans he had seen in the higher
latitudes, their eyes glistened at the pleasing prospect ; but when
he added that they were only hump-backs and fin-backs, they
did not conceal their disappointment ; for the hump-hack is
meagre, and not worth the boiling, and the fin-hack dives with
such rapidity, that he snaps the harpoon line, or drags the boat
along with him into the water.
The Sperm Whale, or Cachalot ( Physeter macrocephalus),
rivals the great smooth-backed whales both in its various utility
to man and the colossal dimensions of its unwieldy body. The
largest authentically recorded size of the uncouth animal is
seventy-six feet by thirty-eight in girth ; but whalers are well
contented to consider fifty-five or sixty feet the average length
of the largest examples they commonly obtain. The male, how-
ever. alone attains these ample proportions ; the adult female
does not exceed thirty or at most thirty-five feet, so that there
THE SPERM-WHALE.
103
is a greater disproportion of size between sexes than in any
other known species of cetaceans.
The form of the beast is without symmetry, and from the
general absence of other prominent organs than the tail or
pectoral fins, can be compared to little else than a dark rock or
the bole of some giant tree. The prevailing colour is a dull black,
occasionally marked with white, especially on the abdomen and
tail. The summit of the head and trunk presents a plane sur-
face, until about the posterior third of the back, whence arises a
hump or spurious fin of pyramidal form, and entirely composed
of fat. From this embossed appendage an undulating series of
six or eight similar, but smaller elevations, occupies the upper
margin or ridge of the tail to the commencement of the caudal
fin. The pectoral fins or paddles are placed a short distance
behind the head ; they are triangular in shape, diminutive as
compared with the size of the whale, and being connected to
the trunk by a ball and socket joint, possess free movement,
either vertical or horizontal.
Owing to the flexibility of the tail, the movements of the tail-
fin, or “ flukes,” which sometimes measures eighteen feet across,
are exceedingly extensive, whilst its power may be estimated by
the gigantic bundles of round tendons, which pass on either side
the loins, to be inserted into its base. Whether wielded in
sportive mood or in anger, its action is marked by rapidity and
ease, and when struck forcibly on the surface of the ocean, pro-
duces a report which may be heard at a considerable distance.
In progression, the action of this organ is precisely the reverse
of that of the tail of the lobster, for whilst the latter animal
swims backward by striking the water with its tail from behind
forwards, the cachalot and other cetaceans swim forward by
striking with their flukes in the contrary direction, the fin being
brought beneath the body by an oblique and unresisting move-
ment ; while the act of springing it back and straightening the
tail propels the animal ahead with an undulating or leaping
gait. When employed offensively the tail is curved in a direc-
tion contrary to that of the object aimed at, and the blow is
inflicted by the force of the recoil. The lower jaw appears
diminutive, slender, and not unlike the lower mandible of a
bird. When the mouth is closed it is received within the soft
parts pendent from the border of the upper jaw, and is nearly
104
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
coucealed by them. True and serviceable teeth are situated only
in the lower jaw, and are received into corresponding sockets
in the upper jaw. In aged malgs they are of great solidity and
size, attaining a weight of from two to four pounds each ; their
entire structure is ivory. This powerful armament shows us at
once that the food of the cachalot must be very different from
that of the whalebone cetaceans ; it generally consists of cuttle-
Cuttle-fish (Sepia).
fish, many kinds of which are ejected from its stomach when it
is attacked by the boats, as well as after death. Owing to the
great projection of the snout beyond the lower jaw, it may be
requisite for this whale to turn on its side or back to seize its
more bulky prey ; a supposition strengthened by the fact that,
when the animal attacks a boat with its mouth, it invariably
assumes a reversed posture, carrying the lower jaw above the
object it is attempting to bite. As long as it continues on the
surface of the sea, the cachalot casts from its nostril a constant
succession of spouts, at intervals of ten or fifteen seconds. As
in all whales, the jets are not, as frequently imagined, water-
columns, but a thick white mist ejected by one continual effort
to the height of six or eight feet, and rushing forth with a sound
resembling a moderate surf upon a smooth beach. The peculiar
fat or sperm which renders the cachalot so valuable, is chiefly
situated in the head. Junk is the name given by the fishermen
to a solid mass of soft, yellow, and oily fat, weighing between
two and three tons, based on the upper jaw, and forming the
front and lower part of the snout ; while the cavity called case
is situated beneath and to the right of the spouting canal, and
corresponds to nearly the entire length of that tube. It is
filled with a very delicate web of cellular tissue, containing in
THE SPEEM-WIIALE.
105
Jarge cells a limpid and oily fluid, which is liberated by the
slightest force. The quantity, chiefly spermaceti, contained in
this singular receptacle, is often very considerable, nearly 500
gallons havino- been obtained from the case of one whale. So
vast an accumulation of fat has obviously been intended to
insure a correct position in swimming, to facilitate the elevation
of the spiracle above the surface of the sea, and to counteract
the weight of the bony and other ponderous textures of the
head; objects which in the Greenland whale are sufficiently
attained by a similar accumulation of fat in the lips and tongue,
anti by the more elevated situation of the spout-hole.
While the large whalebone whales generally roam about in
solitary couples, the cachalot forms large societies. Schools,
consisting of from twenty to fifty individuals, are composed of
females attended by their young, and associated with at least one
adult male of the largest size, who generally takes a defensive
position in the rear when the school is flying from danger.
Pocls are smaller congregations of young or half-grown males,
which have been driven from the maternal schools. Two or
more schools occasionally coalesce to a “ body of whales ,” so
that Bennett* sometimes saw the ocean for several miles around
the ship swarming with sperm leviathans, and strewn with a
constant succession of spouts. These large assemblies some-
times proceed at a rapid pace in one determinate direction, and
are then soon lost sight of; at other ‘times they bask and sleep
upon the surface, spouting leisurely, and exhibiting every indi-
cation of being at home, or on their feeding ground. Like
most gregarious animals, the cachalots are naturally timid. A
shoal of dolphins leaping in their vicinity is sufficient to put a
whole school to flight: yet occasionally fighting individuals are
met with ; particularly among those morose solitary animals,
that most likely from their intolerable character have been
turned out of the society of their kind. The central deserts of
ocean, or the neighbourhood of the steepest coasts, are the chief
resort of the cachalot ; and so great is the difference of his
habitat from that of the smooth-backed whales, that during the
whole time Bennett was cruising in quest of cachalots, he in no
single instance saw an example of the true whale. The cachalot
* Narrative of a Winding Voyage round the Globe.
106
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
is more especially found on the line- currents, which extend
from the equator to about the seventh degree of north and south
latitudes, yet it has been noticed in the Mediterranean, and one
individual, a stray sheep indeed, has even been captured in the
Thames.
The Narwal, or Unicorn-fish, attains a length of from twenty to
twenty-five feet. He is of a grey-white colour, punctured with
many white spots, and as his head is not disproportionate to the
length of his body, may rank among the handsomest cetaceans.
He distinguishes himself, as is well known, from all other
members of the family by the long twisted tooth or horn pro-
jecting horizontally from the upper jaw. This mighty weapon,
the true use of which has not yet been fully ascertained, was
formerly sold at a very high price, as proceeding from the fa-
bulous unicorn ; at present, it is only paid according to the
worth of its excellent ivory, which is harder, heavier, and less
liable to turn yellow than that of the elephant. The whalers
are therefore highly delighted when they can pick up a chance
narwal, but this only succeeds in narrow baj^s ; for the unicorn-
fish is an excellent swimmer, and extremely watchful. In spite
of his menacing appearance, he is a harmless sociable creature,
fond of gambolling and crossing swords playfully with his com-
peers. It is remarkable that the opening of the mouth of so
huge an animal is scarcely large enough to admit the hand of a
man. Scoresby found in the stomach of a narwal remains of
cuttle fishes, which seem to form his chief aliment, besides
pieces of skates and plaice. The narwal is frequent about
Davis’ Straits and Disco Bay, but is nowhere found in the
Pacific, having most likely not yet discovered the north-western
passage. He rarely wanders into the temperate seas, yet one
was caught, in 1800, near Boston in Lincolnshire, and two others,
in 1736, on the German coast of the North Sea.
The Dolphin tribe is distinguished from the cachalot by a
more proportionate head ; from the narwal by the absence of
the long horn ; and generally possesses sharp teeth in both jaws,
all of one form. The number of species is very great; Linnaeus
distinguished four sperm whales and three dolphins; now many
naturalists acknowledge but one species of the former, while the
dolphins have increased to more than thirty, and many are as
yet unknown.
THE DOLPHIN.
107
The most famous member of this numerous family is un-
doubtedly the classical Dolphin of the ancients ( Belphinus del-
phis) which attains a length of from
nine to ten feet, and is, according to
Pliny, the swiftest of all animals, so
as to merit the appellation of the
*'£ arrow of the sea.” His lively
troops often accompany for days the
track of a ship, and agreeably interrupt the monotony of a long
sea-voyage. As if in mockery of the most rapid sailer, they
shoot past so as to vanish from the eye, and then return again
with the same lightning-like velocity. Their spirits are so
brisk that they frequently leap into the air, as if longing to ex-
patiate in a lighter fluid. Hence, dolphins are the favourites of
the mariner and the poet, who have vied in embellishing their
history with the charms of fiction.
Everybody knows the wonderful story of Arion, who having
been forced by pirates to leap into the sea, proceeded merrily
to his journey’s end on the back of a dolphin: —
“ Secure lie sits, and -vvitli harmonious strains
Requites his hearer for his friendly pains.
The gods approve, the dolphin heaven adorns,
And with nine stars a constellation forms.”
Pliny relates the no less astonishing tale of a boy at Baite, who
by feeding it with bread, gained the affections of a dolphin,
so that the thankful creature used to convey him every morning
to school across the sea to Puteoli, and back again. When the
boy died, the poor disconsolate dolphin returned every morning
to the spot where he had been accustomed to meet his friend,
and soon fell a victim to his grief. The same naturalist tells us
also that the dolphins at Narbonne rendered themselves very
useful to the fishermen by driving the fish into their nets, and
were generously rewarded for their assistance with “ bread soaked
in wine.” A king. of Caria having chained a dolphin in the
harbour, its afflicted associates appeared in great numbers, tes-
tifying their anxiety for its deliverance by such unequivocal
signs of sorrow, that the king, touched with compassion, re-
stored the prisoner to liberty.
Such, and similar fables, which were believed by the na-
103
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
turalists of antiquity, are laughed at even by the old women of
our times. The dolphin is in no respects superior to the other
cetaceans ; his musical taste is as low as zero, and if, like the
bonito and albacore, he follows a ship for days together, it is
most surely not out of affection for man, but on account of the
offal that is thrown overboard. But do not many human
friendships repose on similar selfish motives ?
The Porpoise, ( Delphinus Phoccmd) which only attains a
The Porpoise.
length of five or six feet, and seems to be the smallest of all
cetaceans, is frequently confounded with the dolphin. It is at
home in the whole Northern Atlantic, in the Mediterranean, and
the Euxine. While the dolphin prefers the high sea, the por-
poise loves tranquil bays and cliff-sheltered shores, and often
swims up the rivers, so that individuals have been caught in
the Elbe and Seine as high up as Dessau and Paris. The
porpoise is a no less excellent swimmer than the dolphin,
making at least fifteen miles an hour. His rapidity and sharp
teeth render him a most dangerous enemy to all the lesser fry
of the ocean, whose sole refuge lies in the shallowest waters.
When he rises to the surface to draw breath, the back only
appears, the head and tail are kept under water. At the en-
trance of harbours, where he is frequently seen gambolling, his
undulatory or leaping movements, now rising with a grunt,
now sinking to reappear again at some distance, afford an enter-
taining spectacle.
A much more formidable animal, the largestof the whole dolphin
tribe, is the ravenous Grampus, {Deljphinus Orca,) which measures
no less than twenty-five feet in length, and twelve or thirteen in
girth. The upper part of the body is black, the lower white :
the dorsal fin rises in the shape of a cone, to the height of
three feet or more.
All naturalists agree in describing the grampus as the most
voracious of the dolphin family. Its ordinary food is the seal
HISTORY OF THE WHALE FISHERY. io<)
and some species of flat-fish, but it also frequently gives chase
to the porpoise, and perhaps the whale would consider the
grampus as his most formidable enemy, were it not for
the persecutions of man. Pliny gives us a fine description of
the conflicts which arise between these monsters of the deep.
At the time when the whale resorts to the bays to cast its young,
it is attacked by the grampus, who either lacerates it with his
dreadful jaws, or in rapid onset endeavours to strike in its ribs,
as with a catapult. The terrified whale knows no other way to
escape from these furious attacks, than by interposing a whole
sea between him and his enemy. But the grampus, equally
wary and active, cuts off his retreat, and drives the whale into
narrower and narrower waters, forcing him to bruise himself on
the sharp rocks, or to strand upon the shelving sands, nor
ceases his efforts until he has gained a complete victory.
During this fight the sea seems to rage against itself, for though
no wind may be stirring the surface, waves, such as no storm
creates, rise under the strokes of the infuriated combatants.
While the Emperor Claudius was visiting the harbour of
Ostium, a grampus stranded in the shallow waters. The back
appeared above the surface of the sea, and resembled a ship with
its keel turned upwards. The Emperorcaused nets to be stretched
across the mouth of the harbour to prevent the animal’s escape,
and then attacked it in person with his praetorian guards. The
soldiers surrounding ,the monster in boats, and hurling their in-
glorious spears, exhibited an amusing spectacle to the populace.
That man ventures to pursue the leviathans of the deep
among the fogs and icebergs of the Arctic seas, and is generally
successful in their capture, may surely be considered as one of
the proudest triumphs of his courage and his skill.
The breast of the first navigator, says Horace, was cased with
triple steel ; but of what adamantine materials must that man’s
heart have been formed, whose steadfast hand hurled the first
harpoon against the colossal whale ?
History has not preserved his name ; like the great warriors
that lived before Agamemnon, he sank into an obscure grave
for want of a Homer to celebrate his exploits. We only know that
the Biscayans were the first civilised people that in the four-
i
110
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
teenth and fifteenth century fitted out ships for the whale
fishery. At first the bold men of Bayonne and Santander coi -
tented themselves with pursuing their prey, (most likely ror-
quals) in the neighbouring seas, but as the persecuted whales
diminished in frequency, they followed them farther to the
north, until they came to the haunts of the real whale, whose
greater abundance of fat rewarded their intrepidity with a richer
spoil.
Their success naturallyreused the emulation andavidityof other
seafaring nations, and thus, towards the end of the sixteenth cen-
tury, we see the English, and soon after the Dutch, enter the lists
as their competitors. At first our countrymen were obliged to
send to “ Biskaie for men skilful in catching the whale, and
ordering of the oil, and one cooper, skilful to set up the staved
casks,” (Hakluyt’s Voyages, i. 414) ; but soon, by their skill,
their industry and perseverance, together with the aid and en-
couragement granted by the legislature, they learnt to carry on the
whale fishery on more advantageous terms than the original ad-
venturers, whose efforts became less enterprising as their success
was more precarious.
The first attempts of the English date as far back as the year
1594, when some ships were sent out to Cape Breton for morse
and whale fishing. The fishing proved unsuccessful, but they
found in an island 800 whale fins or whalebone, part of the
cargo of a Biscayan ship wrecked there three years before,
which they put on board and brought home. This was the
first time this substance was imported into England.
Hull took the lead in the Greenland whale fishery in 1598,
thirteen years after the first company for that purpose had been
formed in Amsterdam, and as both maritime nations gave it
every encouragement, not only on account of its profits, but
also from considering it as one of the best nurseries for their
seamen, it gradually grew to a very important branch of
business. Some idea may be formed of the extent to which
the Dutch engaged in the whale fishery during the last century,
by stating that for a period of forty-six years preceding 1722,
5886 ships were employed in it, and captured 32,907 whales.
In the year 1788, 222 English vessels were employed in the
northern fishery.
The earliest period at which we find the pursuit of the sperm
WHALE CHARTS.
Ill
whale conducted upon -a scientific plan is about 1690, when it
was commenced by the American colonists. In 17 75, ships were
first sent out from ports of Great Britain, but for some years it
was necessary to appoiut an American commander and har-
pooner until competent officers could be reared. At the same
early date the sperm fishery was chiefly prosecuted in the
Atlantic, but Messrs. Enderby’s ship “ Emilia ” having rounded
Cape Horn in 1788, first carried the sperm whale fishery into
the Pacific, where its success opened a wide and fruitful field
for future exertions. As our whalers became better acquainted
with the South Sea, many valuable resorts were discovered. In
1819 the “Syren” (British) first carried on the fishery in the
western parts of that great ocean, and in the year 1848 the
American whaler “Superior,” Captain Roys, penetrated through
Behring’s Straits into the Icy Sea, and opened the fishery in
those remote waters. The year after no less than 154 vessels
followed upon his track, and the number has been increasing
ever since. At present the Americans are the people which
carries on the whale fishery with the greatest energy and good
fortune. While of late years only thirty or forty British sail
have been employed in the Pacific, our cousins “ across the
Atlantic” numbered in the year 1841 no less than 650 whalers,
manned by 13,500 seamen. One of the causes of their success
may be, that while the whale fishery in England is carried on
by men of large capital, who are the sole proprietors of the ship,
the American interest in one vessel is held by many men of
small capital, and not unfrequently by the commander and
officers. It must, however, not be forgotten that the Australian
colonies, being more conveniently situated than the mother
country, fit out many ships for the whale fishery, which is
besides conducted in several permanent stations along the coasts
of New Zealand, &c.
Whale charts have of late years been drawn, on which the
best fishing grounds at different seasons are delineated. These
maps are not only useful guides for the fishermen, but promise
the future solution of the still undecided question of the migra-
tion of whales. While some naturalists are of opinion that the
cetaceans, flying from the pursuit of man, abandon their old
haunts for more sequestered regions, others, like M. Jacquinot
( Zoologle, Voyage de V Astrolabe et de la Zelee) believe that if
112
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
tlie whaler is continually obliged to look out for more productive
seas, it is not because the whale has migrated, but because he
has been nearly extirpated in one place and left unmolested in
another.
The Greenland whale fishery was for more than a hundred
years confined to the seas between Spitsbergen and Greenland ;
the entrance and east shore of Davis’ Straits not being frequented
before the beginning of the last century. Since then the ex-
peditions of Eoss and Parry have made the whalers acquainted
with a number of admirable stations on the farther side of Davis’
Straits and in the higher latitudes of Baffin’s Ba}r. The vessels
destined for that quarter sail usually in March, though some
delay their departure till the middle or even the end of April.
They proceed first to the northern parts of the coast of Labrador,
or to the mouth of Cumberland Strait, carrying on what is
called the south-west fishery. After remaining there till about
the beginning of May, they cross to the eastern shore of the
strait and fish upwards along the coast, particularly in South-
east Bay, North-east Bay, Kingston Bay, or Horn Sound.
About the month of July they usually cross Baffin’s Bay to
Lancaster Sound, which they sometimes enter, and occasionally
even ascend Barrow’s Strait twenty or thirty miles. In re-
turning, they fish down the western shore, where their favourite
stations are Pond’s Bay, Agnes’ Monument, Home Bay, and
Cape Searle, and sometimes persevere till late in October. The
casualties are generally very great, the middle of Baffin’s Bay
being filled with a compact and continuous barrier, through
which, till a very advanced period of the season, it is impossible
for the navigator to penetrate. Between this central body and
that attached to the land, there intervenes a narrow and pre-
carious passage, where many a vessel has been crushed or pressed
out of the water and laid upon the ice. In 1819 ten ships were
lost out of sixty- three, and in 1821 eleven out of seventy-nine.
Fortunately the loss of lives is seldom to be deplored, as the
weather is generally calm and the crew has time enough to
escape in another vessel.
Whale fishing is not only a very dangerous and laborious
pursuit, it is also extremely precarious and uncertain in its
results. Sometimes a complete cargo of oil and whalebone is
captured in a short time, but it also happens that after a long
METHOD OF WIIALE CATCHING.
1 13
cruise not a single fish is caught — a result equally unfortunate
for the ship owner and the crew, who look to a share of the
profits for their pay.
How much the whale fishery depends upon chance is shown
by the following facts. In the year 1718 the Dutch Greenland
fleet, consisting of 108 ships, captured 1291 fish, worth at least
650,000/., while in the year 1710, 137 ships took no more than
62. Various meteorological circumstances — the prevalence of
particular winds, the character of the summer or preceding
winter — are probably the causes of the extraordinary failure and
success of the fishery in different years. The Pacific is as fal-
lacious as the Arctic seas. Thus Dumont d’Urville met in the
Bay of Talcahuano with several whalers, one of whom had
rapidly filled half his ship, while the others had cruised more
than a year without having harpooned a single fish. In such
cases the captains have the greatest trouble in preventing their
men from deserting, who, being disappointed in their hopes,
naturally enough look out for a better chance elsewhere.
The method of whale catching has been so often and so
minutely described, that it is doubtless familiar to the reader.
As soon as a whale is in sight, boats are got out with all speed,
and row or sail as silently and quietly as possible towards the
monster. One of the crew — the man of unflinching eye and
nervous arm — stands upright, harpoon in hand, ready to hurl
the murderous spear- into the animal’s side, as soon as the
proper moment shall have come. When struck the whale dives
down perpendicularly with fearful velocity, or goes off hori-
zontally with lightning speed, at a short distance from the
•surface, dragging after him the line to which the barbed instru-
ment of his agony is fixed. But soon the necessity of respiration
forces him to rise again above the waters, when a second
harpoon, followed by a third or fourth at every reappearance,
plunges into his flank. Maddened with pain and terror, he
lashes the crimsoned waters into foam, but all his efforts to cast
off the darts that lacerate his flesh are vain, and his gaping
wounds, though not “ as deep as wells, nor as wide as church-
doors,” are still large enough to let out sufficient blood even
to exhaust a whale. His movements become more and more
languid and slow, his gasping and snorting more and more
oppressed, a few convulsive heavings agitate the mighty mass,
114
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
and then it floats inert and lifeless on the waters. As soon aA
death is certain — for to the last moment a convulsive blow of
the mighty tail might dash the overhasty boat to pieces — the
whale is lashed by chains to the vessel’s side, stripped of his
valuable fat, and then left to float, a worthless carcase, on the
heaving ocean.
And now, man having taken his share, there begins a mag-
nificent feast for birds and fishes. Crowds of fulmars, snow
birds, or kittiwakes, flock together from all sides to enjoy the
delicious repast ; but their delight, so rare is perfect felicity
on earth, is but too often disturbed by their terrible rival the
blue gull ( Lavus glaucus), which, while it rivals them in rapa-
city, surpasses them all in strength, and forces them to disgorge
the daintiest morsels. Meanwhile sharks, saw-fishes, and what-
ever else possesses sharp teeth and boldness enough to mix
among such formidable company, are busy biting, hacking,
scooping, and cutting below the water line, so that in a short
time, notwithstanding its vast bulk, the carrion disappears.
The catching of the whale does not always end so fortunately
as I have just described. Sometimes the line becomes en-
tangled, and drags the boat into the abyss ; or the tail of the
animal, sweeping rapidly through the air, either descends upon
the shallop, cutting it down to the water’s edge, or encounters
in its course some of the crew standing up (such as the heads-
man or harpooner), who are carried away and destroyed.
Thus Mr. Young, chief mate of the “ Tuscan,” was seen flying
through the air at a considerable height, and to the distance of
nearly forty yards from the boat, ere he fell into the water,
where he remained floating motionless on the surface for a few
moments, and then sank and was seen no more.
Sometimes, particularly among the sperm-whales, desperate
characters are found, that without waiting for the attack, rush
furiously against the boats sent out against them, and seem
to love fighting for its own sake. Bennett describes an en-
counter of this kind which he witnessed in the South Sea. The
first effort of the whale was to rush against the boat with his
head. Having been baffled by the crew steering clear, he next
attempted to crush it with his jaws ; failing again, through the
unaccommodating position of his mouth, he remedied this defect
with much sagacity, for approaching impetuously from a distance
THE CA’ING WHALE.
115
of forty yards, he turned upon his back, raising his lower jaw
to grasp the boat from above. A lance-wound, however, applied
Sperm Whale.
in time, caused him to close his mouth ; but continuing to
advance, he struck the boat with such force that he nearly over-
turned it, and concluded by again turning on his back and
thrusting his lower jaw through the planks. Fortunately the
other boats came up to the rescue, and an addition of many
tons of sperm to the ship’s cargo made up for the damaged
boat.
Although generally only the greater cetaceans are objects of
pursuit at sea, yet man does not disdain the capture of the
several dolphin-species when they approach his shores, and sur-
render themselves as it were into his hands. The intelligence
that a shoal of ca’ing whales ( Delphinus melas ) has been seen
approaching the coast, operates like an electric shock upon the
inhabitants of the Feroe Islands. The whole village, old and
young, is instantly in motion, and soon numerous boats push off
from shore to surround the unsuspecting herd. Slowly and
steadily they are driven into a bay, the phalanx of their enemies
draws closer and closer together; terrified by stones and blows,
they run ashore, and lie gasping as the flood recedes. Then
begins the work of death, amid the loud rejoicings of the happy
islanders. The visits of the ca’ing whale are extremely un-
certain. From 1754 till 1776 scarce one was caught, but on
the 16th of August of the last-named year more than 800 were
J16
THE INHABITANTS OF TIIE SEA.
driven on the strand, and changed dearth into abundance.
During the four summer months that Langbye sojourned on
the islands in the year 1817, 623 of these large dolphins, mostly
from eight to ten yards long, were caught, and served to pay one
half of the imported corn. The division of spoil is made in
presence of the “ Amtmann? Each fish is measured, and its
size marked on its skin in Roman characters. The largest
whale is given to the boat which first discovered the shoal ;
then others for the poor and clergyman are selected, and the
remainder divided, according to stated rules, between the pro-
prietor of the ground and the persons who drove them on shore.
The flesh is either eaten fresh, or cut into slices and hung up to
dry; whilst the blubber is partly converted into train oil, or
salted in casks and barrels. The fat on the sides of the fish,
when hung for a week or two, will keep for years, and is used
instead of bacon by the natives.
The ca’ing whale, remarkable from following a leader and
swimming in large herds, also strands from time to time on the
coasts of Iceland and on the Shetland and Orkney Islands, where
his appearance is hailed with universal pleasure.
Pelican
AUSTRALIAN SEA-BEARS.
The group of Australian sea-bears is taken from the* “Zoology of the voyage of
H.M.S. Erebus and Terror.” This animal, Arctocephalus lobatus, is among the
largest of the Seal family. It is occasionally found congregating in vast numbers
upon various portions of the coast of Australia.
117
CHAP. IX.
SEALS AMD WALIUTSES.
The Manatees and the Dugongs. — The Seals and the Esquimaux. — King Menelaus
in a Seal’s Skin. — Barbarous Persecutions of the Seals in Behring’s Sea and the
Pacific. — Adventures of a Sealer from Geneva. — The Sea Calf. — The Sea Bear.
- — His Parental Affection. — The Sea Lions. — The Sea Elephant. — The Arctic
Walrus. — The Boats of the “Trent” fighting with a Herd of Walruses. — The
White Bear. — Touching Example of its Love for its Young. — Chase of the Sea
Otter.
The Manatees or Lamantins of the Atlantic Ocean, and the now
nearly extinct Dugongs of the Indian seas, form the connecting
link between the real whales and the seals and walruses. Like
the whales, these animals have no hind feet, and a powerful
tail, which is their chief instrument of locomotion ; they are
distinguishable, however, -from them by less fin-like, more
flexibly-jointed anterior extremities, 0.1 which they lean while
cropping the sea-weeds on the shallow shores. When they raise
themselves with the front part of their body out of the water, a
lively fancy might easily be led to imagine that a human shape,
though certainly none of the most beautiful, was surging from
the deep. Hence they have been named sea-sirens, mermaids,
and mermen, and have given rise to many extravagant fictions.
Their intelligence is very obtuse, but their stolid calf-like
countenance indicates great mildness of temper.
They live at peace with all other animals, and seem to be
solely intent upon satisfying their voracious appetite. Like the
hippopotamus, they swallow at once large masses of sea-plants
or of juicy grasses growing beyond the water’s edge on the
borders of rivers.
The Manatees, or Sea-cows, as they are familiarly called,
inhabit the coasts and streams of the Atlantic between 19°
S. lat. and 25° N. lat., and attain a length of from eight to
ten feet. Humboldt compares the flesh to ham, and Von
118
TIIE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
Skeleton of the Do gong.
Martius says he never tasted bet-
ter meat in the Brazils. The
South American monks, who have
their own ideas on the classifica-
tion of animals, consider it as
fish, and fare sumptuously upon it
during Lent. Besides its flesh,
one single animal gives as much
as 4000 bottles of oil, which is
used both in cookery and for
lighting. The thick hide is cut
into stripes, from which straps or
whips are made, to flog the un-
fortunate negroes. Useful in
many respects, defenceless and
easy to kill, particularly during
the time of the inundations, when
it ascends the great rivers, the ma-
natee or sea-cow has been nearly
extirpated in many parts where it
formerly abounded, a fate which
it partakes with the East Indian
dugong. These animals might
easily he enclosed and tamed, in
the lagoons and bays of the tro-
pical streams; but it is to be feared
that they will have vanished from
the face of the earth before the
industry of man endeavours to
introduce them, as it were, among
the domestic animals.
The Seal family forms a still
nearer approach to the land
quadrupeds, as here hind feet
begin to make their appearance.
The shortness of these extremities
renders their movements upon
land generally awkward and slow,
but they make up for this de-
ficiency by an uncommon activity
in the water. Their body, taper-
THE SEAL.
119
1'emale Dugong of Ceylon. (From Sir J. Emerson Tennenc’s Work on Ceylon.:
ing fish-like from the shoulders to the tail, their abundance of
fat, the lightness of which is so favourable to swimming, the
position of their feet, admirably
formed for rowing, paddling, and
steering, their whole economy, in a
word, is calculated for the sea. Al-
though citizens of two worlds, their
real element is evidently the water,
from which their food is exclusively
derived.
Seals are found in almost all seas, but they particularly abound
on the coasts of the colder regions of the earth, and diminish in
size and numbers as they
approach the torrid zone. ^
Small seals are found near
Surinam, but the giants of
the family, the huge sea-
elephant, the sea-lion, the
sea-bear, belong exclusively
to those higher latitudes
which the sun visits only
with slanting rays, or where The Seai-
the winter forms a dreary and continuous night.
How wonderful to see the desolate coasts of the icy seas
peopled by such herds of great wTarm-blooded mammalia! But
theie, where the dry land produces only the scantiest vegetation.
120
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
the bountiful sea teems with fishes, affording abundance to the
hungry seals. The Merlangus polaris and the Ophidium
Parryii in the northern hemisphere, as well as the Nothothenia
phocoe, which Dr. Richardson discovered off Kerguelen’s Land,
seek in vain to escape from the pursuit of the seals in the
hollows and crevices of the pack-ice; and these small fish, in
turn, fare sumptuously upon the minute crustaceans and mol-
luscs with which those cold waters abound. Thus animal life,
but sparingly diffused over the barren land, luxuriates in the
sea, where we find one species preying upon the other, until at
last, at the bottom of the scale, we come to creatures so small
as to be invisible to the naked eye.
The Greenland Esquimaux, whose ice-bound fatherland affords
no food but berries, is also obliged to look to the sea for his
subsistence ; and the seal plays as important a part in his
humble existence as the reindeer among the Laplanders, or the
camel among the Bedouins of the desert. Its flesh and fat
form his principal food ; from its skin he makes his boat, his
tent, his dress; from its sinews and bones, his thread and
needles, his fishing line, and his bow-strings. Thus on the
frozen confines of the Polar Sea, as in many other parts of the
world, we find the existence of- man almost entirely depending
upon that of a single class of animals. But the Bedouin who
tends the patient dromedary, or the Laplander who feeds on
Esquimaux in his Kayak.
the flesh and milk of the domesticated reindeer, enjoys an easy
life when compared to the Esquimaux, who, to satisfy the cravings
of his sharp appetite, is in all seasons obliged to brave all the
perils of the Arctic Ocean. Sometimes he waits patiently for
hours in the cold fog until a seal rises to the surface, or else he
warily approaches a herd basking or sleeping: on the ice blocks,
THE ESQUIMAUX.
121
for the least noise awakens the watchful animals. Sometimes he
has recourse to stratagem, covers himself with a seal skin, and,
imitating the movements and gestures of the deceived phocte,
introduces himself into the midst of the unsuspecting troop.
We read in the Odyssey how the “ dark-featured hero,” Mene-
laus, deigned to conceal his royal limbs under a fresh seal-skin,
in order to surprise Proteus, the infallible seer ; and what suffer-
ings his olfactory organs underwent from the
“ Unsavoury stench of oil and brackish ooze,”
until the fair sea-nymph Eidothea, whom the gallant chief
implored in his distress,
“ With nectar’d drops the sickening sense restor’d.”
Fortunately for the Esquimaux, his nose is less sensitive than
that of the son of Atreus, and without ambrosia, he willingly
dons a disguise which affords his unsophisticated taste the
pleasure of a theatrical entertainment, combined with the profit
of a savoury prize. Physical strength, dexterity, caution,
quickness of eye, and acuteness of hearing, are the indispens-
able qualities of the Esquimaux, and require to be exercised and
developed from his tenderest years. The boy of fifteen must
be as perfect a seal-catcher as his father, and be able to make
all the instruments necessary for the chase. In these inhospit-
able regions, every one is obliged to rely upon himself alone ;
there, where all the powers of the body and mind are tasked to
the utmost for the mere sustenance of life, weakness and want
of dexterity must inevitably succumb.
Besides the savages of the north, the civilised nations also
give chase to the seals, or rather wage a barbarous war of exter-
mination against these helpless creatures. Thus, from the year
1786 to 1833, more than 3,000,000 sea-bears were killed on
the Pribilow Islands, in Behring’s Sea. At Unalaschka, the chief
staple-place of the Russian Fur Company, 700,000 skins were
cast into the water in the year 1803, on the same principle as
that which induced the Dutch to burn their superfluous nutmegs,
viz. “ not to glut the market.” As a well-merited punishment
for this stupid slaughter, the products of the chase diminished
rapidly from that time until within the last few years, when a
better husbandry has again increased the number of the sea-bears.
122
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
Unfortunately, our own countrymen and the Americans have
done no better in the southern seas. Thousands of sea lions
used formerly to be killed on the South American coast, while
at present the number of the animals is so much diminished as
scarce to reward the sealer’s trouble. Sir James Boss informs
us that the sea elephant was formerly found in great numbers
on Kerguelen’s Land, and yearly attracted many vessels to those
desert islands. But at present, after such incessant persecution,
the animals have either migrated, or been almost totally extir-
pated. English and American captains often set some men
ashore on the uninhabited coasts and islands of the southern seas,
for the purpose of catching seals, boiling their oil, and stripping
their skins. After a few months the ship generally returns to
fetch the produce of their labours, or to bring a fresh supply of
provisions to the seal catchers, who often remain several years
in their solitary bunting grounds. But sometimes the poor
wretches are abandoned by their associates, and then their
despair may be imagined when week after week elapses without
the expected sail appearing ! Dumont d’Urville found one of
these adventurers in the Straits of Magellan among a horde of
Patagonians, who, though hospitably inclined, were themselves
so poor as hardly to be able to keep body and soul together.
He was a watchmaker from Gfeneva, who, having emigrated to
New York, and finding himself disappointed, bad listened to the
fair promises of a skipper, who carried him out to Tierra del
Fuego, and not finding the business answer, had left him to hi$
fate. The French navigator took the poor man on board, and
gave him a passage to Talcahuano in Chili.
On the east coast of North America seal catching is still
carried on with considerable success. Newfoundland intercepts
many of the immense fields and islands of ice which in the
spring move south from the Arctic Sea,. The interior parts,
with the openings or lakes interspersed, remain serene and
unbroken, and form the transitory abodes of myriads of sea1 s.
In the month of March upwards of three hundred small vessels,
fitted out for the seal fishery, are extricated from the icy
harbours on the east coast of Newfoundland ; the fields are now
all in motion, and the vessels plunge directly into the edges
of such as appear to have seals on them ; the crews, armed with
firelocks and heavy bludgeons, there land, and in the course
THE COMMON SEAL.
123
of a few weeks destroy nearly 300,000 of these animals. The
Greenland winter, it would appear, is too severe for these luck-
less wanderers, and when
it sets in, they accompany
the field-ice, and remain on
it until it is scattered and
dissolved. Old and young
being then deserted in the
. Greenland Seal.
ocean, nature points out to
them the course to their favourite icy haunts, and thither
their herds hurry over the deep to pass an arctic summer.
Winter returns, and with it commences again their annual
migration from latitude to latitude. The Scotch ports, parti-
cularly Aberdeen, fit out ships for the spring seal-catching on
the American coast, and are generally successful in their under-
takings.
According to the different numbers and forms of their canine
teeth and grinders, and to the deficiency or presence of an out-
ward ear, the seal tribe is divided into many families, genera,
and species, among which I shall select a few of the most re-
markable for further notice. The Common Seal or Sea-calf,
( Calocephalus vitulinus),
which owes the latter name
to the unharmonious ac-
cents of its voice, attains a
length of from five to six
feet. It has a large round
head, small short neck, and
several strong bristles on each side of its mouth, large eyes, no
external ears, and a forked tongue. It has six fore teeth in the
upper jaw, four in the lower, a strong pointed canine tooth on
each side in both jaws, and a goodly row of sharp and jagged
grinders. Woe to the poor herring whose evil star leads him
between these engines of destruction — he is irrevocably lost !
Different species of common seals inhabit the Northern seas,
from Greenland and Spitzbergen to the mouth of the Scheldt,
and from the White Sea to the eastern coast of America.
Others are found in the Antarctic seas. An excellent swimmer,
the seal dives like a shot, and rises at fifty yards’ distance, often
remaining full a quarter of an hour under the water — three
K
Seal.
124
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
times longer than the most strong-breasted and expert pearl
fisher. Yet he is seldom seen more than thirty miles from
land, where he sleeps and reposes, choosing rocks surrounded by
the sea or the less accessible cliffs, left dry by the ebb of the
tide, so that, if disturbed by an enemy, he may be able to
plunge immediately into the sea. In the summer he will come
out of the water to bask or sleep in the sun on the top of large
stones and ledges of rocks ; and this affords our countrymen the
opportunity of shooting him. If he chances to escape, he
hastens towards his proper element, flinging dirt or stones
behind him as he scrambles along, at the same time expressing
his fears by piteous moans ; but if he happens to be overtaken,
he will make a vigorous defence with his feet and teeth till he
is killed. His flesh, which is tender, juicy, and fat, was for-
merly, like that of the porpoise, served up at the tables of the
great, as appears from the bill of fare of a magnificent feast that
Archbishop Neville gave in the reign of Edward the Fourth.
Seals commonly bring forth two young ones at a time, which they
suckle for about a fortnight, and then carry them out to sea to
instruct them in swimming. When taken young, they may be
domesticated, and will follow their master like a dog, coming to
him when called by name. According to Pliny, no animal
enjoys a deeper sleep, — “nullum animal graviore somno pre-
mitur.” This assertion is, however, contradicted by general
observation, for it is well known that seals are extremely watch-
ful, seldom sleeping longer than a minute without moving their
heads to ascertain whether anything suspicious is going on.
Although without external ears, seals appear to hear well
both above and under the water. Music or whistling will
draw them to the surface and induce them to stretch their necks
to the utmost extent— a curiosity which often proves a snare for
their destruction. The most effectual way of shooting seals is
by firing small shot into their eyes ; for when killed with a
bullet they generally sink and are lost. They are often seen in
very large shoals on their passage from one situation to another.
In such cases, all appear every now and then at the surface
together for the sake of respiration, springing up so as to run
their heads, necks, and often their whole bodies out of the
water. They shuffle along, especially over the ice, with a sur-
prising speed considering the shortness of their legs. They are
THE SEA-ELEPHANT.
12.5
very tenacious of life, and able to survive even when shockingly
mangled. According to Dr. Scoresby, the island of Jan Mayen
affords excellent seal fishing in March and April. When on
detached pieces of drift ice, they are captured by the use of
boats, each boat making a descent upon a different herd. When
the seals observe the boat, they endeavour to escape before it
reaches the ice; the sailors, however, raise a long-continued
shout, which frequently causes the amazed animals to delay
their retreat until arrested by blows. When seals are abundant,
the boat immediately pushes off after the slaughter is finished,
and proceeds to another piece of ice for the increase of its
harvest, leaving one man to flay off the skins and fat. But in
situations where boats cannot navigate, the seal fishers have to
pursue them over the ice, leaping from piece to piece until the
capture is made; every man then flenses his own, and drags the
skins and blubber to his boat or ship. Ships fitted out for
seal fishing have occasionally procured cargoes of four or five
thousand, yielding nearly a hundred tons of oil ; but such enter-
prises are very hazardous, from the exposed nature of that dreary
island, and the liability to heavy and sudden storms.
The Sea-Elephant ( Cystophora proboscidea) deserves his
name, not only from his immense size, attaining a length of
twenty, twenty-five, or even thirty feet, but also from the sin-
gular structure of his elongated nostrils, which hang down when
he is in a state of repose, but swell out to a foot-long proboscis
when he is enraged. Then the beast has a most formidable
appearance, which, along with its gaping jaws and dreadful
roar, might strike terror into the boldest huntsman. But total
helplessness and weakness conceal themselves behind this terrible
mask, for a single blow upon the snout with a club suffices to
fell the giant. Between 35° and 55° S. lat. is the home
of the sea-elephant, where he frequents desert islands and
uninhabited coasts. But even here, as I have already mentioned,
he could not escape the rapacity of man, for his tough hide and
the thick layer of blubber beneath were too tempting to remain
unnoticed.
The Hooded Seal of the northern seas, (Cystophora borealis,)
enjoys the same faculty of inflating a folding, skinny crest ex-
tending on each side from the snout to the eyes. But in
spite of the menacing appearance of these wind-bags, the seal
126
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
fisher knocks him on the head, draws, without ceremony, his
skin over his ears, and throws his blubber into the oil-kettle.
The Otarias , or seals furnished with an external ear, and whose
longer and more developed feet allow them to move more freely
on land, rank in point of organisation at the head of the whole
tribe. The most important and valuable of all is the Sea-Bear
(Arctocephalus ursinus), of which there are probably two
species ; the one inhabiting the Antarctic seas, while the other
roams about the coasts and islands of the Northern Pacific, and
selects St. Paul, one of the Pribilow group in Behring’s Sea, as
its favourite summer haunt. The fine-haired, black, curly
skin of the younger animals, of from four months to one year
old, is particularly esteemed, so as to be classed among the finer
furs which find a ready sale in the Chinese market, and serve
to decorate the persons of the higher rank of mandarins. The
chase, which on the latter island was formerly a promiscuous
massacre, is now reduced to the slaughter of a limited number
of victims. It begins in the latter part of September, on a cold
foggy day when the wind blows from the side where the animals
are assembled on the rocky shore. The boldest huntsmen, ac-
customed to clamber over stones and cliffs, open the way ; then
follow their less experienced comrades, and the chief personage
of the band comes last, to be the better able to direct and survey
the movements of his men, who are all armed with clubs. The
main object is to cut off the herd as quickly as possible from
the sea. All the grown-up males and females are spared, but
the younger animals are all driven landwards, sometimes to the
distance of a couple of miles, and then partly clubbed to death.
Those which are only four months old are doomed without ex-
ception ; while of the others only a certain number of the
males are killed, and the females allowed to return again to the
coast, when they soon betake themselves to the water. For
several days after the massacre, the bereaved mothers swim
about the island, seeking and loudly wailing for their young.
From the 5th of October, St. Paul is gradually deserted by the
sea bears, who then migrate to the south, and reappear towards
the end of April, — the males arriving first. Each seeks the
same spot on the shore which he occupied during the preceding
year, and lies down among the large stone blocks with which the
flat beach is covered. About the middle of May the far more
THE SEA-BEAR.
127
numerous females begin to make their appearance, and Otarian
life takes full possession of the strand. The full-grown sea-
bear is from eight to nine feet long, measures five in girth,
and acquires a weight of from eight to nine hundred pounds.
He owes his name to his shaggy blackish fur, and not to his
disposition, which is far from being cruel or savage. He in-
dulges in polygamy like a Turk or a Mormon, and has often
as many as fifty wives. The young are generally lively, fond of
play and fight. When one of them has thrown another down,
the father approaches with a growl, caresses the victor, tries to
overturn him, and shows increasing fondness the better he de-
fends himself. Lazy and listless youngsters are objects of his
dislike, and these hang generally about their mother. The
male is very much attached to his wives, but treats them with
all the severity of an oriental despot. When a mother neglects
to carry away her young, and allows it to be taken, she is made
to feel his anger. He seizes her with his teeth, and strikes her
several times, not over gently, against a cliff. As soon as she
recovers from the stunning effects of these blows, she approaches
her lord in the most humble attitudes, crawls to his feet,
caresses him, and even sheds tears, as Steller, the companion of
Behring’s second voyage, informs us. Meanwhile the male
crawls about to and fro, gnashes his teeth, rolls his eyes, and
throws his head from side to side. But when he sees th'at his young
is irrevocably lost, he then, like the mother, begins to cry so
bitterly, that the tears trickle down upon his breast. In his
old age the ursine seal is abandoned by his wives, and spends
the remainder of his life in solitude, fasting, and sleeping ; an
indolence from which he can only be roused by the intrusion of
another animal, when a tremendous battle is the consequence.
Though extremely irascible, the sea-bears are lovers of fair
play, so that when two are fighting, the others form a ring, and
remain spectators until the contest is decided. Then, however,
they take the part of the weaker, which so enrages the victor
that he immediately attacks the peace-makers. These in turn
fall out, the dreadful roaring attracts new witnesses, and the
whole ends, like an Irish wedding, with a general fight.
Ursine seals are also found in the southern hemisphere, on
desert coasts analogous to their residences in the north. Com-
mon seals and sea-otters stand in great awe of these animals,
128
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
and shun their haunts. They again are in equal fear of the
Leonine seals, and do not care to begin a quarrel in their
presence, dreading the intervention of such formidable arbi-
trators, who likewise possess the first place on the shore.
Steller’s Sea-Lion, ( Otaria Stelleri,) is about as large again as
the sea-bear, but its tawny hide, covered with short bristles, is
without value in the fur trade. To the Aleut, however, the
animal is of great use, for he covers his boat, with its skin,
makes his water-tight kamleika with its intestines, the soles of
his shoes with the webs of its feet, ornaments his cap with its
long beard hair, and feasts upon its flesh. On all the coasts and
islands of the Pacific this sea-lion is found, from 61° N. lat.
to unknown southern limits, but nowhere in such numbers as
on the Pribilow Island, St. George, where its countless herds
afford a wonderful spectacle. The shapeless gigantic fat and
flesh-masses, awkward and unwieldy on land, cover, as far as
the eye can reach, a broad, rocky, naked strand-belt, blackened
with oil. The sea-birds occupy the empty places between
the herds of the sea-lions, and fly fearlessly before the gaping
jaws of the huge monsters, without caring about their hideous
bellowing. In countless numbers they build their nests in the
caves of the surf-beaten cliffs, and among the large boulders on
the shore, whose tops are whitened with their dung. A thick fog
generally spreads over the desolate scene, and the hollow roar-
ing of the breakers unites, with the screaming of the birds and
the bellowing of the sea lions, to form a wild and melancholy
concert.
Steller’s sea-lion is furnished only with an erect and curly
hair-tuft at his neck, while a complete mane flows round the
breast of the sea-lion of the southern hemisphere, {Otaria jubata").
The remainder of the body is covered with short smooth hairs,
or bristles. The sea-lioness has no mane, and is darker than the
male. The fore-fins have the appearance of large pieces of black
tough leather, showing, instead of nails, slight horny elevations ;
the hind-fins, which are likewise black, have a closer resemblance
to feet, and the five toes are furnished with small nails. A for-
midable-looking beast, eleven feet long ! and well may the
naturalist start, when, walking through the high tussack grass
of the Falkland Islands, he suddenly stumbles over a huge sea-
lion, stretched along the ground, and blocking up his path.
THE MORSE.
129
Walrus, or Morse.
The Arctic Walras forms the nearest approach to the seals in
the scale of creation, and is likewise better adapted for a marine
life than for existence on dry land.
But he is completely without fore-
teeth, and his grinders have a broad
furrowed crown, like those of the
herbivorous animals. This differ-
ence of dentition points to a dif-
ferent food, and while the phocae
are such voracious fish-eaters that
Sir James Ross found no less than
twenty-eight pounds of undigested fish in the stomach of a
southern seal, the walrus principally lives on sea-weeds and
molluscs. The Arctic walrus or sea-horse ( Tricheehus rosmarus)
is one of the largest mammals known, as he sometimes grows
to the length of eighteen feet, and so thick as to measure twelve
feet about the middle of the body. His form is very clumsy,
having a small head, a strong elongated neck, a thick body, and
short legs, the hind feet uniting to a broad fin. With such a
form, no one can wonder at the clumsiness of its movements on
land. Admiral Beechey describes the gallop of a sea-horse as
probably the most awkward motion exhibited by the animal
tribe, for, like a large caterpillar, the unwieldly creature alter-
nately lowers and raises its head, in order to facilitate the
bringing up of the hinder parts of the body; — no easy task,
when we consider the immense weight of the animal, and the
great disproportion between the length of its body and its legs.
The upper lip, which is very thick,
and indented or cleft into two large
rounded lobes, furnished with thick
yellow bristles, contributes also but
little to its external beauty. From
under this formidable-looking infla-
tion protrude two large and long
tusks, growing, like those of the ele-
phant, from the upper jaw, but bent
downwards, not outward and up-
wards, as is the case with the latter.
Their uses are also very different, for while the elephant employs
his tusks in digging up roots, the walrus raises by their assistance
Skull and Head of Walrus.
130
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
his unwieldy body upon the ice-blocks and precipitous shores,
where be loves to bask in the sun. Both animals use them,
moreover, as formidable weapons, the former against the bound-
ing tiger, the latter against the hungry ice-bear or the voracious
shark.
In fine weather the walruses, like the seals, gather on the ice,
where they may be seen in herds consisting occasionally of
upwards of 100 animals each. In these situations they appear
greatly to enjoy themselves, rolling and sporting about, and
frequently making the air resound with their bellowing, which
bears some resemblance to that of a bull. These diversions
generally end in sleep, during which these wary animals appear
always to take the precaution of having a sentinel to warn them
of any danger to which they may be liable. So universal seems
the observance of this precaution amongst their species, that
Beechey, who had many opportunities of observing them in
Spitzbergen, scarcely ever saw a herd, however small, in which
he did not notice one of the party on the watch, stretching his
long neck in the air every half-minute, to the utmost extent of
its muscles, to survey the ground about him. In the event of
any alarming appearances, the sentinel begins by seeking his
own safety ; and as these animals always lie huddled upon one
another, the motion of one is immediately communicated to the
whole group, which is instantly in motion towards the water.
When the herd is large, and an alarm is given, the consequences
are most ludicrous. From the unwieldy nature of the animals,
the state of fear into which they are thrown, and their being so
closely packed together, at first they tumble over one another,
get angry, and in their endeavour to regain their feet flounder
about in each other’s way, till having at last scrambled to the
edge of the ice, they tumble into the water, head first, if possible,
but otherwise, in any position in which chance may have placed
them, occasioning one of the most laughable scenes it is possible
to conceive.
Though the first movement of the walruses at the approach
of danger is to seek the water, yet here, enraged by an unpro-
voked attack, they often become most formidable assailants ; of
which Beechey recounts a remarkable instance.
One evening, while the Dorothea and Trent were at anchor
in Magdalena Bay, Spitzbergen, several herds of these animals
THE BOATS OF H.M.S. TRENT ATTACKED BY
WALRUSES.
This plate is taken from an incident narrated in the account of the voyage of
H.M. ships Dorothea and Trent. The boat belonging to the Trent was attacked
by a shoal of ■walruses, which were near swamping it ; and were not driven
off till a gigantic walrus, which appeared to be the captain of the shoal, was
destroyed by a shot fired into its throat as represented in the engraving, the
original of which, as published in the account of the voyage, was taken from
a sketch by an officer present in the singular conflict.
A FIGHT WITH WALRUSES.
131
had crawled upon the ice, to enjoy the fine weather and rest
themselves. The boats, properly equipped, and manned with
some of the officers and seamen, pushed off in pursuit of them.
The first herd which was selected disappointed the sportsmen,
but another was so intent upon its gambols, that the sentinel
absolutely forgot his duty, and several of the crew managed to
effect a landing upon the ice without any alarm being given to
the animals ; as soon, however, as the first musket was fired,
the affrighted group made such a desperate rush towards the
edge of the ice that they nearly overturned the whole of the
assailing party, purposely stationed there to intercept them.
The seamen, finding this charge more formidable than they
expected, were obliged to separate to allow their opponents to
pass through their ranks ; and being thus in their turn taken by
surprise, they suffered them, almost unmolested, to perform
their somersaults towards the sea. What with their uncertain
movements, the extreme toughness of their skin, and the
respectful distance at which the men were obliged to keep, to
avoid the lashing of the head and tusks of the animals, it was
indeed no easy task to inflict any serious injury upon them.
One, however, was desperately wounded in the head with a ball,
and the mate of the brig, being determined if possible to secure
his prey, resolutely struck his tomahawk into his skull ; but the
enraged animal, with a twist of its head, sent the weapon whirl-
ing in the air, and then lashing his neck, as though he would
destroy with his immense tusks everything that came in his way,
effected his escape to the water. The seamen followed and
pushed off in their boats ; but the walruses, finding themselves
more at home now than on the ice, in their turn became the
assailants. They rose in great numbers about the boats, snort-
ing with rage, and rushing at the boats, and it was with the
utmost difficulty they were prevented upsetting or staving them
by placing their tusks upon the gunwales, or by striking at
them with their heads. It was the opinion of the seamen that
in this assault the walruses were led on by one animal in par-
ticular, a much larger and more formidable beast than any of
the others, and they directed their efforts more particularly
towards him ; but he withstood all the blows of their tomahawks
without flinching, and his tough hide resisted the entry of the
whale lances, which were unfortunately not very sharp, and soon
132
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEAr
bent double. The herd was so numerous, and their attacks so
incessant, that there was not time to load a musket, which indeed
was the only effectual mode of seriously injuring them. The
purser fortunately had his gun loaded, and the whole now being
nearly exhausted with chopping and striking at their assailants,
he snatched it up, and thrusting the muzzle down the throat of
the leader, fired into his bowels. The wound proved mortal and
the animal fell back amongst his companions, who immediately
desisted from the attack, assembled round him, and in a moment
quitted the boat, swimming away as hard as they could with
their leader, whom they actually bore up with their tusks, and
assiduously preserved from sinking. Whether this singular and
compassionate conduct, which in all probability was done to
prevent suffocation, arose from the sagacity of the animals, it is
difficult to say ; but there is every probability of it, and the fact
must form an interesting trait in the history of the habits of the
species. After the discharge of the purser’s gun, there remained
of all the herd only one little assailant, which the seamen, out
of compassion, were unwilling to molest. This young animal had
been observed fighting by the side of the leader, and from the
protection which was afforded it by its courageous patron, was
imagined to be one of its young. This little animal had no
tusks, but it swam violently against the boat, and struck her
with its head, and indeed would have stove her, had it not been
kept off by whale lances, some of which made deep incisions in
its young sides. These, however, had not any immediate effect ;
the attack was continued, and the enraged little animal, though
disfigured with wounds, even crawled upon the ice in pursuit of
the seamen, who had relanded there, until one of them, out of
compassion, put an end to its sufferings.
The valuable ivory of its tusks, which is more solid, finer
grained, and whiter than that of the elephant, exposes the
walrus to the attacks of man, no less than his thick hide, from
which a strong elastic leather is made, and his abundance of
flesh and blubber. The former are sought by civilised nations,
while the latter forms the chief food of the northern Esquimaux
and of the Tschutchi on the western shore of Behring’s Straits.
Every year a troop of Aleuts land on the northern coast
of the peninsula of Aliaska, where the young walruses as-
semble in great numbers during the summer, having most
WALRUS-HUNTING.
133
likely been driven away by the older males from their more
northern hannts. The walruses herd on the lowest edge of
the' coast which is within reach of the high spring-tides. When
the Aleuts prepare to attack the animals, they take leave of
£ach other as if they were going to face death, being no less
afraid of the mighty tusks of the walruses than of the awkward-
ness of their own companions. Armed with lances and heavy
axes, they stealthily approach the walruses, and having disposed
their ranks, suddenly fall upon them with loud shouts, and
endeavour to drive them from the sea, taking care that none
of them escape into the water, as in this case the rest would
irresistibly follow and precipitate the huntsmen along with
them. As soon as the walruses have been driven far enough
up the strand, the Aleuts attack them with their lances, en-
deavouring to strike at them in places where the hide is not so
thick, and then pressing with all their might against the spear, to
render the wound deep and deadly. The slaughtered animals fall
one over the other and form large heaps, while the huntsmen, ut-
tering furious shouts and intoxicated with carnage, wade through
the bloody mire. They then cleave the jaws and take out the
tusks, which are the chief objects of the slaughter of several
thousands of walruses, since neither their flesh nor their fat
is made use of in the colony. Sir George Simpson, in his
“ Overland Journey Round the World,” relates that the bales
of fur sent to Kjachta are covered with walrus hide ; then it
is made to protect the tea chests, which find their way to
Moscow ; and after all these wanderings, the far-travelled skin
returns again to its native seas, when, cut into small pieces and
stamped with a mark, it serves as a medium of exchange. The
carcases of the wholesale slaughter are left on the shore to be
washed away by the spring-tides, which soon erase every vestige
of the bloody scene, and in the following year the inexhaustible
north sends new victims to the coast.
Kane gives us a vivid description of a walrus hunt in Smith’s
Sound, most likely the most northern point of the earth inhabited
by man. “ After a while Myouk became convinced, from signs or
sounds, that walruses were waiting for him in a small space
of recently open water that was glazed over with a few days’
growth of ice, and, moving gently on, soon heard the charac-
teristic bellow of a bull, — the walrus, like some bipeds, being
134
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
fond of his own music. The party now formed in single file,
and moved on in serpentine approach to the recently frozen ice
spots, which were surrounded by older and firmer ice. When
within half a mile the line broke, and each man crawled towards
a separate pool. In a few minutes the walruses were in sight,
five in number, rising at intervals through the ice in a body
with an explosive puff that might have been heard for miles.
Two large grim-looking males made themselves conspicuous as
leaders of the group. When the walrus is above the water, the
hunter lies flat and motionless ; as it begins to sink, he is alert
and ready for a spring. The animal’s head is hardly below the
water line, when every man advances in rapid run, and again,
as if by instinct, before the beast returns, all are motionless
behind protecting knolls of ice. In this way the Esquimaux have
reached a plate of thin ice, hardly strong enough to bear them,
at the very brink of the pool. Myouk, till now phlegmatic,
seems to waken with excitement. A coil of walrus hide lies by
his side, and he grasps the harpoon, ready for action. Presently
the water is in motion, and, puffing with pent-up respiration, the
walrus rises before him. Myouk rises slowly, the right arm
thrown back, the left flat at his side. The walrus looks about
him, shaking water from his crest, Myouk throws up his left
arm, and the animal, rising breast-high, fixes one look before he
plunges. It has cost him all that curiosity can cost, for the
harpoon lies buried under his left flipper.” The wounded animal
makes a desperate spring, and endeavours to lift itself upon the
ice, which breaks finder its weight. These fruitless endeavours
give its physiognomy a still more vengeful expression ; its bel-
lowing degenerates into a roar, and crimson foam gathers round
its mouth.
The Ice-Bear ( Ursus
maritimus ) may also be
reckoned among the
marine animals, as the
sea affords him by far
the greater part of his
food. From the com-
mon bear, whom he sur-
passes in strength and
size, as he attains a
length of nine feet, and a height of four, he not only distin-
Polar Bear (Ursus marihmus).
THE ICE-BEAK.
135
guishes himself by his white sleek-haired fur, but also by a much
longer neck. His half-webbed feet show at once that he is born for
a sea life, and he is able to- swim three miles an hour, and to dive
for a considerable length of time. On land he runs as fast again
as a man, and often surprises his prey, as his tread upon the snow
is almost inaudible. He principally lives on fish, but also on
seals, birds, foxes, reindeer, and even at-
tacks man — particularly when pinched
with hunger. But in his turn he falls
a prey to the inhabitants of the Arctic
regions, who eat the flesh, though it is
very coarse, and use the skin for
coverings of various kinds. He is a cunning hunter, though
not always successful. Thus one sunshiny day, Admiral
Beechey saw a large walrus rise in a
pool of water not very far from where
he stood. After looking around, the
grim-visaged creature drew his greasy
carcase upon the ice, where he rolled
about for a time, and at length laid
himself down to sleep. A bear, which
had probably been observing his move-
ments, crawled carefully upon the ice
on the opposite side of the pool, and
began to roll about also, but apparently
more with design than amusement, pro-
gressively lessening the distance that intervened between him
and his prey. The suspicious walrus drew himself up, prepara-
tory to a precipitate retreat, when immediately the bear remained
motionless, as if in the act of sleep ; but after a time he began to
lick his paws, and clean himself, and occasional^ to encroach a
little more upon his intended victim. This time, however, his
cunning was useless, for the walrus suddenly plunged into the
pool, and though the bear, throwing off all disguise, rushed to
the spot and followed him in an instant into the water, he was
most likely disappointed of a meal that would have made up for
a long period of fasting. The ice-bear is everywhere at home
within the Arctic circle, and particularly abounds on Spitzbergen
and the other small islands of that sea. He sometimes comes
floating on drift ice to the north coasts of Iceland, Norway,
and Newfoundland, but is soon killed by the inhabitants.
Arctic Walrus.
Seal.
136
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
Manby, in bis “ Voyage to Spitsbergen,” relates several in-
teresting examples of bis ferocity and flaring. Having perceived
an ice-bear swimming in the sea, a boat went after him to cut
him off ; when suddenly the monster changed bis route, faced
the boat, and approached it, keeping up a continued growling,
with other indications of rage, such as showing his frightful
teeth, and elevating his head and much of his body out of the
water. Being desirous to preserve the head, Manby let him
come within twelve yards, when be fired a ball through his
shoulder, which deprived him of the use of a fore-leg. Boaring
hideously, the infuriated animal pressed towards the boat in the
most ferocious manner, endeavouring to board or upset it, but
failed from the loss of his leg. He was then attacked by the
crew with lances, the thrusts of some of which he avoided with
astonishing dexterity, and, in the most resolute manner, again
made several attempts to reach the boat ; but being repulsed
by the overpowering thrust of a lance from the harpooner on his
flank, he was unable longer to continue the contest. He had
bitten a lance, in the heat of the combat, with such exasperated
rage, as to break one of his long tusks ; but finding his efforts
fruitless, he retreated towards the ice, swimming most astonish-
ingly fast, considering the great propelling power he had lost,
and finally ascended it with great difficulty, having only one
fore-paw to assist him, when, exhausted by the effort, he fell
down dead, uttering a tremendous growl.
Captain Lewis, with a party of five hunters, attacked a bear,
and when at a distance of forty yards, four of them fired, and
each lodged a musket ball in its body, two of which passed
directly through the lungs. The enraged animal ran at them
with open mouth, and as it came near, the two men who
had reserved their fire gave it two wounds, and broke its
shoulder, which retarded its motion for a moment. But before
they could reload, it was so near that they were obliged to run,
and before they reached the shore the bear had almost overtaken
them. Two jumped into the canoe, the other four separated,
concealed themselves behind ice blocks, and firing as fast as
they could load, struck the bear several times. But although
eight balls had passed through its body, the bear pursued two
of them so closely, that they were obliged to leap down a per-
pendicular bank of twenty feet into the water. The dying
TIIE ICE-BEAR.
137
animal sprang after them, and was within a few feet of the
hindermost, when his strength at last failed him.
Scoresby relates that in 1783, Captain Cook, of the Arch-
angel, of Lynn, landed on the coast of Spitsbergen, accompanied
by the surgeon and mate. While traversing the shore, the
captain was unexpectedly attacked by a bear, which seized him
in an instant between its paws. At this awful juncture, when a
moment’s pause must have been fatal to him, the unfortunate
man called to his surgeon to tire, who immediately, with ad-
mirable resolution and steadiness, discharged his piece, and
providentially shot the bear through the head, thus literally
saving the master from the jaws of death.
“ One evening,” says Beechey, “ we set on fire some sea-horse
fat, in order to entice within reach of our muskets any bears
that might be ranging the ice ; as these animals possess a
very keen scent, and are invariably attracted by burnt animal
matter. About midnight we had the satisfaction of seeing one
of them drag his huge carcass out of the water, and slowly make
Ice-bear approaching tne “ Uorothea ” and “Trent."
his way towards us. The sight of the tall masts of the ships
appeared to alarm him a little at first, for he occasionally hesi-
L
138
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
tated, threw up his head, and seemed half inclined to turn round
and be off ; but the agreeable odour of the burnt blubber was
evidently so grateful to his olfactory nerves and empty stomach,
that it overcame every repugnance, and gradually brought him
within range of our muskets. On receiving the first shot he
sprang round, uttered a terrific growl, and half raised himself
upon his hind legs, as if in expectation of seizing the object that
had caused him such excruciating pain; and woe to any human
being who had at that moment been within reach of his merci-
less paws ! The second and third ball left him writhing upon
the ice, and the mate of the Dorothea jumped out of the
vessel and endeavoured to despatch him with the butt end of a
musket ; but it unfortunately broke short off, and for a moment
left him at the mercy of his formidable antagonist, who showed,
by turning sharply upon his assailant, and seizing him by the
thigh, that he was not yet mastered; and he would most cer-
tainly have inflicted a serious wound, had it not been for the
prompt assistance of two or three of his shipmates who had
followed him. The animal was by no means one of the largest
of his species, being only six feet in length, and three feet four
inches in height. His stomach was quite empty, with the
exception of a garter, such as is used by Greenland sailors to tie
up their boat stockings. In his left side there was a cicatrised
wound of considerable magnitude. From what we saw of the
activity and ferociousness of this animal, added to the well-
known strength of his species, we readily gave credit to the
accounts of Barentz and other early visitors to these regions ;
and it may be considered a fortunate circumstance for the hero
of the Nile and Trafalgar that a natural barrier was interposed
between him and the object of his chase, when in his youth he
ventured alone over the ice in these regions in pursuit of such
formidable game.”
The ferocious white bear, the enemy and the dread of all
other animals that come within its reach, is exceedingly tender
and affectionate to its young, of which the following anecdote
affords a striking and interesting example. While the “ Carcase”
was locked in the ice, early one morning the man at the mast-
head gave notice that three bears were making their way very
fast over the frozen ocean, and were directing their course to-
wards the ship. They had no doubt been invited by the scent
PARENTAL AFFECTION OF TIIE ICE-BEAR.
]39
of some blubber of a sea-horse that the crew had killed a few
days before, which had been set on fire ; for they drew out of
the flames a part of the flesh that remained unconsumed, and
ate it voraciously. The crew from the ship threw great lumps
of the flesh of the sea-horse, which they had still left, upon the
ice, which the old bear fetched singly, laid every lump before
her cubs as she brought it, and dividing it, gave to each a share,
reserving but a small portion to herself. As she was fetching
away the last piece, they levelled their muskets at the cubs and
shot them both dead, and in her retreat they wounded the dam,
but not mortally. It would have drawn tears of pity from any
but unfeeling minds, to have marked the affectionate concern
expressed by this poor beast in the dying moments of her ex-
piring young. Though she was herself dreadfully wounded,
and could but just crawl to the place where they lay, she carried
the lump of flesh she had fetched away, as she had done others
before, tore it in pieces, and laid it before them ; and when she
saw that they refused to eat, she laid her paws first upon one
and then upon the other, and endeavoured to raise them up,
piteously moaning all the while. When she found she could not
stir them, she went off, and when she had got at some distance,
looked back and moaned ; and that not availing her to entice
them away, she returned, and smelling round them, began to
lick their wounds. She went off a second time as before, and
having crawled a few paces, looked again behind her, and for
some time stood moaning. But still her cubs not rising to fol-
low her, she returned to them again, and with signs of inex-
pressible fondness, went round one and round the other, pawing
them and moaning. Finding at last that they were cold and
lifeless, she raised her head towards the ship, and uttered a
growl of despair, which the murderers returned with a volley of
musket balls. She fell between her cubs, and died licking their
wounds.
The Sea-Otter is the last of the marine mammiferous animals
that claim our attention. Although it is also found in the
southern Pacific, yet its chief resort is in the Behring’s Sea,
along the chain of the Aleut Islands. It is but a small animal,
yet its long-haired, beautifully fine and black fur, which is not
seldom paid for with 400 or 500 rubles, renders it by far the
most important product of those seas. It has even got an his-
140
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
torical interest, since it has been the chief cause which led the
Russians from Ochotzk to Kamtschatka, and from thence over
the Aleut chain to the op-
posite coast of America.
The Aleut islanders
show a wonderful dexte-
rity in the capture of this
animal. In April or May
they assemble at an ap-
pointed spot in their light
skin-boats, or baidars, and
choose one of the most
respected tamols, or chiefs, for the leader of the expedition,
which generally numbers from fifty to a hundred boats. Such
hunting-parties are annually organised from the Kurile Islands
to Kadjack, and consequently extend over a line of three thousand
miles. On the first fine day the expedition sets out, and proceeds
to a distance of about forty wersts from the coast, when the
baidars form into a long line, leaving an interval of about two
hundred and fifty fathoms from boat to boat as far as a sea-otter
diving out of the water can be seen; so that a row of thirty
baidars occupies a space of from ten to twelve wersts. When
the number of the boats is greater, the intervals are reduced.
Every man now looks upon the sea with concentrated attention.
Nothing escapes the penetrating eye of the Aleut; in the smallest
black spot appearing but one moment over the surface of the
waters, his experienced glance at once recognises a sea-otter.
The baidar which first sees the animal, rows rapidly towards the
place where the creature dived, and now the Aleut, holding his
oar straight up in the air, remains motionless on the spot. Im-
mediately the whole squadron is in motion, and the long straight
line changes into a wide circle, the centre of which is occupied
by the baidar with the raised oar. The otter not being able
to remain long under water, reappears, and the nearest Aleut
immediately greets him with an arrow. This first attack is
seldom mortal ; very often the missile does not even reach its
over-distant mark, and the sea-otter instantly disappears. Again
the oar rises from the next baidar ; again the circle forms, but
this time narrower than at first ; the fatigued otter is obliged to
come oftener to the surface, arrows fly from all sides, and finally
Sea-Otter.
THE SEA-OTTEK.
141
the animal, killed by a mortal shot, or exhausted by repeated
wounds, falls to the share of the archer who has hit it nearest
to the head. If several otters appear at the same time, the
boats form as many rings, provided their number be sufficiently
great. All these movements are executed with astonishing
celerity and precision, and amidst the deepest silence, which is
only interrupted from time to time by the hissing sound of the
flying arrows.
Banded Dipper.
142
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA
CHAP. X.
SEA-BIRDS.
Their vast Numbers. — Strand-Birds. — Artifices of the Sea-Lark to protect its
Young. — Migrations of the Strand-Birds. — The Sea-Birds in General. — The
Anatidse. — The Eider Duck. — The Sheldrake. — The Loggerheaded Duck. —
Auks and Penguins. — The Cormorant. — Its Use by the Chinese for Fish-
catching. — The Frigate Bird. — The Soland Goose. — The Gulls. — The Petrels. —
The Albatross. — Bird-catching on St. Kilda. — The Guano of the Chincha
Islands.
Countless are the birds of the wood and field, of the mountain
and the plain ; and yet it is doubtful whether they equal in
number those of the fish-teeming seas.
For every naked rock or surf-beaten cliff
that rises over the immeasurable deserts
of ocean, is the refuge of myriads of sea-
birds; every coast, from the poles to the
equator, is covered with their legions
and far from land, their swarms hover
over the solitudes of the deep. Many,
unfit for swimming, seek their food along
the shores ; others rival the fishes in their
own native element ; and others, again,
armed with indefatigable wings, pursue
their prey upon the high seas. But,
however different the mode of living and
destination of the numerous tribes, families,
genera, and species of the sea-birds may be,
each of them is organised in the most
perfect manner for the exigencies of its own peculiar sphere.
Take, for instance, the Strand-birds, that live on the margin ot
ocean, and feast upon the molluscs and sea-worms, that inhab’f
PENGUINS ON THE SOUTH POLAR ICE.
A scene showing the immense droves of penguins which often clothe the sea
edges of the ice and rocks in the South Polar regions is represented in the
annexed plate.
The individuals in the front are of the large species known as the Great
Penguin, Aptenodytes Forsteri. Beyond is a group of the lesser, but perhaps
more beautiful, species, Aptenodytes Pennantii.
In the distance are seen lines of another small kind, which has been made
a separate genus, under the denomination of Eudyptes. It is inferior in charac-
teristic beauty to either of the last named. Eudyptes antipodes is, however,
worthy of a better representation than the dimensions of our plate permitted
TIIE STRAND-BIRDS.
143
Curlew.
the littoral zone. How admirably the light weight of their pro-
portionally small body suits
the soft, yielding soil on
which they have to seek their
food ; how well their long
legs are adapted for striding
through the mud of the shal-
low waters; and their long
bill and flexible neck, how
beautifully formed for seiz-
ing their fugitive prey, ere it
can bury itself deep enough
in the safe mud or sand !
The wonderful art witli
which the feathered inhabi-
tants of the grove construct
their nests, we should in vain look for among the Strand-birds,
but the anxiety they show in protecting their young brood, and
the stratagems they use to divert the attention of the enemy,
are after all instincts no less admirable than those which prompt
the Cassique or the Tailor-bird to build their complicated
dwellings. Thus on the approach of any person to its nest, the
Lapwing flutters round his head with great inquietude, and if
he persists in advancing, it will endeavour to draw him away by
running along the ground as if lame, and thereby inviting pur-
suit. The Golden Plover also, when it sees an enemy — man or
dog — approach, does not await their arrival, but advances to
meet them. Then suddenly rising with a shrill cry, as if just
disturbed from its nest, it flutters along the ground as if crippled,
and entices them farther and farther from its young. The dogs,
expecting to catch an easy prey, follow the lame bird, which
suddenly, however, flies off with lightning speed, and leaves its
disappointed pursuers on the beach. The discovery of the
nest is rendered still more difficult by the colour and markings
of the eggs assimilating so closely to that of the ground and
surrounding herbage.
The Scoopers, Oyster-catchers, Avosets, and other strand-birds
have recourse to similar stratagems for the protection of their
young. In New Zealand, the French naturalists, Quoy and
Gaimard, were deceived by an oyster-catcher, which, having
144
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
Avoset.
haustible supplies.
been shot at, feigned to be wounded, and with hanging wing,
diverted them from tbe right track.
The strand-birds of the high northern
regions fly from the winter to coasts
where milder winds are blowing. But
as soon as the summer’s sun begins to
exert its power, the desert shores of
the Arctic Ocean become animated
with swarms of plovers, sand-pipers,
rails, herons, and phalaropes, to whom
the thawed strand opens its inex-
Soon, however, the approach of winter
hardens once more the soil, want follows upon abundance,
and the whole long-legged host hastens
to abandon the ice-bound strand, which
opposes an impenetrable armour to their
beaks.
The food of the different kinds of strand-
birds varies, and consequently their bills
are variously formed. Those that live upon
worms have generally a long thin awl-
shaped bill, well fitted for picking their
prey out of the soft muddy or sandy soil.
If the small creatures conceal themselves
under large stones, they are secure from
these attacks; but then comes the Turn-stone, ( Tringa in-
terpres,') who with his bill, a little turned up at the top, raises
the stone as with a lever, and makes sad havoc amongst the
defenceless garrison.
The Sea-pie uses its wedge-shaped bill for opening shell-fish
with great adroitness ; but the industry
of the Black Skimmer or Cut-water,
( JRhynchops nigra,') is still more
remarkable. The bill of this bird,
which chiefly inhabits the hot coasts
of America, is quite unique in its
kind ; the under mandible, which is
in fact nothing but a wedge, being
about an inch longer than the upper
one, by which it is clasped. The sandy beach of Penco, says
Scissor-bill (Rhynchops nigra).
THE SEA-BIRDS.
145
Lesson, is full of shell-fish, which remain nearly dry at low
water in small pools. The skimmer keeps waiting close by
until one of them opens its shell, when he immediately intro-
duces his wedge. He then seizes the mussel, beats it to pieces
upon the sand, and devours it with all the pleasure of an epicure
eating an oyster. He is also very active in sweeping the surface of
the water, from which he skims, as it were, the smaller fish or
shrimps. Thus, on all flat sandy shores nothing exists, either
soft or hard, creeping or swimming, jumping or running, that
does not find among the strand-birds its peculiar and admirably
armed enemy, or that can boast of a perfect immunity from
hostile attacks.
If we examine the real sea-birds, such as are formed for
indefatigable swimming or diving, or for wide flights over the
deserts of ocean, wTe shall find them no less wonderfully or-
ganised than the winged dwellers on the strand. Their short
compressed toes easily cleave the waters, and by means of their
membranes or webs form, as it were, broad oars. Their muscular
Speckled Diver.
short legs, placed more behind than in other birds, are beauti-
fully adapted for rowing, although their movements on land-
are awkward and slow. All creatures living on the sea of course
require a thick waterproof mantle against weather and storm ;
and consequently we find the plumage of sea birds thicker,
closer, and better furnished with down than that of the other
feathered tribes. And finally, the gland which all birds have at
the rump, and from which they express an oily matter to
preserve their feathers moist, is most considerable among those
that live upon the water, and contributes to make their plumage
146
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
impermeable. Surely the sea bird has no right to complain of
imperfect clothing or a deficient outfit !
The numerous members of the duck
family, or the Anatidse, mostly live
during the summer in higher latitudes,
and wander in winter in countless swarms
towards sunnier regions ; as, for instance,
the Snow Goose and the Barnacle.
Some remain throughout the 3'ear in
Great Britain, some only during the
winter; while others, which are more
particularly birds of the Arctic zone, but
very seldom make their appearance in
our southern clime. Most Anatidse prefer the lake, the river,
fhe pond, or the morass; but many of them are true littoral
birds, and spend a great part of their
time swimming and fishing in the
sea.
The Eider Duck, (Anas mollis -
sima ,) which attains nearly double the
size of the common duck, inhabits the
higher latitudes of Europe, Asia, and
America. One of its most remarkable
breeding places is on the small island
of Vidoe near Reikiavik (Iceland),
where it lives under the protection of the law; a person who
should chance to kill a breeding bird having to pay a fine of thirty
dollars.
“ As our boat approached the shore,”
says Mackenzie, (“Voyage through Ice-
land,”) “ we came through a multitude
of these beautiful birds, who hardly gave
themselves the trouble to move out of
Eider Duck. the way. Between the landing place and
the house of the old governor the ground was covered with them,
and it was necessary to walk cautiously not to tread upon their
nests. The ganders went about with a cackle resembling the
cooing of a pigeon, and were even more familiar than our
common duck. Round about the house, on the garden wall, on
the roofs, even in the inside of the huts and the chapel, they sat
Snow Goose.
THE EIDER DUCK.
147
breeding in great numbers. Those which had not been long
upon their nest generally left it at our approach, but those
which had more than one or two eggs remained undisturbed,
allowed themselves to be handled, and sometimes even gently
used their bills to remove our hand. The nests were lined with
down, which the mother plucks from her own breast ; and near
at hand a sufficient quantity was piled up to cover the eggs
when she goes to feed, which is generally at low water. The
downs are twice removed, but sometimes the poor duck is
obliged to provide for a fourth lining ; and when she has no
more to spare, the gander willingly deprives himself of part of
his showy snow-white and rose-red garment. The eggs, which
are considered a great delicacy, are also partially taken away.
Our Vidoe friend used to send us two hundred at a time.
When boiled, they are tolerably good, but always very inferior
to those of our domestic hen. When taken from the nest, the
downs are of course mixed with feathers and straw ; and to sort
and prepare them for sale is part of the winter employment of
the women. One nest furnishes about a quarter of a pound of
cleaned downs. The softness, lightness, and elasticity of these
feathers is universally known. A few handfuls of compressed
downs suffice to fill a whole coverlet, under which the north-
lander bids defiance to the strongest winter cold. Almost as
soon as the young have left the egg, the mother conducts them
to the water’s edge, takes them on her back, and swims a few
yards with them, when she dives, and leaves them on the
surface to take care of themselves. As soon as they have thus
acquired the art of swimming, the duck returns and becomes
their leader. The broods often unite in great numbers, and
remain some weeks quite wild, after which they disappear.
Long before we left Iceland not a single duck was to be seen.
No one knows to what parts they migrate. The bird is found
on the Flannen Islands, to the west of Lewis ; it is seen on the
Shetland and Orkney Islands ; it breeds on May Island, at the
mouth of the Firth of Forth.” Even on Heligoland the eider
duck sometimes makes its appearance, but not to breed. The
produce of the eider duck, either for personal use or as an
article of trade, contributes to the comforts of many northern
nations. The Esquimaux kill these birds -with darts, pursuing
them in their little boats, watching their course by the air
148
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
bubbles when they dive, and always striking at them when they
rise wearied to the surface. Their flesh is valued as food, and
their skins are made into warm and comfortable under
garments.
The Long-tailed Duck and the Sheldrake or Burrow Duck,
{ Anas glacialis ; taclorna), likewise inhabit the northern shores
of Europe, Asia, and America. The
former often remains the whole year
in the high north, bidding defiance
to the icy winter of the Arctic circle,
and enjoying during the summer the
light of an uninterrupted day. Often,
however, it migrates to the south,
and wanders from Greenland and
Hudson’s Bay as far as New York,
and from Spitsbergen and Iceland to Heligoland and the
Schleswig Islands. The duck likewise lines her nest with her
downs. During the winter, the sheldrake is often seen in
the west of England and in Ireland, where it is caught in nets.
On Sylt, on the Danish coast, it is half domesticated, living in
artificial burrows, and breeding even in the villages, on walls,
and in earth holes. In a pleasant valley among the downs,
which, although without trees, refreshed the eye with a verdant
carpet variegated with flowers, Naumann, the celebrated Ger-
man ornithologist, saw thousands of sheldrakes scattered in
couples over the meads, so tame that they could be approached
within twenty paces, when they flew up, but soon again alighted
on the sward. He admired the construction of the artificial
nests, often thirteen in one cavity, with a common entrance, and
communicating by horizontal tunnels. Over every nest is a
perpendicular opening, decked with a sod. On this being raised
the duck is often seen sitting on her nest, so tame that it allows
itself to be stroked. Every householder possesses several of
these artificial burrows, from which he daily gathers during
several weeks from twenty to thirty eggs, leaving six in each
nest to be hatched. He also takes care to remove one half of
the beautiful downs, which are no less light and valuable than
those of the eider duck.
One of the most curious members of the duck family is the
large Logger-headed Duck or goose {Anas brachyptera ) of the
Falkland Islands, which sometimes weighs twenty-two pounds.
THE MERGANSERS.
14U
Ifc was formerly called, from its extraordinary manner of
paddling and splashing upon the water, race-horse, but is now
named, much more appropriately, steamer. Its wings are too
small and weak to allow of flight, but by their aid, partly
swimming and partly flapping the surface of the water, it moves
very quickly. The manner is something like that by which the
common house duck escapes when pursued by a dog ; but Mr.
Darwin, who often watched the bird, is nearly sure that the
steamer moves its wings alternately, instead of both together, as
in other birds. These clumsy logger-headed ducks make such
a noise and spdashing, that the effect is exceedingly curious.
It is able to dive only a very short distance. It feeds entirely
on shell-fish from the kelp and tidal rocks ; and hence its beak
and head, which it uses for the purpose of breaking them, are
so surprisingly heavy and strong, that they can scarcely be
fractured with a hammer.
Another remarkable inhabitant of the southern hemisphere is
the Rock Goose, {Anas antarctica,) which exclusively inhabits
rocky shores, and is often met with on the Falkland Islands,
and on the west coast of America, as far north as Chili. In the
deep and retired channels of Tierra del Fuego, the snow-white
gander, invariably accompanied by his darker consort, and
standing close by each other on .some distant rocky point, is a
common feature in the landscape.
The Mergansers differ chiefly from the sea-ducks, whom they
otherwise closely resemble both in outward form and mode of
life, by their comparatively long and slender bill, furnished
with serrated edges and hooked at the extremity. All
the British species are adorned with crests, or a tuft of
long feathers, at the back of the
head. The red-breasted merganser
is a beautiful bird, painted with a
variety of gay colours. “ The head
and throat are of a rich shining green,
the neck white, except a narrow dark
line behind ; at either side before the
. Red-Breasted Merganser.
wings are numerous large white
feathers bordered by velvet-black ; the lower part of the neck
and breast is chestnut-brown, varied with dark streaks, and
150
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
the body and wings are elegantly diversified with white, black,
and brown feathers.” (Harvey, Bea Side Book.)
The family of the Grebes and Divers approximates the duck
tribe in the order of creation, hut is distinguished by a long
conical bill, and the position of the legs, which are placed so far
back towards the tail, that when the bird leaves the water it is
obliged to stand nearly erect to preserve its equilibrium. The
Great Created Grebe.
foot in the grebes is only partially webbed, the toes being merely
lobed or finned ; but the divers are completely web-footed,
like the duck. These latter do honour to their name, being
most expert and indefatigable divers, remaining down some-
times for several minutes, and swimming rapidly under the
water. The Eed-throated Diver preys much on the fish en-
tangled in the nets, but is often caught himself in his rapid
pursuit of the fish ; thus affording a strange example of a bird
caught under water.
The Arctic Diver enjoys among the Norwegians the reputa-
tion of being a most excellent weather-prophet. When the
skies are big with rain, the birds fly wildly about, and make the
most horrible hoarse noise, fearing that the swelled waters
should invade their nest ; on the contrary, in fine weather, their
note is different, and seemingly in an exulting strain. For this
THE ALCADJi.
151
reason, the Norwegians, who, being mostly a maritime popula-
tion, pay the greatest attention to the aspect of the sky, think
it impious to destroy, or even to disturb, this species.
The family of Alcadce, comprising the Guillemots, Auks,
Razor Bills, and Puffins, is in form of body very similar to the
Divers : the legs, which are short and thick, are inserted very
far back, and give a still more erect carriage to the bird when
on shore. The wings are short and small in proportion to the
bulk of the body, and in the (now probably extinct) Great Auk,
so much so as to be unfitted for flight. The Auks are strictly
sea-birds, and nestle on its borders, breeding in caverns and
rocky cliffs, and laying only one large egg. They obtain their
food by diving, at which they are very expert. They are of
social habits, and congregate in vast flocks on the rocky islets
and headlands of the northern coasts. At the head of the
Magdalen Bay, on Spitzbergen, for instance, there is a high
pyramidal mountain of granite, termed Rotge Hill, from the
myriads of small birds of that name (Little Auk, Alca alee),
which frequent its base, and which appear to prefer its en-
virons to every other part of the harbour. They are so nume-
rous that Admiral Beechey frequently saw an uninterrupted line
of them extending full half-way over the bay, or to a distance
of more than three miles, and so close together that thirty fell at
one shot. This living column, on an average, might have been
about six yards broad, and as many deep ; so that allowing
sixteen birds to a cubic yard, there must have been nearly four
millions of birds on the wing at one time.
The calling or crying of the rotges amongst one another
sounds at a distance as if you heard a great many women scold-
ing together ; so that the noise of millions uniting in a chorus
must be terrific. On a fine summer’s day, when a glorious
sunshine gilds the snow peaks and glaciers of Spitzbergen, the
merry cry of the little auk unites with that of the willocks,
divers, cormorants, gulls, and other aquatic birds; and every-
where groups of walruses, basking iu the sun, mingle their
playful roar with the husky bark of the seal. It is pleasant
to reflect that in those arctic wilds, uninhabitable by man, there
are still millions of creatures enjoying life, all owing their sup-
port to the inexhaustible “ garners ” of the deep.
In the Penguins of the southern hemisphere, the shortness of
M
1.52
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEa.
wing and aptitude for swimming and diving are still more con-
spicuous than in the auks of the
northern regions. In the water, the
penguin makes use of its small
featherless wing-stumps as paddles ;
on land, as fore feet, with whose
Antarctic Penguin. help it scales so rapidly the grass-
grown cliffs, as to be easily mistaken for a quadruped. When
at sea, and fishing, it comes to the surface for the purpose of
breathing, with such a spring, and dives again so instantaneously,
that at first sight no one can be sure that it is not a fish leaping
for sport. Other sea-birds generally keep part of their body out
of the water while swimming ; but this is not the case with the
penguin, whose head alone appears upon the surface ; and thus
it swims with such rapidity and perseverance, as almost to defy
many of the fishes to equal it. How much it feels itself at
home on the waters, may be inferred from the fact that Sir
James Eoss once saw two penguins paddling away a thousand
miles from the nearest land.
On many uninhabited islands in the
higher latitudes of the southern hemi-
sphere, this strange bird is met with in
incredible numbers. On Possession
Island, for instance, a desolate rock dis-
covered by Sir James Eoss in lat.71° 56',
not the smallest appearance of vegeta-
tion could be found ; but inconceivable
myriads of penguins completely and
densely covered the Avhole surface of
the island, along the ledges of the pre-
cipices, and even to the summits of the
hills, attacking vigorously the sailors as they waded through
their ranks, and pecking at them with their sharp beaks, dis-
puting possession, which, together with their loud coarse notes,
and the insupportable stench from the deep bed of guano which
had been forming for ages, made them glad to get away again.
Sir James took possession of the island in the name of Queen
Victoria; but unfortunately its treasures of manure are hidden
beyond a far too formidable barrier of ice ever to be available
to man.
Penguin.
THE PENGUIN.
1.33
Duperrey (“ Voyage de ]a Coquille,”) found the Falklands
swarming with penguins. In summer and autumn these strange
birds leave their burrows early in the morning, and launch into
the sea for fishing. After having filled their capacious stomachs,
they waddle on shore, and remain for a time congregated on the
strand, raising a dreadful clamour ; after which they retire to
enjoy a noon-tide sleep among the high tussack grass or in their
burrows. In the afternoon the fishing recommences. Lesson
says that about sunset on fine summer evenings, which
unfortunately are but of rare occurrence on those foggy, storm-
visited islands, all the penguins together raise their discordant
voices, so that at a distance the noise might be mistaken for
the hoarse murmur of a great popular assembly. As soon as
the young are sufficiently strong, the whole band leaves the
island, departing no one knows whither, though the mariners
frequenting those seas believe that they spend the winter on
the ocean. This opinion seems to be corroborated by the
observations of Sir James Eoss, who, on the 4th of December,
in 49° S. lat., met on the high sea a troop of penguins that
were doubtless on the way to their breeding place. He
admired the astonishing instinct of these creatures, half fish,
half bird, which leads them hundreds of miles through the
pathless ocean to their accustomed summer abodes.
It may be imagined how the neighbouring seas must abound
with fish, to be able to nourish such multitudes of penguins,
whose stomach is capable of holding more than two pounds, and
whose voracity is so great that they are often obliged to disgorge
their superabundant meal. The elongated stomach reaches to
the lower part of the abdomen, and the whole length of the
intestinal canal is twenty-five feet, fifteen times longer than the
body, so that natui’e has evidently provided for a most vigorous
appetite, whetted by sea-bathing and sea air.
There are several species of penguins. The largest ( Apte -
nodytes antarcti ca) weighs about eighty pounds. It is a rare
bird, generally found singly, while the smaller species always
associate in vast numbers. In 77° S. lat., Sir James Eoss caught
three of these giant penguins, the smallest of which weighed
fifty-seven pounds. In the stomach of one of them he found
ten pounds of quartz, granite, and trap fragments, swallowed
most likely to promote digestion.
i54
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
The penguin, like his northern representative the auk, lays
but one single egg. His not unsavoury flesh is black. Besides
his dense plumage, he is protected against the cold of the
higher latitudes by a thick cover of fat under his skin.
Humboldt’s penguin ( Spheniscus Humb.) is frequently found
in the Bay of Callao. This bird is a little smaller than the
common grey penguin, with a somewhat differently coloured
back and breast. The Peruvians call it pajaro nino, “ little
darling bird,” and keep it in their houses ; it is very easily
tamed, gets very familiar, and follows its master like a dog.
The sight of the fat creature, awkwardly waddling about the
streets on its short feet, and violently agitating its wing-stumps
to maintain its equilibrium, is inexpressibly grotesque. Tschudi
kept one of these tame penguins, which punctually obeyed his
call. At dinner it regularly stood like a stiff footman behind
his chair, and at night slept under his bed. When “ Pepe ”
wanted a bath, he went into the kitchen and kept striking with
his heak against an earthen jar, until some one came to pour
water over him.
To the pelican tribe, which is generally distinguished by a
surface of naked skin about the
throat, capable of considerable di-
latation, and serving as a pouch for
the reception of unswallowed food,
belong among others the Cormo-
rant ( Phalacrocorax ), the Frigate-
Bird ( Tachypetes aquila), and the
Grannet ( Sula bassana), or Solan
goose. All these birds are of much
more active habits than the last
named family, with bodies of more
shapely form, more ample wings, and a stronger flight.
The common cormorant with his long bill, bent at the point,
and furnished with a nail, his black livery, and yellowish chin-
pouch, is a most disagreeable comrade. His smell, when alive, is
more rank and offensive than that of any other bird, and his
flesh is so disgusting, that it turns the stomach even of an
Esquimaux In spite of his voracity, he always remains thin
and meagre, the picture of a hungry parasite. But fishing he
understands remarkably well, and formerly used to be trained
Common Pelican.
Till: CORMORANT FRIGATE-BIRD.
155
for this purpose in England, in the same manner as a nearly
related species is to the present day employed in China. Mr.
Fortune thus describes this original chase,
which he witnessed on the Yellow River: —
“ There were two boats, each containing
one man, and about ten or twelve birds.
The latter stood perched on the sides of
the boats, and seemed to have just arrived
upon the scene of action. Their masters
now commanded them to leave the boats ;
and so excellent was their training, that
they instantly obeyed, scattered them-
selves over the canal, and began to look
for prey. They have a splendid sea-
green eye, and quick as lightning they
see and dive upon the finny tribe, which, once caught in the sharp .
notched bill, finds escape impossible. As soon as a cormorant rises
to the surface with his prey in his bill, his master calls him, when,
docile as a dog, he swims to -the boat and surrenders the fish,
after which lie again resumes his labours. And what is more
wonderful still, when one of them has got hold of a fish so large
as to be with difficulty dragged to the boat, the others come to
his assistance, and by their united strength overpower the
sprawling giant. Sometimes when a cormorant is lazy or play-
ful, and seems to forget his business, the Chinaman strikes the
water with a long bamboo near to the dreamer, and calls out
to him in an angry tone. Immediately the bird, like a school-
boy caught nodding over his lesson, gives up his play, and
returns to his duty. A small string is tied round the neck of
the birds, for fear they might be tempted to swallow the fish
themselves ”
The frigate-bird hovers over the
tropical waters. Its singularly easy
and graceful flight affords all the
charm of variety. Sometimes it is - —
seen balanced in mid air, its wings
spread, but apparently motionless,
its long forked tail expanding and
closing with a quick alternate mo-
tion, and its head turned inquisitively downwards ; sometimes
Common Cormorant.
1 ;,G THE INHABITANTS OP THE SEA.
it wheels rapidly, and darts to the surface of the water in pursuit
of prey ; and then again it soars so as to be lost to vision, its ele-
vation alone being sufficient to distinguish it from all other sea
birds. Sometimes it is seen 400 leagues from land ; and yet it is
said to return every night to its solitary roost. Its expanded
pinions measure from end to end fourteen feet, a prodigious extent
of wings, equalling or even surpassing that of the condor, the
lordly bird of the loftiest Andes. Being unable to swim or dive,
it seizes the flying-fish, that, springing out of the water to avoid
the jaws of the bonito, often falls a prey to the frigate-bird, or
else it compels boobies or tropic birds to disgorge. On volcanic
coasts it builds its nest in the crevices of the high cliffs, and on
the low coral islands in the loftiest trees. In the Paumotu Group,
Captain Wilkes saw whole groves covered with the nests of the
frigate-bird. When the old birds flew away, they puffed up
their red pouches to the size of a child’s head, so that it looked
as if a large bladder full of blood was attached to their neck.
The Gannet or Soland-goose ( Sula Bassana) haunts the Bass
Island, a high steep rock in the Frith of Forth, wdiose black
precipices are painted with dazzliug
sti'ipes of white guano, the product
of the inconceivable number of birds
which settle upon the weather-beaten
ledges. The gannets incubate in the
turf of the slopes above, and you may
sit down by them and their great
downy young while their mates hover
over you with discordant screams and
almost touch you with their outspread pinions. There is but one
landing-place, and this sole entrance to the natural fastness is
closed by a barred gate, proclaiming that man has taken pos-
session of the rock. Some years ago it was let at an annual rent
T1IE GANNET — GULLS.
167
of thirty-five pounds. The eggs are not collected, and no old
bird is allowed to be shot, under a penalty of five pounds ; only
the young birds are persecuted. The chase begins on the 1st of
August. They are taken with the hand or knocked on the head
with sticks, and sent to the Edinburgh market, where they fetch
about half a crown a piece. The gannet breeds also on Lundy
Island, in the Severn, on Ailsa, on the coast of Ayrshire, on the
island of St. Kilda, and hardly anywhere else in Europe. As it
must let itself fall before taking wing, it requires a steep and
precipitous breeding-station. Its mode of fishing is particularly
graceful. Eapidly skimming the surface of the sea, as soon as
it spies a fish swimming below, it rises perpendicularly over the
spot, and then, suddenly folding its wings, drops head-foremost
on its prey swifter than an arrow, and with almost unerring aim.
The prevalent colour of the full-plumaged bird is white, the
tips of its wings only being black, and some black lines about
the face, resembling eyebrows or spectacles. The pale yellow
eyes are encircled with a naked skin of fine blue, the head and
neck are buff colour, the legs black, and greenish on the fore
part. The plumage of the young bird is very different, being
blackish, dotted irregularly with small white specks.
The family of the Laridae, which comprises the gulls, the
sea-swallows, the petrels, and the albatrosses, is widely spread
over the whole surface of the ocean. All the birds of this
tribe have a powerful flight, and are distinguished by the
easy grace of their motions, striking the air at long intervals
with their wings, and generally gliding or soaring with out-
stretched pinions. Their form is handsome and well-propor-
tioned, some of them resembling the swallow, others the dove;
but their mode of life does not correspond with their beauty, as
they are all ill-famed for their predatory habits and insatiable
voracity. The cry of the sea-mew is peculiar, being a mixture
of screaming and laughing. When in the solitude of a wild
rocky coast it is heard mingling with the hoarse rolling of the
surge and the moaning wind, it harmonises well with the cha-
racter of the dreary scene, and produces a not unpleasing effect.
It is amusing to witness the movements of the sea-mews at the
mouths of the larger rivers, where they are seen in numbers,
picking up the animal substances which are cast on shore, or
come floating down with the ebbingf tide. Such as are near
the breakers will mount up the surface of the water, and run
158
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
splashing towards the crest of the wave, to get hold of the object
of their pursuit, while others are seen every now and then diving,
and reappearing with a fish in their bill. Sometimes the more
powerful sea-hawk interrupts their pleasure, pounces upon the
robbers, and scatters the screaming band.
Many different species of gulls inhabit the northern shores,
and various are the places which they choose for breeding.
The Kittiwake or Tarrock ( Larus tridactylus), one of the com-
monest sea-birds in Greenland, Iceland, the Feroes and the
Scotch islands, builds its sea-weed nest on the highest and most
inaccessible rocks. According to Faber (Prodromus of Ice-
landic Ornithology), its swarms are so numerous on Grimsoe,
that they darken the sun when they fly, deafen the ear when
they scream, and deck the green-capped rocks with a white
covering when they breed.
In the famous “bird-city” at the north point of Sylt, the Silvery
or Herring-gull plays a prominent
part. Its great size, equal to that
of the raven, but with much longer
wings — its agreeable form, its pure
white plumage, of metallic brilliancy
on the back, gradually melting into
light ash-blue ; the velvet-black ends
of the wings, with snowy feather tips,
the lovely yellow eye, and the deep
yellow beak, with its coral-red spot, all this together forms a beau-
tiful picture. “ There we stood,” says
Naumann, “ surrounded by thou-
sands, that partly hovered close
over our heads, uttering their shrill
screams, partly stood before us in
pairs ; some on their nests, the
males keeping guard, some sleep-
ing on one leg, and others leisurely
stretching themselves. In one
word, one hardly knew what most
to admire, the uncommon cleanli-
ness and beauty of their plumage, the great variety and elegance
of their attitudes, their tameness, or the immense numbers
collected in so small a space.”
Herring Gull (Young').
Herring Gull, or Silvery Gull
(Adult).
GULLS.
159
la the same “ bird-city,” but apart from the former, breed
also the Common Gull ( Larus canus ) which is much smaller
and of a more slender shape, and also the Sandwich and Caspian
Terns. It is astonishing to see how each kind of sea-bird seeks
its particular spot for breeding ; only the auks and guillemots
herd promiscuously. What may induce the birds to meet in
such large bodies and then always to choose some particular
cliff? The gulls yield the fortunate possessor of their district
an annual income of at least two hundred rix-dollars. More
than thirty thousand of the eggs, which are larger than those
of the turkey, are collected every year, packed up with moss in
baskets, and sent to the market. Two or three persons are busy
from morning till evening, during the whole season, collecting
the eggs, and receive for their trouble those of the smaller birds,
which may also amount to about twenty thousand. But although
the terns appear in considerable numbers on Sylt, they have
chosen the small flat island, Norder Oog, to the west of Pel-
worm, for their chief residence. The breeding colony of the
Sandwich tern amounts here to at least a million of individuals,
so that when the birds are at rest, the island, at the distance
of a mile, resembles a white stripe in the sea ; but when their
innumerable multitudes hover above it, they seem an immense
white rotatory cloud. The eggs lie in some places so close
together, that it is almost impossible to walk between them
without treading upon them ; the breeding birds often touch
one another, and would not find room, if, like all sea-swallows
that breed socially on the coast, they did not sit in the same
posture, with their head facing the water. It is incomprehensible
how each bird can find its eggs ; it would even seem impossible,
did we not know the miracles of animal instinct. Their noise
is incessant, for even during the night they keep up a con-
tinual and lively prattle. He who approaches them during the
day is soon surrounded by these screamers, whose whirling
thousand-tongued multitudes stun his senses ; and these birds,
at other times so shy, flutter so close over his head, as often to
touch him with their wings.
On Nowaja Semlja’s ice-bound coast, on the peaks of isolated
cliffs, and suffering no other bird in his vicinity, dwells the
fierce imperious Burgomaster (Larus glaucus). None of its class
dares dispute the authority of the lordly bird, when with un-
1G0
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
hesitating superiority it descends on its prey, though in the
possession of another. Although not numerous, yet it is the
general attendant on the whale-fisher whenever spoils are
to be obtained. Then it hovers over the scene of action, and
having marked out its morsel, descends upon it and carries
it off on the wing. On its descent, the most dainty pieces
must be relinquished, though in the grasp of fulmar, snow-bird,
or kittiwake.
The larger parasitical or raptorial gulls ( Lestris 'parasiticus,
catarrhactes), are incapable of diving or plunging, their feathers
being too large in proportion to their bulk. They are therefore
obliged to live by the exertions of the lesser species, making
them disgorge what they have eaten, and dexterously catching
the rejected fish before it reaches the water. Thus we see the
old feudal relations of baron and serf established as a natural
institution among the gull-tribe.
Although the sea-swallows and sea-mews are endowed with
great power of wing, yet the petrels
and albatrosses alone deserve the
name of oceanic birds, as they are
almost always found on the high
seas, at every distance from land,
and only during breeding-time seek
the solitary coasts and islands.
Petrels are scattered over the whole
extent of the ocean, but the petrels
which inhabit the northern seas are different from those of the
antarctic ocean, and between both are other species, that never
forsake the intertropical waters.
The Fulmar ( Procellaria glaci-
alis ) is at home in the high north.
As soon as the whale-fisher has
passed the Shetland Islands, on his
way to the Arctic Seas, this bird is
sure to accompany his track, eagerly
watching for anything thrown over-
board. Walking awkwardly on land,
Fork-tailed retrei. the fulmar flies to windward in the
most terrific storms. Many thousands
frequently accumulate round a dead whale, rushing in from all
Broad -billed Petrel.
THE FULMAR — PETREL.
1G1
quarters. The sea immediately about the ship’s. stern, when
the men are engaged in skinning their gigantic prey, is some-
times so completely covered with them that a stone can scarcely
be thrown overboard without striking one of them. When
anything is thus cast among the crowd, those nearest take
alarm, and so on, till a thousand are put in motion ; but as
in rising they strike the water with their feet, a loud and most
irregular splashing is produced. It is amusing to observe with
what jealousy they view, and with what boldness they attack,
any of their species engaged in devouring the finest morsels,
and to hear the curious chuckling noise they make in their
anxiety for despatch, lest they should be disturbed. The vo-
racious birds are frequently so glutted as to be unable to fly, in
which case they rest upon the water until the advancement of
digestion restores their wonted powers. They then return to
the banquet with the same gusto as before, and although numbers
of the species may have been killed with boat-hooks, and float
among them, the others, nothing daunted, and unconscious of
danger to themselves, continue their gormandising labours.
When carrion is scarce, the fulmars follow the living whale, as
if they had a presentiment of his future fate, and some: imes,
by their peculiar motions while hovering on the surface of the
water, point out to the fisherman the position of the animal.
As their beak cannot make an impression on the dead whale
until some more powerful creature tears away the skin, it may
be imagined how delighted they are when man takes upon
himself the trouble of peeling a whale for them.
The Glacial Petrel ( Procellaria gelida) does not seem to
approach the pole so near as the fulmar. He appears but seldom
in Iceland, but breeds frequentty in Newfoundland. The same
is the case with the Shearwater (P. puffinus), which breeds in
great numbers on the Feroe islands, and in Orcadia. The
tropical petrels are the least known. They do not appear
to gather troop wise, and but seldom follow ships. Towards
45° S. lat. the first Pintados (P. capensis ) make their ap-
pearance, and are more rarely seen after having passed 60° S.
lat. The Giant Petrel (P. gigantea), extends its flight as far as
the ice-banks of the south, where the Antarctic and the Snowy
(P. antarctica et nivea ) Petrels first appear, birds which never
leave those dreary seas, and are often seen in vast flocks floating
162
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
upon the drift ice. Thus nature has set hounds to petrels, as to
all other creatures that swim or fly in and over the ocean, and
lias divided the wide deserts of the sea among their different
species. Who can tell us the mysterious laws which assign to
each of them its limits ? Who can show us the invisible barriers
they are not allowed to pass ?
The Stormy Petrel ( 1\ joelagica) seems to belong to every
sea. It is about the size of a swallow, and in its general ap-
Stormy Petrel.
pearance and flight is nor unlike that bird. Although the smallest
web-footed bird known, it braves the utmost fury of the tempest,
often skimming with incredible velocity the trough of the waves,
and sometimes gliding rapidly over their snowy crests. Like all
of its kind, it lives almost constantly at sea, and seeks during
the breeding season some lonely rock, where it deposits in some
Assure or crevice its solitary egg.
The mode of life of the petrels corresponds but little with
their external beauty; they are in fact the crows of the ocean,
and live upon the dead animal substances floating on its surface.
Wherever the carcase of a whale, borne along by the current,
covers the sea with a long stripe of putrid oil, they are seen
feasting in the polluted waters. All petrels have the remarkable
faculty of spouting oil of a very offensive smell, from their
nostrils when alarmed, and this apparently as a means of
defence.
The Albatross ( Diome-clea exulans ) is the monarch of the high
seas; the picture of a hero, who, under every storm of adverse
fortune, preserves the immoveable constancy of an undaunted
heart. Proud and majestic, he swims along in his own native
THE ALBATROSS.
163
element, and without ever touching the water with his pinions,
rises with the rising billow, and falls with the falling wave
It is truly wonderful how he bids
defiance to the fury of the unshac-
kled elements, and how quietly he
faces the gale. “ He seems quite
at home,” say the sailors; and in-
deed this expression is perfectly
characteristic of his graceful ease as
he hovers over the agitated ocean.
The albatross exceeds the swan in
size, attains a weight of from 12lbs. wandering aid atross.
to 281bs., and extends his wings from
ten to thirteen feet. His plumage is white and black, harmonising
with the wave-crest and the storm-cloud. For weeks and months
together he is seen to follow the course of a ship; but, according
to Mr. Harvey (FSea Side Book), “the time he can remain on
the wing seems to have been much exaggerated, for although,
like the gull and the petrel, he is no diving-bird, he swims
with the greatest ease ; and notwithstanding the enormous
length of his pinions, knows well how to rise again into the
air. He is indeed unable to take wing from a narrow deck,
but when he wishes to rise from the sea, he runs along flapping
the waters until he has acquired the necessary impetus, or meets
with a wave of a sufficient height, from whose lofty crest he
starts as from a rocky pinnacle, and resumes his extensive flight
over an immense expanse of ocean.” A short-winged species
frequents the waters of Ivamtschatka and Japan ; but the
wandering albatross (J). exulans) belongs more particularly to
the southern hemisphere, being rarely seen to the north of 30°
S. lat., and appearing more frequently as the higher latitudes
are approached. The regions of storms — the Cape of Good
Hope and Cape Horn — are his favourite resorts, and all travellers
knowT that the southern point of Africa is not far distant as soon as
the albatrosses show themselves in larger numbers. These birds
are the vultures of the ocean ; their crooked sharp-edged beak
is better adapted to lacerate a lifeless prey, than to seize upon
the rapid fish as it darts swiftly along below the surface of
the waters. From a vast distance they smell the floating carcase
of a whale, and soon alight in considerable numbers upon tt»e
1G4
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
giant carrion. They also feed upon the large cephalopoda
that inhabit mid-ocean, and remains of these molluscs are
generally found in their stomach. The Auckland and Campbell
islands seem to be two of their favourite breeding-stations.
When Sir James Ross visited these secluded groups, the birds
were so assiduously breeding as to allow themselves to be
taken with the hand. The nest is built of sand mixed with
dried leaves and grasses, generally eighteen inches high, with
a diameter of twenty-seven inches at the surface, and of six feet
at the base. While breeding, the snow-white head and neck of
the bird project above the grasses, and betray it from afar.
On endeavouring to drive it from its eggs it defends itself va-
liantly, snapping with its beak. Its greatest enemy is a fierce
raptorial gull ( Lestris antarcticus), which is always on the look-
out, and, as soon as the albatross leaves the nest, shoots down
upon it to steal the eggs.
Swift flies the albatross, but fancy travels with still more rapid
wings through the realms of space, and leads us suddenly from
the lone islands of the Pacific to the north of another hemisphere.
Saint Kilda rises before us — a glorious sight when the last rays
of the setting sun, as he slowly sinks upon the ocean, light up
with dazzling splendour the towering cliffs of the island, which
one might almost fancy to be some huge volcano newly emerged
from the deep, or the impregnable bulwark of some enchanted
land. St. Kilda, one of the most striking examples of the grandest
rock-scenery, plunges on all sides perpendicularly into the sea,
so that although six miles in circumference, it affords but one
single landing-place, accessible only in fair weather. Four of
the promontories are perforated, and as many large caverns are
formed, through which the sea rolls its heaving billows. From
the eastern extremity, which rises nearly perpendicularly to the
height of 1380 feet, and is supposed to be the loftiest precipice
in Britain, the view is of indescribable sublimity. Far
below, the long heavy swell of the ocean is seen climbing up
the dark rock, whose base is clothed with sheets of snow-white
foam. In many places the naked rock disappears under the
myriads of sea-birds sitting upon their nests ; the air is literally
clouded with them, and the water seems profusely dotted with
the larger fowl, the smaller ones being nearly invisible on ac-
count of the distance. Every narrow ledge is thickly^ covered
ST. KILDA.
165
with kittiwakes, auks, and guillemots; all the grassy spots are
tenanted by the fulmar, and honey-combed by myriads of
puffins ; while close to the water’s edge on the wet rocks, which
are hollowed out into deep recesses,
sit clusters of cormorants, erect and
motionless, like so many unclean
spirits, guarding the entrance of some
gloomy cave.
On rolling down a large stone from
the summit, a strange scene of con- B]ack Glllllen.ot.
fusion ensues. Here, falling like a
thunderbolt on some unfortunate fulmar sitting upon its nest,
it crushes the poor creature in an instant; then rolling down
the crags, and cutting deep furrows
in the grassy slopes, it scatters in
dismay the dense groups of auks and
guillemots. Its progress all along
is marked by the clouds of birds,
which affrighted shoot out from the
precipice to avoid the fate to which
nevertheless many fall a prey, until
at length it reaches the bottom along;
with its many victims. The scared
tenants of the rock now return to their resting-places, and all
is again comparatively quiet.
Several species of gulls are of common occurrence on St.
Kilda : Larus marinus, fuscvs , canus , and tridactylus. The
last, or kittiwake, is the most abundant; a social bird, choosing
the most inaccessible spots. On disturbing a colony of kitti-
wakes, most of the birds leave their nests and fly about the
intruder, uttering incessantly their clamorous but not unmusical
crv. The noise from a large dock is almost deafening ; the
flapping of their wings and their loud screams, joined to the
deep guttural notes of the passing gannets, and the shrill tones
of the larger gulls, form a combination of sounds without a
parallel in nature. Probably on account of its vigilance, the
kittiwake is not pursued by the fowler.
The fulmar breeds in almost incredible numbers on St. Kilda
(the only place in Britain where he is found), and is to the
natives by far the most important production of their barren
Common Fnlfin.
166
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
land. On the crest of the highest precipices, and only on such
as are furnished with small grassy shelves, on every spot above
a few inches in extent, the fulmars have taken possession of the
rock. On being seized, they instantly disgorge a quantity of clear
amber-coloured oil, which imparts to the whole bird, its nest
and young, and even the very rock which it frequents, a peculiar
and very disagreeable odour.
Fulmar oil is one of the most valuable productions of St.
Kilda. The best is obtained from the old bird by surprising it
at night upon the rock, and tightly closing the bill until the
fowler has seized the bird between his knees with its head down-
wards. By opening the bill, the fulmar is allowed to eject
about a table-spoonful, or rather more, of oil into the dried
gullet or stomach of a solan-goose. The islanders use fulmar-
oil for their lamps, and consider it as an infallible remedy against
chronic rheumatism.
It is chiefly in pursuit of the fulmar that the St. Kildian often
endangers his life. Two of the fowlers generally proceed in
company, each furnished with several coils of rope, about half an
inch in diameter. One of them fastens one of the ropes under
his armpits, and holding the extremity of another rope in one
hand, is lowered down the cliff. His comrade stands a little
away from the edge, holding the supporting rope firmly with
both hands and letting it out very slowly, while he allows the
other, or guide-rope, to slip out as is required from under one
foot, which loosely secures it. On reaching a ledge occupied
by birds, the fowler commences his operations, easily securing
the eggs and young birds, and knocking down the old ones with
a short stick, or catching them by a noose attached to a long
slender rod. He then secures his sport by bundling the birds
together, and tying them to a rope let down from above, depositing
at the same time in a small basket the eggs he has gathered. The
dexterity of these rocksmen is truly astonishing. The smallest
spot is considered by them as a sufficiently secure standing-place,
and they will creep on hands and knees, though cumbered with
a load of birds, along a narrow ledge, seemingly without concern
for their personal safety. When exhibiting before strangers, a
precipice about six hundred feet high, overhanging the sea, at
a short distance from the village, is generally chosen for a dis-
play of their agility. About midway they strike against the
ST. KILDA.
16
rock, and rebound twelve feet or more with all the agility of a
tight-rope dancer.
The Grannet, or Solan-goose, which abounds in the north of
Scotland and on the numberless islands and rocky fiords which
line the Norwegian coast, likewise congregates in vast numbers
about St. Kilda, from whence a portion of them take their de-
parture every morning to fish for herrings, their favourite food,
in the bays and channels of the other Hebrides, the nearest of
which is about fifty miles distant. This bird is very select in
the choice of its breeding-places, which it occupies to the total
exclusion of every other species. None are to be found in Hilda,
but the island of Borreray is almost entirely occupied with
them, as are also the adjacent rocks, Stack Ly and Stack Narmin.
Puffin.
These cliffs are remarkable for their pointed summits and towel-
ing height, and appear, even from the distance of many miles,
as if they were covered with snow, the deceptive appearance
being caused by the myriads of gannets with which the rock is
thickly covered, as well as the dense clouds of these white-
plumed birds passing and repassing in the neighbourhood of
their nests. Petrels, shearwaters, puffins, guillemots, and auks,
are also very abundant about the weather-beaten cliffs of St.
Kilda.
If we consider that similar bird-republics are to be found on
almost every rocky coast or surf-beaten cliff of the northern
seas, we must needs be astonished at the inexhaustible prodi-
N
168
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
gality of Nature, which covers desolate rocks with such a pro-
fusion of life. The vast number of sea-birds is the more
surprising, as many species, such as the
guillemot, the auk, the fulmar, and the
puffin, lay but one single egg on the naked
rock, and often in so precarious a situa-
tion, that it is almost inconceivable how
breeding can take place. When the birds
are surprised and suddenly fly off, many of
the eggs tumble- down into the surf. Sea-
eagles, falcons, and raptorial gulls destroy
a great number, and pounce upon the
Auk. yo>-mg j thousands fall a prey to the rigours
of an Arctic winter ; the spring-tides
sweeping over low shores, often carry away whole generations
at once, and many a maritime population lives entirely upon
the sea-fowl that breed upon the sterile soil. And yet, in spite
of so many enemies and persecutions, their numbers remain
undiminished, nor has their importance ever ceased in the
domestic economy of the rude islanders of the north.
Sea-Fowl Shooting.
But however valuable the eggs and the oil, the feathers and the
flesh of the hyperborean bird-republics may be to man, they are
far from equalling in importance the guano- producing sea-fowl of
the tropical seas. This inestimable manure, which has become
so indispensable to the British agriculturist, is found scattered
GUANO.
169
over numerous localities in the intertropical regions. It abounds
on many of the rocky islets of the Red Sea, where the life-teeming
waters afford sustenance to innumerable sea-gulls, cormorants,
and pelicans ; but its most widely celebrated stores cover the small
Chincha Islands, not far from Pisco, about a hundred miles to the
south of Callao, -where they form enormous layers 50 or 60 feet deep.
The upper strata are of a greyish-brown colour, which lower
down becomes darker ; and in the inferior strata the colour is a
rusty red, as if tinged by oxide of iron. The guano becomes
progressively more and more compact from the surface down-
wards, a circumstance naturally accounted for by the gradual
deposit of the strata and the increasing superincumbent weight.
As is universally known, guano is formed of the excrements of
different kinds of marine birds; but the species which Tschudi,
the celebrated Peruvian traveller, more particularly enumerates
are — Larus modestus (Tschudi), Rhynchops nigra (Linn.),
Plot as ankinga (Linn.), Pelecanus thayus (Mol.), Phalacro-
corax Gaimardii and albigula (Tsch.), and chiefly the Sula
variegata (Tsch.).
The immense flocks of these birds, as they fly along the coast,
appear like aerial islands ; and when their vast numbers, their
extraordinary voracity, and the facility with which they procure
their food are considered, we cannot be surprised at the magni-
tude of the beds of guano which have resulted from the uninter-
rupted accumulations of countless ages. During the first year
of the deposit the strata are white, and the guano is then called
Guano bianco. In the opinion of the Peruvian cultivators, this
is the most efficacious kind. As soon as the dealers in guano
begin to work one of the beds, the island on which it is formed
is abandoned by the birds. It has also been remarked that, since
the increase of trade and navigation, they have withdrawn from
the islands in the neighbourhood of the ports. Under the em-
pire of the Incas, the guano was regarded as an important branch
of state economy. It was forbidden, on pain of death, to kill
the young birds. Each island had its own inspector, and was
assigned to a certain province. The whole distance between
Arica and Chaucay, a lengt of two hundred nautical miles, was
exclusively manured with guano. These wise provisions have
been entirel y forgotten by the Spaniards, but the Peruvians now
begin to discover the error of their former masters, and look
170
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
forward with anxiety to the period when the guano will no longer
suffice for the wants of husbandry. At the present day they use
it chiefly in the cultivation of maize and potatoes. A few weeks
after the seeds begin to shoot, a little hole is made round each
root and filled up with guano, which is afterwards covered with a
layer of earth. After the lapse of twelve or fifteen hours, the
whole field is laid under water, and left in that state for about
half a day. Of the guano bianco a less quantity suffices, and the
field must be more speedilyand abundantly watered, otherwise the
roots would be destroyed. The effect of this manure is incredibly
rapid. In a few days the growth of the plant is doubled ; if the
manure is repeated a second time, but in smaller quantity, a rich
harvest is certain; — at least the produce will be three times
greater than that which would have been obtained from the un-
manured soil. The uniformity of climate, along a coast where
rain is never known to fall, contributes essentially to the superior
quality of the Chincha guano, as atmospherical precipitations
naturally dissolve and wash away many of the most fertilising
salts.
The consumption of guano in Western Europe, and particu-
larly in England, increases with surprising rapidity. On the
island of Iquique a layer thirty feet deep, and covering a space
of 220,000 square feet, has been entirely removed within twenty-
seven years. In the year 1854, 250,000 tons were dug in the
Chincha Islands, and the actual annual exportation amounts to
double the quantity. The digestive functions of the Sula and
her companions thus bring in larger sums to the Peruvian
Government than all the silver mines of Cerro de Pasco, and
the transport of the guano employs larger fleets than ever Spain
possessed at the brightest period of her power.
“ The Chincha Islands,” says Castelnau ( Expedition dans lei
Parties Centrales de VAmerique du Sud; Paris, 1851), “are
completely desert and devoid of vegetation ; their granite soil
is clearly distinguished by its colour from the thick stra-
tum of guano with which it is covered, and the surface of
which looks at a distance like snow. The steep banks render
landing difficult, but facilitate at the same time the shipping of
the produce, as the vessels lie at anchor close to the pits.
Digging takes place at three places, close to one another, and
the traveller has only to compare the enormous deposits with
CHINCHA ISLANDS.
171
the smallness of the excavations, which at some distance are
hardly perceptible, to convince himself of the inexhaustible
supply. Some huts have been constructed on the island, where,
in the midst of ammoniacal effluvia, some Peruvian custom-
house officers and soldiers superintend the working of the
guano-mines.”
.Birds of Passage
172
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA
CHAP. XI.
THE REPTILES OF THE OCEAN.
The Saurians of the Past Seas.— The Anatomical Structure of the Turtles —
Their Size — Their Visits to the Shores — The Dangers that await their Young
— Turtles on the Brazilian Coast— Prince Maximilian of Neuwied and the
Turtle — Conflicts of the Turtles with Wild Dogs and Tigers on the Coast of
Java — Turtle-catching on Ascension Island — Tortoise-shell — The Ambly-
rhynchus cristatus — Marine Snakes— The Great Sea-Snake.
There was a time when the reptiles were the monarchs
of the sea, when the ocean swarmed with gigantic saurians,
tyrants of the fishes, combining the swift-
ness of the dolphin with the rapacity of the
crocodile. Had those monsters of the deep
been endowed with human intelligence,
they would most likely also, with human
arrogance, have boasted of an eternal sway.
For where in the whole ocean was the
enemy that could cope with them ? Did
not all beings flee wherever they appeared ?
and did not the inexhaustible sea promise
them an everlasting supply of food ?
But in spite of their colossal power, the
saurians, like all created beings, have been
forced to succumb to time.
Centuries and centuries passed on, the
sea and air gradually changed, the tempe-
rature of the elements no longer remained
the same, and thus by degrees a new ocean
and a new atmosphere were formed, uncon-
genial to the nature of those huge reptiles.
Thus they have been effaced from the roll
of living things, and some petrified re-
mains alone bear testimony to their former
Ichthyosaurus. J
existence.
The most powerful saurians of the present day — the crocodile
SAURIAXS.
173
the gavial and the alligator — have left to the dolphins, the
sharks, and other monstrous or swiftly-swimming cetaceans
and fishes the dominion of the seas, and now merely infest
the rivers and swamps of the tropical zone. The lizards also
have long since retired from the scene where they once
abounded, and the ocean at present harbours no other reptiles
in its bosom than turtles and sea-snakes.
Most of the animals belonging to this class are either dan-
gerous or of a disgusting appearance. Few creatures are ob-
jects of such universal abhorrence as the crocodile — the very
type of brutal cold-blooded ferocity ; as the venomous snake —
the emblem of perfidy and ingratitude ; or as the loathsome,
but innocent toad, to which, on account of its ugliness, noxious
properties have been ascribed which the poor animal does not
possess. The frogs, lizards, and turtles alone seem to have
escaped this general detestation, either from their more active
habits, or their well-known harmlessness, or their various utility
to man.
The anatomy of the turtle offers many points of interest ; its
vertebra, ribs, and breast-bone growing together so as to form a
bony envelope round the whole animal. This harness is covered
by the skin, which in its turn is bedecked with large scales, while
all the muscles and other soft parts are enclosed in the inner
cavity. Only the head, feet, and tail protrude through openings
between the upper and under carapace, and these can, by the
land tortoises at least, be withdrawn entirely under the former.
This is the only protection which Nature has afforded these
animals against their enemies, for they have neither swiftness of
flight, nor any offensive weapon at their command. But as soon
as anything suspicious approaches, they conceal themselves
under their massive cover, and oppose to every attack by tooth
or nail the passive resistance of an impenetrable shield. Most
of their enemies find it, besides, no easy task to turn them on
their back, as many species attain a very considerable weight, so
that their mere bulk constitutes a good defence. It might be
supposed that this protection could only avail for a short time,
as the want of air must soon force the animal to stretch its head
out of its hiding-place, and this indeed would be the case, if kind
Nature had not taken her measures against this emergency, by
giving the creature a cold blood, so that it can remain a very
174
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
long time without breathing; long enough, at least, to tire the
patience of the most obstinate foe.
Skeleton of Tortoise.
a, superior maxilla ; b, inferior maxilla ; c, ossiculum auditus ; D, os hyoides t e, cervical vertebra ;
f, dorsal vertebra ; g, sacrum ; h, caudal vertebra ; I, dorsal ribs ; K, marginal scales ; N, scapula ;
o, coracoid bone ; p, os humeri ; q, radius ; R, ulna ; s, bones of the carpus ; t, metacarpal bones ;
l', digital phalanges; V, pelvis; w, femur; x, tibia; y, fibula; Z, tarsus; m, metatarsus;
a.v., phalanges of the foot.
But how comes it, the reader may ask, that respiration, which
pours a warm current through our veins, fails in raising the
temperature of the turtle’s blood ?
Without entering into a lengthened description of the human
heart, I shall merely observe that it consists of two halves (each
half being again subdivided into two separate chambers), and
that the right half, which receives venous blood and pours it
into the lungs, is completely separated by a partition from the
left half, which receives arterial or aerated blood from the lungs,
and propels it into every part of the body. Thus the two dif-
ferent kinds of blood are completely separated, so that an
unmixed venous blood flows into the lungs, where it is converted
by the oxygen of the air into arterial blood. But this connection,
like most chemical processes, takes place under an evolution of
STRUCTURE OF TURTLES.
1 7*
i 1 1
heat, which is so considerable that our internal temperature
constantly maintains itself at the height of 98° F.
Smaller Circulation. Through the Lungs.
Theoretic Representation of the Circulation m
Mammals and Birds.
But the turtle’s heart is differently formed, consisting, as the
annexed theoretic representation shows, of but one ventricle and
two auricles, so that a mixed, or only half aerated blood circulate?
Theoretic Representation of the Circulation m Reptiles.
throughout the body, which naturally produces a torpidity of the
whole vital process. Besides, the lungs of the reptiles are inca-
176
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
pable of aerating so great a quantity of blood as ours, as their cells
are much larger, thus offering less surface to the action of the air ;
and finally, the ribs of the turtles being immovable, they are in-
capable of extending the lungs, so that the animal is absolutely
obliged to swallow the necessary supply of air, and to pump it, as
it were, into the lungs, by contracting the muscles of the throat.
Thus we see that every precaution has been taken to reduce respi-
ration to a low standard, and prevent the evolution of heat. With
this indolence of its cold-blooded circulation, the whole nature
of the animal is in harmony ; the bluntness of its senses, its want
of intelligence, its slow movements, and its long endurance of
hunger, thirst, and want of air. It leads but a drowsy dream-
like existence, and yet, we may be sure, it is far from unhappy,
for all its functions and organs agree perfectly one with the other,
and when concord reigns, enjoyment of some kind must exist.
The turtles are distinguished from the land tortoises particu-
larly by their large and long fin-shaped feet, and also by a
longer tail, which serves them as a rudder. They have no teeth,
but the horny upper jaw closes over the lower like the lid of a
box, thus serving them as excellent shears, either for crushing
shells or dividing the tough fibres of the sea-grass.
They are at home in all the warmer seas, but sometimes they
are carried by oceanic streams far away from their accustomed
haunts. Thus, in the year 1752,
a Green turtle, six feet long, and
weighing900 pounds, stranded near
Dieppe; and in ] 778 another, seven
feet long, on the coastof Languedoc.
„ _ One taken on the coast of Cornwall
in July, 1756, measured from the
tip of the nose to the end of the shell, six feet nine inches, and
the weight was supposed to be nearly 800 pounds. These few
examples show us that the turtles rank among the larger inha-
bitants of the ocean, although they are far from attaining the
fabulous proportions assigned to them by Pliny (who makes the
Indians use their shells as boats or roofs), or the enormous size
of some colossal extinct species, such as the fossil tortoise from
the Siwala hills, preserved in the East Indian Museum, which
measures twelve feet in length. They live almost constantly at
sea, partly on shell-fish, like the fierce Loggerhead turtle
TURTLES OX THE BRAZILIAN COAST.
1T7
( Testudo Caretta), partly on sea-grass, like the Green turtle
(T. Midas), and only go on shore during the warmest months
of the year, for the purpose of laying
their eggs.
“ We followed the monotonous sea-
coast,” says Prince Maximilian of
Neuwied, in his interesting “ Tra-
vels through the Brazils;” “our
two soldiers, a Negro and an Indian,
frequently stopping to dig turtle-eggs Loggerhead Turtle,
out of the sand, which, boiled in sea-
water, used to form our evening repast. Once, while they were
busy gathering drift-wood for cooking, we found at a small
distance from our fire an enormous turtle busy laying her eggs.
We could not possibly have met with anything more agreeable ;
the creature seemed to have crawled there for the express
purpose of providing for our supper. Our presence did not
discompose her in the least; she allowed herself to be touched,
and even raised from the ground, for which purpose four men
were required. During our loud deliberations on her future
fate, she gave no other sign of uneasiness than a blowing sound,
and continued to work slowly with her hind fins, throwing up
the earth at regular intervals.
One of the soldiers stretched himself out at full length on the
ground near the purveyor of our kitchen, inserted his arm into the
earth-hole, and threw out the eggs as they were laid by the
turtle. In this manner above a hundred were collected in about
ten minutes. A council was now held as to the means of adding
the beast to our collection, but as it would have required an
additional mule for the transport, we gave it its life. These
colossal turtles — Midas, Coriacea, and Caretta — especially choose
these desert coasts for the laying of their eggs. They emerge
from the sea in the dusk of evening, and then crawl back again
into the water one or two hours after the setting of the sun.
Thus also the friendly turtle, which had so abundantly provided
for our wants, disappeared after a short time ; we found the large
hole filled up, and a broad trace in the sand showed that the
animal had again retreated to its favourite element. The Midas
is said to lay from ten to twelve dozen, and the Coriacea from
eighteen to twenty dozen eggs at once.”
178
THE INHABITANTS OP THE SEA.
The wild sand coast of Bantam (Java) is annually frequented
by a large number of turtles. They are often obliged to creep
over nearly a quarter of a mile of the beach, before finding at
the foot of the sand-dunes a dry and loose soil fit for their pur-
pose ; and on this journey, which for them is a very long one, they
have many dangers to encounter. Hundreds of their skeletons
lie scattered about the strand, many of them five feet long, and
three feet broad ; some bleached and cleaned by time, others still
half filled with putrid intestines, and others, again, quite fresh
and bleeding. High in the air a number of birds of prey wheel
about, scared by the traveller’s approach. Here is the place
where the turtles are attacked by the wild dogs. In packs of
from twenty to fifty, the growling rabble assails the poor sea-
animal at every accessible point, gnaws and tugs at the feet and
at the head, and succeeds by united efforts in turning the huge
creature upon its back. Then the abdominal scales are torn off,
and the ravenous dogs hold a bloody meal on the flesh, intestines,
and eggs of their defenceless prey. Sometimes, however, the
turtle escapes their rage, and dragging its lacerating tormentors
along with it, succeeds in regaining the friendly sea. Nor
do the dogs always enjoy an undisturbed repast. Often
during the night, the “ lord of the wilderness,” the royal tiger,
bursts out of the forest, pauses for a moment, casts a glance over
the strand, approaches slowly, and then with one bound, accom-
panied by a terrific roar, springs among the dogs, scattering
the howling band like chaff before the wind. And now it is
the tiger’s turn to feast, but even he, though rarely, is sometimes
disturbed by man. Thus, on this lonely, melancholy coast, wild
dogs and tigers wage an unequal war with the inhabitants of the
ocean.
The cold-blooded turtle is obliged to confide the hatching of
her eggs to the sun, which generally accomplishes the task in three
weeks. On creeping out of the egg, the young, even those of
the largest species, are not larger than half-a-crown and of a
white colour. Unprotected by a parent’s tenderness, the poor
little creatures seem only to be born for immediate death. Their
first instinctive movements are towards the element for which
they are destined; slowly they drag themselves towards the
water, but the sea meets them with a rough embrace, and the
TURTLE CATCHING.
179
unmerciful waves generally throw them back again upon the
shore. Here they are attacked by great sea-birds, storks and
herons, against which, in ' spite of their smallness, they make
feeble efforts of defence, or by still more powerful beasts ot
prey ; and thus the greater part of the unfortunate brood is
destroyed at its very first entrance into life ; while those which
reach the sea, are generally devoured by sharks and other sharp-
toothed fishes. It is therefore not in vain that the turtle lays
four or five hundred eggs in the course of a single summer, for
were she less fruitful, the race would long since have been ex-
tinguished.
I need hardly mention, that the flesh of the green turtle is
everywhere esteemed as a first-rate delicacy. The king of the
Manga Reva Islands in the South Sea keeps them in a pen for
the wants of his table; and the London alderman is said to
know no greater enjoyment than swallowing a basin of turtle-
soup. Hence it is no wonder that the mariner, tired of salt-beef
and dried peas, persecutes them on all the coasts of the tropical
seas, wherever solitude, a flat beach, and a favourable season
promise to reward his trouble.
Bernardin de St. Pierre gives us the following picturesque
description of turtle-catching on Ascension Island; — “Fire-
wood, a kettle, and the great boat-sail were landed, and the
sailors lay’ down to sleep, as the turtles do not emerge from the
sea before night-fall. The moon rose above the horizon and
illumined the solitude, but her light, which adds new charms to
a friendly prospect, rendered this desolate scene more dreary
still. We were at the foot of a black hillock, on whose summit
mariners had planted a great cross. Before us lay the plain,
covered with innumerable blocks of black lava, whose crests,
whitened by the drippings of the sea-birds, glistened in the
moonbeam. These pallid heads on dark bodies, some of which
were upright, and others reclined, appeared to us like phantoms
hovering over tombs. The greatest stillness reigned over this
desolate earth, interrupted only from time to time by the break-
ing of a wave, or the shriek of a sea-bird. We went to the
great bay to await the arrival of the turtles, and there we lay
flat upon the sand in the deepest silence, as the least noise
frightens the turtles, and causes them to withdraw. At last we
180
THE INHABITANTS 01 THE SEA.
saw three of them rising out of the water, and slowly creeping
on shore, like black masses. We immediately ran up to the
first, but our impatience caused it to drop immediately again
into the sea, where it escaped our pursuit. The second, which
had already advanced too far, was unable to retreat; we turned
it on its back. In this way we caught about fifty7" turtles, some
of which weighed five hundred pounds. Next morning, at ten,
the boat came to fetch the produce of our nocturnal sport.
This work occupied us the whole day, and in the evening the
superfluous turtles were restored to the sea. If suffered to
remain a long time on their back, their eyes become blood-
red, and start out of their sockets. We found several on
the strand that had been allowed to perish in this position, a
cruel negligence, of which thoughtless sailors are but too often
guilty.”
In the sea, also, the turtles are pursued by man. In the clear
West Indian waters, where they are frequently seen at great
depths, feeding on the sea-grass meadows, divers plunge after
them and raise them to the surface. Sometimes they are har-
pooned, or even caught sleeping on the waters.
The ancient Romans, who spent such extravagant sums upon
dishes repugnant to our taste, seem to have had but little relish for
turtle flesh, which otherwise the conquerors of the world might
easily have obtained from the Red Sea ; for though we read that
Vitellius feasted upon the brains of pheasants, and the tongues
of nightingales, it is nowhere mentioned, that he ever, like the
Lord Mayor of London, set seven hundred tureens of turtle
soup before his guests.
On the other hand, they made a very extensive use of tortoise-
shell, the produce of the Hawk’s-bill turtle ( Tes-
tudo imbricata) a native both of the American
and Asiatic seas, and sometimes, but more rarely,
met with in the Mediterranean. The flesh
of the animal is not held in any estimation as a
food, but the plates of the shell being thicker,
stronger, and cleaner than those of any other
Hawk’s-biii Turtle. SpecjeSj render it of great importance as an article
of trade.
“ Carvilius Pollio,” says Plin}7, C£ a man of great invention in
TORTOISE-SHELL.
ISj
matters pertaining to luxury, was the first who cut the plates of
the tortoise for veneering or inlaying.” The Romans imported
large quantities of this precious article from Egypt, and under
the reign of Augustus, the wealthy patricians used even to inlay
the doors and columns of their palaces with it. When Alexan-
dria was taken by Julius Caesar, the warehouses were so full of
tortoise-shell that the conqueror proposed to make it the principal
ornament of his triumph.
The use of tortoise-shell for the decoration of houses and fur-
niture is long since out of fashion, but it is still in great request
for the making of combs and boxes. By steeping it in boiling
water it softens, and may then, by a strong pressure, be moulded
into any form. When a considerable extent of surface is re-
quired, different pieces must be joined together. This is done
by scraping thin the edges of the pieces to be united, and laying
them over each other while they are in the heated and softened
state ; strong pressure being then applied, they become com-
letely agglutinated. It is in this way that gold, silver, and
other metals for different ornaments are made to adhere to
tortoise-shell.
When, at the beginning of the chapter, I mentioned that the
lizards had entirely forsaken the ocean, I forgot that the Gala-
pagos Islands in the South Sea, right under the Equator,
exclusively possess a maritime animal of this kind, which, from
its being the sole existing representative, or dwindled descend-
ant of the giant oceanic saurians of yore, is far too interesting
to be passed unnoticed. This lizard is extremely common
on all the islands throughout the Archipelago. It lives ex-
clusively on the rocky sea-beaches, and is never found, — at
least Mr. Darwin never saw one, — even ten yards inshore. It is
a hideous-looking creature, of a dirty black colour, stupid and
sluggish in its movements. The usual length of a full-grown
one is about a yard, but there are some even four feet long.
These lizards were occasionally seen some hundred yards from
182
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
the shore, swimming about; and Captain Collnett, in his “Voy-
age,” says they go out to sea in shoals to fish. With respect to
the object, Mr. Darwin believes he is mistaken ; but the fact, stated
on such good authority, cannot be doubted. When in the water
the animal swims with perfect ease and quickness by a serpen-
tine movement of its body and flattened tail ; the legs, during
this time, being motionless and closely collapsed on its sides.
A seaman of the “ Beagle ” sank one with a heavy weight at-
tached to it, thinking thus to kill it directly ; but when an hour
afterwards he drew up the line the lizard was quite active.
Their limbs and strong claws are admirably adapted for crawling
over the rugged and fissured masses of lava, which every where
form the coast. In such situations a group of six or seven of
these hideous reptiles may oftentimes be seen on the black
rocks, a few feet above the surf, basking in the sun with out-
stretched legs.
Mr. Darwin opened the stomach of several, and in each case
found it largely distended with minced sea- weed, of a kind growing
at the bottom of the sea, at some little distance from the coast.
The nature of this lizard’s food, as well as the structure of its
tail, and the certain fact of its having been seen voluntarily
swimming out at sea, absolutely prove its aquatic habits ; yet
there is in this respect one strange anomaly, namely, that when
frightened it will not enter the water. From this cause it is
easy to drive these lizards down to any little point overhanging
the sea, where they will sooner allow a person to catch hold oi
their tail than jump into the water. They do not seem to have
any notion of biting ; but when much frightened they squirt a
drop of fluid from each nostril. One day Mr. Darwin carried one
to a deep pool left by the retiring tide, and threw it in several
times as far as he was able. It invariably returned in a direct
line to the spot where he stood. It swam near the bottom with
a very graceful and rapid movement, and occasionally aided
itself over the uneven ground with its feet. As soon as it ar-
rived near the margin, but still being under water, it either
tried to conceal itself in the tufts of sea-weed, or it entered some
crevice. As soon as it thought the danger was past, it crawled
out on the dry rocks and shuffled away as quickly as it could.
Mr. Darwin several times caught this same lizard by driving it
TI1R PELAMYS BICOLOR.
I S3
down to a point, and, though possessed of such perfect powers
of diving and swimming, nothing could induce it to enter the
water; and as often as he threw it in, it returned in the manner
above described.
Perhaps this singular piece of apparent stupidity may be
accounted for by the circumstance that this reptile has no
enemy whatever on shore, whereas at sea it must often fall
a prey to the numerous sharks. Hence, probably urged by a
fixed and hereditary instinct that the shore is its place of safety,
whatever the emergency may be, it there takes refuge. On a
comparison of this singular animal with the true iguanas, the
most striking and important discrepancy is in the form of the
head. Instead of the long pointed narrow muzzle of those
species, we have here a short obtusely truncated head, not so
long as it is broad ; the mouth consequently is capable of being
opened to only a very small extent. From this circumstance,
and from the crest on its head, it has received the Latin name
of A mblyrhynchus cristatus.
The serpent race, which thrives so abundantly in the tropical
forests and morasses, has also its marine representatives in the
Indian and Pacific Oceans, where more than fifty species of
Hydrophis, Pelamys, and Chersydra have been found. They
are distinguished from their terrestrial relations by the flattened
form of their tail, the planes of which being directed vertically
give it the properties of a powerful oar, in strik-
ing the water by lateral oscillations. These sea-
snakes always appear to prefer calms, swimming
on the still surface in an undulating manner,
never raising the head much from the surface,
or vaulting out of the water. They dive with
facility on the approach of danger, but do not
appear to be particularly timid.
The Pelamys bicolor is very common from
India to Otaheite. In the seas of Mindoro and
Sooloo, Mr. Adams saw thousands swimming on the top of the
water, especially in eddies and tide-ways where the ripple
collects numerous fish and medusae, which principally constitute
their prey. Their tongue is white and forked, differing in
o
184
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
respect of its colour from the tongue of other snakes, which is
generally black. The water-snakes, which are frequently
beautifully banded, and as thick as a man's leg, are said to be
highly venomous. Captain Cook, in one of his voyages, “ saw
abundance of water-snakes, one of which was coming up the
side of our ship, and our men beat it off. The Spaniards
affirm there is no cure for such as are bit by them ; and one
of our blacks happened to fall under that misfortune, and died
notwithstanding the utmost care was taken by our surgeons to
recover him.”
Such are the real sea-snakes as they are met with by ordinary
travellers, while the great sea-serpent, which from time to time
dives up in the columns of the newspapers, must, until better
evidence be brought forward for its existence, be banished to
those dim regions peopled by unicorns, griffins, krakens, and
tailed men.
Olaus Magnus, it is true, speaks of the great sea-snake as if
it made its daily appearance on the Norwegian coast. Accord-
ing to him, it inhabits the rocky caves near Bergen, and
wanders forth at night, particularly by moonshine, to commit its
depredations by sea and land ; as calves and pigs seem to suit
its appetite as w7ell as fishes and lobsters. The body is covered
with scales, a long mane flows along the neck, and the head,
furnished with two glistening eyes, rises like a mast out of the
water. It often attacks ships, and picks up seamen from the
deck. This description may serve as an example of the bold-
ness with which authors have sometimes asserted the most
extravagant things.
The Greenland missionary Egede tells us in his Journal, that
“on the 6th of July, 1734, there appeared a very large and
frightful sea-monster, which raised itself so high out of the
water that its head reached above our main-top. It had a
long sharp snout, very broad flappers, and spouted water like a
whale. The body seemed to be covered with scales, the skin
was uneven and wrinkled, and the lower part was formed like a
snake. After some time the creature plunged backwards into
the water, and then turned its tail up above the surface, a
whole ship-length from the head.”
It is hard to disbelieve so pious and excellent a man, whose
excited fancy no doubt gave extraordinary forms and dimensions
THE LARGE SEA-SNAKE.
185
to some commoner sea-animal of large size; but the testimony
of a Scoresby, who during his frequent Arctic voyages never
saw anything of the kind, would have been more convincing.
If to this account of Egede be added the reports of some
other northern divines, such as Pontoppidan, the missionary
Nicholas Gfreemius, and Maclean, who either pretend to have
actually seen the monster or write about it from hearsay — and
the testimony of a few seamen, among others of Captain
M‘Quhae of the Daedalus, who, on the 6th of August, 1848,
saw a sea-snake on his homeward voyage from the East Indies ;
we have all the evidence extant in favour of the existence of
the monstrous animal.
In opposition to these testimonies, incredulous naturalists beg
to remark, that no museum possesses a single bone of the huge
snake, and that its body has nowhere been found swimming on
the ocean or cast ashore. They therefore agree with Professor
Owen in regarding the negative evidence, from the utter absence
of any recent remains, as stronger against their actual existence
than the positive statements which have hitherto weighed with
the public mind in favour of their reality; and believe that a
larger body of evidence from eye-witnesses might be got
together in proof of the reality of ghosts than in proof of the
existence of the great sea-serpent.
The plain truth seems to be that lines of rolling porpoises,
resembling a long string of buoys, first gave origin to the
marvellous stories of the fabulous monster. For, keeping in
close single file, and progressing rapidly along the calm surface
of the water by a succession of leaps or demivaults forward,
part only of their uncouth forms appears to the eye, so as to
resemble the undulatory motions of one large serpentiform
animal.
186
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
CHAP. XII.
THE MARINE FISHES.
General Observations on Fishes — Their Locomotive Organs — Tail — Fins. —
Classification of Fishes by Cuvier. — Air-Bladder. — Scales. — Beauty of the
Tropical Fishes. — The Gills. — Terrestrial Voyages of the Anabas and the
Hassar. — Examples of Parental Affection. — Organs of Sense. ■ — Offensive
Weapons of Fishes. — The Sea-Wolf. — The Shark. — The Saw-Fish. — The Sword-
Fish. — The Torpedo. — The Star-Gazer. — The Angler.— The Cheetodon Bos-
tratus. — The Bemora, used for catching Turtles. — Defensive Weapons of
Fishes. — The Weever. — The Stickleback.' — The Sun-Fish. — The Flying-Fish. —
The numerous Enemies of the Fishes. — Importance and History of the Herring
Fishery. — The Pilchard. — The Sprat. — The Anchovy. — The Cod. — The Stur-
geons.—The Salmon. — The Tunny. — The Mackerel Family.— The Eel.— The
Murey. — The Conger. — The Sand-Launce. — The Plectognaths. — The Sea-Horse.
— The Pipe-Fish. — The Flat-Fishes. — The Bays. — The Fecundity of Fishes.
The bosom of the ocean is full of mysteries ; it conceals a whole
world of curiously-shaped animals, which the naturalist only
superficially knows, and may, perhaps, never be able to fathom.
To observe the habits of terrestrial animals, and accurately to
determine their various species, is a comparatively easy task ;
but the denser element in which fishes live prevents us from
following their motions with exactness, from studying their
instincts, and from noting with fidelity their specific differences.
Since Pliny, who mentions but seventy-four different kinds of
fishes, the number of known species has indeed enormously in-
creased. The ancients, who knew only the waters of the Medi-
terranean and a very small part of the ocean, had no conception
of the finny multitudes inhabiting the tropical and icy seas ;
but although modern science has succeeded in describing and
picturing above eight thousand different kinds of fishes, yet
there can be no doubt that many still unknown species dwell in
the depths of ocean, or in the distant seas which are but seldom
visited by the European mariner
SWIFTNESS OF FISHES.
187
If the whole economy of the world of fishes were opened to
our view, the magnificent picture would, no doubt, give us ad-
ditional reasons for admiring the infinite wisdom of the Creator ;
but the little we do know suffices to convince us that the
same wonderful harmony existing between the anatomical
structure and the outward relations or mode of life in birds and
mammiferous quadrupeds is also to be found in fishes, and that
these creatures, though occupying a lower grade in Creation, are
no less beautifully adapted to the peculiar element in which
they are destined to live and move.
This strikes us at once in their external form, which, though
subject to great variety, being sometimes spherical as in the
globe-fish, or cubical as in the ostracion, or expanded as in the
skate, or snake-like as in the eel, is generally that of an elon-
gated oval, slightly compressed laterally, a shape which enables
the fishes to traverse their native fluid with the greatest celerity
and ease. We wisely endeavour to imitate this peculiar form
in the construction of our ships, yet the rapidity with which the
fastest clipper cleaves the waters is nothing to the velocity of an
animal formed to reside in that element. The flight of an
arrow is not more rapid than the darting of a tunny, a salmon,
or a gilt-head through the water. It has been calculated that a
salmon will glide over 86,400 feet in an hour, that it will
advance more than a degree of the meridian of the earth in a
day, and that it could easily make the tour of the world in some
weeks, were it desirous of emulating the fame of a Cook or of
a Magellan. Every part of the body seems exerted in this
despatch; the fins, the tail, and the motion of the whole back-
bone assist progression ; and it is to this admirable flexibility of
body, which mocks the efforts of art, that fishes owe the
astonishing rapidity of their movements.
Whales and dolphins move onwards by striking the water
in a vertical direction, while fishes glide along by laterally
curving and extending the spine. In some species, such as the
eel, the whole body is flexible ; but most of them paddle away
with their tail to the right and left, and are thus driven forwards
by the resistance of the water. Consequently the power of
fishes is chiefly concentrated in the muscles bending the spine
sideways, and generally we find these parts so much developed
as to form the greatest part of the body.
188
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
The fins are the most important auxiliary organs of locomo-
tion in fishes. The dorsal, caudal, and anal fins serve by their
vertical position to increase the extent of the rowing surface,
and to maintain the animal’s balance, while the pectoral and
Skeleton of tne Perch.
a a, Dorsal Fins ; B, Caudal ; c, Anal ; u, Ventral ; E, Pectoral.
ventral fins, which must be considered as the representatives of
the fore and hind limbs of other vertebrata, are, moreover, of
great assistance in directing its movements. With the help of
these organs, fishes can advance or retrograde, ascend or descend
in the water as they please, and it is curious to observe how,
alternately extending or contracting one fin or the other, they
gracefully plough the liquid element in every direction.
It is no less wonderful how perfectly the size and texture of
the fins corresponds with the habits and necessities of the
different species of fishes. Those which traverse vast portions
of the ocean, or have frequently to struggle against swelling
waves, are furnished with large and strong fins, while these organs
are soft in the species which confine themselves to greater
depths, where the winds cease to disturb the waters.
From the great variety which is met with both in the number
and position of the fins, they are also of the greatest use in the
classification of fishes, and afford the naturalist many of the
chief characters which serve to distinguish the several orders,
families, genera, and species of these aquatic vertebrates.*
* Cuvier divides the fishes into :
I. Chondropterygii — Skeleton cartilaginous ; fins supported by cartilaginous
rays ; and
II. Osteopterygii — Skeleton composed of true bone.
THE AIR-BLADDER.
189
Most fishes possess a remarkable accessory organ of locomo-
tion in the air-bladder or swim-bladder which extends to a
greater or smaller distance along the ventral surface of the
spine, and enables them voluntarily to increase or diminish the
specific gravity of their body. When they contract this remark-
able gas-reservoir, or press out the included air by means of the
abdominal muscles, the bulk of the body is diminished, its
weight in proportion to the water is increased, and the fish
swims easily at a greater depth. The contrary takes place on
relaxing the tension of the abdominal muscles ; and thus we
see fishes rise and fall in their denser element by the applica-
tion of the same ph}Tsical law which is made use of by our
aeronauts, to scale the heavens or to descend again upon the
The Chondropterygii are subdivided info three orders :
(a) Sturionidae (sturgeons), with free gills.
( b ) Selacii (rays, sharks), with gills fixed and a mouth formed for mastication.
(c) Cyclostomata (lamprey, myxine), with gills fixed and a mouth formed for
suction.
The osseous fishes, which are far moi;e numerous, are subdivided into six
orders :
(a) Acanthopterygii ; distinguished by the stiff spines which constitute the
first fin-rays of the dorsal fin, or which support the anterior fin of the back in
case there are two dorsals. In some cases the anterior dorsal fin is only repre-
sented by detached spines. The first rays of the anal fin are likewise spinous,
as well as the first ray of the ventral fin. To this extensive order, which com-
prises about three-fourths of the osseous fishes, belong, among others, the
families of the perches, gurnards, mackerels, mullets, breams, gobies, blennies,
&c.
The three following orders of the osseous fishes have the rays that support the
fins soft and composed of numerous pieces articulated with each other, with the
exception in some cases of the first ray of the dorsal, or of the pectoral. Their
leading character is afforded by the situation or absence of the ventral fin, which
in the
( b ) Malacopterygii abdominales are suspended beneath the abdomen, and
behind the pectorals ; in the
(c) Malacopterygii subbrachiales beneath the pectorals; and in the
( d ) Malacopterygii apodes are totally wanting.
To the abdominal soft-rayed fishes belong the herring, salmon, pike, sly, and
carp families ; to the subbrachial, the cod family, the side-swimmers, and the lump
fishes; and, finally, to the apodal malac jpterygians, the single family of the
anguilliform fishes. The small order of the
(e) Lophobranchi comprises the pipe-fishes, sea-horses, in whom the gills are
not pectinated, as in the preceding subdivisions, but consist of little round tufts ;
and, finally, the
(/) Plectognathi — comprising the file, porcupine, and sun fishes— are distin-
guished by their maxillaries and premaxillaries being joined immovably to each
other, so as to render the upper jaw incapable of protrusion.
190
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
earth. Those fishes which are destined to live at the bottom ot
the sea or to conceal themselves in the mud, such as eels and
skates, have either no air-bladder or a very small one — for
economical Nature gives none of her creatures any organ that
would be useless to them. Even the slimy glutinous matter
which is secreted from the pores of most fishes, and lubricates
their bodies, assists them in gliding through the waters, so that
no means have been neglected to promote the rapidity of their
movements.
The skin of fishes is but seldom naked ; in most species it is
covered with scales, that sometimes appear in the form of
osseous plates, as in the ostracions, or project into formidable
prickles, as in the porcupine-fish, but generally offer the aspect
of thin laminae, overlapping each other like the tiles of a roof,
and embedded, like our nails, in furrows of the skin. In nearly
all the existing fishes, the scales are flexible and generally either
of a more or less circular form ( cycloid ), as in the salmon,
herring, roach, &c., or provided with comb-like teeth projecting
from the posterior margin {ctenoid), as in the sole, perch, pike,
&c. ; while the majority of fossil fishes were decked with hard
bony scales, either rhomboidal in their form, of a highly
polished surface, as in our sturgeons {ganoid), and arranged in
regular rows, the posterior edges of each slightly overlapping
the anterior ones of the next, so as to form a very complete
defensive armour to the body ; or irregular in their shape and
Portion or' Skin of Sole highly magnified.
separately imbedded in the skin {jplacoid), as in the sharks and
rays of the present day.
The scales of almost any fish afford admirable subjects for
microscopic observation, but more particularly those of the
ctenoid kind, which exhibit a brilliancy of reflected light, and a
STEUCTUEE OF THE OlLLS.
191
regularity of structure, such as no human mosaic could ever
equal.
Many of our European fishes are richly decorated with vivid
colours, but their scaly raiment is generally far from equalling
the gorgeous magnificence of the fishes of the tropical seas.
If in the birds of the equatorial zone a part of the plumage
sparkles with a gem-like brilliancy, all the colours of the rain-
bow combine to decorate the raiment of the tropical fishes, and
no human art can reproduce the beauty of their metallic lustre,
which at every movement in the crystalline waters exhibits to
the enchanted eye new combinations and reflections of the
most splendid tints.
The gaudiest fishes live among the coral reefs. In the tepid
waters, where the zoophytes, those sensitive flowers of the ocean,
build their submarine palaces, we find the brilliant Chetodons,
the gorgeous Balistinae, and the azure Gdyphysodons gliding
from coral branch to coral branch like the playful Colibris, that
over the Brazilian fields dart from one lustrous petal to another.
Oxygen is as necessary to fishes and other marine creatures as
it is to the terrestrial animals, but as they are obliged to draw
it from a denser element, which absorbs but a small volume of
air, their gills are necessarily differently constructed from the
lungs of the creatures breathing in the atmosphere. In most
species, comprising all the bony fishes, and the sturgeons,
among those which have a cartilaginous skeleton, we find on
either side of the throat five apertures, separated from each
other by four crooked, parallel and unequal bones, and leading
to a cavity, which is closed on the outside by an operculum or
cover. In this cavity, and attached to the bones, are situated the
delicate membranes, bearded like feathers, which serve to aerate
the blood. The water constantly flows through the gills in one
direction, entering by the branchial apertures of the throat, and
emerging through the operculum. This is, in more than one
respect, a most wise provision of Nature ; for if the fishes were
obliged to receive and reject the water by the same aperture,
as we do the air, each expiration would evidently drive them
backwards, and consequently retard their movements. It is
also evident that the delicate fringes or folds of the gills would
soon get into disorder if the water were carried through them in
two opposite directions.
1 5)2
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
In most of the cartilaginous fishes, such as the sharks, rays,
and lampreys, the gills are differently formed, the water not
passing into a cavity closed by a cover, but flowing directly out-
wards through five (in the shark) or seven (in the lamprey)
vents or spiracles. In these species also the gills are fixed, their
margins being attached. Though the whole breathing apparatus
of a fish is comprised in a small compass, its surface, if fully
extended, would occupy a very considerable space ; that of the
common skate, for instance, being equal to the surface of the
human body. This single fact may convince us of the number-
less ramifications and convolutions of the gills, in which the
water is elaborated and attenuated in the course of giving out
its air ; and how wonderfully Nature has contrived to effect her
purpose with the greatest economy of space.
Respiration is a species of combustion, and this must neces-
sarily be very slow in an element which contains so small a
portion of oxygen. No wonder that the circulation of the blood
in fishes is equally tardy. Their heart, in comparison with ours,
is but half a one , as it merely serves to force the venous blood
into the gills — whence the aerated blood does not flow back to
the heart as with us, to be rapidly and strongly propelled through
the body, but proceeds immediately to the arteries. Evidently
only a cold blood could be formed under such circumstances. It
may seem strange that, when fishes are taken out of the water, they
die from want of air ; such, however, is the case. Their delicate
breathing membranes collapse in the atmosphere, the blood can
Smaller Circulation.
Greater Circulation.
Theoretic representation of the Circulation m Fishes.
THE CLIMBING FISHES.
19a
no longer flow as before into the innumerable small vessels with
which they are interwoven, and, by rapidly drying in the air,
they soon entirely lose the faculty of breathing. Thus those
Ashes whose gill-cover has a large aperture, die soonest in the
The Anabas of the Dry Tanics
air. while those where the opening is narrow, and more parti-
cularly those species where the gills communicate with a
cellular labyrinth containing water, which serves to keep them
moist, are able to live a much longer time in the atmosphere.
It is owing to such a moistening apparatus that the climbing
fishes (Anabas) live for days out of the water, and even creep up
the trees at some distance from the shore, to catch the insects
which serve them as food — a curious instance indeed of an
animal seeking its nourishment in another element.
194
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
The Frog-fish of the Asiatic islands and the Southern hemi-
sphere is not more remarkable for its hideous deformity than for
its capacity of leading a terrestrial life. Not only can it live
several days out of the water but it can cra"wl about the room in
which it is confined, a facility which it owes to the great strength
and the peculiar position of its pectoral fins, which thus perform
the office of feet. The whole aspect of these grotesque-looking
creatures, particularly in a walking position, is so much like
that of toads or frogs, that a careless observer would at first
be at some loss to determine their real nature.
A no less wonderful pedestrian is the Hassar ( Doras costata),
a South American fish, that marches over land in search of
water, travelling a whole night when the pools dry up in
which it commonly resides. It projects itself forwards on its
bony pectoral fins, by the elastic spring of the tail, exerted
sidewise, and in this manner proceeds nearly as fast as a man
will leisurely walk. The strong scuta or bands which envelop
its body must greatly facilitate its march, in the manner of
the plates under the belly of serpents, which are raised and
depressed by a voluntary power, in some measure performing
the office of feet. The Indians say justly that these fishes
supply themselves with water for their journey. If they find
the pools and rivers everywhere dried up, they bury themselves
in the mud, and fall into a kind of asphyxia or lethargy, till
the rainy season recalls them again to life.
The hassar is also remarkable for a parental affection, almost
unexampled among fishes. Sir Eichard Schomburgk relates that
it not only builds a complete nest for its spawn but also watches
over it with the utmost vigilance till the young brood comes
forth. In April, this marine artist begins to build his little
dwelling of vegetable fibres, among the waterplants and rushes,
until it resembles a hollow ball, flattened at the top. An
aperture corresponding to the size of the mother leads into
the interior. The parental affection of the fish is shamefully
misused by man for its destruction. A small basket is held
before the opening ; then the nest is slightly beaten with a
stick; and, furious, with extended fins, whose sharp points are
able to inflict a painful wound, the poor hassar darts into the
fatal basket.
The black Goby ( Gobius nigev) also prepares a nest for its
SUBAQUEOUS LIFE— STICKLEBACKS AND NEST.
This plate represents a group of fifteen-spined sticklebacks busily employed in
making their nests. To the left is seen a curious piece of marine architecture,
mentioned by Mr. Couch, the well-known ichthyologist. A pair of sticklebacks
had made their nest “ in the loose end of a rope, from which the separated strands
hung out about a yard from the surface, over a depth of four or five fathoms, and
to which the materials could only have been brought, of course, in the mouth of
the fish, from the distance of about thirty feet. They were formed of the usual
aggregation of the finer sorts of green and red sea-weed, but they were so matted
together in the hollow formed by the untwisted strands of the rope that Tie mass
constituted an oblong ball of nearly the size of the fist, in which had been deposited
the scattered assemblage of spawn, and which was bound into shape with a thread
of animal substance, which was passed through and through in various directions,
while the rope itself formed au outside covering to the whole.”
THE STICKLEBACK’S NEST.
19&
eggs. This fish inhabits the slimy bottoms of the lagoons
near Venice, and burrows galleries in the clayey soil, where
it spends the greater part of the year, protected against storms
and enemies. In spring it digs more superficial dwellings
among the roots of the sea-grass, to which the spawn attaches
itself. The architect watches over the entrance of the house,
opposing sharp rows of teeth to every intruder.
A similar care may be admired in the tiny Stickleback, which
the celebrated ichthyologist, M. Coste, has often watched build-
ing its nest. After the fish has collected the materials, it
covers them with sand, glues the walls with a mucous secretion,
and prepares a suitable entrance. At a later period it becomes
the bold and indefatigable defender of its eggs, repelling with
tooth and prickles all other sticklebacks that approach the nest.
If the enemy is too powerful, it has recourse to artifice, darts
forth, seems actively engaged in the pursuit of an imaginary
prey, and often succeeds in diverting the aggressor’s attention
from its nest. The River Bullhead is likewise said to evince
the same parental affection for its 'ova, as a bird for its nest,
returning quickly to the spot, and being unwilling to quit it
when disturbed. It is believed, also, of the Lump-Sucker, that
the male first keeps watch over the deposited ova, and guards
them from every foe with the utmost courage. If driven froru
the spot by man, he does not go far, but is continually looking
back, and in a short time returns. Thus we find among the
inferior animals glimpses of a higher nature, which prove that
all created beings form a continuous chain, linked together by
one all-pervading and almighty Power.
The senses of the fishes are also in perfect harmony with
the peculiarities of their mode of life. Their eyes are indeed
wanting in the fire and animation which gives so much expres-
sion to the physiognomy of the higher animals, but the structure
of these organs is admirably calculated for the element in which
they are plunged, as the spherical form and great size of the
crystalline lens, by concentrating the rays of light, enables them
to see with distinctness even through so dense a medium as that
which surrounds them. When water is clear, smooth, and un-
disturbed the sight of fishes is very acute, a circumstance well
known to anglers, who prefer a breeze undulating over the
surface, as they can then approach much nearer the objects of
196 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
their pursuit and practise their artful dodges with a much
better chance of success. The eyes in fishes are observed to
occupy very different positions in different species, but their
situation is always such as best to suit the exigencies of the
particular fish. Thus in the star-gazer and sea-devil, that
watch their prey from a muddy concealment, they are very
appropriately placed at the top of the head, while in the flat-
fishes, where an eye on the side habitually turned towards the
ground would have been useless, the distorted head, by placing
both eyes on the same level, affords them an extensive range of
view in those various directions in which they may either en-
deavour to find suitable food or avoid dangerous enemies. That
fishes are not deficient in the sense of hearing may be seen
at once by the annexed illustrations, which show a marked
Internal Ear of Perch.
similarity of organisation between the human ear and that of
the perch. It is well known that they start at the report of a
Osseous labyrinth of the Human Ear.
a , Oval or vestibular fenestra; b, round or cochlear fenestra; r, external or horizontal semi-
circular canal ; d. superior or anterior vertical semicircular canal ; e , posterior or inferior
vertical semicircular canal ; /, the turns of cochlea.
gun, though it is impossible for them to see the flash. Sir
Joseph Banks used to collect his fishes by sounding a bell, and
the Chinese call the gold-fish with a whistle to receive their
ORGANS OF TOUCH.
197
ried Mullet.
food. In spite of their scaly covering, the fishes are not unpro-
vided with organs of touch. The lips in many species are soft,
and the mouths of others, such as the
red mullet — for which such enormous
sums were paid by the Koman epi-
cures— are provided with barbules
largely supplied with nerves, which no
doubt enable them to distinguish the
objects with which they come in con-
tact. In the three elongated rays of their pectoral fins the
gurnards may be said to possess fingers to compensate for their
bony lips ; and in many other fishes these modified arms or
forefeet are applied as organs of feel-
ing to ascertain the character of the
bottom of the water. “You may witness
the tactile action of the pectoral fins,”
says Professor Owen,* “ when gold-fish
are transferred to a strange vessel ;
their eyes are so placed as to prevent
them seeing what is below them ; so
they compress tneir air-bladder, and allow themselves to sink
near the bottom, which they sweep, as it were, by rapid and
delicate vibrations of the pectoral fins, apparently ascertaining
that no sharp stone or stick projects upwards, which might
injure them in their rapid movements round their prison.”
Whether fishes possess any high degree of taste is a subject
not easily proved ; but, to judge by the large size of theii
olfactory nerves, their sense of smell is probably acute.
The life of fishes is a state of perpetual warfare, a constant
alternation of flight and pursuit. Prowling through the waters,
they attack and devour every weaker being they meet, or dart
away to escape a similar lot. Many of
them are provided, besides their swift-
ness and muscular power, with the most
formidable weapons. Thus the Sea-
wolf has six rows of grinders in each
jaw, excellently adapted for bruising the crabs and whelks,
which this voracious animal grinds to pieces, and swallows along
Gurnard.
Wolf-Fish.— (Anarrhioas lupus.
* “ Lectures on Comparative Anatomy.”
P
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
1!)8
with the shells. When caught, it fastens with indiscriminate
rage upon anything within its reach, fighting desperately, even
when out of its own element, and inflicting severe wounds if not
cautiously avoided. Schonfeld relates that it will seize on an
anchor, and leave the marks of its teeth behind, and Steller in-
forms us that one which he saw taken on the coast of Kamschatka
frantically seized a cutlass with which it was attempted to be
killed, and broke it in pieces as if it had been made of glass.
No wonder that the fishermen, dreading its bite, endeavour as
soon as possible to render it harmless by heavy blows upon the
head. The great size of the monster, which in the British waters
attains the length of six or seven feet, and in the colder and
more extreme northern seas is said to become still larger, renders
it one of the most formidable denizens of the ocean. It com-
monly frequents the deep parts of the sea, but approaches the
coasts in spring to deposit its spawn among the marine plants.
Fortunately for its more active neighbours, it swims but slowly,
and glides along with the serpentine motion of the eel.
Far more dreadful, from its gigantic size and power, is the
White Shark ( Squalus carcharias), whose jaws are likewise
furnished with from three to six rows of strong, flat, triangular,
sharp-pointed, and finely serrated teeth, which it can raise or
depress at pleasure. This tyrant of the seas grows to a length of
thirty feet, and its prodigious strength may be judged of from the
fact that a young shark, only six feet in length, is able to break
a man’s leg by a stroke of its tail. Thus, when a shark is caught
with a baited hook at sea, and drawn upon deck, the sailors’ first
act is to chop off its tail, to prevent the mischief otherwise to
be apprehended from its enormous strength. An anecdote
related by Hughes, the well-known and esteemed author of the
THE SHARK.
199
“ Natural History of Barbadoes,” gives a good idea of the savage
nature of this monster. “In the reign of Queen Anne a mer-
chant-ship arrived at that island from England : some of the
crew, ignorant of the danger of the recreation, were bathing in
the sea, when a large shark appeared and swam directly towards
them ; being warned of their danger, however, they all hurried
on board, where they arrived safe, except one poor fellow, who
was hit in two by the shark, almost within reach of the oars.
A comrade, and intimate friend of the unfortunate victim,
when he observed the severed trunk of his companion, vowed
his revenge. The voracious monster was seen traversing the
bloody surface of the waves, in search of the remainder of his
prey, when the brave youth plunged into the water. He held
in his hand a long sharp-pointed knife ; and the rapacious
animal pushed furiously towards him. He had turned on his
side and opened his enormous jaws, when the youth, diving
dexterously, seized the shark with, his left hand, somewhere
below the upper fins, and stabbed him repeatedly in the belly.
The animal, enraged with pain, and streaming with blood,
attempted in vain to disengage himself. The crews of the sur-
rounding vessels saw that the combat was decided ; but they
were ignorant which was slain, till the shark, exhausted by loss
of blood, was seen nearer the shore, and along with him his
gallant conqueror — who, flushed with victory, redoubled his
efforts, and, with the aid of an ebbing tide, dragged him to the
beach. Finally, he ripped open the stomach of the fish, and
buried the severed half of his friend’s body with the trunk in
the same grave.”
It is no uncommon thing for the negroes, who are admirable
divers, thus to attack and vanquish the dreaded shark, but sue
Hammer-headed Shark. — (Squalus Zygaena.)
cess can only be achieved by consummate dexterity, and by
those who are armed for this express purpose.
200
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
Ordinary swimmers are constantly falling a prey to the
sharks of warm climates. Thus Sir Brooke Watson, when in
the West Indies, as a youth, was swimming at a little dis-
tance from a ship, when he saw a shark making towards him.
Struck with terror at its approach, he immediately cried out
for assistance. A rope was instantly thrown, hut, even while
the men were in the act of drawing him up the ship’s side,
the monster darted after him, and at a single snap took off
his leg.
Fortunately for the friends of sea-bathing on our shores, the
white shark, like his relation, the monstrous Hammer-headed
Zygsena, appears but seldom in the colder latitudes, though both
have occasionally been found on the British coast.
The northern ocean has got its peculiar sharks, but they
are generally either good-natured like
the huge basking shark (S. maximus ),
which feeds on sea-weeds and me-
dusae, or else like the Picked dog-fish
( Galeus acanthius), of too small a size
to be dangerous to man, in spite of
the ferocity of their nature.
■ But the dog-fish and several other species of our seas, such as
the Blue Shark (Carcliarias glaucus), though they do not attempt
Picked Dog-Fish.
the fisherman’s life, are ex-
tremely troublesome and in-
jurious to him, by hovering
about his boat and cutting
the hooks from the lines in
rapid succession. This, in-
deed, often leads to their own
destruction, but when theii
teeth do not deliver them
from their difficulty, the blue
sharks, which hover about the Cornish coast during the pilchard
season, have a singular method of proceeding, which is, by roll-
ing the body round so as to twine the line about them through-
out its whole length ; and sometimes this is done in such a
complicated manner, that Mr. Yarrell has known a fisherman
give up any attempt to unroll it as a hopeless task. To the
pilchard drift-net this shark is a still more dangerous enemy,
and it is common for it to pass in succession along the
THE SWORD-FISH.
201
whole length of net, cutting out, as with shears, the fish and
the net that holds them, and swallowing both together.
The Saw-snouted Shark or Saw-fish ( Squalus pristis), which
grows to fifteen feet in length, and the Sword-fish ( Xiphias
gladius, platypterus), are furnished with peculiarly formidable
weapons. The long flat snout of the former is set with teeth on
Sword-Fish.
both sides through its whole length, while the upper jaw of the
latter terminates in a long sword-shaped snout. A twenty-feet
long sword-fish once ran his sword with
such violence into the keel of an East
Indiaman, that it penetrated up to the
root, and the fish itself was killed by the
violence of the shock. The perforated
beam, with the driven-in sword, are both
preserved in the British Museum, and
give a good idea of the prodigious power
of the leviathans of ocean.
While most fishes only rely upon their
well-armed jaws, their physical strength,
or their rapidity, for attack or defence,
some of them are provided with more
mysterious weapons, and stun their vic-
tims or their enemies by electrical discharges.
202
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
The Torpedo of the Mediterranean is furnished with wonderful
organs for this purpose, situated on each side of the anterior
part of the body, — perfect
galvanic batteries, consist-
ing of a multitude of small
prismatic columns, subdi-
vided into cells, and inter-
woven with a multitude of
nerves, which serve to dis-
engage the electric fluid,
and discharge it according
to the will of the fish, or
when it is excited by some
external stimulus. The
shock of the torpedo is
not so strong as that of
the electric-eel ( Gymnotus
electricus) of the Orinoco,
which is able to stun a
horse, but its power suffices
to paralyse the arm of a
Muscles and Electric Batteries of the Torpedo, man. A Sly, 01 SilllXUS,
found in the Nile or Senegal,
and called by the Arabs raasch, or lightning, and one of
the many Tetrodons inhabiting the tropical seas, is endowed
with a similar faculty of producing galvanic shocks.
Some fishes, to whom nature has denied all other offensive
weapons, have recourse to stratagem
for procuring their food. Hidden
in the mud, the Stargazer ( Urano -
scopus scaber ) exposes only the tip
Electric Eel. of the head, and waving the
beards with which its lips are
furnished in various directions, decoys the smaller fishes and
marine insects, that mistake these organs for worms.
The Angler, or Sea-devil ( Lophius piscatorius), a slow
swimmer, who would very often be obliged to fast if he had only
his swiftness to rely upon, uses a similar stratagem. Crouch-
ing close to the ground, he stirs up the sand or mud, and, hidden
by the obscurity thus produced, attracts many a prize by leisurely
THE ANGLER.
'203
moving to and fro the two slender and elongated appendages
on his head, the first of which, the Letter to deceive, is broad and
flattened at the end, inviting pursuit
by the shining silvery appearance of
the dilated part. Even the great
European Sly, a fish which has been
known to grow to the length of fifteen
feet, and to attain a weight of 300 lbs. Angler,
is not ashamed to owe its food to
similar deceits. Like a true lazzarone, the fat creature lies
hidden in the mud of rivers, its mouth half open, and angling
with its long beards.
But no fish catches its prey in a
more remarkable manner than the
Beaked, or Rostrated Chsetodon,
a native of the fresh waters of
India. When he sees a fly alight-
ing on any of the plants which
overhang the shallow water, he
approaches with the utmost cau-
tion, coming as perpendicularly as
possible under the object of his
meditated attack. Then placing
himself in an oblique direction, European siy.— (Siiurus giamo )
with the mouth and eyes near the surface, he remains a moment
immoveable, taking his aim like a first-rate rifleman. Having
fixed his eyes directly on the insect, he darts at it a drop of water
from his tubular snout, but without showing his mouth above the
surface, from which only the drop seems to rise, and that with such
effect, that though at the distmce of four, five or six feet, it very
seldom fails to bring its prey into the water. Another small
Eastlndian fish, \keToxote* jaculator,
catches its food by a similar dexterous
display of archery.
While all other fishes hunt only for
their own benefit, the Indian Remora,
or Sucking-fish ( Echeneis Naucrates),
owes to the remarkable striated appa- Toxotes Jac-uiator.
ratus on its head, by which it firmly
adheres to any object — rock, ship, or animal, — to which it
204
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
chooses to attach itself, the rare distinction of being employed
by man as a hunting-fish. When Columbus first discovered the
West Indies, the inhabitants of the coasts of Cuba and Jamaica
made use of the remora to catch turtles, by attaching to its
tail a strong cord of palm-fibres, which served to drag it out
of the water along with its prey. By this means they were
able to raise turtles weighing several hundred pounds from the
bottom ; “ for the sucking-fish,” says Columbus, “ will rather
suffer itself to be cut to pieces than let go its hold.” In Africa,
on the Mozambique coast, a similar method of catching turtles
is practised to the present day. Thus a knowledge of the habits
of animals, and similar necessities, have given rise to the same
hunting artifices among nations that never had the least com-
muhication with each other. Everybody knows the fables that
have been related of the small Mediterranean remora ( Echeneis
remora). It eveD
owes its Latin name
to the marvellous
story of its being
Suckmg-fish. (Remora.) fxLle to arrest a ship
under full sail in
the midst of the ocean ; and from this imaginary physical power
a no less astonishing moral influence was inferred, for the
ancients believed that tasting the remora completely subdued
the passion of love, and that if a delinquent, wishing to gain
time, succeeded in making his judge eat some of its flesh, he
was sure of a long delay before the verdict was pronounced.
Most fishes have only a rapid flight to depend upon for
their safety; some, however, more favoured by nature, have
been provided with peculiar defensive weapons. Thus the
dorsal fins of the Dragon-weever ( Trachinus draco), a small
silvery fish, frequently occurring on our shores, are armed
with strong spines, that effectually provide against its being
easily swallowed by a more powerful
enemy. The wounds it inflicts are
very troublesome and painful, though
it does not appear that the spines
Common weever. contain any poisonous matter, as the
fishermen generally believe. At all
events, the dragon-weever is not nearly so dangerous as the Clip
THE FLYING- FISHES.
205
Surgeon Fish. (Acanthurus.)
bagre, a kind of silurus or sly, inhabiting the Brazilian rivers, that
inflicts with its long spines such painful wounds as to deprive the
sufferer of consciousness, and to produce an inflammation that lasts
for several weeks. The Lance-tails, or
Acanthuri, have a sharp bony process,
not unlike the very large thorn of a
rose-tree, placed on each side of the
tail ; by this they can inflict a deep
cut on the hand of any one who
is so imprudent as to seize them in
that part.
I could still add a long list cf spine-armed fishes, but content
myself with noticing the Stickleback, which frequently owes
its preservation to the sharp needles with which it is provided.
The Tetrodons and Diodons have the power of inflating their
body at pleasure, and thus raising the small spines dispersed
over their sides and abdomen in sucli
a manner, as to operate as a defence
against their enemies. These beau-
tiful and remarkable fishes chiefly
inhabit the tropical waters, but some-
times wander into higher latitudes.
Man is not the only creature driven
by the currents of fate far from the
place of his birth.
The Flying-fishes ( Exoceti ’) are provided with pectoral fins of
so great a length, as to be able to carry them, like wings, a great
distance through the air.
Diodon.
According to Mr.
George Bennett
(“Wanderings in New South Wales”), they cannot raise them-
selves when in the atmosphere, the elevation they take depending
entirely on the power of the first spring or leap they make on
leaving their native element. Their flight, as it is called, carries
them fifteen or eighteen feet high over the water, and the lines
which they traverse when they enjoy full liberty of motion, are
very low curves, and always in the direction of their previous
progress in the usual element of fishes. Their silvery wings and
blue bodies glittering beneath the rays of a tropical sun, afford
a most beautiful spectacle, when, as is frequently the case, they
rise into the air by thousands at once, and in all possible direc-
tions. The advantage afforded them by their wing-like fins, in
206
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
escaping from the pursuit of the bonitos and albacores, often,
however, leads to their destruction in another element, where
gulls and frigate-
birds frequently
seize them with
lightning-like ra-
pidity, ere they fall
back again into the
ocean. It is amus-
ing to observe a
bonito swimming
Flying Fish. beneath the feeble
aeronaut, keeping
him steadily in view, and preparing to seize him at the moment
of his descent. But the flying-fish often eludes the bite of his
enemy, by instantaneously renewing his leap, and not unfre-
quently escapes by extreme agility.
The specific gravity of the flying-fish can be most admirably
regulated in correspondence with the element through which it
may move. The swim-bladder, when distended, occupies nearly
the entire cavity of the abdomen, thus containing a large volume
of air ; and in addition to this, there is a membrane in the
mouth which can be inflated through the gills. The pectoral
fins, though so large when expanded, can be folded into an
exceedingly slender, neat, and compact form, so as to be no
hindrance to swimming. A light displayed from the chains
of a vessel in a dark night, will bring many flying-fishes on
board, where they are esteemed as a great delicacy. Their
fate, tli us to be persecuted in both elements and to find security
nowhere, has often been pitied in prose and verse ; but although
they excite so much sentimental commiseration, they are them-
selves no less predaceous than their enemies, feeding chiefly on
smaller fishes.
The flying-fish of the West Indian waters is frequently
allured by the tepid waters of the Grulf-sti earn into higher lati-
tudes, and Pennant cites several examples of its having been
found near the British coast.
The Flying-Gurnard (Triglot, volitans) of the Mediterranean,
Atlantic, and Indian seas, a highly singular and beautiful species,
also raises itself into the air by means of its large pectoral fins,
ABUNDANCE OF THE SEA.
£07
It does not fly very high, but swings itself as iar as a musket-
hall reaches, and may thus elude even the rapidity of the
dolphin. That strangely formed fish, the Pegasus of the Indian
seas, is also enabled by its large pec-
toral fins to support itself for some
moments in the air, when it springs
over the surface of the water.
Neither the quadrupeds nor the
birds are subject to so many persecu-
tions as the fishes, which have inex-
orable enemies in all classes of animals. swimming Pegasus.
Numberless molluscs and zoophytes
feed upon their eggs, or devour their minute fry ; myriads of sea-
birds are on the look-out for them along the strands, or on the
high ocean ; seals and ice-bears lie in wait for them, while with
weapons and deceit, with net, angle and harpoon, man carries
death and destruction into their ranks. It would be a difficult
task to state with any degree of exactness the number of fisher-
men disseminated over the face of the globe, but if we consider
that, on a moderate calculation, at least a million of persons are
directly or indirectly engaged in fishing in Great Britain and
Ireland alone, and then cast a glance over the immense coast-
line of the ocean, we may without exaggeration affirm that at
least one-fiftieth part of the human race lives upon the produce
of the seas. If we further reflect that fishes form a great part
of the food of all coast-inhabitants, and consider in what masses
they are sent into the interior, — fresh, dried, salted, smoked,
and pickled, — we cannot doubt that the great extent of the ocean
only apparently limits the numbers of the human race, for how
many thousands of square miles of the most fruitful soil would
it not require to bring forth the quantity of food which the blue
and green fields of ocean supply to man ? “ Bounteous mother,”
“ Alma parens ,” was the name given by the grateful ancients to
the corn and grass-producing, herd-feeding earth ; but how
much more deserving of that endearing appellation is the sea,
that, without being ploughed or manured, dispenses her gifts
with such inexhaustible profusion ! Numberless indeed are the
various kinds of fishes which she furnishes to man, for almost
every species affords an equally agreeable and healthy food : but
of all the finny families or tribes that people the ocean none can
‘208
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
compare for utility with that of the Glupeiclce, or Herrings,
small in size but great in importance. In mile-long shoals,
often so thickly pressed that a spear cast into them would stand
upright in the living stream, the common herring appears
annually on the coasts of north-west-
ern Europe, pouring out the horn
of abundance into all the lochs,
bays, coves, and fiords, from Norway
to Ireland, and from Orcadia to Nor-
mandy. Sea-birds without end keep thinning their ranks during
the whole summer ; armies of rorquals, dolphins, seals, shell-fish,
cods, and sharks devour them by millions, and yet so countless
are their numbers, that whole nations live upon their spoils.
As soon as the season of their approach appears, fleets of herring
boats leave the northern ports, provided with drift-nets, about
1200 feet long. The yarn is so thick that the wetted net sinks
through its own weight, and need not be held down by stones
attached to the lower edge, for it has been found that the
herring is more easily caught in a slack net. The upper edge
is suspended from the drift-rope by various shorter and smaller
ropes, called buoy ropes, to which empty barrels are fastened,
and the whole of the floating apparatus is attached by long
ropes to the ship. Fishing takes place only during the night,
for it is found that the fish strike the nets in much greater
numbers when it is dark than while it is light. The darkest
nights, therefore, and particularly those in which the surface of
the water is ruffled by a fresh breeze, are considered the most
favourable. To avoid collisions, each boat is furnished with one
or two torches. From off the beach at Yarmouth, where often
several thousand boats are fishing at the same time, these num-
berless lights, passing to and fro in every direction, afford a most
lively and brilliant spectacle. The meshes of the net are exactly
calculated for the size of the herring, wide enough to receive the
head as far as behind the gill-cover, but not so narrow as to allow
the pectoral fins to pass. Thus the poor fish, when once en-
tangled, is unable to move backwards or forwards, and remains
sticking in the net, like a bad logician on the horns of a dilemma,
until the fisherman hauls it on board. In this manner a single
net sometimes contains so vast a booty, that it requires all the
[authority of a Cuvier or a Valenciennes to make us believe the
Herring.
THE HERRING-FISHERY.
209
instances they mention. A fisherman of Dieppe caught in one
night 280,000 herrings, and threw as many back again into the
sea. Sometimes great sloops have been obliged to cut their nets,
being about to sink under the superabundant weight of the fish.
The oldest mention of the herring-fishery is found in the
chronicles of the monastery of Evesham, of the yeai 709 ; while
the first French documents on the subject only reach as far as
theyear 1030. As far back as the days of William the Conqueror,
Yarmouth was renowned for its herring-fishery; and Dunkirk and
the Brill conducted it on a grand scale centuries before William
Beukelaer of Biervliet, near Sluys, introduced a better method
of pickling herrings in small kegs, instead of salting them as
before in loose irregular heaps. It is very doubtful whether
Solon or Lycurgus ever were such benefactors of their respective
countries as this simple uneducated fisherman has been to his
native land ; for the pickled herring mainly contributed to
transform a small and insignificant people into a mighty nation.
In the year 1603, the value of the herrings exported from Hol-
land amounted to twenty millions of florins; and in 1615, the
fishery gave employment to 2000 buysen, or smacks, and to
37,000 men. Three years later we see the United Provinces
cover the sea with 3000 buysen ; 9000 additional boats served for
the transport of the fishes, and the whole trade gave employment
to at least 200,000 individuals. At that time Holland provided all
Europe with herrings, and it may without exaggeration be affirmed
that this small fish was their best ally and assistant in casting
off the Spanish yoke, by providing them with money, the chief
sinew of war. Had the emperor Charles V. been able to foresee
that Beukelaer’s discovery would one day prove so detrimental
to his son and successor Philip II., he would hardly have done
the poor fisherman the honour to eat a herring and drink a glass
of wine over his tomb.
But all human prosperity is subject to change ; and thus
towards the middle of the sixteenth century a series of cala-
mities ruined the Dutch fisheries. Cronrwell gave them the
first blow by the Navigation Act ; Blake the second, by his vic-
tories; in 1703 a French squadron destroyed the greatest part
of their herring-smacks ; and finally, the competition of the
Swedes, and the closing of their ports by the English, under the
disastrous domination of Napoleon I., completed the ruin of
210
THE INHABITANTS 0E THE SEA.
that branch of trade which had chiefly raised the fortunes of
their fathers.
In the year 1814, when the Dutch first began to breathe after
having shaken off the yoke of the modern Attila, they made a
faint attempt to renew the herring-fishery with 106 boats, which,
up to the year 1823, had only increased to 128 ; since 1836, how-
ever, there has been a steady progress, and herring-catching in
the Zuyder Zee during the winter months is yearly increasing in
importance.
During the second half of the last century, while the her-
rings began to desert the Dutch nets, they enriched the Swedes,
who, during the year 1781, exported from Gfottenburg alone
136,649 barrels, each of them containing 1200 herrings. But
some years after, the shoals on the Swedish coasts began also to
diminish, so that in 1799 there was hardly enough for home con-
sumption. And now commenced the rapid rise and increase of
the Scotch herring-fisheries ; and it is certainly remarkable
that this should have taken place at so late a period, since the.
British waters are perhaps those which most abound in her-
rings. When we think of the present grandeur of British com-
merce, which extends to the most distant parts of the globe, and
ransacks all Nature for new articles of trade, it seems almost
incredible that up to the middle of the sixteenth century the
herring-fishery on the British coasts was left in the hands of
the Dutch and Spaniards, and that the acute and industrious
Scotchmen should have been so tardy in working the rich gold-
mines lying at their gates. But if their appearance in the market
has been late, they have made up for lost time, by completely
distancing all their competitors. In 1855, the Scotch herring-
fisheries employed no less than 11,000 smacks or boats, manned
by 40,000 seamen, who were assisted by 28,000 curers and
labourers, exclusive of the vessels and men bringing salt and
barrels or engaged in carrying on the export trade.
The English herring-fishery is also extremely important, for
Yarmouth alone employs in this branch of trade about 400
sloops, of from forty to seventy tons, the largest of which have
ten or twelve men on board. Three of these sloops, belonging
to the same proprietor, landed, in the year 1857, 285 lasts, or
3,762,000 fishes; and as each last was sold for £14 sterling, it is
THE YARMOUTH HERRING-FISHERY.
211
probable that no whaler made a better business that season.
The importance of the Yarmouth herring-fishery may be in-
ferred from the fact, that it gives employment and bread to
about 5,000 persons during several months of the year, and
engages a capital of at least £700,000. No wonder, that among
the north seamen the herring-fishery is called the “ great ”
fishery, while that of the whale is denominated only the “ small.”
But the herring is a very capricious creature, seldom remain-
ing long in one place ; and there is not a station along the Bri-
tish coast which is not liable to great changes in its visits, as
well with regard to time as to quantity. The real causes of these
irregularities are unknown; the firing of guns, the manufacture
of kelp, and the paddling of steam-boats have been assigned as
reasons, but such reasons are quite imaginary. The progress of
science promises to find, however, a remedy even for the caprices
of the herring ; and if his shoals frequently appear and disap-
pear again in the more retired bays or fiords of Norway, before
the fishermen are apprised of his movements, the electric tele-
graph (the most wonderful discovery of a time so rich in won-
derful inventions), will be used for his more effectual capture.
By this time the wires are already laid, which are to communi-
cate along the whole Scandinavian coast, and with the rapidity
of lightning, every important movement of the marine hosts.
Poor herring! who would have thought, when Franklin made
his first experiments upon electricity, that that mysterious
power should ever be used for thy destruction !
The supposed migration of herrings to and from the high
northern latitudes is not founded on fact ; the herring has never
been seen in abundance in the northern seas, nor have our whale-
fishers or Arctic voyagers taken any particular notice of them
There is no fishery for them of any consequence either in Green-
land or Iceland. On the southern coast of Greenland the herring
is a rare fish, and, according to Crantz, only a small variety makes
its appearance on the northern shore. This small variety,
or species, was found by Sir John Franklin on the shore of the
Polar basin, on his second journey. There can be no doubt
that the herring inhabits the deep water all round our coast,
and only approaches the shores for the purpose of depositing its
spawn within the immediate influence of the two principal
agents in vivification — increased temperature and oxygen — and
212
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
as soon as that essential object is effected, the shoals that haunt
the superficial waters disappear, but individuals are found, and
many are to be caught throughout the year. So far are they
from being migratory to us from the north only, that they visit
the west coast of Cork in August, arriving there much earlier
than those which come down the Irish Channel, and long
before their brethren make their appearance at places much
farther north. Our common herring spawns towards the end of
October, or the beginning of November, and it is for two or
three months previous to this, when they assemble in immense
numbers, that the fishing is carried on, which is of such great
and national importance. “And here,” Mr. Couch observes,
“ we cannot but admire the economy of Divine Providence, by
which this and several other species of fish are brought to the
shores, within reach of man, at the time when they are in their
highest perfection and best fitted to be his food.” The herring
having spawned, retires to deep water, and the fishing ends for that
season. While inhabiting the depths of the ocean, its food is
said, by Dr. Knox, to consist principally of minute entomostra-
ceous animals, but it is certainly less choice in its selection when
near the shore.
Although the common herring ot our northern seas is beyond
all doubt the most important of the tribe, yet there is no sea, no
coast, where other species of the same family are not a source of
abundance to man, and of astonishment by their vast numbers.
Thus the enormous shoals of Pil-
chards appearing along our south-
western coasts are not less valuable
to the fishermen of Devon and
Pilchard. Cornwall than the common herring
to those of the North Sea. The
older naturalists considered the pilchard, like the herring, as a
visitor from a distant region, and they assigned to it also the
same place of resort as that fish, with which indeed the pilchard
has been sometimes confounded. To this it will be a sufficient
reply, that the pilchard is never seen in the Northern Ocean.
They frequent the French coasts, and are seen on those of Spain,
but on neither in considerable numbers or with much regularity;
so that few fishes confine themselves within such narrow bounds.
On the coast of Cornwall they are found throughout all the
THE PILCHARD.
21?
seasons of the year, and even there their habits vary in the
different months. In January they keep near the bottom, and
are chiefly hauled up in the stomachs of ravenous fishes; in
March they sometimes assemble in schulls, but this union is only
partial and not permanent and only becomes so in July; when they
regularly and permanently congregate so as to invite the fisher-
man’s pursuit. The season and situation for spawning, and the
choice of food, are the chief reasons which influence the motions
of the great bodies of these fish; and it is probable that a thorough
knowledge of these particulars would explain all the variations
which have been noticed in the doings of the pilchard, in the
numerous unsuccessful seasons of the fishery.
They feed with voracity on small crustaceous animals, and
Mr. Yarrell frequently found their stomachs crammed with thou-
sands of a minute species of shrimp, not larger than a flea. It
is probably when they are in search of something like this, that
fishermen report they have seen therm lying in myriads quietly
at the bottom, examining with their mouths the sand and small
stones in shallow water. The abundance of this food must be
enormous, to satisfy such a host.
“When near the coast,’’ says the author of the “ History
of British Fishes,” “ the assemblage of pilchards assumes the
arrangement of a mighty army, with its wings stretching parallel
to the land, and the whole is composed of numberless smaller
bodies, which are perpetually joining together, shifting their
position, and separating again. There are three stations occupied
by this great body, that have their separate influence on the
success of the fishery. One is to the eastward of the Lizard, the
most eastern extremity, reaching to the Bay of Bigbury in De-
vonshire, beyond which no fishing is carried on, except that
it occasionally extends to Dartmouth ; a second station is included
between the Lizard and Land’s End ; and the third is on the
north coast of the county, the chief station being about St. Ives.
The subordinate motions of the shoals are much regulated by
the tide, against the current of which they are rarely known to
go, and the whole will sometimes remain parallel to the coast
for several weeks, at the distance of a few leagues ; and then, as if
by general consent, they will advance close to the shore, sometimes
without being discovered till they have reached it. This usually
happens when the tides are strongest, and is the period when
Q
214
THE INHABITANTS OE THE SEA.
the principal opportunity is afforded for the prosecution of the
sean-fishery.” The quantity of pilchards taken is sometimes
incredibly large. In 1847, a very productive year, 40,000 hogs-
heads were cured in Cornwall alone, representing probably, after
all deductions, a net value to the takers of .£80,000. The Sar-
dine ( Clujpea sardina), a fish closely allied to the Pilchard
though smaller, is considered as the most savoury of all the
herring tribe. It is chiefly found in the Mediterranean, on the
coasts of South France and Africa, and about the islands of
Corsica and Sardinia, where it plays a no less important part
than the Pilchard on the coasts of Cornwall and Devonshire.
Though a much less valuable fish than its larger-sized rela-
tives, the diminutive Sprat is not to be despised. Coming into
the market in immense quantities, and at a very moderate
price, immediately after the herring season is over, it affords
during all the winter months a cheap and agreeable food. Like
all other species of the herring tribe, the sprats are capricious
wanderers, and make their appearance in exceedingly variable
numbers. The coasts of Kent, Essex, and Suffolk, are the most
productive. So great is the supply thence obtained, that not-
withstanding the immense quantity consumed by the vast
population of London and its neighbourhood, there is yet occa-
sionally a surplus to be disposed of at so low a price, as to in-
duce the farmers, even so near the metropolis as Dartford, to
use them for manure.
The Mediterranean seems to be the peculiar birthplace of
the Anchovy ( Engraulis encrasicholus), where it appears in
belly. It is covered with large thin and easily deciduous scales,
and may be readily distinguished from the Sprat and other
kindred species by / the anal fins being remarkably short.
It is mostly caught in the neighbourhood of Antibes, Frej.us,
and St. Tropez, and sent pickled in enormous quantities
the spawning season
in countless multitudes
along the shallow coasts.
It is about four inches
long, of a bluish-brown
colour on the back, and
silvery -white on the
THE BANKS OF NEWFOUNDLAND.
‘J15
to the fair of Beaucaire, from whence it is transported in small
tin boxes to all parts of the world.
The Cod-family, to which among others, the Dorse, the
Haddock, the Whiting, the Hake, the Ling, and other valuable
fishes belong, ranks next to that of the herrings in importance
to man. In the seas with which Europeans are best acquainted
the common Cod, the chief representative of the tribe, is found
universally, from Iceland to very nearly as far south as Gibraltar,
but appears most abundantly on the eastern side of the American
continent, and among its numerous
islands, from 40° up to 66° N. lat.,
where it may be said to hold do-
minion from the outer edge of the
great banks of Newfoundland, which
are more than three hundred miles
from land, to the verge of every creek and cove of the bounding
coast. To support such a mass of living beings, the ocean sends
forth its periodical masses of other
living beings. At one season the cod
is accompanied by countless myriads
of the Capelin ( Salmo arcticus),
and at another by equal hosts of
a molluscous animal, the Cuttle-fish ( Sepia loligo), called in
Newfoundland the squid. The three animals are migratory,
and man, who stations himself
on the shore for their combined
destruction, conducts his move-
ments according to their mi-
grations, capturing millions upon
millions of capelins and squids,
to serve as a. bait for the capture of millions of cods. In the
United Kingdom alone this fish, in the catching, the curing,
the partial consumption, and sale, supplies employment, food,
and profit to thousands of the human race; but the banks of
Newfoundland are the cbief scene of its destruction. As soon
as spring appears, England sends forth 2000 ships, with 30,000
men, across the Atlantic, towards those teeming shallows ; France
about one-half the number; and the Americans as many as both
together. On an average, each ship is reckoned to catch about
40,000 fishes; and we may form some idea of the voracity, as
Haddock.
216
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
well as of the numbers of the cod, when we hear that in the
course of a single day a good fisherman is able to haul up four
hundred one after another with his line — no easy task con-
sidering the size of the fish, which often attains a length of
from two to three feet and a weight of from twenty to forty
pounds.
The captured fish have but little time left them to bewail
their lot, for a few thousands will be “ dressed down ” — that is,
gutted, boned and salted — in the course of two or three hours.
For this purpose the crew divide themselves into throaters,
headers, splitters, salters, and packers. First the throater
passes his sharp knife across the throat of the unfortunate cod
to the bone and rips open the bowels. He then passes it quickly
to the header, who with a strong sudden wrench pulls off the
head and tears out the entrails, which he casts overboard, passing
at the same time the fish instantly to the splitter, who with one
cut lays it open from head to tail, and almost in the twinkling
of an eye with another cut takes out the backbone. After
separating the sounds, which are placed with the tongues, and
packed in barrels as a great delicacy, the backbone follows the
entrails overboard, while the fish at the same moment is passed
with the other hand to the salter. Such is the amazing quick-
ness of the operations of heading and splitting that a good
workman will often decapitate and take out the entrails and
back-bone of six fish in a minute. Every fisherman is supposed
to know something of each of these operations, and no rivals at
cricket ever entered with more ardour into their work than do
some athletic champions for the palm of “dressing down” after
a “ day’s catch.”
Besides its excellent firm flesh, the liver-oil of the cod is used
as a valuable medicine, and serves to restore many a scrofulous
or rickety child to health. The sound-bladder is also employed
by the Icelanders for the manufacture of fish-lime or isinglass.
The best quality of the latter article, however, is afforded by a
species of Sturgeon ( Accipenser Huso ) which is chiefly found in
the Black and Caspian seas, and ascends the tributary rivers in
immense numbers.
The Common Sturgeon ( Accipenser sturio), though principally
frequenting the seas and rivers of North-Eastern Europe, where,
especially in the Volga, extensive fisheries are established for its
THE STURGEON.
217
destruction, is also captured on the coasts of Great Britain and
Ireland, as examples are by no means uncommon in the fish-
mongers’ shops of our great cities, a few coming into the hands
of the principal dealers every season. Yarrell mentions one
caught in a stake-net near Findhorn, in Scotland, in July 1833,
Common Sturgeon.
which measured eight feet six inches in length and weighed two
hundred and three pounds ; but in the Baltic specimens of a
length of eighteen feet and -weighing a thousand pounds have
occasionally been captured. The body is long and slender from
the shoulders backward, somewhat pentagonal in shape, with five
longitudinal rows of flattened plates, with pointed central spines,
directed backwards, and the snout is tapering and beak-shaped,
the mouth small and toothless, so that the sturgeon, though
almost equalling the white shark in size, is of a much mere
harmless character and formidable only to the crustaceans, small
fish, or soft animals, he meets with at the bottom in deep water,
beyond the ordinary reach of sea-nets. Hence he is rarely caught
in the open sea, but falls an easy prey to the cunning of man
when entering the friths, estuaries, and rivers for the purpose of
spawning. The sturgeon is a highly valuable fish not only for
its well-flavoured flesh but also for its roe, which furnishes the
delicate caviar of commerce. The smallest but most highly
esteemed of the sturgeons is the Sterlet of the Volga, which
sometimes fetches such extravagant prices that Prince Potemkin
has been known to pay three hundred roubles for a single tureen
of sterlet-soup.
While many of the numerous members of the salmon family
confine themselves to the rivulet or to the lake, others alter-
nate, like the sturgeons, between the river and the sea. Of these
the most remarkable is the noble fish which has given its name
to the whole tribe, and may justly be considered as its head, not
only in point of size but also for its wide-spread utility to man.
218
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
Every spring or summer the salmon leave the ocean to de-
posit their spawn in the sweet waters, often at a distance of many
hundred miles in the interior of the Continent, so that the same
fish which during part of the year may be breasting the waves
of the North Sea, may at another be forcing the current of an
Alpine stream. Their onward progress is not easily stopped :
they shoot up rapids with the velocity of arrows, and make
wonderful efforts to' surmount cascades or weirs by leaping,
frequently clearing an elevation of eight or ten feet. These
surprising bounds appear to be accomplished by a sudden jerk,
which is given to its body by the animal from a bent into a
straight position. If they fail in their attempt, and fall back
into the stream, it is only to rest a short time, and thus recruit
their strength for a new effort. The fall of Kilmaroc, on the
Beauly, in Inverness-shire, is one of the spots where the leaping
feats of the salmon can best be witnessed. “ The pool below that
fall,” says Mr. Mudie, in the British Naturalist, “ is very large,
and as it is the head of the run in one of the finest salmon
rivers in the north, and only a few miles distant from the sea,
it is literally thronged with salmon, which are continually
attempting to pass the fall, but without success, as the limit of
their perpendicular spring does not appear to exceed twelve or
fourteen feet ; at least, if they leap higher than that, they are
aimless and exhausted, and the force of the current dashes them
down again before they have recovered their energy. They often
kill themselves by the violence of their exertions to ascend, and
sometimes they fall upon the rocks and are captured. It is
indeed said that one of the wonders which the Frasers of Lovat,
who are lords of the manor, used to show their guests was a
voluntarily cooked salmon at the falls of Kilmaroc. For
this purpose a kettle was placed upon the flat rock on the south
side of the fall, close by the edge of the water and kept full and
boiling. There is a considerable extent of the rock where tents
were erected, and the whole was under a canopy of overshadowing
trees. There the company are said to have waited until a
salmon fell into the kettle, and was boiled in their presence.
We have seen as many as eighty taken in a pool lower down
the river at one haul of the seine, and one of the number
weighed more than sixty pounds.”
As the salmon laboriously ascend the rivers, it may easily be
SALMON-SPEARING.
219
imagined that the cunning and rapacity of" man seeks every
opportunity to intercept their progress. Nets of the most
various form and construction are employed for their capture I
numbers are entrapped in enclosed space# formed in weirs, into
which they enter as they push up the stream, and are then pre-
vented by a grating of a peculiar contrivance from returning or
getting out ; and many are speared, a mode frequently practised
at night-time, when torches are made use of to attract them to
the surface, or to betray them by their silvery reflection to the
attentive fisherman.
The ruddy gleam illumining the river banks or sparkling in
the agitated waters, the black sky above, the deep contrasts of
light and shade, attach a romantic interest to this nocturnal
sport, which has been both practised and sung by Walter
Scott.
“’Tis blithe along the midnight tide
With stalwart arm the boat to guide,
On high the dazzling blaze to rear
And heedful plunge the barbed spear.
Rock, wood, and scour emerging bright,
Fling on the stream their ruddy light,
And from the bank our band appears
Like Genii armed with fiery spears.”
The natural history of the salmon was until lately but very
imperfectly known, as the parr (brandling, samlet) and the grilse,
which are now fully proved to be but intermediate stages of its
o-rowth, were supposed by Yarrell to be distinct fishes. The first
person who seems to have suspected the true nature of the parr
was James Hogg, the Ettrick shepherd, who in his usual eccen-
tric way took some pains to verify his opinion. As an angler, he
had often caught the parr in its transition state, and had fre-
quently captured smolts (at that time the only acknowledged
youthful salmon) with the scales barely covering the bars or
finder marks of the parr. Wondering at this, he marked a great
number of the lesser fish and offered rewards of whisky (being
himself a great admirer of the genuine mountain-dew) to the
peasantry to bring him any fish that had evidently undergone
the change. These crude experiments of the talented shepherd
convinced him that the parr were the young of the salmon in
the first stage, and since then professed naturalists have fully
settled the question by watching the egg into life, and tracing
220 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
the growth of the young fish step by step until it ultimately
changed into the kingly salmon.
This ignorance of the true nature of the parr had most disas-
trous effects, as it largely contributed to the depopulation of our
streams, for the farmers and cottars who resided near the rivers
used not unfrequently, after filling the frying-pan with parr, to
feed their pigs with them, and myriads were annually killed by
juvenile anglers. This truly deplorable havoc has fortunately
been arrested by Act of Parliament, but the killing of grilse is
still, I believe, a fertile source of destruction,* and should
undoubtedly be restrained by law, as the wholesale slaughter of
these juvenile fishes is a most lamentable example of impro-
vident waste.
In former times our rivers abounded with salmon, more than
200,000 having been caught in a single summer in the Tweed
alone, and 2,500 at one haul in the river Thurso ; hut, besides
the causes above mentioned, over fishing or fishing at an im-
proper season, and probably in many cases the pollution of the
streams with deleterious matter from mines or manufactories,
have considerably reduced their numbers. Fortunately, public
attention has at length been thoroughly aroused to the danger
which menaces our king of fishes ; and, what with better laws for
his protection and the successful attempts that have latterly
been made in artificial fish-breeding, we may hope that more
prosperous times are in store for our salmon-fisheries.
The salmon not only frequents the streams of Northern
Europe but ascends in vast multitudes the giant rivers of
Siberia and of North America. It
is fished by the Ostjak and the
Tunguse, and speared by the Indian
of the New World. Ross’s Arctic
salmon, which is of a more slender
form than the common salmon,
differently marked and coloured, and with a remarkably long
under jaw, is so extremely abundant in the sea near the
mouths of the rivers of Boothia Felix that 3,378 were obtained
at one haul of a small-sized seine. The rivers of Kamtschatka
abound in salmon of various kinds, so that the stream,
Salmo Rossu
* In 1862, 8,467 salmon and 25,042 grilse were captured in the Tweed.
THE TUNNY.
221
swelling as it were with living waves, not seldom overflows
its banks and casts multitudes ashore. Steller affirms that,
in that almost uninhabited peninsula, the bears and dogs and
other animals catch more of these fishes with their mouths
and feet than man in other countries with all his cunning
devices of net and angle.
The salmon of Iceland, which formerly remained undisturbed
by the pldegmatic inhabitants, are now caught in large numbers
for the British market. A small river, bearing the significant
name of Laxaa or Salmon river, has been rented for the trifling
sum of 100k a year by an English company which sends every
spring its agents to the spot, well provided with the best fishing
apparatus. The captured fish are immediately boiled and her-
metically packed in tin boxes, so that they can be eaten in
London almost as fresh as if they had just been caught. Other
valuable salmon-streams in Iceland and Norway pay us a similar
tribute ; and as commerce, aided by the steamboat and the rail-
way, extends her empire, rivers more and more distant are made
to supply the deficiencies of our native streams. More than
150,000 salmon are annually caught in Aljaska — not a quarter
of a century ago a real “ultima Thule” — and after having been
well pickled and smoked at the various fishing-stations are
chiefly sent from Sitcha to Hamburg.
Nature has denied the salmon to the streams of Australia
and New Zealand ; but as the eggs of this fish can be preserved
for a very long time, they have been transported with perfect
success to those far-distant colonies.
If neither the salmon, nor the common herring, nor the cod,
dwell in the Mediterranean, the fishermen of that sea rejoice
in the capture of the Tunny, the
chief of the mackerel or scomberoid
family. Its usual length is about two
feet, but it sometimes grows to eight or
ten ; and Pennant saw one killed in
1769, when he was at Inverary, that
weighed 460 pounds. The flesh is as firm as that of the
sturgeon, but of a finer flavour.
“In May and June,” says Mr. Yarrell, “the adult fish rove
alongthe coast of the Mediterranean in large shoals and triangular
array. They are extremely timid, and easily induced to take a
Tunny.
222
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
new and apparently an open course, in order to avoid any suspected
danger. But the fishermen take advantage of this peculiarity
for their destruction by placing a look-out or sentinel on some
elevated spot, who makes the signal that the shoal of tunnies is
approaching, and points out the direction in which it will come.
Immediately a great number of boats set off, range themselves
in a curved line, and, joining their nets, form an enclosure which
alarms the fish, while 'the fishermen, drawing closer and closer,
and adding fresh nets, still continue driving the tunnies towards
the shore, where they are ultimately killed with poles.
“ But the grandest mode of catching the tunny is by means of
the French maclrague, or, as the Italians call it, tonnaro. Series
of long and deep nets, fixed vertically by corks at their upper
edges, and with lead and stones at the bottom, are kept in a par-
ticular position by anchors, so as to form an enclosure parallel to
the coast, sometimes extending an Italian milein length ; this is
divided into several chambers by nets placed across, leaving
narrow openings on the land side. The tunnies pass between
the coast and the tonnaro ; when arrived at the end, they are
stopped by one of the cross-nets, which closes the passage against
them, and obliges them to enter the tonnaro by the opening
which is left for them. When once in, they are driven by
various means from chamber to chamber to the last, which is
called the chamber of death. Here a strong net, placed hori-
zontally, that can be raised at pleasure, brings the tunnies to
the surface, and the work of destruction commences. The
tonnaro fishery used to be one of the great amusements of
rich Sicilians, and, at the same time, one of the most considei’able
sources of their wealth. When Louis XIII. visited Marseilles,
he was invited to a tunny-fishery, at the principal madrague
of Morgiou, and found the diversion so much to his taste
that he often said it was the pleasantest day he had spent in
his whole progress through the south.”
The elegant shape and beauti-
ful colourino- of the common
O
Mackerel are too well known to
require any particular description,
and its qualities as an edible fish
have been long duly appreciated. It dies very soon after it is
taken out of the water, exhibits for a short time a phosphoric
Mackerel.
MACKEREL- FISHING.
‘223
light, and partly loses the brilliancy of its hues. Like all other
members of the family, it is extremely voracious, and makes
great havoc among the herring-shoals, although its own length
is only from twelve to sixteen inches. It inhabits the northern
Atlantic, and is caught in large numbers along the British coast,
where it is preceded in its
annual visit bythe Gar-fish,
which for this reason has
received also the name of
Mackerel-guide. The older
naturalists ascribed to the
mackerel the same distant
migrations as to the tunny,
but most probably it only retires during the winter into the
deeper waters, at no very great distance from the shores,
where it appears during the summer season in such incalculable
numbers. ,
The mackerel is caught with long nets or by hand-lines. It
bites greedily at every bait, but generally such a one is preferred
as best represents a living prey darting through the water —
either some silvery scaled fish, or a piece of metal, or of scarlet
cloth. With swelling sails the boat flies along, and a sharp
wind is generally considered so favourable that it is called
a “Mackerel-breeze.” The line is short, but made heavy
with lead, and in this manner a couple of men can catch
a thousand in one day. The more rapid the boat the
greater the success, for the mackerel rushes like lightning
after the glittering bait, taking it for a flying prey. The
chieftains of the Sandwich Islands used to catch the bonito
mackerels in a similar way, by attach-
ing flying-fish to their hooks, and ra-
pidly skimming the surface of the waters.
Thus everywhere man knows how to
turn to his advantage the peculiar in-
stincts or habits of the animal creation.
The author of “Wild Sports of the West” has favoured us
with an animated description of mackerel-fishing on the coast
of Ireland.
“ It was evident that the bay was full of mackerel. In every
direction, and as far as the eye could range, gulls and puffins
Bonito.
Gar-Fish.
224
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
were collected, and, to judge by their activity and clamour, there
appeared ample employment for them among the fry beneath.
We immediately bore away for the place where these birds were
numerously congregated, and the lines were scarcely overboard
when we found ourselves in the centre of a shoal of mackerel.
For two hours we killed these beautiful fish, as fast as the baits
could be renewed and the lines hauled in ; and when we left off
fishing, actually wearied with sport, we found that we had taken
above five hundred, including a number of the coarser species,
called Horse-mackerel. There is not, on sea or river, always
excepting angling for salmon, any sport comparable to this de-
lightful amusement : full of life and bustle, everything about it
is animated and exhilarating ; a brisk breeze and fair sky, the
boat in quick and constant motion, all is calculated to interest
and excite. He who has experienced the glorious sensations of
sailing on the WTestern Ocean, a bright autumnal sky above, a
deep-green lucid swell around, a steady breeze, and as much of
it as the hooker can stand up to, will estimate the exquisite
enjoyment our morning’s mackerel-fishing afforded.”
Although an occasional visitor of our shores, the Bonito, or
Stripe-bellied Tunny ( Thynnus pelamys), which is much in-
ferior in size to the common tunny of the Mediterranean and
the Black Sea, is a true ocean-fish, and generally met with at
a vast distance from land. It inhabits the warmer seas, of
which it is one of the most active and voracious denizens. It
is well known to all voyagers within the tropics for the amuse-
ment it affords by its accompanying the vessel in its track, and
by its pursuit of the flying-fish. But in its turn the predacious
Bonito is subject to the persecutions of the huge Sperm whale,
who will often drive whole shoals before him, and crush dozens
at a time between his prodigious jaws.
The Pelamid ( Thynnus sarda), which abounds in all districts
of the Mediterranean and on both sides of the Atlantic, has but
very lately been discovered in the British waters, a single spe-
cimen having been caught a few years ago at the mouth of the
North Esk. It greatly resembles the species just mentioned in
form and mode of life, prowling about the high seas for c.epha-
lopods and flying-fishes, and is very commonly confounded with
the bonito by sailors, who also give both of them the name of
Skip-jacks, expressive of the habit which many of the large
THE PILOT-FISH.
225
Scomberoids have of skimming the surface of the sea, and
springing occasionally into the air.
Another member of the mackerel family, the Pilot-Fish
( Naucrates ductor ), easily recognised by the three dark-blue
bands which surround its silvery body,
will frequently attend a ship during its
course at sea for weeks or even months
together, most likely to profit by the
offal thrown overboard. Eegardless Pilot-Fish.— (gjpcratss
. ductor.)
of the useful precept, “ avoid bad com-
pany,” it is frequently found attending the white shark, and
owes its name to its being supposed to act as a trusty guide
or friendly monitor to that voracious monster, sometimes
directing it where to find a good meal, and at others warning it
when to avoid a dangerous bait. At all events, the pilot-fish
is well rewarded for his attendance by snatching up the morsels
which are overlooked by his companion, and as lie is an ex-
cellent swimmer, and probably keeps a good look-out, has but
little reason to fear being snatched up himself.
“ It has been observed,” says Yarrell, “ that when a shark and
his pilot were following a vessel, if meat was thrown overboard
cut into small pieces, and therefore unworthy the shark’s atten-
tion, the pilot-fish showed his true motive of action by de-
serting both shark and ship to feed at his leisure on the
morsels.”
The family of the anguilliform fishes, characterised by their
serpent-like bodies, destitute of ventral fins, and generally
covered by a slippery skin, with, in some of the genera, small
scales embedded therein, likewise comprises a number of highly
interesting and useful species, forming many generic groups.
Its chief representative in our waters is the Common Eel
(. Anguilla vulgaris), which, though a frequent inhabitant of
our lakes, ponds, and rivers, may also justly be reckoned among
the marine fishes ; for the same wonderful instinct which prompts
the salmon and the sturgeon annually to leave the high seas
and seek the inland streams for the sake of perpetuating their
race, forces also the eel to migrate, but his peregrinations are
of an opposite character, for here the full-grown fishes descend
the rivers to deposit their spawn in the sea, and the young,
after having been born in the brackish estuaries, ascend the
226
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
streams to accomplish their growth in the sweet waters. The
mode of procreation of eels, which for ages had been au enigma,
has now at length been completely elucidated by Professor
Rathke, who discovered that the eggs, which are of microscopic
smallness, so as to be undistinguishable by the naked eye from
the fat in which they lie imbedded, are expelled through an
opening hardly large enough to admit the point of a needle.
The energy of the salmon in swimming stream-upwards for
hundreds and hundreds of miles, and bounding over rapids and
cataracts, is truly wonderful, but the instinctive efforts of the
little eels or elvers to surmount obstacles that seem quite out of
proportion to their strength are no less admirable. Mr. An-
derson, upwards of a century ago, described the young eels as
ascending the upright posts and gates of the waterworks at
Norwich until they came into the dam above; and Sir Hum-
phry Davy, who was witness of a vast migration of elvers at
Ballyshannon, speaks of the mouth of the river under the fall as
blackened by millions ‘of little eels. “ Thousands,” he adds,
“ died, but their bodies remaining moist, served as the ladder
for others to make their way; and I saw some ascending even
perpendicular stones, making their road through wet moss, or
adhering to some eels that had died in the attempt. Such is
the energy of these little animals that they continue to find
their way in immense numbers to Loch Erne. Even the mighty
fall of Schaffhausen (which stops the salmon) does not prevent
them from making their way to the Lake of Constance, where
I have seen many very large eels.” After the little eels have
gained the summit of a fall, they rest for a while with their
heads protruded into the stream. They then urge themselves
forward, taking advantage of every projecting stone or slack
water, and never get carried back by the current. Myriads are
destroyed on the way by birds or fishes; but, as usual, their
greatest enemy is man, who not only devours whole cart-loads of
little eels not larger than a knitting-needle, frying them into
cakes, which are said to be delicious, though rather queer-
looking from the number of little eyes with which they are
bespangled, but after getting tired of eating them, actually
feeds his pigs with them, or even uses them for manure. A
prodigal waste which should be looked after, as these little
eels would soon increase their weight, and consequently their
THE HERON AND THE EEL.
227
value a thousand fold. On the Continent many lakes and ponds
have been stocked with elvers, packed in wet grass, and sent by
the railroads or the post far into the interior of the country.
Eels are pre-eminently nocturnal animals. They always con-
gregate at the darkest parts of the stews in which they are
kept, and invariably select the darkest nights for their autumnal
migration to the sea. Owing to the smallness of their oil]
aperture, the membranous folds of which, by closing the orifice
when the eel is out of the water, prevents the desiccation of the
branchiae, they have the power of living a long time out of the
water when the air is humid, and not unfrequently travel
during the night over the moist surface of meadows or gardens
in quest of frogs or other suitable food.
That eels are not devoid of sagacity is proved by many well
authenticated anecdotes. “ In Otaheite,” says Ellis in his “ Poly-
nesian Researches,” “ they are fed till they attain an enormous
size. These pets are kept in large holes two or three feet deep,
partially filled with water. On the sides of these pits they
generally remain, excepting when called by the person who
feeds them. I have been several times with the young chief
when he has sat down by the side of the hole, and by giving a
shrill sort of whistle has brought out an enormous eel, which
has moved about the surface of the water and eaten with confi-
dence out of his master’s hand.”
The eel has many enemies, among others the common heron,
who, in spite of the slippery skin of his victim, knows how to
drive his denticulated middle claw into his body, or to strike
him with his pointed bill. Yarrell relates that a heron had
once struck his sharp beak through the head of an eel, piercing
both eyes, and that the eel — no doubt remembering that one
good turn deserves another — had coiled itself so tightly round
the neck of the heron as to stop the bird’s respiration : both
were dead.
The London market is principally supplied with eels from
Holland, a country where they abound. According to Mr.
Mayhew, about ten millions of eels, amounting to a weight of
1,500,000 lbs., are annually sold in Billingsgate market. These
figures show us at once that the multiplication of eels in our
sluggish rivers, which only contain such fish as are compara-
tively speaking worthless, is a matter worth consideration, and
228
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
powerfully pleads for the protection and transplantation of the
elvers wherever they are likely to prosper.
Eels are extremely susceptible of cold ; none whatever are
found in the Arctic regions, and at the approach of winter they
bury themselves in the mud, where they remain in a state of
torpidity until the genial warmth of spring recalls them to a
more active state of existence. In this condition they are fre-
quently taken by eel-spears, and in Somersetshire the people
know how to find the holes in the banks of rivers in which eels
are laid up, by the hoar-frost not lying over them as it does
elsewhere, and dig them out in heaps. Though generally only
from two to three feet long, eels sometimes acquire a much
larger size. Specimens six feet long and fifteen pounds in weight
are occasionally captured, and Yarrell saw at Cambridge the
preserved skins of two which weighed together fifty pounds.
They were taken on draining a fen-dyke at Wisbeach. As eels
are but slow in growth, these sizes speak for a great longevity.
The Conger is in its general appearance so nearly allied
to the common eel that it might
easily be mistaken for the same
species. It, however, materially dif-
fers from it by its darker colour in
the upper part, and its brighter hue
beneath, by its dorsal fin beginning
near the head, and by its snout generally projecting beyond
the lower jaw.
This marine giant of the eel tribe attains a length of ten feet,
and a weight of 130 pounds, and is well known on all the rocky
parts of the coast of the British Islands, though nowhere more
abundant than on the Cornish coast, where, according to Mr.
Couch, it is not uncommon for a boat with three men to bring
on shore from five hundredweight to two tons. The fishing
for congers is always performed at night, and not unattended
with danger, as it is quite a common occurrence for a conger to
attack the fishermen with open jaws, and so great is the strength
of the large specimens that they have occasionally succeeded in
pulling the fisherman quite out of his boat, if by any chance
he has fastened the line to his arm. The congers that keep
among rocks hide themselves in crevices, where they are not
unfrequently left by the retiring tide ; but in situations free
Conger Eel.
THE MURRY.
229
from rocks, congers hide themselves by burrowing in the
ground, where it is customary on some parts of the coast of
France to employ dogs in their search. In spite of its tough
flesh and exceedingly nauseous smell, the conger was highly
esteemed by Greek epicures, and in England in the time of
the Henrys considered an article of food fit for a king. Thus,
the Prince and Poins, according to FalstafFs account, found
amongst other reasons for their companionship this one : that
both of them were fond of conger and fennel sauce. In our
times its flesh, though banished from all aristocratic tables,
meets a ready sale at a low price among the poorer classes. In
the Isle of Man the conger may be said to take the place of
the poor man’s pig ; it is his bacon, which he would find diffi-
cult to save if it were not for these large eels, which are caught
in great abundance, and sold at the rate of 2d. or 3d. per lb.
The Manx men split the congers, and then salt them and
hang them up to dry on their cottage walls, where they do not
exactly contribute to perfume the gale.
The Murry or Mursena differs from the common eel by the
want of pectoral fins, and its beautifully-marked skin. It is
said to live with equal facility in fresh or salt water, though
generally found at sea, and it is as common in the Pacific as it
is in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. The only specimen on
record as a British fish was caught by a fisherman of Polperro,
October 8, 1834; its length was four feet four inches. The
muraena has acquired a kind of historical celebrity from the
strange fondness with which it was cherished by the Eomans,
who preserved large quantities of them in their numerous
vivaria, as we do the lustrous gold-fish in the water-basins of
our gardens. A certain Cajus Hirrius, who lived in the time
of Julius Caesar, was the first that introduced the fashion, which
soon became a passion among the wealthy senators and knights
of the imperial city, who used to deck their especial pets with
all kinds of ornaments. The celebrated orator, Hortensius, the
rival of Cicero, had a 'piscina at Bauli, on the gulf of Baiae,
where he took great delight in a favourite murry that would
come at his call and feed from his hand. When the creature
died, he was unable to stop his tears ; and another celebrated
Roman, L. Licinius Crassus, appears to have had an equally
tender heart, for he, too, wept at the death of his fishy darling.
R
230 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
Vedius Pollio, a Roman knight, has even acquired through these
fishes a scandalous renown, by causing now and then a slave
that had been guilty of some slight offence to be cast alive and
naked into their piscina, and amusing himself with the sight of
the murrys lacerating and devouring the body. That this
wretch was a friend of the Emperor Augustus harmonises but
badly with the ideas of the urbanity of his court which we may
have formed from the poems of Horace and Virgil. It is but
fair, however, to the character of the emperor to state that
he reprobated Pollio’s cruelty, and ordered his fish-pond to be
filled up.
The Launces are distinguished from the eels by their large
gill openings, and their caudal fin being separated from their
dorsal and anal fins. The common
Sand Launce abounds on many parts
of our shore. On account of its
silvery brightness it is highly esteemed
Ammodyte, or Launoe. by the fishermen as bait for their
hooks, and its remarkable habit of
burrowing in the sand as the tide recedes affords easy means
of capture. While underground, it most likely gets hold of
many an unfortunate lob-worm, mollusc, or crustacean, but on
emerging from its retreat' it is in its turn preyed upon by
the larger fishes. On a calm evening it is an interesting sight
to see the surface of the water broken by the repeated plunges
of the voracious mackerel as they burst upon the launces
from beneath. On the sands at Portobello, near Edinburgh,
people of all ages may be seen when the tide is out diligently
searching for the sand launce, and raking them out with
iron hooks. On the south coast of Devonshire, where the
sand launces are extremely plentiful, the fishermen employ a
small seine with a fine mesh, and are frequently so successful
that six or seven bushels are taken at one haul. The usual
length of the sand launce is from five to seven inches. In
many localities it is prepared for table, and considered a great
delicacy.
Although the Lamprey essentially differs from the eel in the
formation of its gills, the softness of its cartilaginous skeleton,
and its funnel-shaped mouth provided with sharp teeth, disposed
in circles, yet it resembles it closely in its outward form. Its
THE LAMPREY.
“31
colour is generally a dull brownish olive, clouded with yellowish-
white variegations ; the fins are tinged with dull orange, and the
tail with blue. The Marine or Sea Lamprey inhabits the ocean,
but ascends the rivers in spring. Though capable of swimming
with considerable vigour and rapidity, it is more commonly seen
attached by the mouth to some large stone or other substance,
the bod)7 hanging at rest, or obeying the motion of the current.
Its power of adhesion is so great that a weight of more than
twelve pounds maybe raised without forcing the fish to quit its
hold. Like the eel, it is remarkably tenacious of life, the head
strongly attaching itself for several hours to a stone, though by
far the greater part of the body be cut away from it. The
lamprey is still considered as a delicacy ; every schoolboy
knows that King Henry I. died of an indigestion caused by
this favourite dish ; and the town of Gloucester still sends every
Christmas a lamprey-pie to Queen Victoria, such as it was wont
to offer to its sovereign in the days of the Plantagenets and
Tudors.
The Myxine, Glutinous Hag, or Borer, bears a near resem-
blance to the lamprey, but
stands upon a much inferior
degree of organisation, having
no eyes — (the sole example
of blindness among fishes), and
a still softer skeleton, so that,
when boiled, it almost entirely
dissolves into mucus. In the lamprey and myxine, the
branchial cells, which admit water, are lined by the delicate
membrane through which the blood is aerated. In the former,
however, the external apertures of the branchial cells are placed
on the side of the neck ; while in the myxine, which feeds on
Myxine.
the internal parts of its prey, and buries its head and part of
its body in the flesh, the openings of the respiratory organs are
removed sufficiently far back to admit of the respiration going on
while the animal’s head is so inserted. Thus, even in this lowest
and meanest of all vertebrate animals, we find a remarkable
adaptation of its construction to its wants, and the proof that it
has been as well taken care of by its Creator as the highest
organised creatures of its class.
One of the most remarkable orders of fishes is that of the
232
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
Plectognaths, which are distinguished by having the superior
maxillary bones and the intermaxillaries soldered together so as
to render the upper jaw immovable, or incapable of projection.
Among the Plectognaths, we find among others the prickly Grlobe-
Porcupme-Fisn (Diodon hystrix.' Globe-Fish.
fishes and sea-porcupines ; the curiously-shaped Sun-fishes, all
head and no body; the Ostracions or Trunk-fishes, clothed like
the armadillos in a defensive coat of mail, leaving only the tail,
fins, mouth, and a small portion of the gill-opening, capable of
motion ; and the gorgeous Balistae or File-fishes, which owe their
family-name to the peculiar
structure of their first dorsal
fin. The first and strongest
spine of this organ is studded
up the front with numerous
small projections, which, under
the microscope, look like so
many points of enamel or
pearl arising from the surface of the bone and giving it the
appearance of a file. The second smaller spine has in the fore
part of its base a projection which, when the spines are elevated,
locks into a corresponding notch in the posterior base of the
first spine, and fixes it like the trigger of a gun-lock ; from
which the fish is called in Italy joesce balestra, or the cross-bow
File -Fish. — (Bans te s ery thro pterus . )
Short Sun-Fish.
Orthaaonscus Mola.z
Truni-Fish.— (Ostracion tnqueter.)
THE SEA-HORSE.
233
fish. The strong spine cannot he forced down till the small one
has been first depressed and the catch disengaged.
The Plectognaths are mostly denizens of the warmer seas,
but the pig-faced trigger-fish of the Mediterranean (Batistes
capriscus) has been caught three times in the British waters
since 1827, and the short sun -fish or molebut, though occur-
ring but occasionally, may be said to have been taken from
John o’ Groat's to the Land’s End. It grows to an immense
size, often attaining the diameter of four feet, sometimes even
double that size, and occasionally weighing from 300 to 500
pounds. When observed in our seas, the sun-fishes have gene-
rally appeared as though they were dead or dying, floating
lazily along on one side and making little or no attempt to
escape. It is to be presumed that in more congenial waters
they evince a greater degree of liveliness.
The order of the Lophobranchii is in many respects too
curious and interesting to be passed over in silence. Here the
gills, instead of being as usual ranged like the teeth of a comb,
are clustered into small filamentous tufts placed by pairs along
the branchial arches ; the face projects into a long tubular
snout, having the mouth either at its extremity, as in the Hip-
pocampus and in the Pipe-fishes, or at its base, as in the Pegasus
of the Indian seas; and the body is covered with shields or
small plates, which often give it an angular form, and encase it
as it were in jointed armour. But the most interesting feature
of their economy is the pouches in which the males of the
most characteristic genera carry the eggs until they are hatched.
In the hippocampi this provision for the safety of the future
generation, which strongly reminds one of the kangaroo or the
opossum, forms a perfect sack, opening at its commencement
only ; in the pipe fishes it is closed along its whole length by
two soft flaps folding over each other. Another peculiarity of
these interesting little fishes is the independent motion of their
eyes, the one glancing hither and thither while its fellow remains
motionless, or looks in different directions. This phenomenon
of double vision, which was long supposed to be peculiar to the
chameleon, is, however, not confined to this singular reptile or
to the hippocampi and pipe-fishes, but has been found by
Mr. Grosse to exist likewise in the Little Weever ( Trachinvs
vipera), in the Suckers (Lepidogastri), a small family remarkable
234
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
for the power they possess of attaching themselves to stones
or rocks by means of an adhesive disk on the under surface
of their bodies, and in several other fishes.
When imprisoned in an aquarium, few subjects of the deep
display more intelligence or afford more entertainment than
the little Hippocampus brevirostris, or Sea-Horse.
“While swimming about,” says Mr. Lukis,* “it maintains
a vertical position, tut the tail, ready to grasp whatever meets it
in the water, quickly entwines itself in
any direction round the weeds, and,
when fixed, the animal intently watches
the surrounding objects, and darts at its
prey with great dexterity. When two
of them approach each other, they often twist their tails together,
and struggle to separate or attach themselves to the weeds; this
is done by the under part of their cheeks or chin, which is also
used for raising the body when a new spot is wanted for the tail
to fasten upon afresh.”
“ In captivity,” says Mr. Gosse, “the manners of the Worm
Pipe-Fish ( Syngnathus lambriciformis), the smallest of our
native species, are amusing and engaging. Its beautiful eyes
move independently of each other, like those of the chameleon,
and another point of resemblance to that animal our little pipe-
fish presents in the prehensile character of its tail. It curves
just the tip of this organ laterally round the stem or frond ol
some sea-weed and holds on by this half-inch or so, while the
rest of its body roves to and fro, elevating and depressing the
head and fore parts, and throwing the body into the most grace-
ful curves. All the motions of the Pipe-fish manifest much
intelligence. It is a timid little thing, retiring from the side
of the glass at which it had been lying when one approaches,
and hiding under the shadow of the sea-weeds, which I have
put in, both to afford it shelter, and also to supply food in the
numerous animalcules that inhabit these marine plants. Then
it cautiously glides among their bushy fronds, and from under
their shelter peeps with its brilliant eyes at the intruder as if
wondering what he can be, drawing back gently at any alarm-
ing motion. In swimming, it is constantly throwing its body
Sea-Horse.
Yarrell, “ British Fishes,” 3rd edition, vol. ii. p. 330.
THE FLAT-FISH.
235
into elegant contortions and undulations; often it hangs nearly
perpendicular with the tail near the surface ; now and then it
butts against the side of the vessel with reiterated blows of its
nose, as if it could not make out why it should not go forward
where it can see no impediment. Now it twists about as if it
would tie its body into a love knot, then hangs motionless in
some one of the ‘lines of beauty’ in which it has acciden rally
paused.”
The family of the Pleuronectidae or Flat-fishes recommends
itself to our notice as much by the singularity of its form as by
its usefulness to man. “ The want of symmetry,” says Yarrell,
<£ so unusual in vertebrated animals, is the most striking and
distinctive character of these fishes: the twisted head with both
eyes on the same side, one higher than the other, not in the
same vertical line, and often unequal in size ; the mouth cleft
awry, and the frequent want of uniformity in those fins that
are in pairs, the pectoral and ventral fins of the under side
being generally smaller ; and the whole of the colour of the
fish confined to one side, while the other side remains white,
produce a grotesque appearance : yet a little consideration will
prove that these various and seemingly obvious anomalies are
perfectly in harmony with that station in nature which an
animal possessing such conformation is appointed to fill.
“ As birds are seen to occupy very different situations, some
obtaining their food on the ground, others on trees, and not a
few at various degrees of elevation in the air, so are fishes
destined to reside in different depths of water. The flat-fishes
and the various species of skate are, by their depressed form of
body, admirably adapted to inhabit the lowest position, where
they occupy the least space among their kindred fishes.”
“ Preferring sandy or muddy shores, the place of the flat-
fish is close to the ground ; where, hiding their bodies horizon-
tally in the loose soil at the bottom, with the head only slightly
elevated, an eye on the under side of the head would be use-
less ;• but as both eyes are placed on the upper surface, an
extensive range of view is afforded in those various directions
in which they may either endeavour to find suitable food or
avoid dangerous enemies. Light, one great cause of colour,
strikes on the upper surface only; the under surface, like that
of most other fishes, remains perfectly colourless. Having
•236
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
little or no means of defence, had their colour been placed only
above the lateral line on each side, in whatever position they
moved their piebald appearance would have rendered them
conspicuous objects to all their enemies. When near the
ground, they swim slowly, maintaining their horizontal position ;
and the smaller pectoral and ventral tins, on the under side, are
advantageous where there is so much less room for their action
than with the larger fins that are above. When suddenly dis-
turbed, they sometimes make a rapid shoot, changing their
position from horizontal to vertical; and, if the observer
happens to be opposite the white side, they may be seen to pass
•with the rapidity and flash of a meteor. Soon, however, they
sink down again, resuming their previous motionless horizontal
position, and are then distinguished with difficulty, owing to
their great similarity in colour to the surface on which they
rest.”
The number of species of the flat-fishes diminishes as the
degrees of northern latitude increase. In this country we
have twenty-three species; at the parallel of Jutland there
are thirteen ; on the coast of Norway they are reduced to
ten ; in Iceland the number is but five, and in Greenland only
three.
Many of them attain a considerable size, particularly the
Halibut ( Pleuronectes hippoglossus). In April 1828 a speci-
men seven feet six inches long and three feet six inches broad
was taken off the Isle of Man, and sent to Edinburgh market.
Olafsen mentions that he saw one which measured five ells ; and
we are told by the Norwegian fishermen that a single halibut
will sometimes cover a whole skiff.
Let us, however, remember that these
stories proceed from the country
where monstrous krakens and sea-
snakes are most frequently seen, and
where the mists of the north seem to
produce strange delusions of vision.
At all events, the halibut is better entitled to the name of
mciximus than its relation the Turbot, to which that epithet has
been improperly applied by naturalists. The turbot, equally
esteemed by the ancients and the moderns for the delicacy of its
flesh, is often confounded in our markets with the halibut, but
Halibut.
THE SOLE.
•237
may be easily recognised by the large unequal and obtuse
tubercles on its upper part.
The number of turbot brought
to Billingsgate within twelve
months, up to a recent period,
was 87,958. Though very con-
siderable quantities of this fish
are now taken on various parts of
our own coasts, from the Orkneys
to the Land’s End, yet a prefer-
ence is given to those caught by
the Dutch fishermen, who are supposed to draw not less than
80,000k for the supply of the London market alone. According
to Mr. Low, it is rare along our most northern shores, but
increases in numbers on proceeding to the south.
Next to the turbot, the Sole is reckoned the most delicate of
the flat-fishes. It inhabits the sandy shore all round our coast,
where it keeps close to the bottom,
indiscriminately feeding on smaller
testaceous animals, Crustacea, anne-
lides, radiata, and the spawn and fry
of other fishes. It is found northward
as far as the Baltic and the seas of
Scandinavia, and southward along the
shores of Spain, Portugal, and the Mediterranean. The con-
sumption is enormous, for Mr. Bertram informs us that no less
than 100,000,000 soles are annually brought to the London
market.* They seldom take any bait, and are caught almost
* We are told by the same author (“ Harvest of the Seas,” Murray, 1866) that
500,000 cod-fish, 25,000,000 mackerel, 35,000,000 plaice, and 200,000,000 had-
docks, &e.. form the yearly supply of the metropolis, which, besides this immense
number of white-fish, consumes 50,000,000 red herrings and 1,600,000 dried cod.
These, with the addition of Molluscous shell-fish (oysters, &e.) to the amount of
920,000,000, and a daily demand for 10.000 lobsters during the season, afford an
instructive indication of what must be the requirement of the whole population of
the United Kingdom as regards fish food.
The Keport. of the Commissioners appointed in the year 1863 to enquire into the
sea-fisheries of the United Kingdom gives us the gratifying intelligence that the
number of fishermen in Great Britain has nearly doubled within the last twenty
years, while the boats are increasing in number and size. No class of the popula-
tion is said to be in a more flourishing condition ; and this prosperity is no doubt
mainly due to the railroads, which have opened throughout the whole kingdom
Sole.
•238
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
entirely by trawling. The principal fishing-ground in England
is along the south coast from Sussex to Devonshire, where the
soles are much larger and considered otherwise superior to
those of the north and east. On the Devonshire coast, the great
fishing- station is at Brixham in Torbay, where the boats, using
large trawling nets from thirty to thirty-six feet in beam, pro-
duce a continual supply.
The Plaice and Flounder, though far inferior to the sole in
quality, are still in great request as articles of food. On the
English coast, the plaice are obtained
in abundance on all sandy banks and
muddy grounds, wherever either lines
or trawl-nets can be used. On the
sandy flats of the Solway Frith, they
are taken by the fishermen and their
families wading in the shoal water
with bare feet. When a fish is felt, it
is pressed by the foot firmly against the bottom until it can
be secured by the hand and transferred to the basket. Long
practice gives the dexterity which renders this kind of fishing
successful.
In some parts of the North of Europe, where from the rocky
nature of the soil the sea is remarkably transparent, plaice and
some other flat-fish of large size are taken by dropping down
upon them from a boat a doubly-barbed short spear, heavily
leaded, to carry it with velocity to the bottom, with a line
attached to it, by which the fish, when transfixed, i? hauled up.
The Flounder, one of the most common of the flat-fish, is
found in the sea and near the mouths of large streams all round
our coast, particularly where the bottom
is soft, whether of sand, clay, or mud.
It also ascends the rivers, and is caught
in considerable quantities from Deptford
to Kichmond by Thames fishermen, who,
with the assistance of an apprentice, use
a net of a particular sort, called a tuck-
sean. “ One end of this net,” says Yarrell, “ is fixed for a short
a ready market for the produce of the seas. In Ireland, however, there has been
a diminution of 10,583 boats and 52,127 men within the same time; a consequence
of the famine of 1848, and subsequent emigration.
The Flounder.
Plaice.
THE SAIL-FLUKE.
23 9
time by an anchor or grapple, and its situation marked by a
floating buoy ; the boat is then rowed or rather sculled by the
apprentice in a circle, the fisherman near the stern handing
out and clearing the net : when the circle is completed and a
space enclosed, the net is hauled in near the starting-point in a
direction across the fixed end.”
The Sail-fluke, a species of flat-fish common among the
Orkneys, where it is highly prized as an article of food, its fl 'sh
being firm and white, is remarkable for its curious habit of
coming ashore spontaneously, with its tail erected above the
water, like a boat under sail, whence it has derived its name.
This it does generally in calm weather, and on sandy shores, and
the country people residing near such places train their dogs to
catch it. In North Ronaldshay, the northernmost island of the
group, a considerable supply is obtained in an original manner :
thus described in a letter from a resident inserted in Yarrell’s
“ British Fishes : ” “ In the winter and early spring, a pair of
black-headed gulls take possession of the South Bay, drive away
all interlopers, and may be seen at daybreak every morning,
beating from side to side, on the wing, and never both in
one place, except in the act of crossing as they pass. The
sail-fluke skims the ridge of the wave towards the shore with
its tail raised over its back, and when the wave recedes is left on
the sand, into which it burrows so suddenly and completely that,
though I have watched its approach, only once have I succeeded
in finding its burrow.
“The gull, however, has a surer eye, and casting like a hawk
pounces on the fluke, from which, by one stroke of its bill, it
extracts the liver. If not disturbed, the gull no sooner gorges
the luscious morsel than it commences dragging the fish to
some outlying rock, where he and his consort may discuss it at
leisure. By robbing the black backs, I have had the house
supplied daily with this excellent fish, in weather during which
no fishing-boat could put to sea. Close to the beach of South
Bay, a stone Avail has been raised to shelter the crops from the
sea-spray. Behind this we posted a smart lad, who kept his eye
on the soaring gulls. The moment one of the birds made its
well-known swoop, the boy rushed to the sea-strand shouting
out with all his might. He was usually in time to scare the
gull away and secure the fluke, but almost in every case with
240
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
the liver torn out. If the gull by chance succeeded in carrying
his prey off the rock, he and his partner set up a triumphant
cackling, as if deriding the disappointed lad.”
The Rays resemble the side-swimmers by the flatness of their
form, but differ widely from them in many other particulars.
Like the sharks and sturgeons, they
belong to the cartilaginous fishes, and
as their branchiae adhereto the cells,
these respiratory membranes are not
furnished with a gill-cover, but com-
municate freely with the water by
means of five spiracles on either side.
More unsightly fishes can hardly be
conceived. The rhomboidal broad body, the long narrow tail
frequently furnished with two and sometimes three small fins,
and mostly armed with one or more rows of sharp spines along
its whole length, the dirty colour, and the thick coat of slime
with which it is covered, render them pre-eminently disgusting.
Their mode of defending themselves is very effectual, and forms
a striking contrast to the helplessness of the flat fish. The point
of the nose and the base of the tail are bent upwards towards
each other, and the upper surface of the body being then con-
cave, the tail is lashed about in all directions over it, and the
rows of sharp spines frequently inflict severe wounds.
Eleven species of rays are found on the British coasts, some,
like the skates, with a perfectly smooth skin ; others, like the
thornback, with an upper surface studded with spines, and some,
like the sting-ray, with a tail still more powerfully armed with a
long serrated spine : a formidable weapon, which the fish strikes
with the swiftness of an arrow into its prey or enemjq when with
its winding tail it makes the capture secure. The lacerations in-
flicted by the tropical sting-rays produce the most excruciating
tortures. An Indian who accompanied Richard Schomburgk on
his travels through Gfuiana, being hit by one of these fishes while
fording a river, tottered to the bank, where he fell upon the
ground and rolled about on the sand with compressed lips in an
aoony of pain. But no tear started from the eye, no cry of
anguish issued from the breast, of the_ stoical savage. An Indian
boy wounded in the some manner, but less able to master his
emotions, howled fearfully, and flung himself upon the sand.
Thornback.
VORACITY’ OP THE RAYS.
241
biting it in the paroxysm of his anguish. Although both had
been hit in the foot, they felt the severest pain in the loins, in
the region of the heart, and in the arm-pits. A robust man,
wounded by a sting-ray, died in Demarara under the most
dreadful convulsions.
The rays are very voracious ; their food consists of any sort
of fish, mollusc, annelide, or crustacean, that they can catch.
So powerful are their muscles and jaws that they are able to
crush the strong shell of a crab with the greatest ease. Even in
our seas they attain a considerable size. Thomas Willoughby
makes mention of a single skate of two hundred pounds’ weight,
which was sold in the fish market at Cambridge to the cook of
St. John’s College, and was found sufficient for the dinner of a
society, consisting of more than a hundred and twenty persons.
Dr. Gf. Johnston measured a sharp-nosed ray at Berwick, which
was seven feet nine inches long and eight feet three inches
broad. But our European rays are far from equalling the
colossal dimensions of the sea- devil of the Pacific. This terrific
monster swims fast, and often appears on the surface of the
ocean, where its black unwieldy back looks like a huge stone
projecting above the waters. It attains a breadth of twelve
or fifteen feet, and Lesson was presented by a fisherman of
Borabora with a tail five feet long. The Society Islanders
catch the hideous animal with harpoons, and make use of its
rough skin as rasps or files in the manufacture of their wooden
utensils.
Creatures so voracious and well armed as the rays would have
attained a dangerous supremacy in the maritime domains had
they equalled most other fishes in fecundity. Fortunately for
their neighbours, they seldom produce more lhan one young at
a time, which, as in the sharks, is enclosed in a four-cornered
capsule ending in slender points, but not, as in the former, pro-
duced into long filaments.
Thus nature has in this case set bounds to the increase of a
race which else might have destroyed the balance of marine
existence; in most fishes, however, she has been obliged to
provide against the danger of extinction by a prodigal abund-
ance of new germs. If the cod did not annually produce more
thau nine millions of eggs, and the sturgeon more than seven ;
if the flat-fish, mackerels, and herrings, did not multiply by
242
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
hundreds of thousands, they could not possibly maintain them-
selves against the vast number of their enemies. 41 Not one egg
too much,” every one will say who considers that of all the
myriads of germs which are deposited on the shallow sand-
banks and shores to be quickened by the fructifying warmth
of the sun, not one in a hundred comes to life, as fishes and
molluscs, crabs and radiata, devour the spawn with equal voracity;
that a thousand dangers await the young defenceless fry, since
everywhere in the oceanic realms no other right is known than
that of the stronger ; and that, finally, the insatiable rapacity of
man is continually extirpating millions on millions of the full-
grown fishes. But if very few of this much -persecuted race
die a natural death, a life of liberty makes them some amends
for their violent end. The tortured cart-horse or the imprisoned
nightingale would, if they could reflect, willingly exchange their
hard lot and joyless existence for the free life of the independent
fish, who, from the greater simplicity of his structure, his want
of higher sensibilities, his excellent digestion, and the more
equal temperature of the element in which he lives, remains
unmolested by many of the diseases to which the warm-blooded
and particularly the domestic animals are subject.
Dot y.
213
CHAP. X 1 1 r.
CRUSTACEA.
CRABS— LOBSTERS.
How are they distinguished from the Insects ?— Barnacles and Acorn-shells. —
Siphonostomata. — Entomostraca. — King-Crab. — Edriophthalmia.— Sandhoppers.
— Thoracostraca. — Compound Eye of the higher Crustaceans. — Respiratory
Apparatus of the Decapods. — Digestive Organs. — Chelae or Pincers. — Distribu-
tion of Crabs. — Land Crabs. — The Calling Crab. — Modifications of the Legs in
different species. — The Pinna and Pinnotheres. — Hermit Crabs. — The Lobster.
— The Cocoa-nut Crab. — The Shrimp. — Moulting Process. — Metamorphoses of
Crabs. — Victims and Enemies of the Crustaceans — Their Fecundity. — Marine
Spiders and Insects.
The Crustaceans were included by Linnaeus among his insects,
but their internal structure presents such numerous and im-
portant differences that modern naturalists have raised them to
the dignity of a separate class. They have indeed, in common
with the insects, an articulated body, generally cased with hard
materials; they are like them provided with jointed legs, with
antennae or feeldrs, and their organs of mastication are similarly
formed ; but insects breathe atmospheric air through lateral
pores or tracheae, while the crustaceans, being either aquatic
animals or constantly frequenting very damp places, have a
branchial or a tegumentary respiration. The perfect insect
undergoes no further change ; the crustacean, on the contrary,
increases in size with every successive year. The higher crus-
tacean possesses a heart, which propels the blood, after it has
been aerated in the gills, to every part of the body ; in the insect
the circulation of the blood is by no means so highly organised.
On the other hand many of the insects are far superior in point
of intelligence to even the best endowed crustaceans, for here
we find no parental care, no mutual affection, no joint labours
for the welfare of a large community, no traces of an amiable
244
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
disposition, but
guinary temper.
Barnacle.
frequent outbursts of an irascible and san-
Thourfi the whole of the Crustacea are formed
O
after one and the same
general type, and the
same fundamental idea
may be traced through-
out all their tribes,
yet the rings of which
their body is composed,
and the limbs or ap-
pendages attached to these segments, undergo such exten-
sive modifications of structure in the various orders into which
the class has been divided that even the eye of
science has with difficulty made out the true
nature of many of their lowest forms. Who,
for instance, judging from outward appearances
alone, would suppose that the Barnacles and
Acorn-shells which he sees riveted to the rock
or to a piece of floating timber were relations
of the crab or lobster ; but a view of their early
forms at once points out their real character, for then they appear
Balairus ovuians.
Development of Balanua baianoides. — (Acorn-shell.)
A. Earliest form. B. Larva after second moult. C. Side view of the same. D. Stage immediately
preceding the loss of activity, a. Stomach, b . Nucleus of future attachment.
as active little animals possessing three pairs of legs and a pair
of compound eyes, and having the body covered with an expanded
THE BARNACLES.
245
shield like that of many of the lower crustaceans. After going
through a series of metamorphoses, these larvaa, tired of a roam-
ing life, attach themselves by their head, a portion of which be-
comes excessively elongated into the “peduncle ” of the Barnacles,
whilst in the Balani or acorn-shells it expands into a broad
disk of adhesion. The multivalve shell is gradually formed,
the eyes are cast away as being no longer needed, and the now
useless feet are replaced by six pairs of extremely useful cirrhi,
long, slender, many-jointed, tendril-like appendages fringed with
delicate filaments and covered with vibratile cilia. These cirrhi,
which resemble a plume of purple feathers, and fropn whose
peculiar character the name of the group, Cirrhipoda, is de-
rived, are constantly in motion as long as they are bathed in
water, projecting outwards and expanding into an oval concave
net, then retracting inwards, and closing upon whatever may
have come within their reach. They are so judiciously placed
that any small animal which becomes entangled within them
can rarely escape, and is at once conveyed to the mouth. The
currents produced in the water by their perpetual activity
serve also to aerate the blood, so that these delicate organs act
both as gills and as prehensile arms. In spite of their sessile
condition, the Cirrhipeds have not been left without protection
against hostile attacks, for at the approach of danger they shrink
within their shell, and close its orifice against a host of hungry
intruders.
Their various families are widely spread over the seas. It is
well known that the barnacles frequently attach themselves in
such vast numbers to ships’ bottoms as materially to obstruct
their way, and the acorn- shells often line the coasts for miles
and miles with their large white scurfy patches. The Coronulte
settle so profusely on the skin of the Greenland whale as often to
hide the colour of its skin, while the Tubicinellae exclusively
occur on the huge cetaceans of the South Sea. Some of the
larger sea-acorns are highly esteemed as articles of food. The
Chinese, after eating the animal of Balanus tintinnabulum with
salt and vinegar, use the shell, which is about two or three
inches high and an inch in diameter, as a lamp, and the flesh of
Balanus psittacus on the southern parts of the South American
coast is said to equal in richness and delicacy that of the crab.
While the Cirrhipeds grasp their prey as in a living net, the
Siphonostomata lead a parasitic life chiefly upon fishes, sucking
s
246
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
their juices with a bloodthirsty proboscis. Some (Argulus,
Caligus) wander about freely on the body of their victims as
grazing animals on their pasture grounds, or even make ex-
cursions in the water, where they will turn over and over several
times in succession like mountebanks ; others (Lernese), after
having, like the barnacles, indulged in a vagabond existence in
their first youth, remain ever after clinging to the spot on which
they originally settled, and where their body undergoes such
remarkable transformations that not a vestige of the crustacean
structure which characterised their erratic life remains.
As we continue to proceed from the lower to the higher forms,
we find, on the next stage of crustacean life, the numerous
familiesofthe Entomostraca ; some bristly-footed (Lophyropoda),
withasmall number of legs and with respiratory organs attached to
the parts in the neighbourhood of the mouth, others gill-footed
(Branchiopoda), with numerous foliaceous legs, serving both for
respiration and swimming. Some of these creatures, which are
generally of such minute size as to be only just visible to the
naked eye, have an unprotected body (Branchipus), but gene-
rally they are enclosed within a horny or shelly
casing, which sometimes closely resembles a
bivalve shell in shape and in the mode of junction
of its parts, whilst in other instances it forms a
kind of buckler, an opening being left behind,
through which the members project.
Though enjoying a royal title, the King-crabs,
or Limuli, occupy in reality but a low rank
among the crustaceans, and are hardly superior in
organisation to the Entomostraca. They are of
large size, sometimes attaining the length of
two feet, and of a very singular structure, the bases of the legs
performing the part of jaws. The best-known species comes from
the Moluccas, where they are often seen slowly
swimming in the sheltered bays, or still more
slowly crawling along upon the sandy shores.
In the Edriophthalmia are included the lower
crustaceans that have no carapace, and whose
abdomen are distinctly composed of articulated
The numerous legs are variously formed in the diffe-
King-Crab.
X
Sandhopper.
thorax and
segments.
rent genera for springing, walking, or swimming; and respira-
COMPOUND EYE OF CRABS.
247
tion is executed by certain portions of the extremities, modified
for this purpose in their structure. To this order belong among
others the saltatorial sandhoppers (Talitrus), which so frequently
jump up before our feet when walking on the wet sea-sand ;
the ill-famed Chelurse and Linnoriae, whose devastations in sub-
merged timber almost rival those of the ship-worm, and the
parasitical Cyami, which gnaw deep holes into the skin of the
whale. The sandhoppers are extremely frequent on the shores
of the arctic seas, where they emulate the i 1
tropical ants in their speedy removal of
decaying animal substances. Thus Captain
Holboll relates that, having enclosed a piece
of shark’s flesh in a basket, and let it down cheim a terebrans,
to a depth of seventy-five fathoms, in the Greenland sea, he by
this means caught within two hours six quarts of these little
creatures, while a vast number still followed the basket
as it was hauled up.
As the lower crustaceans offer but few points of in-
terest to the general reader, they required but a few
words of notice ; but the highest order of the class, the
Thoracostraca, thus named from the carapace which
covers their thorax, so that only the abdomen presents
an annular structure, may justly claim a more ample
description. The preceding orders had either sessile eyes or
none at all ; here the movable eyes are fixed on stalks and of a
compound structure like those of the insects ; each
ocular globe consisting of a numberof distinct parallel
columns, every one of which is provided with its own
crystalline lens, receives its separate impression of
light, and is thus in itself a perfect eve. Approaches
to this structure are seeu in some of the lower crustaceans; but
here the “ ocelli,” as these minute individual eyes have been
designated, are very numerous. They are at once
recognised, under even a low magnifying power, by
the facetted appearance of the surface of the com-
pound eye, the facets being either square (Scyllari,
&c.)or more commonly hexagonal (Paguri, Squillae,
&c.). The auditory apparatus is likewise highly developed ;
the sense of smell is known to be very acute; and the antennae
are delicate organs of touch.
Square
facets of
Scyllarus.
248
THE INHABITANTS OP THE SEA.
The Thoracostraca are subdivided into the small group of
the Stomatopoda, whose branchiae are external and the feet
prehensile or formed for swimming, and
the far more numerous and important
Decapods, which are either long-tailed
like the scyllarus or short-tailed like the
Scyllarus equinoxialis.
crab.
In these the branchiae no longer
, float in the water, but are enclosed in
two chambers, situated one at each side of the under surface
of the broad shelly plate which covers the back of the animal.
Each of these chambers is provided with two apertures, one in
the front near the jaws, the other behind.
The disposition of the anterior or efferent orifice varies but
little ; but in the long-tailed species the afferent or posterior
orifice is a wide slit at the basis of the feet, while in the short-
tailed kinds it forms a small transverse aperture generally
placed almost immediately in front of the first pair of ambulatory
extremities. By means of this formation, the short-tailed de-
capods or crabs, like those fishes that are provided with a narrow
opening to their gill covers, are enabled to exist much longer
out of the water than the lono-tailed lobsters. Some of them
O
even spend most of their time on land; and, still better to adapt
them for a terrestrial life, the internal surfaces of the branchial
caverns are lined with a spongy texture, and the gill branches
separated from each other by hard partitions, so as to prevent
them from collapsing after a long penury of water and thus
completely stopping the circulation. While in fishes the water
that serves for respiration flows from the front backwards, so as
not to impede their motions, we find in the interior of the
branchial cavity of the decapods a large valve attached to the
second pair of maxillary feet, which, continually falling and
rising, occasions a rapid current from behind forwards in the
water with which the cavity is filled, a structure perfectly
harmonising with their retrograde or sidelong movements.
The digestive apparatus of the decapods is of a very com-
plicated structure. The mouth is here furnished with at least
eight pieces or pairs of jaws, which pass the food through an
extremely short gullet into a stomach of considerable size. This
stomach is rendered curious by having within certain cartilagi-
nous appendages, to which strong grinding-teeth are attached.
THE SPONGE-CRAB.
249
These are placed at the outlet of the stomach, so that the aliment,
after being subjected to the action of the jaws, is again more
perfectly comminuted by the stomach-teeth before entering
the digestive tube. The different pieces composing the
masticatory apparatus of the stomach vary considerably in
the different genera, and even in the several species of the
same genus ; but in every case they are always singularly in
harmony with the kind of food taken and the general habits of
the animal.
To enable the decapods to seize their victims or to defend
themselves against their enemies, their anterior thoracic extremi-
ties generally assume the form of “ chelae,” claws, or pincers
of considerable strength, armed with teeth or sharp hooks, which
give them increased powers of prehension. This form results
mainly from the state of extreme development in which the
penultimate articulation frequently occurs, and its assumption
of the shape of a finger by the prolongation of one of its in-
ferior angles. Against the finger-like process thus produced,
which is of great strength, and quite immovable, the last
articulation can be brought to bear with immense force, as it
is put into motion by a muscular mass of great size, and in
relation with the extraordinary development of the penultimate
articulation. In most cases only the first pair of legs is con-
verted into these formidable weapons, but in the Dromiae, which
are very common in the warmer seas, we
find the two posterior pairs of legs, which
are of a much smaller size, and raised above
the plane of the others, similarly armed.
These posterior claws, however, are not
intended for active warfare, but merely for
strategical purposes, as they serve to hold
fast the pieces of sponges, shells, medusae, and other marine
productions, under w’hose cover the wily robber approaches and
entraps his prey.
While the lower crustaceans abound in the polar seas,
the crabs are completely wanting in those desolate re-
gions; their number increases with the warmer temperature
of the waters, and attains its maximum in the tropical
zone. Here we find the most remarkable and various
for ms , here they attain a size unknown in our seas ; and
Dromia Vulgaris.
250
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
here they do not, as with us, inhabit solely the salt waters, but also
people the brooks and rivers, or even constant^ sojourn on land,
— as, for instance, the Thelphusce and Gecarcini. There are even
some species of land-crabs that suffo-
cate when dipped into water. They
breathe indeed through branchiae,
but the small quantity of oxygen
dissolved in water does not suffice
for the wants of their active- respira-
tion. They generally live in the
shades of the damp forests, often at a great distance from the
sea, concealing themselves in holes. At breeding time they
generally seek the shore for the purpose of washing off their
spawn, and depositing it in the sand, and no obstruction will
then make them deviate from the straight path. They feed on
vegetable substances, and are reckoned very excellent food.
When taken, they will seize the person’s finger with their claw,
and endeavour to escape, leaving the claw behind, which for
some time after it has been separated from the body, continues
to give the finger a friendly squeeze. In the dusk of the evening
they quit their holes, and may then be seen running about with
great swiftness.
All sandy and muddy coasts of the tropical seas, affording
sufficient protection against a heavy sea, swarm with crabs.
In the East and West Indies the G-elasimi bore in every
direction circular holes in the moist black soil of the coast.
One of the claws of these remarkable creatures is much larger
than the other, so as sometimes to surpass
in size the whole remainder of the body.
They make use of it as a door, to close the
entrance of their dwelling, and when run-
ning swiftly along, carry it upright over the
head, so that it seems to beckon likeanout-
Large- clawed Calling- fetched hand. One might fancy the crab
moved it as in derision of its pursuers, tell-
ing them by pantomimic signs, “ Catch me if you can ! ”
As soon as the ebbing flood lays bare the swampy grounds of
the mangrove woods, myriads of animals are seen wallowing in
the pestiferous mud. Here a fish jumps about, there a holo-
thuria crawls, and crabs run along by thousands in every direc-
Jamaica Land- Crab .
CRABS.
251
tion. The black mud along the coast of Borneo assumes quite
a brilliant blue tinge, when, at low water, during the heat of
the day, the ccerulean Gelasimi
come forth to feed.
The Venetian lagoons also har-
bour a vast number of the common
Shore-Crab ( Portunus Mcenas),
the catching of which affords a
profitable employment to the in-
habitants of those swampy regions.
Whole cargoes are sent to Istria, where they are used as bait for
anchovies. The fishermen gather them a short time before they
cast their shell, and preserve them in baskets, until the moulting
process has been effected, when they are reckoned a delicacy even
on the best tables. On attempting to seize this crab, it runs
rapidly sideways, and conceals itself in the mud; but when un-
successful, it raises itself with a menacing mien, beats its claws
noisily together, as if in defiance of the enemy, and prepares for
a valiant defence, like a true knight.
The most valuable short-tailed crustacean of the North Sea is
undoubtedly the Great Crab ( Cancer pagurus), which attains
a weight of from four to five pounds, and is consumed by
thousands in the summer, when it is in season and heaviest.
It is caught in wicker-baskets, arranged so as to permit an easy
entrance, while egress is not to be thought of.
The legs of the crabs are very differently formed in various
species. In those which have been called sea-spiders they are
very long, thin, and weak, so that the animal swims badly, and is
a slow and uncertain pedestrian. F or greater security it therefore
generally seeks a greater depth, where, concealed among the sea-
weeds, it wages war with annelides, planarias, and small mollusks.
Sea-spiders are often found on the oyster-banks, and considered
injurious by the fishermen, who unmercifully destroy them
whenever they get hold of them.
In other species the legs are short, muscular, and powerful,
so as rapidly to carry along the comparatively light body. The
tropical land-crabs and the genera Ocypocla and Grapsus, which
form the link between the former and the real sea-crabs, are
particularly distinguished in this respect.
The Eider or Eacer ( Ocypocla cursor), who is found on the
252
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
coasts of Syria and Barbary, and abounds at Cape de Verde,
owes his name to his swiftness, which is such that even a man
on horseback is said not to be able to
overtake him. The West Indian ocy-
podas dig holes three or four feet deep,
immediately above high-water mark,
and leave them after dusk. Towards
the end of October they retire further
American Sand- Crab. inland, and bury themselves for the
winter in similar holes, the opening of
which they carefully conceal.
In the Portuni, or true Sea-crabs, finally, we find the hind
pair of legs flattened like fins, so that they would cut but a
sorry figure on the land, but are all the
better able to row about in their congenial
O
element.
A strange peculiarity of many crabs is
the quantity of parasites they carry along
with them on their backs. Many marine
productions, both of a vegetable and
Spotted Fin- Crab. r ’ ...
animal nature, have their birth and grow
to beauty on the shell of the sea-spider. Corallines, sponges,
zoophytes, algse, may thus be found, and balani occasionally cover
the entire upper surface of the body of the crab. “All the
examples of the Inachus Dorsettensis which I have taken,” says
the distinguished naturalist, Mr. AV. Thompson of Belfast, “ were
invested with sponge, which generally covers over the body,
arms, and legs ; aigoo and zoophytes likewise spring from it.” In
this extraneous matter some of the smaller zoophytes find
shelter, and, together with the other objects, render the capture
of the Inachus Dorsettensis interesting far beyond its own acquisi-
tion. In Mr. Hyndman’s collection, there is a sea-spider carry-
ing on its back an oyster much larger than itself, and covered
besides with numerous barnacles. Like Atlas, the poor creature
groaned under a world.
The extraneous matters which so many crabs carry along with
them are, however, far from being always a useless burden ;
they are often a warlike stratagem, under cover of which the
sly crustacean entraps many a choice morsel. Thus Bennett
witnessed at Otaheite the proceedings of an interesting Hyas
CRABS — PARASITES.
253
Pea-Crab.
species, which disguised itself by investing its body with a
covering of decayed vegetable substances and coral-sand. The
better to ensnare its prey, the back was covered with rigid and
incurved bristles, calculated to retain the extraneous sub-
stances, while the short and well concealed forceps-claws were
ready for the attack, and the ophthalmic peduncles, curving up-
ward to raise the eyes above the pile of materials, gave the wily
crab the great advantage of seeing without being seen. As soon
as an unfortunate mollusk, unsuspicious of evil, approached the
lurking ruffian, he darted upon it like an arrow, and, ere it could
recover its presence of mind, was busy tearing it to pieces.
If many crabs are burdened with small animals and plants,
others live parasitically in the shells of mollusks. Thus the
small Pinnotheres veterum claims the hospi-
tality of the Pinna, a large bivalve of the
Mediterranean. The ancients supposed that this
was a friendly connection, an entente corcliale,
formed for mutual defence : that the Pinna,
being destitute of eyes, and thus exposed when
he opened his shell to the attacks of the cuttle-
fish and other enemies, was warned of their approach by his
little lodger, upon which he immediately closed his shell and
both were safe. Unfortunately, there
is not a word of truth in the whole
story. The sole reason why the Pin-
notheres takes up its abode under a
stranger’s roof is the softness of its
own integuments, which otherwise
would leave it utterly defenceless : nor does the Pinna show the
least sign of affection for its guest, who, on returning from an
excursion, often finds it very difficult to slip again into the
shell.
According to Mr. Thompson, the Modiola vulgaris, a species
of mussel very common on the Irish coast, almost always har-
bours several parasitic crabs ( Pinnotheres joisum). At Heligo-
land, Dr. Oetker, to whom we are indebted for the best work
on that interesting island, scarce ever found a modiola without
several guests of this description, while he never could find any
in oysters, mussels, and other nearly related species. What may
the reason be of either this predilection or that desertion ?
Pinna Augustana.
254 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
The numerous family of the Paguri, or Hermit crabs, is also
condemned by its formation to lead a parasitic and robber-life.
The fore part of the body is indeed, as in other
crabs, armed with claws and covered with a
shield, but ends in a long soft tail provided
with one or two small boots. How then are
the poor creatures to help themselves? The
hind part is not formed for swimming, and its
weight prevents them from running. Thus
nothing remains for them but to look about
them for some shelter, and this is afforded
them by several conchiform shells, buccina,
neritce, in which they so tenaciously insert their hooked tails, as if
1 ioth were grown together. So long as they are young and feeble,
they content themselves with such shells as they find empty on
the strand, but when grown to maturity, they attack living
specimens, seize with their sharp claws the snail, ere it can with-
draw into its shell, and after devouring its flesh, creep without
ceremony into the conquered dwelling, which fits them like a
coat when they take a walk, and the mouth of which they close
when at rest with their largest forceps, in the same manner as
,the original possessor used his operculum or lid. How re-
markable that an animal should thus find in another creature
belonging to a totally different class, the completion, as it
were, of its being, and be indebted to it for the protecting cover
which its own skin is unable to secrete !
When the dwelling of the pagurus becomes inconveniently
narrow, the remedy is easy, for appropriate sea-shells abound
wherever hermit crabs exist. They are found on almost every
coast, and every new scientific voyage makes us acquainted with
new species. According to Quoy and Gfaimard, they are par-
ticularly numerous at the Ladrones, New Guinea, and Timor.
The strand of the small island of Kewa, in Coupang Bay, was
entirely covered with them. In the heat of the day they
seek the shade of the bushes ; but as soon as the cool of evening
approaches, they come forth by thousands. Although they
make all large snail-houses answer their purposes, they seem in
this locality to prefer the large Sea Nerites.
The famous East Indian Cocoa-nut Crab ( Birgus latro), a
kind of intermediate link between the short and long tailed
Diogenes Hermit
Crab.
CRABS LOBSTERS.
255
crabs, bears a great resemblance to the paguri. It is said to
climb the palm-trees, for the sake of detaching the heavy nuts ;
but Mr. Darwin, who attentively observed the animal on the
Keeling Islands, tells us that it merely lives upon those that
spontaneously fall from the tree. To extract its nourishment
from the hard case, it shows an ingenuity which is one of the
most wonderful instances of animal instinct. It must first of
all be remarked, that its front pair of legs is terminated by very
strong and heavy pincers, the last pair by others, narrow and
weak. After having selected a nut fit for its dinner, the crab
begins its operations by tearing the husk, fibre by fibre, from
that end under which the three eye-holes are situated ; it then
hammers upon one of them with its heavy claws, until an opening
is made. Hereupon it turns round, and by the aid of its pos-
terior pincers, extracts the white albuminous substance. It
inhabits deep burrows, where it accumulates surprising quanti-
ties of picked fibres of cocoa-nut husks, on which it rests as on
a bed. Its habits are diurnal ; but every night it is said to pay
a visit to the sea, no doubt for the purpose of moistening its
branchiae. It is very good to eat, living as it does on choice
vegetable substances ; and the great mass of fat, accumulated
under the tail of the larger ones, sometimes yields, when melted,
as much as a quart of limpid oil. Thus our taking possession of
the Keeling Islands, as a coaling station for the steamers from
Australia to Ceylon, bodes no good to the Birgus.
The long tail, which the paguri sedulously conceal in shells,
serves the shrimps and lobsters as their chief organ of locomo-
tion, for although these creatures have well-formed legs, they
make but slow work of it when they attempt to crawl. But
nothing can equal the rapidity with which they dart backwards
through the water, by suddenly contracting their tail. Thus
the Lobster makes leaps of twenty feet at one single bound, and
the little shrimp equals it fully in velocity in proportion to its size,
and belongs unquestionably to the most active of the denizens of
the ocean. It swarms in incalculable numbers on the sandy
shores of the North Sea, where it is caught in nets attached to a
long cross pole, which the fishermen, walking-knee deep in the
water, push along before them. Boiled shrimps are a well
known delicacy ; and the Squilla Mantis of the Mediterranean,
which resembles our common shrimp in outer form, but essen-
2aG
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA..
tially differs from it in the formation of its branchiae, winch
float freely in the water, attached to the abdominal legs, holds
an equal rank in the estimation of the South Europeans.
Crustaceans and Oysters.
But of all crustaceans, none approaches the Lobster in delicacy
of taste. This creature, the epi-
cure’s delight, loves to dwell in the
deep clear waters along bold rocky
shores, where it is taken in wicker
baskets, or with small nets attached
to iron hoops. About two millions
of lobsters are annually imported
from Norway, although they are also found in great abundance
along the Scottish and Irish coasts. Thus, considering their high
price, they form a considerable article of trade ; and yet they
are far from equalling in importance the minute Herring-crab
( Cancer halecum), which, by formic g the chief nourishment of
that invaluable fish, renders in an indirect way incalculable
services to man.
The lobster breeds in the summer months, depositing many
thousands of eggs in the sand, and leaving them there to be
hatched by the sun. But few, as may easily be imagined, live
to attain a size befitting them to appear in r.d livery on our
tables. Like all crustaceans, the lobster casts its shell annually,
and with such perfection, that the discarded garment, with all
Spotted Mantis Crab.
MOULT OF TIIE LOBSTER.
257
its appendages, perfectly resembles the living animal. The
process is curious enough to deserve a few lines of description.
When towards autumn, the time of casting the shell ap-
proaches, the lobster retires to a silent nook, like a pious hermit
to his cell, and fasts several days. The shell thus detaches
itself gradually from the emaciated body, and a new and tender
cuticle forms underneath. The old dress seems now, however,
to plague the lobster very much, to judge by the efforts he
makes to sever all remaining connection with it. Soon the
harness splits right through the back, like the cleft bark of a
tree, or a ripe seed-husk, and opens a wide gate to liberty.
After much tugging and wriggling, the legs, tail, and claws
gradually follow the body. The claws give the lobster most
trouble ; but he is well aware that perseverance generally wins
the day, and never ceases till the elastic mass, which can be
drawn out like india-rubber, and instantly resumes its ordinary
shape, has been forced through the narrow passage. It can
easily be supposed that, after such a violent struggle for freedom,
the lobster is not a little exhausted. Feeling his weakness, and
the very insufficient protection afforded him by his soft covering,
he bashfully retires from all society until his hardened case
allows him to mix again with his friends on terms of equality,
for he well knows how inclined they are to bite and devour a
softer brother.
The facility with which the Crustacea cast off their legs, and
even their heavy claws, when they have been wounded in one
of these organs or alarmed at thunder, is most remarkable
Without the least appearance of pain, they then continue to run
along upon their remaining legs. After some time a newT limb
grows out of the old stump, but never attains the size of the
original limb.
At the beginning of the chapter I have already briefly
described the wonderful transformations of the barnacles,
acorn-shells, and lernese, but the changes which the young
crabs, lobsters, prawns, and shrimps, have to undergo ere they
assume their perfect form are no less astonishing. Thus in the
earliest state of the small edible crab ( Carcinvs mcenas ) we
find a creature with a preposterously large helmet-shaped head,
ending behind in a long spine, and furnished in front with two
monstrous sessile eyes like the windows of a lantern. By means
258
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
of a long articulated tail the restless Chimera continually turns
head over heels. Claws are wanting, and while the old crab is
of course a perfect decapod, the young has only four bifid legs,
armed at the extremity with four long bristles, that are con-
Metamorphosis of Carcirms mcenas.
A. First stage. B. Second stage. C. Third stage, in which it begins to assume the adult form.
D. Perfect form.
tmually pushing food towards the ciliated mouth. Who could
imagine that a creature like this should ever change into a crab,
to which it has not the least resemblance? But time does
wonders. After the first change of skin the body assumes
something like its permanent shape, the eyes become stalked,
the claws are developed, and the legs resemble those of the
crab, but the tail is still long, and the swimming habit has not
yet been laid aside. At the next stage, while the little creature
is still about the eighth of an inch in diameter, the crab form
is at length completed,- the abdomen folding in under the
carapace. No wonder that these larvae were long supposed to be
distinct types, and described under the
names of Zoea and Megalops, until
Mr. T. J. Thompson first discovered
their real nature.
The life history of the Palinuri or
spiny lobsters is equally curious. They
frequently weigh ten or twelve pounds
each, and are distinguished by the very large size of their
lateral antennae and by their feet being unarmed with pincers.
Surely nothing can be more dissimilar than the glass crabs or
ENEMIES OF THE CRUSTACEANS.
259
Phyllosomas , thin as a leaf of paper, and so transparent that
their blue eyes are their only visible parts while swimming in
the water; and yet these flimsy creatures are nothing but the
young of the large and bulky Palinuri.
Though several of the lower crustaceans ascend into the
regions of eternal snow, while others hide themselves in the
perpetual night of subterranean grottoes ; though many delight
in the sweet waters of the river or the lake, or rapidly multiply
in stagnant pools, yet the chief seat of their class, which alto-
gether comprises about 1,600 known species, is in the ocean
and its littoral zone, where their numbers, their voracity,
and their powerful claws, render them the most formidable
enemies of all the lower aquatic animals that are not
swift or cunning enough to escape them. Even the fishes
and cetaceans are, as we have seen, exposed to their attacks;
and as the whale, the carp, the sturgeon, the shark, the perch,
have each of them their peculiar crustacean parasites, it can
easily be imagined how large the number of still unknown
species must be which feast on that vast host of fishes that has
never yet been accurately examined. On the other hand, the
crustaceans constitute a great part of the food, as well of the sea-
stars, sea-urchins, annelides, and many of the molluscs, as also
of the fishes and sea-birds ; and as they are found of all sizes,
from microscopical minuteness to the gigantic proportions of
the Inachus Kcempferi of Japan, the fore-arm of which measures
four feet in length, and the others in proportion, so that it
covers about 25 feet square of ground, they are able to
satisfy the wants or the voracity of a vast number of enemies,
from the rotifer or the polyp that feed on tiny entomostraca or
the larvae of the barnacle, to man, who selects a great variety
of the fat and luscious decapods for his share of the feast.
A great fecundity enables the crustaceans to bear up against
all these persecutions. 12,000 eggs have been found on the
lobster; 6,807 on the shrimp; 21,699 on the great crab
( Platycarcinns pagurus). The lower orders are still more
prolific, for such is the rapidity with which many of them come
to maturity and begin to propagate that it has been calculated
that a single female Cyclops may be the progenitor in one year
of 4,442,189,120 young! Endowed with such powers, the
2GQ
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
crustaceans are not likely to be extirpated, nor to disappoint
the hopes of their gastronomical admirers for many an age to
come.
When we hear of fishes wandering about on the dry land, we
cannot wonder that some insects and arachnidans should depart
so strangely from the usual habits of their class as to select
the sea for their habitation.
“ There is a minute marine spider,” says Mr. Gosse, “ very
common on most parts of the coast, crawling sluggishly upon
the smaller sea-weeds, which seems, from its lack of centralisa-
tion, to realise our infant ideas of Mr. Nobody; but zoologists
have designated him as Nymplion gracile. Widely different
from the spiders of terra firma, in which an abdomen some ten
times as bulky as all the rest of the animal put together is the
most characteristic feature, the belly of our marine friend is re-
duced to an atom not so big as a single joint of one of his
eight legs ; though his thorax is more considerable, this is little
more than the extended line formed by the successive points of
union of the said legs. These latter, on the other hand, are
long, stout, well-armed, and many-jointed ; but, apparent^
from the lack of the centralising principle, they are moved
heavily, sprawled hither and thither, and dragged about like
the limbs of an unfortunate who is afflicted with the gout.”
This strange little creature has four eyes gleaming like diamonds,
respires by the skin, and its stomach is prolonged into each of
its eight legs, which are thus made the seats of digestion. Mr.
Nobody and his marine relations, some of which also attach
themselves to fishes, form the small group of the Pycnogonida
(ttvkvos, frequent ; 7 ovv, lance) thus named from their many-
jointed legs.
It is a well-known fact that the winds will sometimes waft
butterflies to an immense distance from the shore. Thus
Acherontia atropos has been found on the Atlantic a thousand
miles from the nearest land ; and while Mr. Darwin was in the
bay of San Bias, in Patagonia, he saw thousands of butterllies
hovering over the sea as far as the eye could reach. These
insects, of course, are nothing but stray wanderers on an alien
and hostile element; but Leptopus longipes, a species of
MARINE INSECTS.
2(51
bug. makes the salt water its home ; the Halobates, another
hemipterous insect, faces the tranquil mirror of the tropical
seas as leisurely as our water-bugs sport on the glassy surface
of our ponds, and the Gyrinus marinus, a beetle belonging
to the family of the whirligigs, ambitiously seeks a wide
expanse, and may be seen curvetting about on the surface
of the sea, and darting down every now and then to seize its
prey.
Stenopus hispidus
T
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
2G*
CHAP. XIV.
MARINE ANN ELIDES.
Tlie Annelides in general. — The Eunice sanguinea. — Beauty of the Marine Anne-
Lid.es. — The Giant Nemerles. — The Food and Enemies of the Annelides. — The
Tubicole Annelides. — The Eotifera — Their Wonderful Organisation.— The
Synch seta Baltiea.
The class of the Annelides, or annulated worms — to which also
our common earth-worm and the leech belong — peoples the
seas with by far the greater number of its genera and species.
All of them are distinguished by an elongated, and generally
worm-like form of body, susceptible of great extension and con-
traction. The body consists of a series of rings, or segments,
joined by a common elastic skin : and each ring, with the ex-
ception of the first or foremost, which forms the head, and the
last which constitutes the tail, exactly resembles the others,
only that the rings in the middle part of the body are larger
than those at the extremities. The head is frequently provided
vvith eyes, and more or less perfect feelers ; the mouth is armed
in many species with strong jaws, or incisive teeth. The blood
is red, and circulates in a system of arteries and veins.
With the idea of a worm we generally connect that of in-
completeness; we are apt to consider them as beings equally
uninteresting and ugly, and disdain to enquire into the wonders
Nervous Axis of an Annelidan.
of their organisation. But a cursory examination of the Eunice
sanguinea, a worm about two and a half feet long, and frequently
ANNELIDES THE EUNICE.
2C-3
occurring on our coasts, would alone suffice to give us a very
different opinion of these despised, but far from despicable crea-
tures. The whole body is divided into segments scarce a line
and a half long, and ten or twelve lines broad, and thus consists
of about three hundred rings. A brain and three hundred
ganglions, from which about three thousand nervous branches
proceed, regulate the movements, sensations, and vegetative
functions of an Eunice. Two hundred and eighty stomachs
digest its food, five hundred and fifty branchiae refresh its blood,
six hundred hearts distribute this vital fluid throughout the
whole body, and thirty thousand muscles obey the will of the
worm, and execute its snake-like movements. What an astonish-
ing profusion of organs 1 Surely there is here but little occasion
to commiserate want, or to scoff at poverty !
And if we look to outward appearance, we shall find that
many of the marine annelides may well be reckoned among the
handsomest of creatures. They display the rainbow tints of the
humming-birds, and the velvet, metallic brilliancy of the most
lustrous beetles. The vagrant species that glide, serpent-like,
through the crevices of the submarine rocks, or half creeping,
half swimming conceal themselves in the sand or mud, are pre-
eminently beautiful. The delighted naturalists have conse-
quently given them the most flattering and charming names of
Greek mythology, — Nereis, Euphrosyne, Eunice, Alciopa.
“ Talk no more of the violet as the emblem of modesty,”
exclaims De Quatrefages, “ look rather at our annelides, that, pos-
sessed of every shining quality, hide themselves from our view,
so that but few know of the secret wonders that are hidden'
under the tufts of algm, or on the sandy bottom of the sea.”
264
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
In most of the wandering annelides, each segment is pro-
vided with variously formed appendages, more or less developed,
serving for respiration and locomotion, or for aggression and
defence ; while in some of the least perfect of the class, not a
trace of an external organ is to be found over
the whole body. The great Band-worm
(Nemertes gigas ) is one of the most remark-
able examples of this low type of annelism.
It is from thirty to forty feet long, about
half an inch broad, flat like a ribbon, of brown
or violet colour, and smooth and shining like
lackered leather. Among the loose stones, or in the hollows of
the rocks, where he principally lives on Anomise, — minute shells
that attach themselves to submarine bodies, — this giant worm
forms a thousand seemingly inextricable knots, which he is con-
tinually unravelling and tying. When after having devoured all
the food within his reach, or from some other cause, he desires
to shift his quarters, he stretches out a long dark-coloured
ribbon, surmounted by a head like that of a snake, but without
its wide mouth or dangerous fangs. The eye of the observer
sees no contraction of the muscles, no apparent cause or instru-
ment of locomotion; but the microscope teaches us that the
Nemertes glides along by help of the minute vibratory
cilise with which his whole body is covered. He hesitates, he
tries here and there, until at last, and often at a distance of
fifteen or twenty feet, he finds a stone to his taste ; whereupon
he slowly unrolls his length to convey himself to his new resting
place, and while the entangled folds are unravelling themselves
at one end, they form a new Gordian knot at the other. All
the organs of this-worm are uncommonly simplified ; the mouth
is a scarce visible circular opening, and the intestinal canal ends
in a blind sack.
Nature has not in vain provided the more perfect annelides
with the bristly feet, wliich have been denied to the Nemertes
and the sand-worm. Almost all of them feed on a living prey,
— Planarias and other minute creatures — which they enclasp
and transpierce with those formidable weapons. Some, lying in
wait, dart upon their victims as they heedlessly swim by, seize
them with their jaws, and stifle them in their deadly embrace ;
others, of a more lively nature, seek them among the thickets of
Apiirodita, or Sea-
Mouse.
FOOD AND ENEMIES OF ANNELIDES.
265
corallines, millepores and algae, and arrest them quickly ere
they can vanish in the sand.
But the annelides also are liable to many persecutions. The
fishes are perpetually at war with them ; and when an impru-
dent annelide quits its hidden lurking-place, or is uncovered by
the motion of the waves, it may reckon itself fortunate, indeed,
if it escapes the greedy teeth of an eel or a flat-fish. It is even
affirmed of the latter, as it is of the whelks, that they know perfectly
well how to dig the annelides out of the sand. The sea-spiders,
lobsters, and other Crustacea are the more dangerous, as their
hard shells render them perfectly invulnerable by the bristling
weapons of the annelides.
While the greater part of these worms lead a vagrant life,
others, like secluded hermits, dwell in self-constructed retreats
which they never leave. Their cells, which they begin to form
very soon after having left the egg, and which they afterwards
continue extending and widening according to the exigencies of
their growth, generally consist of a hard calcareous mass ; but
sometimes they are leathery or parchment-like tubes, secreted by
the skin of the animal, not however forming, as in the mollusks,
an integral part of the bod)', but remaining quite unconnected
with it. Thus these tubicole annelides spend their whole life
within doors, only now and then peeping out of their prison
with the front part of their head.
As they lead so different a life from their roaming relations,
their internal structure is very different, for where is the being
whose organisation does not perfectly harmonise with his wants?
Thus, we find here no bristling feet or lateral respiratory ap-
pendages ; but instead of these organs, which in this case would
be completely useless, we find the head surmounted by a beauti-
ful crown of feathery tentaculoe, which equally serve for breathing
and the seizing of a passing prey. Completely closed at the in
ferior extremity, the tube shows us at its upper end a round
opening, the only window through which our hermit can
peep into the world, seize his food, and refresh his blood by
exposing his floating branchiae to the vivifying influence of the
water.
Do not, therefore, reproach him with vanity or curiosity, if
you see him so often protrude his magnificently decorated
head ; but rejoice rather that this habit, to which necessity
TIIE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
afi6
Serpula, attached to a Shell.
obliges him, gives you a better opportunity for closer observa-
tion. Place only a shell or stone covered with serpulas or
cymospiras, into a vessel filled with
sea-water, and you will soon see how,
in every tube, a small round cover
is cautiously raised, which hitherto
hermetically closed the entrance, and
prevented you from prying into the
interior. The door is open, and
soon the inmate makes his appear-
ance. You now perceive small buds,
here dark violet or carmine, there blue or orange, or variously
striped. See how they grow, and gradually expand their
splendid boughs ! They are true flowers that open before your
eye, but flowers much more perfect than those which adorn your
garden, as they are endowed with voluntary motion and animal
life. •
At the least shock, at the least vibration of the water, the
splendid tufts contract, vanish with the rapidity of lightning,
and hide themselves in their stony dwellings, where, under
cover of the protecting lid, they bid defiance to their enemies.
Not all the tubicole annelides form grottos or houses of so
complete a structure as those I have just described. Many
content themselves with agglutinating sand or small shell-
fragments into the form of cylindrical tubes. But even in
these inferior architectural labours of the Sabellas, Terebellas,
Amphitrites, &c., we find an astonishing regularity and art;
for these elegant little tubes, which we may often pick up on
the strand, where they lie mixed with the shells and algae cast
out by the flood, consist of particles of almost equal size, so
artistically glued together, that the delicate walls have every-
where an equal thickness. The form is cylindrical, or funnel-
shaped, the tube gradually widening from the lower to the upper
end. Some of these tubicoles live like solitary hermits, others
love company ; for instance, the Sabella alveolaris, which often
covers wide surfaces of rock, near low-water mark with its
aggregated tubes. When the flood recedes nothing is seen but
the closed orifices ; but when covered with the rising waters, the
sandy surface transforms itself into a beautiful picture. From
THE EOTIFERA.
207
each aperture stretches forth a neck ornamented with concentric
rings of golden hair, and terminating in a head embellished
with a tiara of delicately feathered, rainbow-tinted tentacula.
The whole looks like a garden-bed enamelled with gay flowers
of elegant form and variegated colours.
If size alone were a criterion of classification, the Rotifera
would have to be ranked among the microscopic Protozoa, as
they are scarcely visible to the naked eye ; but a more com-
plicated organisation separates them widely from these lowest
members of the animal kingdom, and entitles them to be
placed next to the worms.
Ptygura melicerta.— tA router Highly magniiled.)
I. Partially expanded.
Completely expanded, the cilia in action causing currents indicated bv the arrows.
3. Contracted. a. Contractile vesicle. b. Situation of the anal orifice.
They are chiefly characterised by a remarkable rotatory
or ciliary apparatus, whose vibrating motions, whirling the
water about in swift circles or eddies, engidf in a fatal vortex
their microscopic food, or enable them to swim from place to
place. Such is the crystal transparency of these curious
little creatures that their internal structure can be easily
recognised. The mouth is placed immediately below the rota-
tory apparatus, and when once an unfortunate animalcule has
268
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
been driven into its gaping portals, it is presently crushed be-
tween a pair of formidable sharp-toothed jaws, which are per-
petually in motion, whether the animal is taking food or not.
After having undergone the action of this lively apparatus,
the aliment passes into a tubular stomach surrounded by a
cushion-like mass of cells commonly coloured with the hue of
the food, and, therefore, concluded to be connected with the
digestive system.
Conochilus volvox. — (Highly magnified.'*
a. Jaws and teeth. b. Papilla*. c. Glands. d. Ovarium.
The rotifera are either naked or covered with a sheath, and
many inhabit a tube formed by themselves, attached by its
lower end to some water-plant, and open at the summit, from
which the animal protrudes when it would exercise its active
instincts, and into which it retires for repose from labour or for
refuge from alarm. The majority, however, have a furcated
foot, which is often capable of contraction by a set of telescopic
sheathings or false joints, and by which they are enabled to
secure a hold of the minute stems of water-plants. This is
THE SYNCHiETA BALTICA.
269
their ordinary position when keeping their wheels in action for
a supply of food or of water ; but they have no difficulty in
letting go their hold, and either creeping along by alternate
contractions and extensions or swimming away in search of a
new attachment. From the neck projects a telescopic spur,
supposed to be an organ of respira-
tion, and just below this are seen two
minute red specks, supposed to be
eyes. The first rotifer was discovered
by Leeuwenhoek, in 1702 ; now more
than 180 species are known, and new
discoveries are constantly adding to
their numbers. They are chiefly found
in sweet water, but some are inhabitants
of the sea, as, for instance, the Syn-
chceta baltica, remarkable for its lu-
minous powers. It measures about T^g-
of an inch in length, and but in
width, so that it is» invisible to the
sharpest unassisted sight : but when
viewed through a microscope, it appears
as a beautiful and richly organised
creature, clear as glass and perfectly
colourless, except that its stomach is
usually distended with yellow food,
and that it carries a large red eye, which
glitters like a ruby.
“ Its motions too,” says Mr. Gosse,
“ are all vivacious and elegant. It
shoots rapidly along or circles about
in giddy dance, in company with its
fellows, sometimes near the surface, at phiiodim roseola— (Highly
others just over the bottom of the vase magnified.)
in which it is kept. Occasionally the *• ^™™tmL<s!na1'
foot with the tiny toes is drawn up f Ana™i?jflce.lest'nal pouch'
into the body and then suddenly thrown
down, and bent up from side to side as a dog wags his tail.
Sometimes the rotatory organs are brought forward and then
spasmodically spring back to their ordinary position, when the
little creature shoots forward with redoubled energy. In all its
actions it displays vigour and precision, intelligence and will.”
270
THE INHABITANTS Of' THE SEA.
CHAP. XY.
MOLLUSCS.
The Molluscs in general. — The Cephalopods. — Dibranchiates and Tehrabranchiates.
— Arms and Tentacles. — Suckers. — Hooked Acetabula of the Onychoteuthis. —
Mandibles. — Ink Bag. — Numbers of the Cephalopods — Their Habits — Their
Enemies — Their Use to Man — Their Eggs. — Enormous size of several species.
— The fabulous Kraken. — The Argonaut. — The Nautili. — The Cephalopods of
the Primitive Ocean. — The Gasteropods — -Their Subdivisions. — Gills of the
Nudibranchiates. — The Pleurobranchus plumula. — The Sea-Hare. — The Chitons.
— The Patellae. — The Ilaliotis or Sea-Ear. — The Carinariae. — The Pectini-
branchiates — Variety and Beauty of their Shells — Their Mode of Locomotion.
— Foot of the Tornatella and Cyclostoma. — The Ianthin*.— - Sedentary Gastero
pods. — The Magilus. — Proboscis of the Whelk. — Tongue of the Limpet. —
Stomach of the Bulla, the Scylhea, and the Sea-Hare. — Organs of Sense in the
Gasteropods — Their Caution — Their Enemies — Their Defences — Their Use to
Man. — Shell-Cameos. — The Pteeopods — Their Organisation and Mode of Life.
— The Butterflies of the Ocean. — The Lamellibrauchiate Acephala — Their
Organisation. — Siphons. — The Pholades. — Foot of the Lamellibranchiates. —
The Razor-Shells. — The Byssus of the Pinnae. — Defences of the Bivalves —
Their Enemies. — The common Mussel. — Mussel Gardens. — '1 he Oyster. —
Oyster Parks. — Oyster Rearing in the Lago di Fusaro. — Formation of new
Oyster Banks. — Pearl-fishing in Ceylon. — -How are Pearls formed? — The
Tridacna gigas. — The Teredo navalis. — The Brachiopods. — The Terebratulse. —
The Polyzoa. — The Sea-Mats. — The Eschar*. — The Lepraliae. — Bird’s Head
Processes. — The Tunicata. — The Sea-Squirts. — The Chelyosoma. — The Botrylli.
—The Pyrosomes. — The Salpae. — Interesting Points in the Organisation of the
Tunicata.
Simple or compound, free or sessile, peopling the high seats
or lining the shofes, the marine Molluscs, branching out into
more than ten thousand species, extend their reign as far as the
waves of ocean roll. Though distinguished from all other sea-
animals by the common character of a soft unarticulated body,
possessing a complicated digestive apparatus, and covered by a
flexible skin or mantle, under or over which a calcareous shell
is generally formed by secretion, yet their habits are as various
as their forms. Some dart rapidly through the waters, others
creep slowly along, or are firmly bound to the rock ; in some
TIIE CEPHALOPODS.
271
the senses are as highly developed as in the fishes, in others they
are confined to the narrow perceptions of the polyp. Many
are individually so small as to escape the naked eye, others of
a size so formidable as to entitle them to rank among the giants
of the sea ; some are perfectly harmless and unarmed, others
fully equipped for active warfare. It is evident that creatures
so variously gifted, and consequently so widely dissimilar in
structure, cannot possibly be grouped together in one description,
and that each of the four orders. Cephalopoda, Gasteropoda,
Pteropoda, and Acephala (Lamellibranchiates, Brachiopods,
Polyzoa, and Tunicata), into which they have been subdivided,
must be separately brought before the reader, in order to give
him a clear and faithful picture of their organisation and mode
of life.
The Cephalopods are the most perfect specimens of the
molluscan type, as the decapods are the first among the
crustaceans. These remarkable creatures consist of two dis
tinct parts : the trunk or body, which, in form of a sack,
open to the front, encloses the branchiae and digestive organs,
and the well-developed head, provided with a pair of sharp-
sighted eyes, and crowned with a number of fleshy processes,
arms or feet, which encircle and more or less conceal the mouth.
It is to this formation that the cephalopod owes its scientific
name, for as the feet grow from the circumference of the mouth,
it literally creeps upon its head.
All the cephalopods are marine animals, and breathe through
branchiae or gills. These are concealed under the mantle, in
a cave or hollow, which alternately expands and contracts, and
communicates by two openings with the outer world. The one
in form of a slit serves to receive the water ; the other, which is
tubular, is used for its expulsion.
According to the different number of their gills, the
cephalopods are divided into two groups. The first, to which
the poulp' and common cuttle-fish belong, and which comprises
by far the majority of living species, has only two sets of gills ;
while the second, which, in the present epoch, is only
represented by a few species of Nautilus, has four, two
on each side, according to the number of their arms or feet —
for these remarkable organs serve equally well for prehension
or locomotion. The first group is again subdivided into two
272
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
Poulp (Octopu
orders, Octopods and Decapods, the former having only eight
sessile feet, while the latter possess
an additional pair of elongated ten-
tacles, which serve to seize a prey
that may be beyond the reach of
the ordinary feet, and also to act as
anchors to moor them in safety during
the agitations of a stormy sea.
Both the arms and tentacles are
furnished with suckers disposed along
the whole extent of the inner surface
of the former, but generally confined
to the widened extremities of the
latter, where they are closely aggre-
gated on the inner aspect.
In all the octopods the suckers are
soft and unarmed. Every sucker is
composed of a circular adhesive disk, which has a thick fleshy
circumference and bundles of mus-
cular fibres radiating towards the
circular orifice of an inner cavity.
This widens as it descends, and
contains a cone of soft substance,
rising from the bottom of the cavity,
like the piston of a syringe. When
the sucker is applied to a surface
for the purpose of adhesion, the
piston, having previously been raised
so as to fill the cavity, is retracted,
and a vacuum produced, which may
be still further increased by the
retraction of the plicated central
portion of the disk. So admirably
are these air-pumps constructed, and
so tenacious is their grasp, that,
when they have once seized or fixed
upon a prey, it cannot possibly dis-
en srao'e itself from their murderous
o o
Caiamary. embrace.
In many of the decapods, who, generally seeking their prey in
SUCKERS OF A POULP.
273
the deeper waters, have to contend with the agile, slippery, and
mucus-clad fishes, more powerful organs of prehension have
been superadded to the suckers.
Thus, in the Calamary the base of
the piston is enclosed by a horny
hoop, the margin of which is de-
veloped into a series of sharp-pointed
curved teeth ; and in the still more
formidable Onychoteuthis each hoop
is produced into the form of a long,
curved, and sharp-pointed claw (/),
which the predacious mollusc presses
firmly into the flesh of its struggling
victim, and then withdraws by mus-
cular contraction.
Besides the hooked acetabula, a
cluster of small simple unarmed
suckers may be observed at the base Sectl0n of an SUCEers of a
of the expanded part. These add e. Soft and tumid margin of the disk.
1 1 g. Circular aperture.
greatly to the animals prehensile
powers, for when they are applied to one another (e), the
tentacles are firmly locked together at that point, and the
united strength of both the elongated peduncles can be applied
to drag towards the mouth any resisting object which has been
grappled by the terminal hooks. There is no mechanical
contrivance which surpasses the admirable structure of this
natural forceps.
The size of the arms and the arrangement of the suckers differ
considerably in the various species. In the octopods or poulps,
which generally lead a more sedentary creeping life, and, hidden
in the crevices of rocks, await the passing prey, the arms, in
accordance with their wants, are with rare exceptions longer,
more muscular, and stronger, than in the actively swimming
decapods, where the two elongated tentacles or peduncles are the
chief organs of prehension. In some species we find the arms
distinct — in others they are united by a membrane. Some
have a double row of suckers on each arm, others four rows,
others again but one. So wonderful are the variations which
nature, that consummate artist, plays upon a single theme —
so inexhaustible are the modifications she introduces into the
274
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
formation of numerous species, all constructed upon the same
fundamental plan, and all equally
perfect in their kind.
Thus well provided with the means
for seizing and overcoming the strug-
gles of a living prey, the Cephalopods
likewise possess adequate weapons for
completing its destruction ; for their
mouth is most formidably armed with
two horny or calcareous jaws, shaped
like the mandibles of a parrot, playing
vertically on each other, and enclosing
a large fleshy tongue bristling with
recurved horny spines. Hard, indeed,
must be the crab which can resist this
terrible beak ; and when the cuttle-
fish has once fixed on the back of a
fish, though much larger and stronger
than himself, it is in vain for the
tortured victim to fly through the
water : he carries his enemy with him
till he sinks exhausted under his mur-
derous fangs.
Besides their arms, by help of which
the Cephalopods either swim or creep,
the forcible expulsion of the water
through the respiratory tube or in-
fundibulum serves them as a means
of locomotion in a backward direction.
By those which have an elongated
body and comparatively strong mus-
cles, this movement is performed with
such violence that they shoot like ar-
rows through the water, or even like
the flying-fish perform a long curve
through the air.
Thus Sir James Boss tells us, that
once a number of cuttle-fish not only
fell upon the deck of his ship, which
rose fifteen or sixteen feet above the water, and where more
Arms and Tentacles of an
0 ny choteuthis.
f. Farts joined together by f he mutual
apposition ol the armed suckers.
f. Terminal expanded portions bear-
ing the hooks.
THE SEPIA.
275
than fifty were gathered, but even bolted right over the entire
breadth of the vessel, like a sportsman over a five-barred gate.
Finally, the fin-like expansion of their mantle renders the
nimble decapods good service in swimming. In the Sepias this
b.
Sepia.
Finny membrane running along the sides of the body. c. Arms w^th four rows
of suckers. d. Elongated retractile tentacles. e. Eyes.
finny membrane runs along the sides of the body, while in the
Calainary it forms a kind of terminal paddle.
It might be supposed that the dibranchiate cephalopods, by
their swiftness, their arms, and their powerful jaws, were suffi-
ciently provided with means of attack or defence ; but it must
276
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
be remembered that their body is soft and naked, and that,
though well armed in front, they may readily be attacked in the
rear. To afford them the additional protection they required,
nature, ever ready to minister to the real wants of her children,
has furnished them with an internal bag communicating with the
respiratory tube, and secreting a large quantity of an inky fluid,
which they can squirt out with force in the face of their foe,
and which, mixing readily with the water, envelops them in an
opaque cloud, and thus screens them from pursuit. But this
inky fluid, thus useful to its owner, is often the cause of his
destruction by man, who applies it to his own purpose, for
the Italian pigment, called sepia, so invaluable to painters in
water-colours, is prepared from the inspissated contents of
the ink bag of a cuttle-fish. Such is the durability of this
colour that even the inky fluid of fossil species has been found
to retain its chromatic property. We are told that grains of
wheat buried with Egyptian mummies three thousand years
ago have germinated ; but it is surely still more astonishing
that an animal secretion, the origin of which is lost in the
dark abyss of countless ages, should remain so long un-
altered.
The cephalopods are scattered in vast numbers over the
whole ocean, from the ice-bound shores of Boothia Felix to the
open main ; they seem, however, to be most abundant in
temperate latitudes. Some, like the common poulp, constantly
frequent the coasts, creeping among the rocks and stones at the
bottom ; others, like the Cirroteuthis and Ommastrephes, roam
about the high seas at a vast distance from the land.
They are generally nocturnal or vespertine in their habits ;
they abound towards evening and at night on the surface of the
seas, but sink to a greater depth, or retire into the crevices of
the rocks, as soon as the sun rises above the horizon. Some are
of a recluse disposition, and lead a solitary life in the anfrac-
tuosities of the littoral zone ; others, of a more social temper,
wander in large troops along the shores, or over the vast plains
of ocean.
Possessing the organs of sense, and the means of locomotion
in a high degree of development, the cephalopods may naturally
be expected to be far more active and intelligent than the
inferior orders of the molluscs On moonlight nights, among
HABITS OF THE CEPHALOFODS.
‘277
the islands of the Indian Archipelago, Mr. Adams frequently
observed the Sepim and Octopi in full predatory activity, and
had considerable difficulty and trouble in securing them, so
great was their restless vivacity, and so vigorous their endeavours
to escape. “ They dart from side to side of the pools,” says the
naturalist in his entertaining and instructive account of his
journey to those distant gems of the tropical sea, “ or fix them-
selves so tenaciously to the surface of the stones by means of
their suckers that it requires great force and strength to detach
them. Even when removed and thrown upon the sand, they
progress rapidly, in a sidelong shuffling manner, throwing about
their long arms, ejecting their ink-like fluid in sudden violent
jets, and staring about with their big shining eyes (which at
night appear luminous, like a cat’s) in a very grotesque and
hideous manner.”
At the Cape de Yerd islands, Mr. C. Darwin was also much
amused by the various arts to escape detection used by a
cuttle-fish, which seemed fully aware that he was watching it.
Eemaining for a time motionless, it would then stealthily
advance an inch or two, like a cat after a mouse, and thus
proceeded, till, having gained a deeper part, it darted away,
leaving a dusky train of ink, to hide the hole into which it had
crawled.
All the cephalopods are extremely voracious; they destroy on
shallow banks the hopes of the fishermen, devour along the
coasts and on the high seas countless myriads of young fish and
naked molluscs, and kill, like the tiger, for the mere love of
carnage. Thus they would become dangerous to the equili-
brium of the seas if nature, to counterbalance their destructive
habits, had not provided a great number of enemies for the
thinning of their ranks.
They form the almost exclusive food of the sperm-whales,
and the albatross and the petrels love to skim them from the
surface of the ocean. Tunnies and bonitos devour them in vast
numbers, the cod consumes whole shoals of squids, and man, as
I have already mentioned, catches many millions to serve him
as a bait for this valuable fish.
At Teneriffe, in the Brazils, in Peru and Chili, in India and
China, various species of cephalopods are used as food. Along
the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, the common sepia
u
278
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
constitutes now, as in ancient times, a valuable part of the food
of the poor. “ One of the most striking spectacles,” says
Edward Forbes, “ is to see at night on the shores of the iEgean
the numerous torches glancing along the shores, and reflected
by the still and clear sea, borne by poor fishermen, paddling as
silently as possible over the rocky shallows in search of the
cuttle-fish, which, when seen lying beneath the water in wait for
his prey, they dexterously spear, ere the creature has time to
dart with the rapidity of an arrow from the weapon about to
transfix his soft but firm body.”
Animals exposed to the attacks of so many enemies must
necessarily multiply in an analogous ratio. Their numerous
eggs are generally brought forth in the spring. In the species
inhabiting the high seas, they float freely on the surface,
carried along by the currents and winds, and form large gela-
tinous bunches or cylindrical rolls, sometimes as large as a
man’s leg.
The eggs of the littoral eephalopods appear in the form of
dark-coloured, roundish or spindle-shaped bodies, of the size and
colour of grapes, and hanging together in clusters. They are
soft to the touch, with a tough skin,
resembling india-rubber ; one end
is attenuated into a sort of point
or nipple, and the other prolonged
into a pedicle, which coils round
seawmed or other floating objects,
and serves to fix the berry-like
bag in its place. At an early stage
these “ sea-grapes,” as they are
called by the fishermen, contain a
white yolk enclosed in a clear albu-
men, and nearer maturity the young
cuttle-fish may be found within in
various stages of formation, until
finally, hatched by the heat of the
sun, it emerges from the husk per-
Ova of the Cuttle-fish. fectly formed, and launches forth
into the water.
Some species of eephalopods are only about the size of a finger,
while others attain an astonishing size. Banks and Solander, in
THE FABULOUS KRAKEN.
279
Cook’s first voyage, found the dead carcass of a gigantic cuttle-
fish floating between Cape Horn and the Polynesian islands. It
was surrounded by aquatic birds, which were feeding on its
remains. From the parts of this specimen, which are still
preserved in the Hunterian collection, and which have always
strongly excited the attention of naturalists, it must have
measured at least six feet from the end of the tail to the end of
the tentacles.
Near Van Diemen’s Land, Peron saw a sepia about as
big as a tun rolling about in the waters. Its enormous arms
had the appearance of frightful snakes. Each of these organs
was at least seven feet long, and measured seven or eight inches
round the base. These well authenticated proportions are truly
formidable, and fully justify the dread and abhorrence which
the Polynesian divers entertain of those snake-armed monsters
of the deep ; but not satisfied with reality, some writers have
magnified the size of the cephalopods to fabulous dimensions.
Thus Pernetti mentions a colossal cuttle-fish, which, climbing-
up the rigging, overturned a three-masted ship ; and Pliny
notices a similar giant, with arms thirty feet long and a corre-
sponding girth. But all this is nothing to the Norwegian kraken,
a mass of a quarter of a mile in diameter, and a back covered
with a thicket of sea-weeds. When it comes to the surface,
which seems to be but rarely the case, it raises its arms mast-
high into the air, and, having enjoyed for a time the lovely
daylight, sinks slowly back again into abysmal darkness.
Fishermen are said to have landed on a kraken, and to have
kindled a fire upon the supposed island for the purpose of
cooking their dinner. But even a kraken, thick-skinned as
he may be, does not like his back to be converted into a
hearth, and thus it happened that the treacherous ground
gave way under the mistaken mariners, and overwhelmed
them in the waters. Strange that the oriental tale of Sinbad
the sailor should thus be re-echoed in the wild legends of the
O
north.
All the dibranchiate cephalopods are destitute of an outward
shell, with the sole exception of the Spirula, a small species
chiefly found in the South Sea, and of the far more renowned
Argonaut, which poets, ancient and modern, have celebrated as
the model from which man took the first idea of navigation.
280
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
Its two sail-like arms expanding in the air, and the six others
rowing in the water,
the keel of its ele-
gant shell is pic-
tured as dividing
the surface of the
tranquil sea. But
as soon as the wind
rises, or the least
danger appears, the
cautious argonaut
takes in his sails,
draws back his oars,
creeps into his shell,
and sinks instantly into a securer depth. Unfortunately there is
not a word of truth in this pleasing tale. Like the common
octopus, the argonaut generally creeps about at the bottom of
the sea, or when he swims, he places his sails close to his
shell, stretches his oars right out before him, and shoots back-
wards like most of his class by expelling the water from his
respiratory tube.
As he sits loosely in his shell, he was supposed by some
naturalists to be a parasite enjoying the house of the unknown
murdered owner ; hut this is perfectly erroneous, as the young
in the egg already show the rudiments of the future shell,
and the full-grown animal repairs by reproduction any injury
that may have happened to it.
The tetrabranchiatecephalopods, or Nautili, are very differently
constructed from their dibranchiate relations. Here, instead of
l
mighty muscular arms, furnished with suckers or raptorial claws,
we find a number of small, sheathed, and retractile tentacles (/),
surrounding the mouth in successive series, and amounting to
little short of a hundred. The head is further provided with a
large muscular disk (</), which, besides acting as a defence to the
opening of the shell, serves also in all probability as an organ
for creeping along the ground, like the foot in the Gastero-
pods. The mandibles are strengthened by a dense calcareous
substance fit to break up the defensive armour of the crustacean
or shell-fish on which the animal feeds. There is no ink-bag,
no organ of hearing, and the eyes ( h ) are pedunculated, and of a
Argonaut.
THE PEARLY NAUTILUS.
■281
more simple structure. The handsome pearl-mother and spirally
wound shell is divided by transverse partitions (a), perforated in
the centre, into numerous chambers ( b ). The animal takes up
its abode in the foremost and largest (&'), but sends a commu-
nicating tube or siphon (c) through all the holes of the partitions
to the very extremity of the spirally wound shell. Though the
empty conch was frequently found swimming on the waters of
the Indian Ocean,, or cast ashore on the Moluccas or New
Guinea, yet it was o nly in 182(J that the animal was known with
Pearly Nautuus.
any certainty, one having been caught alive by Mr. George
Bennett, near the New Hebrides, which, preserved in spirits, is
now in the museum of the College of Surgeons. Since then
three different species have been found to abound in the waters
of the above-named archipelago, of New Caledonia, and of the
Feejee and Solomon Islands, where they principally sojourn
among the coral reefs at depths of from three to six fathoms.
They usually remain at the bottom of the water, where they
creep along rather quickly, supporting themselves upon their
•282
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
tentacula, with their head downwards and the shell raised above.
After stormy weather, as it becomes more calm, they may he
seen in great numbers floating upon the surface of the sea with
the head protruded, and the tentacula resting upon the water,
the shell at the same time being undermost ; they remain,
however, but a short time sailing in this manner, as they can
easily return to their situation at the bottom of the sea, by
merely drawing in their tentacles and upsetting the shell. They
are caught in baskets by the natives, who eat them roasted as a
great delicacy.
What renders these animals peculiarly interesting is the
circumstance that they are the only living representatives of a
class which once filled in countless numbers the bosom of the
primeval ocean, and whose fossil remains (Orthoceratites, Am-
monites) furnish the naturalist with a series of historical
documents, attesting the unmeasured age of our planet. What
are the ruins, thirty or forty centuries old, that speak of the
vanished glories of extinguished empires to these wonderful
medals of creation that lead our thoughts through the dim
vista of unnumbered centuries to the fathomless abyss of the
past.
In point of development of organisation the Grasteropods or
snails rank immediately after the Cephalopods. They also have
a head plainly distinguishable from the rest of the body, and to
which two brilliant black eyes give an animated expression.
But their nervous system is far less developed, and while the
lively cephalopod is able to swim about, and rapidly to seize a
distant prey, almost all the gasteropods creep slowly along
upon a flat disk or foot situated below the digestive organs, a
formation to which they owe their name of gasteropods or
stomach-footers.
The marine snails are divided into several groups according
to the different position and arrangement of their gills. In
some species these organs form naked or free-swimming tufts
on the back (Nudibranchiata) but generally they are variously
disposed either in special cavities or under the folds of the
mantle. Thus in the Inferobranchiata they are arranged
MARINE SNAILS.
283
under its inferior border on both sides of the body, or upon
one side only, while in the Tectibranchiata they are placed, as
in the ISudibranchiata, upon the
dorsal aspect of the body, but are
protected by a fold of the skin.
In the Cyclobranchiata they form
a fringe round the margin of the
body, between the edge of the
mantle and the foot, and in the
Scutibranchiata and Pectinibran-
chiata they are pectinated, or
shaped like the teeth of a comb, and placed' in a large hollow
chamber, which opens externally at the side of the body or
above the head.
Nothing can be more elegant or various than the form and
arrangement of the gills in most of the nudibranchiate gastero-
Glauoua.
T
Scylleea.
pods. In the Grlauci and Scylkese, we see at each side of the
elongated body long arms branching out into tufty filaments ;
in the Briarei a hundred furcated stems serve for the aeration
of the blood. On the back of the Eolides the gills are arranged
in rows; in the Dorides they form a wreath or garland round
the posterior intestinal aperture.
The beauty of these animals corresponds with their charming
mythological names, for every part of them which is not
284
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
sparkling like the purest crystal shines with the liveliest
colours, red, yellow, or azure. Some inhabit the coasts, where
they creep along upon a well-developed foot, others live in
the deep waters, where they cling to the stems of floating
sea-weed with a nar-
row and furrowed,
foot, or swim upon
their back, using the
borders of the man-
tle and of the bran-
chiae as oars. Though chiefly living in the warmer lati-
tudes, they are found in every sea, and many interesting
species inhabit the British waters : such as the Sea-lemon
( Doris tuberculata), which, when its horns and starry wreath
of branchiae are concealed, bears a curious resemblance in
size, form, colour, and warty surface to the half of a citron
divided longitudinally ; the exquisite Eolis coronata, whose
crowded clusters of branchial papillae are radiant with crimson
and cerulean tints; and the crested Antiopa, whose transparent
breathing organs are tipped with silvery white.
Though they have no shell to cover them, the Nudi-
branchiata are not left defenceless to the mercy of their
enemies. The transparency of their body is a cause of
safety to many of them. Some conceal themselves under
stones or among the branches of the madrepores, and some
on contracting cast off a part of their mantle, which they
leave in possession of their hungry foe, while they themselves
make their escape.
Among the British Tnferobranchiata we find the rare golden
or orange-coloured Pleurobranchus plumula, thus named from
its branchiae projecting like a plume from between the mantle
and foot in crawling; and among the Tectibranchiata the
common sea-hare ( Aplysia punctata), which resembles a great
naked snail ; its back opening with two wide lobes, which can be
expanded or closed over the opening at the animal’s will. When
open, they expose to view on the right side the finely fringed
and lobed branchias, seated in a deep hollow beneath a fold of
the mantle. The uncomely creature glides along over the stones
upon its flat fleshy foot and up the slender stems of sea-weeds
by bringing the borders of the same locomotive apparatus to
Eolis.
THE SEA-HARE.
285
meet around the stem, thus tightly grasping it as if enclosed in
a tube. While progressing, the fore part is poked forward as a
narrow neck furnished with two pair of tentacles, one pair of
which, standing erect and being formed of thin laminae, bent
round so as to bring the edges nearly into contact, look like the
ears of the timid quadruped, from which the Aplysia has derived
its common name. The colour is a dark-brownish purple studded
with rings and spots of white. On being disturbed, the sea-hare
pours out from beneath the mantle-lobes a copious fluid of the
richest purple hue, which however quickly fades, and is of no
value in the arts.
More than forty species of Aplysim are known, most of them
inhabitants of the warmer seas. The acrid humour exuded by
the depilatory aplysia, or Aplysia depilans, of the Mediterranean
is still supposed by the Italian fishermen to occasion the loss of
the hair, and was used by the ancient Romans in the composi-
tion of their venomous potions — though it is by no means
poisonous. Such are the prejudices resulting from the pro-
pensity of man to associate evil qualities with an unprepossessing-
appearance.
To the Cyclobranchiate order belong the Limpets and the
Chitons. The latter, which are the only multivalve shells among
the Gasteropods, are spread in more than two hundred species
over every shore from Iceland to the Indies, but they are
particularly abundant on the coasts of Peru and Chili. Some of
the smaller species inhabit our coasts, where they may be found
adhering to stones near low water mark. They
are coated with eight transverse shelly plates,
folding over each other at their edges like the
plates of ancient armour, and inserted into a
tough marginal band, so as to form a complete
shield to the animal. Thus encased in coat of
mail, the chitons have the power of baffling
the voracity of their enemies by rolling themselves up into a
ball like the wood-louse or the armadillo : they are also able to
cling with such tenacity to the rock that it is difficult to detach
them without tearing them to pieces. The Limpets, or Patellae,
likewise attach their shield-like shell so firmly to a hard body
that it requires the introduction of a knife between the shell and
the stone to detach them. It has been calculated that the
286
TIIE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
Limpet and Shell.
larger species are thus able to produce a resistance equivalent
to a weight of 150 pounds, which, considering the sharp angle
of the shell, is more than sufficient to defy the strength of a
man to raise them. They often con-
gregate in large numbers in one place,
and an old writer compares them to nail-
heads struck into the rock. More than a
hundred species are known; one of which,
the Patella cochlear of the Cape, is almost
invariably found squatting upon the shell of
another species of limpet. The finest and largest varieties
abound on the shores of the Oriental seas and the coasts of the
Mediterranean, but several of the smaller species are very nume-
rous in our littoral or sub-littoral zone, where they either feast
on the green sea-weeds that we find covering at ebb-tide the
stones with a thin emerald layer, or upon the coarser olive-
coloured algae. Thus Patella pellucicla and Patella Icevis,
both remarkable for longitudinal streaks of iridescent colours
on an olive-shell, may generally be found feeding either on
the broad fronds or on the roots and stems of the Laminarias,
or Oar-weeds. To their labours may indeed be partly attributed-
the annual destruction of these gigantic algae, for, eating into
the lower part of the stems, and destroying the branches of the
roots, they so far weaken the base that it is unable to support
the weight of the frond, and thus the plant is detached and
driven on shore by the waves.
The beautiful Sea-ear, or Haliotis, is the chief representative
of the scutibranchiate gasteropods. The flattened shell, per-
forated with small holes on one side, is characterised by a very
wide month or aperture, the largest in any shell except the
limpet. The outside is generally rough, or covered with
marine substances; the inside presents the same enamelled
appearance as mother-of-pearl, and exhibits the most beautiful
colours. The holes with which the shell is perforated serve to
admit water to the branchise, and are formed at regular inter-
vals as it increases in size. The foot is very large, having the
margin fringed all round, and is able, like that of the chiton
or the limpet, to cling firmly to the rock. More than seventy
species of Haliotis are known, the greater part occurring in the
Pacific Ocean.
THE SEA-EAR.
287
To the scutibranchiate gasteropods also belong the strangely
formed Carinariae, which seem to be made up of disjointed
Haliotis.
c Serifs of perforations. d. Eye peduncles. e. Tentacles. g. Foot.
parts. The gills (g) project from under a thin vitreous shell (/),
which projects from the
dorsal surface, and has a
form not unlike that of
the Argonaut or of a Phry-
gian cap. The foot (6) is
not formed for creeping,
but constitutes a muscular
vertical paddle or fin, that
serves them for swimming
on the back, and is fur-
nished with a sucking disk (c), with which they are enabled to
attach themselves to floating objects.
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
L>88
The Pectinibranchiata comprise all the spiral univalve shells,
and are by far the most numerous of all the gasteropods, as their
species are not counted by hundreds, but by thousands. If then-
calcareous garment could be drawn out, it would be found to
consist of a tube gradually widening from the apex to the base ;
but what an immense variety of form and ornaments, what a
prodigality of splendid tints, has not Nature spread over this
interminable host ! The same fundamental idea appears to us
in thousands of modifications, one yet more elegant and capricious
than the other. Thus the passion of the
shell collector is as conceivable as that of
the lover of choice flowers, and when we read
that rich tulip-amateurs have given thousands
of florins for one single bulb, we cannot won-
der that many of the Volutes, Cones, Mitres,
and Harps, are worth several times their
weight in gold; that more than a hundred
pounds have been paid for a Chinese wentle-
trap, and that the Cyprcea aurora, which the
Polynesian chiefs used to wear about the neck,
is valued at thirty or forty guineas.
The mode in which these beautifully painted
structures are formed is very similar to what
Orange cone-Sheii. takes place among bivalve shells. They are
secreted by the glandular margin of the mantle or soft
skin which clothes the upper part of the body of the snail,
Mitre- Shells.
Harp -shell.
and their form depends on the shape of the body they
are destined to cover, while the outline of the border is alike
regulated by that of the mantle. In the border of the mantle
GROWTH OF SHELLS.
289
are placed the glands through which colouring matter is added
to the lime of which the shell consists, and here also the whole
of the outer coat of the shell is formed by constant annual
additions to the lip. The after-growth of the shell proceeds.
Chinese Wentle-trap. — (Scalaria pretiosa.,
layer over layer, from the general surface of the mantle, so that
the calcareous robe constantly increases in thickness with the age
of the animal.
However different the form of a shell may be, its use is in-
variably the same, affording the soft-bodied animal a shield or
retreat against external injuries. In this respect it is not
uninteresting to remark that those species which inhabit the
littoral zone, and are most exposed to the violence of the
waves, have a stronger shell than those which live in greater
depths, and that the fresh-water molluscs have generally a
much more delicate and fragile coat than those which live in
the ocean. The greater the necessity of protection the better
has Nature provided for the want. Thus most of the gastero-
pods, besides possessing a stone-hard dwelling, are also furnished
at the extremity of the foot with an operculum, or calcareous
lid, which tits exactly upon the opening of their house, and
closes it like a fortress against the outer world. But no
animal exists that is safe against every attack, for the large
birds sometimes carry the ponderous sea-snails, whose entrance
they cannot force with their beaks, high up into the air,
and let them fall upon the rocks, where they are dashed to
pieces.
The ordinary mode of locomotion of the testaceous sea-snails
290
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
is by creeping along on their foot: those that have a very heavy
house to carry, such as the Cassis or the
Pteroceras, generally move along very
slowly, while others, such as the Olivse,
that are possessed of a comparatively
strong and broad foot, have rapid and
^ lively movements, and quickly raise
Pteroceras Scorpio. J ^ J
themselves again when they have been
overturned. The Strombidse and Eostellariae place their power-
ful and elastic foot under the shell in a bent
position, when suddenly by a muscular effort
they straighten that organ and roll and leap over
oiiva hispicmia. ancj 0Ver. The structure of the foot of the
Tornatella fasciata, an inhabitant of our coast, is most remark-
able: beaten incessantly by the waves, in
the cavities of rocks which it frequents,
nearly on a level with the surface of the
sea, to the violence of which it is always
exposed, it has need of additional powers
for retaining its hold; its foot is therefore
Strombns pes pelicani. ...... . . .
divided into two adhering portions, placed
at each extremity, and separated by a wide interval ; when it
crawls, it fixes the posterior disc and advances the other, which
it attaches firmly to the place of progression, and this being
effected, the hinder sucker is detached and drawn forwards,
locomotion being accomplished by the alternate adhesion of
these two prehensile discs. In Cyclostoma the foot is likewise
furnished with two longitudinal adhering lobes, which are ad-
vanced alternately. But the foot of the marine snails is not
merely an instrument of progression on a solid surface, for in
many species it is convertible at the will of the animal into a
boat, by means of which the creature
can suspend itself in an inverted position
at the surface of the water, where by
the aid of its mantle and tentacles it can
v row itself from place to place,
lantinna communis. The Ianthinse, 01 puiple Sea-Snails,
carry under their foot a vesicular organ
like a congeries of foam-bubbles, that prevents creeping, but
serves as a buoy to support them at the surface of the water.
THE MAG1LUS ANT1QUUS.
291
Murex haustellum.
When the sea is quiet, these little creatures.
Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,
appear in vast shoals on the surface, but as soon as the
wind ruffles the ocean, or an enemy approaches, they at
once empty their air-cells, contract their boat, and sink to
the bottom, pouring out at the same time a darkened fluid
like that of the Aplysia or the Murex, which no doubt
serves them as a defence against
their foes, and, according to Lesson,
furnished the celebrated purple of
the ancients. The Ianthinse inhabit
the Mediterranean and the warmer
regions of the Atlantic, but especially towards the close of
summer they are frequently drifted by the Gulf Stream to the
west coast of Ireland.
While the vast majority of the gasteropods either creep or
swim, some are doomed to the sedentary life of the oyster,
and remain for ever fixed to the spot where
they first attached themselves as small free-
swimming larvae. Thus the Magilus an-
tiquus, which in its young state presents all
the characters of a regular spiral univalve, esta-
blishes itself in the excavations of madrepores,
and as the coral increases around it, the Magilus
is obliged, in order to have its aperture on a
level with the surrounding surface, to construct
a tube, lengthening with the growth of the
coral. As the tube goes on increasing, the
animal abandons the spiral for the tubular part of the shell, and
in the operation it leaves behind no partitions,
but secretes a compact calcareous matter which
reaches to the very summit of the spiral part, so
that in an old specimen the posterior part of the
shell presents a solid mass.
The Siliquarise are generally found embedded
in a similar manner in sponges or other soft
bodies, while the Vermetus, or Worm-Shell, usually
attaches itself, like the Serpuke, to rocks, coral-reefs, or
shells.
Magilus antiquus.
Worm-Shell.
292
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
In these genera, which have been arranged by Cuvier in a
separate order (Tubulibranchiata), the foot is naturally reduced
to the state of an adhesive organ, its chief functions consisting
in opening and closing the lid.
The sea-snails are either predaceous or herbivorous; among
the pectinibranchiates, those with circular mouths to the shell
are vegetable feeders, while such as have an aperture ending in
a canal are animal feeders. Considerable modifications of
internal structure indicate this difference of food ; and the
external organs, particularly about the mouth, exhibit a corre-
sponding variety of form. In those which feed on vegetables
the mouth is generally a slit furnished with more or less perfect
lips, armed with a simple cutting apparatus, which is often
powerful enough to divide or dismember comparatively hard
substances.
In most animal feeders the mouth presents the appear-
ance of a proboscis that can be protruded or shortened at
the will of the animal, and which, grasping the food, conveys
it to a spine-armed tongue, by the aid of which it is pro-
pelled into the gullet without mastication or any preparatory
change.
In the Whelk and its shell-boring allies, the alternate pro-
trusion and retraction of the proboscis, which is here of a much
more complicated structure, causes the sharp tongue to act as a
rasp or auger, capable of drilling holes into the hardest shells.
It is this circumstance which renders the whelk so formidable
an enemy to mussel and oyster banks. During the erection of
Bell-rock lighthouse, an attempt was made to plant a colony of
mussels on the wave-beaten cliff, as they were likely to be of
great use to the workmen, and especially to the light keepers,
the future inhabitants of the rock ; but the mussels were soon
observed to open and die in great numbers. “For some time,”
says Mr. Stevenson in his interesting narrative, “ this was
ascribed to the effects of the violent surge of the sea, but the
Buccinum lapillus having greatly increased, it was ascertained
that it had proved a successful enemy to the mussel. The
buccinum was observed to perforate a small hole in the shell,
and thus to suck out the finer parts of the body of the mussel ;
the valves of course opened, and the remainder of the shell-fish
was washed away by the sea. The perforated hole is generally
TONGUE OF THE LIMPET.
293
upon the thinnest part of the shell, and is perfectly circular, of a
champhered form, being wider towards the outward side, and so
perfectly smooth and regular as to have all the appearance of
the most beautiful work of an expert artist. It became a
matter extremely desirable to preserve the mussel, and it seemed
practicable to extirpate the buccinum. But after we had picked
up and destroyed many barrels of them, their extirpation was
at length given up as a hopeless task. The mussels were con-
sequently abandoned as their prey ; and, in the course of the
third year’s operations, so successful had the ravages of the
buccinum been that not a single member of the imported
mussel colony was to be found upon the rock.” Thus the
engineer, whose skill and perseverance had gained so proud a
triumph over the waves of the stormy ocean, was defeated by
an ignoble whelk.
In the genera which have no proboscis, the tongue, acting as
a prehensile and rasping or abrading organ, is frequently of con-
siderable length ; thus, in the Ear-shell, it is half as long as the
body, and in the common Limpet even three times longer than
the entire animal. From
the two cartilaginous
pieces ( b b), placed on
each side of its root, arise
the short and powerful
muscles which wield the
organ. The surface of
this curious piece of
mechanism, a magnified Limpet’s tongue,
view of which is given
at B, is armed with minute, though strong, teeth, placed in
transverse rows, and arranged in three series ; each central
group consists of four spines, while those on the sides con-
tain but two a-piece. It is only at its anterior extremity (cl),
however, that the tongue, so armed, presents that horny
hardness needful for the performance of its functions, the
posterior part being comparatively soft ; so that, probably
in proportion as the anterior part is worn away, the parts
behind it gradually assume the necessary firmness, and ad-
vance to supply its place. In the upper part of the cir-
cumference of the mouth, we find a semicircular horny
x
294
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
plate, resembling an upper jaw, and the tongue, by tri-
turating- the food against this, gradually reduces substances
however hard. On opening the limpet, the tongue is found
doubled upon itself, and folded in a spiral manner beneath
the viscera.
Bulla.
Many of the Gasteropods which live on coarse and refractory
materials are provided with several digestive cavities, re-
sembling in some degree the stomachs of the ruminating
quadrupeds ; and frequently the triturating power of these
organs is still further increased by their being armed with teeth
variously disposed.
In the Bulla, for instance, a genus belonging, like the sea-
hares, to the tectibranchiate order, the gizzard, or
second stomach, contains three plates of stony
hardness attached to its walls, and so disposed
that they perform the part of a most efficacious
grinding mill.
On opening the gizzard
of the Scyllsea, it is found
to be still more formidably armed, for
in its muscular walls there are embedded
no less than twelve horny
plates ( e ), which are ex-
tremely hard and as sharp
as the blades of a knife.
The Sea-hare, however,
furnishes us with the most
curious form of these
stomachal teeth, for here
we see not only the
gizzard ( b ) armed with horny pyramidal plates, whose tuber-
culated apices, meeting in the centre of the organ, must
necessarily bruise by their action whatever passes through
that cavity, but the third stomach ( d ) is also studded with
sharp-pointed hooks (c), resembling canine teeth, and ad-
mirably adapted to pierce and subdivide the tough leathery
fronds of the olive sea-weeds on which the animal feeds. Thus
these deformed and disgusting molluscs afford us one of the
most interesting examples of the adaptation of organs to their
Gizzard of Bulla.
Gizzard of Syllsea.
EYES OF GASTEROPODS.
295
functions, which an enlightened research is continually finding
in creation.
Compound, stomach of Sea-Hare.
Though not so gifted as the cephalopods, many of the gastero-
pods possess all the org'ans of sense. Like them, they have an
apparatus specially calculated to appreciate sonorous undula-
tions, and consisting of a membranous vesicle attached to an
auditive nerve, and containing either a single spherical otolithe
or a larger number of similar smaller calcareous bodies, which
by their vibrations communicate the impression of sound to the
nerve. Their minute eyes are short-sighted, it is true, and
frequently either entirely wanting or, as in the Nudibranchiates,
scarcely able to distinguish light from darkness ; but their
inactive habits require no wide field of vision, and thus they
see as much of the external world as is necessary for their
296
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
humble sphere of existence. The organs of sight are generally
situated either on a promi-
nence at the base of the
superior pair of tentacles
or, as, for instance, in the
Murex, at the extremity
of these organs (a, b), a
position which enables
the animal to direct them
readily to different ob-
jects.
Many of the Grasteropods
are evidently capable of
perceiving odours ; thus,
animal substances let down
in a net to the bottom will
attract thousands of Nassse
in one night. We also may
infer that they are not de-
ficient in taste from the presence of papillae at the bottom of
their mouth, analogous to those found on the tongue of other
animals; but, of all their senses, that of touch is undoubtedly
the most perfect. The whole soft surface of the body is indeed
of exquisite sensibility, but more especially the vascular foot,
and the tentacles, or horns, which vary both in number and in
shape in different genera. Yet, in spite of this delicacy in
the organisation of the skin, which makes it so sensible of
contact, it appears to have been beneficently ordered that
animals so helpless and exposed to injury from every quarter
are but little sensible to pain. Although they are deprived of
all higher instincts, we find among the Gfasteropods a few
examples of concealment under extraneous objects, which
remind us of the masks and artifices frequently employed by
the insects and crustaceans.
The Agglutinating Top ( Trochus agglutinans ) covers itself
with small stones and fragments of shells, and thus shielded
from the view escapes the voracity of many an enemy but
little suspecting the savoury morsel hidden under the mound of
rubbish which he disdainfully passes by.
In animals which are only provided with passive means of
Tentacles and eye ot Murex.
c. Eye highly magnified.
SHELL-CAMEOS.
297
defence, we may naturally expect a considerable degree of
caution, and in this respect the gasteropods might give many
useful lessons to man. How carefully they protrude their ten-
tacles as far as possible to sound every obstacle in their way,
before they creep onwards, and how rapidly they withdraw
into their shell at the least symptom of danger ! What an
example to so many of us that leap before they look, and fre-
quently break their necks in the fall !
Yet, in spite of all their prudence and of the protection of
their stony dwellings, they serve as food to a host of powerful
enemies. The sea-stars, their most dangerous foes, not only
swallow the young fry but also seize with their long rays the
full-grown gasteropods, and clasp them in a murderous embrace.
They are preyed upon by fishes, crustaceans, and sea-birds,
who pick them up along the shores; but it will sometimes
happen that a crow, while endeavouring to detach a limpet for
its food, is caught by the tip of its bill, and held there until
drowned by the advancing tide.
Man also consumes a vast number of sea-snails, for on every
coast there are some edible species; and it may be said that, with
the exception of very few that have a disagreeable taste, they
are all of them used as food by the savage. The miserable
inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego chiefly live upon a large limpet
that abounds on the rocky shores of their inhospitable land, and
but for this resource would most likely long since have been
extirpated by hunger.
Many of the univalve shells are, moreover, highly prized as
objects of ornament or use both by savage and civilised nations.
The South Sea Islander makes use of a Triton as a war conch ;
the Patagonian drinks out of the Magellanic volute, the Arab
of the Red Sea employs a large Buccinum as a water-jug, and
the Cyjprcea moneta is well-known in commerce as the current
coin of the natives of many parts of Africa. In Europe the iri-
descent Haliotis is frequently used for the inlaying of tables or
boxes, and various species of Helmet-shells and Strombi ( Cassis
rufa madagascariensis, Strombus gigas), peculiar as being
formed of several differently coloured layers, placed side by side,
are in great request for the cutting of cameos, as they are soft
enough to be worked with ease, and hard enough to resist wear.
More than two hundred thousand of these shells are annually
298
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
imported into France, and the value of cameos produced in Paris
alone amounts to more than a hundred thousand pounds. A large
number are also cut in the small town of Oberstein on the Nahe
( a river flowing into the Ehine at Bingen), which has long been
famous for the manufactory of agate ornaments and trinkets,
and has now added this new branch of industry to the more
ancivnt sources of its prosperity.
The Pteropods, or Wing-footers, move about by means of
two fin-like flaps, proceeding wing-like from the fore part of the
body. They have no disk to walk upon, nor arms for the
seizure of prey, like the cephalopods and gasteropods, but re-
semble them by the possession of a head distinct from the rest
of the body, which some, like the Hyaleas and Cleodora', con-
ceal in a thin transparent or translucent shell, in which they
also hide their head and wings at the approach of danger, and
immediately sink to the bottom ; while others, like the blue and
violet Clios, beautifully variegated with light
red spots, are perfectly naked. They ge-
nerally inhabit the high seas, and are but
rarely drifted by storms or currents into the
neighbourhood of the land. They mostly
swim about freely, but sometimes also they
are found clinging by their wings to floating
sea-weeds. They are small creatures, but propagate so fast that
the Clio borealis and Limacina arctica form the chief food of
the colossal whale.
While these two little pteropods, in spite of their minute pro-
portions, deserve to rank among the most important inhabitants
of the northern seas, the Mediterranean species belong mainly
to the genera Hyalea, Cleodora, and Criseis — forms wholly
unknown to our own fauna except as waifs. Vast shoals of
these animals frequent the deeper parts of that sea, leaving
their remains strewed over its bed, between depths of from
one hundred to two hundred fathoms ; they are short-lived
creatures, and have their seasons, being met with near the
Hyalea globulosa.
HABITS OF FTEKOPODS.
299
surface during spring and winter, sparkling in the water like
needles of glass.
“ The pteropods are the winged insects of the sea,” says M.
Godwin-Austen, “ reminding us, in their free circling move-
ments and crepuscular habits, of the gnats and moths of the
atmosphere ; they shun the light, and if the sun is bright, you
may look in vain for them during the life-long day — as days
sometimes are at sea; a passing cloud, however, suffices to bring
some Cleodorse to the surface. It is only as day declines
that their true time begins, and thence onwards the watches of
the night may be kept by observing the contents of the towing-
net, as the hours of a summer day may be by the floral dial.
The Cleodoras are the earliest risers ; as the sun sets, Hyalcea
gibbosa appears, darting about as if it had not a moment to
spare, and, indeed, its period is brief, lasting only for the Me-
diterranean twilight. Then it is that Hyalcea trispinosa and
Cleodora subula come up ; Hyalcea tridentata, though it does
not venture out till dusk, retires early, whilst some species,
such as Cleodora pyramidata, are to be met with only during the
midnight hours and the darkest nights. This tribe, like a
higher one, has its few irregular spirits, who manage to keep it
up the whole night through. All, however, are back to their
homes below before dawn surprises them.”
The lamellibranchiate Acephala, or headless molluscs with
comb-like gills, are distinguished from the preceding orders of
molluscs by a more simple organisation and the peculiar forma-
tion of their external coverings. They are all contained within
a bivalve shell, articulated after the manner of a hinge, and to
which some of their families are attached by one strong muscle
(Monomyaria), others by two (Dimyaria). In this shell, which
is secreted by two large flaps or folds of their skin or mantle,
they generally lie concealed like a book in its binding, and bid
defiance to many of their enemies. When danger menaces, the
sea-snail withdraws its head and closes the entrance of its her-
mitage with a lid, but the bivalve shuts its folding-doors when
it wishes to avoid a disagreeable intruder. A strong elastic
O O
300
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
ligament connects the two valves, and opens them wide as
soon as the muscular contraction which closed them ceases
to act.
While the sea -snail creeps along upon a mighty foot, the
bivalve is frequently doomed to a sedentary life, and the former
protrudes from its shell a well-formed head, while the latter,
like many a biped, has no head at all. The lamellibranchiate
Acephala have, however, been treated by nature not quite so
step-motherly as might be supposed from this deficiency, for
many of them have eyes, or at least ocular spots, which enable
them to distinguish light from darkness ; and even auditory
organs have been discovered in many of them. Their circu-
lation is performed by a heart generally symmetrical, and their
respiration by means of four branchial leaflets equal in size,
and symmetrically arranged on either side of the body. The
mouth is a simple orifice without any teeth, bordered by mem-
branous lips, and placed at one end of the body between the
two inner leaves of the branchiae. The digestive apparatus
consists of a stomach or intestine of different lengths, a liver,
and several other accessory organs. A simple nervous system
brings all the parts of the body into harmonious action.
In many lamellibranchiates the folds of the mantle are dis-
joined, as, for instance, in the oyster, which, on opening its shell,
at once admits the water to its delicately fringed branchiae ; in
others they are more or less united, so as to form a closed sack
with several openings, an anterior one (/i) for the passage of the
foot, and two posterior ones (g,f) for the ingress and egress of the
water which the animal requires
for respiration. These posterior
openings are often prolonged
into shorter or longer tubes or
siphons, sometimes separate, and
sometimes grown together so
as to form a single elongated
fleshy mass. The use of these,
prolongations becomes at once
apparent when we consider that
they are chiefly developed in
those species which burrow in
and which therefore require to
Bivalve deprived of shell, to show its
various openings.
sand, mud, wood, or stone,
THE PHOLAS DACTYLUS.
301
be specially guarded against the danger of suffocation. The
interior of these siphonal canals is lined with innumerable
vibratory cilia, by the
action of which the water
is drawn towards the
branchial orifice and con-
veyed in acurrent through
the canal over the surface
of the gills ; then, having
been deprived of its oxy-
gen, it is expelled by a
similar mechanism through the other tube ; and it is by the
force of this anal current that the passage is kept free from the
deposit of mud or other substances, which would otherwise soon
choke it up. The clean ing action of the anal current is as-
sisted by the faculty the burrowing molluscs possess of elonga-
ting and contracting their siphons, and the degree to which this
may be accomplished depends on the depth of the cavity which
the species is accustomed to make. Yet since many particles
of matter float even in clear water, which from their form or
other qualities might be injurious to the delicate tissue of the
viscera to be traversed, how is the entrance of these to be
guarded against in an indiscriminating current ? A beautiful
contrivance is provided for this necessity. The margin of the
branchial siphon, and sometimes, though more rarely, of the anal
one, is set round with a number of short tentacular processes,
endowed with an exquisite sensibility and expanding like
feathery leaves. In Pholas dadylus this apparatus, which is
here confined to the oral tube, is of peculiar beauty, forming a
network of exquisite tracery, through the interstices or meshes
of which the water freely percolates, while they exclude all
except the most minute floating atoms of extraneous matter.
Thus admirably has the health and comfort of the lowly shell-
fish been provided for that spend their whole life buried in
sepulchres of stone or sand.
The fragile shell of the pholades seems to have prompted
them to seek a better protection in the hard rock : a similar
necessity may have induced the shipworm to drill a dwelling
in wood. Its shells, which are only a few lines broad, are very
small compared with the size of the vermiform body, and are
302
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
Pholaa striata.
Shipworm. — (Teredo navahs.)
therefore completely inadequate for its defence. For better
security it bores deep passages in submerged timber, which it
lines with a calcareous secretion, closing
the opening with two small lids. Un-
fortunately, while thus taking care of
itself, it causes considerable damage to
the works of man. It is principally
to guard against the attacks of this
worm that ships are sheathed with
copper, and the beams of submarine
constructions closely studded with nails.
During the last century, the Teredo
caused such devastations in the dykes which guard a great part
of Holland against the encroachments of an overwhelming
ocean that the Dutch began to tremble
for their safety ; and thus a miserable
worm struck terror in the hearts ot
a nation which had laughed to scorn
the tyranny of Philip II., and bid de-
fiance to the legions of Louis XIY.
But while blaming the teredo for its damages, justice bids us
not pass over in silence the services which it renders to man. If it
here and there destroys useful constructions, on the other hand, it
removes the wrecks that would otherwise obstruct the entrance
of rivers and harbours ; and we may ask whether these services
do not outweigh the harm it causes. The pholades also belong
to the noxious animals ; they perforate the walls and calcareous
jetties which man opposes to the fury of the sea, or raises for the
creation of artificial harbours and land-
ing places, destroy their foundations, and
gradually cause their destruction.
The foot of the lamellibranchiates
presents a great variety of form, and is
found in various degrees of development,
gradually passing into a rudimentary
state, until finally it is completely
wanting in the oyster family. In most
of those which live at large it is strong
and muscular, serving either as an ex-
cellent spade for speedy concealment in the sand when an
FOOT OF RAZOR-SHELLS.
30:
enemy approaches, or to dig a furrow into which the animal
forces itself partially, and then advances slowly by making
slight see-saw or balancing motions, or even to jump along with
tolerable rapidity. Thus, the common Cockle protrudes its
foot to its utmost length, bending it and fixing it strongly
against the surface on which it stands ; then by a sudden
muscular spring it throws itself into the air, and, by repeating
the process again and again, hops along at a pace one would
hardly expect to meet with in a shell-bound mollusc.
Even some of those which have but a very rudimentary foot,
incapable of subserving locomotion, are able to move from place
to place by the sudden opening or shutting of their valves. In
this manner the scallop, which inhabits deep places, where it
lies on a rocky or shelly bottom, swims or flies through the
water with great rapidity, and the file or rasp mussel, a closely
related genus, principally occurring in the Indian Ocean, glides
so swiftly through the water that the French naturalists Quoy
and Graimard were hardly able to overtake it.
In the stone or wood-boring bivalves
the functions of the foot with regard to
locomotion are much more limited than
in the Cockle, or Tellina, as they merely
consist in moving the animal up and
down in the cavity where it has fixed its
residence. In the Kazor-Shells, which
will sometimes burrow to the depth of
two feet, and very rarely quit their holes,
the cylindrical foot, no longer fit for hori-
zontal locomotion, serves the animal for rising or sinking in the
sand, for when about to bore, it attenuates it into a point, and
afterwards contracts it into a rounded form so as to fix it by its
enlargement when it desires to rise.
In places where the razor-shells abound, they are sought
after as bait for fish, and taken in spite of their mole-like
facility of concealment, for when the tide is low, their retreat is
easily recognised by the little jet of water they eject when
alarmed by the motion of the fishermen above. Havino- thus
detected their burrow, the wily enemy who is well aware that,
though inhabiting the salt water, the Solen does not like too
much of a good thing, merely throws some salt into the hole.
304
THE INHABITANTS OP THE SEA.
which, sadly irritating the nerves of the poor creature, generally
brings it to the surface. He must, however, be very quick in
grasping it firmly, for should he fail, the animal speedily sinks
again into the sand and will remain there, being either in-
sensible to the additional irritation or its instinct of self-
preservation teaching it to remain beneath.
The pholades, which have very delicate milk-white valves,
burrow holes in limestone or sandstone rocks, though occa-
sionally they content themselves with houses of clay or turf.
How creatures invested with shells as thin as paper and as
brittle as glass are able to work their way through hard stone
has long been a puzzle to naturalists, some of whom asserted
that they attained their object by means of an acid solvent,
others that they bored like an auger by revolving ; but recent
investigations have discovered that their short and truncated
foot is the chief instrument they use in their mining operations,
being provided at its base with a rough layer of sharp crystals
of flint, which, when worn off, are soon replaced by others, and
act as excellent files.
In several of the sedentary genera the rudi-
mentary foot, though incapable of locomotion, makes
itself useful by spinning a bundle of silken threads,
called byssus, or beard, which serve to anchor the
animal to any solid submarine object as firmly as a
ship in harbour. Generally the connection is per-
manent, but some species, among others the edible
mussel, are able to detach the filaments from the
glandular pedicle situated at the inferior base of the
foot which originally secreted them, and then to seek
another point of attachment.
If the byssus be examined under a powerful lens,
before any of the filaments are torn, it is easy to per«<
ceive that these are fixed to submarine bodies by
means of a small disc-like expansion of their ex-
tremities of various extent, according to the genus
and species. Cei'tain genera are celebrated for the
abundance and fineness of their byssus ; that of the
Pinnae, or Wing-Shells, among others, which are very common
in some parts of the Mediterranean, and attain a considerable
size, is so long and firm that in Naples it is sometimes manu-
FOOD OF BIVALVES.
305
factored into gloves and other articles of dress, though more as
an object of curiosity than for use.
Thus we find in the same class of animals the same organ
most variously modified in form and structure ; now serving
as a foot, now as a spade, or as a rasp, or as a spinning machine,
and, throughout all these modifications, admirably adapted in
every case to the mode of life
of its possessor.
The whole construction, and
generally the extremely restricted
locomotion, of the bivalves tells
us at once that they are unable
to attack their prey, but must be
satisfied with the food which the
sea-currents bring to the door of
their shells, or within the vortex
of their branchial siphons. But
they have as little reason to com-
plain as the equally slow or ses-
sile polyps, bryozoa, and ascidians,
for the waters of the ocean har-
bour such incalculable multi-
tudes of microscopic animals and
plants that their moderate ap-
petite never remains long un-
satisfied. The same streams
which aerate their blood also
convey to their mouth all the
food which they require.
Deprived of more active weapons, most bivalves rely upon
their shells as their best means of defence, and to answer this
purpose, their stony covering must naturally increase in solidity
the more its owner is exposed to injury. The pholades, litho-
domes, and teredines, which scoop out their dwellings in stone
or wood, and thus enjoy the protection of a retrenched camp,
can do with a thin and brittle or even with a mere rudimentary
shell. The solens, which at the least alarm bury themselves
deeper and deeper in the sand, likewise require no closely-fitting
valves ; but the oysters or mussels, which have no external
fortress to retire to, and are unable to move from the spot, would
Pinna.
c. Pedicle from which the filaments are
detached.
d. Inferior base of the foot.
306
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
be badly off indeed if they could not entirely conceal themselves
within their thick shells, and keep them closed by strong
muscular contraction.
Bernardin de St. Pierre, in his “ Studies of Nature,” points
out another admirable provision for the safety of molluscs.
Thus, those which crawl and travel, and can consequently choose
their own asylums, are in general those of the richest colours.
Such, among the Gasteropods, are the gaudily-tinted Nerites,
and the polished marbled Cowries, the Olives, richly ornamented
with three or four colours, and the Harps, which have tints as
rich as the most beautiful tulips; while among the bivalves the
vivacious Pectens, coloured scarlet and orange, and a host of
other travelling shells, are impressed with the most lively colours.
But those which do not swim, as the Oysters, which are adherent
always to the same rocks, or those which are perpetually at
anchor, as the Pinnas and Mussels, or those which repose on the
bosom of Madrepores, such as the Arcs, or those which are
entirely buried in the calcareous rocks, as the Lithodomi, or
those which immovably, by reason of their weight, pave the sur-
face of the reefs, as the Tridacna, are of the colour of the bottoms
or floors which they respectively inhabit, in order-, no doubt,
that they shall be less perceived by their enemies.
But even so the best guarded of the bivalves fall a prey to
innumerable enemies, and when we see the strand covered for
miles and miles with their debris, we may rest assured that but
few of the quondam inmates of these fragmentary shells have
died a natural death. Annelides and Sea-snails, crustaceans
and star-fishes, strand birds and even quadrupeds, all fatten
upon their delicate flesh, and man devours incalculable numbers.
In vain the Pholas buries itself in stone, or the cockle in the
sand; their security was at an end as soon as man had found
out that they were grateful to the palate. The former was
reckoned a delicacy by the ancients, and
the latter is preferred by some to the oyster
itself. So much is certain, that, during
the years of famine caused by the potato
disease, it preserved the lives of many of
the poor Shetlanders and Orcadians.
The Razor-Shells, particularly when
roasted, and the Clam-Mussels, which are not only a favourite
Edible Cookie.
MUSSEL-GAllD EXS.
307
repast of the Greenlander but also of the white bear and arctic
fox, are equally reckoned among the most delicate of bivalves.
The common Mussel ( Mytilus edulis), which is found in
the littoral zone on almost every rocky shore, is eaten in vast
numbers by the coast inhabitants, and carried in enormous
masses into the interior of the country; it furnishes an equally
cheap and agreeable food, but is not easy of digestion, and some-
times produces symptoms of poisoning, which have been ascribed
to the eggs of asterias, on which it feeds
during; the summer. In the northern conn-
tries it is also in great request as a bait for
cod, ling, rays, and other large fishes that
are caught by the line. In the Frith of
Forth alone from thirty to forty millions of
mussels are used for this purpose, and in
many places they are enclosed in gardens,
the ground of which is covered with large
stones, to which they attach themselves by
their byssus or beard.
It is a curious fact that the rearing of mussels should have
been introduced into France as far back as the year 123.5, by an
Irishman of the name of Walton. This man, who had been
shipwrecked in the Bay de l’Aiguillon, and gained a precarious
living by catching sea-birds, observed that the mussels, which
had attached themselves to the poles on which he spread his nets
over the shallow waters, were far superior to those that naturally
grow in the mud, and immediately made use of his discovery
by founding the first “ bouchot ,” or mussel-park, consisting of
stakes and rudely interwoven branches. His example soon
found imitators, and, strange to say, the method of construction
adopted by Walton, six centuries ago, has been maintained un-
altered to the present day. It may give some idea of the
immense resources that might be obtained from so many utterly
neglected lagunes when we hear that the fishermen of l’Aiguiilon,
although they sell three hundredweight of mussels for the very
low sum of five francs, or four shillings, annually export or send
them into the interior to the amount of a million or twelve
hundred thousand francs.
The praise which Pliny bestowed on the oyster, calling it the
palm or glory of the table, is still re-echoed by thousands of
Edible Mussel.
308
TIIE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
enthusiastic admirers. We know that this king of the molluscs
congregates in enormous banks, often extending for miles and
miles, particularly on rocky ground, though it is also found on
a sandy or even on a muddy bottom. Along the shallow
alluvial shores of many tropical lands, great quantities of
oysters are often found attached to the lower branches of the
mangroves, where they are so situated as to be covered when
the flood sets in, and to remain suspended in the air when it
retires, swinging about as the wind agitates their movable
support. The oyster inhabits all the European seas from the
shores of the Mediterranean to the Westenfiord in Norway, where
it finds its northern boundary, lat. 68° N., but the British
waters may he considered as its headquarters, for nowhere is it
found in greater abundance and of a richer flavour. After the
ancient Komans had once tasted the oysters of Kent — the re-
nowned Rutupians — they preferred them by far to those of the
Lucrine lake, of Brindisi, and of Abydos, and Macrohius tells
us that the Boman epicures in the fourth century never failed
to have them at table. The “ Pandores ” of Edinburgh, and
the “ Carlingfords ” of Dublin, are likewise celebrated for their
delicious flavour ; and if we turn to the Continent, we find the
Bay of Biscay, and the coasts of Brittany and Normandy, of
Holland and of Schleswig-Holstein, renowned for the excellence
of their oysters.
Three sorts of oysters are distinguished in the trade. The
first comprises those which are dredged from the deeper banks.
These are the largest-sized, but also the least valued. The
second consists of those that are gathered on a more elevated
situation. Being accustomed to the daily vicissitudes of ebb
and flood, they retain their water much longer, and can there-
fore be transported to much greater distances than the former.
Those are preferred that grow on a clear bottom near the
estuaries of rivers. The third and most valued sort of oysters
are those that are cleaned and fattened in artificial parks or
stews.
This branch of industry was already known to the Romans,
and Pliny tells us that Sergius Orata, a knight, was the first
who established an artificial basin for the cultivation of oysters,
and realised large sums of money by this ingenious invention.
At present Harwich, Colchester, Whitstable, and many other
OYSTER- PARKS.
309
seaports along our coast are famed for their oyster-stews, as are,
in France and Belgium, Marennes, Havre, Dieppe, Treport, and
Ostend, where real British natives are cleaned and fattened for
continental consumption.
The renowned oyster-parks of Ostend, the oldest of- which
celebrated its hundredth anniversary in 186(5, are extensive
walled basins, communicating by sluices with the open sea, so
that the water can be let in and out with every returning tide.
As microscopic algae and animalculae are produced in much
greater numbers in these tranquil reservoirs than in the bois-
terous sea, the oysters find here much more abundant food, and
being detached one from the other, they can also open and close
their shells with greater facility, so that nothing hinders their
growth. Thus fostered and improved by constant attention,
they are greatly superior in flavour to the rough children of
nature that are sent without any further preparation to market
and condemned to the knife soon after having been dragged
forth from their submarine abode. The highly prized green
oysters owe their colour to the number of ulvae, enteromorphae,
and microscopic infusoriae, that are abundantly generated in
the parks, and communicate their verdant tinge to the animal
that swallows them.
In spite of their high price, which unfortunately debars the
poorer classes from their enjoyment, the consumption of oysters
is immense ; so that in a commercial point of view they are by
far the most important of all the mollusc tribes. Of the quan-
tities eaten in London alone, it is impossible to give even an
approximate guess, as no reliable statistics can be arrived at.
Exclusive of those bred in Essex and Kent, in the rivers Crouch,
Blackwater, and Colne, and in the channel of the Swale and the
Medway, vast numbers are brought from Jersey, Poole, and
other places along the coast. The Channel Islands alone, which
export about 100,000 bushels a year, send a great part of then-
oysters to the metropolitan market.
The luxurious tables of Paris likewise consume unnumbered
millions, and when we consider that, thanks to the railroad,
even the most distant inland towns of the Continent may now be
supplied with Ostend oysters, we cannot wonder that their
price has risen enormously with the constantly increasing de-
mand.
Y
310
THE INHABITANTS OP THE SEA.
This great augmentation of value has naturally directed
attention to the creation of new oyster-banks, and to the better
management of those already existing, and fortunately the
mauner in which the mollusc propagates renders its culture in
appropriate localities a by no means difficult task.
The oyster spawns from June to September. Instead of im-
mediately abandoning its eggs to their fate, as is the case with
so many sea-animals, it keeps them for a time in the folds of its
mantle, between the branchial lamellae, and it is only after having
thus acquired a more perfect development that the microscopic
larvae, furnished with a swimming apparatus and eyes, emerge
from the shell, and are then driven about by the floods and
currents, until they find some solid body to which they attach
themselves for life. In this manner the oyster produces in one
single summer a couple of millions of young, which, however,
mostly perish during the first wandering stage of their existence.
Thus we see what rich rewards may be gained by protecting and
fixing the oyster- larvae at an early date ; and that this can be
done in many places without any great outlay of capital is
proved to us by successful examples both in ancient and modern
times.
Between the Lucrine Lake, the ruins of Cumae, where of yore
the Sibyl uttered her ambiguous oracles, and the promontory of
Misenum, lies a small salt-water lake, about a league in cir-
cumference, generally from three to six feet deep, and reposing
on a volcanic, black, and muddy bottom. This is the old Acheron
of Virgil, the present Fusaro. Over its whole extent are spread
from space to space great heaps of stones, that have been
originally stocked with oysters brought from Tarentum. Bound
each of these artificial mounds stakes are driven into the ground,
tolerably near each other, and projecting from the water, so as
to be pulled up easily. Other stakes stand in long rows several
feet apart, and are united by ropes, from which bundles of brush-
wood hang down into the water. All these arrangements are
intended to fix the oyster-dust , that annually escapes from the
parental shells, and to afford it a vast number of points to which
it may attach itself. After two or three years the microscopic
larva; have grown into edible oysters. Then, at the proper
season, the stakes and brushwood bundles are taken out of
the water, and after the ripe berries of the marine vineyard
TIIE PEARL-OYSTER.
311
have been plucked, they are again immersed into the lake,
until a new generation brings a new harvest. Thus the indolent
Neapolitans have for ages given an example which ha,s but
recently been imitated by the men of the North. In 1858 a
mason named Beef (a name which, if not misspelt, would seem
to point out an English origin) inaugurated the modern era of
oyster cultivation, at the island of Re, near La Rochelle, by
laying down a few bushels of growing oysters among a quantity
of large stones on the fore shore. His success encouraged his
neighbours to follow his example, so that now already upwards
of 4,000 beds or claires extend along the coast.
Between March and May 1859 a quantity of oysters taken
from different parts of the sea were distributed in ten longitu-
dinal beds in the Bay of St. Brieux, on the coast of Brittany.
The bottom was previously covered with old oyster-shells and
boughs of trees arranged like fascines, which afford a capital
holding-ground for the spat. In 1860 three of the fascines were
taken up indiscriminately from one of the banks, and found to
coutain about 20,000 oysters each, of from one inch to two
inches in diameter. The total expense for forming the above
bank was 221 francs, and reckoning the number of o}rsters on
each of the 300 fascines laid down on it at only 10,000, these
sold at the low p-ice of 20 francs a thousand would produce
the sum of 60,000 francs, thus yielding a larger profit than any
other known branch of industry.
Encouraged by these successful examples, an English com-
pany has obtained a grant by Act of Parliament of a piece of
fore shore lying between the Whitstable and Faversham Oyster
Companies’ beds, and thus admirably situated for receiving a
large quantity of floating spawn from these establishments.
There can be no doubt that oyster cultivation will spread further
and further, and that ultimately all the worthless bays and
lagunes along our coasts will be converted into rich oyster-fields,
yielding a good profit to their owners and enjoyment to millions
of consumers.
A shell nearly related to the oyster produces the costly pearls
of the East that have ever been as highly esteemed as the
diamond itself. The most renowned pearl-fisheries are carried
on at Bahrein, in the Persian Gulf, and in the Bay of Condatchy,
in the island of Ceylon, on banks situated a few miles from
312
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
the coast. Before the beginning of the fishery, the govern-
ment causes the banks to be explored, and then lets them to
the highest bidder, very wisely allowing only a part of them to
be fished every year. The fishing begins in February, and
ceases by the beginning of April. The boats employed for this
purpose assemble in the bay, set off at night at the firing of a
signal-gun, and reach the banks after sunrise, where fishing goes
on till noon, when the sea-breeze which arises about that time
warns them to return to the bay. As soon as they appear
within sight, another gun is fired, to
inform the anxious owners of their
return. Each boat carries twenty men
and a chief; ten of them row and
hoist up the divers, who are let down
by fives, — and thus alternately diving
and resting keep their strength to the
end of their day’s work. The diver,
when he is about to plunge, com-
presses his nostrils tightly with a small piece of horn, which
keeps the water out, and stuffs his ears with bees’-wax for the
same purpose. He then seizes with the toes of his right foot a
rope to which a stone is attached, to accelerate the descent,
while the other foot grasps a bag of network. With his right
hand he lays hold of another rope, and in this manner rapidly
reaches the bottom. He then hangs the net round his neck,
and with much dexterity and all possible despatch collects as
many oysters as he can while he is able to remain under water,
which is usually about two minutes. He then resumes his
former position, makes a signal to those above by pulling the
rope in his right hand, and is immediately by this means hauled
up into the boat, leaving the stone to be pulled up afterwards
by the rope attached to it. Accustomed from infancy to their
work, these divers do not fear descending repeatedly to depths
of fifty 01 sixty feet. They plunge more than fifty times in a
morning, and collect each time about a hundred shells. Some-
times, however, the exertion is so great that, upon being brought
into the boat, they discharge blood from their mouth, ears, and
nostrils.
While the fishing goes on, a number of conjurors and priests
Ceylon Pearl-Oyster.
PEARL- FISHING IN CEVLON.
313
are assembled on the coast, busily employed in protecting the
divers by their incantations against the voracity of the sharks.
These are the great terror of the divers, but they have such
confidence in the skill or power of their conjurors that they
neglect every other means of defence. The divers are paid in
money, or receive a part of the oyster-shells in payment. Often,
indeed, they try to add to their gains by swallowing here or there
a pearl, but the sly merchant knows how to find the stolen
property. The oysters, when safely landed, are piled up on mats,
in places fenced round for the purpose. As soon as the animals
are dead, the pearls can easily be sought for and extracted from
the gaping shells. After the harvest has been gathered, the
largest, thickest, and finest shells, which furnish mother-of-pearl,
are sorted, and the remaining heap is left to pollute the air.
Some poor Indians, however, often remain for weeks on the spot,
stirring the putrid mass in the hopes of gleaning some forgotten
pearls from the heap of rottenness. -The pearls are drilled and
stringed in Ceylon, a work which is performed with admirable
dexterity and quickness. For cleaning, rounding, and polishing
them, a powder of ground pearls is made use of.
The Pacific also furnishes these costly ornaments to wealth
and beauty, but the pearls of California and Tahiti are less
prized than those of the Indian Ocean.
Pearl-like excrescences likewise form on the inner surface of
our oysters and mussels, and originate in the same manner as
the true pearls. The formation of the pearl, however, is not
yet quite satisfactorily accounted for. Some naturalists believe
that the animal accumulates the pearl-like substance to give
the shell a greater thickness and solidity in the places where it
has been perforated by some annelide or gasteropod ; and ac-
cording to Mr. Philippi, an intestinal worm stimulates the exu-
dation of the pearl-like mass, which, on hardening, encloses and
renders it harmless.
Brilliancy, size, and perfect regularity of form are the
essential qualities of a beautiful pearl. Their union in a single
specimen is rare, but it is of course still more difficult to find a
number of pearls of equal size and beauty for a costly necklace
or a princely tiara.
Nature has given the bivalves the same beauty of colouring
3 1 4
INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
and wonderful variety of elegant or capricious forms as to the
sea-snails ; so that they are equally esteemed in the cabinets of
wealthy amateurs. Among the most costly are reckoned the
Spondyli, which are found in the tropical seas, where they grow
attached to rocks. They are distinguished by the brilliancy of
their colours, but particularly by the long thorny excrescences
with which their shells are covered. A Parisian professor once
pawned all his silver spoons and forks to make up the sum of
six thousand francs which was asked for a Royal Spondylus ;
but on returning home was so warmly received by his lady
that, overwhelmed by the hurricane, he flung himself on a chair,
when the terrific cracking of the box containing his treasure
reminded him too late that he had concealed it in his skirt-
pocket. Fortunately but two of the thorns had been broken
off, and the damage was susceptible of being repaired ; his
despair, however, was so great that his wife had not the heart
to continue her reproaches, and in her turn began to soothe the
unfortunate collector.
The gigantic Tridacna, which is now to be found in the shop
of every dealer in shells, was formerly an object of such rarity
and value that the Republic of
Venice once made a present of
one of them to Francis I., who
gave it to the Church of St-
Sul pice in Paris, where it is
still made use of as a basin for
m , holy water. The tridacna at-
Tridacna gigas. # J
tains a diameter of five feet,
and a weight of five hundred pounds, the flesh alone weighing-
thirty. The muscular power is said to be so great as to be able
to cut through a thick rope on closing the shell. It is found in
the dead rocks on the coral reefs, where there are no growing-
lit hophytes except small tufts. Generally only an inch or two
in breadtn of the ponderous shell is exposed to view, for the
tridacna, like the pholas, has the power of sinking itself in the
rock, by removing the lime about it. Without some means like
this of security, its habitation would inevitably be destroyed
by the roaring breakers. A tuft of byssus, however strong,
would be a very imperfect security against the force of the sea
for shells weighing from one to five hundred pounds. It
THE BRACHIOPODS.
315
is found in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific as far as the
coral zone extends. The animal
of the tridacna, and of the near-
ly related Hippopus, distinguishes
itself by the beauty of its colours.
The mantle of the Tridacna sa-
franea, for instance, has a dark
blue edge with emerald-green
spots, gradually passing into a
light violet. When a large num-
her of these beautiful creatures
expand the velvet brilliancy of Hippopus macuiatus.
their costly robes in the transparent waters, no flower-bed on
earth can equal them in splendour.
Like the Lamellibranchiate Acephala, the Brachiopods are
covered with a bivalve shell, but their internal organisation is
very different. Instead of being disposed in separate gills,
their respiratory system is combined with the ciliated mantle on
which the vascular ramifications are distributed, but their most
striking feature is the possession of spiral fringed arms or
buccal appendages which serve to open the shell and occupy
the greater part of its cavity. These curious organs are in some
Brachiopods quite free, in others attached to a complicated
cartilaginous or calcareous skeleton. None of the existing
molluscs of this class are capable of changing place, but are
either fixed to extraneous substances bv the agglutination of one
of their valves or by a muscular peduncle passing through a
perforation of their shells. There are no more thau forty-nine
living species, chiefly belonging to the genera Terebratula and
Crania, and generally found at great depths in the Southern
Ocean; but the fossil remains of 1,370 species prove their
importance in the primitive seas, where they rivalled the
lamellibranchiates in numbers and variety. Though now so
rare or so local in the British seas that ordinary collectors are
not likely to meet with any, they abound in many of our oldest
rocks. “ A visit to the quarries at Dudley,” says E. Forbes,
“ or an Irish lime-kiln, or an oolitic section on the Dorsetshire
coast, or a green sand ravine in the Isle of Wight, will afford
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
:516
more information about the Brachiopods than an examination
of the finest collection of the living species. In each of the
above excursions a different set of forms would be collected, for
many of the palaeozoic genera have altogether disappeared when
we rise among the secondary rocks, and in the latter we find
forms which closely remind us of existing species, but which,
though very near, are yet unquestionably distinct. In forma'
tions of all epochs, a few generic types are common, and the
Lingulae of the earliest sedimentary formations, presenting
traces of organic life, strikingly remind us of the species of
that curious group living in exotic seas at the present day.”
At the lower extremity of the great series of molluscous
animals we find the Polyzoa (Bryozoa, or Sea-Mosses) and
Tunicata. The former, which comprise the Sea-Mats (Flustrae,
Escharae), the Sea-Scurfs (Lepraliae), the Betepores, the Cellu-
1 arise, and several other families, were formerly reckoned among
the polyps, whom they greatly resemble in appearance and mode
of life, but far surpass by the complexity of their internal or-
ganisation. The Sea-Mats are among the commonest objects
which the tide casts out upon our shores, for you will hardly ever
walk upon the strand without finding their blanched skeletons
among the relics of the retiring flood.
Their flat leaf-like forms might easily
cause them to be mistaken for dried sea-
weeds, but a pocket-lens suffices to show
that they are built up of innumerable
little oblong cells, placed back to back
like those of a honey-comb, and each
crowned by four stout spines, which give
their surface a peculiarly harsh feel
when the finger is passed over it from the apex to the base.
“ The individual cells,” says Mr. Gosse, “ are shaped like a
child’s cradle, and if you will please to suppose some twenty
thousand cradles stuck side to side in one plane, and then
turned over, and twenty thousand more stuck on to these bottom
to bottom, you will have an idea of the framework of a flustra.
And do not think the number outrageous, for it is but an ordi-
nary average. I count in an area of half an inch square sixty
Leaf-like Sea-Mat.
FLUSTRJE AND ESCHAKJE.
317
longitudinal rows, each of which contains about twenty-eight
cells in that space ; this gives 6,720 cells per square inch on each
surface. Now a moderate-sized polyzoary contains an area of
three square inches, i. e. six on both surfaces, which will give the
high number of 40,320 cells on such a specimen. Many, how-
ever, are much larger.”
Before the stormy tide detached them from the bottom of the
sea, and left them to perish on the shore, each of the cells con-
tained a living creature whose mouth was surrounded by a
coronet of filiform and ciliated tentacles, destined to produce
a vortex in the water, and thus to provide the tiny owner with
its food. The body was bent on itself somewhat like the letter
V, the one branch (a) being the mouth and throat, the other (b)
the rectum, opening by an anus, and the middle part (c) the
stomach. Each of these tiny members of the
flustra colony possessed a considerable number
of muscles ; each was furnished with a movable
lip or lid to block up the entrance of his
cell when he courted retirement ; each had
his individual nerves, and consequently his
individual sensations, though feeling and
moving simultaneously with his fellow citizens
by the agency of a system of nerves common
to the whole republic, and sending forth a
delicate filament to the inmate cf each cell.
Such are the wonders which but for the
microscope would for ever have remained
unknown to man.
The Escharse greatly resemble the Flustrae, for here also the
cells are disposed side by side upon the same plane, so as to
form a broad leaf-like polyzoary, which, however, is not of a
horny or coriaceous texture, as in the latter genus, but com-
pletely calcified, so as to present something of the massiveness
of the stony corals. The annexed wood-cuts, showing us
Eschara cervicornis, first a, in its natural size ; then b, a few
cells magnified twenty diameters, and ultimately c, a single
individual so highly magnified as to reveal some of the details
of its otherwise invisible structure, give us a good idea of the
truly remarkable organisation of the Polyzoa.
In the Escharse and Flustrae the cellular extension of the
Flustra in its cell.
(Highly magnified.)
318
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
common stock or polyzoary is unbroken, and opening on botli
surfaces, while in the Retepores we find the cells opening only
on one side, and the leaf-like expansion pierced like network.
Eschara cervicorms. Portion of a branch of the polypary of
(Natural size.) Eschara cervicorms, magnified twenty
diameters, to show the form and ar-
rangement of cells.
In cabinets of natural history, the species commonly called
Neptune’s ruffles will rarely he found wanting. It is a native
of the Mediterranean, but individuals of a smaller size are also
found in the British seas.
C
An individual of Eschara cervicorms, Re+epora ceUulosa.
highly magnified- (Neptune’s Ruffle.)
a. Tentacula. b. First digestive cavity.
d. Stomach. /. Anus.
The Lepraliae, or Sea-Scurfs, form thin calcareous crusts of
a white-yellow or reddish colour on rocks, shells, and sea-
weeds. To the naked eye they appear as rude unsightly
bird’s head processes.
310
eruptions, so as to justify their name derived from the hideous
leprosy of the East, but, when magnified, their cells, generally
disposed in regular concentric rows, exhibit a surprising
diversity and elegance of structure. Forty species are found
in the North Sea alone; hence we may judge how great the
number of still unknown forms must be that spread their
microscopic traceries over the algse and shells of every zone.
It would lead me too far were I minutely to describe the
Cellularise with their cells disposed in alternating rows on
narrow bifurcated branches; the Tubulipores, with their mouths
at the termination of tubular cells without any movable
appendage or lip; the Bowerbankias and Lagunculas, with
their creeping stems and separate cells ; suffice it to say that a
wonderful exuberance of fancy displays itself in the structure
of the numerous varieties of the Polyzoa.
But a closer inspection reveals still greater miracles to the
marine microscopist, for most genera, and chiefly the Cellularise,
possess very remarkable appendages, or processes, presenting the
most striking resemblance to the head of a bird. Each of these
processes, or “ avicula-
rise,” as they have been
named, has two “ man-
dibles,” of which one is
fixed like the upper jaw
of a bird, the other
movable like its lower
jaw ; the latter is opened
and closed by two sets of
muscles, which are seen
in the interior of the
head, and between them
is a peculiar body, fur-
nished with a pencil of
bristles, which is pro-
bably a tactile organ }
being brought forwards
O O
when the mouth is open,
sn that the bristles r>ro- A' Portlon of a Cellulana, magnified.
SO mat tne Dristies pro B. A Bird's Head Process, more highly magnified,
ject beyond it, and being and seen in the act of grasping another.
drawn back when the mandible closes. During the life of the
320
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
polyzoon, these tiny “ vu’ture-heads,” which are either sessile
or pedunculated, keep up a continual motion, and it is most
amusing to see them see-sawing and snapping and opening
their jaws, and then sometimes in their incessant activity even
closing upon the beaks of their neighbours.
It is still very doubtful what is their precise function in the
economy of the animal ; whether it is to retain within reach of
the ciliary current bodies that may serve as food, or whether it
is like the pedicellariae of the sea-urchins to remove extraneous
particles that may be in contact with the surface of the poly-
zoary. The latter would seem to be the function of the “ vibra-
cula,” which are likewise pretty generally distributed among the
polyzoa. Each of these long bristle-shaped organs, springing
at its base out of a sort of cup, that contains muscles by which
it is kept in almost constant motion, sweeps slowly and carefully
over the surface of the polyzoary, and removes what might be
injurious to the delicate inhabitants of the cells, when their
tentacles are protruded. So carefully have these lowly molluscs
been provided for !
The polyzoa can neither hear nor see, at least as far as we are
able to ascertain, but the delicacy of their sense of touch is very
great. “ When left undisturbed in a glass of fresh sea-water,”
says Dr. Johnston,* “they push their tentacula beyond the
mouth of the cell by straightening the body, and then expand-
ing them in the form of a funnel or bell, they will often remain
quiet and apparently immovable for a long time, presenting a
very pretty and most interesting object to an observer of the
‘ minims of nature.’ If, however, the water is agitated, they
withdraw on the instant, probably by aid of the posterior liga-
ment or muscle ; the hinder part of the body is pushed aside up
the cell, the whole is sunk deeper, and by this means the tenta-
cula, gathered into a close column, are brought within the cell,
the aperture of which is shut by the same series of actions.
The polyzoa of the same polyzoary often protrude their thou-
sand heads at the same time, or in quick but irregular succes-
sion, and retire simultaneously, or nearly so, but at other times
I have often witnessed a few only to venture on the display of
their glories, the rest remaining concealed, and if, when many
are expanded, one is singled out and touched with a sharp in-
* “ History of the British Zoophytes,” 2nd edit. vol. i. p. 259.
THE TUNICATA.
321
strument, it alone feels the iujury, and retires, without any
others being conscious of the danger, or of the hurt inflicted on
their mate. The polyzoa propagate by gemmation and by ova
or eggs, which, germinating on the inner surface, escape at a later
period into the visceral cavity, and are finally discharged into
the wide sea, so to fulfil their mission in creation, and people the
shores of every clime with myriads of busy workers in horn and
in lime, which, with subtle chemistry, they draw from a fluid
quarry and build up in textures of admirable beauty and
heaven-ordered designs.”
Each polyzoon begins with a single ovum. The original or
seminal cell of a flustra or lepralia has no sooner fixed itself
upon some stone, shell, or alga, than new buds begin to shoot
forth, which in their turn produce others from their unattached
margins, so as rapidly to augment the number of cells to a verv
large amount. Thus a common specimen of Flustra carbasea
presents more than 18,000 individual polyzoa,, and as each of
these has about twenty-two tentacula, which are again furnished
with about a hundred c-ilire a piece, the entire polyzoary pre-
sents no less than 396,000 tentacula and 39,600,000 cilias. The
Eev. David Landsborough calculated that a specimen of Flustra
mevibranacea five feet in length by eight inches in breadth had
been the work and the habitation of above two millions of in-
mates, so that this single colony on a submarine island was about
equal in number to the population of Scotland. As the tentacula
are numerous in this species, four thousand millions of cilise
must have provided for its wants, about four times the number
of the inhabitants of this globe !
The Tunicata are so called because their soft parts are not
enclosed in a calcified shell such as invests the majority of their
class, but in a more or less coriaceous envelope or tunic which
is either bag-shaped, and provided with two apertures, or tube-
shaped, and open at the ends. They present a strong resem-
blance to the Polyzoa, not merely in their general plan of
conformation, but also in their tendency to produce composite
structures by gemmation ; they may, however, be at once dis-
tinguished from them by the absence of the ciliated tentacula
which form so conspicuous a feature in the external aspect of a
flustra or a retepore. Their branchiae, which have generally
the form of ridges (e), occupy a large sac, forming, as it were,
322
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
the antechamber of the alimentary canal, which is barely
distinguishable into gullet, stomach, and intestine, and always
convoluted or folded once on itself. The Tunicata are ex-
clusively marine, and widely spread from the arctic to the
tropical seas. All of them are free during the earlier parts of
their existence; some remain permanently so (Pyrosomkhe.
Clavellina producta. Group of two adult
and several young individuals, mag-
nified about five times.
c Branchial orifice. e. Branchiae. t. Anal orifice.
1. Stomach, o. H>art. w, u\ un . Reproductive
buds, springing from the abdomen ol the adults.
Ascidia mammillata.
a. Branchial orifice, open.
Anal orifice, closed.
Salpse), but the generality (Ascidise, Eotrylli) become fixed to
shells and other marine bodies; some exist as distinct individuals
(Ascidise, Cynthia), whilst various degrees of combination are
effected by others fBotryllus, Clavellina, Pyrosoma), and some
are simple in one generation and combined in the next (Salpae).
SEA-SQUIRTS.
323
Tims the whole family is divisible into two groups, the
simple and the aggregate ; both branching out into numerous
genera, of which my limits only allow me to mention some of
the most remarkable. The simple Ascidise, or Sea-Squirts, are
very common on our shores. “ Rarely,” says Forbes, “is
the dredge drawn up from any sea-bed at all prolific in
submarine creatures without containing few or many of their
irregularly shaped leathery bodies, fixed to sea-weed, rock,
or shell, by one extremity, or by one side, free at the other,
and presenting two more or less prominent orifices, from
which, on the slightest pressure, the sea-water is ejected with
great force. On the sea-shore, when the tide is out, we find
similar bodies attached to the under surface of rough stones.
They are variously, often splendidly, coloured, but otherwise
are unattractive or even repulsive in aspect. Some are of a
large size, several inches in length. As may easily be imagined,
they, lead a very inactive life, except in the young state, when
by means of a long tail they rapidly swim about, until finally
settling in some convenient spot, they gradually assume the
form and adopt the quiet life of the parent from which they
sprang.”
To the simple Tunicata belong also the Chelyosomata, whose
coriaceous envelope, consisting of eight somewhat horny angular
plates, reminds one of the
carapace of the turtle.
Cette sea-squirts are taken u- St,,"e 1,1 whieh the a"imal 's fi***'1-
regularly to market, and Cynthia microcosmus, although so
repulsive externally, furnishes a very delicate morsel.
While in the Clavellinidae the animals are connected by
creeping tubular prolongations of the common tunic through
Some species of simple
Ascidians on the coasts
of the Channel and the
Mediterranean are valued
as articles of food. At
Their small and promi-
nent orifices, perforating
the plated surface, are
each surrounded by six
triangular valvules.
324
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
which the blood circulates, the Botrylli form translucent jelly-
like masses of various hues of
orange, yellow, purple, blue, grey,
and green ; sometimes nearly uni-
form in tint, sometimes beautifully
variegated, and very frequently
pencilled as if with stars of
gorgeous device; now encrust-
ing the surface of the rock, now
descending from it in icicle-like
projections. They are also fre-
quently attached to the broad-
leaved fuci, investing the stalks,
or clothing with a glairy coat
the expanse of the fronds. “ In
examining their bodies,” sa\ s
the distinguished naturalist pre-
viously quoted, “ we find that it
is not a single animal which is
c' Th<^~ a"al °nfice °f °ne °r the before us, but a commonwealth
of beings bound together by common and vital ties. Each
Diazona violacea tmagmfied).
star is a family, each group of stars a community. Individuals
are linked together in systems, systems combined into masses.
THE PYROSOMA.
32ii
Few bodies among the forms of animal life exhibit such exquisite
figures as those which we see displayed in the combinations of
these compound Ascidians.”
In the genus Diazona, which lias its chief seat in the Mediter-
ranean, the animals, which are very prominent and arranged in
concentric circles, form a single system expanded into a disc like
that of a flower or of an Actinia. The anal orifices, it will be
seen, are situated close to the branchial apertures at the free end
of the single animals, while in the Botrylli
they open into a central excretory cavity.
In the Pyrosomes we find large co-
lonies of small individuals aggregated in
the form of a cylinder open at one end.
Their mouths or anterior extremities are
situated on the exterior of this hollow
body, which they bristle with large and
longish tubercles (a), whilst the opposite
or anal orifices ( b ) open into the cavity
of the cylinder, whose smooth wall they
perforate with numerous small holes. By
a simultaneous action the central cavity is
either narrowed or enlarged, and by this
means the strange social republic glides
slowly through the waters.
The Pyrosomes inhabit the Mediterra-
nean and the warmer parts of the ocean.
In the former at times their abundance is
a source of great annoyance to the fisher-
men, sometimes even completely clogging
their nets, and on the high seas they are
not seldom met with in almost incredible
profusion. Their delicate and transpa-
rent forms, their elegant tints, and their
unrivalled phosphorescence render them
objects of admiration to the voyager, and
entitle them to rank amongst the most
resplendent living gems of the ocean.
While the sessile Ascidiae remind one of the polyps, the
transparent Salpse, freely swimming in the sea, bear a great
resemblance to the pellucid jelly-fishes. Each resembles a
A single individual of
Pyrosoma giganteum, cut
out of the common test
and magnified.
a. Branchial or external ori-
fice.
b. Anal or internal orifice.
d . Stomach. e. Liver.
/. Branchige.
V
326
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
crystalline tube, through which one can distinctly see the internal
coloured parts. Sometimes these animals, which abound in the
b
Salpa maxima.
u. Upper lip or posterior orifice, b. Anterior orifice, c. Prolongations of the test by which the
animal is adherent to its neighbours.
warmer seas, are found solitary, at other times associated in cir-
cular or lengthened groups, termed garlands, ribands, and chains ;
but, strange to say, these two forms so different in outward
Salpae, isolated and associated.
A Snivel runcinata , solitary. B. Snlpa runcinata , associated. C. Salpa zonaria , aggregated.
appearance are only the alternating generations of one and the
same animal. The chained Salpse produce only solitary ones, and
the latter only chains, or, as Chamisso, to whom we owe the dis-
covery of this interesting fact, expresses himself, “a salpa mother
never resembles her daughter, or her own mother, but is always
like her sister, her grand-daughter, or her grand-mother.” When
Chamisso first made known his discovery, he was laughed at as
a fanciful visionary, but all later observations have not only
fully confirmed his statement but also discovered similar or
even more wonderful metamorphoses among the jelly-fish,
polyps, Crustacea, sea-urchins, and other marine animals. Thus
Chamisso gave the first impulse to a whole series of highly
interesting observations, and his rank is now as well established
among naturalists as it has long been among the most distin-
SENSES OF THE TUNICATA.
327
guished poets of Germany. The Salpse progress by the alternate
contractions and dilatations of their tubular body. In this
manner the chains, as if obeying a common impulse, glide
along with a serpentine movement, and are often regarded by
sailors as sea-snakes.
Before quitting the Tunicata, a few points of interest in their
simple history remain to be noticed. Despite their humble
organisation, they have a heart which, as may easily be ascer-
tained in the transparent species, is subject to strange alter-
nations of action. For after having received for a minute or
two the blood from the branchiae, and propelled it to the
system at large, it will at once cease to pulsate for a moment
or two, and then propel the
blood to the branchial sac,
receiving it at the same
time from the system gene-
rally. After this reversed
course has continued ful-
some time, another pause
occurs, and the first course
is resumed. It is very pro-
bable that many of the
Tunicata are able to hear
and to see. In Chelyosoma,
organs have been discovered
whose structure seems to
indicate that they are des-
tined for the transmission
of sound, and the Ascidiye
have frequently around the
extremity of their tubes a
row of coloured points simi-
lar to the imperfect organs
of sight present in the ma-
jority of the bivalve Acepha-
lans. Thus a closer exami-
nation of the lower animals is constantly bringing new faculties
to light, and the further we penetrate into the secrets of their
life the more we find occasion to admire the power and wisdom
of their Maker !
Inner or under side cf the superior placed
surface of Chelyosoma Macleayanum.
a. Branchial orifice, b. Anal orifice.
c. Muscles bordering the carapace-plates.
d. Central hexagonal plate, e. Surround ng plates.
/. The nerve-ganglion and nerve-fibres.
g, h. Auditory apparatus.
i. Row of tentacles, anterior to the cesopnagus.
j. Stomach, k. Part o! the intestine.
328
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
CHAP. xvr.
ECHINODEBMATA.
STAR-FISHES, SEA-URCHINS, AND SEA-CUCUMBERS.
The Star-Fishes — Their Feet or Suckers. — Voracity of the Asterias. — The Kosy
Feather-Star. — Brittleand Sand-Stars. — The real Sea-Stars of the British Waters.
— The Sea-Urchins. — The Pedicellarise. — The Shell and the Dental Apparatus
of the Sea-Urchin. — -The Sea-Cucumbers — Their strange Dismemberments. — -
Trepang-fishing on the Coast of North Australia. — In the Feejee Islands.
“ As there are stars in the sky, so are there stars in the sea,” is
the poetical exordium of Link’s treatise on Star-fishes, the first
ever published on the subject ; and James Montgomery tells us in
rather bombastic style, that the seas are strewn with the images
of the constellations with which the heavens are thronged.
This is no doubt highly complimentary to the star-fishes, but
is far from being merited by any particularly shining or radiant
quality ; as they occupy a very inferior grade among the deni-
zens of the sea, and merely owe their stellar name to their form,
which somewhat resembles the popular notion of a star.
But if they are of an inferior rank to most marine animals :
if even the stupid oyster boasts of a heart, which they do not
possess; yet a closer inspection of their organisation shows us
many wonderful peculiarities, and proves to us ODce more that
nature has impressed the stamp of perfection as well upon her
lowest and most simple creations, as upon those beings that rank
highest in the scale of life.
Every one knows the common Star-fish, with its lanceolate
arms ; its generally orange-coloured back, thickly set with tu-
bercles, and the pale under-surface, with its rows of feet, feelers,
or suckers, which serve both for locomotion and the seizure of
food.
When one of these creatures is placed on its back, in a plate
filled with sea- water, it is exceedingly curious to watch the
activity which those numberless sucking feet display. At first
SUCKERS OF STAR-FISHES.
3-29
the star-fish is motionless ; for, offended by the rough handling
it has undergone, the feet have all shrunk into the body; but
soon they are seen to emerge like so many little worms from
Star -Fish.
The upper tuberculated surface is shown, with some of the spines of the under surface
projecting at the sides ot the rays. At one of the angles between the rays, on the right
side, is seen the eccentric calcareous plate, or maureporic tubercle, which indicates the
existence of a bilateral symmetry.
their holes, and to grope backwards and forwards through the
water, evidently seeking the nearest ground to lay hold of.
Those that reach it first immediately affix their suckers, and, by
contracting, draw a portion of the body after them, so as to
enable others to attach themselves, until, pulley being added
to pulley, their united power is sufficient to restore the star-fish
to its natural position.
This act of volition is surely remarkable enough in so simple
an animal, which scarcely possesses the rudiments of a nervous
system, but the simple mechanism by which the suckers are
put into motion is still more wonderful. Each of these little
organs is tubular, and connected with a globular vesicle filled
with an aqueous fluid, and contained within the body of the
star-fish immediately beneath the hole from which the sucker
330
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
Lily-Sncrini
issues. When the animal wishes to protrude its feet, each
vesicle forcibly contracts, and, propelliug the fluid into the cor-
responding sucker, causes its extension ; and, when it desires
to withdraw them, a contraction of the suckers drives back the
fluid into the expanding vesicles. The internal walls of the
suckers and their vessels are furnished with vibratory cilia, and
by this simple means a continual circulation of the fluid they
contain goes on within them.
Numerous species of star-fishes are so very common in our
waters, that in many places the sea-bottom is literally paved
with them. They likewise abounded in the primeval ocean, for
deep beds of carboniferous limestone and vast strata of the
triassic muschelkalk are often formed by the
accumulation of little else than the skele-
tons of Encrinites and Pentacrinites, which,
unlike the sea-stars which every storm drifts
upon our shores, did not move about freely,
but were affixed to a slender flexible stalk,
composed of numerous calcareous joints con-
nected together by a fleshy coat. The
feathered bifurcated arms of the Crinoids
are unprovided with suckers, which would have been perfectly
useless to creatures not destined to pursue their game to any
distance, but passively to receive the nutriment
which the current of sea-water set in motion
by their richly-ciliated pinnules conveys to the
mouth. These beautiful creatures were for-
merly supposed to be nearly extinct, for up to
within the last few years only two living
stalked crinoids were known in the ocean of
the present period, but the dredge has latterly
brought up new and remarkably fine species
from depths of more than 2000 fathoms, and
there is every reason to believe that these
animals still form an important element in
the abyssal fauna.*
Of freely-swimming Crinoids but one single representative is
known in the northern seas, the Rosy Feather-star ( Comatula
rosacea), whose long and delicately fringed rays and deep rose
* See page 420.
Portion of the Per -
tacrinus Briareus.
(Vossil.)
COMATULA ROSACEA.
331
colour dotted with brown may serve to give us an idea of the
beauty of the submarine landscapes where Pentacrinus Wyville-
Thomsoni or Bathycrinus gracilis abound. During the earlier
stage of its existence, the comatula is attached to a stalk ; a dis-
covery for which science is indebted to Mr. T. V. Thompson, who
in 1823 dredged in the Cove of Cork a singular little pedunculated
crinoid animal ( Pentacrinus europceus), which he found attached
to the stems of zoophytes. It measured about three-fourths of
an inch in height, and resembled a minute comatula mounted on
the stalk of a pentacrinus. When this pygmy representative
of the ancient lily-stars was first dragged up from its submarine
haunts, it created a great sensation among naturalists, as it was
the first recent animal of the encrinite kind which had ever
been seen in the seas of Europe. At first it was supposed to be
a distinct species, but Mr. Thompson, by carefully following it
through all the stages of its growth, succeeded in proving that
it was merely the hitherto unnoticedsyoung of the rosy feather-
star.
This elegant crinoid is found all round our coasts, and its
range extends from Norway to the shores of the Mediterranean.
In swimming, the movements of its arms exactly resemble the
alternating stroke given by the medusa to the liquid element,
and have the same effect, causing the animal to raise itself from
the bottom and to advance back foremost, even more rapidly
than the medusa. When dying, either in fresh water or in
spirits, it emits a most beautiful purple colour, which tinges
the liquid in which it is killed.
The Ophiuridce. or snake-stars, are essentially distinguished
from the true star-fishes by the long serpent or worm-like
arms, which are appended to their round, depressed, urchin-
like bodies. They have no true suckers with which to walk,
their progression being effected (and with great facility) by
the twisting or wriggling of their arms, which are moreover
in many species furnished with spines on the sides, assisting
locomotion over a flat surface. These arms are very different
from those of the true star-fishes, which are lobes of the
animal’s body, whereas the arms of the Ophiuridse are mere
processes attached or superadded to the body.
These animals are very generally distributed through the
seas of our earth, both of its northern and southern hemi-
3.32
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
spheres, hut are found largest in the tropical ocean. In
our own waters they are very abundant, and are among the
most curious and beautiful game pursued by
the dredger.
The British Ophiuridae belong to two
generic types, that of the Opliiurai and that
of the Euryales. The former, to which the
sand and brittle-stars belong, have simple
arms ; the latter, arms ramifying into many
processes.
The rays of the Sand-stars have a whip-like
or lizard-tail appearance, while those of the
Brittle-stars look like so many centipedes or
annelides attached at regular distances round
a little sed-urchin. We have ten native brittle-
stars, the most common of which ( Ophiocoma
rosula, Forbes) is also one of the handsomest,
presenting every variety of variegation, and
the most splendid displays of vivid hues ar-
ranged in beautiful patterns. Not often are
two specimens found coloured alike. It is
the most brittle of all brittle-stars, separating itself into
pieces with wonderful quickness and ease. Touch it, and
it flings away an arm ; hold it, and in a moment not an
arm remains attached to the body. “ The common brittle-
star,” says Edward Forbes, “often congregates in great num-
bers on the edges of scallop-banks, and I have seen a large
dredge come up completely filled with them ; a most curi-
ous sight, for when the dredge was emptied, these little
creatures, writhing with the strangest contortions, crept about
in all directions, often flinging their arms in broken pieces
around them; and their snake-like and threatening attitudes
were by no means relished by the boatmen, who anxiously asked
permission to shovel them overboard, superstitiously remarking
that the things weren’t altogether right.”
Fancy the naturalist's vexation, who has no other means of
preserving a brittle-star entire than by quickly plunging it into
cold fresh water, which acts as a poison on the Ophiurae as well
as on most other marine animals, and kills them so instan-
Sand-star.
THE SHETLAND ARGUS.
333
taneously that even the most brittle species have no time to
make the contraction necessary to break off their rays.
The Ophiocoma rosula seems to be equally abundant on all
parts of the coast of Britain and Ireland. It is fond of rocky
places, and grows in Shetland to a much larger size than else-
where. It is said to prey on little shells and crabs, and is
greatly relished by the cod in its turn, great numbers being
often found in the stomach of that voracious fish.
The Scotch or Shetland Argus (E ary ale verrucosum, La-
marck), a very rare animal, of which the adjoining wood-cut
represents a segment, is the only
British Envy ale. It measures a foot
or more across, and its singular aspect
has long excited admiration among
naturalists. “ So odd a creature as
this," remarks Bradley in his “Works
of Nature,” “is well worth the con-,
templation of such curious persons
as live near the sea, where every day
they have subjects enow to employ
their curiosity and improve their
understanding.” Grew says that
“as he swims he spreads and stretches
out all his branches to their full warted Euryaie.
length, and so soon as he perceives
his prey within his reach, he hooks them all in, and so takes it
as it were in a net.”
The British species of true star-fishes may be arranged under
tour families. The Urasters are distinguished from all others
by having four rows of suckers in each of the avenues which
groove the under surface of their rounded rays. In consequence
of the great number of these singular organs, the under surface
of a living cross-fish presents a sight truly curious and wonderful.
Hundreds of worm-like suckers, extending and contracting,
coiling and feeling about, each apparently acting independently
of the others, give the idea rather of an assemblage of polypi
than of essential parts of one animal. They are sensitive m
the extreme, for, it we touch one of those singular tubes when
outstretched, all those in its neighbourhood are thrown into a
state of agitation : and when it shrinks from our touch, changing
334
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
from a lengthy fibre to a little shrunk tubercle, some of its
neighbours, as if partaking in its fears, contract themselves in
like manner.
The common Cross-fish ( Uraster rubens) abounds on most
parts of our shores, so as in some places to be used for manure
in large quantities. “ It is a
sworn enemy to oysters, and
as it is frequently found with
one or more of its rays broken
off, the fishermen fancy that
it loses them in consequence
of its oyster-hunting propen-
sities; that it insinuates an arm
into the incautious oyster’s
gape, with the intent of whip-
ping out its prey, but that
sometimes the apathetic mol-
lusk proves more than a match
for its radiate enemy, and closing on him, holds him fast by the
proffered finger; whereupon the cross-fish preferring amputation
and freedom to captivity and dying of an oyster, like some
defeated warrior flings his arms away, glad to purchase the
safety of the remaining whole by the reparable loss of a part,
as it has the power of reproducing the broken rays.
“ There is, however, reason to think that the cross-fish destroys
his prey in a very different manner from that just narrated ; for
star-fishes are not unfrequently found feeding on shell-fish,
enfolding their prey within their arms, and seeming to suck it
out of its shell with their mouths, pouting out the lobes of the
stomach, which they are able to project in the manner of a
proboscis. Possibly the stomach secretes an acrid and poisonous
fluid, which, by paralysing the shell-fish, opens the way to its
soft and fleshy parts.” — Forbes's Star Fishes.
The Solasters are “ suns in the system of sea-stars,” and are
entitled to this distinguished rank among the marine constel-
lations by their many rays and brilliant hues. The Solaster
papposa, or common Sun-star, with rays varying in number
from twelve to fifteen, is one of the commonest, and at the
same time handsomest, of all the British species. Sometimes
the whole upper surface is deep purple, and frequently the
Common Cross -fish.
THE BUTT-THORN.
335
disk is red, and the rays white tipped with red. It grows to a
considerable size, having been found eleven inches broad.
The Goniasters, or Cushion-stars, are distinguished from the
allied species by their pentagonal form. One of the most singular
of our native species is the Birdsfoot Sea-star ( Palmipes membra-
naceus), being the thinnest and flattest of all its class. When
alive it is flexible, like a piece of leather, and a person who
had never seen it before would be apt to mistake it for the torn
off dorsal integument of some gibbous goniaster. The colour
is white, with a red centre and five red rays, proceeding one to
each angle. The whole upper surface is covered with tufts of
minute spines arranged in rows.
The Asterise, with their stellate body and flat rays, are very
different in aspect from the Goniasters. The Butt-thorn ( Aste -
rias aurantiaca) owes its name to one of those strange super-
stitions which originate in some inexplicable manner, and are
handed down by one credulous generation to the next. “ The
firgt taken by the fishermen at Scarborough is carefully made a
prisoner, and placed on a seat at the stern of the boat. When
they hook a butt (halibut) they immediately give the poor
star-fish its liberty and commit it to its native element ; but if
their fishery is unsuccessful it is left to perish, and may even-
tually enrich the cabinet of some industrious collector.”
To the family of the Asterise belongs also the Ling-thorn
(Luidia fragilissima), the largest, and one of the most interest-’
ing of our British species. When full grown, it measures two
feet across, and would appear to exceed that size occasionally, judg-
ing from fragments. The rays are from five to seven in number,
quite flat, and generally five times as long as the disk is broad.
The colour is brick-red above, varying in intensity, the under
surface being straw-coloured. The wonderful power which the
Luidia possesses, not merely of casting away its arms entire, but of
breaking them voluntarily into little pieces with great rapidity,
approximates it to the brittle-stars, and renders the preservation
of a perfect specimen a very difficult matter.
“ The first time I ever took one of these creatures,” says
Edward Forbes, “ I succeeded in getting it into the boat entire.
Never having seen one before, and quite unconscious of its
suicidal powers, I spread it out on a rowing-bench, the better
to admire its form and colours. On attempting to move it for
336
THE IXHABITANTS OF THE SEA,
preservation, to my horror and disappointment I found only an
assemblage of rejected members. My conservative endeavours
were all neutralised by its destructive exertions, and it is now
badly represented in my cabinet by an armless disk and a
diskless arm. Next time I went to dredge on the same spot,
determined not to be cheated out of a specimen in such a way
a second time, I brought with me a bucket of cold fresh water,
to which article star-fishes have a great antipathy. As I ex-
pected, a luidia came up in the dredge, a most gorgeous specimen.
As it does not generally break up before it is raised above the
surface of the sea, cautiously and anxiously I sunk my bucket
to a level with the dredge's mouth, and proceeded in the most
gentle manner to introduce luidia to the purer element.
Whether the cold air was too much for him, or the sight of
the bucket too terrific, I know not, but in a moment he pro-
ceeded to dissolve his corporation, and at every mesh of the
dredge his fragments were seen escaping. In despair I grasped
at the largest, and brought up the extremity of an arm with
its terminating eye, the spinous eyelid of which opened and
closed with something exceedingly like a wink of derision.”
The Sea-star might be called a flattened sea-urchin, with
radiated lobes, and the Sea-urchin, a contracted or condensed
sea-star, so near is their re-
lationship. In both we find
the same radiating construc-
tion, in which the number five
is so conspicuous, and in both
also the rows of suckers, which,
starting from a centre, are
set into motion by a similar
mechanism, and used for the
same purpose. In all the sea-
urchins finally, and in many
of the sea-stars, we find the
surface of the body covered
with numerous exceedingly minute, two- or three-forked pincers,
that perpetually move from side to side, and open and shut with-
out intermission. These active little organs, which have been
named Pedicellaricv, were formerly supposed to be parasites,
working on their own account, but they are now almost univer-
Goniaster.
THE SEA-URCHINS.
337
sally recognised as organs subservient to the nutrition of the
animal, and destined to seize the food floating by, and to convey
it to the mouth, one passing it to the other. Even in their out-
ward appearance, the sea-urchins are not so very different from
the sea-stars as would be imagined on seeing a Butt-thorn near
a globular urchin, for both orders approach each other by
Shell of Echinus, or Sea-Urchm.
On the right side covered with spines, on the left the spines removed.
gradations ; thus, the Groniasters, with their cushion-shaped
disks and shortened rays, approximate very much in shape to
the sea-urchins ; and among the latter we also find a gradual
progression from the flattened to the globular form. Still
there are notable differences between the two classes. Thus in
the sea-urchins the digestive organs form a tube with two
openings, while in the true sea-stars they have but one single
orifice. Their mode of life is, however, identical.
The Echinidae move forward by means of the joint action of
their suckers and spines, using the former in the manner of the
true star-fishes, and the latter as the snake-stars. They also
make use of the spines, which move in sockets, to bury them-
selves in the fine sand, where they find security against many
enemies.
Some species even entomb themselves pholas-like in stone,
inhabiting cavities or depressions in rocks, corresponding to
their size, and evidently formed bv themselves. Bennett de-
scribes each cavity of the edible Echinus lividus as circular,
agreeing in form with the urchin within it, and so deep as to
embrace more than two-thirds of the bulk of the inhabitant.
338
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
It is large enough to admit of the creature’s rising a little, but
not of its coming out easily. The echinus adheres so firmly to
this cavity by its suckers, as to be forced from it with extreme
difficulty when alive. On the coasts of the county of Clare
thousands may be seen lodged in the rock, their purple spines
and regular forms presenting a most beautiful appearance on
the bottoms of the grey limestone rock-pools. How the boring
is performed has, like many other secrets, not yet been settled by
naturalists. The first perforation is most likely effected by
means of the teeth, and then the rock softened by some secreted
solvent.
Sea-urchins are found in all seas, but as they are extremely
difficult to preserve, and many of them have such long and deli-
cate spines that it is almost impossible
to procure perfect specimens, probably
not one tithe of their species is known.
On our coasts the common “ egg-ur-
chin ” affords the poor a somewhat scanty
repast ; but, throughout the Mediterra-
nean, its greater size, and also that of its
allies. Echinus melo and E. sardicus,
render them, when “in egg,” important
articles of food. In Sicily these animals are in season about the
full moon of March ; there the E. esculentus is still called the
“ King of Urchins ; ” whilst the larger melon-urchin is popularly
considered to be i.ts mother. The size and abundance of these
edible species are among the striking peculiarities of the fish
markets of the Mediterranean sea-board.
The calcareous shell of the “ sea-urchin ” seems, at first sight,
to be composed of one simple crust, but proves, on nearer in-
spection, to be a masterpiece of mosaic
consisting of several hundred parts,
mostly pentagonal. These are so closely
united that their junctions are hardly
visible, but on allowing the shell to
macerate for some days in fresh water,
it falls to pieces. This complicated
structure is by no means a mere archi-
tectural fancy, a useless exuberance of ornament, but essen-
tially necessary to the requirements of the animal’s growth. A
simple hard crust would not have been capable of distension,
TIIE SEA-URCHIX’S SHELL.
339
whereas a complicated shell, such as the sea-urchin possesses,
can grow in the same ratio as the internal parts, by continual
deposits on the edges of the individual pieces. On closely
examining a living sea-urchin, we find the whole surface of the
shell and spines covered with a delicate skin, which, in spite
of their close connexion, penetrates into the intervals of the
several pieces. This membrane secretes the chalk of which the
shell is composed, and deposits fresh layers on the edges of the
plates, so that in this manner the shell continually widens until
the animal has attained its perfect size. The spines are secreted
in the same manner, and show under the microscope an admi-
rable beauty and regularity of structure. So bountifully has
the great Architect of worlds
provided for the poor insignifi-
cant sea-urchin !
The dental apparatus of the
animal — the so-called lantern
of Aristotle— is another master-
piece in its way. Fancy five
triangular bones or jaws, each
provided with a long, project-
ing, movable tooth. A com-
plicated muscular system sets
the whole machinery going, and
enables the jaws to play up and
down, and across, so that a more effective grinding-mill
scarcely be imagined.
The Holotlmrice, or Sea-
cucumbers, may be regarded
in one light as soft sea-urchins,
and in another as approxi-
mating: to the Annelides or
worms. Their suckers are
similar to those of the true
star-fishes and sea-urchins.
Besides progression by means
of these organs, they move,
like annelides, by the exten-
sion and contraction of their
bodies. The mouth is surrounded by plumose tentacula, the
Dental Apparatus of the Sea-urchin,
viewed from above.
can
A, Two sockets with teeth, of Echinus
esculentus. B. Single socket with its
tooth viewed on the outside.
340
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
number of which, when they are complete, is always a multiple
of five. They all have the power of changing their shapes in
the strangest manner, sometimes elongating themselves like
worms, sometimes contracting the middle of their bodies, so as
to give themselves the shape of an hour-glass, and then again
blowing themselves up with water, so as to be perfectly globular.
The great Sea-cucumber is the largest of all the known
European species, and probably one of the largest Cucumerice in
the world, measuring when at rest fully one foot, and capable
of extending itself to the length of three. Under the influence
of terror, it dismembers itself in the strangest manner. Having
no arms or legs to throw off, like its relations the luidia and the
brittle-star, it simply disgorges its viscera, and manages to live
without a stomach ; no doubt a much greater feat than if it
contrived to live without a head. According to the late Sir
James Dalyell, the lost parts are capable of regeneration, even
if the process of disgorgement went so far as to leave but an
empty sac behind. Considering the facility with which the
sea-cucumber separates itself from its digestive organs, it is the
more to be wondered how it tolerates the presence of a very
remarkable parasite, a fish belonging to the genus Fierasfer,
Fierasfer.
and about six inches long. This most impudent and intrusive
comrade enters the mouth of the cucumber, and, as the stomach
is too small for his reception, tears its sides, quartering himself
without ceremony between the viscera and the outer skin. The
reason for choosing this strange abode is as yet an enigma.
The Holothurice, which in our part of the globe are very little
noticed, play a much more important part in the Indian Ocean,
where they are caught by millions, and, under the name of
Trepang or Biche de mer, brought to
the markets of China and Cochin-
China. Hundreds of praos are annually
fitted out in the ports of the Sunda
Islands for the gathering of trepang ; and sailing with help of the
Eatable Trepang.
TREPANG-FJSHING
341
western monsoon to the eastern parts of the Indian Archipelago,
or along the northern coast of Australia, return home again by
favour of the eastern monsoon. The bays of the inhospitable
treeless shores of tropical New Holland, the abode of a few half-
starved barbarians, are enlivened for a few months by the
presence of the trepang fishers.
“ During my excursions round Baffles Bay,” says Dumont -
d’Urville, (“Voyage to the South Pole,”) “I had remarked here
and there small heaps of stones surrounding a circular space.
Their use remained a mystery until the Malayan fishers arrived.
Scarce had their praos cast anchor, when without loss of time
they landed large iron kettles, about three feet in diameter, and
placed them on the stone heaps, the purpose of which at once
became clear to me. Close to this extemporised kitchen they
then erected a shed on four bamboo stakes, most likely for the
purpose of drying the holothurias in case of bad weather. To-
wards evening, all preliminaries were finished, and the following
morning we paid a visit to the fishermen, who gave us a friendly
reception. Each prao had thirty-seven men on board, and carried
six boats, which we found busily engaged in fishing. Seven or
eight Malays, almost entirely naked, were diving near the ship,
to look for trepang at the bottom of the sea. The skipper alone
stood upright, and surveyed their labours with the keen eye of a
master. A burning sun scorched the dripping heads of the divers,
seemingly without incommoding them ; no European would have
been able to pursu'e the work for any length of time. It was
about noon, and the skipper told us this was the best time for
fishing, as the higher the sun, the more distinctly the diver is able
to distinguish the trepang crawling at the bottom. Scarce had
they thrown their booty into the boat when they disappeared
again under the water, and as soon as a boat was sufficiently
laden, it was instantly conveyed to the shore, and succeeded by
another.
“ The holothuria of Baffles Bay is about six inches long, and
two inches thick. It forms a large cylindrical fleshy mass,
almost without any outward sign of an organ, and as it creeps
very slowly along is easily caught. The essential qualities of a
good fisherman are great expertness in diving, and a sharp eye
to distinguish the holothurias from the similarly coloured sea-
bottom.
342 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
The trepang is first thrown into a kettle filled with boiling sea-
water. After a few minutes, it is taken oiit of its hot-bath and
ripped open with a knife to cleanse it of its intestines. It is
then thrown into a second kettle, where a small quantity of
water and the torrefied rind of a mimosa produce dense vapours-
This is done to smoke the trepang for better preservation. Finally,
it is dried in the sun, or in case of bad weather under the above-
mentioned shed. I tasted the trepang, and found it had some
resemblance to lobster. In the China market the Malays
sell it to the dealers for about fifteen rupees the picul of 125
pounds. From the earliest times, the Malays have possessed
the monopoly of this trade in those parts, and Europeans will
never be able to deprive them of it, as the economy of their
outfit and the extreme moderation of their wants forbid all
competition. About four in the afternoon the Malays had
terminated their work. In less than half an hour the kettles
and utensils were brought on board, and before nightfall we saw
the praos vanish from our sight.*’
The inhabitants of the island of Waigiou, to the north of New
Guinea, prepare the trepang in the Malay manner, and barter it
for cotton and woollen stuffs, which are brought to them by some
Chinese junks. “ In every hut,'’ says Lesson, “ we found great
heaps of this dried leathery substance, which has no particular
taste to recommend it, and is so highly esteemed by the Chinese
for no other reason than because they ascribe to it, — as to some
other gelatinous substances, as agar-agar, shark-fins, and edible
bird’s nests, — peculiar invigorating properties, by means of which
their enervated bodies are rendered fit for new excesses.”
The Feejee islanders have the reputation of being the greatest
cannibals and the most perfidious savages of the whole Pacific,
yet the trepang fishery attracts many American and European
speculators to that dangerous archipelago. Captain Wilkes, of the
United States Exploring Expedition, found there a countryman,
Captain Eagleston, who had been successful in more than one of
these expeditions, and obligingly communicated to him all the
particulars of his adventurous trade. There are six valuable sorts
of biche de mer, or trepang; the most esteemed is found on
the reefs one or two fathoms deep, where it is caught by diving.
The inferior sorts occur on reefs which are dry, or nearly so, at
low water, where they are picked up by the natives, who also
THE FEEJEE ISLANDERS.
343
fish the biche de mer on rocky coral bottoms by the light of the
moon or of torches, as they come forth by night to feed. The
most lucrative fisheries are on the northern side of Viti Levu.
They require a large building for drying, with rows of double
staging, on which reeds are placed. Slow fires are kept up by
natives underneath, about fifteen hands being required to do
the ordinary work of a house.
Before beginning, the services of some chief must be secured,
who undertakes the building of the house, and sets his depen-
dants at work to fish. The usual price is a whale’s tooth for a
hogshead of the animals just as they are taken on the reef; but
they are also bought with muskets, powder, balls, vermilion,
blue beads, and cotton cloth of the same colour. When the
animals are brought on shore, they are measured into bins
containing about fifty hogsheads, where they remain until next
day. They are then cut along the belly for a length of three or
four inches, taking care not to cut too deep, as this would cause
the fish to spread open, which would diminish its value. They
are then thrown into boilers, two men attending each pot, and
relieving each other, so that the work may go on night and day.
No water need be added, as the fish itself yields moisture enough
to prevent burning. After draining on a platform for about an
hour, they are taken to the house and laid four inches deep
upon the lower battens, and afterwards upon the upper ones,
where they remain three or four days. Before being taken on
board they are carefully picked, all damp pieces being removed.
They are stowed in bulk, and sold in Manilla or Canton by the
picul, which brings from fifteen to twenty-five dollars. In this
manner Captain Eagleston had collected in the course of seven
months, and at a trifling expense, a cargo of 1200 piculs, worth
about 25,000 dollars. The outfit is small, but the risk is great,
as no insurance can be effected ; and it requires no small activity
and enterprise to conduct this trade. A thorough knowledge of
native character is essential to success, and the utmost vigilance
and caution must always be observed to prevent surprise, or
avoid difficulties.
No large canoes should ever be allowed to remain alongside
the vessel, and a chief of high rank should be kept on board as
a hostage. That these precautions are by no means unnecessary,
is proved by the frequent attempts of the savages to cut off
A A 2
344
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
small vessels trading on their coasts. One of the most frequent
methods is to dive and lay hold of the cable ; this, when the
wind blows fresh to the shore, is cut, in order that the vessel may
drift upon it, or in other cases a rope is attached to the cable by
which the vessel may be dragged ashore. The time chosen is
just before daylight. The moment the vessel touches the land,
it is treated as a prize sent by the gods, and the crew murdered,
roasted, and devoured.
8en-horE>e.
345
CHAP. XVII.
CCELENTERATA.
POLYPS AND JELLYr-FISHES.
Thread-cells or Urticating Organs. — Serculariae. — Campanulariadae. — Hydrozoic
Acalephse. — Medusidse. — Lueernariadse. — Calycophoridfe. — The Velella. — The
Portuguese Man-of-war. — Anecdote of a Prussian Sailor. — Alternating Fixed
and Free-swimming Generations of Hydrozoa. — Actinozoa. — Ctenophora — Their
Beautiful Construction. — Sea-anemones. — Dead Man’s Toes.— Sea-pens. — Sea-
rods. — Red Coral. — Coral Fishery. — Isis hippuris. — Tropical Lithophytes. —
History of the Coral Islands — Darwin’s Theory of their Formation — The
progress of their Growth above the level of the Sea.
Despite the low rank they occupy in the hierarchy of animal
life, the Coelenterata, comprising the numerous families of the
Jelly-fishes and Polyps, play a most important part in the house-
hold of the ocean, for the sea is frequently covered for miles
and miles with their incalculable hosts, and whole archipe’agos
and continents are fringed with the calcareous structures they
raise from the bottom of the deep.
Their organisation is more simple than that of the preceding
classes, for they have neither the complex intestinal tube of the
polyzoa or the sea-urchins nor the jointed rays or arms of the
star-fishes ; their whole digestive apparatus is but a simple sac,
and their instincts are reduced to the mere prehension of the
food that the currents bring within reach of their tentacles, or
to the retraction of these organs when exposed to a hostile
attack.
But, simple as they are, they have been provided by Nature
with a comparatively formidable weapon in those remarkable
“ thread-cells,” or urticating organs, which are so constantly met
with in their integuments, and chiefly in their tentacles.
The thread-cells are composed of a double-walled sac having
its open extremity produced into a short sheath terminating in
346
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
a long thread. A number of barbs or books are sometimes
disposed spirally around the sheath, the thread itself being often
delicately serrated. Under pressure or irritation the thread-
cell suddenly breaks, its fluid escapes, and the delicate thread is
so rapidly projected that the eye is utterly unable to follow the
Urticating Organs of Coelenterata.
a,e. f. Threads and thread-cells of Cnryopkyllia Smithii. b. Thread-cell of Corynactis Allmani.
c. Peculiar receptacle of Willsia stel/ata, containing thread-cells, d. A single thread-cell of the
same. .Thread-cell of Actinia crassicornis. — ( All magnified.)
process. The violent protrusion of this barbed missile, along
with the acrid secretion of the cell, causes many a worm or
crustacean of equal or superior strength, that might have gone
forth as victor from the struggle of life, to succumb to the ccelen-
terate, and is even in many cases exceedingly irritating to the
human skin. Besides enabling its possessor to derive his sub-
sistence from animals whose activity, as compared with his own,
might be supposed to have removed them altogether out of the
reach of danger, these stings serve also as admirable weapons of
defence, and many a rapacious crab or annelide that would
willingly have feasted upon a sea-anemone is no doubt repelled
by the venomous properties of its urticating tentacles.
The Coelenterata have been subdivided into two great classes:
the Hydrozoa, in which the wall of the digestive sac is not sepa-
rated from that of the cavity of the body, and the Actinozoa, in
THE SERTULARIJ2.
347
winch the stomach forms a distinct bag separated from the wall
of the cavity of the body by an intervening space, subdivided
into chambers by a series of vertical partitions. Each of these
two classes comprises a number of families of various forms and
habits of life. Thus among the Hydrozoa, with whom I begin
my brief survey of coelenterate life, some are of a compound
nature (Sertularidse, &c.), and, having once settled, remain per-
manently attached to the site of their future existence; while
others (Bhizostomidae, &c.) continue freely to roam through the
water, and others again appear in the various stages of their
development either as sessile polyps or as free-swimming
Medusae.
The sertularian tribes
are remarkable for the
elegance of their forms,
resembling feathers more
or less stiff and angular,
more or less flexible and
plumose. Their bleached
skeletons are among
the commonest objects
thrown out by the waves,
and so plant-like is their
appearance and manner
of growth that, like the
Flustrae, they might
easily be mistaken for
sea-weeds.
Originally produced
from a single ovulum,
every species, by the
evolution vof a succession
of buds, after an order
peculiar to each, grows
up to a populous colony,
and simultaneously with
its growth the fibres by which it is rooted extend, and at un-
certain intervals give existence to similar bodies, whence new
polypiferous shoots take their origin, for these root fibres are
lull of the same medullary substance with the rest of the body.
a. Skeleton (natural size), b. Portion of the same, highly
magnified, x. Ccenosarc, or common trunk. . Hydro -
theca , or protective envelope of individual polyp.
Gonoblastidivm, or reproductive germ or body.
348
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
Thus the graceful sea-fir ( Sertularia cupressina), the largest of
our native species, may attain a height of two or three feet, and
bear on its branches no less than 100,000 distinct microscopical
polypi, each with its own crown of tentacles, and each of these
armed with numerous thread-cells, as formidable in their way as
the crustacean’s claw or the annelide’s embrace. But though
each polyp has a certain share of independence yet its body is
continuous with the more fluid pulp that fills the branches and
stem of the common trunk, and by this means all the polyps of
it are connected together by a living thread, and made to con-
stitute a family whose workings are all regulated by one har-
pohyps, of their hydrothecse and gonoblastidia, give rise to a
number of families, genera, and species. Thus in the Sertularise
the polypites are sessile, biserial, alternate, or paired ; sessile and
uniserial in the Plumularise, and stalked in the Campanulariadse.
The free-swimming Jelly-fishes, or Acalephse, as they have
been named by Aristotle on account of the stinging properties
due to their urticating cells, are likewise among the commonest
objects left upon our shores by the retreating tide. When
stranded, they appear like gelatinous masses, disgusting to
c. Reproductive body of Ccmpmiularia volubilis.
e. Reproductive body of C. syringa.
a. Lnomeden neglectn , natural size.
b. Portion of the same, magnified.
monious instinct. Each of
these plant-like structures
may therefore be considered
as one animal furnished with
a multitude of armed heads
and mouths, and in all the
other compound coelenterates
we find a similar organisation.
All the soft parts of a sertu-
larian polypary are enclosed
in a horny sheath ( hydro-
soma ) which develops peculiar
cup-shaped processes ( hydro -
thecoe) for the protection of
each individual polyp, and
capsules for the reproductive
bodies ( gonoblastidia ) in
which the ova are produced.
The various modifications of
form and structure of the
THE MEDUSIDxE.
349
the sight; but these shapeless objects were beautiful while
they moved along in their own element, and their simple
organisation shows no less the masterhand of the Creator
than the complex structure of the higher stages of animal
existence. With the exception of the Ctenophora, they all
belong to the hydrozoic class, and from the great diversity
of their structure have been ranged under four orders, Me-
dusidse, Lucernaridfe, Calycophoridae, and Physophoridse.
The Medusidte are distinguished by their globular or bell-
shaped disc, which by its alternate contractions and expansions
forces them forward through the water. By contracting the
whole or only part of its disc, the medusa has it in its power to
a. Medusid seen in profile b. The same viewed from below, c. Its polypite. d. Part of its mar-
ginal canal, and o h r stiuctures in connection therewith, v. t)isk or swimming organ.
t. Polypite. \J/. Veil. r. Tentacle. Radiating canal. Marginal canal.
u. Reproductive organ, o'. Coloured spot. o". Marginal vesicle.
direct its movements, and while thus swimming along with the
convex side of the disc directed forwards, and its oral lobes and
tentacles following behind like “ streamers long and gay,” it
may well rank among the most elegant children of the sea.
From the roof of the disc a single polypite is suspended,
whose mouth, generally produced into four lobes, though in some
forms it is much more divided, passes into the central cavity
(stomach) of the swimming organ, from which canals (either
four in number, or multiples of four) radiate to join a circular
vessel surrounding the margin of the bell. A shelf-like mem-
brane or veil, extending around the margin, and highly contrac-
tile, assists locomotion by narrowing more or less the .aperture
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
;<50
of the bell, and thus concentrating its efforts upon a narrower
space. More or less numerous tentacles generally depend from
the margin, and around it are disposed two kinds of remarkable
bodies— “ vesicles ” and “ pigment spots,” or “ eye-specks ” —
which are supposed to be able to communicate the impressions
of light and sound. This complexity of organisation in crea-
tures which Reaumur contemptuously styled mere lumps of
animated jelly is all the more wonderful when we consider that
they consist almost entirely of water, and shrink to a mere
nothing when abandoned by their vital power. Thus of a
medusa originally weighing many pounds but few traces remain
Various forms of Medusidse.
a Aequoren formosa, spen in profile, b. The same, viewed from above, c. Upper view of Willsui
stella/a. d. Slabberia cornea, e. Portion of the marginal canal of Tiaropsis Pattersunn.
f. Polypite of Bougainvillea dinema g. Part of its marginal canal, h. Steenstrupia Owenii.
(a, b and d are about the natural size ; the others are magnified.)
after death ; the ground is covered with a light varnish ; all the
rest has been absorbed by the thirsty sands.
The oceanic or free-swimming forms of the Lucernaridae
resemble the Medusidse by their bell-shaped umbrella, but
differ from them by their internal structure, by the absence of
a marginal veil, by the nature of their canal system and mar-
ginal bodies, and by their mode of development. The radiating
canals, never less than eight in number, send off numerous
branches, which form a very intricate network, and the vesicles
THE LUCERNARIDJ3.
351
and pigment-spots, here united into a single organ, termed the
lithocyst, are each protected externally by a sort of hood, whence
these jelly-fishes have been named “ Stegonophthalmia,” or
“ covered-eyed,” by Forbes, to distinguish them from the
naked-eyed Gymnophthalmia,” or Medusidse. The Pelagidse
(Chrysaora), which form one of the divisions of this group, are
simple, and have their margin surrounded with tentacles like the
Medusidae, while the Rhizostomidse have no marginal tentacles,
and consist of numerous polyps studding the trunks of a de-
Oceanic forms of Lucernanda?.
n. Rhizostoma pulmo. b. Chrysaora hysoscella. c. Its lithocyst.— (All reduced.)
pendent tree. These animals have consequently no central
mouth, but hundreds of little mouths all active for the welfare
of the community.
The sessile LucernaridaB differ from the other members of
the order by the narrow disc or stalk which serves to fix their
body when at rest. Their quadrangular mouth is in the centre
of the umbrella expansion, and round the margin of the
cup arise a number of short tentacles, disposed in eight or nine
tufts in Lucernaria, and forming one continuous series in
Carduella.
352
THE INHABITANTS OP THE SEA.
Though generally preferring to lie at anchor, the Lucer-
narise are able to detach themselves, and to swim in an
“ Their mode of progression,” says Mr. Couch, “ differs under
different circumstances. If intending to move to any great
distance, they do so by loosening their attachments, and then, by
various and active contortions, they waft themselves away till they
meet with any obstruction, where they rest ; and if the situation
suits them, they fix themselves; if not, they move on in the
same manner to some other spot. If the change be only for a
short distance, as from one part of a leaf to another, they bend
their campanulate rims, and bring the tentacula in contact with
the jaws, and by them adhere to it. The foot-stalk is then
loosened and thrown forward and twirled about till it meets
with a place to suit it; it is then fixed, and the tentacula are
loosened, and in this way they move from one spot to another.
Sometimes they advance like the Actiniae, by a gliding motion
of the stalk. In taking their prey, they remain fixed with their
tentacula expanded, and if any minute substance comes in con-
tact with any of the tufts, that tuft contracts, and is turned to
the mouth, while the others remain expanded watching for prey.”
The Calycophoridse are distinguished by the cup-shaped
swimming organs, which form the most prominent part of their
body. Generally transparent like glass, their course upon
distant inspection is only revealed by the bright tints of
some of their appendages. In Diphyes, the type of the group,
the two cups ( v , v") fit into each other so as to form a
more or less perfect close canal. The common stem of the
numerous polyp colony freely glides up and down the chamber
thus formed, into which it can be completely retracted, and
along its sides are placed the several appendages of the compound
creature, consisting chiefly of polypites (tt), tentacles, and
Lucernalia auricula.
(Natural size.)
inverted position by the
slowly repeated movements
of their cup-like umbrella.
When in a state of expan-
sion, few marine creatures
exceed them in beauty and
singularity of form ; when
contracted, they are shape-
less, and easily overlooked.
VOGTIA PENTACANTHA.
3.53
i
organs of reproduction. Large specimens of Diphyes attain,
when fully extended, a length of several inches, the stem
giving support to at least fifty
different polypites. The other
genera of the order exhibit a
great variety in the form and
arrangement of their various
parts ; thus, in Vogtia, each of
the swimming organs ( v ) is pro-
duced into five points, of which
the three upper are much longer
and stronger than the two lower.
The individual polyps (ir), large
in size, but few in number, are
congregated immediately under
the swimming apparatus, and
are provided with long and for-
midable tentacula.
In the Physophoridae the
basal end of the common polyp
stem is modified so as to form a
float or aeriform sac, which is,
however, extremely different in
shape, structure, and size in the
various families. In the Velellae, the float, whose under sur-
face is studded, besides one larger central polypite, with nume-
rous small nutritive, reproductive, and tentacular bodies, forms
a horizontal disc traversed by a diagonal triangular crest, and
divided into numerous hollow chambers. Thus equipped, the
semi-transparent velella, beautifully tinged with ultramarine,
sails on the surface of the warmer seas, but the currents of the
Gulf Stream, and the westerly winds, frequently drift it to the
coast of Ireland, where it is often found on the beach, entangled
in masses of sea-weed. Of the vast numbers in which it some-
times occurs, Herr von Kittlitz relates an interesting instance in
his “ Travels to Russian America and Micronesia.” “ Having
passed 30° N. lat, in the Pacific, the sea was suddenly found
covered with myriads of Velellae, of a size somewhat greater
than the Atlantic species. Two days long the ship sailed
through these floating masses, when suddenly the scene changed,
ft V
a. Diphyes
appencuculata.
> Vogtia penta-
cantha.
(Natural size.)
354
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
arid large clusters of barnacles appeared, which, having no
doubt devoured the soft parts of the Velellae, now invested their
horny skeletons. As the ship advanced, the number of the
barnacle clusters augmented, which, to judge from the various
sizes of the individuals, must have taken some time for their
formation, and were apparently destined to increase until the
final destruction of the Velellse hosts, into which, from their
greater weight, they were continually drifting deeper and
deeper by the action of the currents. Again two or three days
elapsed, and as the surface of the sea occupied by both species
of animals extended at the least over four degrees of latitude,
а. Wlella spirans , somewhat enlarged.
б. < ne of its smaller polypites, much magnified, v. Crest. A. Liver, o. Month of polypite.
5. Its diges ive cavity. <p' . Rounded elevations, containing thread-cells. £. Meriusiform zodids.
a faint idea may be formed of their numbers. Shoals of
dolphins and sperm-whales were busy exterminating the bar-
nacles, as these had devoured the Velellse. The whole scene
was an example on the grandest scale of the destruction and
regeneration perpetually going on in the wastes of the ocean.
The Physalise, which far surpass the Velellae in size and
beauty, are also inhabitants of the warmer seas, where the Phy-
salia caravella, or “ Portuguese man-of-war,” is the mariner’s
admiration. On a large float-bladder eight or nine inches long
and three inches broad, whose transparent crystal shines in every
THE PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR.
355
shade of purple and azure, rises a vertical comb, the upper
border of which sparkles with fiery red. This beautiful float
has a small opening at either
end, and strong muscular
walls, so that by their con-
traction its cavity can be con-
siderably diminished. And
thus partly by the escape of
air forced out through the
openings, and partly by the
compression of what remains,
the specific gravity is so much
altered as to admit of the
animal’s sinking into the
deep when danger threatens.
Numerous polyps proceed
from the lower surface, ac-
companied by tentacles hav-
ing a sac-like extension at
their base, and hanging down
in beautifully blue and violet
coloured locks or streamers.
When fully extended, these
tentacles form fishing lines C
fifteen Or sixteen feet long, Physalia caraveila.
which, as their thread-cells
are uncommonly large, at
once paralyse the resistance of the fish or cephalopod they meet
with. Then rolling together, they convey the senseless prey to
the numerous mouths of the compound animal, which, sucking
like leeches, pump out its nutritious juices. In this manner the
greedy physalia devours many a bonito or flying-fish of a size
far superior to its own, and such is the corrosive power of
its tentacles that even man is punished with excruciating
pains when heedlessly or ignorantly he comes within their reach.
“ One day,” says Dutertre in his “History of the Antilles,” “as
I was sailing in a small boat, I saw a physalia, and as I was
anxious to examine it more closely, I tried to get hold of it.
But scarcely had I stretchtd out my hand when it was suddenly
enveloped by a net of tentacles, and after the first impression of
1
/I
Pneumatophore, or float-bladder.
t. Tentacles.
(Considerably reduced.)
t. Pdypites.
35G
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
cold (for the animal has a cold touch) it seemed as if my arm
had been plunged up to the shoulder in a caldron of boiling oil,
so that I screamed with pain.” In his journey round the
world. Dr. Meyen also relates the case of a sailor who jumped
overboard to catch a physalia. But scarce had he come within
reach of its tentacles when the excruciating pain almost de-
prived him of sensation, and he was with great difficulty hauled
out of the water. A severe fever was the consequence, and
his life was for some time despaired of.
Several of the Physophoridse are provided, besides the float,
with swimming-bells ( nectocalyces ) and peculiar appendages
or bracteae {hydrophyllia), which, over-
lapping the polypites, serve for their
protection. The graceful Athorybia
rosacea possesses from twenty to fort}'
of these organs inserted in two or three
circlets immediately below the pneuma-
tocyst, and above a much smaller num-
ber of polypites.
It has the power of alternately raising
and depressing them so as to render
them agents of propulsion.
ThePhysophorae have no hydrophyllia,
but their swimming-bells are consider-
ably developed, and serve as powerful
instruments of locomotion. They are
also provided with certain processes
termed “ hydrocvsts,” which some ob-
servers appear disposed to regard as
organs of touch. Such are but a few
of the numerous genera of the Physo-
phoridae.
Of the jelly-fishes in general it may
be remarked that, though they are
denizens of the frigid as well as of
Phvsophora PhiUppu. .
, . 0 . . the temperate and tropical seas, their
x. Pneumatophore. v. Swimming* r r
pftes' h ivntacfes?’ Foly' beauty increases on advancing towards
the equator, for while the Medusae in
our latitudes are generally dull and obscure, those of the torrid
zone appear in all the splendour of the azure, golden-yellow, or
DEVELOPMENT OF CI1RYSAORA.
357
ruby-red tints which distinguish the birds and fishes of those
sunny regions. They are indeed of no immediate use to man,
but their indirect services are not to be despised. They partly
nourish the colossal whale, and thus, converted into oil, attract
thousands of hardy seamen to the icy seas; numberless Crus-
tacea and molluscs also live upon their hosts, and are in their
turn devoured by the mighty herring shoals, whose capture
gives employment and wealth to whole nations of fishermen.
Armed with that wonderful instrument, the microscope,
naturalists have been taught to disunite in many cases animals
which from their external resemblance were formerly supposed
to belong to the same class or family ; and to join others to all
appearances extremely dissimilar. Thus the Bryozoa have
been detached from the polyps, in spite of their similitude of
growth, while the roaming and fixed Hydrozoa have been found
in many cases to be but alternating generations or various
phases of development of the same animal. Take, for in-
stance, Ghrysaora hysoscella (see preceding figure, page 351),
one of our commonest jelly-fishes. The ova this free-swimming
creature produces might naturally be supposed to develop
u. Ova .with gelatinous investment, b and c. Free ova. d. Young Hydratuba developed therefrom.
e. The same with eight tentacles. /. Hydratuba in its ordinary condition. gt h. More advanced
forms, with constrictions, i. A specimen undergoing fission, in which the tentacles are seen to
arise from below the constricted portion, while its upper segments separate and become free-
swimming zodids {k).
themselves into equally free-swimming Chrysaorse ; but instead
of this they soon become attached, and grow into a colony of
sessile Hydra tubae, as, at this stage of their career, they have
been termed. For years they may thus continue, but then the
evolutions shown in the annexed illustration take place until
free-swimming zooids are detached, which eventually become
B B
358
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
similar to the huge Chrysaora, from one of whose ova the
primitive hydratube was produced.
In a similar manner the Coryniadae, a family of hydrozoic
Various forms of Corymadas.
o ard b. Vorticlnva hum Hi s. c. Four polypiits ol Hy dr actinia echivatn , prowing on a piece of shell.
d. Portion of Syvcoryne Sarsii, with medusiform zooids ($), bunding from between the ten-
tacles (r) of the polypite to). (All, except a, magnified.)
polyps, which, unpossessed of the firm investment ofthesertula-
rians, are frequently found decking sea-weeds and stones with
dense arborescent structures, give birth to detached medusi-
form zooids. On the other hand, many medusid forms produce
organisms directly resembling their parents, and many fixed
Hydrozoa, such a,s the S'ertularidae, do not give birth to free-
swimming medusoids, but to ciliated gemmules, which, escaping
from the capsules in which they had been formed, soon evolve
themselves into true polyps. A great part of this “ strange
eventful history ” is still enveloped in darkness, as the life of
comparatively but few Hydrozoa has been thoroughly in-
vestigated ; so much is certain that future observations will
bring many new interesting relationships to light, and add new
links to the chain which binds together the various members of
the hydrozoic class.
Although the Ctenophora, thus named from the ciliated bands
which constituteso obvious a feature in their physiognomy, closely
resemble the Medusae by their gelatinous consistence and their
mode of life, yet a more complex organisation assigns them the
THE CTENOPHORA.
3.09
highest rank among the Actinozoa, and approximates them to the
sea-anemones. The elegant Pleurobrachia pileus, which in the
summer so often appears on our coasts in countless multitudes, is
the species that has beenlongest known. Themelon shaped body,
from half an inch to nearly an inch in length, is clear as crystal,
and divided by eight longitudinal equidistant ribs into eight
equally large segments or fields. These ribs are covered with
numberless flat paddles or cilise, placed one above another, and
obeying the will of the animal. When it wishes to swim back-
wards or forwards, it sets all its paddles in motion, whose united
power drives the living crystal rapidly and gracefully through
the water ; and when it wishes to turn, it merely stops their
movements on one side. In sunlight, the ribs of the pleuro-
brachia sparkle with all the colours of the rainbow ; in dark-
ness they emit a beautiful cerulean phosphorescence.
The prehensile apparatus of the elegant little creature is no
less beautifully organised than its locomotive mechanism. It
consists of two long tentacles emerging from the under part of
the body, and capable of so wonderful a contraction as entirely
to disappear within its cavity, where they are lodged in tubular
sheaths. On one side they are provided at regular intervals
with shorter and much thinner filaments, which roll together
spirally when the chief tentacle contracts, and expand when it
is stretched forth. On the secondary branches themselves still
more minute threads are said to have been observed. Words
are unable to express the beauty which the entire apparatus
presents in the living animal, or the marvellous ease with which
it can be alternately contracted, extended, and bent at an
infinite variety of angles.
Most of the Ctenophora are spheroidal or ovate, but in
Cestum elongation takes place to an extraordinary extent, at
right angles to the direction of the digestive track, aflat ribbon-
shaped body, three or four feet in length, being the result. The
Callianirae are remarkable for having their ciliated ribs elevated
on prominent wing-like appendages, and the Beroes, which have
no tentacles, receive their nourishment through a widely gaping
mouth, whose size makes them amends for the deficiency ot
other prehensile organs. Such are but a few of the varieties
exhibited by the beautiful and interesting Ctenophora.
In habit they resemble the oceanic Hydrozoa, like them
B B 2
360
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
ewimmingnear the surface in calm weather, and again descending
on the approach of a squall. Like them also, their delicate
structures rapidly disappear when removed from the sea-water
and exposed to the rays of the sun, an almost imperceptible
film remaining the only trace of what was erewhile an active
and beautiful organism. Yet in spite of their aqueous consistence
the Ctenophora are very voracious, feeding on a number of
Various forms of Ctenophora.
a. Cesium Veneris, b. Eurhamphcea vexilligern. c. Beroe rufescens . d. Callianira triplopteru.
e. Plenrobrachia p/leus. (a is considerably reduced; b slightly so; c and e are about the
natural size ; the size of d is uncetlain.)
floating marine animals, among which their own kindred seem
especially to be preferred. The prey once swallowed is assi-
milated with a rapidity which to some may seem strange when
the simple structure of the digestive apparatus is considered.
The land has its flowers ; they bloom .in our gardens, they
adorn our meadows, they perfume the skirts of the forest, they
brave the winds that blow round the high mountain peaks,
they conceal themselves in the clefts of rocks, or spring forth
SEA-ANEMONES.
361
out of ruins ; wherever a plant can find room there Flora
appears with her lovely gifts.
But the ocean also has its large radiate anemones, whose
lustrous petals, still more wonderful than those of the land, for
they are endowed with animal life, form the chief ornament of
the crystal tide-pools, or of the sheltered basins of our rock-
bound shores.
More than twenty species of these marine flowers, many of
them displaying a gorgeous wreath of richly coloured tentacles,
are denizens of the British waters ; but the finest and largest
are found along the margin of the equatorial ocean, where they
occasionally measure a foot in diameter. Their tints are as
various as the arrangement of their prehensile crown ;■ fiery red
and apple-green, yellow and white as driven snow. Sometimes
the tentacles form a gorgon’s head of long thick worms, clothed
in satin and velvet, and sometimes a thicket of delicate fila-
ments.
Nothing seems more inoffensive than a sea-anemone ex-
panding its disc in the tranquil waters, but woe to the wandering
annelide, to the shrimp, or whelk, or nimble entomostracon, that
comes within reach of its urticating tentacles, for, plunged into
a fatal lethargy, it is soon hurried to the gaping mouth of its
voracious enemy, ever ready to engulf it in a living tomb. The
morsel thus swallowed is retained in the stomach for ten or
twelve hours, when the undigested remains are regurgitated,
enveloped in a glairy fluid, not unlike the white of an egg.
The size of the prey is frequently in unseemly disproportion
to the preyer, being often equal in bulk to itself. Thus Dr.
Johnstone mentions a specimen of Actinia crassicornis, that
might have been originally two inches in diameter, and that
had somehow contrived to swallow a scallop-valve of the size
of an ordinary saucer. The shell fixed within the stomach was
so placed as to divide it completely into two halves, so that the
body, stretched tensely over, had become thin and flattened like
a pancake. All communication between the inferior portion of
the stomach and the mouth was of course prevented ; yet instead
of emaciating and dying of an atrophy, the animal had availed
itself of what undoubtedly had been a very untoward accident
to increase its enjoyments and chances of double fare. A new
mouth, furnished with two rows of numerous teutacula, was
362
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
opened upon what had been the base, and led to the under
stomach ; the individual had indeed become a sort of Siamese
twin, but with greater intimacy and extent in its unions.
From this instance we may naturally infer that the Actiniae
are no mean adepts in the art of accommodating themselves to
circumstances. They may be kept without food for upwards of
a year; they may be immersed in water hot enough to blister
their skins, or exposed to the frost, or placed within the ex-
hausted receiver of the air-pump, and their hard}r vital principle
will triumph over all these ordeals. Their reproductive powers
are truly astonishing. Cut off their tentacles, and new ones
sprout forth ; repeat the operation, and they germinate again.
Divide their bodies transversely or perpendicularly through the
middle, and each half will develop itself into a more or less
perfect individual.
But these apparently indestructible creatures die almost
instantly when plunged into fresh water, which is for them, or
for so many other marine animals, a poison no less fatal than
prussic acid to man.
Though generally firmly attached by means of a glutinous
secretion from their enlarged base to rocks, shells, and other
extraneous bodies, the sea-anemones can leave their hold, and
remove to another station, whensoever it pleases them, either by
gliding along with a slow and almost inperceptible movement
or by reversing the body and using the tentacula as feet; or,
lastly, inflating the body with water so as to diminish its specific
weight, they detach themselves, and are driven to a distance by
the random motion of the waves. They are extremely sensible
not only to external irritations — the slightest touch causing
them to shrink into a shrivelled shapeless mass — but also ot
atmospherical changes. They hide their crown under a glare
of light ; but in a calm and unclouded sky expand and disclose
every beauty, while they remain contracted and veiled in cloudy
or stormy weather. The Abbe Dicquemare has even found,
from several experiments, that they foretell changes of the
weather as certainly as the barometer. When they remain
naturally closed there is reason to fear a storm, high wind-,
and a troubled sea ; but a fair and calm season is to be antici-
pated when they lie relaxed with expanded tentacula. The
ova of the Actiniae are detained for some time after their sepa-
ALCYONIDIUM ELEGANS.
363
ration in the interseptal spaces, or even in the stomach, and
there hatched, as it were, into their lasting form. On emerging
into the open ocean, they already resemble their full-grown
relatives, the only difference consisting in a smaller number of
tentacles and septa. The sea-anemones were consequently
supposed to be viviparous, an error which more accurate obser-
vations have fully refuted.
Both the Ctenophora and the Sea-Anemones are single or
solitary, but the vast majority of the Aclinozoa consist of
aggregated animals attached to one another by lateral appen-
Alcyomdhim eleg'ans
o. Branch to which the polyparv is fixed. b. Foot, c Tronk. d P lyp-bparing branches.
e. Polyps contracted wirhin the foot.
dages, or by their posterior extremity, and participating in a
common life, while at the same time each member of the family
enjoys its independent and individual existence. These com-
pound polyps are all either Alcyonarians , in which each polyp
is furnished with eight pinnately fringed tentacles, or Zoantha-
rians, in which the tentacula are simple or variously modified,
and generally disposed in multiples of five or six. The Alcyo-
narians are again subdivided into the four families of the Alcyo-
nidae, the Pennatulidae, the Gorgonidae, and the Tubiporidse.
The Alcyonidae vary much in form, being either lobed,
364
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
branched, rounded, or existing in a shapeless mass or crust,
while the interior substance is of a spongy or cork-like nature,
surrounded by tubular rays enclosed in a sort of tough fleshy
membrane. The Alcyonium digitatum is one of our most
common marine productions, so that on many parts of the coast
scarce a shell or stone can be dredged from the deep that does
not support one or more specimens. As it lies on the shore, it
certainly offers fetv inducements from its beauty to recommend
it to further notice, and seems fully to warrant the more ex-
pressive than elegant names of “cow’s paps,” “dead man’s toes,”
or “ dead man’s hands,” which the fishermen have conferred on
it. On putting one of these shapeless masses into a glass of
sea-water, however, and allowing it to remain for a little time
undisturbed, its real nature becomes apparent, and a series of
most interesting phenomena present themselves. The dull
orange mass, which was at first opaque and of a dense texture,
slowly swells and becomes more diaphanous, apparently by the
absorption of the surrounding water into its substance, until,
having attained its full dimensions, numerous dimples appear,
studding its entire surface, each of which, as it gradually
expands, reveals itself to be a cell, the residence of a polyp,
which, gradually protruding itself, pushes out a cylindrical
body, clear as crystal, fluted like a column, and terminated by a
coronet of eight delicately fringed tentacula. The unsightly
aspect of the trunk, which reminded us of cadaverous fingers
or toes, is now forgotten, just as we forget the uncouth branches
of a cactus when we see it clothed with its gorgeous flowers.
All the. polyp-cells are connected by a complicated system of
inosculating canals, bound together by a fibrous net-work, and
lying imbedded in a transparent jelly, which forms the fleshy
part of the compound animal. The eggs are lodged in the
tubes, and at length discharged through the mouth.
The Sea-Pens, or Pennatulae, are remarkable from the circum-
stance that, although they possess an internal calcareous sup-
port, they are not permanently attached to foreign bodies.
The lower portion of the stem, which strikingly resembles the
barrel of a quill, is naked, and, when found in the bays upon
our coast, is generally stuck into the mud at the bottom like
a pen into an inkstand, whilst the upper two thirds of the stem
are feathered with long closely set pinnae, comparable to the
TIIE SEA-PENS.
365
barbs of a quill, from the margin of which are protruded the
rows of polyps which minister to the support of the common
body of the compound
animal. The purple-red
Pennatula phosphorea,
which is found in great
plenty sticking to the baits
on the fishermen’s lines,
especially when they use
muscles to bait their hooks,
is one of the most singular
and elegant of the British
sea-pens. Some authors
believe that it is capable
of using its fin-like arms
like oars, but observations
are wanting in corrobora-
tion. The pale orange fawn
Virgularia mircibilis, an
allied species, has a more elongated slender form than the
pennatula. Its rod-like body, from six to ten inches long, is
furnished with short fin-like lobes of a crescent shape, which
approach in pairs, but are not strictly oppo-
site ; they are about the eighth of an
inch asunder, and are furnished along
the margins with a row of urn-shaped
polyp-cells. These very delicate and
brittle animals seem to be confined to a
small circumscribed part of the coast,
which has a considerable depth and a
muddy bottom, and the fishermen accus- Virguiaxiarmrabihs.
tomed to dredge at that place believe from the cleanness
of the Virgulariae, when brought to the surface, that they
stand erect at the bottom with one end fixed in the mud
or clay.
The Grorgonidse (Grorgonia, Primnoa, Corallium, Isis, Mopsea)
mainly differ from the Alcyonidae in having an erect and
branching stem, firmly rooted by its expanded base. A soft
and fleshy crust, studded with numerous polyps, envelops a
solid horny or calcareous axis, which serves as a support to the
”66
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
arborescent structure, and enables it to rise to a height of
several feet, or even, if we are to credit the Norway fishermen,
to rival our forest-trees in magnitude. This thev conclude to
be the case from their nets being sometimes entangled on the
trunk or stem of the Primnoct lepadifera, as this large species
of gorgon is called, when the united strength of several men is
unable to free the nets. “ They have even assured me,” says
Sir A. Capell de Brooke, “ that the corals grow to the height of
fifty or sixty feet, as they judge from the following circumstance,
which seems clear and simple. The lines for the red-fish, which
is found in the greatest plenty where the primnoa grows, are
set in very deep water at the distance of about six feet from the
bottom, and in the parts where it is flat and level, which they
can tell from their soundings. On drawing up the lines at the
distance of forty, fifty, or sixty feet, and sometimes even more
from the bottom, they get entangled with some of the upper
parts or branches of the gorgon, which are thus torn off, and
hence they reasonably conclude that the animal rises to this
height.”
The Gorgonidse either branch away irregularly like shrubs,
or else their branches inosculate and form a kind of net or fan,
as in the Flabellum Veneris, a beautiful Indian species, which
some naturalist of more than usual fancy has appropriated to
the use of Venus.
Four British species of Gorgonia are recorded. G. verrucosa ,
the commonest of these, abounds in deep water along the whole
of the south coast of England. It is more than twelve inches
in height, and fifteen or seventeen in breadth, and expands
laterally in numerous cylindrical and warty branches. It is
somewhat fan-shaped, but does not form a continuous network.
Its coral has a dense black axis, with a snow-white pith in the
centre, and is covered, while living, with a flesh-coloured crust.
The flexible corneous stem of the Gorgonias enables them to
bend beneath the passing current, and thus prevents their
long and slender ramifications from breaking, while the hard
calcareous branches of the valuable red coral ( Corallium
nobile ) are sufficiently short and strong to resist the violence
of the sea. This beautiful marine production, though also
occurring in the Ethiopic Ocean and about Cape Negro, is
chiefly found in the Mediterranean, on the shores of Provence,
THE RED CORAL.
3P7
about the isles of Majorca and Minorca, on the south of Sicily,
and on the coast of Africa. It grows on rocky bottoms, and
frequently in an inverted position, or downwards from the undo
surface of stones, generally at a depth of several hundred feet.
When alive, the soft rind which invests the valuable central
stony axis is studded with snow-white polyps. The fishery is
Red Coral.
Oorgoma nobilia. (A small detached portion magnified.)
still carried on in the same way as it was described by Marsigli
150 years ago. The net is composed of two strong rafters of
wood tied crosswise, with leads fixed to them ; to these they
fasten a quantity of hemp twisted loosely round and inter-
mingled with some loose netting. This apparatus is let down,
and while the boat is sailing or being rowed along, alternately
raised and dropped so as to sweep a certain extent of the bottom
368
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
and to entangle the corals in its coarse meshes. The labour,
as may be imagined, is very great; frequently, after a long toil,
the net is brought up empty, or filled only with other marine
productions, which, however interesting they may be to the
naturalist, are perfectly worthless in the eyes of the coral-fisher;
and not seldom immense exertions are required to loosen it from
the rocks, among which it has got entangled.
The chief seat of the coral-fishery is at present along the
coasts of Algeria and Tunis, where it is almost exclusively
carried on by the Italians, who fit out more than 400 small
ships, or “ corallines,” of from five to sixteen tons, for this pur-
pose. In spring this fleet of nut-shells leaves the ports of Torre
del Greco, Sicily, Sardinia, and Genoa, and proceeds to its
various points of destination, where it remains until the
autumnal gales compel the fragile “corallines” to retire. Every
month or fortnight the products of the fishery are delivered up
to agents in Bona or La Calle, under whose direction the corals
are sorted, packed in cases, and sent to Naples, Leghorn, or
Genoa, where they are cut, polished, and manufactured into
necklaces and other ornaments or trinkets. About 4,000 sailors
are employed in the fishery, each man receiving an average pay
of 380 franks for the season, which he almost entirely brings
home with him, his trifling expenses on land being generally
defrayed by the small pieces of coral he manages to conceal
from the sharp eye of the “ padrone.” The average quantity
of corals fished by each “ coralline ” amounts to about six
hundredweight, and the total value of the fishery to more than
200, 000£., without taking into account the produce of the fisheries
at Stromboli, in the Straits of Messina, and other parts of the
Italian coast.
The manufactured articles sell of course for a much higher
price, so that the “ red coral ” is a by no means inconsiderable
article of trade. Great quantities are exported to India, and in
Leghorn and Genoa several large manufactories work exclusively
for that distant market, where the blood-red corals, whose
colour harmonises with the dark complexion of the native
ladies, are particularly in demand, while those of a roseate hue
are preferred in Europe.
The fishermen have a strange belief that the corals are by
nature soft, but immediately turn into stone from terror when
CORAL FISHERY.
369
entangled by the net. There is also a legendary tale of an
enchanted coral-tree, large and powerful as an oak, which is
said to grow in a deep grotto at the foot of Mont Alban, on
the Ligurian coast. It extends its arms when no danger is
nigh, but immediately withdraws them, like a cuttle-fish, at the
approach of an insidious enemy. This superstition is so firmly
Isis hippuris.
rooted that, while Professor Vogt was at Villafranca in 1865, a
“ coralline ” arrived from Torre del Greco for the purpose of
fishing for this imaginary prey. The “ padrone ” swore he
would not leave the neighbourhood before he had secured his
prize, hoping to enrich himself with the spoils, but doomed, no
doubt, to a grievous disappointment, and a considerable loss, on
a coast where but few ordinary corals are found.
In the elegant Isis hippuris, which grows in the Indian Ocean,
370
THE INHABITANTS OH THE SEA.
and is frequently found in cabinets of natural history, the horny
and calcareous matter of the axis is disposed in alternate joints,
so as to unite flexibility with firmness. A similar structure of
alternately disposed calcareous and horny segments occurs in
Mopsea. In Isis branches are developed from the calcareous,
in Mopsea from the horny segments of the axis.
The Tubiporidae are confined to the ‘narrow limits of a single
genus containing but few species. Here the polypary is com-
posed of distinct calcareous tubes
rising from a fleshy or membrana-
ceous basis, and arranged in suc-
cessive stages. These tubes are
separated from each other by
considerable intervals, but mutu-
ally support each other by the
interposition of external hori-
zontal plates, formed of the same
dense substance as themselves, by which they are united to-
gether, so that a mass of these tubes exhibits an arrangement
something like that of the pipes in an organ, whence the
beautiful Indian species, Tubipora musica, has derived its
name. From the upper ends of the tubes the polyps are
protruded, and being, when alive, of a bright grass-green
colour, they contrast very beautifull}7 with the rich crimson ol
the tubes they inhabit.
In our seas, the coralligenous Zoopbytarians, distinguished by
the hard calcareous skeletons they deposit within their tissues
are but feebly represented by a few straggling Caryophyllise, but
in the tropical ocean they branch out
into numerous families, genera, and
species, and play a highly important
part in the economy of the maritime
domain. Originally proceeding from
single ova, which at first freely move
by means of vibratile ciliae, and
become fixed after a short period of
erratic existence, they multiply by gemmation, and grow into
an immense variety of forms, of which the following descrip-
tion by one who has long and attentively studied them in their
native haunts may serve to give an idea. “ Trees of coral,”
Caryophyllia.
Tubipora Mu=>ica.
GROWTH OF CORALS.
371
says Professor Dana, “are well known; and although not emu-
lating in size the oaks of our forests — for they do not exceed
six or eight feet in height — they are gracefully branched, and
the whole surface blooms with coral polyps in place of leaves
and flowers. Shrubbery, tufts of rushes, beds of pinks, and
feathery mosses, are most exactly imitated. Many species spread
out in broad leaves or folia, and resemble some large-leaved plant
just unfolding; when alive, the surface of each leaf is covered
with polyp-flowers. The cactus, the lichen clinging to the rock,
and the fungus in all its varieties, have their numerous repre-
sentatives. Besides these forms imitating vegetation, there are
gracefully modelled vases, some of which are three or four feet
in diameter, made up of a network of branches and branchlets,
and sprigs of flowers. There are also solid coral hemispheres
like domes among the vases and shrubbery, occasionally ten
or even twenty feet in diameter, whose symmetrical surface is
gorgeously decked with polyp-stars of purple and emerald-
green.”
Under such aspects appear the living organisms whose com-
bined efforts have mainly constructed those reefs and islands of
coral origin which now lie scattered far and wide over the
surface of the equatorial ocean. Words are inadequate to ex-
press the splendour of the submarine gardens with which the
lithophytes clothe the rocky shores of the tropical seas.
“ There are few things more beautiful to look at,” says Captain
Basil Hall, “ than these corallines when viewed through two or
three fathoms of clear and still water. It is hardly an exag-
geration to assert that the colours of the rainbow are put to
shame on a bright sunny day by what meets the view on
looking into the sea in those fairy regions.” And Ehrenberg
was so struck with the magnificent spectacle presented by the
living polyparia in the Red Sea that he exclaimed with enthu-
siasm, “Where is the paradise of flowers that can rival, in
variety and beauty, these living wonders of the ocean!”
Besides the charms of their own growth, the tropical coral
gardens afford a refuge or a dwelling-place to numberless
animals clothed in gorgeous apparel. Fishes attired in azure,
scarlet, and gold, crustaceans, sea-urchins, sea-stars, sea ane-
mones, anneliaes, of a brilliancy of colour unknown in the
northern seas, glide or swim along through their tangled
372
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
shrubberies ; and frequently the gigantic tridacna, embedded in
their calcareous parterres, discloses, on opening her ponderous
valves, her violet mantle tinted with emerald-green. The en-
chanted naturalist lingers for hours over the magnificent spec-
tacle, and forgets the lapse of time, as wonders upon wonders
ciowd on his enraptured gaze.
But the tropical coral-gardens serve not only as a harbour of
refuge to the numberless creatures that frequent their laby-
rinthine recesses, for many annelides, crustaceans, asterias, and
even fishes, feed upon their animal flowrets. Among these,
the Scari are provided with a very remarkable dental apparatus
to protect their mandibles from injury while biting the cal-
careous corals. These fishes have their jaws, which resemble
the beak of a parrot (whence they receive their usual appellation
“ parrot fishes ”), covered externally with a kind of pavement of
teeth, answering the same purpose as the horny investment of
the mandibles of the bird. The teeth that form this pavement
are perpetually in progress of development towards the base of
the jaw, whence they advance forward, when completed, to
replace those which become worn away in front by the constant
attrition to which they are subjected. Thus armed, the Scari
browse without difficulty on the newest layers of the stony
corals, digesting the animal matter therein contained, and
setting free the carbonate of lime in a chalky state. Many of
the Diodons, Chaetodons, and Balistse or file-fishes, of which
Kittlitz saw some new species, one still more splendid than the
other, in every lagoon-island he visited in the long range of
the Carolines, likewise feed upon corals, and possess a dental
apparatus fit for masticating their refractory aliment. The
Diodons have grooved teeth, excellently adapted to crush and
bruise, and the Balistse have eight strong conical teeth in every
jaw, with which they easily nip off the shoots of the coral bushes.
Of the reef-building corals it may well be said that they
build for eternity. The bones of the higher animals vanish
after a few years, but the stony skeleton of the polyp
remains attached to the spot of its formation, and serves
as a basement or stage for new generations to build upon.
Life and death are here in concurrent or parallel progress ;
generally the whole interior of a corallum is dead. The
large domes of the astreeas are in most species covered
STONE CORALS.
37:1
with a hemispherical living shell,
about half an inch thick ; and in some
porites of the same size the whole
mass is lifeless, except the exterior
for a sixth of an inch in depth.
We are astonished when travellers
tell us of the vast extent of certain Astrxa
ancient ruins ; but how utterly insig-
nificant are the greatest of these when compared with the piles of
stone accumulated in the course of ages by these minute, and in-
dividually so puny architects ! The history of the formation of
coral-reefs is no less wonderful than their extent. They have been
divided, according to their geological character, into three classes.
The first fringes the shores of continents or islands (shore-reefs);
the second, rising from a deep ocean, at a greater distance from
the land, encircles an island, or stretches like a barrier along
the coast (encircling-reefs, barrier-reefs); the third, enclosing a
lagoon, forms a ring or annular break-water round an interior
lake (atolls, or lagoon-islands).
Many of the high rocky islands of the Pacific lie, like a
picture in its frame, in the middle of a lagoon encircled by
a reef. A fringe of low alluvial land in these cases generally
surrounds the base of the mountains; a girdle of palm-trees, backed
by abrupt heights, and fronted by a lake of smooth water, only
separated from the deep blue ocean by the breakers roaring
against the encircling reef ; such, for instance, is the scenery of
Stone Corals.
374
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
Tahiti, so justly named “ the queen of islands.” But the
encircling reefs are often at a much greater distance from the
shore. Thus in New Caledonia they extend no less than 140
miles beyond the island.
As an example of barrier-reefs, I shall cite that which fronts
the north-east coast of Australia. It is described by Flinders as
having a length of nearly a thousand miles, and as running
parallel to the shore at a distance of between twenty and thirty
miles from it, and in some parts even of fifty and seventy. The
great arm of the sea thus inclosed, has a usual depth of between
ten and twenty fathoms. This probably is both the grandest
and most extraordinary reef now existing in any part of the
world.
Stone Corals.
The atolls, or lagoon-islands, are numerous!}7 scattered over
the face of the tropical ocean. The Marshall and Caroline
islands, the Paumotic group, the Maldives and Lacadives, and
many other groups or solitary islets of the Pacific or Indian
Ocean, are entirely built up of coral ; every single atom, from
the smallest particle to large fragments of rock, bearing the
stamp of having been subjected to the power of organic ar-
rangement. A narrow rim of coral-reef, generally but a few
hundred yards wide, stretches around the enclosed waters.
When a lagoon-island is first seen from the deck of a vessel, only
a series of dark points is descried just above the horizon. Shortly
after, the points enlarge into the plumed tops of cocoa-nut trees,
REEF-BUILDING CORALS.
37.5
and a line of green, interrupted at intervals, is traced along the
water’s surface.
The long swell produced by the gentle but steady action of the
trade wind, always blowing in one direction over a wide area,
causes breakers which even exceed in violence those of our
temperate regions, and which never cease to rage. It is im-
possible to behold these waves without feeling a conviction
that a low island, though built of the hardest rock, would ulti-
mately yield, and be demolished by such irresistible forces. Yet
the insignificant coral-islets stand and are victorious; for here
another power, antagonistic to the former, takes part in the
contest. The organic forces separate the atoms of carbonate of
lime one by one from the foaming breakers, and unite them in
a symmetrical structure. Let the hurricane tear up its thousand
huge fragments, yet what will this tell against the accumulated
labours of myriads of architects at work night and day, month
after month. Thus do we see the soft and gelatinous body
of a polyp, through the agency of vital laws, conquering the
great mechanical power of the waves of an ocean, which neither
the art of man nor the inanimate works of nature could suc-
cessfully resist.
The reef-building corals, so hardy in this respect, aie ex-
tremely sensitive and delicate in others. They absolutely
require warmth for their existence, and only inhabit seas the
temperature of which never sinks below 60° Fahr. They also
require clear and transparent waters. Wherever streams or
currents are moving or transporting sediment, there no corals
grow, and for the same reason we find no living zoophytes upon
sandy or muddy shores.
As within one cast of the lead coral-reefs rise suddenly like
walls from the depths of ocean, it was formerly supposed that
the polyps raised their structures out of the profound abysses of
the sea ; but this opinion could no longer be maintained, after
Mr. C. Darwin and other naturalists had proved that the litho-
phytes cannot live at greater depths than twenty or at most
thirty fathoms.
Hereupon Quoy and Glaimard broached the theory that cor.als
construct their colonies on the summits of mountain ridges, or
the circular crests of submarine craters, and thus accounted both
c c 2
376
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
for the great depths from which the coral-walls suddenly rise,
and the annular form of lagoon islands. Yet this theory, in-
genious as it was, could not stand the test of a closer examination :
for no crater ever had such dimensions as, for instance, one of the
Radack Islands, which is fifty- two miles long by twenty broad ;
and no chain of mountains has its summits so equally high, as
must have been the case with the numerous reef-bearing; sub-
marine rocks, considering the small depth from which the
lithophytes build. Another seemingly inexplicable fact was,
that, although corals hardly exist above low-water mark, reefs
are found at Tongatabu or Eua, for instance, at elevations of
forty and even three hundred feet above the level of the ocean.
Mr. Charles Darwin was the first to give a satisfactory ex-
planation of all the phenomena of coral formations, by ascribing
them to the oscillations of the sea bottom, to its partial upheaving
or subsidence.
It is now perfectly well known that large portions of the
continent of South America, Scandinavia, North Greenland,
and many other coasts, are slowly rising, and that other ter-
restrial or maritime areas are gradually subsiding. Thus
on every side of the lagoon of the Keeling Islands, in which
the water is as tranquil as in the most sheltered lake, Mr.
Darwin saw old cocoa-nut trees undermined and falling. The
foundation-posts of a storehouse on the beach, which, the in-
habitants said, had stood seven years before just above high
water, were now daily washed by the tide.
Supposing on one of these subsiding areas an island-mountain
fringed with corals, the lithophytes, keeping pace with the
gradual sinking of their basis, soon raise again their solid
masses to the level of the water ; but not so with the land, each
inch of which is irreclaimably gone. Thus the fringing reef
will gradually become an encircling one ; and, if we suppose the
sinking to continue, it must by the submergence of the central
land, but upward growth of the ring of coral, be ultimately
converted into a lagoon island.
The numerous atolls of the Pacific and Indian Ocean give
us a far insight into the past, and exhibit these seas overspread
with lofty lands where there are now only humble monumental
reefs dotted with verdant islets. Had there been no growing
CORAL-ISLANDS.
377
coral, the whole would have passed away without a record ;
while, from the actual extent of the coral-reefs and islands, we
know that the entire amount of the high land lost to the Pacific
was at least 50,000 square miles. But as other lands may have
subsided too rapidly for the corals to maintain themselves at the
surface, it is obvious that the estimate is far below the truth.
As living coral-reefs do not grow above low-water mark, it
may well be asked how habitable islands can form upon their
crests. The breakers are here the agents of construction. They
rend fragments and blocks from the outer border of the reef
and throw them upon the surface. Corals and shells are pulve-
rised by their crushing grinding power, and gradually fill up the
interstices. In this manner the pile rises higher and higher, till
at last even the spring tides can no longer wash over it into the
lagoon, on the border of which the fine coral sand accumulates
undisturbed. The seeds which the ocean-currents often carry
with them from distant continents find here a congenial soil,
and begin to deck the white chalk with an emerald carpet.
Trees, drifting from the primeval forest, where they have been
uprooted by the swelling of the river on whose banks they grew,
are also conveyed by the same agency to the new-formed shore,
and bring along with them small animals, insects, or lizards, as
its first inhabitants. Before the stately palm extends its feathery
fronds sea-birds assemble on this new resting-place, and land-
birds, driven by storms from their usual haunts, enjoy the shade
of the rising shrubbery. At last, after vegetation has com-
pleted its work, man appears on the scene, builds his hut on
the fruitful soil which falling leaves and decaying herbs have
gradually enriched, and calls himself the master of this little
world. In this manner all the coral-reefs and islands of the
tropical seas have gradually become verdant and habitable ;
thus has arisen the kingdom of the Maldives, whose sultan,
Ibrahim, glories in the title of sultan of the thirteen atolls and
twelve thousand isles. May his shadow never be less !
378
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
CHAP. XVIII.
PROTOZOA.
The Foraminifera. — The Amoebae — Their Wonderful Simplicity of Structure. — The
Polycystina. — Marine Infusoria. — Sponges — Their Pores — Fibres and Spiculse —
The Common Sponge of Commerce.
Think not, reader, that the life of the ocean ends with the
innumerable hosts of fishes, molluscs, Crustacea, medusae, and
polyps we have reviewed, and that the waters of the sea or the
sands of the shore have now no further marvels for us to ad-
mire. The naked eye indeed may have attained the limits of
life, but the microscope will soon reveal a new and wonderful
world of animated beings.
Take only, for instance, while wandering on the beach, a
handful of drift-sand, and examine it through a magnifying
glass. You will then not seldom find,
among the coarser grains of inorganic
silica, a number of the most elegant
shells ; some formed like ancient am-
phora, others wound like the nautilus,
but all shaped in their minuteness with
a. Natural size. a perfection which no human artist
b. c. The same, highly magnified. it , , i • ,r i ,
could hope to equal in the largest size.
The knowledge of these charming little marine productions is
of modern date, for they were first observed in the sand of the
Adriatic by Beccaria in 1731, and for some time believed to
belong exclusively to that gulf. At a later period some species
were discovered here and there in England and France, but
their universality and importance in the economy of the ocean
were first pointed out in 1825, by the distinguished French
naturalist Alcide d’Orbigny.
The sand of many sea-coasts is so mixed with Foraminifera, as
thev have been called from the openings with which their shells
are pierced, that they often form no less than half its bulk.
Nurorr/ulma discoidalis.
FORAMINIFERA.
379
Plancus counted 6000 in an ounce of sand from the Adriatic,
and d’Orbigny reckoned no less than 3,849,000 in a pound of
sand from the Antilles. Along the whole Atlantic coast of the
United States, the plummet constantly brings up masses of fo-
raminiferous shells from a depth of ninety fathoms, so that the
vast extent of ocean-bottom, which itself forms but a small part
of the domains they occupy, is literally covered with their
exuviae.
Thus their numbers surpass all human conception, nor can
any other series of beings be compared to them in this respect ;
not even the minute crusta-
ceans which colour thousands
of square miles on the surface
of the sea, and, according to
Scoresby, form almost exclu-
sively the food of the huge
Greenland whale ; nor the in-
fusory animals of the fresh-
water, whose shields compose
the Bilin slate quarries in
Bohemia; for these are limited
in their distribution, whereas
the Foraminifera occur in all
parts of the world.
The resemblance of the Fo-
raminifera to the nautili and ammonites at first led natura-
lists to suppose that they formed part of the same class, which
in a long course
of centuries had
dwindled down in
less congenial seas
to almost invisible
dimensions ; but a
closer investiga-
tion proved them
to belong to a
much lower order
of beings, near-
ly related to the
Amoebae, which likewise occur all over the ocean. Other animals
Amceba,
showing the extemporaneous feet formed by evanescent projections
of the general plastic mass of the animal.
380
THE INHABITANTS OP THE SEA.
excite our wonder by their complicated structure, but the amoeba
raises our astonishment by the excessive simplicity of its or-
ganisation. The amoeba is nothing more than a living globule of
mucus, a transparent, colourless, contractile substance, or plastic
mass, the individual life of which shows itself in manifold changes
of form, bearing the character of voluntary motion. When an
amoeba approaches another minute animal or plant unable to
move out of its reach, it sends out extemporaneous feet, which
soon clasp the prey on all sides, and the prisoner lies embedded
in the living mucus until all his soluble parts have been absorbed.
There is absolutely no trace of particular organs in the amoeba ;
all its constituent particles may be used for any purpose, all
equally move and digest, and each can at any time perform the
organic functions pertaining to the whole.
A Compound Foraminiferous Protozoon, magnified.
The shell is perforated with holes, through which the different lobes of the animal
communicate, and thread-like portions are protruded externally.
In their internal simplicity the Foraminifera are on a par
with the amoebae, and differ from them only in respect of their
outward form. The amoebae are naked, while the Foraminifera
are covered with a shell, out of which, through one or numerous
openings, the animal protrudes the processes which it requires
for creeping or seizing its prey. These processes or filaments
of mucus frequently ramify, closing as they spread, and some-
times covering an area of several lines in diameter, in the centre
of which the animal inclosed in its shell waits for its prey, like
a spider in its net.
The extended filaments appear to have something venomous
about them ; for Dr. Schultze, to whom we owe an interesting
monograph on the Foraminifera, frequently saw small and
sprightly parameciae, colpodes, and other infusoria drop down
paralysed as soon as they touched the net.
NUMMULITES,
381
The amazing variety of form of the Foraminifera is no less
remarkable than the elegance of their delicately chiselled shells,
and may well be called immense, as no less than 2,400 living
and fossil species have already been distinguished by naturalists,
and a far greater number is probably still nameless and
unknown. Though generally so minute that the diameter of
Various forms of Foraminifera.
a. Lagena striata, a*. Nodosaria rvgosa. b. Marginulina raphamis.
b' . Longitudinal section of shell of ditto, c. Polystomella crispa , w ith its pseudopodia protruded
d. Nummulites lenticularis, shown in horizontal section, e. Cassididina Icevigata.
j. Textularia globulosa. g. Miliulina seminutum. g' . Animal of Miliolina removed irom its shell.
the pores through which they protrude their filaments usually
only ranges from -30V0 to of an inch yet the diminutive
world of the Foraminifera has also its giants, particularly
among the fossil species, such as the Nummulites, which occur
in such prodigious numbers in the limestone of the Egyptian
pyramids, and whose flattened lenticular coin-like forms cl )
attain the comparatively gigantic diameter of several inches.
Thus the material with which the proud Pharaohs of the Nile
constructed their colossal tombs was originally piled up at the
bottom of the sea by countless generations of shell-cased
Protozoa.
The Foraminifera are among the oldest inhabitants of our
globe,* and as the present ocean contains them in countless
* The Eozoon canadense, the oldest of known organic remains, found in the
Upper Laurentian series, which preceded the Cambrian formation, is a Foraminifer.
Millions of years must have passed since it first felt and moved.
382
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEa.
multitudes, thus have they swarmed in the waters of the pri-
meval seas from the first dawn of creation, and piled up the
monuments of their existence in vast strata of limestone. A
great part of the rocky belt from Riigen to the Danish isles,
the white chalk cliffs which, beginning in England, extend
through France as far as Southern Spain, are chiefly com-
posed of the shells of Foraminifera, and the zone of Nummu-
lite limestone, which served to build the huge quadrilateral
monument of Cheops, forms a band, often 1,800 miles in
breadth, and frequently of enormous thickness, from the
Atlantic shores of Europe and Africa through Western Asia
up to North India and China; enough to satisfy the most
extravagant architectural folly of millions of despots. So
important is the part which these beings, individually so
minute, have performed and still perform in the geological
annals of the globe.
Many of these “minims of nature” consist of only one
chamber, and hence are called unilocular or monothalamous ;
but a vast proportion consist of several chambers, and hence are
called multilocular or polythalamous. The latter, however
numerous their chambers or seemingly complex their structure,
alwa}7s originate as a single shell. The primitive jelly-sphere,
or first sarcode segment, secretes around itself its appropriate
calcareous envelope. Having grown too large for its habitation,
it protrudes a portion of itself without, and thus forms a second
segment. If by a process of spontaneous fission this segment
becomes quite detached from its parent, and repeats the life
and method of reproduction of the latter, a series of mono-
thalamous shells will be formed. But if by means of a sar-
code band the primitive segment maintains its connection with
its immediate offspring, and this, repeating the reproductive
process, does the same, a compound shell will, of course, be the
result.
Among the microscopic denizens of the ocean, the Poly-
cystina rival the Foraminifera both by their number and their
wonderful elegance of form and structure. Their body consists
of the same viscid homogeneous plastic mass, termed “ sarcode”
by the naturalists: like them they are capable of protruding it
through the foramina with which their shell is pierced, and
consequently they are ranked with them among the Rhizopods,
POLYCYSTINA.
383
or root-footed animalcules, that form the lowest order of the
Protozoa, the lowest class of the animal world.
It is a peculiar feature of these beautiful little shells (whose
delicate sculpture frequently reminds the observer of the finest
specimens of the hollow ivory halls carved by the Chinese) that
they are usually surmounted by a number of spine-like pro-
jections, very frequently having a radiate disposition. Some
have an oblong shape (Podocyrtis), others a discoid form (Ha-
Polycystma.
a. Podocyrtis Schomburgkii. b. Haliomma Humbuldtii .
liomma), from the circumference of which the silicious spines
project at regular intervals, so as to give them a star-like aspect.
They are generally of a smaller size than even the Foraminifera,
appear to be almost as widely diffused, and have also largely
contributed to the structure of the earth-rind. They were first
discovered by Professor Ehrenberg at Cuxhaven, on the North
Sea ; they were afterwards found by him in collections made in
the antarctic seas, and have been brought up by the sounding
lead from the bottom of the Atlantic at depths of from 1,000 to
2,000 fathoms.
The term Infusoria, which formerly comprised a most
heterogeneous assemblage of minute plants and animals, is now
confined to the highest order of the Protozoa, distinguished
from the Rhizopods by the possession of a mouth and of
ciliary filaments, whose vibrations serve them both for pro-
I
384
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
gression through the water and for drawing alimentary particles
into the interior of their body. Though most of the Infusoria
live in ponds, morasses, pools, wells, or cisterns, yet many are
marine, as, for instance, the Carcliesium polypinum , which is
frequently found attached to corallines, and the Vaginicola
valvata, which from its sheath and valve strongly reminds one
of a tubicolar annelide.
a. Vngmicola valvata , showing animal extended, and valve (<p) raised.
a'. The >aine, showing animal contracted within its sheath, and valve ($') slu t down.
b. La gut /a viridis, showing rotatory organ (f). b' . Young animal of preceding.
The wide diffusion both in time and space of the marine
Protozoa, and chiefly of the Foraminifera and Polycystina, is
a sufficient proof of their vast importance in the household of
the seas. Along with the Diatoms and other microscopical
forms of vegetation on which their own existence depends, they
evidently constitute the basis on which the superstructure of all
the higher orders of the animal life of the ocean reposes.
Hosts of minute crustaceans, annelides, acalephae, and molluscs,
feed upon their inexhaustible legions, and serve in their turn to
sustain creatures of a larger and still larger size until finally
Man is enabled to feast on the abundance of the seas.
Marine Infusoria.
ORGANISATION OF SPONGES.
385
The Porifera, or Sponges, were formerly supposed to belong
zo the vegetable kingdom, but their animal nature is now fully
ascertained, for modern researches have proved that the soft
glairy substance with which their skeleton is invested during
life consists of “ sarcode,” similar to that which forms the soft
parts of the Foraminifera and Polycystina. It is by this
animated or organic gelatine, which can generally be pressed
out with the finger, and in some species is copious e\en to
nauseousness, that the solid parts of the sponge are deposited,
and from it the whole growth of the mass proceeds. The
framework or skeleton of the Porifera is usually composed of
horny fibres of unequal thickness, which ramify and interlace
in every possible direction, anasto-
mosing with each other so as to
form innumerable continuous cells
and intricate canals, the walls of
which in the recent sponge are
crusted over with the gelatinous
living cortex.
Generally this fibrous mass is in-
terwoven with numerous mineral
spicules of a wonderful elegance and variety of forms, for their
shapes are not only strictly determinate for each species of
sponge but each part of the sponge, it is believed, has spiculae
of a character peculiar to itself. Sometimes they are pointed
at both ends, sometimes at one only, or one or both ends may
be furnished with a head like that of a pin, or may carry three
or more diverging points, which sometimes curve back so as to
form hooks. Sometimes they are triradiate, sometimes stellar ;
in some cases smooth, in
others beset with smaller
spinous projections like the
lance of the saw-fish. In
many species they are
embedded in the horny
framework ; in others, as,
for instance, in Tethea
Cranium, or in Halichon-
dria, they project from its surface like a tiny forest of spears.
They are generally composed of silex or flint,- but in the
Single interspace or open cell, and
surrounding finer meshwors of
the skeleton of a sponge.
Needle-hke and starred spicula of a Tethea.
(Highly magnified.)
386
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
genus Grrantia they consist of carbonate of lime. Though the
skeleton of most sponges is formed both of horny fibres and
of mineral spicules yet the proportions of these two component
parts vary considerably in different species. In the common
sponge, for instance, the fibrous skeleton is almost entirely
destitute of spicules, a circumstance to which it owes the
flexibility and softness that render it so useful to man, while
they predominate in the
Halichondriae, and some-
times even, as in the
Grantke, completely su-
persede the horny fabric.
On examining a sponge,
the holes with which the
substance is everywhere
Minute portion of the surface of Tethea Cranium, Bo cook.
magnified, spicula projecting beyond the pieiceu may ue seen 10
su”ace‘ be of two kinds ; one
of larger size than the rest, few in number, and opening into
wide channels and tunnels which pierce the sponge through its
centre; the other minute, extremely numerous, covering the
Halma papillaris.
Current* passing inwards through the pores ( a a), traversing the internal canals (6), and escaping
by the larger vents (c, d).
wide surface, and communicating with the innumerable branch-
ing passages which make up the body of the skeleton. Through
rhe smaller openings or pores the circumambient water freely
enters the body of the sponge, passes through the smaller
canals, and, ultimately reaching the larger set of vessels* is
evolved through the larger apertures or oscula. Thus by a still
mysterious agency (for the presence of cilia has as yet been
PROPAGATION OF SPONGES.
387
detected but in one genus of full-grown marine sponges) a
constant circulation is kept up, providing the sponge with
nourishing particles and oxygen, and enabling its system of
channels to perform the functions both of an alimentary tube
and a respiratory apparatus.
Dr. Grant describes in glowing terms his first discovery of
this highly interesting phenomenon: “Having put a small
branch of sponge with some sea-water into a watch-glass, in
order to examine it with the microscope, and bringing one
of the apertures on the side of the sponge fully into view,
I beheld for the first time the spectacle of this living fountain,
vomiting forth from a circular cavity an impetuous torrent
of liquid matter, and hurling along in rapid succession opaque
masses, which it strewed everywhere around. The beauty
and novelty of such a scene in the animal kingdom long
arrested my attention, but after twenty-five minutes of con-
stant observation, I was obliged to withdraw my eye from
fatigue, without having seen the torrent for one instant change
its direction or diminish in the slightest degree the rapidity of
its course. I continued to watch the same orifice at short
intervals for five hours, sometimes observing it for a quarter of
an hour at a time, but still the stream rolled on with a constant
and equal velocity.”
Subsequent observations have proved that the living sponge
has the power of opening and closing at pleasure its oscula,
which are capable of acting independently of each other, thus
fully establishing the animal nature of these simple organisations,
in whom latterly even traces of sensibility have been detected,
such as one would hardly expect to meet with in a sponge. For
these creatures, as we are entitled to call them, are able to
protrude from their oscula the gelatinous membrane which
clothes their channels, and on touching these protruded parts
with a needle, they were seen by Mr. Gosse to shrink imme-
diately— a proof that the sponge, however low it may rank
in the animal world, is yet far from being so totally inert or
lifeless as was formerly imagined.
The propagation of the sponges is provided for in a no less
wonderful manner than their respiration and nourishment.
Minute globular particles of sarcode sprout forth as little pro-
tuberances from the interior of the canals. As they increase in
388
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
size, they are gradually clothed with vibratile cilia, and, finally
detaching themselves, are cast out through the oscula into the
world of waters. Here their wanderings continue for a short
time, until, if they be not devoured on the way, they reach some
rock or submarine body on which, tired of their brief erratic
existence, they fix themselves for ever, and, bidding adieu to all
further rambles, lead henceforth the quiet sedentary life of their
parents. In this manner the sponges, which otherwise would
have been confined to narrow limits, spread like a living carpet
over the bottom of the seas, and in spite of their being utterly
defenceless, maintain their existence from age to age. At the
same time they serve to feed a vast number of other marine
animals, for the waters frequently swarm with their eggs, and
these afford many a welcome repast to myriads of sessile molluscs,
annelides, polyps, and other creatures small or abstemious
enough to be satisfied with feasting on atoms.
Sponges inhabit every sea and shore, and differ very much in
habit of growth. For whilst some can only be obtained by
dredging at considerable depths, others live near the surface,
and others, again, attach themselves to the surfaces of rocks and
shells between the tide marks. Like the corals, they revel in
every variety of shape and tint, imitate like them every form
of vegetation, and adorn like them the submarine grounds with
their fantastic shrubberies. The fine collection of West Indian
sponges exhibited in the Crystal Palace, but to which fancy
must add the additional ornament of colour, may serve to give
some idea of their prodigal versatility of growth. More than
sixty different species have been discovered in the British waters
alone, and as they go on increasing iu numbers, size, and beauty,
until they attain their highest development along the shores of the
tropical ocean, they no doubt hold a conspicuous rank among
the living wonders of the sea. The branched sponges, with a
compact feltred tissue, are more common than others in the colder
maritime domains, where the species of a loose texture, which
grow in large massive forms, either do not exist or are very rare.
Many sponges are of considerable size, such as the vase-like
tropical species known under the name of Neptune’s cup ; others
are almost microscopical ; and while by far the greater number
grow superficially from a solid base, some penetrate like de-
structive parasites into the texture of other animals. Thus the
THE COMMON SPONGE.
389
Halichondria celata establishes itself in the small holes which
some of the smaller annelides drill in the shell of the oyster,
eat further and further into the unfortunate mollusc’s vitals,
causing the softer parts of the shell to rot away, and spread
through its whole substance, like the dry-rot fungus through a
solid beam of timber, until, sinking under the weight of his
misery, the poor victim perishes, and his loosened shell is ca >t to
the mercy of the waves. On the other hand, some marine Acorn-
shells nestle habitually in a sponge, the normal construction ol
the base of the shell being altered to suit the peculiarities of its
habitation, so that in this instance, as in many others, there is a
foreseen relation between two very dissimilar animals. Amongst
the reticulated fibres of its spongy dwelling, the Acorn-shell
finds a secure refuge in its infant state, and is soon enclosed by
the growing fabric of the sponge-animal, except a small opening,
which is kept clear by the vortex occasioned by the constant
motion of its feelers or tentacula.
But very few of the manifold species of sponges are of any use
to man. The common sponge of commerce ( Spongia communis),
so serviceable in our households, is most abundant in the Lvcian
seas, where it is found attached to rocks at various depths
between three fathoms and thirty. When alive, it is of a
dull bluish black above, and dirty white beneath. There are
several qualities, possibly indicating as many distinct species.
“The most valued kinds,” says Edward Forbes, “are sought
for about the Gulf of Macri, along the Carian coast, and round
the opposite islands. The species which live immediately along
the shore near the water’s edge, though often large, are worthless.
These are of many colours ; some of the brightest scarlet or
clear yellow form a crust over the faces of submarine rocks ;
others are large and tubular, resembling holothurise in form
and of a gamboge colour, which soon turns to dirty brown when
taken out of the water ; others are again lobed or palmate,
studded with prickly points, and perforated at intervals with
oscula. These grow to a considerable size, but, like the former,
are useless, since their substance is full of needles of flint.”
Large quantities of excellent sponge ( Spongia usitatissima )
are likewise imported from the West Indies.
d n
390
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
CHAP. XIX.
MARINE PLANTS.
The Algae. — Zostera marina.— The Ulvse and Enteromorphae. — The Fuci. — The
Laminaria.— Macrocystis pyrifera. — Description of the Submarine Thickets at
Tierra del Fuego. — Nereocystis lutkeana. — The Sargasso Sea. — The Gathering
of edible Birds’-nests in the marine Caves of Java. — Agar-Agar. — The Floridese.
— The Diatomacese — Their importance in the economy of the Seas.
The dry land develops the most exuberant vegetation on the
lowest grounds, the plains and deep valleys, and the size and
multiplicity of plants gradually diminish as we ascend the
higher mountain regions, until at last merely naked or snow-
covered rocks raise their barren pinnacles to the skies: but the
contrary takes place in the realms of ocean: for here the greater
depths are completely denuded of vegetation, and it is only
within 600 or 800 feet from the surface that the calcareous
nullipores begin to cover the sea-bottom, as mosses and lichens
clothe the lofty mountain-tops. Gradually corallines and a
few algae associate with them, until finally about 80 or 100
feet from the surface begins the rich vegetable zone which
encircles the margin of the sea. The plants of which it is
composed do not indeed attain the same high degree of deve-
lopment as those of the dry land, being deprived of the beauties
of flower and fruit: but as the earth at different heights and
latitudes constantly changes her verdant robe, and raises our
highest admiration by the endless diversity of her ornaments,
thus also the forms of the sea-plants change, whether we descend
from the brink of ocean to a greater depth, or wander along the
coast from one sea to another ; and their delicate fronds are as
remarkable for beauty of colour and elegance of outline, as the
leaves of terrestrial vegetation.
The difference of the mediums in which land- and sea-plants
exist naturally requires a different mode of nourishment, the
TIIE GRASS WRACK.
391
former principally using their roots to extract from a varying
soil the substances necessary for their perfect growth, while the
latter absorb nourishment through their entire surface from the
surrounding waters, and use their roots chiefly as holdfasts.
The constituent parts of the soil are of the greatest importance
to land-plants, to whose organisation they are made to contri-
bute ; while to the sea-plant it is generally indifferent whether
the ground to which it is attached be granite, chalk, slate, or
sandstone, provided only its roots find a safe anchorage against
the unruly waters.
Flat rocky coasts, not too much exposed to the swell of the
waves, and interspersed with deep pools in which the water is con-
stantly retained, are thus the favourite abode of most algae,
while a loose sandy sea-bottom is generally as poor in vegetation
as the Arabian desert.
But even on sandy shores extensive submarine meadows are fre-
quently formed by the Grass Wrack ( Zostera marina), whose
creeping stems, rooting at the joints and extending to a consider-
able depth in the sand, are admirably adapted for securing a
firm position on the loose ground. Its long riband-like leaves,
of a brilliant and glossy green, wave freely in the water, and
afford shelter and nourishment to numerous marine animals and
plants. In the tropical seas it forms the submarine meadows
on which the turtles graze, and in the North of Europe it is
used for the manufacture of cheap bedding. It also furnishes
an excellent material for packing brittle ware.
Sea-weeds are usually classed in three great groups, green,
olive-coloured, and red ; and these again are subdivided into
numerous families, genera, and species.
On the British coasts alone about 400 different species are
found, and hence we may form some idea of the riches of the
submarine flora. Thousands of algae are known and classified,
but no doubt as many more at least still wait for their botanical
names, and have never yet been seen by human eye.
The Green sea-weeds, or Chlorospermeae, generally occur near
high-water mark, and love to lead an amphibious life, half in the
air and half in salt-water. The delicate Enteromorphse, similar
to threads of fine silk, and the broad brilliant Ulvae, which fre-
quently cover the smooth boulders with a glossy vesture of lively
green, belong to this class. Many of them are remarkable for
D D 2
392
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
their wide geographical distribution. Thus the Ulva Icctissima
and the Enteromorpha compressa of our shores thrive also in
the cold waters of the Arctic Sea, fringe the shores of the tropical
ocean, and project into the southern hemisphere as far as the
desolate head-lands of Tierra del Fuego. But few animals or
plants possess so pliable a nature, and such adaptability to the
most various climates.
The Olive-coloured group of sea-weeds, or Melanospermeae,
plays a much more considerable part in the economy of the
ocean. The common fuci, which on the ebbing of the tide im-
part to the shore cliffs their peculiar dingy colour, belong to this
class ; as well as the mighty Laminarias, which about the level
of ordinary low water, and one or two fathoms below that
limit, fringe the rocky shore with a broad belt of luxuriant
vegetation.
The first olive-coloured sea-weed we meet with on the reced-
ing of the flood is the small and slender Fucus canaliculatus,
easily known by its narrow grooved stems and branches, and
the absence of air-vessels. Then follows Fucus nodosus, a large
species, with tough thong-like stems, expanding at intervals
into knob-like air-vessels, and covered in winter and spring with
bright yellow berries. Along with it we find the gregarious
Fucus vesiculosus, with its forked leaf traversed by a midrib,
and covered with numerous air-vessels situated in pairs at each
side of the rib. Finally, about the level of half-tide, a fourth
species of fucus appears, Fucus serratus, distinguished from
all the rest by its toothed margin and the absence of air-
vessels.
These four species generally occupy the littoral zone of our
sea-girt isle, being found in greatest abundance on flat rocky
shores, particularly on the western coasts of Scotland and Ireland,
where they used formerly to be burnt in large quantities for
the manufacture of kelp or carbonate of soda, which is now
obtained by a less expensive process. In Orcadia alone more
than 20,000 persons were employed during the whole summer
in the collection and incineration of sea-weeds, a valuable re-
source for the poverty-stricken islanders, of which they have
been deprived by the progress of chemical science.
The fuci are, however, still largely used, either burnt or in a
fermented state, as a valuable manure for green crops. Thus
■I
A RUSSIAN OFFICIAL, ATTENDED BY A SOLDIER,
COLLECTING ALGiE ON THE SHORES OF THE
NORTH PACIFIC.
The annexed plate is taken from the frontispiece cf the magnificent folio volume
by Messrs. Ruprecht and Postels, on the Algae of the North Pacific. This work, in
which even the largest of the marine plants of that region are represented of their
natural size, was published at the expense of the Russian Government, and copies
were presented to some of the principal libraries of Europe.
In the middle distance, a Russian official belonging to one of the settlements
is seen gathering algae, attended by a soldier.
In the front of the picture the water is supposed to be so clear as to show dis-
tinctly the growth of sea-weeds of various kinds, which clothe the submarine
rocks in that region. Some species of these have been added to the number
show in the original composition.
In the centre, with the light fully upon them, are streaming plants of a gigantic
A/aria, whose fronds sometimes extend to a length of 40 feet. Immediately beneath
it, to the right, is the curiously perforated Agarium Gmclini, the singular perfora-
tions of which are indicated by small white patches.
To the right is the curious “ flower-bearing ” sea-weed known as the Sea Rose,
Constcintinea Rosa marina , the flower-like growth of which, combined with the
pink colour of its seeming flowers, is very remarkable.
In front, and rather to the right of the last, is a dark mass of the splendid
Iridcea Mertensiana , the dark velvety masses of which, of a deep crimson colour,
are often more than a foot across.
To the right of the last, in the corner, is one of the most beautiful of the ulvae,
Ulva fenestrata, a name which may be popularised as the “ windowed ” ulva, in
allusion to its extremely perforated character, the openings being of considerabR
size, and often separated from each other only by the slenderest divisions, thus
forming a kind of vegetable lace-work.
THE MACROCYSTIS TYRIFERA.
393
every year several small vessels are sent from Jersey to the
coast of Brittany, to fetch cargoes of sea-weeds for the farmers
of that island.
The largest of indigenous sea- weeds are the Laminaria
saocharina and digitata, or the sugary and fingered oar-weeds.
Their stout woody stems, and broad tough glossy leaves of
dark olive-green, often twelve or fourteen feet long, must be
familiar to every one who has sojourned on the coast. When
gliding over their submerged groves in a boat, their great fronds
floating like streamers in the water afford the interesting
spectacle of a dense submarine thicket, through whose palm-like
tops the fishes swim in and out, emulating in activity the
birds of our forests.
But our native oar- weeds, large as they seem with regard to
the other fuci among which they grow, are mere pygmies when
compared with the gigantic sjmcies which occur in the colder
seas.
None of the members of this family grow in the tropical
waters, but they extend to the utmost polar limits, and seem to
increase in size and multiplicity of form as they advance to the
higher latitudes. The northern hemisphere has generally dif-
ferent genera from the southern. To the former belong the
gigantic Alarias with their often forty feet long and several
feet broad fronds, the singularly perforated Thalassophyta, and
the far-spreading Nereocystis, which is only found in the
Northern Pacific ; while the genera Macrocystis and Lessonia
are denizens of the Southern Ocean.
In the numerous channels and bays of Tierra del Fuego, the
enormous and singular Macrocystis jpyrifera is found in such
incredible masses as to excite the astonishment of every traveller.
“ On every rock,” says Mr. Darwin, perhaps the best observer of
nature that ever visited those dreary regions, and certainly then-
most poetical describer, “ the plant grows from low-water mark
to a great depth, both on the outer coast and within the channels.
I believe, during the voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, not
one rock near the surface was discovered which was not buoyed by
this floating weed. The good service it thus affords to vessels
navigating near this stormy land is evident, and it certainly
has saved many a one from being wrecked. I know few
things more surprising than to see this plant growing and
C94
THE INHABITANTS OP THE SEA.
flourishing amidst those great breakers of the western ocean,
which no mass of rock, let it be ever so hard, can long resist.
The stem is round, slimy, and smooth, and seldom has a
diameter of so much as an inch. A few taken together are
sufficiently strong to support the weight of the large loose
stones to which in the inland channels they grow attached ;
and some of these stones are so heavy, that when drawn to
the surface they can scarcely be lifted into a boat by one
person.”
“ Captain Cook, in his second voyage says, that * at Kerguelen's
Land some of this weed is of most enormous length, though the
stem is not much thicker than a man’s thumb. I have men-
tioned that, on some of these shoals on which it grows, we did
not strike ground with a line of twenty-four fathoms ; the
depth of water, therefore, must have been greater. And as this
weed does not grow in a perpendicular direction, but makes a
very acute angle with the bottom, and much of it afterwards
spreads many fathoms on the surface of the sea, I am well
warranted to say that some of it grows to the length of sixty
fathoms and upwards.’
“Certainly at the Falkland Islands, and about Tierra del
Fuego, extensive beds frequently spring up from ten and fifteen
fathoms water. I do not suppose the stem of any other plant
attains so great a length as 360 feet, as stated by Captain Cook.
Its geographical range is very considerable ; it is found from the
extreme southern islets near Cape Horn, as far north on the
eastern coast as lat. 43°, and on the western it was tolerably
abundant, but far from luxuriant, at Chiloe, in lat. 42°. It
may possibly extend a little further northward, but is soon
succeeded by a different species.
“We thus have a range of 15° in latitude, and as Cook, who
must have been well acquainted with the species, found it at
Kerguelen’3 Land, no less than 140° in longitude.
“ The number of living creatures, of all orders, whose existence
intimately depends on the kelp, is wonderful. A large volume
might be written, describing the inhabitants of one of these beds
of sea-weed. Almost every leaf, except those that float on the
surface, is so thickly incrusted with corallines as to be of a white
colour. We find exquisitely delicate structures, some inhabited
by simple hydra-like polypi, others by more organised kinds
SUBMARINE FORESTS.
305
and beautiful compound ascidise. On the flat surfaces of the
leaves, various patelliform shells, trochi, uncovered mollusks, and
some bivalves are attached. Innumerable Crustacea frequent
every part of the plant. On shaking the great entangled roots,
a pile of small fish, shells, cuttle-fish, crabs of all orders, sea-
eggs, star-fish, beautiful holothurise (some taking the external
form of the nudibranch mollusks), planar he, and crawling
nereidous animals of a multitude of forms, all fall out together.
Often as I recurred to a branch of the kelp, I never failed to dis-
cover animals of new and curious structure. In Chiloe, where, as I
have said, the kelp did not thrive very well, the numerous shells,
corallines, and Crustacea were absent, but there yet remained a
few of the Flustracese, and some compound ascidiee ; the latter,
however, were of different species from those in Tierra del Fuego.
We here see the fucus possessing a wider range than the animals
which use it as an abode.
“I can only compare these great aquatic forests of the southern
hemisphere with the terrestrial ones in the intertropical regions.
Yet, if the latter should be destroyed in any country, I do not
believe nearly so many species of animals would perish, as under
similar circumstances would happen with the kelp. Amidst the
leaves of this plant numerous species of fish live, which nowhere
else would find food or shelter ; with their destruction the many
cormorants, divers, and other fishing-birds, the otters, seals,
and porpoises, would soon perish also; and lastly the Fuegian
savage, the miserable lord of this miserable land, would redou-
ble his cannibal feast, decrease in numbers, and perhaps cease
to exist.”
For many a day’s sail before reaching Cape Horn, large
bundles of the macrocystis detached by the storm announce to
the navigator that he is approaching the desolate coasts of
Tierra del Fuego.
“ We succeeded,” says Professor Meyen, in his Reise urn die
Welt, “ in getting hold of one of these floating islands, which,
amid loud acclamations, was hauled upon deck by the exertions
of five men. It was quite impossible to disentangle the enor-
mous mass ; we could only detach, to the length of about sixty
feet, what we considered to be the chief stem ; the branches
were from thirty to forty feet long, and as thick as the principal
trunk from which they sprang. We estimated the total length
396
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
of the plant at about two hundred feet; the pear-shaped air-
vessels at the basis of the leaves were often six or seven inches
long, and the leaves themselves measured seven or eight feet.
On these swimming fucus-islands lived a vast multitude of
various animals ; thousands upon thousands of barnacles and
sertulariae, of crustaceans and annelides.
“ The admiration which the gigantic sea-weeds of Tierra del
Fuego excited in our minds equalled that which had been raised
by the exuberant vegetation of the virgin forests of Brazil.
One single plant of the Macrocystis pyrifera would suffice,
like one of the mammoth-trees of those luxuriant woods, to
cover a large space of land with its leaf-like substance. The
quantity of small algae, of sertularias, cellarias, and other
minute animals dwelling on these swimming islands, surpasses
in variety the multitude of parasitical plants bedecking the
trees in a tropical forest. It seems as if, in these desolate and
dreary regions, the generative powers of the planet were solely
confined to the gigantic growth of submarine vegetation.”
On the rocky coasts of the Falkland Islands are found no less
astonishing masses of enormous sea-weeds, chiefly belonging
to the genera Macrocystis, Lessonia, and Durvillea. Rent from
the rocks to which they were attached, and cast ashore, they
are rolled by the heavy surf into prodigious vegetable cables,
much thicker than a man’s body and several hundred feet long.
Many of the rarest and most beautiful algae may be here dis-
covered, which have either been wrenched from inaccessible rocks
far out at sea, along with the larger species, or have attached
themselves parasitically to their stems and fronds. Many of
them remind the botanist, by some similarity of form, of the
sea-weeds of his distant home, while others tell him at once that
he is far away in another hemisphere. The gigantic lessonias
particularly abound about these islands. Their growth resembles
that of a tiee. The stem attains a height of from eight to ten
feet, the thickness of a man’s thigh, and terminates in a crown
of leaves two or three feet long, and drooping like the branches
of a weeping-willow. They form large submerged forests, and,
like the thickets of the macrocystis, afford a refuge and a
dwelling to countless sea animals.
A similar abundance of colossal algae is found in the Northern
Pacific, about the Kurile and Aleutic Islands, and along the
TIIE SARGASSO SEA.
397
deeply indented and cliannel-furrowed north-west coast of
America.
Thus the Nereocystis lutkeana forms dense forests in Norfolk
Bay and all about Sitcha. Its stem, resembling whipcord, and
often above 300 feet long, terminates in a large air-vessel, six
or seven feet long, and crowned with a bunch of dichotomous
leaves, each thirty or forty feet in length. Dr. Mertens assures
us that the sea-otter, when fishing, loves to rest upon the colos-
sal air-vessels of this giant among the sea-weeds, while the long
tenacious stems furnish the rude fishermen of the coast with
excellent tackle. The growth of the nereocystis must be un-
commonly rapid, as it is an annual plant, and consequently
develops its whole gigantic proportions during the course of one
brief summer.
Before proceeding to the third chief group of marine plants,
the red sea-weeds, or Khodosperms, I must mention the enor-
mous fucus banks, or floating meadows of the Atlantic, which
form undoubtedly one of the greatest wonders of the ocean.
We know that the mighty Grulf Stream, which rolls its indigo-
blue floods from America to the opposite coasts of the Old World,
flows partly southwards in the neighbourhood of Azores, and is
ultimately driven back again to America. In the midst of these
circuitous streams, from 22° to 36° N. lat., and from 35° to 65° W.
long., extends a sea without any other currents than those result-
ing from the temporary action of the winds. This comparatively
tranquil part of the ocean, the surface of which surpasses at least
twenty times that of the British Isles, is found more or less densely
covered with floating masses of Sargassum bacciferum. Often
the sea-weed surrounds the ship sailing through these savannas
of the sea, in such quantities as to retard its progress, and then
again hours may pass when not a single fucus appears. While
Columbus was boldly steering through the hitherto unknown
fields of the Sargasso Sea, the fears of his timorous associates
were increased by this singular phenomenon, as they believed
they had now reached the bounds of the navigable ocean, and
must inevitably strike against some hidden rock, if their com-
mander persevered in his audacious course.
It is an interesting fact that the Sargasso Sea affords the most
remarkable example of an aggregation of plants belonging to one
sinele species. Nowhere else, according to Humboldt, neither in
398
THE INHABITANTS OE THE SEa.
the savannas of America, nor on the heaths or in the pine forests
of Northern Europe, is such a uniformity of vegetation found as
in those boundless maritime meadows.
“ The masses of sea-weeds,” says Meyen, “ covering so vast an
extent of ocean have ever since the time of Coiambus been the
object of astonishment and inquiry. Some navigators believe
that they are driven together by the Gulf Stream, and that the
same species of Sargassum plentifully occurs in the Mexican Sea ;
this is however perfectly erroneous.
“ Humboldt was of opinion that this marine plant originally
grows on submarine banks, from which it is torn by various
forces ; I for my part have examined many thousands of speci-
mens, and venture to affirm that they never have been attached
to any solid body. Freely floating in the water, they have
developed their young germs, and sent forth on all sides roots
and leaves, both of the same nature.”
Thus the Sargassum seems to be the indigenous production of
the sea where it appears, and to have floated there from time
immemorial. Its swimming islands afford an abode and
nourishment to a prodigious amount of animal life. They are
generally covered with elegant sertularias, coloured vorticellas,
and other strange forms of marine existence. Various naked or
nudibranchiate mollusks and annelides attach themselves to the
fronds, and afford nourishment to hosts of fishes and crustaceans,
the beasts of prey of this little world.
Similar aggregations of sea-weeds are also met with in the
Indian and Pacific Oceans, in the comparatively tranquil spaces
encircled by rotatory currents. Their rare occurrence on the
surface of the sea may serve as a proof of the restless motion of
its waters. Were the ocean not everywhere intersected by cur-
rents, it would most likely be covered with sea- weeds, opposing
serious, if not invincible obstacles to navigation.
The Red sea-weeds, Rhodosperms or Florideae, are by far the
most numerous in species, and undoubtedly the most beautiful and
perfect of all the algae. They love neither light nor motion, and
generally seek the shade of larger plants on the perpendicular sides
of deep tide-pools removed from the influences of the tides and
gales. They mostly grow close to low-water mark, and are to be
seen only for an hour or two at the spring-tides, during which, as
is well known, the deepest ebbs take place. To this group be-
THE SALAXGAXA.
3G9
long the wonderfully delicate polysiphonias, callithamnias, ploca-
mias, and delesserias, whose elegant rosy scarlet or purple leaves
are the amateur’s delight, and when laid out on paper resemble
the finest tracery, defying the painter’s art to do justice to their
beauty. It likewise numbers among its genera the chalky coral-
lines and nullipores, which on account of the hardness of their
substance were formerly considered to be polyps, but whose
true nature becomes apparent on examining their internal
structure.
The Ghondrus crispus, or Carrigeen, which grows in such vast
quantities on the coasts of the British Isles, also belongs to the
rhodospenns, though when growing, as it frequently does, in
shallow tide-pools, exposed to full sunlight, its dark purple colour
fades into green or even yellowish white. When boiled it
almost entirely dissolves in the water, and forms on cooling a
colourless and almost tasteless jell}7, which of late years has been
largely used in medicine as a substitute for Iceland moss. Si-
milar nutritious gelatines, which also serve for the manufacture
of strong glues, are yielded by other species of rhodosperms,
among others by the Gracillaria spinosa of the Indian Ocean,
which the Salangana ( Hirundo esculenta), a bird allied to the
swallow, is said principally to use for the construction of her
edible nest.
The steep sea-walls along the south coast of Java are clothed
to the very brink with luxuriant woods, and screw-pines strike
everywhere their roots into their precipitous sides, or look down
by thousands from the margin of the rock upon the unruly sea
below. The surf of incalculable years has worn deep caves into
the chalk cliffs, and here the Salangana builds her nest. Where
the sea is most agitated whole swarms are observed flying about,
and purposely seeking the thickest wave-foam. From a pro-
jecting cape, on looking down upon the play of waters, may be
seen the mouth of the cave of Gaia Rongkop, sometimes com-
pletely hidden under the waves, and then again opening its
black recesses, into which the swallows vanish, or from which
they dart forth with the rapidity of lightning. While at some
distance from the coast the blue ocean sleeps in undisturbed
repose, it never ceases to fret and foam against the foot of the
mural rocks, where the most beautiful rainbows glisten in the
ecernally rising vapours.
400
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
Who can explain the instinct which prompts the birds to glue
their nests to the high dark vaults of those deep, and apparently
so inaccessible, caverns ? Did they expect to find them a safe
retreat from the persecutions of man? Then surely their hopes
were vain, for where is the refuge to which his insatiable avidity
cannot find the way ? At the cavern of Grua-gede, the brink
of the precipitous coast lies eighty feet above the level of the sea at
ebb-tide ; the wall first bends inwards, and then, at a height of
twenty-five feet from the sea, throws out a projecting ledge which
is of great use to the nest-gatherers, serving as a support for a
rotang ladder let down from the cliff. The roof of the cavern’s
mouth lies only ten feet above the sea, which, even at ebb-tide,
completely covers the floor of the cave, while at flood-tide the
opening of the vast marine grotto is entirely closed by every wave
that rolls against it. To penetrate into the interior is thus only
possible at low water, and during very tranquil weather ; and even
then it could not be done, if the rugged roof were not perforated
and jagged in every direction. The boldest and strongest of the
nest-gatherers wedges himself firml}7 in the hollows, or clings to
the projecting stones, while he fastens rotang ropes to them, which
then depend four or five feet from the roof. To the lower ends of
these ropes long rotang cables are attached, so that the whole forms
a kind of suspension bridge throughout the entire length of the
cavern, alternately falling and rising with its inequalities. The
cave is 100 feet broad and 150 long as far as its deepest recesses.
If we justly admire the intrepidity of the St. Kildans, who, let
down by a rope from the high level of their rocky birthplace,
remain suspended over a boisterous sea, we must needs also pay a
tribute of praise to the boldness of the Javanese nest-gatherers.
Before preparing their ladders for the plucking of the birds’ nests,
they first offer solemn prayers to the goddess of the south-coast,
and sometimes deposit gifts on the tomb where the first dis-
coverer of the caverns and their treasures is said to repose.
Thus in all zones and in every stage of civilisation, man is
directed by an inward voice to seek the protection of the invisible
powers when about to engage in a great and perilous undertaking.
As I have already mentioned, the Salangana builds her nest of
sea-weeds, which she softens in her stomach and then disgorges.
During its construction new layers, which soon grow hard in
the air, are continually deposited on the margin, until it has
EDIBLE BIRDS NESTS.
401
attained the proper size. When gathering time approaches,
some of the pluckers daily visit the cavern to examine the state
of the brood. As soon as they find that most of the young are
beginning to he provided •with feathers, their operations com-
mence. These nests form the first c|uality; those in which the
young are still completely naked, the second; while those which
only contain eggs, and are consequently not yet ripe, rank third.
The nests with young whose feathers are completely developed
are over-ripe, black, and good for nothing. All the young and
eggs are thrown into the sea. The gathering takes place three
times a year; the birds breed four times a year. In spite of
these wholesale devastations their numbers do not diminish ;
as many of the young have no doubt flown away before the
day of execution, or other swallows from still unexplored caverns
may fill up the void. In this manner about 50 piculs are
annually collected, which the Chinese pay for at the rate of
4000 or 5000 guilders the picul. Each picul contains on an
average 10,000 nests. Dividing these 500,000 nests among
three gatherings, and reckoning two birds to each nest, we find
that more than 333,000 swallows inhabit at the same time the
Javanese coast caverns.
In the interior of the island, in the chalkstone grottos of
Bandong, the Salangana also breeds, but in far inferior numbers,
as here the annual collection amounts on an average to no more
than 14,000 nests. In these inland caves swallows and bats
reside together, but without disturbing each other, as the
former tvhen not breeding leave their caverns at sunrise,
disappear in the distance, and only return late in the evening,
when the bats are already enjoying their vespertine or nocturnal
flight.
In Sumatra and some other islands of the Indian archipelago,
birds’ nests are likewise collected, but nowhere in such numbers
as in Java. They are brought to the Chinese market, where
they are carefully cleaned before being offered for sale to the
consumer. The addition of costly spices renders them one of
the greatest delicacies of Chinese cookery, but as for themselves
thej7 are nothing better than a fine sort of gelatine.
The Japanese have long been aware that these costly birds’ ne«ts
are in fact merely softened algse. They consequently pulverise
the proper species of sea-weeds, which are abundantly found on
402
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
their own coasts, boil them to a thick jelly, and bring them to
market under the name of Dschin-schan, as artiticial birds’-
nests. The Dutch call it Agar-agar, and make great use of it ;
simple boiling sufficing to convert the dried substance into a
thick uniform jelly, which is both nourishing and easy of diges-
tion. Thus we see that the algae, which the Romans considered
so perfectly worthless that, when they wished to express theii
utter contempt of an object, they declared it to be still vilei
than the vile sea-weed, are by no means deserving of so hard a
sentence. Man himself might be much more justly reproached
for neglecting the abundant stores of nourishment which nature
has gratuitously provided for him on all flat and rocky coasts.
For not only the species I have mentioned are eatable, but also
some of the commonest fuci of our seas ( Fucus nodosus, F. vesi-
culosus, Laminaria saccharina), as well as the gigantic alarias
and durvilleas of the colder oceanic regions. And yet how
rare is their use, notwithstanding the increasing wants of a
rapidly growing population !
Besides the larger forms of vegetation, the ocean contains a
vast number of microscopical plants. Among these the most
remarkable are the Diatomacese, simple vegetable cells enclosed
in a flinty envelope, consisting of two plates closely applied
to each other like the two valves of a mussel. The forms of
these minute organisms are no
less curious than those of the
Foraminifera, for they exhibit
regular mathematical figures,
and their surface is often
most delicately sculptured.
Multiplying by spontaneous
fissure, many of the Diatoms
are met with entirely free
after the process of duplicative
subdivision has once been com-
pleted, while others, such as the
Licmophora, or Fan-bearer, an elegant native species, habitually
remain coherent one to another, producing clusters or filaments
of various shapes, connected by a gelatinous investment or by a
stalk-like appendage, which serves to attach them to other
plants or to stones and to pieces of wood. Though individually
Surirella constriota.
A. Front view. B. Binary subdivision. — (Highly
magnified.)
DIATOMS.
403
invisible to the naked eye, they appear, when thus congregated,
as patches of a green or brownish slimy mass, or as little glitter-
ing tufts a line or two in height. Some of their numerous
species are natives of fresh water, but by far the majority are
denizens of the sea, where
they are found from the
equator to the poles. The
brown scum floating upon
the surface of the antarc-
tic waters near the mighty
ice barrier which arrested
Sir James Ross’s progress
to the south pole was
found to consist almost
solely of Diatoinacese, and
they are equally abundant
in the Arctic Ocean.
It is remarked by Dr.
Hooker that the univer-
sal presence of this invi-
sible vegetation through-
out the South Polar Seas
is a most important fea-
ture, since there is a marked deficiency in this region of higher
forms of vegetation, so that without the Diatoms there
would neither be food for aquatic animals nor (if it were
possible for these to maintain themselves by preying on one
another) could the ocean waters he purified of the carbonic
acid which animal respiration would be continually imparting
to it. Thus it is not in vain that they abound in the most
inhospitable seas, where but for them no sea-bird would flap
its wings, and no dolphin dart through the desert waters.
From the indestructible nature of their flinty coverings the
Diatoms play a no less conspicuous part in the geological his-
tory of our globe than the calcareous Foraminifera.
Extensive rocky strata, chains of hills, beds of marl — once de-
posited at the bottom of the ocean, and raised by subsequent
changes of level from the depth of the waters — contain the
remains of these little plants in greater or less abundance. No
country is destitute of such monuments, and in some they con-
404
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
stitute the leading features in the structure of the soil. Under
the whole city of Richmond, in Virginia, and far beyond its
limits, over an area of unknown extent, they form a stratum of
eighteen feet in thickness, and similar deposits are found to
alternate in the neighbourhood of the Mediterranean with
calcareous strata chiefly composed of Foraminifera. At first
sight it may seem a gross exaggeration to attribute so vast an
agency to beings individually so minute, but when we recollect
how quickly they multiply by division, and how their activity
dates from the first dawn of organic creation, their architectural
powers no longer seem incredible. In forty-eight hours a single
diatom may multiply to 8,000,000, and in four days to
140,000,000,000,000, when the silicious coverings of its enor-
mous progeny will already suffice to fill up a space of two cubic
feet. No wonder, then, that during the course of ages these micro-
scopic plants have been able to form prodigious strata wherever
circumstances favoured their propagation. In no case is the
power of numbers more forcibly exemplified, for where can we
find results more vast, proceeding from the infinite multiplica-
tion of the smallest individuals, than that whole tracts of country
should literally be built up of the skeletons of Foraminifera and
Diatomacese ?
Hooded Merganser.
406
CHAP. XX.
THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF MARINE LIFE.
The Dependence of all created Beings upon Space and Time. — The Influences
which regulate the Distribution of Marine Life. — The four Bathymetrical Zones
of Marine Life on the British Coasts, according to the late Professor Edward
Forbes of Edinburgh. — Abyssal Animal — Bathybius Haeclcelii. — Deep-Sea
Sponges and Shell-Fish. — Vivid Phosphorescence of Deep-Sea Animals. — Deep-
Sea Shark Fishery. — The “ Challenger.”
The wanderer to distant lands sees himself gradually surrounded
by a new world of animals and plants. On crossing the Alps, for
instance, the well-known vegetable forms of our native country
leave us one after the other ; the beech, the fir, the oak, no
longer meet the eye, or appear but rarely, and of more stunted
growth, while in their stead citron and olive-trees decorate the
landscape ; and finally, on the shores of the Mediterranean the
world of palms begins to disclose its beauties.
Thus during a long journey our early companions drop off
one after the other, until at last we see ourselves surrounded by
a crowd of new associates, who were strangers to us at the begin-
ning of our pilgrimage.
We may cross the earth from pole to pole, or follow tne sun
in his diurnal course; in all directions, from north to south and
from east to west, Nature will be found to change her garments
as we proceed, and never to resume again those she has once
cast off. The plants and animals of the temperate and cold
regions of the north are different from those of the analogous
regions in the southern hemisphere ; and in the tropical zone
each part of the world nourishes its peculiar inhabitants.
Similar changes meet our eye on ascending from the plains to
the summits of high mountains. At the foot of Etna flourishes
the luxuriant vegetation of a warmer sky, the palmetto t Chamce-
rops humilis) and the pomegranate, even the cotton shrub and
the sugar-cane ; higher up, the cool shade of magnificent chestnut
woods refreshes our path ; then follows the stately oak; until finally
we attain the dreary height where all vegetation ceases in the
e ii 2
406
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
dreadful cold of an eternal winter. With every thousand feet we
rise above the level of the sea, we seem to have advanced nearer
and nearer to the pole.
This wonderful change of form, which decorates the various
regions of the earth with such an endless variety of organised
existence, alike prevails in the realms of ocean. Here we find
every larger sea-basin nourishing its peculiar inhabitants, and
discover at various vertical distances beneath the surface of the
sea, changes in organic nature similar to those we observed at
different distances above its level.
Thousands of extinct animal and vegetable forms, which have
successively flourished and disappeared, teach us the important
lesson, that all created beings are made but for a season. It is
only during a determined epoch of planetary life that each genus
or species finds that combination of outward circumstances, undei
which it is able to attain its highest perfection. But imper
ceptibly, in the course of ages, the external world modifies its
nature; families once flourishing in a different atmosphere
decline and wither ; they are no longer able to maintain them-
selves against new forms of life starting up in all the vigour of
youth, and disappear from the scene, supplanted by races which
must one day vanish in their turn.
Organic life is no less dependent on place than it is on time.
Of the numberless animal and vegetable forms that people the
earth, each finds in only one spot the scene of its greatest size
and its greatest profusion. Some endowed with a more pliable
or energetic nature occupy a large space upon the surface ot
the globe ; we find them in the enjoyment of healthy exist-
ence scattered far and wide over whole hemispheres, while
others are obliged to content themselves with the narrowest
birthplace, and are not seldom confined to a single bay, ox
a single mountain side.
A great part of the magic charm of nature is owing no doubt
to this deep and mysterious connexion between the soil and its
productions. Here all is harmony ; we feel it in our hearts; and
our eye delights in the consonance of forms and colours, as our
ear in the concord of sweet sounds. And where is the mortal
artist whose paintings could rival the ever-changing panorama
which the Master of all worlds unfolds through all zones, from
pole to pole ? His pictures constantly fade away ; but they arc
DISTRIBUTION OF MARINE LIFE.
407
perpetually succeeded by new creations of equal beauty. Happy
the man whose eye is open to their charms ! Every ramble
through the woods and fields is to him a banquet of pure and
inexhaustible delight.
The causes which confine the life of animals and plants to
circumscribed localities are in many cases easily to be traced.
The warmth or coldness of the sea, resulting from currents,
geographical position, and depth ; tranquil or disturbed, pure or
troubled waters; abundance or scarcity of food, solidity or softness
of the ground, sufficiently explain why many species of marine
animals appear in some places in considerable numbers, while in
others they are totally wanting. A superficial view of their
organisation often shows us at once the physical properties their
habitat must necessarily possess. By looking at a fucus we
immediately see whether it requires the protection of tranquil
waters, or is able to bid defiance to the floods ; whether it is
made to anchor upon the rock, or to sink its roots into a more
yielding soil.
In many cases, however, the causes which regulate the distri-
bution of the sea-animals are still enveloped in darkness, and we
no more know why the tropical seas bring forth in some places
numerous coral-reefs, and none at all in other to all appearance
just as favourably situated localities, than we do why the tea-
plant is confined to a small corner of Asia, or the Peruvian
cinchonas to a narrow girdle on the Andes.
Evidently, besides the influences known to us, there are
many other hidden ones at work, whose conflicting powers draw
round every living creature a mysterious circle, whose bounds it
is unable to transgress. Their discovery belongs to the future,
and certainly forms one of the most interesting subjects for the
naturalist’s inquiries.
The geographical distribution of the terrestrial plants and
animals is undoubtedly much easier to be ascertained than that
of the denizens of the ocean. The naturalist is able to climb
the highest mountains beyond the extreme limit of vegetation,
and far above their most towering peaks his eye, piercing the
transparent atmosphere, sees the condor soar in solitary majesty ;
he can wander through the deepest glens, or even, penetrating
into the bowels of the earth, examine and collect the forms of
the subterranean flora ; but it has not been given him to perarn-
408
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
bulate the submarine meads, or to force his way leisurely through
dense thickets of algae, and explore their hidden wonders.
Yet, in spite of these natural impediments, his inventive
genius, fired by his insatiable avidity of knowledge, has given
him the means of interrogating the abyss, and partly raising the
veil behind which marine life conceals its secret operations.
Armed with a dredge, he fetches from the bottom of the sea
plants, polypi, mollusks, and annelides, and learns to distinguish
the various depths assigned for their abode ; or he puts on the
helmet of the submarine diver, and passes whole hours in collect-
ing and observing beneath the clear waters of the sea ; or he
drops the plummet hundreds of fathoms deep into the ocean,
and draws it up again coated with specimens of corals or Forami-
nifera.
To the late Professor Edward Forbes of Edinburgh science
is indebted for the first investigations of this nature that have
been undertaken on a greater scale; and, to give the reader
some idea of the causes which regulate the distribution of marine
life, I cannot do better than cite a few of the general results of
that eminent naturalist’s researches.*
As the animals and plants of the land are grouped together
into distinct zoological and botanical provinces, so likewise is
the population of the sea gathered into geographical groups,
which, though well marked in their more central and most deve-
loped portions, imperceptibly merge at their margins into those
of neighbouring realms. “ These submarine provinces have a
more or less direct correspondence with those of the neighbouring
lands, though sometimes they differ very considerably from the
latter in their extent; since the physical features which may
constitute boundaries in the one, may not be sufficiently ex-
tende’d or developed in the other to impede the spread of
peculiar species of animals or plants. Marine creatures, owing
to their organisation and the transporting powers of the element
in which they live, are much more capable of diffusion, as a
whole, than the terrestrial organisms ; hence we should expect to
find the regions they respectively inhabit, beneath the waves, of
much vaster dimensions than those occupied by similar geogra-
* Natural History of the European Seas, by tlie late Professor E. Forbes. Edited
by K. Godwin Austen, 1859.
INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE.
409
phical assemblages of their terrestrial brethren ; and such is to a
great extent true. Nevertheless, the inequalities of the sea-bed,
the modifications of the temperature of the ocean produced by
currents pouring through it like mighty rivers, the projection of
promontories, and the more important interruptions caused by
the great gulfs and abysses of the deep, or by vast and compara-
tively desert tracts of unprolific sand, which in many places are
spread out in extensive shallows, are all-powerful influences,
determining their diffusion within certain and more or less defined
limits.”
The structure of the coast, as far as the mineral character of
its rocks is concerned, may seriously affect the distribution of
particular tribes. Since many shell-fish, for instance, bore only in
limestone or rocks containing abundance of lime, a very ordinary
difference in the nature of the strata must necessarily determine
their presence or absence.
The outline of a coast has also great influence in regulatin'?
the diffusion of species. A much indented region is very
favourable to submarine life ; a straight coast-line, exposed to the
full rolling of the surf, is usually unfavourable, though there are a
few creatures which delight in the dash of the waves, and hardily,
though some of them are small and exceeding^ delicate, brave
the full force of the ocean storms, reminding us, as Mr. Godwin
Austen quaintly remarks, “ of those sturdy people, not uncommon
in this stormy life, who thrive best in troubles, and feel happiest
under conditions that make most men miserable.”
The nature of the sea-bottom, according as it consists of
mud, sand, gravel, nullipore, broken shells, loose stones, or
rock, determines, to a great extent, the presence or absence of
peculiar forms of shell-fish and other invertebrata, and of fish
also, since the distribution of the food regulates that of the
devourers.
The rise and fall of the tides are most important in deter-
mining the presence or absence of the species inhabiting the
littoral zone. The currents, besides their agency as modifiers
of climate, act as means of transport, by carrying the germs and
larvae of numerous creatures from region to region.
The influence of climate is conspicuously manifested in the
diminution of the number of genera and species as we proceed
northwards to the Icy Ocean.
•f
410
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
The composition of the waters has also a most important
effect on the distribution of aquatic animals, as the degree of
saltness or freshness determines the presence or absence of
numerous forms of both fishes and invertebrate animals ; and
last, not least, the influence of depth, in which pressure and
the diminution of light are doubtless important elements, is
everywhere manifest over the ocean, “ for everywhere we find
creatures, whether animal or vegetable, distributed in successive
belts or regions, from high-water mark down to the deepest
abysses from which living beings have been drawn up. Peculiar
types inhabit each of the zones, and are confined within their
destined limits, whilst others are common to two or more, and
not a few appear capable of braving all bathymetrical conditions.
Nevertheless, so marked is the appearance of the inhabitants of
any given region of depth, that the sight of a sufficient assem-
blage of them from any one locality will enable the naturalist
at once to declare the soundings within certain limits, and
without the aid of line or plummet.”
In the British seas four distinct and well-marked zones of
life succeed each other in vertical extension. The first of these
is the littoral zone, equivalent to the tract between tide-marks,
but quite as manifest in those portions of the coast-line where
the tides have a fall of only a foot or two, or even less, as in
districts where the fall is very great. This important belt,
which again forms four subdivisions, and is inhabited by
animals and plants capable of enduring periodical exposure to
the air, to the glare of light, the heat of the sun, the pelting
of rain, and often to being more or less 'flooded with fresh
water when the tide has receded, claims many genera as well
as species peculiar to itself. “ The verge of continual air is gene-
rally distinguished by the abundant presence of Fucus canalx-
cidcdus, among whose roots may be found crowds of small
varieties of the periwinkle, called Littorina ruclis, which indeed
range out of the water considerably, and may be found adhering
to rocks many feet above high-water mark.” The second sub-
region is marked by the abundance of a small dark rigid sea-
weed, called Li china, painting the rock sides as if with a dingy
stripe. With it we find the larger forms of Littorina rudis,
abundance of the common limpet ( Patella vulgata), the com-
mon mussel (il lytilus edulis), and myriads of small seaside
ZOXES OF MARINE LIFE.
411
barnacles, often striping the sea-wall in a broad white band.
“Where the shore shelves a little, and rocky ledges decline
gradually into the sea, the common mussel delights to live,
firmly anchored by its byssal cable
in the crevices of rocks or among
masses of gravel, the pebbles of
which are tied together by its
silky filaments.” The rock sides
and the floors of transparent pools
are here often thickly coated with
a nullipore, forming a hard pale Limpet,
red crust. The region of half-tide
forms a third subdivision of the littoral zone, and is exceedingly
prolific in marine animals and plants. “ Here we find Fucus arti-
culatus, with its graceful even-edged rich brown fronds, mingled
occasionally with the less elegant Fucus nodosus. Here limpets
throng, and dog-periwinkles ( Purpura lapillus ) crawl observ-
antly, seeking to bore more passive mollusks and extract their
juicy substance. This is the home of the best of periwinkles,
the large black Littorina littorea , gathered in thousands for
the London market. On our western coasts
we find it in company with the purple-striped
top-shell (Trochus umhilicatus), and towards
the south with the larger Trochus crassus.
Here also sea-anemones love to expand their
many-armed disks, often glowing with the
most brilliant colours.” A fourth sub-region
succeeds, the lowest belt above low-water
mark, and is distinguished by the presence
of the black saw-toothed sea-weed ( Fucus
serratus), so much used in the packing of lobsters for market.
On its fronds creeps the lowest in grade of the periwinkles, the
variously tinted Littorina neritoides, exhibiting every colour in
its obtuse and thickened shell.
“ At the verge of low- water mark, immediately below it, where-
ever the coast is rocky, there are all round the British shores,
within a space of a few inches, a remarkable series of more or
less distinctly defined belts, each consisting of a different species
of sea-weed. These in succession are, the Laurencia pinnati-
fida uppermost; then the green Confetva rupestris ; then the
Periwinkle.
412
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
elegant and firm, often iridescent, fronds of Ghondrus Crispins ;
and, lowermost, the thong-weed or Himanthalia lorea .”
Succeeding the shore-band, or littoral zone, we have the
region of the great laminaria or tangle forests, or in sandy
places the waving meadows of zostera, or grass-wrack. It extends
from the edge of low water to a depth varying in different
localities, but seldom exceeding fifteen fathoms, and is itself
divided into sub-regions, marked by belts of differently tinted
algse. This zone above all others swarms with life, and is the
chief residence of fishes, mollusks, crustaceans, and invertebrata
of all classes, remarkable for brightness and variety of colouring.
“Here,” says Mr. Godwin Austen, “is the chosen haunt of the
nudibranchiate mollusks, animals of exceedingly delicate texture,
extraordinary shapes, elegance of organs, and vividness of paint-
ing. Their bodies exhibit hues of a brilliancy and intensity
such as can match the most gorgeous setting of a painter's
palette. Vermilion red, intense crimson, pale rose, golden
yellow, luscious orange, rich purple, the deepest and the brightest
blues, even vivid greens and densest blacks, are common tints,
separate or combined, disposed in infinite varieties of elegant
patterns, in this singular tribe. Our handsomest fishes are con-
gregated here, the wrasses especially, some of which are truly
gorgeous in their painting. Here are gobies and more curious
blennies, swimming playfully among these submarine groves.
Strange worms crawl serpent-like about their roots, and for-
midable Crustacea are the wild beasts who prowl amid their
intricacies. The old stalks, and the surfaces of the rocky or
stony ground on which they usually grow, are incrusted like
the trunks of ancient trees or faces of barren rocks with lichenous
investments. But whereas in the air these living crusts are
chiefly if not all of vegetable origin, in the sea they are more
often constructed out of animal organisms. Some of them are
sponges, others are true zoophytes, others polyzoa or bryozoa,
beings that have proved to belong to the class of mollusks,
however unlike they may seem to shellfish.
“ In the middle and lower part of the Laminarian region
around our shores the tangles become less plentiful as we
descend, and at last become exceptional and disappear. But
other sea-weeds are very abundant, especially those that delight
in red or purple hues. Tender sea-mosses, exquisitely delicate
THE CORALLINE ZONE
413
in form and colouring, abound. Where none of these are
very plentiful, we often find the coral-weed or nullipore iD
vast quantities, and assuming many strange modifications of
form. Among these vegetable corals numbers of shells and
articulate animals delight to live, and probably not a few feed
upon their stony fronds. The Lima, a shellfish related to the
scallop, gathers the broken branches by means of prehensile
tentacles, and constructs for itself a comfortable nest lined with
a woven cloth of byssal threads. Numerous fishes resort to
these rugged pastures in order to deposit their spawn among
the gnarled branch! ets.”
To the laminarian succeeds the coralline zone, extending
in most places some thirty fathoms or more. Plants, indeed,
are rare, but here the horny plant-like sertularias love to rear
their graceful feathery branches, and form miniature gardens of
fairy-like delicacy and beauty ; and here car-
nivorous mollusks, whelks above all, prowl in
great numbers. Bivalves of remarkable elegance,
especially clams and scallops, are found buried
in multitudes beneath its gravels and muddy
sands ; and no less plentifully congregate the
crusta-
ceans. As a natural consequence of this well-
furnished table, fishes abound, and many of
our deep sea and white fisheries owe their value
to the zoological features of the coralline zone.
Last and lowest of our regions of submarine existence is that
of cleep-sea corals, so named on account of the great stony
zoophytes characteristic of it in the oceanic seas of Europe.
Many sea-stars and sea-urchins are likewise found in this region,
in the depths of which the number of peculiar creatures is few,
yet sufficient to give it a marked character.
spider-crabs, with many other peculiar
414
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
The aspect of the British submarine fauna is in general
more remarkable for elegance of form and neat simplicity than
for glaring or vivid hues. “ The smaller kinds of sponges are
not seldom brilliantly dyed, but the more conspicuous kinds are
tawny or brownish. The sea-anemones are elegantly variegated
with rich colours, but the majority of zoophytes are not strikingly
tinted. The star-fishes, as a group, are most remarkable among
the invertebrata for gorgeous painting, but our sea-urchins
are sombre when compared with their relatives from warmer
seas. The jelly-fish are occasionally tinged with delicate hues,
and some of the smaller kinds even showily ornamented; but
those which most figure in our waters are not conspicuous on
account of colour, however elegant in their contours. Our
marine shells, though often pretty, are not gaudy or attractive,
except in rare instances. The same may be said with almost
equal truth of our marine crustaceans, though, on close inspection,
the elegance of device on the carapaces of many species is ex
ceedingly admirable.”
Our fishes are not distinguished by brilliancy of colour.
“ Their hues are quaker-like, though sufficiently lustrous for
sober tinting. The cod and flounder tribes are among the most
characteristic, and such of the more common fishes as belong to
families of which we have but few representatives are in most
instances clothed in sober grey and silver. Beauty of no mean
description may, however, be displayed by these modest vest-
ments ; as, for instance, in the mackerel and the herring. Our
gorgeously decorated wrasses form the chief exception to the
general rule, but these belong to a family more characteristic of
the southern seas. A like deficiency in the numbers of the
gurnard and mackerel tribes se-
riously affects the aspect of our
piscine fauna when compared
with denizens of the Mediter-
ranean.” The sharks and rays
too are comparatively deficient,
although a few species, as we
have seen in a former chapter,
are, to the great annoyance of our fishermen, over-abundant.
The sea-eels are also few, though in the common conger and
Gurnard..
FISH OF BRITISH ISLANDS.
41.5
Sand-Eel.
the larger sand-eel ( Ammodytes lancea) we have two very
conspicuous species.
As the surface of the British islands exhibits a transition as
it were from a northern to a southern
character, from the firs of Scotland to
the free-growing myrtles of the Devon
coast, so the inhabitants of our seas
pass through a great variety of form,
from a northern to a southern type. While the rorqual of the
Frozen Ocean not seldom strands on our northern and eastern
coasts ; the flving-fish of the equi-
noctial seas sometimes appears
within view of our southern shores ;
and it is this peculiar position of
our insular empire, fronting the
colder and the warmer seas, which
enriches its waters with such a variety of marine life. “ Several
characteristic boreal forms find their southern limit within the
northern half of our waters, and there
some of the most striking and abundant-
kinds are chiefly developed in numbers,
such as the cat-fish or sea-wolf (Ana-
rhicas lupus), the scythe ( Merlangus
carbonarius), the ling ( Lota molva),
the cod ( Gaclus morrhua), the lump-sucker ( Cyclopterus
lumpus), and even the herring (Clupea harengus). On the
other hand, along the southern shores of England we find
fishes becoming frequent which are distinctly of a southern
Grey Mullet.
Red Mullet.
type, such as the grey and red mullets ( Mugil cephalus and
Mullus barbatus), the sea-bream, and, far more plentifully,
416
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
the John Dory ( Zeus aper ) and the pilchard ( Clupea pil-
charclus ).” *
Although very inferior in beauty to the tropical fishes, our
finny tribes are far superior in flavour, and may well challenge
the world to produce their equals for the table. The turbot,
cod, whiting, herring, whitebait, mackerel, sole, and even the
salmon, though it belongs rather to fluviatile history than to the
chronicles of the sea, may fairly be cited to testify to the truth
of this assertion ; so that surely we have no reason to complain
of having been but indifferently provided for in the geographical
distribution of fishes, which of all marine productions are the
most important to man.
The researches of Forbes led him to believe that “as we
descend deeper and deeper, the denizens of the sea become
fewer and fewer, indicating our approach towards a silent and
desolate abyss, where life is either extinguished or exhibits but
faint glimmerings to mark its lingering presence ; ” but subse-
quent deep-sea soundings, performed with improved dredging
apparatuses, have led to the surprising result that the bottom
of the ocean, even in its abyssal depths, far from being a dreary
void, as was formerly imagined, is in reality a busy scene,
absolutely teeming with life. And in this case, as in so many
others, we have a fine instance of the truth of the observation
that every new invention or discovery casts a new light upon
some other province of human knowledge ; for to the sub-
marine telegraph we are indebted for the first certain proof of
the existence of highly organised animals living at abyssal
depths.
In 1860 the submarine cable between Sardinia and Bona, on
the coast of Africa, having completely failed, was picked up
from a depth exceeding one thousand fathoms, and found
encrusted with various shells and corals. All previous observa-
tions with reference to the existence of living creatures at
extreme depths had been liable to doubt from two sources. In
the first place the methods of deep-sea soundings were still so
imperfect that there was alwavs a possibility, from the action of
deep currents upon the sounding-line or from other causes, of a
greater depth being indicated than really existed ; and, secondly,
* Godwin Austen. Natural History of the European Seas, pp. 103, 101.
DREDGING CRUISES.
417
there was no absolute certainty that the animals entangled on
the sounding instrument had actually come up from the bottom.
They might have been caught on the way.
But now all doubt was removed. A submarine cable lies on
the ground throughout its whole length. Before laying it, its
course is carefully surveyed and the real depth accurately ascer-
tained. Fishing it up is a delicate and difficult operation, and
during its progress the depth is checked again and again.
When, therefore, as in this case, the animals dragged up with
a cable from depths of upwards of one thousand fathoms are
found, not sticking loosely to it, but moulded upon its outer
surface, or cemented to it by horny or calcareous excretions, it
is evident that they must have lived and grown upon it at the
bottom of the deep sea.
The subsequent dredging cruises of H.M.SS. “ Porcupine ”
and “ Lightning ” in 1868, 1869, and 1870, under the scientific
direction of Dr. Carpenter, Professor Wyville Thomson, and Mr.
Gwyn Jeffreys, afforded additional and convincing proofs that
life abounds in the abyssal regions of the ocean. During these
several cruises 57 hauls of the dredge were taken at depths
beyond 500 fathoms, and 16 at depths beyond 1,000 fathoms,
and in all cases life was abundant. In 1869 two casts were
taken in depths greater than 2,000 fathoms, and proved equally
successful in bringing up specimens of deep-sea life. With the
deepest cast, 2,435 fathoms, off the mouth of the Bay ot
Biscay, living, well-marked, and characteristic specimens of all
the five invertebrate sub-kingdoms were taken. “ And thus,”
says Professor Wyville Thomson,* “the question of the existence
of abundant animal life at the bottom of the sea has been
finally settled, and for all depths, for there is no reason to
suppose that the depth anywhere exceeds between three and
four thousand fathoms ; and if there be nothing in the con-
ditions of a depth of 2,500 fathoms to prevent the full
development of a varied fauna, it is impossible to suppose
that even an additional 1,000 fathoms would make any great
difference.”
It may be asked how the deep-sea animals bear the enormous
pressure at these great depths, which seems at first sight alone
* The Depths of the Sea. London, 1873.
•f
418
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
sufficient to put any idea of life out of the question ? There
was a curious popular notion that on descending deeper and
deeper the sea water became gradually, under the pressure,
heavier and heavier, so that at last it became more weighty than
molten gold. But water is, in fact, almost incompressible ; so
that its density at 2,000 fathoms is scarcely appreciably in-
creased. Any free air suspended in the water, or contained in
any compressible tissue of an animal at 2,000 fathoms, would
of course be reduced to a mere fraction of its bulk ; but the
animals subject to the pressure of the deep seas, being permeated
throughout their whole organisation by incompressible fluids at
the same pressure, are consequently as capable of bearing it as
we do the pressure of the atmosphere. The absence of light
seemed another circumstance incompatible with the existence
of animal life at abyssal depths, as all plants depend upon
light for their growth, and their absence apparently involves
that of vegetable food, which, as we all know, forms everywhere
the substratum of animal existence. We have as yet very little
exact knowledge as to the distance to which the sun’s light
penetrates into the water of the sea. According to some recent
experiments it would appear that the rays capable of affecting
a delicate photographic film are very rapidly cut off, their effect
being imperceptible at the depth of only a few fathoms ; and
though probably some portions of the sun’s light possessing
certain properties may penetrate to a much greater distance, it
is certain that, beyond the first fifty fathoms, plants to whose
existence light is essential are barely represented, and after two
hundred fathoms entirely absent.
But though plant-life is thus limited to the more superficial
parts of the ocean, the analysis of sea water, taken in all
localities and at all depths, has shown that it everywhere
contains a very appreciable and very uniform quantity of
organic matter in solution and in suspension. It is thus
quite intelligible that numberless protozoa — whose distinctive
character is that they are capable of being supported by the
absorption of organic matter through the surface of their
bodies — are able to exist in the dark abysses of the sea, and in
their turn afford nourishment to more highly organised animals.
After these general remarks on the creatures of the deep,
I will now give a brief account of their various groups.
DEEP-SEA SPONGES.
419
Over an enormous estent the abyssal ocean bottom is found
covered with a sheet of almost formless beings, absolutely devoid
of internal structure, and consisting merely of living and
moving expansions of jelly-like matter. Whether this form of
life, still more simple than the Amoeba,* to which Professor
Huxley has given the name of Bathybius Haeckelii, be con-
tinuous in one vast sheet or broken up into circumscribed
individual particles, it is equally an object of wonder ; and as
no living thing, however slowly it may live, is ever perfectly
at rest, it shows us that the bottom of the sea is, like its surface,
the theatre of perpetual change.
Living among and upon this Bathybius we find a multitude
of other protozoa, foraminifera and other rhizopods, radiolarians,
and sponges.
Such is the countless number of the Foraminifera inhabiting
the deep seas, that their remains form the chief mass of the
soft oozy bottom of the ocean. In the surface layer of the
deposit the shells of Globigerina bulloicles, the prevailing
species, are found fresh, whole, and living, and in the lower
layers dead and gradually crumbling down by the decompo-
sition of their organic cement and by the pressure of the
layers above. Countless generations are thus piled one upon
the other ; and each successive stratum, weighing upon those of
older date, is laying- the foundation of future rocks, which sub-
sequent revolutions may perhaps heave out of the deep and
raise in towering pinnacles to the skies.
Sponges f of wonderful beauty and lustre appear to extend
in endless variety over the whole of the bottom of the sea.
Some ( lH.olte.nia Carpenteri ) anchor in the ooze by means of a
perfect maze of delicate glassy filaments, like fine white hair,
spreading out in all directions through the sea’s fluid mud ;
while others ( Hyalonema ) send right down a coiled whisp of
strong spicules, each as thick as a knitting-needle, which open
out into a brush as the bed gets firmer, and fix the sponge in
its place somewhat on the principle of a screw-pile. “ A very
singular sponge, from deep water off the Loffoden Islands,
spreads into a thin circular cake, and adds to its surface by
sending out a flat border of silky spicules, like a fringe of white
See Chapter VIII., p. 380.
t Ibid. pp. 385-389.
420
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
floss silk round a little yellow mat ; and the lovely Euplectella,
whose beauty is imbedded up to its fretted lid in the grey mud
of the seas of the Philippines, is supported by a frill of spicules
standing up round it like Queen Elizabeth’s ruff.”*
The stalked sea-stars, which, as the fossil pentacrinites and
encrinites testify, abounded in the past periods of the earth’s
history, were, until now, supposed to be on the verge of extinc-
tion ; but when we consider that the first few scrapes of the
dredge at great depths have brought new species to light, we
are entitled to believe that they constitute an important element
in the abyssal fauna, and probably pave large tracts of the sea-
bottom with a carpet of animated flowers. Freely-moving sea-
stars and sea-urchins have likewise been hauled up in great
numbers from abyssal depths; crustaceans have not been found
wanting, and the captured shell-fish have shown that the deep-
sea molluscs are by no means deficient in colour, though as a
rule they are paler than those from shallow water.
■ Dacrydium vitreum, dredged from 2,435 fathoms, a curious
little mytiloid shell-fish, which makes and inhabits a delicate
flask-shaped tube of foraminifera and other foreign bodies
cemented together by organic matter and lined by a delicate
membrane, is of a fine reddish-brown colour dashed with green,
and the animals of one or two species of Lima from extreme
depths are of the usual vivid orange scarlet.
Some of the abyssal molluscs have even been found provided
with organs of sight. A new species of Pleurotoma, from
2,090 fathoms, had a pair of well-developed eyes on short foot-
stalks, and a Fusus from 1,207 fathoms was similarly provided.
The presence of organs of sight at these great depths leaves
iittle room to doubt that light must reach even these abysses
from some source, and as from many considerations it can
scarcely be sunlight, Professor Wyville Thomson throws out
the suggestion “ that the whole of the light beyond a certain
depth may be due to phosphorescence, which is certainly very
general, particularly among the larva; and young of deep-sea
animals.”
Thus many of the creatures dredged in the Northern Atlantic,
off the west coast of Ireland,! in depths varying from 557 to 584
* The Depths of the Sea, p. 73.
f Ibid., Chapter III. Cruise of the “Porcupine,” pp. 98-119.
THE PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE DEEP. 421
fathoms, were most brilliantly phosphorescent. In some places
nearly everything brought up seemed to emit light, and the
mud itself was perfectly full of luminous specks. The alcyo-
nanans, the brittle-stars, and some annelids were the most
brilliant. The Pennatidse, the Virgularise, and the Grorgonise
shone with a lambent white light, so bright that it showed
quite distinctly the hour on a watch, while the light from
Ophiacantha spinulosa was of a brilliant green, coruscating
from the centre of the disk, now along one arm, now along
another, and sometimes vividly illuminating the whole outline
of the star-fish. While the Ophiacantha shines like a star of the
most vivid uranium green, the sea-pen ( Pavonaria quaclrangu-
laris) is resplendent with a pale lilac phosphorescence like the
flame of cyanogen gas, not scintillating like the green light of
Ophiacantha, but almost constant, sometimes flashing out at
one point more vividly, and then dying gradually into com-
parative dimness, but still sufficiently bright to make every
portion of the polyp visible.
Such numbers of the Pavonaria were brought up at one haid
of the dredge in the Sound of Skye, that the “ Porcupine ” had
evidently passed over a forest of them. While the darkness of
winter frowns over the surface of the Northern Atlantic, the
animated shrubs at its bottom are thus glowing with light, and
a kind of magical day prevails in depths which were supposed
to be shrouded with perpetual night. But it might have been
better for many of the luminous denizens of the abyss if a more
obscure existence had been their lot ; for in a sea swarming
with predaceous crustaceans with great bright eyes phosphor-
escence must surely be a fatal gift.
Off the coast of Portugal there is a great fishery of sharks
(Centroscymnus Coelolepis ), carried on at a depth of 500
fathoms. If an animal so highly organised as a shark can thus
bear without inconvenience the enormous pressure of more
than half a ton on the square inch existing at i hat depth, it
is a sufficient proof that the pressure is applied under circum-
stances which prevent its affecting it to its prejudice, and there
seems to be no reason why it should not tolerate equally well
a pressure of one or two tons, or why many other fishes — though
F F 2
422
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
the dredge, in consequence of their facility of locomotion, will
hardly ever be able to bring them to light — should not abound
in the still waters of the abyssal deep.
The “ Challenger ” Exploring Expedition will no doubt reveal
to us still many an unknown wonder of those interesting
regions, and make us acquainted with a world of new animals
which even the profundity of the ocean vainly strives to hirlp
from the curiosity of man.
423
CHAP. XXL
THE PHOSPHORESCENCE OE THE SEA.
Its Causes. — Noctiluca miliaris. — Phosphorescent Annelides and Beroes. — -
Intense Phosphorescence of the Pyrosoma atlantica. — Luminous Pholades. —
The luminous Shark. — Phosphorescent Algae.— Citations from Byron, Coleridge,
and Crabbe.
He who still lingers on the shore after the shades of evening
have descended, not seldom enjoys a most magnificent spectacle;
for lucid flashes burst from the bosom of the waters, as if the
sea were anxious to restore to the darkened heavens the light it
had received from them during the day. On approaching the
margin of the rising flood to examine more closely the sparkling
of the breaking wave, the spreading waters seem to cover the
beach with a sheet of fire. Each footstep over the moist sands
elicits luminous star-like points, and a splash in the water re-
sembles the awakening of slumbering flames.
The same wonderful and beauteous aspect frequently gladdens
the eye of the navigator who ploughs his way through the wide
deserts of ocean, particularly if his course leads him through the
tropical seas.
“ When a vessel,” says Humboldt, “ driven along by a fresh
wind, divides the foaming waters, one never wearies of the lovely
spectacle their agitation affords; for, whenever a wave makes
the ship incline sideways, bluish or reddish flames seem to shoot
upwards from the keel. Beautiful beyond description is the
sight of a troop of dolphins gambolling in the phosphorescent sea.
Every furrow they draw through the waters is marked by streaks
of intense light. In the Gulf of Cariaco, between Cumana
and the peninsula of Maniquarez, this scene has often delighted
me for hours.”
But even in the colder oceanic regions the brilliant pheno-
menon appears from time to time in its full glory. During a
dark and stormy September night, on the way from the Sea-
424
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
lion, island, Saint Greorge, to Unalaschka, Chamisso admired as
beautiful a phosphorescence of the ocean as he had ever witnessed
in the tropical seas. Sparks of light, remaining attached to the
sails that had been wetted by the spray, continued to glow in
another element. Near the south point of Kamtschatka, at a
water-temperature hardly above freezing point, Ermann saw
the sea no less luminous than during a seven months’ sojourn in
the tropical ocean. This distinguished traveller positively
denies that warmth decidedly favours the luminosity of the sea.
At Cape Colborn, one of the desolate promontories of the deso-
late Victoria Land, the phosphoric gleaming of the waves on
the 6th September, when darkness closed in, was so intense that
Simpson assures us he had seldom seen anything more brilliant.
The boats seemed to cleave a flood of molten silver, and the spray
dashed from their bows, before the fresh breeze, fell back in
glittering showers into the deep.
Mr. Charles Darwin paints in vivid colours the magnificent
spectacle presented by the sea, while sailing in the latitudes
of Cape Horn on a very dark night.
There was a fresh breeze, and every part of the surface, which
during the day is seen as foam, now glowed with a pale light.
The vessel drove before her bows two billows of liquid phospho-
rus, and in her wake she was followed by a milky train. As far
as the eye reached, the crest of every wave was bright, and the
sky above the horizon, from the reflected glare of these livid
flames, was not so utterly obscure as over the rest of the
heavens.
While “ La Venus” was at anchor before Simon’s Town, the
breaking of the waves produced so strong a light that the room
in which the naturalists of the expedition were seated was
illumined as by sudden flashes of lightning. Although more
than fifty paces from the beach where the phenomenon took place,
they tried to read by this wondrous oceanic light, but the
successive glimpses were of too short duration to gratify their
wishes.
Thus we see the same nocturnal splendour which shines forth
in the tropical seas, and gleams along our shores, burst forth
from the arctic waters, and from the waves that bathe the
southern promontories of the old and the new worlds.
But what is the cause of the beautiful phenomenon so widely
TIIE NOCTILUCA MILIAR1S.
425
spread over the face of ocean? How comes it that at cei-
tain times flames issue from the bosom of an element gene-
rally so hostile to their appearance?
Without troubling the reader with the groundless surmises
of ancient naturalists, or repeating the useless tales of the past,
I shall at once place myself witii him on the stage ot 0111
actual knowledge of this interesting and mysterious subject.
It is now no longer a matter of doubt that many of the inferior
marine animals possess the faculty of secreting a luminous
matter, and thus adding their mite to the grand phenomenon.
When we consider their countless multitudes, we shall no longer
wonder at such magnificent effects being produced by creatures
individually so insignificant.
In our seas it is chiefly a minute gelatinous animal, the
Noctiluca miliaris, most probably an aberrant member of the
infusorial group, which, as it were,
repeats the splendid spectacle of the
starry heavens on the surface of the
ocean. In form it is nearly globular,
presenting on one side a groove, from
the anterior extremity of which issues
a peculiar curved stalk or appendage,
marked by transverse lines, which
might seem to be made use of as an Noctiluca miiians.
organ of locomotion. Near the base of (Highly magnified.)
this tentacle is placed the mouth, which passes into a dilatable
digestive cavity, leading, according to Mr. Huxley, to a dis-
tinct anal orifice. From the rather firm external coat proceed
thread-like prolongations through the softer mass of the body, so
as to divide it into irregular chambers. This little creature,
which is just large enough to be discerned by the naked eye
when the water in which it may be swimming is contained in a
glass jar exposed to the light, seems to feed on diatoms, as their
loricse may frequently be detected in its interior. It multiplies
by spontaneous fission, and the rapidity of this process may be
inferred from the immensity of its numbers. A single bucket
of luminous sea-water will often contain thousands, while for
miles and miles every wave breaking on the shore expands in a
sheet of living flame. It was first described by Forster in the
Pacific Ocean ; it occurs on all the shores of the Atlantic, and the
426
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
Polar Seas are illuminated by its fairy light. “ The nature
of its luminosity,” says Dr. Carpenter, “ is found by microscopic
examination to be very peculiar ; for what appears to the eye to
be a uniform glow is resolvable under a sufficient magnifying
power into a multitude of evanescent scintillations, and these
are given forth with increased intensity whenever the body of
the animal receives any mechanical shock."
The power of emitting a phosphorescent light is widely dif-
fused both among the free-swimming and the sessile Ccelenterata.
Many of the Physophoridse are remarkable for its manifestation,
and a great number of the jelly-fishes are luminous. Our own
Thaumanticis lucifera, a small and by no means rare medusid,
displays the phenomenon in a very beautiful manner, for, when
irritated by contact of fresh water, it marks its position by a
vivid circlet of tiny stars, each shining from the base of a
tentacle. A remarkable greenish light, like that of burning
silver, may also be seen to glow from many of our Sertularians,
becoming much brighter under various modes of excitation.
Among the Ctenophora the large Cestum Verteris of the
Mediterranean is specially distinguished for its luminosity, and
while moving beneath the surface of the water gleams at night
like a brilliant band of flame.
The Sea-pens are eminently phosphorescent, shining at night
with a golden-green light of a most wonderful softness. When
touched, every branchlet above the shock emits a phosphoric
glow, while all the polyps beneath remain in darkness. When
thrown into fresh water or alcohol, they scatter sparks about in
all directions, a most beautiful sight ; dying, as it were, in a
halo of glory.
But of all the marine animals the Pyrosomas, doing full
justice to their name (tire-bodies) seem to emit the most vivid
coruscations. Bibra relates in his “Travels to Chili” that he once
caught half a dozen of these remarkable light-bearers, by whose
phosphorescence he could distinctly read their own description
in a naturalist’s vade-mecum. Although completely dark when
at rest the slightest touch sufficed to elicit their clear blue-green
light. During a voyage to India, Mr. Bennett had occasion to
admire the magnificent spectacle afforded by whole shoals of
Pyrosomas. The ship, proceeding at a rapid rate, continued
during an entire night to pass through distinct but extensive
PHOSPHORESCENCE OF PYROSOMA.
427
fields of these molluscs, floating and glowing as they floated on
all sides of her course. Enveloped in a flame of bright phos-
phorescent light, and gleaming with a greenish lustre, the
Pyrosomes, in vast sheets, upwards of a mile in breadth, and
stretching out till lost in the distance, presented a sight, the
glory of which may be easily imagined. The vessel, as it
cleaved the gleaming mass, threw up strong flashes of light, as
if ploughing through liquid fire, which illuminated the hull, the
sails, and the ropes, with a strange unearthly radiance.
In his memoir on the Pyrosoma, M. Peron describes with
lively colours the circumstances under which he first made its
discovery, during a dark and stormy night, in the tropical
Atlantic. “ The sky,” says this distinguished naturalist, “was
on all sides loaded with heavy clouds ; all around the obscurity
was profound ; the wind blew violently, and the ship cut her way
with rapidity. Suddenly we discovered at some distance a great
phosphorescent band stretched across the waves, and occupying
an immense tract in advance of the ship. Heightened by the
surrounding circumstances, the effect of this spectacle was
romantic, imposing, sublime, rivetting the attention of all on
board. Soon we reached the illuminated tract, and perceived
that the prodigious brightness was certainly and only attributable
to the presence of an innumerable multitude of largish animals
floating with the waves. From their swimming at different
depths they took apparently different forms: those at the greatest
depth were very indefinite, presenting much the appearance
of great masses of fire, or rather of enormous red-hot cannon
balls ; whilst those more distinctly seen near the surface perfectly
resembled incandescent cylinders of iron.
“ Taken from the water, these animals entirely resembled each
other in form, colour, substance, and the property of phos-
phorescence, differing only in their sizes, which varied from
three to seven inches. The large, longish tubercles with which
the exterior of the Pyrosomes was bristled were of a firmer
substance, and more transparent than the rest of the body, and
were brilliant and polished like diamonds. These were the
principal scene of phosphorescence. Between these large
tubercles, smaller ones, shorter and more obtuse, could be dis-
tinguished; these also were phosphorescent. Lastly, in the
interior of the substance of the animal, could be seen, by the
428
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
aid of the transparency, a number of little, elongated, narrow
bodies (viscera), which also participated in a high degree in the
possession of the phosphoric light.”
In the Pholades or Lithodomes, that bore their dwellings in
the hard stone, as other shell-fish do in the loose sands, the
whole mass of the body is permeated with light. Pliny gives
us a short but animated description of the phenomenon in the
edible date-shell of the Mediterranean ( Pholas dactylics ) : —
“ It is in the nature of the pholades to shine in the darkness
with their own light, which is the more intense as the animal is
more juicy. While eating them, they shine in the mouth and
on the hands, nay, even the drops falling from them upon the
ground continue to emit light, a sure proof that the luminosity
we admire in them is associated with their j nice.” Milne-Edwards
found this observation perfectly correct, for wishing to place
some living pholades in alcohol, he saw a luminous matter exude
from their bodies, which on account of its weight sank in the
liquid, covering the bottom of the vessel, and there forming a
deposit as shining as when it was in contact with the air.
Several kinds of fishes likewise possess the luminous faculty.
The sun-fish, that strange deformity, emits a phosphoric gleam ;
and a species of Gurnard ( Trigla lucerna is
said to sparkle in the night, so as to form fiery
streams through the water.
With regard to the luminosity of the larger
marine animals, Ermann, however, remarks
that he so often saw small luminous Crustacea
in the abdominal cavity of the transparent
Salpa pinnata, that it may well be asked
Short Sun-Fish. whether the phosphorescence of the larger
creatures is not in reality owing to that of
their smaller companions.
According to Mr. Bennett, “ Whaling Voyage round the Globe,”
a species of shark first discovered by himself is distinguished
by an uncommonly strong emission of light. When the specimen,
taken at night, was removed into a dark apartment, it afforded
a very interesting spectacle. The entire inferior surface of the
body and head emitted a vivid and greenish phosphorescent
gleam, imparting to the creature by its own light a truly ghastly
and terrific appearance. The luminous effect was constant, and
LUMINOUS SHARK.
429
not perceptibly increased by agitation or friction. When the
shark expired, (which was not until it had been out of the water
more than three hours,) the luminous appearance faded entirely
from the abdomen, and more gradually from other parts ; linger-
ing longest around the jaws and on the fins.
The only part of the under surface of the animal which was
free from luminosity was the black collar round the throat ; and
while the inferior surface of the pectoral, anal, and caudal fins
shone with splendour, their supei'ior surface (including the upper
lobe of the tail fin) was in darkness, as were also the dorsal fins,
and the back and summit of the head.
Mr. Bennett is inclined to believe that the luminous power of
this shark resides in a peculiar secretion from the skin. It was
his first impression that the fish had accidentally contracted some
phosphorescent matter from the sea, or from the net in which it
was captured ; but the most rigid investigation did not confirm
this suspicion, while the uniformity with which the luminous
gleam occupied certain portions of the body and fins, its per-
manence during life, and decline and cessation upon the approach
and occurrence of death, did not leave a doubt in his mind but
that it was a vital principle essential to the economy of the
animal. The small size of the fins would appear to denote that
this fish is not active in swimming ; and, since it is highly pre-
daceous and evidently of nocturnal habits, we may perhaps
indulge in the hypothesis, that the phosphorescent power it
possesses is of use to attract its prey, upon the same principle as
the Polynesian islanders and others employ torches in night-
fishing.
Some of the lower sea-plants also appear to be luminous.
Thus, over a space of more than 600 miles (between lat.
8° N. and 2° S.), Meyen saw the ocean covered with phospho-
rescent Oscillatoria, grouped together into small balls or glo-
bules, from the size of a poppy-seed to that of a lentil.
But if the luminosity of the ocean generally proceeds from
living creatures, it sometimes also arises from putrefying organic
fibres and membranes, resulting from the decomposition of those
living light-bearers. “ Sometimes,” says Humboldt, “ even a
high magnifying power is unable to discover any animals in the
phosphorescent water, and yet light gleams forth wherever a
wave strikes against a hard body and dissolves in foam. The
430
T1IE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
cause of this phenomenon lies then most likely in the putrefying
fibres of dead mollusks, which are mixed with the waters in
countless numbers.”
Summing up the foregoing in a few words, it is thus an indis-
putable fact, that the phosphorescence of the sea is by no means
an electrical or magnetic property of the water, but exclusively
bound to organic matter, living or dead. But although thus
much has been ascertained, we have as yet only advanced one
step towards the unravelling of the mystery, and its proximate
cause remains an open question. Unfortunately, science is still
unable to give a positive answer, and we are obliged to be
contented with a more or less plausible hypothesis. When we
consider that the phosphorescence most commonly resides only
in the outward mucous covering of the body, in which a number
of particles cast off by the skin are continually undergoing de-
composition, the phenomenon seems to be a simple chemical
process, during which more or less phosphorus may be dis-
engaged, which by agitation or friction gives rise to the emission
of light. It is more difficult to explain those cases in which
the entire mass of the body is luminous (as in Pholas), or the
muscular substance (as in some Annelides), or the vibratory
cilia (as in the Beroes); and here we do better to confess our
entire ignorance, than to resort to the hypothesis of electrical
discharges, extremely improbable in an element which is so ex-
cellent an electrical conductor, and particularly when we consider
that no emission of light takes place in the few and powerful
electrical fishes we are acquainted with.
We know as little of what utility marine phosphorescence may
be. Why do the countless myriads of Mammariae gleam and
sparkle along our coasts ? Is it to signify their presence to other
animals, and direct them to the spot where they may find
abundance of food ? So much is certain, that so grand and wide-
spread a phenomenon must necessarily serve some end equally
grand and important.
As the phosphorescence of the sea is owing to living creatures,
it must naturally show itself in its greatest brilliancy when the
ocean is at rest; for during the daytime we find the surface of
the waters most peopled with various animals when only a slight
zephyr glides over the sea. In stormy weather, the fragile or
gelatinous world of the lower marine creatures generally seeks a
HUMBOLDT. PLINY. HOMER.
431
greater depth, until the elementary strife has ceased, when it
again loves to sport in the warmer or more cheerful superficial
waters.
In the tropical zone, Humboldt saw the sea most brilliantly
luminous before a storm, when the air was sultry, and the sky
covered with clouds. In the North Sea we observe the pheno-
menon most commonly during fine tranquil autumnal nights ;
but it may be seen at every season of the year, even when the
cold is most intense. Its appearance is, however, extremely
capricious; for, under seemingly unaltered circumstances, the
sea may one night be very luminous, and the next quite dark.
Often months, or even years, pass by without witnessing it in
full perfection. Does this result from a peculiar state of the
atmosphere, or do the little animals love to migrate from one
part of the coast to another ?
It is remarkable that the ancients should have taken so little
notice of oceanic phosphorescence. The “ Periplus ” of Hanno
contains perhaps the only passage in which the phenomenon is
described. To the south of Cerne the Carthaginian navigator
saw the sea burn, as it were, with streams of fire. Pliny,
in whom the miracle ( viiraculum , as he calls it) of the date-
shell excited so lively an admiration, and who must often
have seen the sea gleam with phosphoric light, as the pas-
sage proves where he mentions in a few dry words the luminous
gurnard (lucernct) stretching out a fiery tongue, has no exclama-
tion of delight for one of the most beautiful sights in nature.
Horner also, who has given us so many charming descriptions of
the sea in its ever-changing aspects, and who so often leads us
with long-suffering Ulysses through the nocturnal floods, never
once makes them blaze or sparkle in his immortal hexameters.
Even modern poets mention the phenomenon but rarely.
Camoens himself, whom Humboldt, on account of his beautiful
oceanic descriptions, calls, above ail others, the “ poet of the
sea,” forgets to sing it in his Lusiad. Byron in his “ Corsair ”
has a few lines on the subject:
“ Flash’d the dipt oars, and, sparkling with the stroke,
Around the waves phosphoric brightness broke
but contents himself, as we see, with coldly mentioning a phe-
nomenon so worthy of all a poet’s enthusiasm. In Coleridge’s
432
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
wondrous ballad of “ The ancient Mariner ” we find a warmer
description :
“ Beyond the shadow of the ship
I watch’d the water-snakes :
They moved in tracks of shining white,
And, when they rear’d, the elfish light
Fell off in hoary flakes.
“ Within the shadow of the ship
I watch’d their rich attire — ■
Blue, glossy green, and velvet black :
They coiled and swam, and every track
Was a flash of golden fire.”
These indeed are lines whose brilliancy emulates the splendour
of the phenomenon they depict, but even they are hardly more
beautiful than Crabbe’s admirable description :
“ And now your view upon the ocean turn,
And there the splendour of the waves discern ;
Cast hut a stone, or strike them with an oar,
And you shall flames within the deep explore ;
Or scoop the stream phosphoric as you stand,
And the cold flames shall flash along your hand ;
When, lost in wonder, you shall walk and gaze
On weeds that sparkle, and on waves that blaze.”
Or than the graphic numbers of Sir Walter Scott :
“Awak’d before the rushing prow,
The mimic fires of ocean glow,
Those lightnings of the wave ;
Wild sparkles crest the broken tides.
And flashing round, the vessel’s sides
With elfish lustre lave;
While, far behind, their livid light
To the dark billows of the night
A blooming splendour gave. '
43.3
CHAP. xxir.
TIIE PRIMITIVE OCEAN.
The Giant-Book of the Earth-rind. — The Sea of Fire.— Formation of a solid
Earth-crust by cooling.— The Primitive Waters. — First awakening of Life in
the Bosom of the Ocean. — The Reign of the Saurians. — The future Ocean.
The greatest of all histories, traced in mighty characters by
the Almighty himself, is that of the earth-rind. The leaves
of this giant volume are the strata which have been succes-
sively deposited in the bosom of the sea, or raised by volcanic
powers from the depths of the earth ; the wars which it relates
are the Titanic conflicts of two hostile elements, water and fire,
each anxious to destroy the formations of its opponent; and the
historic documents which bear witness to that ancient strife lie
before us in the petrified or carbonified remains of extinct
forms of organic existence — the medals of creation.
It is only since yesterday that science has attempted to un-
riddle the hieroglyphics in which the past history of our planet
reveals itself to man, and it stands to reason that in so difficult
a study truth must often be obscured by error ; but although
the geologist is still a mere scholar, endeavouring to decipher
the first chapters of a voluminous work, yet even now the study
of the physical revolutions of our globe distinctly points out a
period when the molten earth wandered, a ball of liquid fire,
through the desert realms of space. In those times, so distant
from ours that even the wildest flight of imagination is unable
to carry us over the intervening abyss, the waters of the ocean
were as yet mixed with the air, and formed a thick and hazy
atmosphere through which no radiant sunbeam, no soft lunar
light, ever penetrated to the fiery billows of molten rock, which
at that time covered the whole surface of the earth. What
pictures of desolation rise before our fancy, at the idea of yon
boundless ocean of fluid stone, which rolled from pole to pole
4 34
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
without meeting on its wide way anything but itself. Ever
and ever in the dark-red clouds shone the reflection of that vast
conflagration, witnessed only by the eye of the Almighty, for
organic life could not exist on a globe which exclusively obeyed
the physical and chemical laws of inorganic nature.
But while the fiery mass with its surrounding atmosphere
was circling through the icy regions of ethereal space (the tem-
perature of which is computed to be lower than 60° B. below
freezing point), it gradually cooled, and its hitherto fluid surface
began to harden to a solid crust. Who can tell how many
countless ages may have dropped one after the other into the
abyss of the past, ere thus much was accomplished ; for the
dense atmosphere constantly threw back again upon the fiery
earth-ball the heat radiating from its surface, and the caloric of
the vast body could escape but very slowly into vacant space ?
Thus millions of years may have gone by before the aqueous
vapours, now no longer obstinately repelled by the cooling
earth-rind, condensed into rain, and, falling in showers, gave
birth to an incipient ocean. But it must not be supposed that
the waters obtained at once a tranquil and undisturbed posses-
sion of their new domain, for, as soon as they descended upon
the earth, those endless elementary wars began, which, with
various fortunes, have continued to the present day.
As soon as the cooling earth-rind began to harden, it naturally
contracted, like all solid bodies when no longer subject to the
influence of expanding heat, and thus in the thin crust enor-
mous fissures and rents were formed, through which the fluid
masses below gushed forth, and, spreading in wide sheets over
the surface, once more converted into vapours the waters they
met with in their fiery path.
But after all these revolutions and vicissitudes which opposed
the birth of ocean, perpetually destroying its perpetually re-
newed formation, we come at last to a period when, in conse-
quence of the constantly decreasing temperature of the earth-rind,
and its increasing thickness, the waters at last conquered a
permanent abode on its surface, and the oceanic empire was
definitively founded.
The scene has now changed ; the sea of fire has disappeared,
and water covers the face of the earth. The rind is still too
thin, and the eruptions from below are still too fluid to form
THE PRIMITIVE OCEAN-
435
higher elevations above the general surface: all is flat and even,
and land nowhere rises above the mirror of a boundless
ocean.
This new state of things still affords the same spectacle of
dreary uniformity and solitude in all its horrors. The tempera-
ture of the waters is yet too high, and they contain too many
extraneous substances, too many noxious vapours arise from the
clefts of the earth-rind, the dense atmosphere is still too much
impregnated with poisons, to allow the hidden germs of life any-
where to awaken. A strange and awful primitive ocean rises and
falls, rolls and rages, but nowhere does it beat against a coast ;
no animal, no plant, grows and thrives in its bosom ; no bird
flies over its expanse.
But meanwhile the bidden agency of Providence is unre-
mittingly active in preparing a new order of things. The earth-
rind increases in thickness, the crevices become narrower, and
the fluid or semi-fluid masses escaping through the clefts ascend
to a more considerable height.
Thus the first islands are formed, and the first separation be-
tween the dry land and the waters takes place. At the same
time no less remarkable changes occur, as well in the constitution
of the waters as in that of the atmosphere. The farther the
glowing internal heat of the planet retires from the surface, the
greater is the quantity of water which precipitates itself upon it.
The ocean, obliged to relinquish part of its surface to the dry
land, makes up for the loss of extent by an increase of depth,
and the clearer atmosphere allows the enlivening sunbeam to
gild here the crest of a wave, there a naked rock.
And now also life awakens in the seas, but how often has it
changed its forms, and how often has Neptune displaced his
boundaries since that primordial dawn. Alternately rising or
subsiding, what was once the bottom of the ocean now forms
the mountain crest, and whole islands and continents have been
gradually worn away and whelmed beneath the waves of the sea,
to arise and to be whelmed again. In every part of the world
we are able to trace these repeated changes in the fossil remains
embedded in the strata that have successively been deposited in
thesea,and then again raised above its level by volcanic agencies,
and thus, by a wonderful transposition, the history of the primi-
tive ocean is revealed to us by the tablets of the dry land. The
436
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
indefatigable zeal of the geologists has discovered no less than
thirty-nine distinct fossiliferous strata of different ages, and as
many of these are again subdivided into successive layers, fre-
quently of a thickness of several thousand feet, and each of them
characterised by its peculiar organic remains, we may form some
idea of the vast spaces of time required for their formation.
The annals of the human race speak of the rise and downfall
of natious and dynasties, and stamp a couple of thousand years
with the mark of high antiquity ; but each stratum or each leaf
in the records of our globe has witnessed the birth and the ex-
tinction of numerous families, genera, and species of plants and
animals, and shows us organic Nature as changeable in time as
she appears to us in space. As, when we sail to the southern
hemisphere, the stars of the northern firmament gradually sink
below the horizon, until finally entirely new constellations blaze
upon us from the nightly heavens ; thus in the organic vestiges
of the palaeozoic seas we find no form of life resembling those
of the actual times, but every class
“ Seems to have undergone a change
, Into something new and strange.”
Then spiral-armed Brachiopods were the chief representatives
of the molluscs • then crinoid starfishes paved the bottom of
the ocean; then the fishes, covered with large thick rhomboidal
scales, were buckler-headed like the Cephalaspis, or furnished with
wing-like appendages like the Pterichthys ; and then the Tri-
lobites, a crustacean tribe, thus named from its three -lobed
skeleton, swarmed in the shallow littoral
waters where the lesser sea-fry afforded
them an abundant food. From a com-
parison of their structure with recent
analogies, it is supposed that these strange
creatures swam in an inverted position
close beneath the surface of the water, the
belly upwards, and that they made use of
their power of rolling themselves into a
ball as a defence against attacks from
above. The remains of seventeen families
of Trilobites, including forty-five genera
Triiobite. and 477 species, some of the size of a pea,
others two feet long, testify the once flourishing condition of
THE BELEMNITES.
437
these remarkable crustaceans, yet but few of their petrified
remains, so numerous in the Silurian and Devonian strata, are
found in the carboniferous or mountain limestone, and none
whatever in formations of more recent date. Thus, long before
the wind ever moaned through the dense fronds of the tree ferns
and calamites which once covered the swampy lowlands of our
isle, and long before that rich vegetation began, to which we are
indebted for our inexhaustible coal-fields, now frequently buried
thousands of feet below the surface on which they originally
grew, the Trilobites belonged already to the things of the past !
In the seas of the mesozoic or mediceval
period, new forms of life appear upon
the scene. A remarkable change has
taken place in the cephalopods; for the
chambered and straightened Orthocera-
tites and many other families of the
order have passed away, and the spiral
Ammonites, branching out into nume-
rous genera, and more than 600 species,
now flourish in the seas, so that in some
places the rocks seem, as it were, com-
posed of them alone. Some are of
small dimensions, others upwards of
three feet in diameter. They are met
with in the Alps, and have been found
in the Himalaya Mountains, at elevations of 16,000 feet, as
eloquent witnesses of the vast revolutions of which our earth
has been the scene. Carnivorous, and re-
sembling in habits the Nautili, their small
and feeble representatives of the present day,
their immense multiplication proves how nu-
merous must have been the molluscs, crusta-
ceans, and annelides, on which they fed, all
like them widely different from those of the
present day.
Then also flourished the Belemnites (Thun-
derstones), supposed by the ancients to be
the thunderbolts of Jove, but now known
to be the petrified internal bones of a race of
voracious ten-armed cuttle-fishes, whose importance in the
G G 2
Ammonites, or Snake -Stones.
Belemnites.
a. R acutus.
b. Belriunite (restored).
438
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
oolitic or cretaceous seas may be judged of by the frequency
of their remains, and the 120 species that have been hitherto
discovered. Belem nites two feet long have been found, so
that, to judge by analogies, the animals to which they belonged
as cuttle-bones must have measured eighteen or twenty feet
from end to end, a size which reduces the rapacious Onycho-
teuthis of the present seas to dwarfish dimensions.
But of all the denizens of the mesozoic seas none were more
formidable than the gigantic Saurians, whose approach put
even the voracious sharks to flight. The first of these monsters
that raises its frightful head above the waters is the dreadful
Ichthyosaurus communis.
Ichthyosaurus, a creature thirty or even fifty feet long, half
fish, half lizard, and combining in
strange assemblage the snout of the
porpoise, the teeth of the crocodile,
and the paddles of the whale. Sin-
gular above all is the enormous e}’e,
in size surpassing a man’s head. Woe
to the fish that meets its appalling
glance ! No rapidity of flight, no weapon, be it sword or saw,
avails, for the long-tailed gigantic saurian darts like lightning
through the water, and its dense harness bids defiance to every
attack. Not only have fifteen distinct species of Ichthyosauri
been distinguished, but the remains of crushed and partially
digested fish-bones and scales, which are found within their
skeleton, indicate the precise nature of their food. Their fossil
remains abound along the whole extent of the lias formation,
from the coasts of Dorset, through Somerset and Leicestershire
to the coast of Yorkshire, but the largest specimens have been
found in Franconia.
Along with this monster, another and still more singular
Plesiosaurus.
deformity makes its appearance, the Plesiosaurus, in which the
fabulous chimseras and hydras of antiquity seem to start into
EXTINCTION OF THE SAURIANS.
439
existence. Fancy a crocodile twenty-seven feet long, with the
fins of a whale, the long and flexible neck of a swan, and a
comparatively small head. With the appearance of this new
tyrant, the last hope of escape is taken from the trembling
fishes ; for into the shallow waters, inaccessible to the more
bulky Ichthyosaurus, the slender Plesiosaurus penetrates with
ease.
A race of such colossal powers seemed destined for an immor-
tal reign, for where was the visible enemy that could put an end
to its tyranny ? But even the giant strength of the saurians
was obliged to succumb to the still more formidable power of
all-changing time, which slowly but surely modified the circum-
stances under which they were called into being, and gave birth
to higher and more beautiful forms.
In the tertiary period, the dreadful reptiles of the mesozoic
seas have long since vanished from the bosom of the ocean, and
cetaceans, walruses, and seals, unknown in the primitive deep,
now wander through the waters or bask on the sunny cliffs.
With them begins a new era in the life of the sea. Hitherto it
has only brought forth creatures of base or brutal instinct, but
now the Divine spark of parental affection begins to ennoble its
more perfect inhabitants, and to point out the dim outlines of
the spiritual world.
During all these successive changes the surface of the earth
has gradually cooled to its present temperature, and many
plants and animals that formerly enjoyed the widest range must
now rest satisfied with narrower limits. The sea-animals of the
north find themselves for ever severed from their brethren of
the south, by the impassable zone of the tropical ocean ; and
all the fishes, molluscs, and zoophytes, whose organisation
requires a greater warmth, confine themselves to the equatorial
regions.
As the tertiary period advances towards the present epoch,
the species which flourished in its prime become extinct, like the
numberless races which preceded them ; new modifications of
life, more and more similar to those of the present day, start
into existence ; and, finally, creation appears with increasing-
beauty in her present rich attire.
Thus old Ocean, after having devoured so many of his chil-
dren, has transformed himself at last into our contemporaneous
440
THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA.
seas, with their currents and floods, and the various animals and
plants growing and thriving iu their bosom.
Who can tell when the last great revolutions of the earth -rind
took place, which, by the upheaving of mighty mountains or the
disruption of isthmuses, drew the present boundaries of land
and sea ? or who can pierce the deep mystery which veils the
future duration of the existing phase of planetary life ?
So much is certain, that the ocean of the present day will be
transformed as the seas of the past have been, and that “ all
that it inhabit” are doomed to perish like the long line of
animal and vegetable forms which preceded them.
We know by too many signs that our earth is slowly but
unceasingly working out changes in her external form. Here
lands are rising, while other areas are gradually sinking ; here
the breakers perpetually gnaw the cliffs, and hollow out their
sides, while in other places alluvial deposits encroach upon the
sea’s domain.
However slowly these changes may be going on, they point to
a time when a new ocean will encircle new lands, and new
animal and vegetable forms arise within its bosom. Of what
nature and how gifted these races yet slumbering in the lap of
time may be, He only knows whose eye penetrates through all
eternity ; but we cannot doubt that they will be superior to the
present denizens of the ocean.
Hitherto the annals of the earth-rind have shown us uninter-
rupted progress; why, then, should the future be ruled by different
laws ? At first the sea only produces weeds, shells, Crustacea ;
then the fishes and reptiles appear ; and the cetaceans close the
vista. But is this the last word, the last manifestation of oceanic
life, or is it not to be expected that the future seas will be
peopled with beings ranking as high above the whale or dolphin
as these rank above the giant saurians of the past ?
PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
443
CHAP. XXIII.
Maritime Discoveries of the Phoenicians. — Expedition of Hanno. — Circumnaviga-
tion of Africa under the Pharaoh Necho. — Colaeus of Samos. — Pytheas of
Massiiia. — Expedition of Nearchus. — Circumnavigation of Hindostan under
the Ptolemies. — Voyages of Discovery of the Romans. — Consequences of the
Fall of the Roman Empire. — Amalfi. — Pisa. — Venice. — Genoa. — Resump-
tion of Maritime Intercourse between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. —
Discovery of the Mariner’s Compass. — Marco Polo.
Among the nations of antiquity, navigation, as may well be sup-
posed, was in a very rude and imperfect state. Unacquainted
with the mariner’s compass, which during the darkest and most
tempestuous nights safely leads the modern seaman over the
pathless ocean, the sparkling constellations of a serene sky, or
the position of the sun, were the only guides of the ancient
navigator. He therefore rarely ventured to lose sight of land,
but cautiously steering his little bark along the shore, was
subject to all the delays and dangers of coast navigation. Even
under the mild sky and in the calm waters of the Mediterranean,
it was only during the summer months that he dared to leave
the port ; to brave the fury of the wintry winds was a boldness
he never could have thought of. Under such adverse circum-
stances, it is surely far less astonishing that the geographical
knowledge of the ancients was so extremely limited when com-
pared with ours, than that with means so scanty they yet should
have known so much of the boundaries of ocean.
But the spirit of commercial enterprise triumphs over every
difficulty. Stimulated by the love of gain, and the hope of dis-
covering new sources of wealth, the Phoenicians, the first great
maritime nation mentioned in history, were continually enlarging
the limits of the known earth, until the fatal moment when
the sword of the conqueror destroyed their cities, and extin-
guished their power for ever.
The first periods of Phoenician greatness are veiled in the
mysterious darkness of an unknown past, yet so much is certain,
444
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
that their date must have been very remote ; as, according to the
accounts which Herodotus received from the priests, the founda-
tion of Tyre took place thirty centuries before the Christian era.
Long before the expedition of the Argonauts, the Phoenicians
had already founded colonies on the Bithynian coast of the
Black Sea (Pronectus, Bitkynium) ; and that at a very early time
they must have steered through the Straits of Hades into the
Atlantic is proved by the fact, that, as far back as the eleventh
century before Christ, they founded the towns of Hades and
Tartessus on the western coast of Southern Spain. Penetrating
farther and farther to the north, they discovered Britain, where
they established their chief station on the Scilly Isles, at present
so insignificant and obscure, and even visited the barbarous shores
of the Baltic in quest of the costly amber. They planted their
colonies along the north-west coast of Africa, even beyond the
tropic ; and, 2000 years before Vasco de Hama, Phoenician
mariners are said to have circumnavigated that continent, for
Herodotus relates that a Tyrian fleet, fitted out by Necko II.,
Pharaoh of Egypt (6 11 — 595 b.c.), sailed from a port in the Red
Sea, doubled the southern promontory of Africa, and, after a
voyage of three years, returned through the Straits of Hades to
the mouth of the Nile.
Less wonderful, but resting on better historical proof, is the
celebrated voyage of discovery to the south which Hanno per-
formed by command of the senate of Carthage, the greatest of
all Phoenician colonies, eclipsing even the fame of Tyre itself.
Sailing from Cerne, the principal Phoenician settlement on the
western coast of Africa, and which was probably situated on the
present island of Arguin, he reached, after a navigation of
seventeen days, a promontory which he called the West Horn
(probably Cape Palmas), and then advanced to another cape, to
which he gave the name of South Horn, and which is manifestly
Cape de Tres Puntas, only 5° north of the line. During day-
time the deepest silence reigned along the newly discovered
coast, but after sunset countless fires were seen burning along
the banks of the rivers, and the air resounded with music and
song, the black natives spending, as they still do now, the hours
of the cool night in festive joy. Most likely the Canary
Islands were also known to the Phoenicians, as the summit
of the Peak of Teneriffe is visible from the heights of Cape
Bojador.
DISCOVERIES OP THE PHOENICIANS.
445
Tlie progress of the great mariners of old in the Indian Ocean
was no less remarkable than the extension of their Atlantic
discoveries. Far beyond Bab-el-Mandeb their fleets sailed to
Ophir or Supara, and returned with rich cargoes of gold, silver,
sandal-wood, jewels, ivory, apes, and peacocks, to the ports of
Elath and Ezion-Geber at the head of the Red Sea. These
costly productions of the south were then transported across the
Isthmus of Suez to Rhinocolura, the nearest port on the Medi-
terranean, and thence to Tyre, which ultimately distributed
them over the whole of the known world.
The true position of Ophir is an enigma which no learned
CEdipus will ever solve. While some authorities place it on the
east coast of Africa, others fix its situation somewhere on the
•west coast of the Indian peninsula; and Humboldt is even of
opinion that the name had only a general signification, and that
a voyage to Ophir meant nothing more than a commercial ex-
pedition to any part of the Indian Ocean, just as at present we
speak of a voyage to the Levant or the West Indies.
But whatever Ophir may have been, it is certain that the
Phoenicians carried on a considerable trade with the lands and
nations beyond the Gates of the Red Sea. Their trade in the
direction of the Persian Gulf was no less extensive. Through
the Syrian desert, where Palmyra, their chief station or em-
porium, proudly rose above the surrounding sands, their caravans
slowly wandered to the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, to
provide Nineveh and Babylon with the costly merchandise of
Sidon and Tyre. Following the course of the great Mesopo-
tamian streams, they reached the shores of the Persian Gulf,
where they owned the ports of Tylos and Aradus and the rich
pearl islands of Bahrein, and, having loaded their empty camels
with the produce of Iran and Arabia, returned by the same way to
the shores of the Mediterranean. How far their ships may have
ventured beyond the mouth of the Persian Gulf is unknown,
but the researches of the learned orientalists, Gesenius, Benfey,
and Lassen, render it extremely probable, that, taking advantage
of the regularly changing monsoons, they sailed through the
Straits of Ormus to the coast of Malabar.
The progress of the Phoenician race in the technical arts, as
well as in the astronomical and mathematical sciences so highly
important for the improvement of their navigation, was no less
remarkable for the age in which they lived, than the vast
446
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
extension of a commercial intercourse which reached from
Britain to the Indus, and from the Black Sea to the Senegal.
They wove the finest linen, and knew how to dye it with the
most splendid purple. They were unsurpassed in the workman-
ship of metals, and possessed the secret of manufacturing white
and coloured glass, which their caravans and ships exchanged
for the produce of the north and of the south. By the invention
of the alphabet, which with many other useful sciences and arts,
they communicated to the Greeks and other nations with whom
they traded, they no less contributed to the progress of mankind
than by the humanising influence of commerce.
Thus when we consider the services which these merchant-
princes of antiquity rendered to their contemporaries, wherever
their flag was seen or their caravans appeared, the annihilation
of the maritime power of Tyre by Alexander (332 b.c.), and the
destruction of Carthage by the Romans (146 B.c.), must strike
us as events calamitous to the whole human race. Had the
Carthaginians, so distinguished by their commercial spirit and
ardour for discovery, triumphed over the semi-barbarous Romans,
who, then at least, had not yet learned to imitate the arts of
plundered Greece, there is every probability that some Punic
Columbus would have discovered America at least a thousand
years sooner, and the world at this day be in possession of many
secrets still unknown, and destined to contribute to the comforts
or enjoyments of our descendants.
In the times of Homer, when the Indian Ocean and the
Atlantic had long been known to the Phoenicians, the geogra-
phical knowledge of the Greeks was still circumscribed by the
narrow limits of the Eastern Mediterranean and part of the
Euxine, and many a century elapsed ere their ships ventured
beyond the Straits of Gades. Colseus of Samos (639 b.c.) is said
to have been the first seafarer of Hellenic race who sailed forth
into the Atlantic, compelled by adverse winds, and was able on
his return from his involuntary voyage to tell his astonished
countrymen of the wondrous rising and falling of the oceanic
tides. It was seventy }mars later before the Phoceans of Mas-
silia, the present Marseilles, ventured to follow the path he
had traced out, and to visit the Atlantic port of Tartessus.
The town of Massilia had the additional honour of reckoning
among her sons the great traveller Pytheas, the Marco Polo of
EARLY VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY.
447
antiquity. This far -wandering philosopher, who lived about 330
years before Christ, had visited all the coasts of Europe, from
the mouths of the Tanais or Don to the shores of Ultima Thule,
which, according to Leopold von Buch, was not Iceland, nor
Feroe, nor Orcadia, but the Norwegian coast. His narrative
first made the Greeks acquainted with North-western Europe,
and remained for a long time their only geographical guide to
those hyperborean lands.
While the horizon of the Greeks was thus considerably ex-
panding towards the regions of the setting sun, the conquests of
Alexander opened to them a new world in the distant Orient.
Greek navigators now for the first time unfurled their sails on
the Indian Ocean. The Macedonian, desirous not only of sub-
duing Asia but of firmly attaching it to the nations of the
Mediterranean by the bonds of mutual interest, and hoping by
this means to consolidate his vast conquests, sent a fleet under
the command of Nearchus, from the mouths of the Indus to the
head of the Persian Gulf, to establish if possible a new road for
a regular commercial intercourse between India and Mesopo-
tamia. The performance of this voyage was reckoned by the
conqueror one of the most glorious events of his reign, but it
may serve as a proof of the slowness of ancient navigation, that
Nearchus took ten months to perform a journey which one of
our steamers might easily accomplish in five days.
After the disruption of the Macedonian empire, the circle of
the Greek discoveries in the Indian Ocean was widened by the
enterprising spirit of the Seleucidae and Ptolemies. Seleucus
Nicator is said to have penetrated to the mouths of the Ganges,
and the fleets of the Egyptian kings sailed round the peninsula
of Hindostan and discovered the coasts of Taprobane or Ceylon,
the spicy odours of whose cinnamon-groves are said to be wafted
far out to sea, so that —
“• for many a league,
Pleased with the grateful scent, old Ocean smiles.”
But now came the time when earth-ruling Rome called the
whole civilised world her own, and her victorious eagles expanded
their triumphant wings from the Red Sea to the coasts of the
Northern Ocean. What discoveries might not have been ex-
pected from such a power, if the Romans had possessed but one
448
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERT.
tithe of the maritime spirit of conquered Carthage ? But even
this military empire contributed something to the enlargement
of maritime knowledge. Under the reign of Augustus a Roman
fleet sailed round the promontory of Skagen, discovered about
sixteen years after the birth of Christ the Island of Fionia or
Fiinen, and is even supposed to have reached the entrance of the
Grulf of Finland. In the year 84 A.c. Julius Agricola, the
conqueror of Britain, sailed for the first time round Scotland, and
discovered the Orcadian Isles.
In Pliny’s time the real magnitude of the earth was still so im-
perfectly known that, according to the calculations of that great
though rather over-credulous naturalist, Europe occupied the
third part, Asia only the fourth, and Africa about the fifth of its
whole extent.
The geographer Ptolemy, who lived about the middle of
the second century, under the reigns of Hadrian and Marcus
Aurelius, describes the limits of the earth as far as they were
known in his time. To the west, the coast of Africa had been
explored as far as Cape Juby; and the Fortunate Islands or Hes-
perides, the present Canaries, rose from the ocean as the last
lands towards the setting sun.
To the north discovery had reached as far as the Shetland
Isles, and the promontory Perispa at the entrance of the Grulf of
Finland ; while on the east coast of Africa Cape Brava formed
the ultimate boundary of the known world. Soon after
Ptolemy’s time the whole coast of Malacca ( Aurea Chersonesus )
and the Siamese Sea, as far as the Cape of Cambogia ( Notium
promontorium), was explored, and the Romans even appear to
have had some knowledge of the great islands of the Indian
archipelago, Java, Sumatra, and Borneo.
And yet, notwithstanding all this progress towards the East, it
may well be asked whether the Phoenicians had not embraced a
wider horizon than the Romans in the full zenith of their fortunes.
Even though we reject the circumnavigation of Africa under
Necho, and the discovery of America by Punic navigators, as not
fully proved or fabulous, it is quite certain that they had explored
the west coast of Africa to a much greater extent than the Romans,
and extremely probable that they knew at least as much of the
lands which bound the Indian Ocean. But, as from a narrow-
AMALFI. GAETA. NAPLES. PISA.
449
minded mercantile policy they kept many of their discoveries
profoundly secret, all knowledge of them perished with their
ruin. In ancient times, when the defeat of a people too often
led to its complete destruction, or at least to the extinction of its
peculiar civilisation, and the difficulties of intercourse rendered
the diffusion of knowledge extremely difficult and slow, it not
unfrequently happened that useful discoveries were erased from
the memory of mankind, a danger which, thanks to the print-
ing-press and the steam-engine, is now no longer to he feared.
Thus a darkening or eclipse of intellectual life took place to
a vast extent when the western Roman Empire succumbed to
the barbarians of the North, and the bands which for centuries
had united the cities of the east and west were violently sun-
dered. Under that fatal blight Civilisation vanished from the
lands which had so long been her chosen seat, only to dawn
again after a long and obscure night. Commercial intercourse
ceased between the sea-ports of the Mediterranean, all commu-
nication with distant countries was cut off, and the boundaries
of the known earth became more and more narrow, as the
ignorance of a barbarous age increased.
It is not before the beginning of the ninth century that we
perceive the first glimpses of a better day in the rising fortunes
of some Italian sea-ports, where favourable circumstances had
given birth to liberal institutions. As early as the year 840
Amalfi possessed a considerable number of trading-vessels, and
carried on a lucrative commerce with the Levant. The maritime
code of this little republic regulated the commercial transactions
of all the Mediterranean sea-ports ; as in a later century the
law-book of Wisby served as a guide to the merchants of the
Baltic. A few years after its submission in 1131 to the arms
of King Roger of Sicily, Amalfi was plundered by the Pisan ese
and almost entirely destroyed. The neglected harbour was
gradually choked with sand, and the little town, which now
numbers no more than 3000 inhabitants, has nothing to console
it for its actual poverty but the remembrance of a glorious
past. Along with Amalfi, Graeta, Naples, and Pisa, rose to con-
siderable eminence in commerce, though far from equalling the
power and splendour of Genoa and Venice, the great republics
of northern Italy.
As far back as the beginning of the sixth century, the city of
450
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
the lagunes fits out a small fleet to purge the Adriatic of Istrian
pirates. By a prudent course of policy she renders herself indis-
pensable to the Byzantine court, and acquires great privileges in
Constantinople. It is here she purchases the costly productions
of the East, with which during the ninth and tenth centuries,
she provides Northern Italy and a great part of Germany. About
the beginning of the eleventh century her trade with Egypt and
Syria begins to flourish, and soon raises her to the pinnacle of
her power and wealth. In the year 1080 she extends her rule
over Croatia and Dalmatia, and gains in 1204 considerable ad-
vantages by assisting the western crusaders in the conquest of
Constantinople. Pera, numerous coast towns from the Helles-
pont to the Ionian Sea, a great part of the Morea, Corfu, and
Candia fall to the winged lion’s share, and requite the services
of “ blind old Dandolo.” The silk manufacture is transported,
as a valuable fruit of conquest, from the Morea to Venice, and
becomes a new source of wealth to the Adriatic Tyre. The
Euxine opens her ports to the Venetian seamen, treaties of
commerce are concluded with Trebizond and Armenia, and a
factory is established at Tana, at the mouth of the Don.
While thus the power of Venice rises more and more in the
East, Genoa, which already in the tenth century carried on a
flourishing trade, acquires by degrees the supremacy in the
Western Mediterranean. The aid afforded by the republic to
the Greek emperor Michael Palaeologus contributes largely to the
overthrow of the Latin throne of Constantinople, and opens the
Bosphorus and the Black Sea to the enterprise of her merchants.
The grandeur of Genoa now reaches its height ; she holds forti-
fied possession of Pera and Galata, and covers the coasts of the
Crimea with her strong-holds and castles.
At a later period the Florentines appear on the scene, and
assume the rank formerly held by Pisa in Mediterranean com-
merce. The acquisition of the sea-port of Leghorn (1421) opens
the barriers of the ocean to the birthplace of Dante and
Galileo.
After their deliverance from the Moorish yoke in the ninth
century, a fresh and vigorous spirit begins also to animate the
Catalans. They conclude treaties of commerce with Genoa and
Pisa, and towards the end of the thirteenth century the ships of
Barcelona are found visiting all the ports of the Mediterranean.
THE MARINER’S COMPASS.
4ol
But in spite of the growth of trade and navigation in Italy and
Spain, many years had yet to elapse after the fall of the Eoman
empire ere the gates of the Atlantic were once more opened to
the navigators of the Mediterranean. It was not before the
middle of the thirteenth century, after Seville and a great part
of the Andalusian coast had been wrested from the Moors by
Ferdinand of Castile, that the Italian and Catalonian seafarers,
encouraged by privileges and remissions of duties, began to visit
the port of Cadiz, where they met with merchants from Portugal
and Biscay. Soon after, and most probably in consequence of
the connexions thus formed, we find Italian ships visiting the
ports of England and the Netherlands. About 1316, Ge-
noese vessels began to carry goods to England ; and somewhat
later the Venetians, whose visits are not mentioned by the
chroniclers before 1323.
Thus after a long interruption we see the seamen of the
Mediterranean at length resuming the track to the Atlantic
ports that had been struck out more than thirty centuries before
by their predecessors the Phoenicians. But their voyages to the
western ocean took place under circumstances much more
favourable than those which had attended the men of Tyre and
Carthage in their adventurous expeditions. Not only the better
construction of their ships, but still more the use of the mariner’s
compass, for which Europe is probably indebted to the Arabs,
who in their turn owed its knowledge to the Chinese, enabled
them to steer more boldly into the open sea, and regardless of
the bendings of the coasts to reach their journey’s end by a less
circuitous route. The period when the magnetic needle was
first made use of by the Mediterranean 'navigators is not exactly
known, but so much is certain that it did good service long be-
fore the time of Flavio Gioja (1302), to whom its discovery has
been erroneously ascribed, though he may have introduced some
improvement in the arrangement of the compass. Humboldt
tells us in his “ Cosmos,” that in the satirical poem of Guyot de
Provens, “La Bible” (1190), and in the description of Palestine
by Jaques de Vitry, bishop of Ptolemais (1204 —1215), the sea-
compass is mentioned as a well-known instrument. Dante also
speaks of the needle which points to the stars (Paradise, xii. 29);
and in a nautical work by Raimundus Lullus of Majorca, written
in the year 1286, we find another proof of a much earlier
H H
452
THE PROGRESS OP MARITIME DISCOVERY.
knowledge of the compass than before the beginning of the
fourteenth century, since its use by the mariners of his time is
expressly mentioned by that author.
Confidently following this unerring guide, the Catalonians
sailed at an early period to the north coast of Scotland, and even
preceded the Portuguese in their discoveries on the west coast of
Africa, since Don Jay me Ferrer penetrated to the mouth of the
Eio de Ouro as early as August 1346. About the same time the
long- forgotten Canary Islands were rediscovered by the Spaniards;
and at a later period (1402 — 1405) conquered and depopulated
by some Norman adventurers, the Bethencourts.
While thus the South-European navigators unfurled their sails
on the Atlantic, and gave the first impulse to the glorious dis-
coveries that in the following century were destined to open up
the ocean, and reveal its hitherto unknown greatness to mankind,
the Indian Sea still remained closed to their enterprise ; for
though the Venetians by this time rivalled, if they did not sur-
pass the ancient maritime greatness of the Tyrians in the Medi-
terranean, they did not, like them, directly fetch the rich produce
of the South in their own ships from the East-African and
Indian ports, but received them at second hand from the Arabian
masters of Syria and Egypt.
But though no ship of theirs was ever seen in the Indian
seas, through them the knowledge of the Arabian discoveries
in those parts penetrated to Europe, and widely extended the
knowledge of the ocean. For when the Arabs, fired by the pro-
phetic ardour of Mahomet, suddenly emerged from the obscurity
of pastoi'al life, and appeared as conquerors before the astonished
world, the trade of the Indian Ocean fell into the hands of these
new masters of the Red Sea and Persian Grulf, who soon learnt
to pursue it with an energy which the Romans and Persians had
never known. The town of Bassora was founded b}7 the caliph
Omar on the western shore of the great stream formed by the
confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, and soon emulated
Alexandria herself in the greatness of its commerce. From Bas-
sora the Arabs sailed far beyond the Siamese Gulf, which had
formerly bounded European navigation. They visited the un-
known ports of the Indian archipelago, and established so active a
trade with Canton, that the Chinese emperor granted them the
use of their own laws in that city.
EARLY TRAVELLERS.
453
This progress of the Arabs, and the vast treasures accruing to
Venice from the overland Indian trade, could not fail to excite
the envy of the other seafaring powers, and to call forth an in-
creasing desire of discovering a new maritime route to the wealth-
teeming regions of Southern Asia.
The wonderful narratives of the first travellers who wandered
by land to the distant East likewise contributed in no small
degree to foment the ardour of discovery. The most celebrated
of these geographical pioneers was Marco Polo, a noble Venetian
who had resided many years at the court of the Mongol ruler,
Kublai Khan, and visited the most remote regions of Asia. He
was the first European that ever sailed along the western shores
of the Pacific, the first that told his astonished countrymen of
the magnificence of Cambalu or Peking, the capital of the great
kingdom of Cathay, and of the splendour of Zipanga or Japan
situated on the confines of a vast ocean extending to the east.
He also made more than one sea-voyage in the Indian Ocean,
and to him Europe owed her first knowledge of the Moluccas,
the east coast of Africa, and the island of Madagascar.
This greatest of all the mediaeval travellers, who without ex-
aggeration may be said to have enlarged the boundaries of the
known earth as much as Alexander the Great, was followed by
Oderich of Portenau, who travelled as far as India and China
(1320 — 1330); by Sir John Mandeville, who visited almost all
the lands described by Marco Polo ; by Schildberger of Munich,
who accompanied the barbarous Tamerlane on his locust expedi-
tions; and finally by Clavigo, sent in the year 1403 by the Spanish
court on an embassy to Samarcand. The truths which these bold
travellers communicated to their countrymen about the riches
and the commerce of the nations they had visited, as well as the
fables in which their credulity or their extravagant fancy in-
dulged, made an enormous impression on the European mind,
and raised to a feverish heat the longing after those sunny lands
and isles which imagination adorned with all the charms of an
earthly paradise.
H H L>
454
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERT.
CHAP. XXIV.
Prince Henry of Portugal. — Discovery of Porto Santo and Madeira. — Doubling of
Cape Bojador. — Discovery of tbe Cape Verde Islands. — Bartholomew Diaz. —
Vasco de Gama. — Columbus. — His Predecessors. — Discovery of Greenland by
Gunnbjorn. — Bjorne Herjulfson. — Leif. — John Vaz Cortereal. — John and
Sebastian Cabot. — Retrospective View of the Beginnings of English Navigation.
— Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci. — Vincent Yanez Pinson. — Cortez.— Verazzani.
— Cartier. — The Portuguese in the Indian Ocean.
The reigning idea of a century finds always one or more eminent
spirits, in whom and through whose agency the desires and
hopes of thousands ripen into deeds, and are changed from
dreams into realities. One of these rare and highly gifted men
was Prince Henry of Portugal, a son of King John I., who
made it the chief aim of his life to extend the boundaries of
maritime discovery, and devoted with glowing ardour all the
powers of his energetic mind, and all the influence of rank and
riches to the attainment of this noble object. From the castle
of Sagres near Cape St. Vincent, where, far from the court, he
had fixed his residence in order to be less disturbed in his
favourite studies, his eye glanced over the Atlantic, which
constantly reminded him of the unknown lands which held out
such brilliant prospects to the navigator who should venture to
steer southwards along the African coast. The experienced
seamen and learned geographers that surrounded him con-
firmed him in his hopes, and encouraged him to attempt the
realisation of his generous ideas.
Fortunately all outward circumstances combined to favour
the prince's projects. At that time Portugal v'as not plunged,
as at present, in a state of slothful lethargy, hut full of the bold
and enterprising spirit which the expulsion of the Moors and
long intestine wars had called to life. The geographical posi-
tion of the country, bounded on every side by the dominions of
a mightier neighbour, forbade all extension by land, and pointed
to the ocean as the only field in which a comparatively small
DISCOVERY OF PORTO SANTO AND MADEIRA.
455
but spirited people could hope to reap a rich harvest of wealth
and glory.
The first two ships which Prince Henry sent out on a voyage
of discovery along the African coast (1412) did not reach
farther than Cape Bojador, whose rocky cliffs stretching far out
into the Atlantic intimidated their inexperienced commanders.
Six years later (1418) Juan Gonsalez Zarco and Tristan Vaz
Tejeira were intrusted with a new expedition, and sailed with
express commands to double that ill-famed promontory ; but a
terrible gale drove them out to sea, and forced them to seek
a refuge on an unknown island, to which they thankfully gave
the name of Porto Santo. This discovery, though extremely
unimportant in itself, served to confirm the prince in his
projects, and encouraged him to send out ill the following year
a new expedition under the same commander, to take posses-
sion of the island.
This led to a more important discovery, for on landing on
Porto Santo the attention of the Portuguese was struck by a
black and prominent spot, rising above the southern horizon.
To this they now directed their course, and were equally de-
lighted and surprised to see it swell out as they approached to
the ample proportions of a large island ; to which, on account of
the dense forests which at that time covered its verdant hill-
slopes up to the very top, they gave the name of Madeira. Prince
Henry immediately equipped a considerable fleet to carry a
colony of his countrymen to the new land of promise, and fur-
nished them -with the vine of Cyprus, and the sugar-cane of
Sicily, which throve so well on the Atlantic isle, that after a
few years the produce of Madeira began to be of consequence in
the trade of the mother country.
Thus the first undertakings of Prince Henry were not left
unrewarded ; but, besides the commercial advantages arising
from the possession of Madeira, it encouraged the Portuguese
navigators no longer servilely to creep along the coasts, but
boldly to steer into the open sea. Thus Don Gilianez, by avoid-
ing the shore-currents, succeeded at last in doubling the dreaded
Cape Bojador (1433), and opening a new sphere to navigation.
One discovery now rapidly followed another. Gonsalez and Nuno
Tristan (1440-1442) penetrated as far as the Senegal; Cape de
Verd was reached in 1446 ; and three years later, the limits of
450
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
the known earth were extended as far as the islands of the same
name and the Azores, those advanced sentinels in the bosom of
the Atlantic. It may easily be imagined how much these suc-
cesses contributed to encourage the universal ardour for dis-
covery. Adventurers from all countries hastened to Portugal,
hoping to gratify their ambition or avarice under the auspices of
a prince who had already achieved so much; and even many
Venetians and Genoese, who were at that time superior to all
other nations in naval science, reckoned it as an honour to serve
under a flag which might justly be considered as the high school
of the seaman. Thus before Prince Henry closed his eyes (1463 )
the aim of his glorious life had been attained ; for, though he
did not live to see his countrymen penetrate into the Indian
Ocean, yet he witnessed the mighty impulse which in a short
time was to lead to that important result.
In the year 1471 the line was crossed for the first time, and
the Portuguese thus detected the error of the ancients, who
believed that the intolerable heat of a vertical sun rendered the
equatorial regions uninhabitable by man.
Under John the Second a mighty fleet discovered the
kingdoms of Benin and Congo (1484), followed the coast above
1500 miles beyond the equator, and revealed to Europe the
constellations of another hemisphere.
The farther their ships penetrated to the south, the higher
rose the flood tide of their hopes. As the African continent
appeared sensibly to contract itself, and to bend towards the
East as they proceeded, they no longer doubted that the way to
the Indian Ocean would now soon be found, and give them the
exclusive possession of a trade which had enriched Venice, and
made that city the envy of the world. The ancient long-
forgotten tale of the Phoenician circumnavigation of Africa now
found belief, and Bartholomew Diaz sailed from Lisbon for the
purpose of solving the important problem. The storms of an
unknown ocean, the famine caused by the loss of his store-ship,
and the frequent mutinies of a dispirited crew, could not stop
the progress of this intrepid mariner, who, boldly advancing in
the face of a thousand difficulties, at length discovered the high
promontory which forms the southern extremity of Africa.
But, as his weather-beaten ships were no ionger able to con-
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.
457
front the mountain-billows and furious gales foaming or roaring
round that stormy headland, he was obliged, sore against his
will, to give up the attempt to double the Cape of Tempests,
Cabo tormentoso, as he called it, but to which the king gave the
more inviting name of the Cape of Good Hope. Yet before
Vasco de Gama set sail from Lisbon to accomplish the great
work (1498) and win the prize to which so many navigators
had gradually paved the way, the astounding intelligence had
flashed through Europe that on the 12th of October, 1492,
Columbus had discovered a new world in the west. The history
of this most famous, and most important in its results, of all
sea-voyages, is so well known that I may well refrain from
entering into any details on the subject: at all events the reader
will be much more interested by a short account of the intrepid
navigators who, long before the great Genoese, found their way
to the shores of the new continent.
While Tropical America is separated from Europe and Africa
by a vast tract of intervening ocean, and even the advanced
posts of the Azores and Cape de Verd Islands are far distant
from the western shores of the Atlantic, Iceland and Greenland
appear to us in the north as stations linking at comparatively
easy distances the Old World and the New. It is, therefore, by
no means surprising that the discovery of Iceland by the Nor-
wegian Viking or pirate Nadod, and the somewhat later coloni-
sation of the island b}^ Ingolf, in the year 875, should in the
following century have led the Norsemen to the discovery of
America, particularly when we consider that no people ever
equalled them in daring and romantic love of adventure :
“ Kings of the main their leaders brave,
Their barks the dragons of the wave.”
Greenland, discovered by Giinnbjom in the year 876 or 877,
was indeed not colonised by the Icelanders before 983 ; a delay
excusable enough when we consider the uninviting climate of
that dreary peninsula or island, but three years after the latter
date, we already find Bjorne Herjulfson undertaking a cruise
from the new settlement to the south-west, and successively
discovering Nantucket, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, though
without making any attempts to land. Bjorne was followed
TFIE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
4o8
about the year 1000 by Leif, a son of Erick the Red, the founder
of the Greenland colony; who, sailing along the American
coast as far as 4H° north lat. discovered the good Winland,
which received its name from the wild vines which Tyrker, a
German who accompanied the expedition, found growing there
in abundance. The fertility and mild climate of this coast,
when compared with that of Labrador and Greenland, induced
the discoverers to settle, and to found the first European colony
on the American continent. Frequent wars with the Eskimos
or Skrelingers (dwarfs), who at that time, as I have already
mentioned in the fourth chapter, extended far more to the south
than at present, soon however destroyed the colony ; and the last
account of Norman America we find in the old Scandinavian
records is the mention of a ship which, in the year 1347, had
sailed from Greenland to Markland (Nova Scotia) to gather
wood, and was driven by a storm to Stamfjord on the west coast
of Iceland. About this time also the colonies in Greenland,
which until then had enjoyed a tolerable state of prosperity,
decayed and ultimately perished under the blighting influence
of commercial monopolies, of wars with the aborigines, and
above all of the black death (1347-1351), that horrible plague
of the fourteenth century, which, after having depopulated
Europe, vented its fury even upon those remote wilds. Thus
the knowledge of the Norman discovery of America gradually
faded from the memory of man, and thus also it happened that
the names and deeds of Leif and Bjorne Herjulfson remained
totally unknown to the southern navigators, who at that time
moreover, had little intercourse with the nations of Northern
Europe.
Besides his well-authenticated Norman predecessors, Colum-
bus may possibly have had others. Traces of early Irish and
Welsh discoveries are pointed out by the Northern historians,
and John Yaz Cortereal, a Portuguese navigator, is said to have
visited the coasts of Newfoundland some time previous to the
voyages of Columbus and Cabot.
If before the first voyage of the great Genoese navigator a
mighty longing to penetrate to distant countries pervaded the
public mind of Europe, it may be imagined to wba.t a feverish
glow this reigning idea of the century was excited, when the
JOHN AND SEBASTIAN CABOT.
459
wonderful accounts of the gold and enchanting beauty of Haiti
spread from land to land. As in former times, half Europe had
thrown itself upon the Orient to liberate the tomb of our
Saviour from the tyranny of the Moslem ; so now one flood of
adventurers followed another to the new land of promise, which
held out such glittering prospects of wealth and enjoyment.
Obeying the mighty impulse, England and France now entered
upon the path on which Portugal and Spain had so gloriously
preceded them, and, as the fruit of this general emulation, we
see after a few years the whole western shore of the great
Atlantic basin drawn into the circle of the known earth.
If Columbus was undoubtedly the first discoverer of the AVest
Indian islands (the Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, 1492 ; Lesser Antilles,
1493 ; Jamaica, 1494), the honour of having preceded him on
the American continent belongs to John Cabot, a Venetian
merchant settled in Bristol, and to the youthful energy of his
son Sebastian, since they landed on the coast of Labrador (24th
June, 1497) seventeen months before the continent of Tropical
America, in the delta of the Orinoco, was discovered by
Columbus on his third voyage.
Thus Genoa and Venice, the great Mediterranean rivals, divide
the glory of having revealed a new world to mankind, but it
was ordained that the laurels of their sons should bloom under
a foreign flag, and the fruits of their endeavours be reaped by
other nations. For as Columbus steered into the western ocean
in the service of the Spanish monarch, the Cabots were sent by
Henry the Seventh of England across the Atlantic to discover a
north-western passage to India. This, of course, they did not
accomplish, but the discovery of Newfoundland and of the coast
of America from Labrador to Virginia rewarded their efforts,
and laid the foundation of Britain’s colonial greatness. Their
voyage is also remarkable as having been the first expedition of
the kind that ever left the shores of England, which at that
time held a very inferior rank among the maritime nations, and
gave but faint indications of her future naval supremac}^. On
this occasion it may not be uninteresting to cast a retrospective
glance on the modest beginnings of British navigation In
the year 1217 the first treaty of commerce was concluded with
Norway, and in the beginning of the fourteenth century Bergen
400
TIIE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
was the most distant port to which English vessels resorted.
Soon afterwards the}7 ventured into the Baltic, and it was not
before the middle of the following century that they began to
frequent some of the Castilian and Portuguese ports. Towards
the end of the fifteenth century the English flag was still
a stranger to the Mediterranean, and direct intercourse with
the Levant only began with the sixteenth. Edward the Second,
preparing for bis great Scottish war, was obliged to hire five
galleys from Gfenoa, the same town whence a few years back
our giant steamers transported a whole Sardinian army to the
shores of the Crimea, where centuries before the Genoese had
been established as lords and masters. Such are the changes
in the relative position of nations that have been brought about
by the power of time !
After this short digression I return to America, where, in
1499, Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci were the first to sail along
.the coast of Paria. The following year was uncommonly rich
in voyages of discovery, as well in the south as in the north.
In the western ocean the line was first crossed by Vincent
Yahez Pinson, who doubled Cape Saint Augustin, discovered
the mouths of the Amazon river, and thence sailed northwards
along the coast as far as the island of Trinidad, which Columbus
had discovered two years before. About the same time a
Portuguese fleet, sailing under the command of Pedro Alvarez
Cabral to the Indian Ocean, was driven by adverse winds to the
coast of the Brazils ; so that, if the genius of Columbus had not
evoked, as it were, America out of the waves, chance would
have effected her discovery a few years later.
A third voyage, which renders the year 1500 remarkable in
maritime annals, is that of Gaspar Cortereal, a son of John Vaz
Cortereal whom I have already mentioned as one of the doubtful
precursors of Columbus.
Hoping to realise the dream of a north-west passage to the
riches of India, Gaspar appeared on the inhospitable shores
of Labrador, and penetrated into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Storms and ice-drifts forced him to retreat, but firmly resolved
to prosecute his design, he again set sail in the following year
with two small vessels. It is supposed that on this second
voyage he penetrated into Frobisher Bay, but here floating ice-
PINSON. CORTEZ. VERAZZAXI.
401
masses and violent gales separated him from his companion
ship, which returned alone to Portugal.
As in our times the uncertain fate of Franklin has called forth
a series of heroic deeds, so the doubtful destiny of the Portuguese
explorer allowed his brother Miguel no rest, whom in the
following spring we find hastening with three ships on the traces
of the lost Gaspar. But Miguel also disappeared for ever among
the ice-fields of the north. A third brother of this high-minded
family yet remained, who earnestly implored the king that he
also might be allowed to go forth and seek for his missing
kindred. But Emanuel steadfastly refused permission, saying
that these deplorable enterprises had already cost him two of
his most valuable servants, and he could afford to lose no more.
In the year 1501 Rodrigo de Bastidas sailed to the coast of
Paria, and discovered the whole shore-line from Cape de Vela
to the Gulf of Darien. In the year 1502 the aged Columbus,
entering with youthful ardour upon his fourth and last voyage,
set sail with four wretched vessels, the largest of which was
only seventy tons burthen, and discovered the coast of the
American continent from Cape Gracias a Dios to Porto-Bello.
The east coast of Yucatan was explored in the year 1508 by
Juan Diaz de Solis and Vincent Yanez Pinson, and the island
of Cuba circumnavigated for the first time by Sebastian de
Ocampo.
In 1512 Juan Ponce de Leon is led by his evil star to Florida,
where, instead of finding as he hoped the fountain of eternal
youth, he is doomed to a miserable end ; and in 1517 the above-
mentioned Solis sails along the coasts of the Brazils to the
mouth of the Rio de la Plata, where he is killed in a conflict
with the Indians. In 1518 Cordova makes his countrymen
acquainted with the north and west coasts of Yucatan, and in
the same year Grijalva discovers the Mexican coast from Tabasco
to San Juan de Ulioa. In 1518 he is followed by the great
Cortez, who lands at Vera Cruz, overthrows the empire of Mon-
tezuma after a series of exploits unparalleled in history, and
renders the whole coast of Mexico»far to the north subject to
the Spanish crown.
The voyages of Verazzani (1523) who sailed along the coast
of the United States, and of Jacques Cartier (^1524) who inves-
462
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
tigated the Bay of St. Lawrence, did not indeed widely extend
geographical knowledge, as these navigators, who had been sent
out by Francis I., did no more than examine more closely the
previous discoveries of Cabot and Cortereal ; their explorations
however had the result of giving France possession of Canada,
and of entitling her to a share in the fisheries of Newfoundland.
Thus within half a century after the ever memorable day when
Columbus first landed on Guanahani, we find almost the whole
eastern coast of America rising into light from the deep dark-
ness of an unknown past.
But while the western shores of the Atlantic were thus un-
rolling themselves before the wondering gaze of mankind, the
Indian Ocean was the scene of no less remarkable events ; for
in the same year (1498) that Columbus first visited the American
continent, Vasco de Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope, which
thus fully justified its auspicious name, crossed the Eastern Ocean,
• and on the 22nd of May landed at Calicut on the coast of Malabar,
ten months and two days after leaving the port of Lisbon.
And now, as if by magic, the great revolution in commerce
took place which the Venetians long had feared and the Portu-
guese had no less anxiously hoped for ; for the latter lost no time
in reaping the golden fruits of the glorious discoveries of Gama
and his predecessors. In less than twenty years their flag waved
in all the harbours of the Indian Ocean, from the east coast of
Africa to Canton ; and over this whole immense expanse a row
of fortified stations secured to them the dominion of the seas.
Their settlements in Diu and Goa awed the whole coast of
Malabar, and cut off the intercourse of Egypt with India by
way of the Eed Sea. They took possession of the small island
of Ormus, which commands the entrance of the Persian Gulf,
and rendered this important commercial highway likewise tribu-
tary to their power. In the centre of the East- Indian world
rose their chief emporium, Malacca, and even in distant China
Macao obeyed their laws. The discovery of the Molucca
Islands gave them the monopoly of the lucrative spice trade,
which was destined at a later period, and more permanently, to
enrich the thrifty Dutchman.
What vast changes had taken place since Prince Henry’s
first expeditions to the coast of Africa ! How had old Ocean
THE PORTUGUESE IX TIIE IXDIAX OCEAX.
40:
enlarged his bounds ! He who as a child had still known the
earth with her old and narrow confines might, before his
hair grew white, have seen the Atlantic assume a definite form ;
Africa project like an enormous peninsula into the boundless
world of waters, and one single ocean bathe all the coasts from
Canton to the West Indies.
Yet a few years and the Pacific opens its gates, and all the
discoveries of Columbus and Vasco seem small when compared
with the vast regions which Magellan reveals to man.
4G4
TIIE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY,
CHAP. XXV.
Vasco Nunez de Balboa. — His Discovery of the Pacific, and subsequent Fate. — ■
Ferdinand Magellan. — Sebastian el Cano, the first Circumnavigator of the
Globe. — Discoveries of Pizarro and Cortez. — Urdaneta. — Juan Fernandez. —
Mendoza. — Drake. — Discoveries of the Portuguese and Dutch in the Western
Pacific. — Attempts of the Dutch and English to discover North-East and North-
West Passages to India. — Sir Hugh Willoughby and Chancellor. — Frobisher.—
Davis. — Barentz. — His Wintering in Nova Zembla. — Quiros. — Torres. —
Schouten. — Le Maire.— Abel Tasman. — Hudson. — Baffin. — Dampier. — Anson.
— Byron. — Wallis and Carteret. — Bougainville.
The riches which the Indian trade had poured into the lap of
Venice, and which at a later period fell to the share of the
Portuguese, formed the chief incitement to the great maritime
discoveries which illustrated the end of the fifteenth and the
first half of the sixteenth century.
The hope to discover a new road to India had not only
animated the Portuguese navigators, but also led Columbus
and Cabot across the Atlantic. It caused the unfortunate
Cortereal to sail into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, induced Juan de
Solis to penetrate into the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, and
was finally the chief end and aim of the wondrous expedition of
Magellan. The time is now come when the barriers of the
Pacific are to fall, but before crossing its vast bosom with the
illustrious navigator who first traversed it from end to end, I
shall detain the reader a few moments on the shores of the Gulf of
Darien, where the wretched remains of the colony of Santa Maria
el Antigua, founded by Ojeda in 1509, had, after the departure
of that unfortunate adventurer, freely elected Vasco Nunez de
Balboa to be their governor. This great man, who would have
emulated the fame of a Cortez or Pizarro if his good fortune
had been equal to his merit, omitted no opportunity of justifying
the choice of his comrades by the unremitting zeal he displayed
for their welfare. Making up for the scantiness of his resources
by unceasing activity, he subdued the neighbouring caciques.
BALBOA. THE PACIFIC.
405
and collected a great quantity of gold, which abounded more in
that part of the continent than in the islands.
It happened during one of his frequent excursions that a
young Cacique, witnessing a very angry dispute among the
Spaniards about a few grains of gold, asked them in a con-
temptuous tone why they quarrelled about such a trifle ; and
added, that, if they set such an exorbitant value upon a metal
comparatively worthless in his eyes, he could gratify their
utmost wishes by pointing out to them a land where gold was so
plentiful that even common utensils were made of it. And when
Balboa eagerly asked where that happy country was situated,
“Six days’ journey to the south,” was the answer, “will bring
you to another ocean along whose coast it lies ! ”
This was the first time the Spaniards ever heard of the Pacific
and of gold-teeming Peru, and the intelligence was well calcu-
lated to inflame the enterprising spirit of their leader. Balboa
immediately concluded that this sea must be that which Colum-
bus and so many other navigators had vainly sought for, and
that its discovery would beyond all doubt open the way to
India, which, according to the geographical error of the times,
was supposed to be far less distant from America than it
really is.
The most brilliant prospects rose before his fancy, and he
would immediately have gone forth to realise them, if prudence
had not warned him first to provide all the means necessary to
insure success. He therefore endeavoured before all to gain the
good-will of the neighbouring Indian chiefs, and sent some trust-
worthy agents to Hispaniola with a considerable quantity of
gold, whereby many adventurers were induced to flock to his
standard. Having thus reinforced himself, he thought he might
now safely undertake his important expedition.
The Isthmus of Darien, over which he had to force his way,
is not above sixty miles broad, but this short distance was ren-
dered difficult, or rather impervious, by the innumerable obstacles
of a tropical wilderness. The high mountains running along the
neck of land were covered with dense forests, and the low grounds
beneath filled with deep swamps, from which arose exhalations
deadly to a European constitution. Wild torrents rushed
down the ravines, and often forced them to retrace their steps.
A march through a country like this, thinly peopled by a few
46G
THE PROGRESS OP MARITIME DISCOVERY.
savages, and without any other guides than some Indians of
doubtful fidelity, was an enterprise worthy of all the energies of
a Balboa.
On the 1st of September, 1513, after the end of the rainy sea-
son, he set out with a small but well chosen band of 190 Spaniards,
accompanied by 1000 Indian carriers. As long as he remained
on the territories of the friendly Caciques his progress was
comparatively easy, but scarce had he penetrated into the
interior, when, besides the almost invincible obstacles of nature
— forests, swamps, and swollen torrents, — he had to encounter
the deadly enmity of the Indians. As he approached, some of
the Caciques fled to the mountains, after having destroyed or
carried along with them all that might have been of use to the
hated strangers ; while others, of more determined hostility,
opposed his progress by force of arms. Although the Spaniards
had been led to expect that a six days’ march would bring them
to their journey’s end, they had already spent no less than twenty-
five days in forcing their way through the wilderness, amidst
incessant attacks and hardships. The greater part of them were
rapidly giving way under fatigues almost surpassing the limits
of mortal endurance, and even the strongest felt that they could
not hold out much longer. But Balboa, ever the foremost to
face danger or difficulty, whose spirits no reverse could damp,
and whose fiery eloquence painted in glowing colours the
glorious reward of their present privations, knew how to inspire
his men with his own unconquerable spirit, so that without a
murmur they kept toiling on through swamp and forest. At
length the Indian guides pointed out to them a mountain-crest
from which they promised them the view of the longed-for ocean.
Filled with new ardour they climbed up the steep ascent, but
before they reached the summit Balboa ordered them to halt,
that he might be the first to enjoy the glorious prospect. As
soon as he saw the Pacific stretch out in endless majesty along
the verge of the distant horizon, he fell on his knees and poured
forth his rapturous thanks to heaven for having awarded him so
grand a discovery. And now also his impatient companions
hurried on, and soon the primeval forest — accustomed only to
the bowlings of the brute or the eagle’s scream — resounded
with the loud exclamations of their astonishment, gratitude,
and joy.
FERDINAND OF MAGELLAN.
467
It was from the small mountain-chain of Quarequa, on the 25th
of September, 1513, that the Spaniards first saw the sea-horizon,
but they had still several days to march before they reached the
Gulf of San Miguel. Here Alonzo Martin de Don Benito was
the first white man that ever floated in a canoe on the Eastern
Pacific, even before Balboa, armed with sword and shield, de-
scended into the water to take possession of the newly discovered
ocean in the name of the king his master.
Although the subsequent fortunes of this great mar are
foreign to my subject, yet it may not be uninteresting to the
reader to be informed how his important services were requited.
Unfortunately the ingratitude of the Spanish court, which so
scandalously embittered the declining years of Columbus and
Cortez, reached its lowest depth in the case of Balboa. Those
great men had at least in the beginning enjoyed some show of
favour, but the discoverer of the Pacific was treated throughout
with the basest indignity. The governorship of Darien, to which
his splendid achievements had given him so undeniable a claim,
was conferred upon a certain Pedrarias Davila, a wretch who,
after having persecuted and thwarted the hero in every possible
way, caused him at length to be beheaded, imder a false accusa-
tion of high treason.
Six years after Balboa had first seen the Pacific, two years
after his execution, Ferdinand of Magellan made his appearance
in that great ocean. A Portuguese of noble birth, this eminent
navigator had served with distinction under Albuquerque, the
conqueror of Malacca. His plan of seeking a new road to India
across the Atlantic being but coldly received in his native
country, he transferred his services to Spain, where his dis-
tinguished merit found better judges in Cardinal Ximenes, and
his youthful master, Charles V. With five ships, the largest
of which did not carry more than 120 tons, and with a crew of
236 men, partly the sweepings of the jails, he sailed on the 20th
of September, 1519, from the port of San Lucar, and spent
the following summer (the winter of the southern hemisphere)
on the dreary coast of Patagonia. In this uncomfortable station
he lost one of his squadron ; and the Spaniards suffered so much
from the excessive rigour of the climate, that the crews of three
of his ships, headed by their officers, rose in open mutiny, and
insisted on relinquishing the visionary project of a desperate
II
408
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
adventurer, and returning directly to Spain. This dangerous
insurrection Magellan suppressed by an effort of courage no less
prompt than intrepid, and inflicted exemplary punishment on
the ringleaders.
He now continued his journey to the south, and reached, near
53° south lat., the celebrated straits which bear his name. Here
again he had to exert his full authority to induce his reluctant
followers to accompany him into the unknown channel that was
to lead them to an equally unknown ocean. One of his ships
immediately deserted him and returned to Europe, but the
others remained true to their commander, and, after having
spent twenty days in winding through those dangerous straits,
they at last, on the 27th of November, 1521, emerged into the
open ocean, the sight of which amply repaid Magellan for all
the anxieties and troubles he had undergone. They now pur-
sued their way across the wide expanse of waters, of whose enor-
mous extent they had no conception, and soon had to endure
all the miseries of hunger and disease. But the continuous
beauty of the weather, and the steady easterly wind, which, swell-
ing the sails of Magellan, drove him straight onwards to the
goal, kept up his courage ; and induced him to give to the
ocean which greeted him with such a friendly welcome the name
of the Pacific, which it still, though undeservedly, retains. Dur-
ing three months and twenty days he sailed to the north-west,
and, by a singular mischance, without seeing any land in those
isle-teeming seas, except only two uninhabited rocks which he
called the “ Desventuradas,” or the “ Wretched.” At last, after
the longest journey ever made by man through the deserts of
the ocean, he discovered the small but fruitful group of the
Ladrones (March 6, 1521), which afforded him refreshments in
such abundance, that the vigour and health of his emanciated
crew was soon reestablished. From these isles, to which his
gratitude might have given a more friendly name, he proceeded
on his voyage, and soon made the more important discovery of
the islands now known as the Philippines. In one of these he
got into an unfortunate quarrel with the natives, who attacked
him in great numbers and well-armed ; and, while he fought at
the head of his men with his usual valour, he fell by the hands of
those barbarians, together with several of his principal officers.
Thus Magellan lost the glory of accomplishing the first cir-
PIZARRO.
460
cumnavigation of the globe; the performance of which now fell
to the share of his companion, Sebastian El Cano, who returned
to San Lucar in the “ Victoria ” by the Cape of Grood Hope,
having sailed round the globe in the space of three years and
twenty-eight days.
But although Magellan did not live fully to achieve his glorious
undertaking, the astonishing perseverance and ability with which
he performed the chief and most difficult part of his arduous task
have secured him an immortal renown. Nor has posterity been
unmindful of his services, having awarded his name an im-
perishable place in the memory of man, both in the straits, the
portal of his grand discovery, and in the “ Magellanic clouds,”
those dense clusters of stars and nebulae which so beautifully
stud the firmament of the southern hemisphere.
After Magellan, Pizarr.o, the conqueror of Peru, shines as a dis-
coverer in the South Sea. The history of his memorable feats
by land does not belong to this narrative, but I may well accom-
pany him on his adventurous navigation along the unknown
coast of South America, and relate the hardships he had to en-
dure before he was enabled to reap the rewards of victory.
Soon after the execution, or rather the murder, of Balboa,
Pedrarias Davila obtained permission to transfer the colony of
Darien to Panama, which, although equally unhealthy, yet from
its situation on the Pacific afforded greater facilities for the
prosecution of discovery on the south-west coast, to which now
all the hopes and plans of the Spanish gold-seekers were directed.
Several expeditions left the new colony in rapid succession, but
all proved unsuccessful. Their timorous leaders, none of whom
had ventured beyond the dreary coasts of Tierra fcrme, gave
such dismal accounts of their hardships and the wretched aspect
of the countries they had seen, that the ardour for discovery was
considerably damped, and the opinion began to gain ground that
Balboa must have founded chimerical hopes on the idle tales of
an ignorant or deceitful savage.
But there were three men in Panama, Francisco Pizarro, Diego
de Almagro, and Hernando Luque, who, far from sharing the
general opinion, remained fully determined to seek the unknown
gold- land. Pizarro and Almagro were soldiers, Luque was a priest.
They formed an association approved of by the governor, each
agreeing to devote all his energies to the common interest.
l l 2
470
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
Pizarro, the poorest of the three, took upon himself the greater
part of the hardships and dangers of the enterprise, and volun-
teered to command the first expedition that should be fitted out ;
Almagro engaged to follow him with the necessary reinforce-
ments; and Luque, the man of peace, promised to watch in
Panama over the interests of the association.
On the 14th of November, 1524, Pizarro sailed from Panama
with 112 men, closely packed together in one small vessel. Un-
fortunately he had chosen the worst season of the year for his
departure, as the periodical winds raging at the time blew quite
contrary to the course he intended to pursue, and thus it happened
that after seventy days he had advanced no farther to the south-
east than an experienced navigator will now traverse in as many
hours. During this tedious journey he landed in different parts
of the coast of Tierra firme, but, finding all the previous descrip-
tions of its inhospitable nature fully confirmed, he saw himself
obliged to await the promised reinforcements in Chuchama,
opposite to the Pearl Islands. Here he was soon joined by
Almagro, who had suffered similar hardships, and moreover
lost an eye in a fight with the Indians. But, as he had advanced
farther to the south, where the country and people wore a more
favourable aspect, this slight glimpse of hope encouraged the
adventurers to persevere in spite of all the miseries they had
endured. Almagro returned to Panama, where with the greatest
difficulty he could levy fourscore men, his sufferings and those
of his companions having given his countrymen a very un-
favourable idea of the service.
With this small reinforcement the associates did not hesitate
to renew their enterprise, and at length, after a passage no less
tedious than the first, reached the Bay of Saint Matthew on the
coast of Quito (1526). In Tecumez, to the south of the Emerald
Eiver, they were delighted with the aspect of a fine well-culti-
vated country, inhabited by a people whose clothing and dwell-
ings indicated a higher degree of civilisation and wealth. But,
not venturing to attempt its conquest with a handful of men en-
feebled by fatigue and disease, they retired to the small island
of Gfallo, where Pizarro waited, while Almagro once more re-
turned to Panama, hoping that the better accounts he could
give of their second journey would procure reinforcements large
enough for the conquest of the newly discovered countries.
PIZARRO REACHES PERU.
471
But the new governor of Panama, Pedro de los Eios, inter-
dicted all further volunteering for an enterprise he considered
chimerical, and even sent a vessel to the island of Gallo to bring
back Pizarro and his companions. The associates, on the other
hand, were less inclined than ever to give up their enterprise,
now that better prospects had opened, so that Pizarro peremp-
torily refused to obey the governor’s commands, and used all his
eloquence in persuading his men not to abandon him. But the
hardships they had endured, and the prospect of soon revisiting
their families and friends, pleaded so strongly against him, that
when he drew a line with his sword upon the sand, and told
those that wished to leave him to pass over it, only thirteen of
his veterans remained true to his fortunes.
With this select band of heroes Pizarro now retired to the
desert island of Gorgona, where, as it lay further from the
coast, he could await with greater security the reinforcements
which he trusted the zeal of his associates would soon be able to
procure. Nor was he deceived, for Almagro and Luque, by
their repeated solicitations, at length prevailed upon the governor
to send out a small vessel to his assistance, though without one
landsman on board, that he might not be encouraged to any
new enterprise. Meanwhile Pizarro and his faithful “thirteen”
had spent five long months on their wretched island, their eyes
constantly turned to the north, until, heart-sick and despairing
from hope deferred, they resolved to intrust themselves to the
inconstant waves upon a miserable raft, rather than remain any
longer in that dreadful wilderness. But now at last the vessel
from Panama appeared, and raised them so thoroughly from the
deepest despondency to the most extravagant hopes, that Pizarro
easily induced not only his old friends, but also the crew of the
vessel, to sail farther to the south instead of returning at once
to Panama.
This time the winds were favourable, and after a voyage of
twenty days they at length reached the town of Tumbez on the
coast of Peru, where the magnificent temple of the sun and the
palace of the Incas, with its costly golden vases, exceeded their
most sanguine expectations. But once more Pizarro, too weak
to attempt invasion, was obliged to content himself with the
view of the riches he one day hoped to possess, and returned to
Panama after an absence of three years.
472
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
Amidst interminable delays and difficulties, which, although
not to be compared to those he had endured, would still have
totally discouraged a mind of a less iron mould, five years
more elapsed before the matchless perseverance of Pizarro met
with its reward. On the 14th of April, 1531, he landed in Peru
for the second time, and in a few months the empire of the
Incas lay prostrate at his feet. The poor adventurer of Gorgon a
was now one of the richest men on earth.
From this time the stream of conquest and discovery con-
tinuously rolled on to the south, so that after a few years the
whole coast of Peru and Chili, as far as the wilds of Patagonia,
was either known or subject to the Spaniards.
But while Pizarro and his comrades were thus opening the
south-west coast of America to the knowledge of mankind, the
conqueror of Mexico was no less anxious to add to his laurels
the glory of discovery in the Northern Pacific, whose shores his
warriors had reached in 1521, soon after the fall of the Aztec
capital. Desirous of opening a new passage to the East Indies, he
fitted out a fleet (1526), which, under the command of his kins-
man Alvaro de Saavedra, was to sail to the Moluccas, and most
likely discovered part of the Radack and Ralick Archipelago,
visited and described three centuries later by Kotzebue and
Chamisso.
In the year 1536 Cortez himself undertook a maritime ex-
pedition to the north, discovered the peninsula of California, and
explored the greater part of the long and narrow bay which
separates it from the mainland. After the return of this great
man to Spain, where, loaded with ingratitude, he died in 1547,
Rodriguez Cabrillo (1543 ) sailed as far as Monterey, and sub-
sequently the pilot of the expedition, Bartholomew Ferreto,
reached 43° N. lat., where Vancouver’s Cape Oxford is situated.
In the year 1542 Villalobos made the first attempt to establish
a colony on the Philippine Islands with settlers from Mexico,
but, having failed, the colonisation did not take place before
1565. The intelligence of this success was brought to America
by the pilot and monk, Fray Andreas Urdaneta, who sailed on
the 1st of June from Manilla and arrived on the 3rd of October
in the Mexican port of Acapulco. All previous attempts to sail
from Asia to America had failed, on account of the opposing
trade-winds ; but Urdaneta sailed northward till he encountered
PORTUGUESE NAVIGATORS.
473
the favourable west wind, which carried him to the New World
across the wide bosom of the Pacific. The discovery of this
new ocean route was of considerable importance to the Spaniards,
and, to perpetuate the memory of Urdaneta’s nautical ability,
they continued to call the passage by his name.
About the same time another Spanish pilot, Juan Fernandez,
discovered the proper sea route from Callao to Chili, by first
sailing far out to sea, and thus avoiding the coast-currents from
the south. He also discovered the island which still bears bis
name, and lias become so celebrated by the adventures of Alex-
ander Selkirk, and the immortal tale of Daniel Defoe.
In the year 1567 an expedition sailed from Callao under
Alvaro Mendana, which discovered the Solomon Islands ; and in
1595 the group of the Marquesas de Mendoza was first brought
to light by the same navigator. Before the last expedition of
Mendana, Drake, the first circumnavigator of the globe (1577 —
1580) after Magellan and El Cano, penetrated into the Pacific,
by rounding Cape Horn, and subsequently discovered the coasts
of New Albion as far as 48° N. lat.
After having thus rapidly followed the course of the discoveries
which during the sixteenth century made Europe acquainted
with the whole western coast of America, from Cape Pillares in
Tierra del Fuego to the mouth of the Columbia River, I return
to the Indian Ocean, where in the beginning of the century we
left the Portuguese in the full bloom of their power, and, to
judge by the progress already made, likely to add largely to the
stock of geographical knowledge. But whether the masters of
the Indian Ocean had no desire to extend still farther the circle
of their conquests, or the fiery spirit of enterprise which had
animated Vasco de Gama and Diaz was prematurely extinguished,
the discoveries of the Portuguese in the Pacific by no means
corresponded to the gigantic flight which in less than a quarter
of a century had led them from Cape de Verde to the extremity
of the Malayan Archipelago. New Guinea was indeed discovered
by Don Jorge de Menezes (1526) and Alvaro de Saavedra
(1528), and some old maps prove that before 1542 a part of
the coast of New Holland was known to the Portuguese, who had
penetrated to the north as far as Formosa and Japan, yet at
the end of the sixteenth century the western boundaries of
the Pacific were only known from 40° N. lat. to 10° S. lat., and
474
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVER If.
all beyond was enveloped in darkness. As little was known
of the innumerable South Sea islands, for although some of the
groups had been seen or visited by the Spaniards, their exist-
ence was kept secret lest other seafaring nations should be
tempted to explore the wastes of the Pacific.
I have already mentioned that the desire to find a shorter
route to the wealth of India was the chief inducement which
led to the discoveries of Vasco de Grama, Columbus, and
Magellan ; this same motive also called forth the first attempts
of the Dutch and English to find a northern passage to the
southern seas.
In the year 1553 Sir Hugh Willoughby and Chancellor left
England on their memorable voyage of Arctic discovery, and
steered to the north-east. In a stormy idght they parted com-
pany, never to meet again. For a long time nothing was heard
of Willoughby, until some Kussian sailors found on the dreary
coast of Lapland two wrecks tenanted only by the dead. A note,
dated January 1554, proved that then at least some of the un-
fortunate navigators were still alive ; but this was the last and
only memorial of the mysterious end of the first Britons that
ever ventured into the frozen seas. Chancellor was more fortu-
nate. After having for a long time been driven about by storms,
he discovered the White Sea, and on landing heard for the first
time of Russia and her sovereign the Czar Ivan Vasiliovitch,
who resided in a great town called Moscow. This unknown
potentate the indefatigable seaman resolved to visit in his capital,
where he was graciously received, and obtained permission for
his countrymen to frequent the port of Archangel. Soon after
his return to England he was sent back to Russia by Queen
Mary, for the purpose of settling the terms of a treaty of
commerce between the two nations ; and, having satisfactorily
accomplished his mission, once more set sail from the White
Sea, accompanied by a Muscovite ambassador. But this time
the return voyage was extremely unfortunate ; two of the ships,
richly laden with Russian commodities, ran ashore on the coast
of Norway, and Chancellor’s own vessel was driven by a dreadful
storm as far as Pitsligo in Scotland, in which bay it was wrecked.
Chancellor endeavoured to save the ambassador and himself in
a boat, but the small pinnace was upset, and, although the
Russian reached the strand, the Englishman, after having
FROBISHER.
475
escaped, so many dangers in the Arctic Ocean, was doomed to
an untimely end within sight of his native shores.
Twenty years afterwards, Martin Frobisher set sail with three
small vessels of thirty -five, thirty, and ten tons, on no less an
errand than the discovery of a north-west passage to Asia.
With these wretched nutshells he reached the coasts of Green-
land and Labrador, but was prevented by the ice from effecting
a landing.
This first voyage was little remarkable in itself, but its acci-
dental results tended much to the advancement of northern
research, for Frobisher brought home some glittering stones,
the lustre of which was erroneously attributed to gold ; a cir-
cumstance which, as may well be imagined, greatly contributed
to pave the way for a second expedition to “Meta Incognita.”
This time Frobisher sailed with three ships, of a much larger
size, that they might be able to hold more Of the anticipated
treasure ; and, besides securing 200 tons of the imaginary gold,
discovered the entrance of the strait which bears his name.
His geographical knowledge may be inferred from the fact
that he firmly believed the land on one side of this channel to
be Asia, and on the other America; and, though we may be
tempted to smile at his ignorance, yet the lion-hearted seaman
is not the less to be admired, who with such inadequate means
ventured to brave the unknown terrors of the Frozen Ocean.
The gales and floating ice which greeted Frobisher as he
endeavoured to force a passage through the strait put a stop to
all farther progress to India ; but, as the gold delusion still
continued, the expedition was considered eminently successful.
A large squadron of fifteen vessels was consequently fitted out
for the summer of 1578, and commissioned not onlv to brine
back an untold amount of treasure, but also to take out materials
and men to establish a colony on those desolate shores.
Blit this grand expedition, which sailed forth with such
extravagant hopes, was doomed to end in disappointment. One
of the largest vessels was crushed by an iceberg at the entrance
of the strait, and the others were so beaten about by storms
and obstructed by fogs, that the whole summer elapsed, and
they were fain to return to England without having done any-
thing for the advancement of geographical knowledge.
The utter worthlessness of the glittering stones having mean-
476
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
while been discovered, Frobisher relinquished all further at-
tempts to push his fortunes in the northern regions, and sought
new laurels in a sunnier clime. He accompanied Drake to the
West Indies, commanded subsequently one of the largest vessels
opposed to the Spanish Armada, and ended his heroic life while
attacking a small French fort on behalf of Henry IV., during the
war with the League. He was one of those adventurous spirits
always thirsting for action, and too uneasy ever to enjoy repose.
In the year 1585, John Davis, with the ships “ Sunshine ” and
“ Moonshine,” carrying besides their more necessary equipments
a band of music “to cheer and recreate the spirits of the
natives,” made his first voyage in quest of the north-west
passage, and discovered the broad strait which leads into the
icy deserts of Baffin’s Bay. But neither in this attempt nor in
his two following ones was he able to effect the object for which
he strove ; and these repeated failures cooled for a long time
the national ardour for northern discovery.
In the year 1594 the Dutch appear upon the scene. This
persevering and industrious people, which in the following
century was destined to play so important a part in the politics
of Europe, had just then succeeded in casting off the Spanish
yoke, and was laudably endeavouring to gain by maritime
enterprise a position among the neighbouring states, which the
smallness of its territory seemed to deny to its ambition. All
the known roads to the treasures of the south were at that time
too well guarded by the jealous fleets of Spain and Portugal to
admit of any rivalry ; but, if fortune should favour them in
finding the yet unexplored northern passage to India, they
might still hope to secure a lion’s share in that most lucra-
tive of trades. Animated by the bold spirit of adventure which
the dawn of independence always calls forth in a nation, a
company of Amsterdam merchants fitted out an expedition of
northern discovery, which it intrusted to the superintendence
and pilotage of William Barentz, one of the most experienced
seamen of the day.
Barentz left the Texel on the 6th of June, 1594, reached the
northern extremity of Nova Zembla, and returned to Holland.
Meanwhile his associate, penetrating through a strait to which
he gave the very appropriate name of Waigats or “ Wind-hole,”
battled aeainst the floating ice of the Sea of Kara, until, round-
BARENTZ. DISAPPOINTMENTS.
477
ing a promontor}7, he saw a blue and open sea extending before
him, and the Russian coast trending away totvards the south-
east. He now no longer doubted that he had sailed round the
famous cape “ Tab is ” of Pliny, an imaginary promontory which
according to that erroneous guide formed the northern extremity
of Asia, and whence the voyage was supposed to be short and
easy to its eastern and southern shores. He had only reached
the Gulf of Obi, and within the Arctic Circle the continent of
Asia still stretched 120 degrees to the east; but this was then
unknown, and the Dutchman, satisfied with the prospect of suc-
cess, did not press onward to test its reality, but started in full
sail for Holland, to rouse the sluggish fancy of his phlegmatic
countrymen with chimerical hopes and golden visions.
On the receipt of this glad intelligence six large vessels were
immediately fitted out, and richly laden with goods suited to
the taste of the Indians. A small swift-sailing yacht was added
to the squadron to bear it company as far as the imaginary pro-
montory of Tabis, and thence to return with the good news that
it had safely performed what was supposed to be the most
perilous part of the voyage, and had been left steering with a
favourable wind right off to India.
But, as may well be imagined, these sanguine hopes were
destined to meet with a woeful disappointment, for the Wind-
hole Strait, doing full justice to its name, did not allow them to
pass; and, after many fruitless endeavours to force their way
through the mighty ice-blocks that obstructed that inhospitable
channel, they returned dejected and crest-fallen to the port
whence they had sailed a few months before, elated with such
brilliant expectations.
Although great disappointment was felt at this failure, the
scheme however was not abandoned, and on the 16th of May,
1596, Heemskerk, Barentz, and Cornells Ryp once more started
for the north-east Bear Island and Spitzbergen were discovered,
whereupon the ships separated ; Cornelis and Heemskerk return-
ing .to Holland, while Barentz, enclosed by the ice, was obliged
to spend a long and dreary winter in the dreadful solitudes of
Nova Zembla. Fortunately a quantity of driftwood was found
on the strand, which served the Dutchmen both for the con-
struction of a small hut and for fuel. At the same time it raised
their courage, as they now no longer doubted that Providence,
478
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
which had sent them this unexpected succour in the wilder-
ness, would guide them safely through all their difficulties.
And indeed they stood in need of this consolatory belief, for
as early as September the ground was frozen so hard that they
tried in vain to dig a grave for a dead comrade, and their
cramped fingers could hardly proceed with the building of the hut.
The attacks of the white bears also gave them great trouble.
One day Barentz, from the deck of the vessel, seeing three bears
stealthily approaching a party of his men who were labouring at
the hut, shouted loudly to warn them of their peril, and the men,
startled at the near approach of danger, sought safety in flight.
One of the party, in his haste and perturbation, fell into a cleft
in the ice ; but the hungry animals fortunately overlooked him,
and continued their pursuit of the main body. These gained
the vessel and began to congratulate themselves on their safety,
when, to their horror, they perceived that their foes, instead of
retreating from a hopeless pursuit, were actually scaling the ship’s
sides, evidently determined to have their meal. Matters now
became serious. One of the sailors was despatched for a light,
but in his hurry and agitation could not get the match to take
fire (Enfields and revolvers were then unknown), and the
muskets being thus rendered useless, the sailors in despair kept
their enemies off by pelting them with whatever articles came
first to hand. This unequal conflict continued for some time,
until a well-directed blow on the snout of the largest bear caused
the barking * monster to retire from the field followed by his
two companions,
“ who, seeing Hector flee,
No longer dared to face the enemy.”
By the middle of October the hut was completed"; and though
the accommodations it afforded were extremely scanty, they were
glad to take up their abode in it at once.
And now began the long, dreary, three months’ night of the
77th degree of latitude, during which snow-drifts and im-
petuous winds confined them to their miserable dwelling. “ We
looked pitifully one upon the other,” says Gerret De Veer, the
simple narrator of the sufferings of that Arctic winter, “ being
* “I did not hear them roar as ours do, but they only bark.” — Marten's Voyage
to Spitsbergen.
WINTER IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS.
479
in great fear that if the extremity of the cold grew to be more
and more, we should all die there of cold ; for that what fire
soever we made would not warm us.” The ice was now two inches
thick upon the walls and even on the sides of their sleeping-cots,
and the very clothes they wore were whitened with frost, so that
as they sat together in their hut they “ were all as white as the
countrymen used to be when they came in at the gates of the
towns in Holland with their sleads, and have gone all night.”
Yet in the midst of all their sufferings these hardy men
maintained brave and cheerful hearts, and so great was their
elasticity of spirit that, remembering the 5th of January was
“ Twelfth Even,” they determined to celebrate it as best they
might. “ And then,” says the old chronicler, “ we prayed our
maister that we might be merry that night, and said that we
were content to spend some of the wine that night which we
had spared, and which was our share (one glass) every second
day ; and so that night we made merry and drew for king. And
therewith we had two pounds of meale, whereof we made pan-
cakes with oyle, and every man had a white biscuit, which we
sopt in the wine. And so, supposing that we were in our own
country, and amongst our friends, it comforted as well as if we
had made a great banket in ourowne house.” Blessed Content !
arising from a simple heart and a life of honest and healthful toil,
never didst thou celebrate a greater triumph, or more forcibly
show thy power, than in that dreary hut on Nova Zembla !
Some weeks afterwards the sun appeared once more above
the horizon ; and the glorious sight, though it soon vanished
again into darkness, was a joyful one indeed, full of delightful
images of a return to friends and home. Now, also, the furious
gales and snow-storms ceased ; and, though the severity of the
cold continued unabated, they were able to brave the outer air
and recruit their strength by exercise.
When summer came, it was found impossible to disengage the
ice-bound vessel, and the only hopes of escaping from then-
dreary prison now rested on two small boats, in which they
ventured on the capricious ocean. On the fourth day of their
voyage, their fragile barks became surrounded by immense
quantities of floating ice, which so crushed and injured them,
that the crews, giving up all hope, took a solemn leave of each
other. But in this desperate crisis they owed their lives to the
480
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
presence of mind and agility of De Veer, who with a well-
secured rope leaped from one fragment of ice to another till he
gained a firm field, on which first the sick, then the stores, the
crews, and finally the boats themselves, were safely landed.
Here they were obliged to remain while the boats underwent
the necessary repairs, and during this detention upon a floating
ice-field the gallant Barentz closed the eventful voyage of his
life. He died as he had lived, calmly and bravely, thinking less
of himself than of the safety of his crew, for his last words
were directions as to the course in which they were to steer.
Even the joyful prospect of a return to their families and home
could not console his surviving comrades for the loss of their
leader, whom they loved and revered as a friend and father.
After a most tedious and dangerous passage, they at length
arrived at Kola in Russian Lapland, where to their glad surprise
they found their old comrade, John Cornells, who received them
on board his vessel and conveyed them to Amsterdam.
During the seventeenth century the most remarkable maritime
discoveries were made by the English, Dutch, and Spaniards,
though by the latter only at its commencement. In the year
1605 Quiros sailed from Callao, discovered the island of
Sa°ittaria, since so renowned under the name of Otaheite, and
the archipelago of Espiritu Santo, or the New Hebrides of Cook.
On this journey he was accompanied by Torres, the bold seaman
who some years after gave his name to the strait which separates
New G-uinea from Australia.
While the declining sun of Spain was thus gilding with its
last rays the northern shore of New Holland, the meridian
splendour of the Batavian republic cast forth bright beams of
light over the wide Pacific.
Schouten and Le Maire, penetrating through the strait which
is still named after the latter, sailed in the year 1616 round
Tierra del Fuego : and about the same time Hartog discovered
Eendrao-t’s Land, on the west coast of Australia. The successive
voyages of Jan Edel (1619), Peter Nuyts (1627), and Peter
Carpenter (1628), brought to light the northern and southern
shores of the vast island, which thus began to assume a rude
shape on the map of the geographer. In the year 1642, Abel
Tasman, the greatest of the Dutch navigators, drew a mighty
furrow through the South Sea, discovered Van Diemen’s Land,
HUDSON’S VOYAGES.
481
which posterity desirous of perpetuating his fame lias called
Tasmania, saw the northern extremity of New Zealand emerge
from the ocean, and finally unveiled to the world the hidden
beauties of Tonga.
While the Dutch navigators were thus dissipating the darkness
of Australia, Hudson and Baffin were immortalising their names
in the Arctic Ocean.
In the year 1627 Henry Hudson made the first attempt to
steer right on to the pole, and to cross to India over the axis of
the globe. He reached the northern extremity of Spitzbergen,
but all his attempts to penetrate deeper into the polar ocean
were baffled by the mighty ice-fields that opposed his progress.
But though he failed in his undertaking to sail through the
region of eternal winter to the spicy groves of India, yet the
numerous morses and seals he had seen basking on the coast of
Spitzbergen opened such cheering prospects of future profit,
that the “ Muscovy Company,” which had fitted out the ex-
pedition, was by no means discontented with the issue of his
voyage.
Three years after we find the gallant Hudson once more
attempting to discover the north-west passage in a vessel of
fifty-five tons, provisioned for six months. The crew which he
commanded was unfortunately utterly unworthy of such a leader,
and quailed as soon as they had to encounter the fog and
ice-fields of the Frozen Ocean.
“ And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrons cold ;
And ice mast-high came floating by,
As green as emerald.
And through the drifts the snowy elifts
Did send a dismal sheen,
Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken,
The ice was all between.”
But, in spite of the murmurs and repinings of his faint-hearted
followers, the dauntless commander pressed on through the strait
which bears his name, until at last his little bark emerged into
a boundless deep blue sea. Hudson’s Bay lay before him, but
the delighted discoverer was happy in the belief that the grand
object of his voyage was attained, and the shortest road to India
482
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
laid open to the mariners of England. It was about the begin-
ning of August, and the spiritless crew considering the passage
accomplished, urged an immediate return; but Hudson was
determined on completing the adventure, and wintering if pos-
sible on the sunny shores of India.
Three months long he continued tracking the coasts of that
vast northern Mediterranean, now for the first time explored by
civilised man, vainly hoping to see a new channel opening to the
west, until at length November came and imprisoned his small
vessel in adamantine fetters. A long and dreary winter awaited
the ice-bound seamen, with almost exhausted provisions, and
unfortunately without that heroic patience and serene concord
which had sustained the sufferings of Barentz and his companions.
It must indeed have been a melancholy winter for poor Hudson,
solitary and friendless among scowling ruffians, hating him as
the cause of their bitter misery ; but spring came at last with its
consolatory sunshine, and hope once more dawned in his tortured
breast. The ship is again afloat, and on the 21st of June, 1611,
the captain comes forth from his cabin, refreshed by the sleep of
a quiet conscience, and strong in body and mind to meet the
duties of the day. But as he steps on deck his arms are sud-
denly pinioned, and he finds himself in the power of a mutinous
crew. He looks around for some trace of sympathy, but hatred
meets him in every eye. Inquiry, remonstrance, entreaty,
command, all alike fail to move their stubborn resolution, and
now Hudson resigns himself bravely to his fate, with all the
quiet dignity of a noble nature, and looks calmly at the ominous
preparations going forward. A small open boat is in waiting,
and into this he is lowered, some powder and shot and the car-
penter’s box come next, followed by the carpenter himself, a
strong brave fellow, the captain’s one devoted adherent among
the rebellious crew; the sick and infirm complete the unfor-
tunate cargo. A signal is given, the boat is cast adrift, and
soon the last faint cry for mercy expires in the breeze which
carries the vessel onwards on its homeward course.
Thus perished the high-minded Hudson, without further
tiding or trace, on the scene of his glory ; but the vengeance of
heaven soon overtook the ringleaders of that dark conspiracy.
Some fell in a fight with the Eskimos, and others died on the
BAFFIN, DAM TIER, ETC.
483
homeward vo) age, which was performed under the extremity of
famine. Whatever horrors may have attended the last moments
of Hudson, his sufferings were less, for his conscience was unde-
filed by guilt.
In the year 1616 Baffin sailed round the enormous bay to
which his name has been given, but without attempting to
penetrate through any one of those wide sounds that have led
the Arctic navigators of our days to so many glorious disco-
veries.
From the times of Tasman, whose bold voyage through the
wastes of the Southern Pacific has already been mentioned, to
those of our own immortal Cook, but very little was done for
the progress of geography, as if, after so many heroic endeavours,
the spirit of maritime discovery had required a long repose to
recruit its energies, ere the greatest navigator of modern times
was destined to unveil the mysterious darkness which still con-
cealed one half of the vast Pacific from the knowledge of man-
kind. The voyages most worthy of remark during this period
were those of the Cossack Semen Deshnew (^1 654), who sailed
from the mouth of the Kolyma Eiver round the eastern pro-
montory of Asia, and must be considered as the discoverer of
Behring’s Straits; of the adventurous Dampier (1689 — 1691),
that strange combination of the buccaneer, the author, and the
naturalist, who first discovered the strait which separates New
Guinea from New Ireland; of the Dutchman Koggewein (1721
— 23), who made known some islands in the Pacific; of the
brothers Laptew and of Prontschitschew (1734 — 1743), who
unveiled the greatest part of the Siberian coast ; of Commodore
Anson (1740 — 1744), whose heroic sufferings and successes in the
Pacific still live in the memory of his countrymen ; and of the
unfortunate Behring (1730 — 1741), who terminated his second
unsuccessful exploring expedition by a miserable death on a
desert island.
After the peace of Aix la Chapelle England felt that the
dominion of the seas imposed upon her the obligation of extend-
ing the bounds of geographical knowledge, and thus in rapid
succession Byron (1764) and Wallis and Carteret (1766 — 1768)
were sent forth to discover unknown shores, while France made
a simultaneous effort to refresh the somewhat meagre laurels she
O
Iv K
484
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
had reaped by the voyages of Verazzani and Cartier. The con-
sequences of this emulation were not unimportant. Bougainville
(1766 — 1768) completed the discovery of the Solomon Islands,
which Mendana had only partly seen ; Wallis made the world
acquainted with the beauties of Tahiti, and Byron explored the
unvisited coasts of Patagonia. But the fame of these worthy
mariners was soon eclipsed by a greater renown, for, in the same
year that Wallis returned from his expedition, Cook sailed from
the port of Plymouth on his first voyage round the world.
■J-cio
CHAP. XXVI.
"What had Cook’s Predecessors left him to discover ? — His first Voyage. — Discovery
of the Society Islands, and of the East Coast of New Holland. — His second
Voyage. — Discovery of the Hervey Group. — Kesearches in the South Sea. — The
New Hebrides. — Discovery of New Caledonia and of South Georgia. — His
third Voyage. — The Sandwich Islands. — New Albion. — West Georgia. —
Cook’s Murder. — -Vancouver. — La Peyrouse.
To form a correct estimate of Cook’s discoveries, it is necessarv
that, before following the track of that great seaman, we should
glance over the vast regions of the Pacific previously unknown
to man. Many navigators indeed, since Magellan, had traversed
that immense ocean, but the greater part of its expanse still lay
buried in obscurity.
To the north of the line, the Spaniards, sailing from Manilla
to Acapulco, still servilely followed the route which Urdanetahad
pointed out, and all beyond was unexplored.
The regions to the south of the line were better known, but
here also maritime discoverers, with the sole exception of
Tasman, had confined themselves to the tropical waters. Xo
one had yet tried to sail through the boundless space which to
the south of the 25th degree of latitude extended between New
Zealand and America. Of Australia only the western coast "was
known ; the existence of Torres’ Strait had long since been for-
gotten, and New Guinea and New Holland were supposed to form
one connected land. To the south no one knew whether Aus-
tralia and Van Diemen’s Land were joined together, or severed
by a channel; and the eastern coast of the fifth part of the world
still awaited a discoverer. The boundaries of New Zealand were
buried in the same obscurity. Tasman had only visited the west
coast of the northern island, which, as far as was then known,
might have extended a thousand miles farther on towards Chili.
In one word, the great geographical problem of an enormous
southern continent, the existence of which was formerly supposed
necessary to form the counterpoise of the northern lands, still
K K 2
486
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
remained unsolved. The discoveries already made had indeed
narrowed the limits which during the sixteenth century were
still assigned to that imaginary continent, but in the unexplored
bosom of the South Sea there yet was room enough for lands sur-
passing the whole of Europe in extent. Many of the South Sea
islands moreover, though discovered before Cook’s voyages, had
vanished again from the memory of the world, or, according to
Humboldt’s expression, “ wavered, as if badly rooted on the map,
for want of exact astronomical measurements.” Thus two
hundred and fifty years after Magellan the Pacific still offered
an enormous field for discovery, and when Cook set sail on the
30th of July. 1768, on his first voyage of circumnavigation,
nearly one half of the globe lay open to his researches.
The first service he rendered on this voyage was the discovery
that the route to the Pacific through the Strait of Le Maire and
round Cape Horn was preferable to that which until then had
been followed, through the Straits of Magellan.
After having observed at Otaheite the transit of Venus across
the sun, which was one of the chief objects of the expedition,
he soon after landed on the shores of Huaheine, Ulietea, and
Borabora, which had never yet been visited by a European
mariner, and gave to the whole group the name of the Society
Islands, on account of their close vicinity to each other. Thence
he sailed to New Zealand, which he was the first to find consisted
of two large islands, separated by the strait which bears his name.
With unwearied industry he spent no less than six months on
the accurate sufvey of the New Zealand group, and then sailed to
New Holland, the eastern coast of which he fiist discovered, and
closely examined in its full length of 2000 miles. He also ftmnd
that the continent of Australia was separated from New Guinea
by a channel which he called “ Endeavour Strait,” but to which
the justice of posterity has restored or awarded the name of Torres,
its first explorer. This whole sea is so foil of dangerous reefs
and shoals that for months the sounding line was scarce ever laid
aside, and any less experienced and prudent navigator must in-
evitably have been wrecked during these constant cruises in such
perilous waters. Even Cook owed more than once his preser-
vation to what may well be called a miraculous interposition of
Providence, of which I shall cite a remarkable example. It was
on the 10th of June, 1770, in the latitude of Trinity Bay. The
CAPTAIN COOK. WONDERFUL ESCAPE.
4R7
vessel sailed, under a fresh breeze and by clear moonlight,
through a sea the depth of which the plummet constantly
indicated at 20 to 21 fathoms, so that not the least danger was
apprehended. But suddenly the depth diminished to four
fathoms, and before the lead coidd be heaved again the vessel
struck and remained immoveable, except as far as she was
heaved up and down and dashed against the rocks by the surge.
The general anxiety may he imagined, and indeed the situation
was such as to warrant the most serious apprehensions. It
was found that the ship had been lifted over the ledge of a
rock and lay in a hollow, inside of the reef, where the water
in some places was three or four fathoms deep and in others
hardly as many feet. The sheathing boards were knocked o fl
and floating round the ship in great numbers, and at last the
false keel also was destroyed, while the constant grating of the
vessel against the rock seemed to announce its speedy disruption
It was now necessary to lighten the vessel as much as possible,
and soon more than 50 tons’ weight was thrown overboard.
On the following morning land was seen at the distance oi
eight miles; hut no islet lay between, on which, in case the
vessel went to pieces, a speedy refuge might be found. To add
to their distress, the vessel drew so much water that three
pumps could hardly master it ; and, finally, it was found that
even the rising of the flood, on which they mainly reckoned,
was unavailing to extricate them from their perilous position.
All that could possibly be spared was now therefore cast into the
sea, still more to lighten the vessel, and thus the next tide was
patiently expected, when, after incredible exertion, the ship
righted, and they got her over the ledge of the rock into deep
water.
But the men were by this time so much exhausted by their
uninterrupted labour that they could not stand to the pumps
more than five or six minutes at a time, after which they threw
themselves flat on the streaming deck, where they lay till others
exhausted like themselves took their places, on which they
started up again and renewed their exertions. In this desperate
situation one of the midshipmen, named Monkhouse, bethought
himself of a means by which a ship, having sprung a leak admit-
ting more than four feet of water in an hour, had yet been able
to perform the whole journey from Virginia to London. He
488
TIIB PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
took a lower studding-sail, and, having mixed a large quantity of
oakum and wool together, stitched them down by handfuls as
lightly as possible. The sail was then hauled under the ship’s
bottom by means of ropes which kept it extended. When it
came under the leak, the wool and oakum, with part of the sail,
were forced inwards by the pressure of the water, which thus
prevented its own ingress in such an effectual manner that one
pump, instead of three, was now sufficient to keep it under. In
this way they got the ship into a convenient port on the coast of
New Holland, where they repaired the injury. Here it was
found that their preservation was not entirely owing to that in-
genious expedient, for one of the holes in the ship’s bottom was
almost entirely plugged by a piece of rock which had broken off
and stuck in it ; and this hole was so large, that, had it not been
filled up in this truly extraordinary manner, the vessel must un-
doubtedly have sunk. Some persons, leading a tranquil life
unvexed by storm or wave, might perhaps be inclined to ascribe
so miraculous an escape to chance, but the seaman, who has had
death before his eyes, will always in such a case recognise the
hand of an Almighty protector : and who can doubt that a thrill
of intense gratitude flashed through the soul of Cook on the dis-
covery of the cause to which he owed the preservation of his
life ?
With a vessel thus shattered, and a crew thus worn with
fatigue, further discoveries were no more to be thought of, and
Cook hastened to return by way of Batavia and the Cape to
England, where- he arrived on the 11th of June, 1771.
The object of his second voyage (1772 — 1775) was to determine
finally the question of the existence of a great southern continent,
and to extend the geography of that part of the globe to its utmost
limits. Sir Joseph Banks and Hr. Solander had accompanied
him on his first voyage, this time John Reinhold Forster and
his son George were engaged by government to explore and
collect the natural history of the countries through which they
should pass.
On the 13th of July, 1772, Cook sailed from Plymouth, and
reached the Cape without having a single man sick. Well
aware how much cleanliness and pure air contribute to health,
he had neglected none of the means necessary to insure it.
Every day the beds were aired, the linen of the sailors was
cook’s voyages.
489
frequently washed, and in rainy weather fire often made between
decks, to dispel unwholesome damps and effluvia.
He now sailed to the south far into a desert and unknown
sea, crossed it in various directions, and after having spent 117
days on the ocean, mostly among floating ice-fields, and without
having once seen land, he steered northwards to the well-known
coast of New Zealand, where on the 25th of January, 1773, he
cast anchor in Dusky Bay. The feelings of the seaman may be
imagined, when, after long wanderings over the waste of waters,
he sees land, mountains, forests, and green plains rise above the
horizon, when singing-birds take the place of the wild sea-mew,
and friendly faces greet him on the strand. A beneficent
mind is ever anxious to do good, and thus before sailing
farther on to Otaheite, Cook caused a little garden to he
planted, in which European vegetable seeds were sown and .con-
fided with proper instructions to the care of the intelligent
savages, who were moreover presented with goats and pigs.
On the return voyage from Tahiti to New Zealand, where he
intended to provide himself with fire-wood and provisions,
before advancing once more into the high southern latitudes, he
was pleased with the discovery of the small but lovely Harvey
Islands, whose green girdle of cocoa-nut palms mirrors itself in
the dark blue waters.
And now again he cruised in all directions through the icy
sea, over an extent of 65° of longitude and as far as the 71st
degree of southern latitude, without having seen any land ; and
having thus satisfied himself of the non-existence of a southern
continent, or at least of its circumscription within bounds which
must ever render it perfectly useless to man, he left those dreary
regions of eternal winter, to continue his discoveries under a less
inclement sky.
He first visited Easter Island and the Marquesas, where a new
discovery received the name of Hood’s Island, and on the way
thence to Tahiti added the Palisser Group to the map of the
world. We now follow him to the extensive archipelago of
Espiritu Santo, first seen by Quiros in 1606, who took it for a
part of the imaginary southern continent. Since then it had
only been visited by Bougainville (1768), who however had
contented himself with landing on the Isle of Lepers, and ascer-
taining the fact that it did not form part of a continent but
490
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
of a considerable group of islands. Cook on his part examined
the whole archipelago in such an accurate manner, ascertaining
the situation of many of the islands and discovering such
numbers of new ones, that he justly thought he had acquired
the right to rehaptize them under the name of the New
Hebrides.
From these islands he sailed for the third time to New Zea-
land, and discovered on his passage New Caledonia and the
romantic Norfolk Island.
Leaving New Zealand on the 10th of November, 1774, once
more to search for the southern continent, he traversed a vast
extent of sea for 17 days, from 43° to 55° 48' S. lat., when he
gave up all thoughts of finding any more land in that part of
the ocean, and determined to steer directly for the west entrance
of the Straits of Magellan, with a design of coasting the southern
part of Tierra del F uego, quite round Cape Horn to Le Maire’s
Straits. Those wild, deeply indented, rocky coasts, the region of
eternal storms and fogs, form the most striking contrast to the
smiling shores of the South Sea islands. But, if in the latter
the splendour of tropical vegetation enchants the eye of the
spectator, the exuberance of animal life in the Magellanic Archi-
pelago may well raise his astonishment. In one of the small
islands near Staaten Land Cook admired the remarkable har-
mony reigning among the different species of mammifera and
birds. The sea-lions occupied the greatest part of the sea-coast,
the bears the inland ; the shags were posted on the highest cliffs,
the penguins in such places as had the best access to the sea ;
and the other birds chose more retired places. Occasionally,
however, all these animals were seen to mix together like do-
mestic cattle and poultry in a farmyard, without one attempting
to hurt the other in the least. Even the eagles and the vultures
were frequently observed sitting together on the hills among the
shags, while none of the latter, either old or young, appeared to
be disturbed at their presence. No doubt the poor fishes had
to pay for the touching union of this “ happy family.”
Having fully explored the southern extremity of America, we
once more see the indefatigable navigator steer forth into the
deserts of the southern Polar Ocean, where he discovers some
snow-clad isles, Bird Island, South Georgia, Sandwich Land,
COOK’S VOYAGES.
491
the southern Thule ; and finally returns to England (30th July,
1775) after an absence of three years and seventeen days.
His third voyage ( 1776) was undertaken for the purpose of
exploring the Northern Pacific, and casting- the same broad light
over those unvisited waters as over the southern part of that
vast ocean. To the south-east of the Cape of Good Hope he
discovered Prince Edward’s Islands, and thence proceeded to
explore Kerguelen’s Land, discovered six years previously by
the Frenchman of that name. This wintry island bears neither
tree nor shrub, but in the bays the gigantic seaweeds form sub-
marine forests, and countless penguins make the dreary shores
resound with their deep braying voice.
Van Diemen’s Land, New Zealand, and the Friendly and
Society Isles were now visited for the last time. Steering to
the north, Cook discovered in the last days of the year 1777 the
Sandwich Islands, most likely previously known to the Spaniards,
but kept secret from the world ; and reached on the 7th of
March, 1778, the mountainous forest-girt coast of New Albion,
along which two centuries before Drake had sailed as far as 48°
N. lat. Penetrating farther and farther to the north, he at
length reached the most westerly point of the American conti-
nent, Cape Prince of Wales, which, stretching far out into the
Straits of Behring, is only thirty-nine miles distant from the
east coast of Siberia. Both pillars of this water-gate, according
to Chamisso’s description, are high mountains within sight of
each other, rising abruptly from the sea on the Asiatic side,
while on the American their foot is bordered by a low alluvial
plain. On the Asiatic side the sea has its greatest depth, and
the current, which sets from the south into the channel with a
rapidity of two or three knots an hour, its greatest strength.
Whales and numberless herds of walruses are seen only on the
Asiatic side.
Through these famous straits, which Deshnew had first passed,
and which Behring most likely never saw, Cook penetrated
into the Arctic Ocean, examined a part of the Siberian coast,
and then sailed to the opposite shores of America, where he dis-
covered and explored the coast of West Georgia as far as 70° 44
N. lat., until fields of ice opposed an impenetrable barrier to his
progress.
492
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
After having thus illumined with the torch of science the
farthest extremities of the earth. Cook once more steered to the
south and discovered Hawaii, the largest of the Sandwich Islands.
But better had it been for him if the glory of this discovery had
fallen to the share of some other navigator, for it was here that-
the illustrious seaman, who had thrice circumnavigated the
globe, was doomed, to fall by the club of a barbarous savage.
No navigator has ever made so many important discoveries
at such distances from each other as Cook, or done more for the
progress of geographical knowledge. The wide Pacific he so
thoroughly explored, that his successors found only single ears
to glean where he had reaped the richest harvest. With the
firm resolution and the indomitable perseverance of the ancient
mariners who preceded him on that vast ocean, he combined a
scientific knowledge they never possessed. What they had only
flightily observed, or imperfectly described, he in reality dis-
covered, and indelibly marked upon the map of the globe.
Indefatigable with the astrolabe and the plummet, he neglected
no opportunity of pointing out to his successors both the dan-
gers they would have to avoid, and the harbours in which they
might find a refuge against storms, and a supply of fresh water
and provisions. His excellent method of preserving the health
of seamen from the murderous attacks of the scurvy, secures
him a lasting place among the benefactors of mankind. But he
not only anxiously watched over the welfare of his companions —
his humanity extended a no less salutary influence over the
savages with whom he came in contact. He everywhere sought to
better their condition, made them presents of useful animals and
seeds, and pointed out to them the advantages of peace and agri-
culture. But his chief praise remains yet to be told, and this is,
that he owed the high position he acquired in life exclusively to
himself. He whose fame reached as far as the limits of the
civilised world, and whose death was mourned as a national
calamity, was the son of a poor labourer, and had commenced
his career as a common sailor.
The most celebrated navigators during the last quarter of the
eighteenth century were Vancouver and La Peyrouse.
Vancouver, who had accompanied Cook on his last and fatal
voyage, gained his chief laurels (1790) by thoroughly exploring
the north-west coast of America, which his illustrious friend had
VANCOUVER. LA PEYROUSE.
4 93
merely sketched in its most important outlines, having been
prevented by his untimely end from investigating it more fully
on a second visit. Vancouver began his hydrographical labours
at Cape Mendocino, examined the Straits of Juan deFuca, and,
having convinced himself of the non-existence of a passage to
the eastward, accurately investigated the labyrinth of bays, isles,
sounds, and inlets, extending between 50° and C0° N. lat., thus
establishing the important fact of the uninterrupted continuation
of the American continent in these parts. Vancouver’s Island
will transmit his name to the latest posterity, and British
Columbia remember him as the first navigator that accurately
mapped her shores.
The fame of La Pey rouse is owing more to his misfortunes than
to his eminent services. After having distinguished himself as a
naval officer, he was sent by the equally unfortunate Louis XVI.
on the voyage of discovery from which he was never to return.
On the coast of Tartary and in the Japanese seas he examined a
part of the world which hitherto no European had visited, and
after having rectified many geographical errors sailed to Botany
Bay, whence he forwarded his last despatches (7th Feb. 1788)
to Europe. With the design of sailing through Torres’ Straits
to the Grulf of Carpentaria, he left the new-born English colony,
but disappeared in the trackless ocean, and years ard years
passed on without solving the mystery of his fate.
At length, in 1826, Captain Dillon, an Englishman, was
informed by Martin Bushart, a Prussian sailor whom he found
settled on the Island of Tikopia, that many years since two
large ships had been wrecked on the neighbouring Island of
Vanikoro. Having brought this intelligence to Calciitta, he was
sent out by the East India Company in the “Research” to make
further inquiries on the scene of the catastrophe. On the 13th of
Sept., 1827, Dillon anchored at Vanikoro, and, having collected
the most interesting relics of the shipwreck, left it after a few
weeks.
These facts became known at Hobart Town to the French cir-
cumnavigator Dumont d’Urville, who immediately resolved to
sail to Vanikoro. He arrived there on the 22nd Feb., 1828,
but at first found it very difficult to persuade the suspicious
natives to point out to him the remains of the wrecked ship, until
the offer of apiece of red cloth effectually overcame their scruples.
494
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
One of the boldest immediately jumped into a boat and offered
to guide them on condition of receiving the proffered reward.
The bargain was gladly struck, and the Frenchmen, piloted by
the negro, eagerly pushed off from shore.
The coral reef which forms an enormous girdle round Vanikoro
approaches the land opposite to the village of Paiou, so that the
distance between them is hardly a mile. There, in a channel
dividing the breakers, the savage caused the boat to stop, and
made signs to the Frenchmen to look down to the bottom, where
they saw anchors, cannons, and other objects scattered about and
overgrown with corals. No doubt now remained, and with deep
emotion they gazed on these last memorials of the unfortunate
expedition of La Peyrouse. Metal alone had been able to
resist the tooth of time, the rolling waters, or the gnawing ship-
worm ; all wood-work was gone.
I have already stated that on D’Urville’s arrival he found the
natives extremely distrustful and shy, answering all his questions
by negations. It was evident that their conduct towards La
Pejn-ouse had been anything but hospitable, and that they now
feared the tardy vengeance of the white men. But, finding
themselves treated with invariable kindness, their fears gradually
gave way, and thus it became possible to gather some informa-
tion about the catastrophe from some old men who had witnessed
it, and from the most intelligent of the chiefs.
After a dark and stormy night the islanders saw earl}- on the
following morning an enormous pirogue stranded on the coral
reef on the south side of the island. The surf soon destroyed
the ship, and but a small number of the crew reached the shore
in a boat. On the following day a second large pirogue stranded
opposite Paiou. But this wreck lying on the lee-side of the
island, less exposed to the surf, and resting on a more even
ground, remained a longer time without going to pieces. The
whole of the crew escaped in the boats to Paiou, where they
built a small vessel, and after a stay of five months once more
embarked, and were never heard of since. Most likely they had
steered towards New Ireland, with the intention of ultimately
reaching the Moluccas or the Philippine Islands, and perished on
some unknown reef. The unhealthy condition of D’Urville’s
crew prevented him from extending his researches any further
along the western coasts of the Solomon Islands. That the
FATE OF LA PEYROUSE.
405
stranded vessels were those of La Peyrouse is beyond all doubt;
for years before and after no other large vessels had been lost
in those seas. The heavy cannons could only have belonged to
ships of war such as La Peyrouse commanded, and several of
the instruments collected by Captain Dillon evidently belonged
to a scientific expedition.
Before D’Urville left Vanikoro he resolved to raise a simple
monument to the memory of his unfortunate countrymen, a four-
sided pyramid resting on a square base. Neither nails nor iron
clasps fastened the coral blocks together, for fear of awakening
the cupidity of the savages ; and, if they have kept their word
to honour the Pccpalangi monument as they would a temple
erected to their own gods, it still reminds the navigator whom
chance may lead to that secluded island, of the renown and
tragical end of the ill-fated La Peyrouse.
496
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
CHAR XXVII.
Scoresby. — The Arctic Navigators.— Ross. — Parry.— Sufferings of Franklin and
his Companions on his Overland Expedition in 1821.— Parry’s Sledge-journey
to the North Pole. — Sir John Franklin. - — M'Clure. — Kane. — M'Clintock. —
South Polar Expeditions. — Billinghausen. — Weddell. — Biscoe. — Balleny. —
Dumont d’Urville. — Wilkes. — -Sir James Ross. — Recent scientific Voyages of
Circumnavigation.
Although the undaunted courage and indomitable perseverance
of the great navigators whom I have named in the preceding
chapters had gradually circumscribed the bounds of discovery,
and no vast ocean remained to be explored by some future Cook
or Magellan, yet at the beginning of this century many secrets
of the sea still remained unrevealed to man.
The north coast of America and the Arctic Ocean beyond
were still plunged in mysterious darkness ; and although Cook
in several places had advanced far into the Antarctic seas, yet
here also a wide field still lay open to the adventurous seaman.
Many coasts, many groups of islands scattered over the vast
bosom of the ocean, awaited a more accurate survey, and would
no doubt have remained unexplored, if gold, as in former times,
had still been the sole magnet which attracted the seafarer to
distant parts of the world. But fortunately science had now
become a power which induced man, without any prospect of
immediate profit, to spare no expense and to shrink from no
danger, that he might become better and better acquainted with
his dwelling-place the earth.
It cannot be denied that our century has laboured at the
solution of all these various geographical questions with an
energy and perseverance unexampled in the history of civilisa-
tion ; and the prominent part she has taken in their investigation
is undoubtedly one of the great glories of England. At no
other time have more voyages of discovery and more scientific
expeditions been undertaken ; never have more courageous Argo-
nauts gone forth to conquer the golden fleece of knowledge. It
phipps and buciian’s voyages.
497
will be the pleasing task of this closing chapter to follow these
noble mariners in their adventurous course; and, to avoid con-
fusion, I shall begin with a short history of Arctic discovery up
to the present day, and afterwards treat of the efforts made to
extend our knowledge towards the South Pole. In spite of the
unsuccessful efforts of a Frobisher, a Davis, a Hudson, and a
Baffin, England had never given up the hope of discovering a
northern passage to India, either direct across the Pole, or round
the north coast of America. It had been one of the chief ob-
jects of Cook’s third voyage to find a sea-path from Behring’s
Straits to Baffin’s or Hudson’s Bay ; and some years before,
while the illustrious navigator was busy exploring the Southern
Pacific, we see Captain Phipps renewing the old attempt to sail
direct to the Pole (1773). But, like his predecessor Hudson,
he reached no farther than the northern extremity of Spitzbergen,
where his vessel, surrounded by mighty ice-blocks, would have
perished but for a timely change of wind. This repulse damped
for a time the spirit of discovery ; but hope revived again when
it became known that Scoresby, on a whaling expedition in the
Greenland seas (1806), had attained 81° N. lat. and thus ap-
proached the Pole to within 540 miles. No one before him had
ever reached so far to the north, and an open sea tempted him
mightily to proceed, but as the object of his voyage was strictly
commercial, and he himself answerable to the owners of his
vessel, Scoresby felt obliged to sacrifice his inclinations to his
duty and to steer again to the south.
During the continental war, England indeed had little leisure
to prosecute discoveries in the Arctic Ocean ; but not long after
the conclusion of peace (1818) two expeditions were sent out
for that purpose.
Captain Buchan, with the ships “ Dorothea ” and “ Trent,”
sailed with instructions to proceed in a direction as due north as
might be practicable through the Spitzbergen Sea ; but, having
after much difficulty gained lat. 80° 34' north in that polar archi-
pelago, he was obliged speedily to withdraw and try his fortune
off the western edge of the pack. Here however a tremendous
gale, threatening every moment to crush the ships between the
large ice-blocks heaving and sinking in the roaring billows,
induced the bold experiment of dashing right into the body of
498
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
the ice; a practice which has been resorted to by whalers in
extreme cases, as their only chance of escaping destruction.
“ While we were yet a few fathoms from the ice,” says Admiral
Beechey, the eloquent eye-witness and narrator of the dreadful
scene, “ we searched with much anxiety for a place that was
more open than the general line of the pack, but in vain ; all
parts appeared to be equally impenetrable, and to present one
unbroken line of furious breakers, in which immense pieces of
ice were heaving and subsiding with the waves.
“ No language, I am convinced, can convey an adequate idea of
the terrific grandeur of the effect now produced by the collision
of the ice and the tempestuous ocean. The sea violently agi-
tated, and rolling its mountainous waves against an opposing
body, is at all times a sublime and awful sight ; but when, in
addition, it encounters immense masses, which it has set in
motion with a violence equal to its own, its effect is prodigiously
increased. At one moment it bursts upon these icy fragments,
and buries them many feet beneath its wave, and the next, as
the buoyancy of the depressed body struggles for reascendency,
the water rushes in foaming cataracts over its edges ; whilst
every individual mass, rocking and labouring in its bed, grinds
against and contends with its opponent until one is either split
with the shock or upheaved upon the surface of the other. Nor
is this collision confined to one particular spot, it is going on as
far as the sight can reach ; and when, from this convulsive scene
below, the eye is turned to the extraordinary appearance of the
blink in the sky above, where the unnatural clearness of a calm
and silvery atmosphere presents itself bounded by a dark hard
line of stormy clouds, such as at this moment lowered over our
masts, as if to mark the confines within which the efforts of
man would be of no avail, the reader may imagine the sensation
of awe which must accompany that of grandeur in the mind of
the beholder.
“ At this instant, when we were about to put the strength of
our little vessel in competition with that of the great icy conti-
nent, and when it seemed almost presumption to reckon on the
possibility of her surviving the unequal conflict, it was gratify-
ing in the extreme to observe in all our crew the greatest calm-
ness and resolution. If ever the fortitude of seamen was fairly
tried, it was on this occasion ; and I will not conceal the pride I
PERILOUS POSITION OF THE (i DOROTHEA.”
499
felt in witnessing the bold and decisive tone in which the orders
were issued by the commander of our little vessel (the since so
far-famed and lamented Franklin), and the promptitude and
steadiness with which they were executed by the crew.
“ We were now so near the scene of danger as to render neces-
sary the immediate execution of our plan, and in an instant the
labouring vessel flew before the gale. Each person instinctively
secured his own bold and with his eyes fixed upon the masts,
awaited in breathless anxiety the moment of concussion. It
soon arrrived ; the brig, cutting her way through the light ice,
came in violent contact with the main body. In an instant we
all lost our footing, the masts bent with the impetus, and the
cracking timbers from below bespoke a pressure which was cal-
culated to awaken our serious apprehensions. The vessel stag-
gered under the shock, and for a moment seemed to recoil ;
but the next wave, curling up under her counter, drove her
about her own length within the margin of the ice, where she
gave one roll and was immediately thrown broadside to the wind
by the succeeding wave. This unfortunate occurrence prevented
the vessel from penetrating sufficiently far into the ice to escape
the effect of the gale, and placed her in a situation where she
was assailed on all sides by battering rams, if I may use the
expression, every one of which contested the small space, which
she occupied, and dealt such unrelenting blows that there ap-
peared to be scarcely any possibility of saving her from founder-
ing. Literally tossed from piece to piece, we had nothing left
but patiently to abide the issue, for we could scarcely keep our
feet, much less render any assistance to the vessel. The motion
indeed was so great, that the ship’s bell, which in the heaviest
gale of wind had never struck of itself, now tolled so continu-
ally that it was ordered to be muffled, for the purpose of
escaping the unpleasant association it was calculated to pro-
duce.”
By setting more head-sail, though at the risk of the masts,
already tottering with the pressure of that which was spread, the
vessels, splitting the ice and thus effecting a passage between the
pieces, were at length released from their perilous situation, but
the “ Dorothea” was found to be completely disabled. A short
time at Fairhaven in Spitzbergen was spent in necessary repairs,
and even then she was unfit for any farther service than the
L L
500
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
voyage to England. Franklin volunteered to prosecute the
enterprise with the “ Trent ” alone, but the Admiralty Orders
opposed such a proceeding, and the vessels returned home in
company.
Meanwhile Captain John Ross, with the “Isabella” and
“ Alexander,” had proceeded to Baffin’s Bay, but instead of
exploring Smith’s, Jones’s, and Lancaster Sounds, which recent
voyages have proved to be each and all grand open channels to
the Polar Sea, he contented himself with Baffin’s assertion that
they were enclosed by land, and, after having thus fruitlessly
accomplished the circuit of the bay, returned to England.
With Parry’s first expedition, which took place in the follow-
ing year (1819), the epoch of modern discoveries in the Arctic
Ocean, may properly be said to begin. Sailing right through
Lancaster Sound, he discovered Prince Regent Inlet, Wellington
Channel, and Melville Island. Wfillingly would he have proceeded
farther to the west, but the ice was now rapidly gathering, the
vessels were soon beset, and, after getting free with great diffi-
culty, Parry was only too glad to turn back, and settle down in
Winter Harbour. It was no easy task to attain this dreary port,
as a canal two miles and a third in length had first to be cut
through solid ice of seven inches average thickness, yet such was
the energy of that splendid expedition, that the Herculean
labour was accomplished in three days. The two vessels were
immediately put in winter trim, the decks housed over, heating
apparatus arranged, and everything done to make the ten
months’ imprisonment in those Arctic solitudes as comfortable
as possible.
It was not before the 1st of August that the ships were able
to leave Winter Harbour, when Parry once more stood boldly
for the west, but no amount of skill or patience could penetrate
the obstinate masses of ice, or insure the safety of the vessels
under the repeated shocks they sustained. Finding the barriers
absolutely invincible he gave way, and, steering homeward,
reached London on Nov. 3, 1820, where, as may well be imagined,
his reception was most enthusiastic and cordial.
While this wonderful voyage was performing, Franklin,
Richardson, and Back, with two English sailors and a troop of
Canadians and Indians, were penetrating by land to the mouth
of the Coppermine River, whence they intended to make a
BOAT VOYAGE OF FRANKLIN AND RICHARDSON.
501
boat-voyage of discovery along the coasts of the Icy Ocean. An
idea of the difficulties of this undertaking may be formed, when
I mention that the travellers started from Fort York, in Hudson’s
Bay, on the 30th of August, 1819, and after a voyage of 700
miles up the Saskatchewan, reached Fort Cumberland, where
they spent the first winter. The next found them 700 miles
further on their journey, established during the extreme cold at
Fort Enterprise. During the summer of 1821 they accomplished
the remaining 334 miles, and on the 21st of July commenced
their exploration of the Polar Sea in two birch-bark canoes.
In these frail shallops they skirted the desolate coast of the
American continent, 555 miles to the east of the Coppermine,
as far as Point Turnagain, when the rapid decrease of their
provisions and the shattered state of the canoes imperatively
compelled their return. And now began a dreadful land-journey
of two months, accompanied by all the horrors of famine. A
lichen, called by the Canadians tripe de roche (rock-tripe),
afforded them for some time a wretched subsistence, and, that
failing, they were glad to satisfy their hunger with scraps of
roasted leather or burnt bones, from prey which the wolves
might have abandoned. On reaching the Coppermine a raft
had to be framed, a task accomplished with the utmost difficulty
by the exhausted party. One or two of the Canadians had
already fallen behind, and never rejoined their comrades, and
now three or four sank down, and could proceed no farther.
Back, with the most vigorous of the men, had already pushed
on to send help from Fort Enterprise; and Richardson, Hood,
and Hepburn volunteered to remain with the disabled men,
near a supply of the rock-tripe, while Franklin pursued his
journey with the others capable of bearing him company. On
reaching Fort Enterprise this last party found that wretched
tenement completely deserted, and a note from Back stating that
he had gone in pursuit of the Indians. Some cast-off deer-skins
and a heap of bones, provisions worthy of the place, sustained
their flickering life-flame, and after eighteen miserable days,
they were joined in their dreary quarters by Richardson and
Hepburn, the sole survivors of their party. At length, when on
the point of sinking under their sufferings, three Indians sent
by Back brought them timely succour. After a while they were
LL'i
502
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
able to join this valuable friend, and the following year brought
them safely back to England.
I pass over Parry’s second and third voyages, undertaken in
the years 1821 and 1824, which were consumed in fruitless
endeavours to penetrate westward ; the first through some un-
known channel to the north of Hudson’s Bay, the second through
Prince Eegent's Inlet ; but his last attempt to reach the North
Pole, by boat and sledge-travelling over the ice, is of too novel
and daring a character to remain unnoticed. His hopes of
success were founded on Scoresby’s descriptions, who had seen
ice-fields so free from either fissure or hummock, that, had they
not been covered with snow, a coach might have been driven
many leagues over them in a direct line, without obstruction or
danger ; but when Parry reached the ice-fields to the north of
Spitsbergen he found them of a very different nature, composed
of loose rugged masses, which rendered travelling over them
extremely irksome and slow.
The strong flat-bottomed boats — amphibious constructions,
half sledge, half canoe, — expressly built for an amphibious
journey over a region where solid ice was expected to alternate
with pools of water, had thus frequently to be unloaded, in order
to be raised over the intervening blocks or mounds, and repeated
journeys backward and forward over the same ground were the
necessary consequences. In some places the ice took the form
of sharp pointed crystals, which cut the boots like penknives ; in
others, sixteen or eighteen inches of soft snow made the work
of boat-dragging both fatiguing and tedious. Sometimes the
men were obliged, in dragging the boats, to crawl on all-fours,
to make any progress at all, and one day, when heavy rain
melted the surface of the ice, four hours of vigorous effort
accomplished only half a mile.
Yet in spite of all these obstacles they toiled cheerfully on
and on, until at length the discovery was made, that while they
were apparently advancing towards the Pole, the ice-field on
which they journeyed was moving to the south, and thus render-
ing all their exertions fruitless. Yet though disappointed in
his great hope of planting his country’s standard on that unat-
tainable goal, Parry had the glory of reaching the highest
latitude (82° 45) ever attained by man.
Before this adventurous voyage, Franklin, Richardson, and
ROSS’S SECOND VOYAGE.
503
Back, forgetful of their long life and death struggle with famine
(1819), had once more (1825) with heroic perseverance bent
their steps to the north. This time they chose the mouths of
the Mackenzie for the starting-point of their discoveries, and
having separated into two parties, proceeded to the east and
west, and explored 4000 miles of unknown coast.
In 1829 Captain John Ross, having for a long time vainly
solicited government to send him out once more on an Arctic ex-
pedition, was enabled by the munificence of a private individual,
Mr. Felix Booth, to accomplish his wishes, and to purchase a
small steamer, to which the rather presumptuous name of
“ Victory ” was given. The selection of the vessel was no doubt
unlucky enotigh ; for can anything be conceived more unpractical
than paddle-boxes among ice-blocks ; but, to make amends for
this error, the veteran commander was fortunate in being
accompanied by his illustrious nephew, James Ross, who with
every quality of the seaman united the ardour and knowledge of
the most zealous naturalist.
He it was who discovered the peninsula which in compliment
to the patron of the expedition was named Boothia Felix ; to him
also we owe the discovery of the Magnetic Pole; but the voyage
is far less remarkable for these after all not very important
successes, than for its unexampled protraction during a space of
five years.
The first season had a fortunate termination. On the 10th of
August, 1829, the “ Victory” attained Prince Regent’s Inlet, and
reached on the 13th the spot where Parry on his third voyage
had been obliged to abandon the “ Fury.” Of the ship itself no
traces remained; but the provisions which had providently been
stored up on land were found untouched. The solid tin boxes
had effectually preserved them from the voracity of the white
bears; and the flour, bread, wine, rum, and sugar were found as
good after four years, as on the day when the expedition started.
It was to this discovery, to this “manna in the wilderness,”
that Ross owed his subsequent preservation ; for how else could
he have passed four winters in the Arctic waste ? Never was the
hand of Providence more distinctly visible than here.
On the 15th of August Cape Grarry was attained, the most
southern point of the inlet which Parry had reached on his third
voyage. Fogs and drift-ice considerably retarded the progress
504
TIIE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
of the expedition ; but Ross, though slowly, moved on, so that
about the middle of September the map of the northern regions
was enriched by some 500 miles of newly discovered coast. But
now winter broke in with all its Arctic severity, and the “ Victory’’
was obliged to seek refuge in Felix Harbour, where the useless
steam-engine was thrown overboard as a nuisance, and the usual
preparations made for spending the cold season as agreeably as
possible.
The following spring, from the 17th of May to the 13th of
June, was employed by James Ross on a sledge journey, which
led to the discovery of King William’s Sound and King William’s
Land ; and during which that courageous mariner penetrated so
far to the west, that he had only ten days’ provisions, scantily
measured out, for a return voyage of 200 miles through an
empty wilderness.
After an imprisonment of full twelve months the “Victory” was
set free on the 17th of September, 1830, and proceeded once
more on her discoveries. But the period of her liberty was
short indeed, short like that of revolted slaves between two des-
potisms ; for, alter advancing three miles in one continual battle
against the currents and the drift-ice, she again froze fast on the
27th of the same month.
In the following spring we again see the indefatigable James
Ross, ever active in the cause of science, extending the circle of
his excursions and planting the British flag upon the site of the
Northern Magnetic Pole, which, however, is not invariably fixed
to one spot, as was then believed, but moves from place to place
within the glacial zone.
On the 28th of August, 1831, the “Victory,” after a second
imprisonment of eleven months, was warped into open watep
and, after having spent a whole month to advance four English
miles, was again enclosed by the ice on the 27th of September.
But seven miles in two long years ! According to this measure,
there was but little hope indeed of ever seeing Old England again :
the only chance left was to abandon the vessel, and endeavour
by means of the boats left among the “ Fury’s ” stores to reach
Baffin’s Bay, and get a homeward passage in some whaler.
Accordingly the colours were nailed to the mast-head of the
“ Victory,” and then officers and crew took leave of the ill-fated
little vessel, on the 23rd of April, 1832. Captain Ross was deeply
SUFFERINGS OF ROSS’S CREW.
505
moved on this occasion ; for, after having served forty-two years in
thirty-five different ships, this was the first he had ever been
obliged to abandon as a wreck.
Provisions and boats had now to be transported over long
tracts of ragged ice, and as their great weight rendered it im-
possible to carry all at once, the same ground had to be
traversed several times. Terrific snow storms retarded the
progress of the wanderers, and invincible obstacles forced them
to make long circuits. Thus it happened that during the first
month of their pilgrimage through the wilderness, although
they had travelled 329 miles, they only gained thirty in a direct
line.
On the 9th of June, James Ross, the leading spirit of the
expedition, accompanied by two men and with a fortnight’s pro-
visions, left the main body to ascertain the state of the boats
and supplies at Fury Beach. Returning, they met their com-
rades on the 25th of June, and gratified them with the intelli-
gence, that, though they had found three of the boats washed
away, enough still remained for their purpose, and that all the
provisions were in good condition.
On the 1st of July the whole party arrived at Fury Beach,
whence, after having repaired the weather-worn boats, they set
out again on the 1 st of August, and, after much buffeting among
the ice in their frail shallops, reached the mouth of the inlet by
the end of the month. But here they were doomed to disappoint-
ment ; for, after several fruitless attempts to run along Barrow’s
Strait, the obstructions from the ice obliged them to haul the
boats on shore and pitch their tents.
Barrow’s Strait was found from repeated surveys to be one
impenetrable mass of ice. After lingering here till the third
week in September, it was unanimously agreed that their only
resource was to fall back again on the stores at Fury Beach, and
spend their fourth winter in that dreary solitude. Here they
sheltered their canvass tent with a wall of snow, and setting up an
extra stove made themselves tolerably comfortable until the in-
creasing severity of the winter, and the rigour of the cold, added to
the tempestuous weather, made them perfect prisoners, and sorely
tried their patience. Scurvy now began to appear, and several
of the men fell victims to the scourge. At the same time cares
for the future darkened the gloom of their situation, for, if they
506
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
were not liberated in the ensuing summer, their diminishing
food gave them but little hope of surviving another year.
It may be imagined how anxiously the aspect of the sea was
watched during the ensuing summer, and with what beating
hearts they at length embarked on the loth of August. The
spot which the year before they had attained after the most
strenuous exertions was soon passed, and slowly winding their
way through the ice-blocks with which the inlet was encumbered,
they now saw the wide expanse of Barrow’s Strait open before
them. With spirits invigorated by hope they push on, alternately
rowing and sailing, and on the night of the 25th rest in a good
harbour on the eastern shore of Navy Board Inlet. “ A ship in
sight!” is the joyful sound that awakens them early on the
following morning; and never have men more hurriedly and
energetically set out, never have oars been more indefatigably
plied. But the elements are against them, calms and currents
conspire against their hopes, and to their inexpressible dis-
appointment the ship disappears in the distant haze.
But after a few hours of suspense the sight of another vessel
lying to in a calm relieves their despair. This time their exer-
tions are crowned with success ; and, wonderful ! the vessel which
receives them on board is the same “Isabella ” in which Boss
made his first voyage to these seas.
They told him of his own death, and could hardly be per-
suaded that it was really he and his party who now stood before
them. But when all doubts were cleared away, you should have
heard their thrice-repeated thundering hurrahs !
The scene that now followed cannot better be told than in
Ross’s own words : —
“ Every man was hungry, and was to be fed ; all were ragged,
and were to be clothed ; there was not one to whom washing
was not indispensable ; nor one whom his beard did not deprive
of all human semblance. All, everything, too was to be done
at once. It was washing, dressing, shaving, eating, all inter-
mingled; it was all the materials of each jumbled together;
while in the midst of all there were interminable questions to be
asked and answered on both sides ; the adventures of the “ Vic-
tory,” our own escapes, the politics of England, and the news,
which was now four years old.
f< But all subsided into peace at last. The sick were accorn-
EXPLORATION OF TIIE GREAT FISH RIVER.
507
modated, the seamen disposed of, and ail was done for us which
care and kindness could perform.
“ Night at length brought quiet and serious thoughts ; and I
trust there was not a man among us who did not then express,
where it was due, his gratitude for that interposition which had
raised us all from a despair which none could now forget, and
had brought us from the very borders of a most distant grave
to life and friends and civilisation. Long accustomed, however,
to a cold bed on the hard snow or the bare rock, few could sleep
amid the comfort of our accommodations. I was myself com-
pelled to leave the bed which had been kindly assigned me, and
take my abode in a chair for the night, nor did it fare much
better with the rest. It was for time to reconcile us to this
sudden and violent change, to break through what had become
habit and to inure us once more to the usages of our former
days.”
I have no time to relate how Ross was received in England,
and what honours were heaped upon him ; honours conferred
with all the better grace that the nation had not forgotten him
during his long-protracted absence, and had no cause to blush
for culpable neglect. For Britain has ever considered it her
duty to help and assist the men who venture their lives in the
cause of science and for the advancement of her glory ; nor will
she allow the officer who carries her standard into unknown
lands, and there falls a victim to nature or to man, to perish
without feeling his last moments gladdened by the conviction,
that, however distant his grave, the eye of his country rests upon
him.
Thus when Back, that noble Paladin of Arctic research,
volunteered to lead a relief expedition in quest of Ross, £4000
were immediately raised by public subscription to defray the
expenses of the undertaking. While deep in the American wilds
Back was gratified with the intelligence that the object of his
search had safely arrived in England, but, instead of returning
home, the indefatigable explorer resolved to trace the unknown
course of the Thlu-it-scho, or Great Fish River, down to the
distant outlet where it pours its waters into the polar seas. It
would take a volume to recount his adventures in this wonderful
expedition, the numberless falls, cascades, and rapids that ob-
structed his progress ; the storms and snow-drifts that vainly
508
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
conspired to repel him; the horrors of that iron-ribbed desert,
without a single tree on the whole line of his passage ; and how
heroically he persevered to the very last, and added Back’s River,
as the Thlu-it-scho has most deservedly been called, to the geo-
graphical conquests of which England may well be proud.
The present is not a detailed account of Arctic discovery, a
complete historical narrative of how step by step those dreary
regions, the refuse of the earth, have grown into distinctness on
the map ; so passing over Simpson’s wonderful boat-voyage
along the northern shores of America, which led to the discovery
of 1600 miles of coast (1837-1839), and Rae’s important re-
searches on Melville Peninsula (1846, 1847), I proceed to the
last expedition of Sir John Franklin. We all know how the
veteran seaman left England in the sixtieth year of his age,
once more to try the north-western passage; how since his last
despatches, dated from the Whalefish Islands, Baffin’s Bay,
July 12th, 1845, months and months, and then years and years,
elapsed without bringing any tidings of his fate; how Collinson
and M‘Clure, Penny and Inglefield, Kane and Bellot, and so
many other worthies, went out to search for the “ Erebus ” and
“ Terror,” and how in spite of all their efforts mystery still over-
hung the ill-fated expedition, until M'Clintock raised the veil
and informed us how miserably most of the gallant seamen
perished in those dreary wastes, but how their commander had
been spared the pangs of protracted suffering, and gone to his
eternal rest even before his country began to feel concerned
about his loss.
The search for Franklin is a page in history of which a
nation may well be proud, more noble than a hundred battles
and grander than the conquest of an empire. These are no
blood-stained laurels, but palms of glory gained by matchless
energy and perseverance over the horrors of a nature inimical to
man, a theme which some future Homer will delight to sing.
Had Franklin been ever so successful, he could not possibly
have achieved so much for Arctic discovery as his loss gave rise
to ; for to the disasters of his voyage we owe the knowledge of
all the coasts of that intricate conglomeration of islands which
faces the Pole, and of the channels, which opening far to the
north, lead to its profoundest, and seemingly impenetrable depths.
All these discoveries are of little commercial value, it is true,
EXPEDITIONS TO THE SOUTH POLE.
509
for no trading vessel will ever plough those desert seas ; but it is
no small advantage to a nation to have to register such pages in
her annals, and to leave them as a legacy and an example to
future generations.
The series of modern South Polar expeditions was opened in
1819 by Smith’s casual discovery of New South Shetland.
Soon afterwards a Russian expedition under Lazareff and JBel-
linghausen discovered (January, 1821), in 69° 3' south lat.., the
islands Paul the First and Alexander, the most southern lands
that had ever been visited by man.
The year after, Captain Weddell, a sealer, penetrated into the
icy sea as far as 74° 15' south lat. three degrees nearer to the
pole than had been attained by the indomitable perseverance of
Cook. Swarms of petrels animated the sea, and no ice impeded
his progress, but as the season was far advanced, and Weddell
apprehended the dangers of the return voyage, he steered again
to the north. In 1831 Biscoe discovered Enderby Land, and
soon afterwards Graham’s Land, to which the gratitude of geo-
graphers has since given the discoverer’s name.
Then follows Balleny who in 1839 revealed the existence of
the group of islands called after him, and of Sabrina Land (69°
south lat.).
About the same time three considerable expeditions appear in
the southern seas, sent out by France, the United States, and
England.
Dumont D’Urville discovered Terre Louis Philippe (63° 30'
south lat.) in February, 1838, and Terre Adelie (66° 67' south
lat.) on the 21st of January, 1840.
Almost on the same day, Wilkes, the commander of the
United States exploring expedition reached a coast which he
followed for a length of 1500 miles, and which has been called
Wilkes’ Land, to commemorate the discoverer’s name. But of all
the explorers of the southern frozen ocean, the palm unquestion-
ably belongs to Sir James Ross, who penetrated farther towards
the Pole than any other navigator before or after, and followed
up to 79° south lat. a steep coast, whose enormous glaciers
stretched far out into the sea. In 77° 5' south lat. he witnessed
a magnificent eruption of Mount Erebus, the Etna of the ex-
treme south. The enormous columns of flame and smoke rising
two thousand feet above the mouth of the crater, which is ele-
510
THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
vated 12,000 feet above the level of the sea, combined, with the
snow-white mountain-chain and the deep blue ocean, to form a
scene, the magnificence of which seemed to be enhanced by the
reflection that no human eye had ever witnessed its beauty, as
most likely none will ever witness it again. As all the efforts of
the gallant leader to penetrate still farther to the south were
baffled by a mighty ice-barrier, forming an uninterrupted mural
precipice for the length of several hundred miles, he yielded to
the invincible obstacles of nature, and returned to more genial
climes. It is worthy of notice, that Sir James Clark Boss had
accompanied Parry on his sledge-expedition to the North Pole,
and thus acquired the unique distinction of having approached
both poles nearer than any other man.
Whether the lands discovered by Wilkes, D’Urville, Biscoe,
Balleny, and Ross form a continuous continent, or belong to a
large group of islands behind which an open sea extends to the
very Pole, is a' question which most likely will never be solved,
as its determination can never be of the least use to mankind.
The numerous scientific voyages of circumnavigation achieved
during the course of the present century are far more important,
with regard to the welfare and progress of humanity, than the
researches which have been made in the icy wildernesses of the
north and south. New lands and isles of great extent have indeed
not been discovered by these expeditions, but they have contri-
buted not less largely to the advancement of geography and the
natural sciences.
The wonders of oceanic life have first been shown in a more
distinct light by the labours of Chamisso, Meyen, Lesson, Darwin,
dray. Hooker, Robinson, Dana, &c., who accompanied Kotzebue,
Freycinet, Fitzroy, Ross, &c., on their world-encircling course;
and numerous coasts and groups of islands, situated in the
remotest seas, and formerly only superficially known, have been
accurately measured and traced on the map by the distinguished
hydrographers who took part in those far-famed voyages.
INDEX
INDEX
AAR
A AH glacier, formation and dissolu-
tion of the, 75
Acalephae, 34-8. See Jelly-fishes
Acephala, their organisation, 299
— their food, 305
— their enemies, 305, 306
Acorn-shell, the, 244
Actiniae, 361
Actinozoa, 363
Adriatic, depth of the, 8
— tides of the, 43
Africa, length of coast-line of, 4
— circumnavigated by the Phoenicians,
444
— Hanno’s discoveries on the west coast
of, 444
Agar-agar, or artificial edible birds’ -
nests of Java, 402
Agricola, Julius, sails round Scotland,
422
Air-bladder of fishes, 189
Air-currents. See Winds
Albatross, 163
Albion, New, discovery of, 467
Alcyonarians, 363
Alexander the Great, maritime dis-
coveries resulting from the conquests
of, 447
Alexandria, the Pharus or lighthouse
of, 89
Algse, 390
— changes produced by, in the colour of
the sea, 19
— Russian official collecting, 392
Alligators, 172
Amalfi, maritime trade of, 449
— decline of, 449
Amazon river, tides of the, 43
quantity of water which it pours
into the ocean, 75
discovery of the river, 460
America, length of coast-line of, 4
— salmon of Russian America, 221
— discovery of, by Columbus, 457
— account of early navigation along
the shores of, 457
Amerigo Vespucci, his discoveries, 430
RAF
Ammodyte:, or launce, 230
Ammonites, 437
Amoebae, 379
— simplicity of their structure, 380
Anabas of the dry tanks, 193
Anchovy, 214
Angler, or sea-devil, 203
Annelides, marine, 262
— general remarks on the, 262
— their beauty, 263
— their food, 264
— their enemies, 265
— tubicole, 266
Anson, Commodore, his maritime dis-
coveries, 483
Aphrodita, or sea-mouse, 264
Arab commerce and maritime discovery,
452
Arctic discovery, 474, 496
— winter passed by Barentz, 478
Argand, his improvement in marine
illumination, 90
Argonaut, 280
Argus, Scotch or Shetland, 333
Ascidia mammillata, 322
Asia, length of coast-line of, 4
Asterise, 335
Astraea, 373
Atlantic Ocean, depth of the, according
to Maury, 7
temperature of the, 14
fury of the Atlantic surge. 28, 29
enormous fucus banks, or floating
meadows of the, 397
Atolls, or lagoon islands, 374
Auburn, site of the village of, 29
Auks, 151, 168
Australia, length of coast-line of, 4
— discoveries in, 480, 486
Avosets, 143, 144, 146
Azores, discovery of the, 456
BACK'S arctic voyages, 507
Baffin, his maritime discoveries,
483
! Baffin's Bay, discovery of, 483
INDEX.
514
BAL
Balani, 244
Balanus ovularis, 244
— balanoides, 244
Balboa, Vasco Nunez de, sketch of him
and his discoveries, 464
Baleen of the whale, 98
Balleny, his discoveries, 509
Baltic, depth of the, 8
Band-worm, the great, 264
Barentz, William, his maritime disco-
veries, 476
Barnacles, 244
— their attacks on the whale, 17
Barnacle goose, 146
Barrow’s Straits, discovery of, 505
Basaltic pillars of Fingal’s Cave, 46
Bassora, foundation of the town of, 452
Bastidas, Roderigo de, his maritime dis-
coveries, 461
Beachy Head, 5
Bear, white, said to attack the whale,
100
— organisation of the polar bear, 10
— attacks Barentz’s men, 478
Bear Islands, discovery of, 477
Behring, his maritime discoveries and
death, 484
Belemnites, 437
Bellroek lighthouse, 28, 86
height of the waves at the, 28
in the storm of 1807, 29
Benin, discovery of, 456
Bermudas, depth of the sea near the, 7
Bird Island, discovery of, 490
Bird’s-foot sea-star, 335
Birds’ -nests, edible, of Java, 399
— mode of gathering them, 399
— agar-agar, or artificial birds’ -nests,
402
Birds of passage, 171
Birkenhead, the Great Float at, 91
Biscoe, his discoveries, 509
Bivalves, or acephalous mollusca. See
Acephala
Black-skimmer, or cut-water, the, 144
Blocks, erratic, of Greenland and Spitz-
bergen, 76
Bojador, Cape, doubling of, for the first
time, 455
Bonito, the, 223, 224
Booth, Mr. Felix, 503
Boothia Felix, discovery of, 503
Borda, his improvements in marine illu-
mination, 90
Borer, the, 231
Botallack, submarine mine, 91
Botrylli, 324
Bougainville, his maritime discoveries,
483
Boundaries of the ocean. See Limits of
the ocean
CAV
Brachiopods, 315
Brazils, discovery of the, 460
Breakwater of Cherbourg, 90
— of Plymouth, 90
— moles of Portland, Holyhead, and
Alderney, 90
Bream, sea, 415
Bristol Channel, high tides of the, 38
— - — marine fauna, 414
Britannia Tubular Bridge, 91
Bryozoa, 316
Buchan, Captain, his arctic discoveries,
497
Buffadero, the marine cave of the, 52
Bullhead, river, its parental affection,
195
Burgomaster-bird, 159
Butthom, the, 335
Byron, Commodore, his maritime dis-
coveries, 483
CABOT, John and Sebastian, their
discoveries, 459
Cachalot, or sperm-whale, its organisa-
tion, 102-104
— its food, 104
Ca’ing whale, the, 115
Calamary, 272
Caledonia, New, discovery of, 490
California, discovery of, 472
Callao, colour of the sea near, 20
Calling crabs, 250, 251
Calms, or doldrums, causes of, 67
Calycophoridae, 352
Canada acquired by France, 461
Canary Islands probably known to the
Phoenicians, 444
Cano, Sebastian el, first performs the
circumnavigation of the globe, 469
Cape de Verd Islands, depth of the sea
near the, 7
Capelins, 162
Capri, 1 azure cave’ at, 18, 49
Carcinas msenas, metamorphosis of, 258
Caribbean Sea, crystalline clearness of
the, 21
Carinaria, 287
Carrigeen (Chondrus crispus), 399
Carteret, his maritime discoveries, 483
Cartier, Jacques, voyages of, 461
Caryophyllia, 370
Cat-fish, or sea-wolf, 415
Catalonians, their maritime discoveries,
452
Caves, marine, 45
— Fingal’s Cave, 45-48
— azure cave of Capri, 18, 49
— the Antro di Nettuno, 49
— the Cave of Hunga, 49-51
— cave of the Skerries, 51
INDEX.
515
CAV
Caves, marine — continued.
— the Souffleur, or BloVer, 52
— the Buffadero, 53
Caviar, 217
Cellnlarise, 319
Cephalopods, their organisation, 271
— their locomotion, 274
— their food, 277
— their enemies, 277
— their great size in some cases, 379
— the Norwegian kraken, 279
— the argonaut, 2S0
— the nautilus, 281
— the cephalopods of the primitive
ocean, 282
Cessart, De, his breakwater at Cher-
bourg, 90
Cetaceans, general remarks on the or-
ganisation of the, 95
— food of whales, 98
— their enemies, 99
— large Greenland whale, 101
— the rorqual, or fin-back, 101
— the antarctic smooth-back, 102
— sperm-whale, 102
— the narwhal, or unicorn-fish, 106
- — the dolphin, 107
— the porpoise, 108
— the grampus, 108
- — history of the whale-fishery, 109
— the ea’ing whale, 115
Cetochilus australis, banks of the, in
the Pacific, 21
Ceylon, or Taprobane, discovery of, 447
Chaetodon rostratus, 203
Chancellor’s discovery of the White Sea,
474
— his death, 475
Charybdis, vortex of, 41
Chelura tenebrans, 247
Chelyosoma, 323
Chepstow, high tides at, 38
Cherbourg, breakwater of, 90
Chili, upheaving of the coast of, 10
Chincha Islands, statistics of the guano
trade of the, 169
Chiton squamosa, 285
Chlorospermae, or green sea-weeds, 391
Chondrus crispus, or carrigeen, 399
Circumnavigation of the globe first per-
formed by Sebastian el Cano, 469
Clavellina product*, 322
Climate, influence of the Gulf Stream on
that of the west European coasts, 51
— variety of climates in similar lati-
tudes, 52
— Peruvian cold stream, 53
— Japanese stream, 54
— influence of forests on climates, 73
- — power of man over climate, 78
Climbing fishes, 193
CRP
Clio borealis, 298
Clouds, formation of, 71, 72
Coast-line of the sea, length of, 4
Coasts, different formation of, 5
— destructive power of the sea on all, 29
Cockle, the, 303, 306
Cocoa-nut crab of the East Indies, 254
Cod, the, 415
— curing the cod, 216
— cod-liver oil, 216
Ccelenterata, 345, 357
Colaeus of Samos, his maritime disco-
veries, 446
Colour of the sea, 17
— the azure cave at Capri, 1 8
— changes produced by algae and sea-
worms, 19
Columbus, his discovery of America, 457
Compass, mariner’s, invention of the, 451
Composition of sea-water, 12
Cone-shell, orange, 288
Conger-eels, 222
Congo, discovery of, 456
Constructions, marine, 80-91
Cook, Captain, his voyages and disco-
veries, 485
— his first voyage, 486
— discovery of the Society Islands, 486
of the east coast of New Holland,
486
— his second voyage, and discoveries,
492
— his third voyage, 491
— his death, 462
Cook’s Strait, discovery of, 486
Conoehilus volvox, 268
Coral, spotted, of the Indian Ocean, 21
Coral, 366
— deep sea, 367
— fishing of the Mediterranean, 367
Coral-reefs, 374
— barrier-reef of Australia, 374
— how they become habitable for man,
375, 376
Coralline zone, 413
Cordova, his discoveries, 491
Cormorants, 154, 155
Cortereal, Gaspar, his maritime disco-
veries, 460
Cortereal, John Yaez, his discoveries, 458
Cortereal, Miguel, 461
Cortes, his conquest of Mexico, 461
Coryniadae, 358
Crabs, 246
— legs of crabs, 251
— larvae of crabs, 258
Cross-fish, the common, 334
Crustacea, by what are they distin-
guished from the insects and spiders ?
243
I — their respiratory organs, 244
M It
516
INDEX.
GTE
Ctenophora, 358
Cuba discovered, 459
— circumnavigated for the first time,
461
Curlew, the, 143
Currents, ocean, 54
— causes of, 54, 55
— - the equatorial stream, 56
— the Gulf Stream, 57
— influence of the Gulf Stream, 60
— the cold Peruvian stream, 62
— the Japanese stream, 63
— beneficial influence of the ocean
currents, 64
Cushion star-fishes, 335
Cuttle-fish, 275
— ova of the, 278
Cuvier’s classification of fishes, 188
Cyclobranchiata, 285
Cyclones, causes of, 68
Cymospiras, 266
DAMPIER, his maritime discoveries,
483
Darien, Gulf of, discovered, 461
Darwin’s theory of the formation of
lagoon islands, 375
Davis, John, his maritime discoveries,
476
Depth of the sea, 6
— of the Atlantic, according to Maury, 7
— American mode of sounding in deep
water, 6
— telegraphic plateau between New-
foundland and Ireland, 7
— measurement of depth by the rapi-
dity of tide-wave, 8
Dew, formation of, 68
Diatomacese, 402
— their importance in reference to the
existence of animal life in high
latitudes, 403
Diaz, Bartholomew, his discovery of the
Cape of Good Hope, 476
Diazona violacea, 324
Diodons, 178
Diogenes hermit-crab, 254
Diphyes, 352
Discovery, maritime, progress of, 441.
See Maritime Discovery
Diu, Portuguese settlement of, 462
Divers, 150
Docks of London and Liverpool, 9 1
Dogfish, 200
Dolphins, 107
Donax, 301
Dory, 242
Dragon-weever, 204
Drake, Sir Francis, his discoveries, 473
Duck family, 146
FAN
Dugong, 117
— skeleton of the, 118
— female dugong of Ceylon, 119
Dunes, formation of, 5
Dunwich, destruction of the coast at, 30
D’Urville, Dumont, his discoveries, 609
Dusky Bay, discovery of, 487
Dutch, their attempts to discover a
North- West passage to India, 474,476
EARTH-RIND, the giant book of the,
432
— formation of a solid earth-crust by
cooling, 432
Echinus, or sea-urchin, 337
— mammillated, 338
— edible, 338
— dental apparatus of sea-urchins, 339
Eddystone lighthouse, the, 81
— Winstanley’s structure, 81
— Rudyerd’s, 82
— Smeaton’s, 83
Edward’s Island, Prince, discovery of,
491
— Land, 415
Eel, the common, 225
— conger, 228
— the murry, or mursena, 229
Eendragt’s Land, discovery of, 480
Eider-duck, 146
Electric eel, 202
Endeavour Strait, discovery of, 486
Enderby Land, discovery of, 509
English navigation, retrospective view
of, 459
— attempts to discover the North-West
passage, 474
Enteromorphse, 391
Eolis coronata, 284
Eozoon canadense, 381 note
Equatorial ocean-current, 57
Equinoctial line crossed for the first
time, 456
Erebus, Mount, discovery of, 509
Escharse, 317
Espiritu Santo, discovery of the Archi-
pelago of, 480, 490
Esquimaux in his kayak, 120
Euripus, phenomenon produced by the
tides of the, 44
Europe, length of coast-line of, 4
Euryale, warted, 333
Evaporation, movement of the waters
through, 65
Extent of the ocean, 1
FALKLAND ISLANDS, sea-weeds at,
396
Fan -bearer, 402, 403
INDEX.
517
FEA
Feather-star, the rosy, 330
Fernandez, Juan, his discoveries, 473
Fierasfer, 340
File-fish, 232
Fin-crab, spotted, 252
Fin-fish, or northern rorqual, 101
Fingal’s Cave, 45-48
— — popular belief as to its workman-
ship, 48
Sir W. Scott’s description of it, 48
Fire, sea of, 434
Fish, consumption of, in London, 237
note
Fish Kiver, Great, course of, traced, 507
Fishes, general remarks on, 186
— their locomotive organs, 187
— Cuvier’s classification of fishes, 188
note
— fins, 188
— air-bladder, 189
— skin of, 190
— beauty of tropical, 191
— gills of, 191
— circulation of the blood of, 191, 192
— climbing, 193
— parental affection of, 194
— organs of sense, 196
— offensive weapons of, 198
— numerous enem’es of, 207
— luminous, 422
Flamingoes, 142
Flat-fishes, 235
Florence, its commercial grandeur, 450
Flounder, 238
Flying-fishes, 156, 205, 224
Flying- gurnard, 206
Foraminifera, 378
— their immense numbers, 378
— simplicity of their structure, 380
— various forms of Foraminifera, 381
Forbes, Professor Edward, on the four
zones of marine life on the British
coasts, 408
Forests, influence of, on the formation
and retention of atmospherical pre-
cipitations, 76
- — formation of, 77
influence of, on climates, 78
Franklin, Sir John, his arctic voyages,
501
— his last voyage, 508
Fresnel, his improvements in marine
illumination, 90
Frigate-bird, 155
Frobisher, Martin, his maritime disco-
veries, 475
Frog-fish, 193, 194
Fuci, 392
- — fucus banks, or floating meadows, of
the Atlantic, 397
Fulmar, the, 195
GUR
/~1 ADES, Phoenician town of, 444
IT Gaeta, maritime trade of, 451
Gama, Vasco de, doubles the Cape of
Good Hope, 462
Gannet, or soland goose, 156
Gar-fish, 223
Garry, Cape, discovery of, 503
Gasteropods, 282
— respiratory apparatus, 283
— growth of their shells, 289
— mode of locomotion, 289
— their food, 294
— - organs of sense, 295
— ■ their enemies, 297
— their use to man, 296
Genoa, maritime grandeur of, 450
Geographical distribution of marine life,
405
Georgia, South, discovery of, 490
Germany, its climate at the time of
the Eomans and at the present time,
78
Glaciers, formation and dissolution of,
75
— the Aar glacier, 75
— of Greenland and Spitzbergen, 76
Glaucus, 283
Globe-fish, 232
Goa, Portuguese settlement of, 462
Goby, the black, 194
Goniaster, 335, 336
Good Hope, Cape of, discovery of, 457
— - — first doubled, 462
Goodwin Sands, 9
Goose, sea, various kinds of, 146
Gorgonidae, 365
Grampus, the, 108
anecdote of one, 109
Grass wrack (Zostera marina), 391
Great crab, 251
Grebes, the, 150
Greenland, depression of the coast of,
10
— olive colour of the water of the
Greenland seas, 20
— glaciers of, 76
— whale-fishery of, 110
• — discovery of, 457
Grijalva, his maritime discoveries, 461
Guano of the Chincha Islands, 169
— statistics of the trade of, 170
Guillemot, black, 165, 167
Guinea, New, discovery of, 473
Gulf Stream, the, 57, 58
its influence on the climate of the
west European coasts, 59
Gulls, sea, 157
Gunnbjorn, his discovery of Greenland,
457
Gurnard, 414
M M 2
518
INDEX.
HAD
Haddock, 215
Hag. glutinous, 231
Haiti discovered, 4.59
Halibut, 236
Hanno, the Carthaginian, his voyage, 444
Harp-shell, 288
Hartburn, site of the village of, 29
Hartog, his maritime discoveries, 480
Hassar, land journeys of the, 194
Hawaii, discovery of the island of, 492
Hebrides, New, discovery of the, 480, 490
Henry, Prince, of Portugal, his mari-
time discoveries, 453
Hermit-crabs, 254
Herrings, 208, 415
Herring-crab, 256
Herring-fishery, 208
— history of the, 209
— statistics of the, 210
Herring-gull, 158
Hervey’s Islands, discovery of, 487
Hindostan, circumnavigation of, 447
Hippocamp, 129, 234
Hippo pus, 315
Hoar-frost, causes of, 72
Hogg, James, his experiments with |
salmon, 219
Holland, devastations caused by storm- I
tides on the coast of, 35
Holland, New, discoveries of, 473
— - — Cook’s discoveries in, 486
Holothuriae, 339
Homer, his picture of the breaking of
the waves against the shore, 27
Hood’s Island, discovery of, 489
Hooded seal of northern seas, 125
Huatulco, sea-cave of, 52, 53
Hudson, Henry, his maritime discoveries,
481
— his unfortunate end, 482
Hudson’s Bay, discovery of, 481
Hump-back whales, 102
Hunga, cave of, 49-51
Hyalese, 298
Hyde, site of the village of, 29
TANTHINrE, 290
JL Ice-bear, 100, 134
Icebergs, formation of, 76
— erratic blocks carried away by, 76
Iceland, salmon of, 220
— discovery and colonisation of, 361
Ichthyosaurus, 438
Inachus Ksempferi of Japan, 259
India, Portuguese discovery in, 462
Indian Ocean, spotted corals in the, 21
Indus, sudden rising of the spring-tide
at the mouth of the, 42
Tnferobranchiata, 284
Infusoria, marine, 383
LIF
Insects, marine, 261
Isinglass, 216
Isis hippuris, 369
Ivory of the walrus, 132
JAMAICA discovered, 459
Japanese ocean-stream, the, 63
Java, gathering of edible birds’-nests
on the south coast of, 399
Jelly-fishes, 345
— their anatomical structure, 345
— their size and colours, 356
— their indirect use to man, 357
- — their phosphorescence, 420
— the Velella, 353
— the Portuguese man-of-war, 354
John Dory, 415
XT' AMTSCHATKA, salmon of, 220
-LY Keeling Island, subsidence of the
coast at, 10
Kerguelen’s Land, discovery of, 491
Kilda, St., bird-catching on, 164
King-crab, 246
Kittiwake, or tarrock, the, 158
Kraken, the Norwegian, 279
Labrador, discovery of, 459
Ladrone Islands, discovery of the,
468
Lagoon islands, 374
— — Darwin’s theory of the formation
of, 375
how they became habitable for
man, 376
Lamantins of the Atlantic Ocean, 117
Laminaria, region of the great, or tangle
forests, 393
Laniinarise, 393
Lampreys, 230, 231
Land-crabs, 250
Landscapes, submarine, 21
— in the Caribbean Sea, 21
— on the coast of Sicily, 21
La Perouse, his maritime discoveries, 493
his fate, 493
Launces, 230
Le Maire, his maritime discoveries, 4S0
Leprali®, 318
Lessonias, of the Palkland Islands, 396
Level of the ocean, does it remain un-
changed,and everywhere the same? 11
Licmophora, or fan-bearer, 402
Life, marine, geographical distribution
of, 405
— dependence of all created beings
upon space and time, 406
INDEX.
519
LIF
Life — continued.
— influences which regulate the distri-
bution of marine life, 407
— the four bathymetrical zones of
marine life on the British coasts,
according to the late Professor
Edward Porbes, of Edinburgh, 408
— first wakening of life in the bosom
of the ocean, 435
Lighthouses, 80
— the Eddyst one lighthouse, 81
— the Bellroek, or Inchcape, lighthouse,
85
— the Skerryvore lighthouse, 85-89
— the Pharus of Alexandria. 89
— progress of marine illumination, 90
Lily encrinites, 340
Limacina arctica, 298
Limits of the ocean, progressive changes
in the, 9
- — Goodwin Sands, 10
— alluvial deposits, 10
— upheaving of coasts, 1 0
— subsidence, 10
— temple of Serapis, 1 1
— level of the sea everywhere the same,
11
Limnorise, 247
Limpet, 285, 294
Limuli, or king-crabs, 246
Ling, 215, 415
Lingthorn, 335
Lithophytes, 373
Liverpool Docks, 91
Lizards of the sea, 173, 181
— serpent-lizard, 435
Lobsters, 256, 257
Loggerheaded duck or goose, 148
London Docks, 9 1
Long-tailed duck, 148
Lophobrancliii, the, 233
Louse, whale, 101
Lucernaridae, 350
Luminous marine animals, 418
Lump-sucker, 415
Mackerel, 222
Macrocystis pyrifera, 393
Mr. Darwin’s description of it at
Tierra del Fuego, 393, 396
Madeira, depth of the sea near, 1
— discovery of, 505
Maelstrom, the, 41
Magellan, Ferdinand, his discoveries,
467, 468
Magellan's Straits, discovery of, 468
— — harmony of animal life in the
islands of, 490
Magilus antiquus, 291
Malacca Islands discovery of the, 462
MAR
Malo, St., high tides of, 38
Mammaria scintillans, 275
Manatee, the, 116
Mantis crab, spotted, 256
Marco Polo, his travels and discoveries,
453
Maritime discovery, progress of, 44 1
- — discoveries of the Phoenicians, 443
— expedition of Hanno, 444
— circumnavigation of Africa, under
Pharaoh Necho II., 444
— Ophir, 339
— Colaeus of Samos and Pytheas of
Massilia, 340
— expedition of Nearchus, 447
— - circumnavigation of Hindostan, un-
der the Ptolemies, 447
— voyages of discovery of the Romans,
453
— consequences of the fall of the Roman
empire, 448
— Amalfi, 449
— Pisa, Venice, and Genoa, 449
— resumption of maritime intercourse
between the Mediterranean and
the Atlantic, 451
— discovery of the compass, 451
— Marco Polo, 453
- — other discoveries, 453
— Prince Henry of Portugal, 454
- — discovery of Porto Santo and Madeira,
455
— doubling of Cape Bojador, 455
— discovery of the Azores, 456
— the line crossed for the first time, 456
— Benin and Congo discovered, 456
— and the Cape of Good Hope, 457
— discovery of America, 457
— and of Iceland, 457
— Greenland, 457
— discoveries of John and Sebastian
Cabot, 459
— retrospective new of the beginnings
of English navigation, 461
— Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci, 460
- — Vincent Yanez Pinson, 460
— Cortes, 461
— Verazzani, 461
— Jacques Cartier, 461
— the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean,
462
— Balboa’s discovery of the Pacific
Ocean, 466
— Magellan, 467
— Sebastian el Cano, the first circum-
navigator of the globe, 469
— Pizarro and Cortes, 470
— Urdaneta, 472
— Juan Fernandez, 473
— Mendoza, 473
— Drake, 473
N_
1
520
INDEX.
MAR
Maritime discovery — contin ued.
- — Willoughby and Chancellor, 474
- — Martin Erobisher, 475
- — Davis, 476
— Barentz, 476
— Quiros, 480
— Torres, 480
— Schouten, Le Maire, and others, 480
— Tasman, 480
— Henry Hudson, and his unfortunate
end, 481
— Baffin, 481
— Dampier, 483
— Anson, Behring, Byron, Wallis, Car-
teret, and Bougainville, 483
— Cook’s voyages, 485-492
— arctic discovery, 496
Marquesas de Mendoza Islands, dis-
covery of the, 473
Mauritius, sea-cave on the, 52
Mediterranean Sea, depth of the, 8
height of the, 1 2
temperature of the, 14
colour of the, 18
sides of the, 43
Phoenician trade in the, 443
decline of trade in the, 33
resumption of maritime intercourse
between the Mediterranean and the
Adriatic, 449
Medusidse, 349, 350
Melanospermeae, or olive-coloured sea-
weeds, 392
Melville Island, discovery of, 500
Mendana, Alvaro, his discoveries, 473
Menezes, Don Jorge de, his discoveries,
473
Merganser, 149, 404
Mexico, discovery of the coast of, 461
— - conquest of, by Cortes, 461, 472
Microscopic life of the ocean, 378
Mines, submarine, 91
Mitre shells, 288
Mollusca, 270
— general remarks on, 270
Monsoons, north-east, 68
— south-west, 68
Moon, influence of the, on the tides,
446
Mother-of-pearl, 313
Mullet, grey, 415
Murex haustellum, 291
Murry, or muraena, 229
Mussels, edible, 307
— history of, 307
— ‘ bouchots,’ or mussel-parks, 307
Myxine, the, 231
NAPLES, maritime trade of, 449
Narwhal, or uuicorn-fish, 106
PAT
Nautilus, 280
— the pearly, 281
Nearchus, voyage of, 447
Necho II., Pharaoh, of Egypt, his mari-
time discoveries, 444
Nelson, Horatio, pursuing a polar bear,
138
Neptune’s ruffles, 318
Nereis, the, 263
Nereocystis lutkeana, the, of Norfolk
Bay and Sitcha, 397
Nettuno, Antro di, 49
Newfoundland, discovery of, 459
Noctiluca miliaris, 419
Norfolk, rapid destruction of the cliffs
of, 29
Norfolk Island, discovery of, 490
North Sea, depth of the, 8
colour of the, 18
North-West Passage, attempts of the
Dutch and English to discover the, 47 4
Norway, treaty of commerce concluded
with, 459
Nova Zembla, 476, 477
— — sufferings of Barentz and his crew
during a winter at, 478
Nudibranchiata, 284
Nummulina discoidalis, 378
OAR-WEEDS, 393
Ocean, the primitive, 433
Ojeda, discoveries of, 460
Oliva hispidula, 290
Onychoteuthis, arms and tentacles of an,
274
Ophir, the, of the Phoenicians, 445
Ophiuridae, or snake-stars, 331
Orkney Islands, whirlpools among the, 42
Ormus, taken by the Portuguese, 462
Ostend, oyster-parks of, 309
Otarian seals, 126
Oyster, 307
— account of the oyster-trade, 308
— catchers, 143
— oyster-dust, 310
— pearl, 3 1 1
PACIFIC OCEAN, depth of the, 7
— — height of the, 12
discovery of the, 466
Cook’s voyages in, 492
Paguri, 254
Pallisei Islands, discovery of the, 489
Palmas, Cape, colour of the sea near, 20
Palmyra, 445
Parrot-fishes, 372
Parry, Sir John, his arctic discoveries,
500
Patagonia, discovery of, 484
INDEX.
.521
PEA
Pea-crab, 253
Pearl-oyster, 311
Pearls, 311, 312
Pectinibranchiata, 288
Peetunculus, 302
Pegasus, swimming, 207
Pelamid, 224
Pelamys bicolor, 183
Pelicans, 116, 154:
Penguins, 142, 152
— species of, 153
Pentacrinus briareus, 330
Periwinkle, 411
Peru, visited by Pizarro, 471
— conquered by him, 472
Peruvian ocean-current, the, 62
Petrels, 160
— - stormy, 162
Philippine Islands, discovery of the, 468
Philodina roseola, 269
Phoenicians, maritime discoveries of the,
443
— their progress in the arts and sciences,
445
Pholades, 304
Pholas dactylus, 301
— Pliny’s accounts of its phosphores-
cence, 431
— - striata, 302
Phosphorescence of the sea, causes of,
418
— of various marine animals, 418
Phyllosoma, 258
Physalise, the, 354
Physophoridse, 353
Pilchards, 212, 415
Pilot-fish, 225
Pinnse of the Mediterranean, 253, 304,
305
Pinson, his discoveries, 460
Pipe-fishes, 233, 234
Pisa, maritime trade of, 449
Pizarro, sketch of him and his com-
panions, 469
Plaice, 238
Plants, marine, 390
Plectognaths, 232
Plesiosaurus, the, 438
Pleuronectidse, or flat-fishes, 235
Pliny, his geographical knowledge, 448
Plover, the, 144
Plymouth breakwater, in the great storm
of 1824, 29
Polycystina, 382, 383
Polynesia, length of coast-line of, 4
Polyps, 345
Polyzoa, 316, 320
Porcupine-fish, 232
Porpoise, 108
Portland, destructive action of the sea
at, 31
ROM
Porto Santo, discovery of, 455
Portuguese man-of-war, 354
Poulp, 272, 273
Prontzchitschew, his maritime disco-
veries, 483
Protozoa, 378
Pteroceras, 290
Pteropods, their organisation and mode
of life, 298
the butterflies of the ocean, 299
Ptolemies, maritime discoveries of the,
447
Ptolemy, the geographer, his knowledge
of the globe, 449
Ptygura melieerta, 267
Puffins, 165, 167
Purbeck, destruction of the cliffs at,
31
Pyrosoma atlantica, its phosphorescence,
“420
Pyrosomes, 325
Pytheas of Massilia, his maritime dis-
coveries, 446
QUANTITY of the waters contained
within the bosom of the ocean, 8
Quiros, his maritime discoveries, 480
Quito, coast of, discovery of, 470
ACER, or rider-crab, the, 251
Rain, formation of, 72
— inequality of, 72
— its return to the sea, 73
Rays, 240
Razor-shell, 303-306
Re, oyster-trade of, 311
Reculver, destruction of the coast at,
30
Red Sea, height of the, 12
red algae of the, 2 0
Phoenician trade on the, 445
Reef-building corals, 374
Regent Inlet, Prince, discovery of, 500
Reptiles of the sea, 172
Rhodosperms, Floridese, or red sea-
weeds, 398
— their habitat, 398
Richardson, Sir John, his arctic voyages,
501
Rivers, phenomena presented by the
mixture of salt and fresh water in,
16
— quantities of water which rivers pour
into the ocean, 75
Rock-goose, 149
Roggewein, his maritime discoveries,
483
Rome, ancient, maritime discoveries of,
448
522
INDEX,
ROR
Rorqual, northern, or fin- fish, 101
— its food, 102
Ross, Sir James, on the height of 'waves,
28
his discoveries, 509
John, his arctic discoveries, 500,
503
Rotifera, the, 267
Rudyerd, Mr., his lighthouse on the
Eddystone rocks, 82
SAAVEDRA, Alvaro de, his disco-
veries, 473
Sabrina Land, discovery of, 5C9
Sagittaria, discovery of the island of, 480
Sail-fluke, 239
Salangana caves in Java, 399
Salmon, 217, 324
— trade, 220
— salmon- spearing, 219
— growth of the salmon, 219
— abundance of salmon, 220
— introduced into Australia and New
Zealand, 221
Salmon-leaps, 218
Salpse, 325 ,
— their alternating generations, 327
Salts of the sea, 12
Sand-crab, American, 252
Sand-hopper, 246
Sand-stars, 332
Sandwich Land, discovery of, 490
— Islands, discovery of, 490
Sardinia, stalactite caves of the island
of, 49
Sargasso Sea, the, 397
Saurians of the past seas, 172, 438
Scari, or parrot-fishes, 372
Schouten, his maritime discoveries, 480
Scissor-bill, 144
Scoopers, 143
Scoresby, his arctic voyages, 497
Scyllaea, 283
Scythe, the, 415
Sea-anemones, 361
Sea-bear, 117, 126
Sea-birds, 128, 142
— their vast numbers, 142
Sea-cask, 142
Sea-cucumbers, 339
Sea-devil of the Pacific, 241
Sea-ear, 286, 287
Sea-elephant, 125
Sea-fox, 99
Sea-hare, 284, 295
Sea-horse, 129, 234
Sea-lemon, 284
Sea-lion, 128
Sea-mat, leaf-like, 316
Sea-mew, 157
SME
Sea-otter, 139
— chase of the, 139
Sea-pen, 364
— its phosphorescence, v20
Sea-pie, the, 144
Sea-pinks, 391
Sea-scurfs, 318
Sea-snail, purple, 290
Sea-snakes, 183
Sea-squirts, 323
Sea-swallows, 157
Sea-urchin, 337
Sea- weeds, 391
- — luminous, 423
Sea-wolf, 197
Seals and walruses, 117
— food of, 120
— statistics of seal-fishery, 121
— various kinds of, 123
Seine, sudden rising of the spring-tides
at the mouth of the, 42
Seleueidse, maritime discoveries of the,
42
Seleucus Nicator, his circumnavigation
of Hindostan, and discovery of Ta-
probane, or Ceylon, 447
Semen Deshnew, the Cossack, his mari-
time discoveries, 483
Sepia. See Cuttle-fish
Serapis, temple of, 1 1
Serpents of the seas, 183
Serpulas, 266
Sertularia, 347
Shakspeare’s Cliff, destructive action of
the sea on, 30
Sharks, 198
— Greenland shark, an enemy of the
whale, 99
— luminous, 330
Sheldrake, or burrow duck, 148
Sheppey, Isle of, rapid decay of the coast
of the, 30
Sherringham, ravages of the sea on the
coast at, 29
Shetland Islands, fury of the Atlantic
waves at the, 28
Shetland, New South, discovery of, 509
Ship-worm (teredo), 302
Shore-crab, 251
Siberia, Cook's visits to the coasts of,
492
Sicily, submarine landscapes of the coast
of, 21
Siphonostomata, 245
Skerries, cave in the, 51
Skerryvore lighthouse, 85
Skimmer, 169
Sledge-journey, arctic, 502
Sly, 202
Smeaton, John, his lighthouse on the
Eddystone rocks, 83
INDEX.
523
SltfO
Smooth-back whale, the antarctic, 102
Snake-stars, 437
Snow-goose, 146
Society Islands, discover of the, 486
Soland goose, 166
Solasters, 334
Sole, 237
— skin of the, 190
Solen, or razor-shell, 304
Solis, Juan de, his discoveries, 461
his death, 461
Solomon Islands, discovery of the, 473,
483
Souffleur, or blower, the marine cave of
the, 52
Soundings, American method* of taking,
in deep water, 6
South Sea Islands, discovery of the,
474
Speckled diver, 145
Sperm-whale, or cachalot, 102
Spiders, marine, 260
Spitzbergen, discovery of, 477
Spondylus, royal, 314
Sponge-crab, 249
Sponges, 385
— their remarkable growth, 385
— habitat of the common sponge, 388
Sprat, the, 214
Springs, origin of, 73
— mineral waters, 7 4
Springs of fresh water in the bottom of
the sea, 17
Staffa, island of, 46
Stalactite caves of the island of Sardinia,
49
Star-fishes, 328
— their organisation, 328
Star-gazer fish, 202
Sterlet of the Volga, 217
Stevenson, Mr. Alan, his Skerryvore
lighthouse, 86
Stevenson, Mr. Robert, his lighthouse
on the Bell-Rock, 85
Stickleback, parental affection of the,
195
Stone-corals, 373
Storm, the great, of 1703, 82
Storm-tides, 34
— devastations of, on flat coasts, 34,
35
Strand-birds, 143
— migration of, 144
— food of, 144
Strombus pes pelicani, 290
Sturgeons, 216, 217
— caviar, 217
Sucking-fish, 203
Suffolk, rapid decay of the cliffs of, 29
Sun-fish, 232, 233
— its luminousness, 422
TP.A
Sun, his influence on the tides, 37
Sun-star fish, 334
Surgeon-fish, the, 205
Sweden, gradual upheaving of the coast
of, 10
Sword-fish, an enemy of the whale, 99
— - his weapon, 201
Synchseta baltica, 269
/PAIUTI, discovery of, 484
JL Tailor-bird, the, 143
Taprobane, or Ceylon, discovery of, 447
Tartessus, Phoenician town of, 444
Tasman, Abel, his maritime discoveries,
480
Tasmania, discovery of, 481
Tectibranchiata, 284
Temperature of the sea, 13
— at various parts of the surface of the
globe, 14
Teredo navalis, 302
Thames, progress of the tide-wave in
the, 43
Thornbacks, 240
Thresher, or sea-fox, an enemy of the
whale, 99
Thunder-stones, 437
Tide-wave, measurement of the depth of
the sea by the rapidity of the, 8
— progress and course of the, 40, 43
Tides, the, 32
— description of the phenomenon, 32
— devastations of storm-floods on flat
coasts, 34, 35
— knowledge of the ancients respecting
the tides, 35
— fundamental causes of the tides
revealed by Kepler and Newton,
36, 37
Tides, height of the, at various places,
38
— vortices caused by the : the Mael-
strom, Charybdis, &c.. 41
— the phenomena of the Euripus, 44
Tierra del Fuego, masses of sea-weed at,
394
rounded by Sekouten and
Le Maire, 480
Tonga, discovery of, 481
Top, agglutinating, 296
Tornadoes, causes of, 68
Tornatella fasciata, 290
Torpedo, the, 201
Torres, his maritime discoveries, 480
Torso Rock, the, 9
Tortoise-shell, 180
Tortoises, 176
Trade-winds, the, 67
Transparency of the sea at Capri, 18
in the Indian Ocean, 21
624
INDEX.
TRA
Transparency of the sea — continued.
— in the Caribbean, 21
Trepang, or Biche de Mer, 340
— mode of curing, 340
— the fisheryin the Feejee Islands, 342
Tridacna, the gigantic, 314
Trigger-fish, 233
Trilobites, 436
Trunk-fish, 232
Tubiporidse, 370
Tubulibranchiata, 292
Tunicata, 316, 321
Tunny, the, 221
— stripe-bellied, 224
Turbot, the, 236, 237
Turn-stone bird, 144
Turtles, 173
— catching turtles in the island of St.
Thomas, 172
Tynemouth Castle, destruction of the
coast near, 29
Typhoons, causes of, 68
Tyrian dye, 446
LViE, 391
Unicorn-fish, or narwhal, 106
Urasters, 334
Urdaneta, first reaches Acapulco from
Manilla, 472
VANCOUVER'S discoveries, 472
Van Diemen’s Land, discovery of,
480
Vanikoro, island of, 493
Velellae, the, 353
Venice, maritime grandeur of, 450
Verazzani, voyage of, 461
Vermetus, 291
Virgularia mirabilis, 365
Vogtia pentacantha, 353
WALES, Cape Prince of, discovery
of, 491
Wallis, his maritime discoveries, 483
Walrus, or morse, 117, 129, 135
— anecdote of a fight with, 130
— ivory of the, 132
Walton, his mussel-beds in France, 307
zos
Water-snakes, 183
Water-spouts, causes of, 68
Waves of the ocean, 24
— wave-motion as distinct from water-
motion, 25
— height and velocity of storm-waves,
26-28
— Homer’s picture of the breaking of
the waves against the shore, 26
— Seoresby on the height of waves in
the open sea, 27
— force and height of the waves on
rocky coasts, 28
— instances of the destructive action of
the tidal waves on coast-lines, 28-31
Weddell, Captain, his voyages, 509
Weevers, 204
Wellington Channel, discovery of, 504
Wentle-trap, Chinese, 289
Whalebone, 96
Whale-fishery, history of the, 109
Whales. See Cetaceans
Whelks, 292
Wilkes, Captain, on the height of waves,
28
Wilkes, his explorations, 509
Willoughby, Sir Hugh, his unfortunate
arctic voyage, 474
Winds, origin of, 66
— trade-winds, 67
— calms, or doldrums, 67
■ — monsoons, 68
— ■ typhoons, tornadoes, & c., 68
— water-spouts, 68
Wing-shells, 304
Winstanley, Mr., his lighthouse on the
Eddystone rocks, 81
Winter Harbour, discovery of, 500
Wolf-fish, 197
Wolstenholme Sound, elevation of the
coast at, 1 0
Worm-shell, 291
YORKSHIRE, wearing away of the
coast of, 29
Yucatan, first exploration of, 461
^OSTERA marina, 391
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INDEX.
PAGE
Acton's Modern Cookery 24
Alpine Club Map of Switzerland 20
Alpine Guide (The) 20
Amos's Jurisprudence 6
Primer of the Constitution 6
Anderson's Strength of Materials 12
Armitage s Childhood of the English
Nation 4
Armstrong' s Organic Chemistry 12
Arnold's (Dr.) Christian Life 17
Lectures on Modern History 2
Miscellaneous Works 7
School Sermons 17
Sermons 17
(T. ) Manual of English Literature 7
Beowulf 21
Arnott's Elements of Physics 11
Atelier (The) du Lys 20
Atherstone Priory 21
Autumn Holidays of a Country Parson ... 8
Ayres Treasury of Bible Knowledge 9, 23
Bacon's Essays, by Whately 6
Life and Letters, by Spedding ... 6
Works 6
Bain's Mental and Moral Science 7
on the Senses and Intellect 7
Emotions and Will 7
Baker's Two Works on Ceylon 19
Ball's Guide to the Central Alps 20
Guide to the Western Alps 20
Guide to the Eastern Alps 20
Bancroft's Native Races of the Pacific 3
Barry on Railway Appliances 12
Beaconsfield's (Lord) Novels and Tales ... 20
Becker's Charicles and Gallus 20
Beesly's Gracchi, Marius, and Sulla 4
Black's Treatise on Brewing 23
Blackley s German-English Dictionary 9
Blame’s Rural Sports 22
Bloxam's Metals 12
Bolland and Lang's Aristotle’s Politics 6
Boultbee on 39 Articles 16
Bourne's Catechism of the Steam Engine . 16
Handbook of Steam Engine 16
Treatise on the Steam Engine ... 15
Improvements in the same 15
Bowdler's Family Shakespeare 21
Bramley-Moord rSix Sisters of the Valleys . 21
Braude's Dictionary of Science, Literature,
and Art 13
Brinkley's Astronomy 10
Browne' s Exposition of the 39 Articles 16
PAGE
Buckles History of Civilisation 2
Posthumous Remains 7
Buckton's Health in the House 14.
Bull's Hints to Mothers 23
Maternal Management of Children . 23
Burgomaster's Family (The) 21
Burke's Vicissitudes of Families 5
Cabinet Lawyer 23
Campbell's Norway 20
Capes's Age of the Antonines 4
Early Roman Empire 4
Cates' s Biographical Dictionary 5
and Woodward' s Encyclopaedia ... 3
Cayley's Iliad of Homer 21
Changed Aspects of Unchanged Truths ... 8
Chesney s Indian Polity 2
Modern Military Biography 2
Waterloo Campaign 3
Church's Sketches of Ottoman History ... 1
Colenso on Moabite Stone &c 19
’j Pentateuch and Book of Joshua. 19
Commonplace Philosopher in Town and
Country 8
Comte s Positive Polity S
Congreve' s Politics of Aristotle &
Conington s Translation of Virgil's .Eneid 21
Miscellaneous Writings 8
Contanseau s Two French Dictionaries ... 8
Conybeare and How son s Life and Epistles
of St. Paul 17
Counsel and Comfort from a City Pulpit... 8
Cox's (G. W.) Aryan Mythology 3
Athenian Empire 4
Crusades 4
— General History of Greece 3
Greeks and Persians 4
History of Greece 3
Tales of Ancient Greece ... 21
Creighton s Age of Elizabeth 4
Cresy's Encyclopaedia of Civil Engineering 16
Critical Essays of a Country Parson 8
Crookes's Anthracen 16
Chemical Analyses 14
Dyeing and Calico-printing 16
Cullcy's Handbook of Telegraphy 15
Curteis s Macedonian Empire 4
Davidson's Introduction to the New Tes-
tament 18
D'Aubignds Reformation 18
De Caisne and Le Maout's Botany 14
26
NEW WORKS published by LONGMANS 6- CO.
PAGE
De Tocquevillc' s Democracy in America... 5
Dobson on the Ox 22
Dove's Law of Storms 10
Dowells History of Taxes 6
Doyles (R.) Fairyland 14
Das flake's Hints on Household Taste 15
Edwards's Rambles among the Dolomites 20
Nile 19
Year in Western France 19
Elements of Botany 13
Ellicott' s Commentary on Ephesians 17
Galatians 17
Pastoral Epist. 17
Philippians,&c. 17
• Thessalonians . 17
Lectures on Life of Christ 17
Elsa, a Tale of the Tyrolean Alps 2t
Epochs of Ancient History 4
Modern History ,,... 4
Evans' (J.) Ancient Stone Implements ... 13
(A. J.) Bosnia 19
EwalcC s History of Israel 18
■ Antiquities of Israel 18
Fairbairn' s Application of Cast and
Wrought Iron to Building... 16
Information for Engineers 16
Life 4
Treatise on Mills and Millwork 16
Farrar's Chapters on Language 8
Families of Speech 8
Finlasoh s Judicial System 24
Fitzwygram on Horses and Stables 22
Forbes's Two Years in Fiji 19
Framptoh s (Bishop) Life 5
Francis's Fishing Book 22
Freshfield' s Italian Alps 19
Fronde's English in Ireland 2
History of England 2
Short Studies 7
Gairdner s Houses of Lancaster and York 4
Ganot’s Elementary Physics 1 1
Natural Philosophy n
Gardiner's Buckingham and Charles 2
Personal Government of Charles I. 2
• First Two Stuarts 4
Thirty Years' War 4
Geffckehs Church and State 6
German Home Life 7
Gilbert &• Churchill' s Dolomites 20
Girdlestone s Bible Synonyms 17
Goldziher s Hebrew Mythology 17
Goodeve s Mechanics 12
Mechanism 12
Grant's Ethics of Aristotle 6
Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson 8
Greville s Journal 2
Griffiths Algebra and Trigonometry 12
Griffith's Behind the Veil 18
Grohman's Tyrol and the Tyrolese 19
Grove (Sir W. R. ) on Correlation of Phy-
sical Forces 11
(F. C. ) The Frosty Caucasus 19
Gwilt's Encyclopaedia of Architecture 15
PAGE
Hale's Fall of the Stuarts 4
Hartley on the Air 10
Hartwig's Aerial World 12
Polar World 12
Sea and its Living Wonders ... 12
Subterranean World 13
Tropical World 12
Haughton' s Animal Mechanics 11
Hayward' sBiographicaland Critical Essays 5
Heer's Primeval World of Switzerland 13
Heine's Life and Works, by Stigand 4
Helmholtz on Tone 11
Helmholtz' s Scientific Lectures 11
Hemsley s Trees and Shrubs 14
Herschel’s Outlines of Astronomy 10
Hinchliff' s Over the Sea and Far Away ... 19
Hobson s Amateur Mechanic 15
Hoskold's Engineer’s Valuing Assistant ... 15
Howorth's Mongols 3
Hullah’s History of Modern Music 13
Transition Period 13
Humes Essays 7
Treatise on Human Nature 7
Ihne' s Rome to its Capture 4
History of Rome 3
Indian Alps 19
Ingelow's Poems 21
Jameson's Legends of the Saints & Martyrs 15
Legends of the Madonna 15
Legends of the Monastic Orders 15
Legends of the Saviour.. 15
Jenkins Electricity and Magnetism 12
Jerram's Lycidas of Milton 21
Jerrold's Life of Napoleon 2
Johnston s Geographical Dictionary 9
Jukes's Types of Genesis 18
on Second Death 18
Kalisch s Commentary on the Bible 17
Keiths Evidence of Prophecy 17
Kerls Metallurgy, by Crookes and Rohrig. 16
Kirby and Spence's Entomology 12
Kirkmah s Philosophy 7
Knatchbull- Hugesseh s Whispers from
Fairy-Land ... 20
Higgledy-Piggledy 20
Kticneh s Prophets and Prophecy in Israel 17
Landscapes, Churches, &c 8
Lathaml s English Dictionaries 8
Handbook of English Language 8
Lawrence on Rocks 13
Lecky's History of European Morals 3
Rationalism 3
Leaders of Public Opinion 5
Lefroy s Bermudas 19
Leisure Hours in Town 8
Lessons of Middle Age 8
Lewes's Biographical History of Philosophy 4
Lewis on Authority 7
NEW WORKS published by LONGMANS 6° CO.
27
PAGE
Liddell and Scolt's Greek-English Lexicons 9
Lindley and Moore's Treasury of Botany.. 13, 22
Lloyd's Magnetism ij
Wave-Theory of Light n
Longman's (F. W.) Chess Openings 23
■ German Dictionary ... 9
• (W.) Edward the Third 2
■ Lectures on History of
England 2
— Old and New St. Paul's 15
Loudon's Encyclopaedia of Agriculture ... 16
Gardening 16
Plants 13
Lubbock's Origin of Civilisation 13
Ludlow's American War 4
Lyra Germanica ib
Macaulay s (Lord) Essays 1
History of England ... 1
Lays of Ancient Rome 14, 21
• Life and Letters 4
Miscellaneous Writings 7
Speeches 7
Works 1
• Writings, Selections from 7
MacColl's Eastern Question 1
McCulloch’s Dictionary of Commerce 9
Macleod's Economical Philosophy 6
Theory and Practice of Banking 24
Elements of Banking 24
Mademoiselle Mori 21
Malet's Annals of the Road 22
Marshall' s Physiology 14
Marshman s Life of Havelock 5
Martineau' s Christian Life 19
Hours of Thought 19
Hymns 18
Maunder s Biographical Treasury 3, 23
Geographical Treasury 23
• Historical Treasury ... 23
Scientific and Literary Treasury 23
Treasury of Knowledge 9, 23
Treasury of Natural History.. 13, 23
Maxwells Theory of Heat 12
May's History of Democracy 2
History of England 2
Melville's Digby Grand 21
General Bounce 21
Gladiators 21
Good for Nothing 21
Holmby House 21
Interpreter 21
Kate Coventry 21
Queen's Maries 21
Mendelssohn s Letters 4
Merivale's Fall of the Roman Republic ... 3
General History of Rome 3
— Roman Triumvirates 4
Romans under the Empire 3
Merrifield' s Arithmetic and Mensuration... 12
Miles on Horse's Foot and Horse Shoeing 22
— — • on Horse’s Teeth and Stables 22
Mill (J.) on the Mind 6
Dissertations & Discussions 6
Essays on Religion 17
Hamilton's Philosophy 6
(J. S.) Liberty 5
Political Economy 5
Mill (J. S.) Representative Government ... 5
System of Logic 6
Unsettled Questions 5
Utilitarianism 5
Autobiography 5
Miller's Elements of Chemistry 14
Inorganic Chemistry 12
Mitchell' s Manual of Assaying 16
Modern Novelist's Library 21
Monsell's Spiritual Songs 18
Moores Irish Melodies, Illustrated Edition 15
Lalla Rookh, illustrated Edition.. 13
Morell's Mental Philosophy 7
Mozart's Life and Letters 4
Muller's Chips from a German Workshop. 8
Science of Language 8
Science of Religion 3
r
Neison on the Moon 10
New Testament, Illustrated Edition 15
Nicols's Puzzle of Life 13
Northcott's Lathes & Turning 15
O' Conor's Commentary on Hebrews 18
Romans 18
St. John 18
Osborn's Islam 3
Owen's Comparative Anatomy and Physio-
logy of Vertebrate Animals i2
Packe's Guide to the Pyrenees 20
Pattison' s Casaubon 5
Payen's Industrial Chemistry 15
Pewtner's Comprehensive Specifier 23
Pierce' r Chess Problems 23
Pole's Game of Whist 23
Preece & Sivewright's Telegraphy 12
Present-Day Thoughts 8
Proctor's Astronomical Essays 10
Moon 10
Orbs around Us 10
Other Worlds than Ours 10
Saturn 10
Scientific Essays (Two Series) ... 12
Sun 10
Transits of Venus 10
Two Star Atlases 10
Universe 10
Prothero s De Montfort 2
Public Schools Atlas of Ancient Geography 9
Atlas of Modern Geography 9
Rawlinson s Parthia 3
Sassanians 3
Recreations of a Country Parson 8
Redgrave' s Dictionary of Artists 14
Reeve's Residence in Vienna and Berlin ... 19
Reilly's Map of Mont Blanc 20
Monte Rosa 20
Reresby s Memoirs 5
Reynardson s Down the Road 22
EPOCHS OF MODERN HISTORY — continued.
EDWARD THE THIRD. By the Rev. W. Warburton, M.A. late
Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford ; Her Majesty’s Senior Inspector of Schools. With £
Coloured Maps and 3 Genealogical Tables. Price 2 s. 6 d.
‘ This Epoch, is a very good one, and is
well worth a studious reader’s attention.
well the spirit and genius ef that chi valric
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Mr. Warburton has reproduced extremely
The AGE of ELIZABETH. By the Rev. M. Creighton, M.A. late
Fellow and Tutor of Merton College, Oxford. With 5 Maps and 4 Genealogical Tables. 2s. 6 d.
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ties of the whole period ; and he has
described extremely ably the relations be-
tween this country and the other States
of Europe, and the character of the policy
of the Queen and her counsellors.’
The Times, Jan. 2.
The FALL of the STUARTS; and WESTERN EUROPE from 1678
to 1697. By the Rev. Edwap.d Hale, M.A. Assistant-Master at Eton. With Eleven Maps and
Plans. Price 2s. 6 i.
‘ Mr. Hale has thoroughly grasped the i them in a very effective light.’
great facts of the time, and has placed [ The Times, Jan. 2.
The FIRST TWO STUARTS and the PURITAN REVOLUTION,
1603-1660. By Samuel Rawson Gardiner, Author of ‘The Thirty Years’ Wav, 1618-1648.’
With 4 Coloured Maps. Price 2s. (id.
‘Mr. Gardiner’s “First Two Stuarts
and the Puritan Revolution” deserves
more notice than we can bestow upon it.
This is in some respects a very striking
work. Mr. Gardiner’s sketch of the time
of James I. brings out much that had
hitherto been little known.’
The Times, Jan. 2.
The WAR of AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, 1775-1783. By John
Malcolm Ludlow, Barrister-at-Law. With 4 Coloured Maps. Price 2s. 6 d.
‘Mr. Ludlow's account of the obscure
annals of what afterwards became the
Thirteen Colonies is learned, judicious,
and full of interest, and his description of
the Red Indian communities is admirable
for its good feeling and insight. . . . The
volume is characterised by impartiality
and good sense.’ The Times, Jan. 2.
The EARLY PLANTAGENETS. By the Rev. W. Stubbs, M.A.
Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford. With 2 coloured Maps.
Price 2s. G d.
‘As a whole, his hook is one of rare
excellence. As a comprehensive sketch
of the period it is worthy of very high
commendation. ... As an analyst of
institutions and laws Mr. Stubbs is cer-
tainly not inferior to Hallam. His nar-
rative, moreover, is, as a rule, excellent,
clear, well put together, and often pic-
turesque; his language is always forcible
and sometimes eloquent ; his power of
condensation is very remarkable, and his
chapter on the contemporaneous state of
Europe is admirable for its breadth and
conciseness.’ The Times, Jan. 2.
The AGE of ANNE. By E. E. Morris, M.A. of Lincoln College,
Oxford ; Head Master of the Melbourne Grammar School, Australia ; Original Editor of the
Series. With 7 Maps and Plans. Price 2s. Sd.
Volumes in preparation, in continuation of the Series ; —
The NORMANS in EUROPE. By Rev. A. H. Johnson, M.A., Fellow of
All Souls College, Oxford. [ Nearly ready.
The BEGINNING of the MIDDLE AGES ; Charles the Great and Alfred ;
the History of England in connexion with that of Europe in the Ninth Century. By the Very
Rev. R. W. Church, M.A. Dean of St. Paul’s. [In the press.
The EARLY HANOVERIANS. By the Rev. T. J. Lawrence, B.A.
Warden of Cavendish College, late Fellow and Tutor of Downing College, Cambridge.
The FRENCH REVOLUTION to the BATTLE of WATERLOO, 1789-
1815. By Bertha M. Cordery, Author of ‘ The Struggle Against Absolute Monarchy.’
FREDERICK the GREAT and the SEVEN YEARS’ WAR. By F. W.
Longman, of Balliol College, Oxford.
London, LONGMANS & CO.
Spotliswoode <k Co., Printers, New-street Square , London.
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