aass_GLC_gi_ Book «GrGr THE MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT DEEP; PHYSICAL, ANIMAL, GEOLOGICAL, AND VEGETABLE WONDERS OF THE OCEAN P. H. GOSSE, AUTHOR OP "AN INTRODUCTION TO GEOLOOT," " THE CANADIAN NATITBALIST," BTO. ^_ 2 07,5/ PHILADELPHIA: PUBLISHED BY DUANE RULISON, No. 927 SANSOM STREET. 1866, .G67 Bntered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by DUANE RULISON, In the Clerk's Office of the District Conrt of the United States, In and for I Easteru District of Pennsylvania. By Transfer Geological Survey JAN 2 9 193S PREFACE. In the following pages, the Author has endeavoured to describe, "With some minuteness of detail, a few of the many objects of in- terest more or less directly connected with the Sea, and especially to lead youthful readers to associate with the phenomena of Nature, habitual thoughts of God. A subject so vast as the Ocean might be viewed in a variety of aspects, all of them more or less instruc- tive: the one which has been chosen is that in which it presents itself to the mind of a naturalist, desirous of viewing the Almighty Creator in His works. The selections are made chiefly from marine TDotany, zoology, meteorology, the fisheries, the varying aspects of island and coast scenery, incidents of navigation, &c., arranged (if such a word be not inapplicable) in the order of geographical distribution ; as they might be supposed to present themselves to the notice of an observant voyager. It may be thought that the Author has touched too frequently, or dwelt with too great prolixity, on objects minute in themselves, and A 2 (5) 6 PREFACE. by the generality of persons considered insignificant and unworthy of regard. If apology for this be necessary, he presents it in the words of Samuel Purchas;— " Nicostratus in ^lian, finding a curious piece of wood, and being wondered at by one, and asked what pleasm-e he could take to stand, as he did, still gazing on the picture, answered, *Hadst thou mine eyes, my friend, thou wouldst not wonder, but rather be ravished, as I am, at the inimitable art of this rare and admirable piece.' I am" sure no picture can ex- press so much wonder and excellency as the smallest insect, but we want Nicostratus his eyes to behold them. ** And the praise of God's wisdom and power lies asleep and dead in every creature, until man actuate and enliven it. I cannot, therefore, altogether conceive it unworthy of the greatest mortals to contemplate the miracles of Nature; and that as they are moi^e visible in the smallest and most contemptible creatures (for there most lively do they express the infinite power and wisdom of the great Creator), and erect and draw the minds of the most intelligent to the first and prime Cause of all things ; teaching them as the power, so the presence, of the Deity in the smallest insects.'* # CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. PAGE Beauty and Grandeur of the Sea — Commercial Importance — Early Notices of Navigation — Proportion of Sea to Land — Changes in its Outline — Depths of the Ocean — Saltness — Loss by Evapora- tion — Supplied by Rivers — Motions of the Sea — Tides — Currents — The Gulf-Stream — Origin of the Phenomenon — Familiar Illus- tration — Local Currents — Winds — Trade-winds — Monsoons — Land and Sea-Breezes — Waves — Power of God — Man*s Insensibility — Reflections . . t . . . . .13 I. THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. Instruction to be gained at Home as well as Abroad — Wisdom in Minutiae of Creation — Habitually Submerged Beetle — Marine Water- fleas — Sea-weeds — Of various Interest — Manufacture of Kelp — Sea and Black Wrack — Knotted Wrack — Sea-lace — Various Provi- sions for securing Buoyancy — Sea-weeds used as Food — Dulse — Tangle — Sea-furbelows — Henware — English Dulse — Laver — Carra- geen Moss — Sea-thong — Peacock's-tail — Delesseria — Landscape — Sea-weeds — Parasitical Sea-weeds — Divine Care for these Produc- tions — Corallines — Uses — Sponge — Animal Flowers — Singular in- stance of Voracity — Aggregate Polypes — Cows^-paps — Corals — Sea- fan — Sea-pen . . . . . . . .35 II. THE SHORES OF BRITAIN, continued. Fisheries — Structure of Fishes — Scales — Fins — Air-bladder — Mo- tion — Spines — Fruitfulness of Fishes — Migrations — The Herring (7) 8 CONTENTS. • PAoa Fishery — Singular stranding of a Shoal — Mackerel — Cod — Cod-pools — Flat-fishes — Crab — Lobster — Shrimp — Prawn — The Crab and the Baillie — Shelled Mollusca — Improperly called Fishes — Interesting Variations of Structure — Cliffs of Orkney — Sea-bird Catching — Peril- ous Enterprises — Gannets . . . . . .77 III. THE ARCTIC SEAS. The Spirit of Geographical Discovery peculiar to Modem Times — Commercial Enterprise — Whale Fishing — Majesty of Polar Seas — Coast of Spitzbergen — Fine contrasts of Hue — Clearness of Atmosphere — Deceptive Distance of Land — Architectural Regularity of Rocks — The Three Crowns — Ice — Icebergs — Beauty — Vast Size — Varying Forms — Overturning — Sudden Rupture — Process of Formation — Ice » Islands — Disruption of One — Marine Ice — Formation — Ice Fields — Irresistible when in Motion — Perpendicular Ice-needles — Continual daylight in Summer — Phenomena of Winter — Aurora — Mock Suns- Fog Bow — Looming — Curious Results — Inversion — Ice-Blink — Effects of Intense Cold — Frost Crystals — Their exceeding Beauty — Snow Stars — Antiseptic Power of Frost — Ship tenanted by a Corpse — Vegetation — Whale — Interesting Peculiarities in its Conformation — Whalebone — Arterial Reservoir of Blood — Blowhole — Windpipe — Eye — Blubber — Reflections on the Goodness of God — Whale Fish- ery — Accidents — Rorqual — Structure of its Mouth — Enemies of the Whales — Arctic Shark — Thresher — Sword-fish — Narwhal — Use of its singular Horn — Torpidity of Mackerel — €ea-Blubber — Arctic Clio — *' Green-water*' — Microscopic Animalcules — Dissecting Crab . . 115 IV. THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. Form of the Atlantic — Its Bays and Inland Seas — Extent of Coast — Sight of Land — Azores — Picturesque Appearance — Peak of Pico — The Atlantis of the Ancients — Islands swallowed up in Modern Times — Submarine Volcano — Stormy Petrels — A Shoal of Dolphins — Their Gambols — Capture of One — Gulf-weed — Barnacles — Ocean Crabs — Toad-fish — "Calm Latitudes" — Heat of the Sun — Gorgeous Sunsets — Southern Constellations — The Cross — Tropic Fishes — Coryphene — Pursuit of Flying-fish — White Shark — Bad Physiognomy — Fero- city — Teeth — Structure of its Egg — Hammer-Shark — Saw-fish — Cap- ture of One — Horned Ray — Contact of Ships at Sea — A Breeze — The Pilot-fish— Rudder-fish— Sucking-fish— Possible use of its Disk — West India Isles — Their varied Beauty — Mangrove Tree — Green Hue of shallow Water — Deceptive Effect^ — Bottom of the Sea — Green Turtle — Peculiar Structure of the Heart — Brilliance of the Fishes — Yellow-fin— Market-fish— Hog-fish— Cat-fish—Cow-Whale . . 169 CONTENTS. V. THE PACIFIC OCEAN. Discovery of the Pacific — Voyage of Magellan — Sea-weeds — Elephant-seal — Fur-seal— Sea-lious — Sea-bear — Penguins — Sperm Whale — Adventurous Character of the Fishery — Destruction of a Ship by a Whale — Appearfmce and Habits — Regularity of its Motions — Its Enemies — Breaching — Its Food — Description of the Fishery — Narra- tive of a Chase — Strange Sail — Speaking at Sea — Amusing Mistake . 225 VI. THE PACIFIC OCEAN, continued. Islands of the South Sea — Coral Islands — Reef — Lagoon — Forma- tion of Coral — Animals — Structure of a Coral Island — Various Species of Corals — Rate of Activity — Lines from Montgomery — Crystal Island — Caverns — Interesting Legend — Volcanic Island — Natural and Moral Beauty — Advanced Civilization — Reef — Islands at Openings — Beauty of Lagoon — Moonlight — Night at Sea — Natives swimming in the Surf — Sharks — Canoes — Origin of the Population — Various modes of Fishing — Pens — Rafts-pPoison — Nets — Spear — Fishing by Torchlight — Hooks — Angling — Albacore — Sword-fish — Predaceous Habits of Fishes — Crabs — Animal-flowers — Cuttle — Oceanic Birds — Tropic-bird — Albatross — Booby — Frigate-bird — Immense Assem- blage of Birds ........ 265 VIL THE INDIAN OCEAN. Indian Archipelago — Proa of the Ladrones — Malay Pirates — Number and Beauty of small Islands — Houses over the Sea — Chinese Junks — Typhoon — Waterspouts — A Chinese Wreck — Esculent Birds'- nests — Their Nature — Modes of obtaining them — Value — Use — Sea- weeds — Trepang — Change of the Monsoon — Coming in of the Bore — Beauty and singularity of Fishes — Curious Mode of Fishing — Violet- snail — Portuguese Man-of-war — Sallee-man — Glass-sh ells — Clamp — Pearls — Fishery — Floating-weeds — Pelicans — Luminosity of the Sea — Various kinds of Luminous Animals — Conclusion • . . 328 ILLUSTRATIONS. *^Longsliip*s Lighthouse — Frontispiece, PAGE Whale Fishery 5 Marine Entomostraca {Cythere albo-maculata and Cyclops cheli/er) 38 The Sea-girdle [Laminaria digitata) ....... 4T The Sea-furbelows {Laminaria bulbosa) .*•.., 49 The Peacock's Tail (Padina pavonia) 56 Bryopsis plumosa 58 CoTalVme { Cor all ina officinalis) 61 Sea-fan {Gorgonia Jlahellum), and Sea-pen (Pennatula plioaphorea) 75 Scales of Fishes 80 Yarmouth Jetty in the Herring Fishery 89 Mackerel Boat off Hastings 91 Turbot Boat off Scarborough 94 Crab-pots • . . 100 The Shrimper 102 Fowling in Orkney 108 Guillemot and Gannet 110 The Bass-Rock Ill Iceberg seen in Baffin's Bay 120 Swell among Ice 121 Ships beset in Ice 122 Aurora Borealis .... • • . . 131 Mock-Suns 135 Distortions of Irregular Refraction 138 \/ Sperm Whale attacked by Sword-fish 159 Spearing the Narwhal 163 Food of the Whale: 1, Limacina helicina: 2, 3, 4, Medusce: 5, Clio borealis .... 166 (11) 12 ILLUSTRATIONS. ' PAGE Pico 172 Submarine Volcano . 176 The Southern Cross 193 Coryphene (Coryphccna) . . . . . . . . 191 Vpursuit of Flying-fish 197 Hammer-Shark (Zi/gcena malleus), and Saw-fish {Pristis antiquorum) 206 Balboa discovers the Pacific 226 Elephant-Seals, fighting 230 Penguins 237 Coral Island 266 Section of Coral Island 274 Crystal Islands 281 Volcanic Islands 286 Bolabola 290 White Shark 300 Fishing by Torchlight 309 Polynesian Fishing-tackle 311 Angling in a Double Canoe 313 Proas of the Ladrones 332 i'Chinese Junks 339 Ship under bare poles 343 Waterspouts 345 Sea-Cucumbers [Holothiirice) 355 Glass Shells {Hyalea tridentata and Cleodora pyramidata , . 364 Noctiluca miliaris, greatly magnified .377 THE OCEAN. INTRODUCTION. Who ever gazed upon the broad sea without emotion? Whether seen in stern majesty, hoary with the tempest, rolling its giant waves upon the rocks, and dashing with resistless fury some gallant bark on an iron-bound coast; or sleeping beneath the silver moon, its broad bosom broken but by a gentle ripple, just enough to reflect a long line of light, a path of gold upon a pavement of sapphire ; who has looked upon the sea without feeling that it has power " To stir the soul with thoughts profound ?" Perhaps there is no earthly object, not even the cloud-cleaving mountains of an alpine country, so sublime as the sea in its severe and naked simplicity. Standing on some promontory whence the eye roams far out upon the unbounded ocean, the soul expands, and we conceive a nobler idea of the majesty of that God, who holdeth "the waters in the hollow of His hand." But it is only when on a long voyage, climbing day after day to the giddy elevation of the B (13) 14 THE OCEAN. Giast-head, one still discerns nothing in the wide cir- cumference but the same boundless waste of waters, that the mind grasps anything approaching an ade- quate idea of the grandeur of the Ocean. There is a certain indefiniteness and mystery connected with it in various aspects that gives it a character widely different from that of the land. At times, in pecu- liar states of the atmosphere, the boundary of the horizon becomes undistinguishable, and the surface, perfectly calm, reflects the pure light of heaven in every part, and we seem alone in infinite space, with nothing around that appears tangible and real save the ship beneath our feet. At other times, particularly in the clear waters of the tropical seas, we look down- ward unmeasured fathoms beneath the vessel's keel, but still find no boundary ; the sight is lost in one uniform transparent blueness. Mailed and glitter- ing creatures of strange forms suddenly appear, play a moment in our sight, and with the velocity of thought have vanished in the boundless depths. The very birds that we see in the Avide waste are mys- terious ; we wonder whence they come, whither they go, how they sleep, homeless, and shelterless as they seem to be. The breeze, so fickle in its visitings, rises and dies SLwaj ; " but thou knowest not whence it Cometh and whither it goeth;" the night- wind moaning by, soothes the watchful helmsman with gentle sounds that remind him of the voices of be- loved ones far away ; or the tempest shrieking and groaning among the cordage turns him pale with the idea of agony and death. But God is there ; lonely though the mariner feel, and isolated in his separa- INTRODUCTION. 15 tion from home and friends, God is with him, often unrecognized and forgotten, but surrounding him with mercy, protecting him and guiding him, and willing to cheer him by the visitations of His grace, and the assurance of His love. " If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the utmost parts of the sea ; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me." The Ocean is the highway of commerce. God seems wisely and graciously to have ordained, that man should not be independent, but under pei^petaal obligation to his fellow-man ; and that distant coun- tries should ever maintain a mutually-beneficial de- pendence on each other. He might with ease have made every land to produce every necessary and com- fort of life in ample supply for its own population ; in which case, considering the fallen nature of man, it is probable the only intercourse between foreign nations would have been that of mutual aggression and bloodshed. But he has ordered otherwise ; and the result has been, generally, that happy inter- change of benefits which constitutes commerce. It is lamentably true, that the evil passions of men have often perverted the facilities of communication for purposes of destruction; yet the sober verdict of mankind has for the most part been, that the sub- stantial blessings of friendly commerce are prefer- able to the glare of martial glory. But the trans- port of goods of considerable bulk and weight, or of such as are of a very perishable nature, would be so difficult by land, as very materially to increase their cost; while land communication between coun- ]fi THE OCEAN. tries many thousand miles apart would be attended Avitli difficulties so great as to be practically insur- mountable. Add to this the natural barriers pre- sented by lofty mountain ranges and impassable rivers, as well as the dangers arising from ferocious animals and from hostile nations, and we shall see that with the existing power and skill of man, com- merce in such a condition would be almost unknown, and man would be little removed from a state of bar- barism. The Ocean, however, spreading itself over three-fourths of the globe, and penetrating with in- numerable sinuosities into the land, so as to bring, with the aid of the great rivers, the facilities of navi- gation comparatively near to every country, affords a means of transport nnrivalle^i for safet}^, speed, and convenience. In very early ages men availed them- selves of naval con^munication. We find repeated mention made of ships by Moses ;^ and in the djdng address of the patriarch Jacob to his sons, he speaks of "a haven for ships ;"t while Job, who was probably contemporary with Abraham, alludes to them as an emblem of swiftness,:}: which would seem to imply that na^dgation had then attained considerable perfection, nearly four thousand years ago. In profane history the earliest mention of navigation is that of the voyage of the ship Argo into* the Euxine, which took place probably about three thousand years ago. What a contrast be- tween her timorous and creeping course, and the arrowy speed and precision of a modern Atlantic * Numb. xxiv. 24; and Deut. xxviii. 68. f Gen. xlix. KJ. . i Jub ix. 26. INTRODUCTION. lY steam-ship, rushing to her destination without asking aid from wind or tide! The proportion which the sea bears to the land in extent of surface has been ascertained with to- lerable accnracy, by carefully cutting out the one from the other, as represented on the gores of a large terrestrial globe, and weighing the two por- tions of paper separately in a very delicate balance. The ratio of the water to the land is found to be about 2f to 1: the surface of the former being about one hundred and forty-four millions of square miles, and that of the latter about fifty-two niil- lions. Vast, however, as is the sea, and mighty in its rage, it is restrained by the hand of Him that made it. Water was once the instrument of vengeance upon a guilty world, but he hath made a cove- nant with man, that never again shall the waters become a flood to destroy the earth. He "shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth as if it had issued out of the womb; when He made the cloud * the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swad- dling-band for it; and brake up for it His decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said. Hither- to shalt thou come, but no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed!"^* Slight changes are, it is true, going on in the course of ages, in the relative positions of the land and sea, but these are minute in their extent and slow in their operation. By the sand and mud, which are continually brought down by the rivers and deposited in the sea, banks and points of land are formed and perpetually in- * Job xxxviii. 8-11. 2 b2 18 THE OCEAN. creased, as is particularly the case at the mouths of the Ganges and Mississippi; while from the same cause the bottoms of inland seas being gradually raised, the water rises in the same proportion and encroaches on the land. The port of Ravenna, once a rendezvous for the Roman fleets, has been filled •up by the deposition of the Montone, a small river, so that now it is four miles from the sea. On the other hand the palace of the Emperor Tiberius at Capraea, on the opposite shore of Italy, is now wholly covered by the water: nor are our own coasts, and especially those of Holland, deficient in examples of once fertile fields, which are now rolled over by the tide. Much ignorance prevails respecting the depth of the Ocean: in many places no length of sounding line has yet been able to. reach the bottom, and, therefore, our conclusions must be formed from in- ference or indirect evidence. Generally, where a coast is flat and low, the water is shallow for a con- siderable distance, slowly deepening; on the other hand, a high and mountainous coast usually is washed by deep water, and a ship may lie almost close to the rocks. From these circumstances, as well as from the various depths actually observed by sounding, it is probable that the average depth of the sea is, not greater than the height of the land, in proportion to its extent. If we were to place a thick coating of wax over the bottom of a dish, taking care to make a very irregular surface, wdth cavities and prominences of all forms and sizes, we should probably have a fair idea of the solid surface INTRODUCTIOlSr. 19 of the globe. Let us then pour water upon it until the surface of the water should equal that part which is exposed, and it is clear the average depth of the one would be equal to the average height of the other. But if we increase the quantity of water until the proportion is as three to one, it is evident the depth will have increased in the same ratio. We may, therefore, with high probability, conclude that, as the greatest height of the land is about five miles, the greatest depth of the water does not much exceed twelve or thirteen ; while the average depth may be about two or three. Every one is aware of the saltness of the sea. It has been assumed that its object is to prevent stagnation and putrescence. But this reason does not appear to be the correct one, for large" masses of fresh water, such as inland lakes, do not stag- nate. Strictly speaking, however, water cannot putrefy; when a small body of it becomes offensive, it is on account of the. decomposition of vegetable or animal matters contained in it. But organized substances will decompose, and consequently becom-e offensive in salt water as well as in fresh, as may be easily proved by experiment. Perhaps the reason for the Ocean's saltness may be the increase of its weight without the increase of its bulk; for the decrease of specific gravity of so large a portion of the globe would materially affect the motions of the earth, and perhaps derange the whole con- stitution of things. The increase of its specific gravity makes it more buoyant, and every one is aware with how much less effort a bather swims in 20 THE OCEAN. the sea than in a river. Now, superior buoyancy seems an important advantage in a fluid which bears on its bosom the commerce of the world. It is highly probable, then, that our gracious God had ther convenience and benefit of man in view when he ordained the sea to be salt. The Ocean contains three parts in every hundred of saline matter, chiefly muriate of soda, or the common salt of the table, which is a chemical compound of muriatic acid and soda. The proportion is rather large in the vicinity of the equator. If we considered only the immense amount of evaporation which is daily going on from the sea, we might suppose that, like a vessel of the fluid exposed to the sun, it would diminish in volume and increase in saltness, until at length nothing would be left but a dry crust of salt upon the bottom; on the other hand, looking alone at the many millions of tons of fresh water which are every moment poured into its bosom from the rivers of the earth, we might apprehend a speedy overflow, and a second destruction by a flood. But these two are exactly balanced ; the water taken up by evaporation is with scrupulous exactness restored again, either directly, in rain which falls into the sea, or circuitously, in the rain and snow, which falling on the land, feed the mountains, streams and rivers, and hurry back to their source. This interesting circulation had been long ago observed by the wisest of men: "All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again." "^ A'^d a * Eccles. i. 7. INTRODUCTION. , 2l very beautiful and instructive instance it is of that unerring skill and wisdom with which the whole constitution is ordered and kept in order, by Him, who, with minute accuracy, ^' weigheth the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance."^ The Ocean is never perfectly at rest: even be- tween the tropics, in what are called the calm latitudes, where the impatient seaman for weeks together looks wistfully but vainly for the welcome breeze; and where he realizes the scene so gra- phically described in "The Eime of the Ancient Mariner:" — " Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion ; As idle as a painted ship. Upon a painted ocean -/* even here the smooth and glittering surface is not at rest: for long, gentle undulations, which cause the taper mast-head to describe lines and angles upon the sky, are sufficiently perceptible to tan- talize the mariner with the thought that the breeze which mocks his desires, is blowing freshly and gal- lantly elsewhere. The most remarkable of the mo- tions observable in the sea, are the tides, periodical risings and fallings in the height of the surface, which take place twice every twenty- four hours, or nearly. It is now well ascertained that these mo- tions are caused by the attraction of the sun and moon, but more particularly the latter, upon the particles of water, which moving freely among them- selves with little force of cohesion, readily yield to * Isa. xl. 12. 22 THE OCEAN. the attracting influence, and move towards it. The time of high water in the open sea is about two hours after the moon passes the meridian, owing to the impetus which the waters have been receiving not ceasing immediately; just as the hottest part of the day is not noon, but about two hours after it ; and the hottest month of the year is not June, but July. On the coast, however, high water is delayed to a greater or less extent by the obstructions of straits, mouths of rivers, harbors, &c. It appears strange that the sea should be elevated, not only on the side next the moon, but also on the side which is diametrically opposite; so that it is high water at the same moment on two opposite points of the globe, each of which points follows, so to speak, the moon in the daily revolution, and, consequently, every part of the surface of the Ocean is raised twice in each day. The singular phenomenon is thus explained: the attraction of the moon elevates the particles of water on the nearest side, by slightly separating them from each other, which their im- perfect cohesion readily admits ; it also affects the earth itself; but this being a solid body, the cohe- sion of its parts cannot be overcome, and the whole mass is therefore moved towards the moon, while the particles of water on the farther side remain, owing to their freedom, nearly in the some position as be- fore. The fact is, that the earth is drawn away from the water on the remote side, and then the water is drawn away from the earth on the near side. The sun is greatly larger than the moon, but his attrac- tion, owing to his great distance, does not affect the INTRODUCTION. 23 tides to more than one-fourtli of the moon's extent. "When the power of these luminaries is exerted in the same direction, the result is a higher elevation, called the spring- tide: and for the reason already- explained, the same occurs when they are in oppo- site quarters of the heavens. On the other hand, when they are in quadrature, that is, when appa- rently separated by just one-fourth of the heavens, the influence of the sun neutralizes, in the ratio of one-fourth, that of the moon ; and hence we have the lowest tides, called neap-tides, soon after the first and third quarters of the moon. Local circumstances greatly affect not only the time, but also the height of the tides. In some long bays, which grow gradually narrower, in the form of a funnel, the whole of the increased water which en- tered the mouth of the bay, being confined within very narrow limits, rises rapidly to a great height. Near Chepstow, in the Bristol Channel, for example, the tide rises from 45 to 60 feet, and on one oc- casion, after a strong westerly gale, it even reached to 70 feet. Again, in the Bay of Fundy, in North America, the spring-tides sometimes rise to the astonishing elevation of 120 feet. At the mouths of some large rivers, where the shore is very level to a considerable distance inland, the tide rolls in under the form of one vast wave, which is called the bore ; something of this kind occurs in Solway Frith on our own coast; and it is said that if, when the tide is coming in, a man upon a swift horse were placed at the water's edge, and bidden to ride for his life, the utmost efforts of his steed would not preserve 24 THE OCEAN. him from the overwhelming wave. Through the Pentland Frith, between Scotland and the Orkney Islands, the spring-tide rushes at the rate of nine miles an hour. The tide in inland seas is so slight as to be scarcely observable, probably owing to the smallness of the volume of w^ater which they con- tain ; and hence the astonishment which the soldiers of Alexander, accustomed to the equable condition of the Mediterranean, felt, when at the mouth of the Indus, they beheld the sea swell to the height of thirty feet. That some purpose, important in the constitution of our world, is effected by these periodical ebbings and Sowings of the mighty sea, is highly probable; but our acquaintance with the arcana of nature is too slight to point it out. In navigation they are useful; the flood-tide permitting ships to sail up rivers, even when the wind is adverse, and often admitting deep vessels to pass into harbors, over banks or bars, impassable at the ordinary depth of the water. Besides the tides, the sea has other motions of great regularity, called currents. The principal of these is the notable Gulf-stream, a strong and rapid river, as I may say, in the sea, whose banks are almost as well defined as if they were formed of solid earth, instead of the same fickle fluid as the torrent itself. It first becomes appreciable on the western coast of Florida, gently flowing southward •until it reaches the Tortugas, when it bends its course easterly, and runs along the Florida Eeef, increasing in force, till it rushes with amazing INTRODUCTION. ^5 rapidity through the confined limits of the Strait of Florida, and pours a vast volume of tepid water into the cold bosom of the Atlantic. Here, unrestrained, it of course widens its bounds and slackens its speed, though such is its impetus that it may be distinctly perceived even as far as the Great Bank of New- foundland. Nor is its .strength then spent; for many curious facts seem to warrant us in con- cluding, that even to the coasts of Scotland and Ireland, and down the shores of Western Europe, this mighty marine river continues to roll its won- derful waters. The temperature of this current is much higher than that of the surrounding water, and this is so uniformly the case that an entrance into it is immediately marked by a sudden rise of the thermometer. Another unfailing token of its pre- sence is the Gulf- weed (Sargassum vulgar e)^ which floats in large fields, or more frequently in long yellow strings in the direction of the wind, upon its surface. The cause of this vast and important current seems to be the daily rotation of the earth. If we turn a glass of water quickly upon its axis, we shall perceive that the glass itself revolves, but that the particles of water remain nearly stationary, owing to the slightness of their cohesion to the glass. To a very minute insect attached to the vessel, it would seem that the water was rushing round in an op- posite dii^ection while the glass remained stationary. Now the earth is whirled round with great rapidity from west to east, and the greatest amount of this rapidity is of course at the equatorial regions, being the part most remote from the axis: but the par- c 26 THE OCEAN. tides of water, for the same reason as those in the glass, to a certain extent, resist the influence of this rotation, and appear to assume a motion in the opposite direction, from east to west. With respect to all the phenomena to be explained, this apparent motion is exactly the same as if it were real, and we shall consider it so. Now, examine a globe, or a map of the Atlantic, and you will see that this westerly ''set" of the equatorial waters, meeting the coast of South America, is slightly turned through the Caribbean Sea, until it strikes the coast of Mexico, which, like an impregnable rampart, opposes its progress. The stream, impelled by the waves behind, must have an outlet, and the form of the shore drives it round the northern side of the Gulf of Mexico, until it is again bent by the peninsula of Florida. But here the long island of Cuba meets -its southerly course, and, like the hunted deer, headed at every turn, the whole of the broad tide that entered the Gulf, now pent up within the compass of a few leagues, rushes with vast impetus through the only outlet that is open, between Florida and the Bahamas. It is as if we propelled with swiftness against the air a wide funnel, the mouth being outwards, the tube of which was long and tortuous, and which terminated at length nearly at right angles to the mouth: it is easy to imagine that a strong current of air would issue from the tube, exactly as the waters of the Gulf-stream do from their narrow gorge. The waters of the Pa- cific have the same westerly flow, but its force is broken, without being turned, by the vast assem- INTRODUCTION. 27 blage of islands which constitute the Eastern Ar- chipelago; it majj however, be recognized in the Indian Ocean, and when bent southward by the African coast, and confined by the island of Mada- gascar, it forms a current of considerable force, which rounds the Cape of Good Hope,' and merges into the Atlantic. Besides these, there are other ^ more local currents, which are not so easily ex- plained, such as that which constantly flows out of the Baltic, and that which flows into the Me- diterranean. In each of these cases, while the main current occupies the middle of the channel, there is a subordinate current on each side close to the shore, which sets in the opposite direction. As in the case of the tides, it is obvious how serviceable these motions of the sea often are in aiding navigation, particularly as they are most strong and • regular in latitudes wher6 calms often prevail. And this leads us to consider the action of the winds upon the sea, which, though affecting only the surface, are the most powerful agents in producing the irregular motions of this element. By them the freighted bark, with her hardy crew, is wafted to the wished for haven; and by them the crested billows' are roused up, which dash her upon the sharp- pointed rocks, or swallow her up in fathomless depths, leav- ing none to record her destiny. The origin of wind has usually been attributed to the rarefaction of the air by heat: a stratum of air -near the earth being lieated by the su^V rays, or by radiation from the surface, becom^ 'lighter, and consequently rises to a ferrn h 28 THE OCEAN. higher elevation. The empty space thns left ia in- stantly filled by the surrounding air rushing in, pressed by the weight of the atmosphere above: this motion communicated to the air, has been supposed to constitute a wind blowing in the direction of the spot where the heat was generated. It must be confessed, however, that the cause thus adduced does not seem adequate to produce the effects at- ^ tributed to it; though probably some of the cur- rents of the air are owing to variations of its tem- perature. And as these variations are perpetually occurring, dependent on causes which are difficult to detect, and as the aerial currents resulting from them act and react on each other, variously modi- fying their direction, force, and duration, the or- dinary winds are irregular and inconstant even to a proverb. Some observations, however, recently made, have revealed some particulars of a highly- interesting character, concerning the winds of the temperate zones: one of which is, that they blow in a circular direction ; that is, the course which a storm has taken, if marked out on a map or globe, would describe a circle, often of many de- grees in diameter. The direction of the gale in the circle is not arbitrary, but seems to be inva- riably from north to west, south, and east, in the northern hemisphere, and in the opposite course in the southern. These winds appear to be • inti- mately connected with magnetism : it is a curious fact, tliat, in the midst of the southern Atlantic, where magnetic influence is at the lowest degree of intensity, storms are unknown, while the meri- INTRODUCTION. 29 dians of the magnetic poles, that of the American cutting the West Indies, and that of the Siberian the China Sea, are- peculiarly liable to tempests; the hurricanes of the former, and the typhoons of the latter, being well known.^ It is pretty certain, also, that the changes in the atmosphere produced by electricity, which is but another development of the same principle as magnetism, have considerable influence in the production of the variable winds of temperate regions. Our knowledge of these sub- jects, however, is yet in its infancy; and though in all ages until the present, navigation has been entirely dependent on the aid of the Avinds, no laws for their certain prognostication have yet been dis- covered, and much obscurity, at least in detail, still hangs over their production. But w^ithin the tro- pical regions there are winds which possess great regularity, and may be depended upon with nearly the same precision as the great marine currents already noticed, which indeed they very closely re- semble, not only in their direction and their utility, but also in their origin. I refer particularly to the Trade- winds, so named from the facility they afford to commerce, which blow constantly, within the tro- pics, from the north-east on the north side of the equator, and from the south-east on the south side, the two currents merging near the line into one, which takes an easterly direction. The dividing line, how- ever, is not exactly at the equator, but a little to the north of it. The air in the equatorial regions be- comes strongly heated by the rays of the vertical sun, *- See Reid on Storms. 30 THE OCEAN. and rises; while that from the polar regions moves in to supply its place: thus a nothern and southern current are produced towards the equinoctial. But the earth is revolving from west to east, and the equatorial parts are, as we have before seen, those in which the velocity is greatest: the free air cannot at once acquire this velocity, and is left behind; the effect being that an apparent motion in the contrary direction is given to it, which, combining with the one already possessed by the polar cur- rents, makes the direction of the northern one north-east, and of the southern south-east. The point directly beneath the sun, also, is continually travelling westward, which increases the effect. The heat radiated from the surface of large masses of land being superior to that from the sea, while the former is subject to much Variation from differences of elevation, and other circumstances, the trade- winds are disturbed, and become very irregular in the vicinity of land; but in open sea they blow with much precision. A singular deviation from the uniformity of the trade-winds occurs in the Indian Ocean, which it seems difficult to explain. From 30° south lati- tude, to within about 10° of the equator, the trade is pretty constant from the south-east; but to the north of the latter parallel, the wind blows six months from the north-east, namely, from Oc- tober to April, while, during the remainder of the year, from April to October, it blows with equal pertinacity in a direction diametrically opposite. These are called respectively the north-east and INTRODUCTION. 31 south-west monsoons ; but the former is the regular trade — the latter alone is the anomaly, and needs explanation. The cause usually assigned is, the rarefaction of the air on the continent of Asia during the summer months, when the sun is north of the equator; the air' from the Indian Ocean flowing in to supply its place. This would suffi- ciently explain why the wind should be southerly, but leaves its westerly inclination entirely unac- counted for ; and this seems the more inexplicable, because one would suppose that the air over the burning deserts of Arabia and North Africa would be much more heated, and that the direction of the supplying current w^ould be south-east. Strange, however, as the fact is, it is perfectly uniform in its occurrence, and is obviously a very gracious ordination of God's beneficent providence, in di- minishing the uncertainties of navigation. There is yet another phenomenon connected with the wind, in the climates of which we speak, that requires notice ; it is the alternation of the land and sea-breezes. Every one who has resided near the coast in tropical countries is aware of the eager- ness with which the setting in of the sea-breeze is looked for. Usually about the hour of ten in the forenoon, when the heat of the sun begins to be oppressive, a breeze from the sea springs up, in- vigorating and refreshing the body by its delight- ful coolness, and continues to blow through the whole day, gradually dying away as the sun sinks to the horizon. Then, about eight in the evening, an air blows off the land until near sunrise ; but this 32 THE OCEAN. is somewhat variable and irregular, always fainter than the sea-breeze, and dependent on the proximity of mountains. The application of what has been already said of the causes of wind in general will readily be made to these particular cases, the air on the surface of the water being cooler during the day, and that on the mountains during the night. Either is a grateful alleviation of the oppressive sultriness of the climate. But for the winds, the surface of the sea would ever present, notwithstanding its intestine motions, an unbroken and glassy smoothness. The playful ripple which breaks the moon's ray into a thousand sparkling diamonds, and the huge billows that rear their curling and cresting summits to the sky, would be alike unknown. If the direction of the breeze were exactly horizontal, it is difl&cult to imagine how the surface could be ruffled at all; but doubt- less the wind exerts an irregular pressure obliquely upon the water, a few particles of which are thus forced out of their level above the surroundinsr ones : these afford a surface, however slight, on which the air can act directly, and the effect now goes on in- creasing every moment, until, if the wind be of suf- ficient velocity, the mightiest waves are produced.* * The perpendicular elevation of even the highest waves is, however, much overrated. Viewed from the deck of a vessel, the immense undu- lating surface causes them to appear much higher than they are ; while the ever-changing inclination of the vessel itself produces a deception of the senses, which increases the exaggeration. Experienced practical men have, however, made some observations, which show us their height. Taking their station in the shrouds, they hare proceeded higher and higher, until the summit of the loftiest billow no longer intercepted the INTRODUCTION. 33 '* For lie comiTiancleth, and raisctli tlie stormy wind, wliicli liftcth up tlio waves thereof. Tliey [tlie mariners] mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths : their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end." The Holy Spirit thus alludes to the terrific raging of the tempest as eminently calculated to draw man's attention to the power and majesty of God, while the wondrous deliverances He has so often Avrought from its fury, are so many claims on man's grateful love and praise. Let us, then, in contemplating a few of the in- numerable objects of interest which the ocean pre- sents to us, endeavour in dependence on His own gracious aid, to recognise His hand, to discern the greatness of His power in creating and upholding all things; His unerring skill and wisdom in arrang- ing and carrying out His designs; and the careful and provident benevolence which He continually exercises towards the sentient part of His creation. The varied tribes of living beings that throng the deep, from the wallowing whale to the luminous animalcule, visible but as a sparkling point; the multifarious forms of marine vegetation, displaying view of the horizon. After watching for a sufScient Icnj^th of time to verify the deductions, they descended, and measured the height of the point of sight from the ship's water-line; deducting half of this distance for the depression of the hollow below the level of the surface, the remain- der gives the elevation of the highest wave. It is thus found that waves do not usually exceed six feet in height, except when cross-waves over- run each other ; and probably in no case do the very loftiest rise above ten feet above the general level. 3 34 THE OCEAN. exquisite structure and elaborate contrivance; the golden sands of the smooth shore, the hoary cliffs hollowed into caverns by the restless billows, and not least, the restless billows themselves, speak to us, in language not to be mistaken, of the glorious attributes of the Mighty God, "the Lord of Hosts, which is wonderful in counse' and excellent in working." THE SHOEES OF BEITAIN. Before we launcli forth to investigate the won- ders of the vast Ocean, a little time will not be misspent in observing a few of the curious pro- ductions which it brings to our very doors. We shall greatly err, if we suppose that only in dis- tant parts of the world the works of God can be so studied as to illustrate His infinite power, and skill, and benevolence: we may have to search distant regions to find the giants of the deep, the huge whale, the Indian cuttle, or the island madrepore; but in the most minute crustacean that hops above the retiring wave, or the most fragile shell that lies upon the shingle, there is the indelible im- press of the mind and hand of God. Indeed, it may be asserted, that of two created objects of dif- ferent magnitude, but possessing similar organs, equally adapted to their requirements, that one in which these organs are of minute size is the more calculated to excite our admiration. Our own shores swarm with little creatures of many kinds, some so small as to escape the eye of any one but a naturalist, which yet are well worthy of being examined and studied. Take one example. Walk- ing along a sea-beach, where the loose shingle rattles under the retiring waves, we may find a (35) 3g THE OCEAN. minute beetle, known to entomologists by the name of Aepits fiilvescens, whose habits may well excite our astonishment. Formed like all other beetles, to breathe air alone, it deserts the haunts of its fel- lows, and betakes itself to the sea, choosing to dwell among the pebbles so low down on the beach that the water covers it constantly, except for a day or two twice every month, when, at the lowest ebb of the spring-tide, it is for a few minutes exposed. Now, during the weeks of its submersion, how does this little creature breathe? Oxygen it must have, or it will assuredly die. Many of the beetles that shoot hither and thither in our fresh-water ponds are clothed with a coat of thick but very fine down, in which air is entangled and carried beneath the surface. But our little Aepiis is not furnished with a coating of down. If we examine it, however, with a magnifier, we shall discover that its whole body and limbs are studded with long, slender hairs, and when it plunges under water, each of these hairs carries with it a little globule of air from the atmosphere, and these, uniting, form a bubble of air surrounding the body of the insect, and serving it for respiration. But, subjected to the rolling of the tide, it would be liable to be perpetually washed away from its dwelling-place, were there not an especial provision graciously made for its stability. For this end the feet are fur- nished with claws of unusual size, to cling firmly to the projections of the stones, and in addition to these the last joint but one of the feet has a long curved spine meeting the claws, giving it an THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 37 extraordinary power in grasping, as well as aidirig it in .obtaining its prey. In other respects, with regard to its eyes, its antennae, its jaws, we shall find, if we carefully examine it, that, minute as it is, being scarcely an eighth of an inch long, its wants have been accurately remembered and well supplied. A few other British insects, likewise very small, dis- play similar instincts, some of them inhabiting holes in the sand, very near low-water mark, and there- fore entirely submerged a great portion of their time. On our rocky shores may be found in abundance creatures still more minute than these, whose man- ners, lively and sportive, are highly interesting. I allude to the marine Entomostraca^ or insects with shells, and particularly to those of the genus Cythere^ scarcely any of which exceed in diameter a large pin's head, and most of them are not equal to that of a small one. Imagine a pair of bivalve shells of this size, irregularly oval, or kidney-shaped, from which, slightly separated, protrude four pairs of little curved claws, or feet, most delicately fringed, and kept in constant motion ; and from one end a pair of jointed antennae. Mr. Baird, who has attentively studied their manners, gives the following pleasing account of them: — ^' These insects are only to be found in sea- water, and may be met with in all the little pools amongst the rocks on the sea-shores. They live amongst the Fad and Covferuce^ &c., which are to be found in such pools; and the naturalist may especially find them in abundance in those beautiful clear little round wells which are so oftea 38 THE OCEAN. to 'be met with, hollowed out of the rocks on the shores of our country, which are within reach of the tide, and the water of which is kept sweet and Marine Entomostraca {Cythere alho-maculata and Cyclops chelifer). wholesome by being thus changed twice during every twenty-four hours. In such delightful little ponds, clear as crystal when left undisturbed by the receding tide, these interesting little creatures may be found often in great numbers, sporting about amongst 'the confervae and corallines which so : elegantly and fancifully fringe their edges and de- corate their sides, and which form such a glorious subaqueous forest for myriads of living creatures to disport themselves in. Sheltered amongst the ■ "umbrageous multitude" of stems and branches, : and nestling in security in their forest glades, they are safe from the fury of the advancing tide, though lashed up to thunder by the opposing rocks which for a moment check its advance; and weak and powerless though such pigmies seem to be, they are yet found as numerous and active in their little wells, after the shores have been desolated THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 39 by the miglity force of the tide which has been driven in, in thunder, by the power of a fierce tempest, as when the waves have rolled gently and calmly to the shore in their sweetest murmurs. These insects have never been seen to swim, in- variably walking among the branches or leaves of the confervce or fuci^ amongst which they delight to dwell ; and when shook * out from their hiding- places into a bottle or tumbler of water, they may be seen to fall in gyrations to the bottom, without ever attempting to dart through the watery element, as in the case with the Cyprides. Upon reaching the bottom they open their shells, and creep along the surface of the glass ; but when touched or shaken, they immediately again withdraw themselves within their shell, and remain motionless."^ The Cyprides^ here alluded to in comparison, are species very closely resembling these, inhabiting abundantly every stagnant ditch and pool of fresh water. They have their antennae and feet beautifully feathered with long fringed bristles, by aid of which they swim with much vivacity. In exactly similar situ- ations to those above described are found other Entomostraca^ marine species of the gQwis CyclopSy almost equally minute, and equally interesting. Like their kindred of the same genus found in fresh waters, and which are so numerous in the water conveyed into London that we swallow them daily, these swim with ease, progressing by sudden bounds made with great vigour and effect. Mr. Baird no- tices of one marine species ((7. depresses)^ which he * Mag. Zool. and Bot. ii. 141. ^Q THE OCEAN. found in Berwick Bay, that its motion is peculiar. ''It generally swims on its back, and insfead of datting forward through, the water, as the other species of Cyclops do, it springs with a bound from the bottom of the vessel, where it rests w^hen un- disturbed, up to the surface of the w^ater. For this purpose it curls its body up into the form of a ball, and then, suddenly returning to the straight, posi- tion, springs with a sudden bound from the bottom to the surface, falling gradually down again to the same place from w^hich it sprung." It is a remark- able character of all these pretty little icater-fleas^ that they have but a single eye, which is generally of a bright crimson hue, sparkling like a little ruby, and is set in the front of the head. Any of my inland readers, who may have no opportunity for sea-side researches, may form a very good idea of the form and habits of these agile *' minims of exist- ence" by pulling up a handful of the common duck- weed from a stagnant pool, and putting a pinch of it into a clear glass phial, nearly filled with water : numbers of the fresh-water Entomostraca will be almost certain to swim out; and the sight will amply repay the trouble of procuring them, especially if viewed with a microscope, or even a common magni- fying glass. Probably the objects which w^ould first arrest the observation of one who for the first time visited a rocky shore, would be, after the broad element itself, the marine plants wliicli in such abundance and variety clothe the subuierged rock. At a glance we perceive that they arc singular productions; the THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 41 vast size of some, the strange and uncouth forms of others, and the extreme delicacy and vivid hues of many, cannot fail to attract attention: and it needs not the additional knowledge that many of them are pressed into the service of man to assure us that they are not less worthy of the consideration of rational beings than others of the glorious works of God. "Viewing these tribes," observes Dr. Gre- ville, "in the most careless way, as a system of sub- aqueous vegetation, or even in a merely picturesque light, we see the depths of ocean shadowed with submarine groves, often of vast extent, intermixed with meadows, as it were, of the most lively hues ; while the trunks of the larger species, like the great trees of the tropics, are loaded with innumerable minute kinds, as fine as silk, or transparent as a mem- brane.""^ In stating some particulars of the history of but a few of the species found on our own shores, I hope to show that the contempt which has been,- even to a proverb, cast upon the ^'vile sea-w^eed," is very much misplaced. It is only a contracted mind, governed by debasing selfishness, which mea- sures the esteem in which it holds any object by the degree to which it ministers to the comfort or profit of man; the instructed Christian will feel a higher gratification in the thought that the perfec- tions of God shine forth more luminously the more His handiwork is examined. It was no selfishness that prompted the Sons of God, when they saw this beautiful and glorious world, fresh in its unsullied prime, come from the hands of its Maker, — to sing ^- Alga) Britannicae. Intr. d2 42 THE OCEAN. together, and all the morning stars to shout for joy. Yet we may, with adoring gratitude, recognise the love which remembers man, and provides many natu- ral objects for his appropriation ; endowing them with qualities which his intelligence discovers to be useful, and which alleviate the privation and toil of bis fallen condition. A substance called kelp, an impure carbonate of soda, important in the manufacture of soap and of glass, is the produce of these *' worthless" weeds. Some years ago, the coasts and islands of Scotland yielded 20,000 tons of this valuable substance an- nually, which was worth ten pounds sterling per ton; but through the increased consumption of la- rilla^ an alkali imported from Spain, it has some- what diminished. The autumnal storms detach large quantities of Algoe (a general name applied to all the sea-weeds), which are washed ashore. The •inhabitants of the coast, aware of their value, hurry down to secure the riches thus freely pre- sented, and either cast them on their fields as a va- luable manure, or burn them into kelp. In Scot- land, the kelp-kiln is nothing but a round pit, dug in the sand or earth, on the beach, and surrounded by a few loose stones. In the morning a fire is kindled in this pit, generally with the aid of turf or peat. The fire is gradually fed with sea-weed, in such a state of dryness that it will merely burn. In the course of the day, the furnace becomes nearly full of melted matter, and iron rakes are then drawn rapidly backward and forward through the mass to compact it, or bring the whole into an THE SHORES OF BRITAIN". 43 equal state of fusion. It is then allowed to cool, and having been taken out and broken to pieces, it is carried to the storehouse to be shipped for market. The general yield of this alkali is one- fifth of the weight of the ashes from weeds pro- miscuously collected ; but from one species, the Sea- wrack, or Black-tang {Fucus vesiculosus\ one of the most abundant on our coast, the ashes yield half their weight of alkali. The Sea- wrack is of a dark-green hue, bearing long, flat, and narrow fronds, resembling leaves, divided into branches, and having a midrib running through the centre; the leaf-like branches terminate in large yellow oval receptacles, containing many seeds, enveloped in a thick mucus. But its chief peculiarity is, that the substance of the frond swells at irregular in- tervals into oval air-cells, always arranged in pairs, one on each side of the midrib. The Dutch use this sort, and another called Black- wrack {F. ser- ratus\ to pack their lobsters ; the latter, how- ever, is preferred, on account of its containing less mucus, and therefore being less liable to ferment- ation. ' Scarcely inferior in its alkaline properties to the Sea-wrack is the Knotted- wrack {F, nodosus). The fronds look like slender stems, swelling at intervals into oval bulbs or- air-vessels. Boys amuse them- selves occasionally by cutting off these nodules in a diagonal direction, to make them into whistles. They are too tough to be burst b}^ the pressure of the fingers, like those of the Sea- wrack; but if stamped on, or put into the fire, they explode 44 THE OCEAN. with a loud report. The seed-vessels are large, oval, and yellow, resembling those of the last, placed on foot-stalks. One of the most common species of our cdasts is the long, string-like Sea-lace, or, as the Orkney people call it. Sea-catgut {Chorda-filum). It usually grows in water some fathoms deep, attached to stones at the bottom, yet reaching to the sur- face: indeed, it sometimes, attains the length of forty feet; and this is believed to be the growth of a single summer, as it is an annual plant. Its structure is highly curious ; at first sight it appears a simple cylindrical tube, of an olive colour, about as thick as whipcord, but occasionally thicker : on examination, however, this hollow stem is found to be composed of a flat thin ribbon, abouth one-sixth of an inch in width, spirally twisted into a tube, the edges exactly meeting each other, and adhering with sufficient firmness to allow of the whole stem being skinned without separating: in this state it is twisted and dried, when it possesses a strength and toughness that adapt it for fishing-lines. In Norway it is collected as food for the cattle. The upper portion usually floats on the surface, or rather immediately beneath it,, often in such abundance as to form large meadows, as it were, which obstruct the progress of boats. The fructification of this species long defied the investigations of botanists; but it is now ascertained to consist of little pear- shaped capsules, imbedded in the surface, and much crowded, which the gradual melting away of the skin allows to escape. One of the most interesting I . , THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 45 circumstances connected with the history of the sea- plants is, the beautiful and varied apparatus with which many of them are provided for securing buoyancy. It seems to be essential to their health that they should at least approach the surface, but as their substance is specifically heavier than water, many of them are greatly lengthened, and fur- nished with hollow vessels inflated with air, by which their weight is diminished. These differ much in form and position in the various tribes; in the Sea- wrack {F, vesiculosus\ we saw them take the form of bladders, arranged in pairs on each side of the midrib; in the Knotted-wrack {F, nodosus) the stem swells at intervals into hollow bulb-like dilatations, while in* the long Sea-lace before us, the same end is answered by dividing the hollow tube into chambers, interrupted at short distances by portions of the solid substance of the frond; the cavities being filled in some unknown maimer with air, probably hydrogen generated by the plant itself. Many oi the Algoe are rather extensively used as ♦food; and though to one unused to such diet they would in general seem to offer little temptation to the appetite, the poorer natives, not only of our own but of other shores, eat them with much relish. Let us not despise their taste, though differing from our own, but rather adore the beneficence of God, who has supplied in much abundance an additional source of nutriment, and has conferred on the recipients of His bounty the taste requisite for its enjoyment. From the quantity of saccharine matter which they 46 THE OCEAN. contain, many of these plants are highly nutritive, and cattle often feed on them with greediness. One of the species most extensively eaten is that known in Scotland by the name of Dulse {Bhodomenia palmata). It exhibits the appearance of a very thin, membranaceous leaf, irregularly oblong, of a purplish colour, or sometimes rosy-red: there is no rib, but the substance is uniform; it grows from three inches to a foot in length. Before the in- troduction of tobacco, this leaf was rolled up and chewed in the same manner as the Virginian leaf is at present. It is an important plant to the inhabit- ants of Iceland; they wash it thoroughly in fresh water, and dry it in the air, when it becomes covered with a white powdery substance, which is sweet and palatable; it is then packed in close casks, and pre- served for eating. It is used in this state with fish and butter, or else, by the higher classes, boiled in milk, with the addition of rye-flour. In Kamschatka, a fermented liquor is produced from it. It is extremely common on all our coasts, and being frequently washed on shore, is sought wilfti avidity by the cattle: sheep sometimes go so far in the pur- < suit of it at low water as .to be drowned by the returning tide. This species, with another which I am about to describe, was, until recently, so much esteemed by our northern countrymen, that it was publicly sold in the cities as an article of regular consumption. The cry of " Buy dulse and tangle," resounded at no very distant period even through the streets of Edinburgh. The latter is the sea- weed, usually called in England the Sea-girdie, and in the \ THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. *1 The Sea-Girdle (Laminaria digitata). Orkneys Red- ware {Lammaria digitata). It is very common, growing chiefly in deep water, where it is protected from the heavy action of the waves. Its appearance is singular : from a number of little root- lets, which grasp with great tenacity the naked rock, springs a straight olive-brown stem, sometimes as thick as a man's wrist, and three or four feet long: at the summit it dilates into a broad car- tilaginous leaf, oblong in form, and palmated, or 48 THE OCEAN. divided into numerous irregular strips; it is endowed with the power of renewing its frond if the latter be accidentally destroyed. Mr. Johns observes,^ that of all the various kinds of sea-weeds thrown on shore during a storm, Tangles are the most abun- dant: a fact which he explains by the ravages of a species of limpet {Patella loivis) upon their stems and rootlets. When cooked, the young stalks are said to be not unpleasant, and they are boiled and given to cattle. But, as we are informed by Mr. Neill, ^4n Scotland the stems are sometimes put to rather an unexpected use, the making of knife- handles. A pretty thick stem is selected, and cut into pieces about four inches long. Into these, while fresh, are stuck blades of knives, such as gardeners use for pruning and grafting. As the stem dries, it contracts and hardens, closely and firmly embracing the hilt of the blade. In the course of some months the handles become quite firm, and very hard and shrivelled, so that when tipped with metal "they are hardly to be distinguished from hartshorn." Much resembling this species, but immensely larger, is the plant which has received the name of Sea-furbelows (Z. hidhosa). A single specimen, fresh from the sea, is a heavy load for a man's shoulder: and one which was measured by Mrs. Griffiths, when spread out, covered a circular space of twelve feet in diameter. The great weight of the frond in this species requires extraordinary support against the force of the waves, which else, having so strong a purchase, would soon overturn it. To * Botanical RambleS; p. 286. THE SHORES OF BRITAIN, 49 guard against this, the ordinary mode of attachment to the rock would be insufficient; and, instead of the primary root, the base of the stem is swollen out into a large hollow bulb, the extended surface of which putting forth powerful rootlets from every The Sea-Furbelows (Laminaria hulbosa). part enables the plant to defy the violence of the winter storm. It is a fact worthy of our notice and admiration, that nothing of the kind takes place while the plant is young and small ; it is only when it acquires size and weight, or, in other words, it is only when additional support becomes needful, that this extraordinary but most effiective contrivance is resorted to. The English name of the species is 4 E 50 THE OCEAN. derived from the edge of the stem, which is greatlj dilated and curled into tortuous waves or plaits. A long, narrow, ribbon-like leaf, with a thick mid- rib, grows on the coast of Scotland, where it is called Hen- ware, as well as on the northern shores of Ire- land, where it receives the appellation of Murlins. It is the Alaria esculenta of botanists. It is of a transparent yellow-green, and in the herbarium dries without any change, and has a very beautiful ap- pearance. The midrib is the part usually selected for eating, but Mr. Johns gives us a somewhat unfa- vourable notion of its quality. "While walking," he observ-es, "round the coast near the Giants Causeway, I once observed a number of men and women busily employed near the water's edge; and on inquiring of my guide, found that they were providing themselves with food for their next meal. Being curious to discover what kind of fare the rocks afforded, I stopped one of the men, who was going home with his bundle, and asked him to give me a bit to taste, prepared in the way in which it was generally eaten. He accordingly stripped off all the expanded part of a long and narrow leaf, and presented me with a stem, or midrib. It was, I must confess, as good as I expected; but at best a very sorry substitute for a raw carrot, combining with the hardness of the latter the fishy and coppery flavour of an oyster. I made a very slight repast, as you may suppose; and, after having given the man a few pence for his civility, continued my walk. My guide, however, seemed to think, that if I did not choose to enjoy to the full the advantage which I had THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 51 purchased, there was no reason why he should not. He accordingly stayed behind for a minute or two, and when he rejoined me, was loaded with a supply of the same plant, which he continued to munch with much apparent relish as we pursued our walk.''* Mr. Drummond, however, it must not be concealed, gives a somewhat different account, both of the part which is eaten and its flavour, and as his observations refer to the coast of Antrim, it is not easy to account for the conflicing statements, except by supposing some variation of taste in different neighbourhoods or individuals. The latter gentleman says, ''It is often gathered for eating, but the part used is the leaflets, and not the midrib, as is commonly stated. These have a very pleasant taste and flavour, but soon cover the roof of the mouth with a tenacious greenish crust, which causes a sensation somewhat like that of the fat of a heart or kidney. These leaflets are quite membranaceous when young, but in full-grown plants are fleshy, and at their middle a quarter of an inch or more in thickness."f The Dulse of the Scottish coast, which was just now described, must not be confounded with the Dulse of the southern shores of England. This is a very different plant [Iridcea edulis\ having little resemblance to it, except in being eatable. It con- sists of a short stem expanding into an oval leaf, without rib or veins, sometimes a foot and a half long, and eight or ten inches wide. It is thick and fleshy, of a deep blood-red hue, the surface smooth and glossy. It is not frequently found, however, ia *Bot. Ram. 279. t ^^»g- ^ool. and Bot. ii. 14?. 62 THE OCEAN. a perfect state, the specimens being generally torn and perforated in every possible way. These defects have usually been attributed to the munching of crabs, which are said to be fond of it; but Mr. Drummond is of opinion that portions spontaneously separate from the frond and drop out. Like many other Algoe^ it diffuses, when moist, a strong smell of violets. The fishermen pinch the fleshy frond between heated irons, and eat it; its taste is said to resemble that of roasted oysters. Its deep colour may yet be found useful in the arts: Mr. Stack- house observes,"^ *'The most surprising quality of this plant, and one that will probably render it of service in dyeing, I discovered by accident. Having placed some of the leaves to macerate in sea- water, in order to procure seeds from it, I perceived, on the second day, a faint ruby tint, very different from the colour of the plant, which is a dull red, inclining to chocolate colour. Being surprised at this, I con- tinued the maceration, and the tint grew more vivid, till at last it equalled the strongest infusion of cochi- neal. This liquor was mucilaginous, and had a re- markable property of being of a changeable colour; as it appeared a bright ruby when held to the light, and a muddy saffron when viewed in a contrary direc- tion : this probably arose from a mixture of the frond in the liquor. I endeavoured to ascertain its dyeing powers by the usual process without success; as the quanity of tinging matter was not sufficient; though if attempted at large, and properly evaporated, it * Nereis Brit. p. 58, as quoted by Turner, Hist. Fucoruin, ii. 113; but I could not find the observation in Stackhouse. THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 53; might be made sufficiently strong. However, an ingenious chemical friend (the Eey. W. Gregor) assures me he has procured a fine lake from an infusion of it by means of alum." One or two species of the genus Porphyra are brought to our tables, stewed under the name of Laver, and are thought a delicacy. Mr. Drummond informs us that P. laciniata^ called Sloke in Ireland, is gathered during the winter months only, the fronds being too tough in the summer. After being pro- perly cleaned, it is stewed with a little butter, to prevent its getting a burnt flavour, and is brought to Belfast, where it is sold by measure usually at the rate of fivepence per quart. Before being brought to table, it is again heated with an additional quan- tity of butter, and is usually eaten with vinegar and pepper. P, vulgaris is worthy of notice on account of the extreme difficulty with which it is preserved in a herbarium in a complete state: "not that there is any difficulty in spreading and going through the other steps of the process, but because when it has nearly arrived at the last st'age of drying, a moment's exposure to the air will cause it to contract so in- stantaneously, that the edges of the paper are imme- diately drawn towards each other; and if attempted to be restored without the whole being first damped, the specimen tears through the middle, and becomes of little value. The edges of the plant adhere strongly to the paper when dry, or nearly so; but the centre does not adhere at all, and being as fine as gold- beater's leaf, though having considerable strength, it at once loses the little moisture it possesses, on £2 54 THE OCEAN. coming in contact with the air, and contracts with a force remarkable when we consider its extreme thinness. If the paper be thin, its four corners will in a moment be brought almost in contact with each other." The best method of obviating this incon- venience is said to be, when we suppose it is almost dry, to have a flat book held open, and the pressure being taken off, to remove the specimen along with the drying-paper covering it, as quickly as possible into the book, which must be instantly shut, and not opened till the next day, or till we know that it is thoroughly dry.^^ There is a substance which has been lately intro- duced as an article of commercCj intended as a sub- stitute for Iceland moss, and sold by the London druggists by the name of Carrageen moss ; notwith- standing its name, however, it is a trlie Alga^ Ohoii- drus crispus. It is an exceedingly variable species, but its most usual form is that of a flat leaf, spreading somewhat triangularly, or rather so as to give to its outline the figure of one-fourth of a circle: the edge is branched into numerous flat segments overlapping one another. When viewed under Avater, in a grow- ing state, it gives out beautiful prismatic hues. Con- taining a large quantity of gelatine, it has been suc- cessfully applied, instead of isinglass, in the making of blanc-mange and jellies. A fucus, probably allied to this, found at the Cape of Good Hope, is boiled into a jelly, and, being mixed with sugar and the juice of lemons or oranges, makes a very agreeable dish. I shall notice a few other Algoe^ remarkable either * Drummond. THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 55 for singularity or beauty, and then dismiss these in- teresting tribes. The common Sea-thong {Himan- thalia lorea\ so generally distributed, is worthy of observation on account of its curious mode of growth. From a shallow cup, affixed to the rock by a short foot-stalk, spring two or three long, olive-coloured straps, each of which becomes divided into two, and each of these into two more, in succession : these attain commonly the length of eight or ten feet, and have been asserted to reach even twenty feet. The thongs have been usually considered the fronds of this species ; 'but Dr. Greville thinks that the sin- gular cup is the true frond, and the thongs the re- ^ ceptacles of the seed greatly lengthened. The surface of the thong is studded with tubercles, from which are discharged the seeds, accompanied with much mucus, through the pores. The cup of this species has been occasionally observed on exposed rocks, swollen into a large hollow smooth black ball, ex- actly round, perhaps caused by the heat of the sun rarefying and expanding the contained air, or being perhaps the indication of a diseased state of the plant. , A very remarkable form, and one of singular beauty, is presented by the Peacock's tail (Padina pavonia\ a species not uncommon, attached to rocks at the bottom of still, and generally shallow, marine pools. The fronds rise in form of a rounded fan, of a yellowish-olive tint, elegantly marked with concentric zones or bands, of a dark brown. One side, and sometimes both, is generally hoary, as if dusted with powder, and the outer edge is delicately 66 THE OCEAN. The Peacock's Tail (Padina pavonia). fringed with exceedingly minute filaments, which, in a living state, often reflect the prismatic colours of the rainbow. Perhaps the most lovely of all the Fuci is the De- lesseria sartguinea^ which is a common species. It consists of several oblong-oval or pointed leaves, of extreme delicacy, with the edges very much waved or plaited, furnished with a midrib and side-veins, which materially increase their leaf-like appearance ; the colour is an exceedingly rich rose-pink. The midrib often throws out smaller leaves, which, if the main frond be destroyed, soon attains its usual size; an interesting provision against the accidents to which these apparently frail plants are neces- sarily exposed. The fructification of this genus is curious, as being of a twofold character : both THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 57 forms are found in the winter, affixed to the mid- rib, which alone survives that season, the foliaceous part having all decayed away. The one mode is by means of nearly globular capsules attached to the rib by short foot-stalks, and inclosing many ir- regularly-shaped seeds ; the other is by small mem- branaceous, leaf-like processes, likewise containing seeds. These two kinds of fructification occur on distinct individuals. This charming fucus, of which no adequate idea can be formed, by a verbal de- scription, retains much of its beauty when dried, and is very easily preserved. It is a pity that I am obliged to confess that its odour is very unpleasant, being rank and pungent. Some of those species, whose fronds are very de- licately and numerously ramified, have been used to form mimic pictures. By skilful arrangement, very pretty landscapes are thus made, the forms and foliage of trees being beautifully imitated. The kinds most commonly appropriated for this purpose are Phcamium coccineum and Gelidmm cartilagi- neum, which have a very beautiful effect if simply expanded on smooth white paper, or on the pearly inner surface of large shells. The whole order Flo- ride(Ey to which these belong, is remarkable for bril- liant hues, and often elegant forms. Like their kindred, the plants of the earth and air, the sea- weeds have their parasites. As the Tilland' sia grows on the giants of the tropical forests, and as the mistletoe grows upon the apple-tree of our own orchards, so do some of these draw their nourish- ment, or at least derive their support, from the fronds 58 THE OCEAN. or stalks of others. Ptilota plumosa^ for example, a delicately-feathered species, of a pink or purplish hue, is found to be parasitical on the common tan- gle. It is justly considered one of the ornaments of our southern shores, but becomes still finer as we approach a more southern latitude. This must not be confounded with another elegant little plant bear- ing the same specific name, but belonging to a dif- Brtopsis Plumosa. ferent genus, Bryojms plumosa. The tribe of which the latter is a member is remarkable for its delicacy : in the one now mentioned the main stem is very slender, set with horizontally-spreading branches, like a pine-tree, each of which is most elegantly fea- thered. Its colour is a bright grass-green, and the whole surface shines as if it were varnished. It is THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 59 SO delicate that in drying, the colouring matter contracts in the stem, leaving interrupted spaces destitute of colour, and perfectly transparent. These are but a very few of the multitudinous sea- weeds which would come under the notice of an observant visitor to our own rocky shores ; yet how manifold are the indications of infinite intelligence and goodness even in these things proverbial for their vileness! And while we gratefully acknow- ledge the Divine hand in such species as conduce to man's sustenance or comfort, may we not, from the lavish beauty and elegance of such as are of no direct benefit to us, legitimately draw the same consola- tory inference which the Saviour drew from the lovely lilies at His feet ? If God so clothe these obscure caverns and submerged rocks, will He not r)iuc]i more care for those whom He has redeemed with the blood, and conformed to the image, of His Son ? Nor is the relation which He sustains to these frail and perishing weeds limited to an exertion of creative power. All are marshalled in order, each is provided incessantly with the requisite supplies for its welfare, and each is assigned to that particular locality which suits, its habit of growth, and where alone it flourishes. On this subject Mr. Neill observes, "On our open shores a certain order is observed in the habitat of the Fuci^ each species occupying pretty regularly its own zone or station. Chorda filum, or Sea-laces, grows in water some fathoms deep: in places where the tide seldom en- tirely ebbs, but ofenerally leaves from two to three feet of water, grow Alaria esculoita and Laminaria S() THE OCEAN. bulbosa^ and the larger specimens of L. digitata and saccharina^ with some small kinds, as Rhodomenia jpalmata, Halidrys siliquosa, and Delesseria sanguwea. In places uncovered only at the lowest ebbs, smaller plants of L, digitata and saccharina abound with Himanthalia lorea^ or Sea-thongs. On the beaches uncovered by every tide, F, serratus occurs loAvest down, along with Chondrus crispiis and mammillosus ; next comes F. nodosus, and higher up, F. vesiculosus. Beyond this, F. canaliculatits still grows, thriving very well if only wet at flood tide, though liable to become dry and shrivelled during a great part of the day. Lastly, Lichina pygmcea is satisfied if it be within reach of the spray. ""^ In examining these AlgaB, and especially if we collect them for preservation, we shall find very fre- quently entangled among them, branches of a sub- stance which adheres with so much tenacity as to cause no little trouble in cleansing the specimens. I refer to the common Coralline {Corallina offici- nalis). No organic substances have so much divided naturalists in opinion as to their real nature as the Corallines. Evidently placed on the very verge of the animal or vegetable kingdom, it required a minute acquaintance with their structure, derived from the closest observation, and all the research of modern science, to decide the long uncertain question, and to fix them where they now by com- mon consent hold their place among the vegetable tribes. The one of which I speak, and the most *'Edin. Encyc. Art. ''Fuci.'' Most of the species here alluded to I have described above. THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 61 common, being abundant on every rocky shore, or- dinarily presents, though subject to much variation, the form of a spreading bushy tuft, from one to four inches high, growing from a broad stony base, of a shape more or less round. Each branch con- sists of many short joints, a little broader at the upper than at the lower end, which often send out other johited branches from each upper shoulder, as well as from the centre. The joints are of a stony Coralline (Corallina officinalis), or rather shelly consistence, being chiefly a deposit of lime; when dead they are perfectly white, but in a living state they assume a purplish tint. Lin- naeus and many other eminent men were deceived by this shelly appearance into an opinion of their animal nature, maintaining that animals alone ever produced lime. But on removing the calcareous deposit, we perceive that it is merely a crust eu- 62 THE OCEAN. veloping an axis of an evidently vegetable cliaracter. On placing the Coralline in vinegar, or other weak acid, the lime is dissolved, leaving the vegetable part coloured as before, which, though continuous through its length, is constricted at the parts which corresponded to the joints of the crust, and looks very much like one of the jointed Fuci It is very common to see the broad base without any jointed branches, for the former attains some size before the latter shoot, and may be seen in this state on almost every object between the range of high and low tide. It first appears as a thin, round, shelly patch of a purplish hue, on the shell of a JMollusk, or the frond of a Fucus^ or the smooth rock, and gradually enlarges by additions at the edge, the progress of which is marked by concentric zones, or rings of a paler tint, till it sometimes attains sevjeral inches in diameter. It is tenacious of vitality, and when the branches are all torn off by the violence of the waves or other accidents, the base still lives on, and becomes studded with roundish knobs. This base, when growing on a soft calcareous rock, will often increase much in thickness, without showing any tendency to throw out its jointed branches ; or in situations where it is long uncovered by the tide, and exposed to the influence of the sun, it becomes ^' a softish white, leprous crust." Its ordinary form, however, is by far the most pleasing, particularly when growing, as they delight to do, on the sides of the still, rocky pools already described, their bushy tufts grace- fully hanging over each other, like weeping wil- THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 63 lows in miniature. Beyond its beauty I know not that this little creature has any obvious claim to our consideration, except that, in common with other sea-plants, it gives out oxygen, and thus maintains the element in which it grows in a state fit for the support of animal life. But this is a service vastly important, and explains why the ** floor of the ocean" is covered, as it appears to be, with such a profusion of vegetable life. And here so wisely is the balance kept up between the animals which absorb oxygen and the plants which evolve it, that, perhaps, the world could not afford to lose a single species of either without derange- ment of the existing order, which would be fol- lowed by manifest inconvenience. Of course our little Coralline cannot do much to promote this object ; but that it does exert some beneficial in- fluence, we have evidence in an experiment of Dr. Johnston, whose researches on these neglected tribes are so interesting. "Was there a need," he observes, " of addiiig any additional proof of the vegetability of the Corallines, an experiment in pro- gress before me would seem to supply it. It is now eight weeks ago since I placed in a small glass jar, containing about six ounces of pure sea- water, a tuft of the living Corallina officinalis^ to which were attached two or three minute Confervce^ and the very young frond of a green Ulva., while numerous Bissoce, several little Mussels, and An- nelides, and a Star-fish, were crawling amid the branches. The jar was placed on a table, and was seldom disturbed, though occasionally looked at; g4 THE OCEAN. and at the end of four weeks the water was found to be still pure, the Mollusca and other animals all alive and active, the Confervoe had grown percep- tibly, and the Coralline itself had thrown out some new shoots, and several additional articulations. Eight weeks have now elapsed since the experi- ment was begun, — the water has remained un- changed, — ^yet the Coralline is growing, and appa- rently has lost none of its vitality ; but the animals have sensibly decreased in number, though many of them continue to be active, and show no dis- like to their situation. What can be more conclu- sive ? I need not say that if any animal, or even a sponge, had been so confined, the water would long before this time have been deprived of its oxygen, would have become corrupt and ammoniacal, and poisonous to the life of every living thing."^ Who is not familiar with Sponge, — with its soft- ness, its elasticity, its capacity of absorbing and re- taining fluids, and other qualities which render it so valuable in domestic economy ? And yet how few are aware that it is the skeleton of an animal ! In fact. Sponge is one of those dubious forms which God has placed in the great system of Creation, on the confines of the two great divisions of organic beings, apparently having little in common with either. Like the Corallines, the Sponges have af- forded occasion for much controversy as to their proper position; but they are now pretty unani- mously assigned to the animal kingdom. The com- mon Sponge of household purposes {Spongia offici- * British Sponges, p. 215. THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 65 nalis) is a native of the Mediterranean, but is much more familiar to us than our native species, of which there are many. The appearance which it presents is that of an irregularlj^-shaped mass, more or less rounded, composed of a brown woolly substance, perforated by innumerable pores in all directions, and having in addition, wide canals communicating w^ith each other, and terminating in round holes or mouths on the surface. But if we take a small por- tion of the substance, and place it under a common magnifying lens, we shall see that it is composed of shining, horny, nearly-transparent fibres, which, by uniting with each other at all angles and distances, form a loose and very irregular network. Now, when in a living state, every fibre was enclosed in a coating of thin, clear jelly, which formed the living animal, the horny fibres constituting, as I have inti- mated above, only the skeleton. Imbedded in the substance of many species, some British ones, for example, are found spiculoey or needle-like crystals, of pure flint, varying much in shape in various kinds, while other species have similar crystals of lime. Where these occur in considerable numbers, the Sponge does not possess elasticity : it may be crushed, but it will not regain its original form. It is a singular fact, that Sponges of these three different kinds are sometimes found growing close to each other, and all alike nourished by the same simple fluid, pure sea-wiiter ; yet they elaborate therefrom products so different as horn, flint, and lime. The animal nature of Sponges is not easily to be detected : no indication of sensation has ever 5 p2 gg THE OCEAN. been perceived in tlicm when living, even though violence in many modes has been offered to them ; though beaten, pinched with hot irons, cut or torn, or subjected to the action of the strongest acids. The substance may be destroyed, but there is no contraction, nor the slightest evidence of feeling; to all appearance they are as passive as the rock on Avhich they grow. One proof of their animality, however, is open to any one : we are all familiar ,7ith a peculiar smell produced when horn, wool, feathers, &c., are burned ; this smell arises from the presence of ammonia^ and is peculiar to animal mat- ter ; on burning a bit of Sponge this animal odour is strongly perceptible. On viewing a living Sponge, however, in water, with care and attention, it is found to exhibit a constant and energetic action, which sufficiently shows its vitality. Dr. Grant's account of his discovery of this motion in a native species is so interesting, that, though I have quoted it in another treatise, I may be forgiven for repeat- ing it here. "I put a small branch of the Spongia coalita, with some sea-water, into a watch-glass, under the microscope : and on reflecting the light of a candle through the fluid, I soon perceived that there was some intestine motion in the opaque par- ticles floating through the water. On moving the w^atch-glass, so as to bring one of the apertures on the side of the Sponge fully into view, I beheld, for the first time, the splendid 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 THE SHORES OF BRITATX. Q>j Strewed ever}^ where around. Tlie beauty and no- velty of such a scene in the animal kingdom long arrested my attention; but after twenty-five minutes of constant observation, I was obliged to withdraw my eye from fatigue, without having seen the tor- rent 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 inter- vals, 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." Sponges, in general, appear 1:0 have little choice of situation, but to grow wherever the young oftset or gemmule happens to drop, whether on tlie rock, on a shell, or on a sea- weed. If two of the same species, growing side by side, come into contact, their edges unite, and the two form one mass, so perfectly one that the most practised eye could de- tect no indication of the line of union. On the con- trary, if the neighbours be of different species, the edges adhere by contact, but there is no union; and both of the contiguous edges will grow up far be- yond their natural level, like wajls striving to over- top each other, until the action of the waves pre- vents the continuance of a mode of growth so un- natural. Dr. Johnston speaks of two species of Sponge which had become so intermingled in growth, without being united, that, being of differ- ent colours, they presented the appearance of a coloured map. The same writer has figured a much- branched species {Halichondria ocidata\ growing on the back of a small crab : the latter has a grotesque (g THE OCEAX. appearance crawling under the perpetual shadow of its own tree, the burden of whose weight, however, was probably more than compensated by the pro- tection it afforded against enemies. A singular little creature, called the Hermit Crab {PaguTiis\ the hinder part of whose body is unpro- tected, except by a soft skin, is endowed with an instinct which prompts it to seek some univalve shells, into Adiich it thrusts its abdomen, henceforth using it as a house. Now there is a species of Sponge found on our coast {H. suherea\ of a corky substance, which grows on the surface of similar shells, overspreading and enveloping them; and it so happens that in the great majority of instances, the Sponge is found upon the individual shells in- habited by the Hermit. Gradually and. insensibly the Sponge grows over' the shell, and at length creeps •round the edge of the lip, and begins to line the inside : the constant motion of the crab, who is very active, retards the growth for awhile, but eventually the Sponge prevails, and the Hermit, finding his pre- mises becoming every day more and more contracted, is at length compelled to seek another lodging. A proceeding very similar to this, but which the Her- mit Crab finds rather to his advantage than discom- fort, takes place in the growth of a species of Coral (Alcyonium echinaturn). This coral also very fre- quently grows on a shell selected for a habitation by the little crab; but as it grows, it does not line the shell, but becomes moulded, as it were, to the form of the enclosed animal, thus increasing the size and commodiousness of the dwelling, and precluding THE SHORES OF LKITAIX. g9 the necessity of quitting the tenement. Mr. Gray remarks on this : — " One can understand that the Crab may have the instinct to search for shells on "Nvhich the coral has begun to grow; but this will scarcely explain why we never find the coral except on shells in which Hermit Crabs have taken up their residence." One of the most pleasing forms that are presented by the Sponges, which are exceedingly various, is that of a cup with a dilated foot ; it is about as large as a tea-cup, but is more funnel-shaped, whence its name {H. infundihuliformis). A similar species from the Indian seas, commonly called Neptune's Cup, though much larger, is inferior to our little goblet in neatness of appearance and sponginess of texture. Our shores abound with examples of those asto- nishing forms of animal life, the Polypes, both simple and aggregated. The former under the names of Animal-flowers, and Sea-anemones, have attracted general admiration from their intrinsic beauty, and from their very close resemblance to composite flowers. AVhen out of water, or • reposing, they usually take a semi-globular shape, adhering by a broad base to the rocks, but some are somewhat lengthened and cylindrical. The centre of the upper surface is depressed, and there is evidently an aper- ture which has been closed. When seeking for prey this orifice opens, by its edges turning inside out, as it were, and dilates, until it is as wide as the base; while from within the lip, or outer rim, protrude a multitude of fleshy rays, called tentacula, arranged in three or four rows extending all round. In the YO THi! OCEAN. centre of the expanding disk is the real month, or opening into the stomach. It is these tentacula, which, spreading around exactly hke the rays of an aster or marigold, give to the Polype so striking a likeness of a flower. These animals are exceed- ingly voracious ; though when closed, you would think them a mere lump of jelly-like flesh, utterly helpless and incapable of any exertion ; yet when the tentacula are all expanded, no small crab, or shrimp, or mussel, can even touch one of them with impunity. From some cause, not thoroughly under- stood, each tentacle has the power of adhering with wonderful tenacity to any object on the slightest con- tact. I have often been surprised at the force re- quired to draw away my finger when I have gently touched one. No sooner, then, has some little shelled Mollusk been thus caught, than instantly other tentacles lay hold of it also, and it is inevitably dragged by their contraction into the mouth. It remains in the stomach a few hours, when the shell, entirely cleared of all the meat, is vomited through the mouth, there being but one orifice to the body. The Polype is capable of great dilatation, wdiich en- ables it to swallow an animal even much larger than the ordinary dimensions of its own body. A very curious instance of this I shall presently mention; but first I must allude to that which forms the most wonderful feature in its history, the power of repro- ducing any parts that have been cut off. To so great an extent does this power prevail, that even if cut into many parts, each separate part will put forth the parts wanting, and soon become a complete THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. •yl animal. For example, if, with a sharp knife, a Po- lype be cut into two by a horizontal section, midway between the tentacles and the base, the upper por- tion will adhere to a rock, close the bottom of the stomach, and take its former shape ; the under part will throw out rudimentary tentacles around the centre, which will soon be in a condition to take food, and the original form and functions will be displayed by this portion also. Na}^, it has even been found that if, as often happens, the animal, being violently removed from its support, leave be- hind any fragments of its base still adhering, each of these torn portions will, in a short time, acquire all the parts of the perfect animal. These powers strongly remind one of vegetable life ; for it is as if one were making cuttings, and consequently new plants, of a fuchsia or verbena. The ordinar}?- mode in which the Polypes continue their race is very plant-like; the young grow from any part of the surface like little buds, and when they have at- tained the form of the parent, drop off; often, how- ever, they are vomited through the mouth. Any of my young readers who live near the coast may easily verify these observations ; but I Av^ould not recommend the artificial mode of increasing the animals, because, though it may well be doubted whether they are susceptible of pain, such experi- ments have an appearance of cruelty at least, which it is well to avoid. In some situations you will find in abundance Actinia geinmacea^ the most lovely of our native animal flowers, which I will describe. When closed, it is of a rounded or sometimes oval *12 THE OCEAN. shape, somewliat flattened, about an inch and a half in diameter, very variable in colour : some- times being of a brilliant scarlet with pale warts, like rows of ornamental beads; at other times it is of a sulphur yellow, or pale green, with stripes of orange colour; and I have seen specimens of a lively rose-pink, studded with green dots. When expanded, it displays three or four circles of ten- tacles, which are rather short and thick, and varie- gated with white and red in alternate rings. Sometimes, by imbibing a large quantity of water, it becomes distended to twice its usual dimensions, and is then nearly transparent. There is an in- stinct displayed by this species, which one would not expect to find in a creature of so low an organ- ization, and which is w^orthy of our admiration, as showing how mindful the gracious Creator and Preserver is of His creatures' well-being. Such individuals as have taken up their residence upon the half-submerged rocks, where the daily recess of the tide exposes them to observation, are covered with rough warts, and blotched with dusk}^ brown and dull orange, and are coated with fragments of shells, sea-weed, and gravel, which adhere to the skin by a glutinous secretion, so strongly as not- to be washed off; and being thus veiled, the ani- mals defy detection. On the other hand, those specimens which live in deep water, as if aware that the necessity for concealment no longer ex- ists, have nothing of the kind, their skins are smooth and naked, and adorned with the vivid tints which make this species -so beautiful. The THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. «K3 Actinia are easily procured, and kept alive a long time in sea-water without difficulty ; in a glass vessel their beauty is displayed to advantage, need- ing only the precaution of supplying them with pure sea- water every two or three days at most, or they will throw off their skin in ragged pieces, become discoloured, and die. They are capable of very long fasts, although, as I observed before, vo- racious enough when food is to be obtained. Dr. Johnston tells us of a specimen of the A, gemmacea once brought to him, *'that might have been ori- ginally two inches in diameter, and that had some- how contrived to swallow a valve of Peden maximus (the great Scallop) 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 ; 3^et, instead of emaciating, and dying of atrophy, the animal had availed itself of what undoubtedly had been a very untoward accident, to increase its enjoyments and its chances of double fare. A new mouth, fur- nished with two rows of numerous tentacula, was opened upon what had been the base, and led to the under stomach : the individual had indeed be- come a sort of Siamese twin, but with greater inti- macy and extent in its unions !"" Each of these animal flowers, except in the case of such accidental monstrosities as the one just men- * Brit. Zooph. p. 224. 74 THfi OCEAN. tioned, is a distinct and independent animal; but there are some which, while they possess a general similarity in structure to these, exist only in aggre- gated communities ; many individual Polypes being clustered upon a Somewhat solid body called a Po- lypidom, which is, when alive, clothed with a fleshy coat, believed to be capable of communicating and receiving sensations to or from all the Polypes. The teat-shaped bodies, familiarly called by the fishermen Cow's-paps, when simple, and Dead-rrian's toes, when branched, is a common example; the Alcyoniuin digitatum of zoologists. It consists of a leathery substance, capable of contraction, studded with orifices, whence project little stars with eight rays, which are the expanded tentacles of the small Polypes that inhabit the hollows. Those beautiful productions, the Corals, some of which I may have occasion to notice hereafter, are also formed gn the same model. They have generally a more solid stem, partaking of the nature of stone, and branch out in imitation of shrubs. The stony or horny centre is, however, clothed with gelatinous flesh, in which, as in the former instance, hollows occur at intervals, occupied by minute star-shaped Polypes. The warty white coral (Gorgonia verrucosa)^ not uncommon with us, is of this structure, havino' a stony skeleton; but in the beautiful Sea-fan (G. JlabeUurn\ the skeleton shows more the texture of bone, or perhaps of horn ; it is black, but is clothed with flesh of a yellow colour, or sometimes purple. From the ramifications being very numerous, and uniting with each other at short intervals, like the THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 15 meslies of a net, this species is a very beautiful one. Its polypes, as in the other instances, have eight tentacles. This is exceedingly rare, though it has occurred on the British shores. But more singular than either of these is the form of a Polypidom, often brought up by fishermeu attached to their baits, and by them called Cocks'- comb, or rather more appropriately, Sea-pen {Pen- natula phosphor ea\ It very closely resembles a Sea-fan {Gor^nia flabellum), and Sea-pen {Pennatula phosphor ea). broad feather from two or three inches in length, and of a purplish colour. The lower part is cy- lindrical, or nearly so, and represents the quill, and the tip of this is tinged with orange. Above this the stem is fringed on each side with very re- gular, flat, dentated processes, diminishing gradually 76 THE OCEAN. to the tip, representing the vane. Along the upper edge of each of these pinnce are phiced the cells, inhabited by minute, white, eight- rayed Polypes. The stem contains a long, needle-shaped bone, very slender at each extremity, which is bent backwards so as to form a hook. Some authors have affirmed that the Sea-pen swims freely in the sea by the waving motion of its pinnce ; but modern observa- tions tend to throw discredit on this statement, wdiich in itself seems improbable: the fishermen affirm that it abides with its stem inserted in the mud at the bottom ; and those which have been kept for observation have remained at the bottom of the vessel, without any apparent power of even ^turning over on the other side. This species, as its scientific name imports, is one of the many ani- mals that inhabit the sea, which are endowed with the faculty of producing light : in this instance, it appears from experiments that the power is exerted as a means of defence, as only when injured or irri- tated does the animal give out its light, which is of a faint-bluish cast. Its sudden illumination at the bottom of the sea may have the effect of terrifying some of its enemies, and of thus protecting it from the dangers to which its otherwise helpless frame would be exposed. THE SHOEES OF BETTAT?T. CONTINUED. There is one aspect in wliich; if we view the sea, it speaks eloquently the beneficence of God to man ; namely, as the source from whence he draws an inex- haustible supply of wholesome and nourishing food. And there is no nation more favoured in this respect than Great Britain : the seas which surround us are stocked with a vast variety of fishes, the great ma- jority of which are eatable. From the form of our coasts, there is always at some part access to the sea, the wind which locks up the ports of one coast leaving others free ; the numerous boys, harbours, and inlets offer a refuge to which to run in unfa- vourable weather, as well as a market for the dis- posal of the produce taken; while the bold and hardy character of our population qualifies them to take advantage of a proffered source of profit, though not unattended with risk. Accordingly, we find that the fisheries afford to this country a revenue of great value ; and an immense quantity of cheap animal food is produced by them, the. importance of which can hardly be overrated. The prosperity of Holland is notoriously founded upon the zeal, in- dustry, and success with which her sons have prose- cuted the herring-fishery ; a fact which is announced g2 77 78 TITE OCEAN. in the Avell-kuown Diitcli saying, ^'The city of Am- sterdam is built upon herriug-bones :" and though, from the superiority of our internal resources, we are not compelled to give so undivided an atten- tion to the scaly tenants of the deep as they have been, we may still assert, that on a similar base stand many of our important seaport towns. Let us then examine these finny tribes, which come so strongly recommended to our notice, and see if we cannot dis- cover in their formation and economv evidences of that all-pervading wisdom and goodness of which we have had occasion before to speak. An intelligent observer can scarcely fail to be struck Avith the perfect adaptation of fishes for swift motion through a dense fluid. The form most suited for rapid progression is that of a spindle, swelling in the middle and tapering to the extremities : and this is the general form of fishes. The variations from this normal shape are comparatively rare, and con- sist chiefly in the lengthening of the body, as in the Eels, or in widening its diameter perpendicularly, as in the Flat-fishes, or horizontally, as in the Skates. But in these cases, and similar ones, the exceptions are made to suit variations in habits, for the Skates and Flat-fishes are intended not for rapid swimming, but for lying flat upon the botton:|; while the worm- like form of the Eels enables them to insinuate them- selves with facility through the mud and ooze, or even to leave the water and crawl upon the shore. Still, however, in both the usual form is to be traced, the central part of the body being the widest and the extremities being pointed. The facility of THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. »;'9 motion possessed by fishes is partly dependent on their simplicity of figure, the absence of those pro- minent limbs which project from the bodies of most other vertebrate animals; the head, without any visible neck, merging into the rounded body, which terminates in the tail in an almost unbroken out- line, for the fins are usually so slight and mem- branous in their texture as scarcely to diminish this unity of form. The smooth and glittering armour, in which these animals are for the most part in- vested, tends to the same end. Feathers or fur w^ould greatly impede progress through water; and as the tribe of fishes are what is commonly called cold-blooded, or of nearly the same temperature as the fluid that surrounds them, those non-conductors of heat would be of no service, the animal heat ne- cessary for existence not being liable to be abstracted. In place of those clothing substances, the fish's body is encased in a coat of mail formed of many pieces of similar shape, of a transparent horny sub- stance, which are imbedded in the skin on the side next the head, and overlap the succeeding ones at the posterior edge, like the tiles of a house. It is obvious how beautifully and effectually this formation precludes any impediment in swimming, arising from the free edges of the scales. These are so closely pressed on each other, that the water cannot penetrate, and are covered, moreover, in many fishes with a glutinous slime, which water does not dissolve. The scales of fishes afford objects of very beautiful structure when viewed with a mi- croscope. They are various in their form; those 80 THE OCEAX. from different parts of the body not being Quite alike even in the same fish. They are not per- fectly flat, but take the form of a very flattened cone, of which the apex is usually a little behind the middle. Between this point and the edge there is a great number of concentric flutings, too fine, as well as too near each other, to be readily counted ; and it is presumed that each of these lines indicates a stage in the growth of the scale; that the scale is in- creased, perhaps annually, or perhaps oftener, by a deposit of horny matter on the surface next the skin, each of which deposits exceeds in diameter that which preceded it, by a very minute amount on every Scales of Fishes. side. The concentric lines are often traversed by other lines, diverging with great regularity from the apex. The edges are sometimes cut into points, scallops, or waves, of exquisite symmetry; the sur- face is often variously sculptured; and the whole presents a specimen of the most elaborate workman- THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 81 ship, worthy of the Divine hand that formed it. The scales of some fishes are so minute as to be with difficulty distinguishable; such as those of the Eel: to procure these for microscopical examination, ^'take a piece of the skin of the Eel that grows on the side, and while it is moist spread it on a piece of glass, that it may dry very smooth ; when thus dried, the surface will appear all over dimpled or pitted by the scales, which lie under a sort of cuticle, or thin skin: this skin may be raised with the sharp point of a penknife, together with the scales, which will then easily slip out, and thus you may procure as many as you please.""^ The limbs of fishes differ greatly in appearance from those of terrestrial animals ; consisting, as to the portion external to the body, of slender spines, sometimes cartilaginous and jointed, at others bony and simple, united by means of a thin membrane stretched from one to the other. Generally there are two pairs on the under part of the body, which are called the pectoral and the ventral fins, and re- present respectively the fore and hind legs of qua- drupeds, or the wings and feet of a bird. Besides these, there are one or more perpendicular fins along the back, called the dorsal, and one below the body, tiear the tail, called the anal ; but the main instru- tnent of motion is the broad, perpendicular fin, which terminates the body, often called the tail, but, more correctly, the caudal or tail fin. To rightly under- stand the motions of a fish, we must bear in mind that it is immersed in a fluid which is of little less * Martin's Micrographia Nova, p. 29. 82 THE OCEAX. specific gravity tbaa its own body ; but in order to regulate its own weigiit, it is provided with an in- ternal bladder, filled with air, and furnished with muscles for its compression or expansion: by the former process rendering its body heavier, and by the latter lighter than the water. It is true there are many fishes which are destitute of the air-bladder; but these are, for the most part, ground fishes, which reside habitually upon the bottom, rarely swimming to any distance. The tail, as was observed, is the grand organ of progression; and most of the muscles of the body are so inserted upon the joints of the spine as to give the greatest possible energy to the motions of this organ. Its expansion is vertical, and its motion is only horizontal, from right to left : so that, striking the water on either side with great force, the fish shoots rapidly forward in the direction of the line of the body, but cannot, by its means, ascend or descend. The direction of a fish's motion is go- verned by the pectoral and ventral fins, which aid, likewise, in balancing the body, and obviate the tendency to turn belly uppermost, a position which a dead fish assumes, from the weight of the muscular back being superior to that of the hollow and air- filled belly. There is considerable diversity in the depth of water which different species of fishes habit- ually inhabit; and this depends, in a great measure, on the position of the ventral fins. Such as mainly reside at or near the surface have them so placed that the centre of the body shall fall nearly midway between them and the pectorals. Those whose habits lead them to range to great distances without any material THE SHORES OF BRITAII^. 83 change in their depth of water, have the ventral fins placed far back on the belly, as the Herring and the Salmon ; while thq^e which feed at the bottom in deep water, but yet have considerable power of swimming, such as the Cod, require the ventrals to be situated near the head, sometimes even in advance of the pec- torals, in order to act with rapidity and effect upon the fore part of the body, which is usually heavy in such fishes. The Flat-fishes and Skates, in which the ventrals are little developed, and the Eels, in which they are wanting, rarely quit the ground, but grovel on the mud in shallow water. Many fishes have cer- tain spines of the fins developed into stiff and for- midable weapons, and others have equally effective armour placed upon the gill- covers, the sides of the body or the tail. With these, which are usually jointed, and which the fish has the power of erecting stifHy, and of directing with considerable precision, it sometimes inflicts severe wounds on the incautious fisherman, as well as on its opponent, in the battles with its own kind, which often occur. The little Stickleback {Gasterosteus\ which abounds all round the coast, as well as in our fresh waters, is armed with sharp spines on the back and sides, which it wields like a perfect tyrant. '' When a few are first turned into a tub of water, they swim, about in a shoal, apparently exploring their new habitation. Suddenly one will take possession of a particular corner of the tub, or, as it will sometimes happen, of the bottom, and will instantly commence an attack upon his companions ; and if any one of them ven- tures to oppose his sway, a regular and most furious 84 THE OCEAN. battle ensues; the two combatants swim round and round each other with the greatest rapidity, biting, and endeavouring to pierce each^ other with their spines, which on. these occasions are projected. I have witnessed a battle of this sort which lasted several minutes before either would give way; and when one does submit, imagination can hardly con- ceive the vindictive fury of the conqueror ; who, in the most persevering and unrelenting way, chases his rival from one part of the tub to another, until fairly exhausted with fatigue. They also use their spines with such fatal effect, that, incredible as it may ap- pear, I have seen one during a battle absolutely rip his opponent quite open, so that he sank to the bot- tom, and died. I have occasionally known three or four parts of the tub taken possession of by as many other little tyrants, who guard their territories with the strictest vigilance, and the slightest invasion in- variably brings on a battle.""^ The Sting-rays {Try- gon\ which are furnished with a hard and sharp spine with toothed edges, near the base of the tail, are ac- customed to twist their long and flexible tail around their enemy, while they inflict severe wounds with the barbed spine. The Common Skates {Ea{a\ on the other hand, which have the tail studded with rows of curved horny thorns, when irritated, are said to bend the body nearly into a circle, and to dash about the armed tail with violence in all directions. The goodness of God is manifest in the gregarious habits of most of those fishes which constitute an im- portant article of human food, in the innumerable * Mag. Nat. Hist. iii. 329. THE SHOKES OF BRITAIN. 85 individuals of whidi the shoals are composed, and in the fecundity by which the populousness of these shoals are maintained. Nine millions of eggs have been ascertained to exist in the roe of a single Cod, and the hosts of this, and other species, which during the fishing-season crowd our shores, are utterly be- yond human calculation. These swarms were for- merly believed to perform vast annual migrations in military order from the Polar regions in spring, and . back again to their homes " beneath the ice" in the autumn. The groundlessness, and even absurdity of this notion has been shown, and it is now generally known, that the fishes are at no part of the year more than a few miles distant from the coast, but that on the approach of warm weather an unerring instinct teaches them, as by common impulse, to seek the shallows near the shore, in order to deposit their spawn within the vivifying influence of the summer sun. This grand business of life being ac- complished, they again retire, not to the Arctic ice, but to the deep water of the ofl&ng, where they may again rove in freedom and conscious security. And this is an admirable ordination of Divine Provi- dence, that these tribes are thus periodically brought within the reach of man precisely at the season when they are in the highest condition, and there- fore most wholesome, as well as most agreeable. For they come from the deep water fat, and in full health and vigour; but after having spawned they return sickly and poor, to recruit their ex- hausted strength. The Herring family {Glupeadce\ including the 8(5 THE OCEAN. common Ilcrring, the Pilcliard, the Sprat, tlie Shad, &;c., are the most important objects of our fisheries, and particidarly the first-named two species. The fisliery for the Pilchard is carried on almost exclusively in the counties of Cornwall and Devon ; the Herring is more generally diffused, but the greatest numbers taken are on the shores of Scot- land and the adjacent islands. Some idea of the commercial importance of these two animals may be formed from the facts, that between three and four hundred thousand barrels of Herrings are sometimes cured in a single year in Great Britain alone, besides all that are sold while fresh ; and that ten thousand hogsheads of Pilchards have been taken on shore in one port in a single day, " thus providing," says Mr. Yarrell, ^^ the enormous multitude of twenty-five millions of livino; creatures drawn at once from the ocean for human sustenance." The slioals of Herrings are occasionally known to approach the shore with so headlong an impetuosity as to be unable to regain deep Avater, and are stranded upon the beach in im- mense numbers. Mr. Mudie has described such an incident. " The rocky promontory at the east end of the county of Fife, ofl* which there lies an exten- sive reef or rock, sometimes has that effect, and there have been seas [seasons ?] in which, when the difficul- ties of the place were augmented by a strong wind at south-east, that carried breakers upon the reef, and a heavy surf along the shore, the beach for many miles has been .covered with a bank of Herrings several feet in depth, which, if taken and salted when first left by the tide, would have been Avorth many THE SHOEES OF BRITAIN. 8Y thousands of pounds, but wliich, as there was not a sufficient supply of salt in the neighbourhood, Avere allowed to remain putrefying on the beach until the farmers found leisure to cart them away as manure. One of these strandings took place in and around the harbour of the small town of Crail only a few years ago. The water appeared at first so full of Herrings that half a dozen could be taken by one dip of a basket. Numbers of people thronged to the water's edge, and fished with great success ; and the public crier was sent through the town to proclaim that ^' caller herrin," that is^ Herrings fresh out of the sea, might be had at the rate of forty a penny. As the water rose the fish accumulated, till numbers were stunned, and the rising tide was bordered with fish, with which baskets could be filled in an instant. The crier was, upon this, instructed to alter his note, and the people were invited to repair to the shore, and get Herrings at one shilling a cart-load. But every successive wave of the flood added to the mass of fish, and brought it nearer to the land, which caused a fresh invitation to whoever might be inclined to come and take what Herrings they chose gratis. The fish still continued to accumulate till the height of the flood, and when the water began to ebb, they remained on the beach. It was rather early in the. season, so that warm weather might be expected ; and the effluvia of many putrid fish might occasion disease; therefore the corporation offered a reward of one shilling to every one who would remove a full cart-load of Herrings from that part of the shore which was under their jurisdiction. The fish being 38 THE OCEAN. immediately from the deep water, were in the highest condition, and barely dead. Alt the salt from the town and neighbourhood was instantly put in requi- i^ition, but it did not suffice for the thousandth part of the mass, a great proportion of which, notwith- standing some not very successful attempts to carry off a few sloop-loads in bulk, was lost."^ The Herring appears on our shores in the middle of summer, but seems to approach the coast of Scot- land earlier ; for in Sutherland the fishery commences in June, and in Cromarty even so early as May, while the Yarmouth season rarely begins till Septem- ber. They are taken chiefly by means of drift-nets, and by far the majority are cured : in the first part of the season, however, they are often so rich as to be unfit for salting, and these are sold for consumption while fresh. About the month of November the shoals spawn, and are then unfit for eating, and the iishery ceases. As is universally known, there are two modes of curing this fish, producing what are called white and red herrings. The former requiring only to be placed in barrels Avith salt, the process can be performed in the fishing-craft ; consequently the vessels for this fishery are larger, being qualified to keep the sea. Eed herrings, however, require a lauch more elaborate process, which cannot be per- formed on board, and the procuring of them is essen- tially a shore fishery. The Yarmouth men confine themselves to this branch. They sprinkle the fish Avith salt, and lay thein in a heap on a stone or brick lloor, where they remain about six days ; they are *■ Brit. Naturalist. THE SHORES OE BRITAIN. 89 Yarmouth Jetty, in the Herring Fishery. then washed, and spitted one by one on long wooden rods, which pass through the gills ; great care is re- quired that they may not touch each other as they hang; the rods are then suspended on ledges, tier above tier, from the top of the house to within eight feet of the ground; a fire is then kindled and fed with green wood, chiefly oak or beach, and main- tained with occasional intermissions, for about three weeks, or, if the fish are intended for exportation, a month ; the fire is then extinguished, and the house allowed to cool, and in a few days the herrings are barrelled. 2h 90 THE OCEAN. Next in importance to the members of the above valuable family is the Mackerel, the most elegantly- beautiful of the finny tribes that throng our shores. It is in season earlier than the Herring, usually appearing in spring, and the fishery is prosecuted in May and June, as in the latter month it spawns. It occurs in most abundance in the southern part of the kingdom, the coasts of Kent and Sussex beiug the chief stations of the fishery. The Mackerel is taken principally by nets, which are so set as to arrest the fish while roving about during the night ; many, however, are taken by means of the hook, the fa- vourite bait being a strip of flesh cut from the tail of a fresh Mackerel, or, in default thereof, a bit of red cloth: the fish bite most readily when the boat is sailing rapidly before the wind. The value of this fish depends, in a more than common degree, on its freshness; and hence it is important that no time be lost in conveying it to market. Fast-sailing boats are therefore kept in readiness to convey the cargoes to London as soon as caught, which usually find it advantageous to secure the aid of steam in ascending the river, as the loss of a single tide may diminish the value of the cargo one half, or even render it utterly unsaleable. During the season, not less than one hundred thousand are thus brought to Billings- gate per week. The preceding species, coming in swarming shoals into the shallow waters, are usually taken by nets; but the Cod, another very valuable fish having dif- ferent habits, is taken singly, by hook and line. It does not appear that the Cod is gregarious from THE SHOUES OF BRITAIN. 91 Mackerel-boat OFF Hastings. choice; or in any other sense than that of many individuals independently actuated by a similar mo- tive, flocking to any place where food is plentiful. The Cod rarely comes into the shallows; but haunts the deep water, feeding at the rocky bottom, on marine worms, Crustacea, and shelled moUusca. It is a voracious fish. Mr. Crouch records having taken thirty-five crabs, none of them less than a half-crown piece, from the stomach of a single Cod : his greedi- ness is often his own destruction and the fisher- man's advantage, for it induces him readily to seize the bait. It is most abundant on the north and west coasts of Scotland, but is taken in consider- able plenty all round the coasts of our island. In 92 THE OCEAN. some of the Ilebricles there are large pools for the preservation of sea-fishes, hollowed out of the solid roek, and communicating with the sea b}^ narrow clefts at high tide. Great numbers of Cod-fishes are kept in these vivaria, and are fed with various garbage, or the bodies of other fishes. The stock is replenished by casting in such individuals as are but slightly injured by the hook in fishing, while small ones, or such as are lacerated, are thrown into the same receptacle, as food for their more fortunate brethren. There are two modes of capturing the Cod with the hook : the one is with what are called in Cornwall bulters, which are long lines, to which are attached, at regular distances, other lines six feet in length, each bearing a hook; the intervals are twice the length of the small lines, to prevent their intertwining; these are shot across the course of the tide. The other mode is by hand-lines, of which each fisherman holds two, one in each hand, and each line bears two hooks at its extremity, which are kept apart by a stout wire going from one to the other. A heavy leaden weight is attached near the hooks, and thus the fisherman feels when his bait is oft' the ground. He continually jerks them up and down, and is thus aware of a fish the moment it is secured. Although this seems a somewhat tedious process of fishing compared with the im- nTense drauglits of the net, it is found in skilful hands to be productive : eight men on the Dogger- bank have taken eighty score of Cod in a day. It is a heavy fisii : Pennant records one Avhich weighed 781bs., but this was a giant ; it was sold at Scar- THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 93 borough for one shilling ! The fish are brought to the mouth of the Thames in stout cutters, furnished with wells, in which they remain alive; hence they are sent up in portions to Billingsgate by the night tide. The cutters lie at Gravesend ; for if they were to advance any higher up the river, the ad- mixture of fresh water would kill the fish in the wells. The liver of the Cod is not the least va- luable part of its body, because it melts almost entirely away into a clear oil, much used in manu- factures. There is a family of fishes familiar to us, which are worthy of a moment's notice, not only on ac- count of their importance as objects of commercial speculation, but for their singular and unparalleled deviation from the ordinary structure. These are the Flat-fishes (^Pleuronectidoe)^ comprising the Tur- bot. Plaice, Sole, and some others. Their form is very deep, but at the same time yevy thin, and they are not constituted to swim as other fishes do, Avith the back uppermost, but lying upon one side. They reside wholly upon the bottom, shuffling along by waving their flattened bodies, fringed with the dorsal and anal fins ; and as they are somewhat sluggish in their movements, they need concealment from ene- mies. ^ This is afforded to them by the side which is uppermost being of a dusky-brown hue, undis- tinguishable from the mud on which they rest ; and so conscious are they where their safety lies, that when alarmed, they do not seek to escape by flight, like other fishes, but sink down close to the bottom, and lie perfectly motionless. Even the practised 94 THE OCEAX. eye of the turbot-fislier, with his powers sharpened by interest, fails to detect a fish when thus con- cealed ; and he is obliged to have recourse to another sense, tracing lines upon the mud with an iron- pointed pole, that the touch may discover the latent fish. In the structure of the head, again, there is a peculiar and very remarkable provision for the Tttrbot-boat off Scarborough. wants of the creature. If the eyes were placed as in all other animals, one on each side of the head, it is plain that the Flat-fishes, habitually grovelling in the manner described, would be deprived of the sight of one eye, which being always buried in the mud, would be quite useless. To meet this difia- culty, the spine is distorted, taking, near the head, a sudden twist to one side ; and thus the two eyes THE SHOEES OF BRITAIIS^. 95 are placed on the side which is kept uppermost, where both are available. The inferior side of a Flat-fish is always white. The Turbot is the most highly esteemed of this family, and perhaps of all our fishes, the flesh being of very delicate flavour. The Sole is also a valuable fish. Both of these spe- cies are taken chiefly by trawl-nets, but the former is also caught with the hook. The Crustaceous and Testaceous classes afford employment to a considerable number of our po- pulation, and demand our brief attention. Of the former, the chief species selected for food in this count];y are, the Crab, the Lobster, the Prawn, and the Shrimp. Both our salt and fresh waters, how- ever, contain multitudes of other species, some of which are exceedinoflv curious in structure and form. The Crustacea^ like insects, have no internal skeleton ; but instead of it, are encased in a jointed framework, resembling the plate armour of our forefathers, of a texture between shell and bone. The muscles which move the body are attached to the interior of this crust, as our muscles are attached to the bones. The body consists mainly of two parts; the fore-division contains the head and chest, co- vered with a large single plate, and the hinder, the belly covered with several smaller plates^ joined by a tough skin^ and lapping over each other. As this shelly covering is possessed by the animal from its very birth^ it is natural to inquire how it can pos- sibly increase 'in size, seeing it is enclosed in an unjdelding prison. In the Tortoises, which are somewhat similarly encased, the difficulty is met gg THE OCEAN. by a periodical addition to the interior surface of every plate a little wider in diameter than the one before, thus enlarging the capacity of the aggre- gated plates, together with the enlargement of each plate; and this, as I have already observed, is the mode by which the scales of a fish grow. But from the shape and size of the plates on a Crab or a Lobster, and especially of the great one that en- velops the chest, this mode of growth would not answer the purpose. Another contrivance is re- sorted to, of a character perfectly unique ; one of those contrivances that meet ns at every turn in the study of Nature, and that make it so interest- ing and instructive, as manifesting the infinite re- sources of the Mighty God. When the Crustacean finds that from its increasing size it is bound and pressed by its shelly covering, it retires to some hole or cranny for protection, becomes sickly, and refuses to eat. After pining awhile, the softer parts separate from the inside of the crust, even the muscles becoming detached from the skeleton, and take "up a much smaller bulk than before : a thick skin forms over this soft body, replacing the crust, and then the great shield of the chest is thrown off unbroken, and the other plates of the body follow. This seems plain: but it is not so easy to understand how the process is completed. Every one w^ho has looked at a Crab's claw, knows that in a healthy animal it is filled wdth flesh, that the inside is capacious, but that the joints are very small : now, how is the animal to get its flesh freed from this capacious boot ? One would readily say, THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 97 by splitting it into two portions; but on examining the cast-off claws, which are frequently met with, no split or separation can be discovered. The ques- tion is not yet satisfactorily solved; but I believe that through the wasting away of the limbs from sickness and fasting, they become so diminished in size as to be drawn even through the narrow ori- fices of the joints. Every part of the old shell being thus thrown off, antennae, eyes, jaws, and all, the animal fills its body with water, dilating all the parts to a size much exceeding that of the old shell, which the new skin, yet soft and flexible, readily permits. It is necessary that this inflation of the body should take place when newly freed, bacause the skin immediately begins to grow rigid, by lime being deposited in its substance secreted within the body, and rapidly takes the texture and consistence of the shell just rejected. The appetite now returns, and abundance of food soon restores the enlarged animal to its wonted vigour. The Crabs, of which there are many species, have the shield of the chest very large and fiat, and usuall}' wider than long : the plates of the belly are small, and folded under the body out of sight. The great pincers or claws have considerable muscular power, and are covered, especially at the extremities, with a shell of almost stony hardness. The Crab wields these formidable weapons with much dexterity, and if he obtains a grasp, holds his opponent with perse- vering tenacity, so that he is not to be despised in single combat» Mr, Mudie tells an amusing anec- dote illustrative of this habit. "We remember/' 98 THE OCEAN. sajs he, " an instance in which, but for timely assist- ance, the corporation of a royal borough would have been deprived of its head, through the retentive clutching of a Crab. The borough alluded to is situated on a rocky part of the coast, where shell-fish are so very abundant that they are hardly regarded for any other purpose than as bait for the white fisheryo The official personage was a man of leisure; and one favourite way of filling up that leisure was he capture of Crabs, which, after much ca:re, he had learned to do by catching them in the holes of the rocks, so adroitly, as to avoid their formidable pin- cers. One day he had stretched himself on the top of a rock, and thrusting his arm into a crevice below, got hold of a very large Crab; so large, indeed, that he was unable to get it out in the position in which it had been taken. Shifting his position in order to accommodate the posture of his prey to the size of the aperture, he slipped his hold of the Crab, which immediately made reprisals by catching him by the thumb, and squeezing with so much violence, that he roared aloud. But though there be a vulgar opi- nion, of course an unfounded one, that Lobsters are apt to cast their claws, through fear, at the sound of thunder or of great guns, the thundering and shout- ing of the corporation man had no such efiect upon the Crab. He would gladly have left it to enjoy its hole ; but it would not quit him, but held him as firmly as if he had been in a vice ; and though he rattled it against the rocks with all the power that he could exert, which, pinched as he was by the thumb was not great ; yet he was unable to get out THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 99 of its clutches. But, ^ticle waits for no man,' even though his thumb should be in a Crab's claw ; and so the flood returned, until the greater part of the arm was in water, and the ripple even beginning to mount to the top of the rock, which, as the tides were high at that particular time, was speedily to be at least a fathom under water ; and destruction seemed inevitable. A townsman who had been fol- lowing the same fishery with an iron hook at the end of a stick, fortunately came in sight; and by intro- ducing that, and detaching the other pincer of the Crab, Avhich is one of the common means of making it let go its hold, he restored the official personage to land and life."'^ The fisherman, however, prefers another mode of taking Crabs, than by seeking them in their rocky retreats. He uses pots made of wicker-work, with an opening in the top,- made by the ends of the rods, bent inwards, and converging towards a point; their elasticity allowing a Crab to enter readily enough, but causing them to spring back to their first posi- tion when he is in, presenting only their converged points when he wishes to escape ; the entrance being in the top of the pot, moreover, he cannot well get at it when once inside. Some decaying animal mat- ter is put in by way of bait, which is an unfailing temptation to the Crab's palate, and the pot is sunk in deep water by means of a heavy stone. A line attached to a float on the surface of the water, marks the situation of each pot, and prevents mistakes as to property. * Brit. Naturalist, i. 279. 100 THE OCEAN. Crab-pots. The Lobster is caught in the same manner as the Crab, and both are in great demand for the delicacy of their flesh. A very large proportion of those eaten in England are brought from Norway. At first there does not seem much in common in the form of these two animals, except that both are fur- nished with pincers; but on examination, we shall find that both are constructed on the same model. The shield of the chest, which was broad and flat in the Crab, is long and arched in the Lobster ; and the belly, which was thin, small, and folded out of sight, under the body, is in the latter much larger, and though bent, may be extended, and is terminated by fringed horny plates like a fin ; the antennae, or THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 101 horn-like processes of the head, are very long. Thus we perceive, and there are many other examples which might be adduced, that it has pleased God to vary the forms of created beings, not by making each on a separate and independent plan, but by creating certain forms, which are viewed as types or models, and varying the parts, common to many spe- cies, in detail. The one mode would have been as easy as the other ; there can be no gradations of faci- lity in creation to Omnipotence ; but doubtless He had wise ends in view in thus proceeding, though we may fail, from ignorance, in discerning them. Pro- bably one reason may have been the formation of one harmonious whole out of the multitude of living creatures, which could not have been formed had every one been essentially different from all others. But, as it is, we see that deviations in structure and form are gradual, that one species varies but little from a certain type, another varies a little more, and so on ; thus connecting each with each in a most beautiful order, something like the manner in which the links of a chain hang from each other, or perhaps still more, like an immense number of circles, so arranged as to touch other circles in many parts of their circumference. Goldsmith flippantly asserts, that the Shrimp and the Prawn '' seem to be the first attempts which Nature made when she medi- tated the formation of the Lobster.'^ Such expres- sions as these, however, are no less unphilosophical than they are derogatory to God's honour; these animals being in an equal degree perfect in their kind, equally formed by consummate wisdom, inca- 102 THE OCEAN. pable of improvement, each filling its own peculiar place in its own circle, which the others could not fill. The Shrimper. The Shrimp and Prawn, like the Lobster, have the extremity of the body furnished with broad overlap- ping plates, strongly fringed, which, expanding in the shape of a fan, constitute a powerful fin. The body, a little behind the middle, has a remarkable bend downwards, though it may be brought nearly straight. Their m.otion when swimming is very swift, and in a backward direction, and is performed by striking the water forcibly with the tail-fin, the THE SHORES OF BRITAIlSr. 103 body being in a bent position. The Lobster is said to project itself thus, by a single impulse, upwards of thirty feet, and to dart through the water with the fleetness of a bird upon the wing. The Shrimp frequents the shallows, and congregates in numerous shoals, which leap from the surface, as I have often seen. The capture of them is often left to the children of the fishermen, who, wading in the shoal water, with a net fixed at the end of a pole, take them with much ease. Under the appellation of Shell-Jish are familiarly included animals having little connection with each other, and still less with fishes. The Fish, the Crab, and the Oyster belong, in fact, to three of the grand sections into which the animal kingdom is distri- buted; and though the last two agree in being in- vested with what is, in common parlance, called "a shell," yet the crust of the one bears no analogy in form, structure, or composition to the shell of the other. Again: those animals which, like the Oyster, are covered with trae calcareous shells, differ greatly from each other: some, as the Periwinkle and the Whelk, being animals of much higher grade in the scale of development than others, as the Oyster or Scallop. The former crawl wTth ease on a broad fleshy disk, as we have all seen in the case of the garden Snail, an animal closely allied to them; they have a distinct head, with tentacles, jaws, and often with eyes; but the latter have no power of crawling, being, for the most part, confined to one spot, no head, no eyes, no tentacles, and no jaws, but are shut up within their two shells, which can be opened 104 THE OCEAN. only to a small extent during the life of the animal. Yet we must not for a moment suppose that these creatures are unhappy, or that the meanest occupant even of a bivalve shell is not supplied with every- thing that could conduce to its welfare. It is siN alone that is the source of unhappiness. I will just point out one or two particulars in which the Divine care for these creatures is manifest. All of them have the vital parts of the body protected by a thick fleshy coat, somewhat projecting at the edges, called the mantle : the surface of this organ has the power of forming the shell, by depositing stony matter in a sort of glutinous cement, which soon hardens into a thin layer of shell. If a little piece were broken off the edge of the shell of a Whelk, when alive, the animal would press the surface of the mantle against the fracture, and pass it several times over the place ; a very thin transparent film would then be seen to fill up the space, which in the same way it would increase in thickness, until in a few days we could scarcely distinguish the renewed part from the other, or tell that the shell had been broken, except, perhaps, by a slight variation in colour. As the ani- mal grows, it wants- a larger shell; and the mantle affords the means of increasing its size : the front edge of this organ is thicker than the rest, and is called the collar ; and it is by thrusting this round the edge of the shell, while stony matter is poured out from its surface, that an addition is made to it. In the Bivalves, or those whose shells open and shut like the covers of a book, as the Oyster, the mantle is twofold, covering the body on each side, just within THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 105 each shell. Instead of a collar, each leaf of the mantle is here fringed with a series of delicate fleshy threads, which secrete the exterior part of the shell, by being thrust out round the edge ; while the whole surface of the mantle deposits the beautiful, rainbow-tinted, pearly substance with which the interior is coated. Instead of the fleshy belly on which the Univalves glide along, the Bivalves are furnished with a pecu- liar organ, which in some species serves the purpose of motion. The Oyster, however, and some other species, have no power of changing their position, but are, as it were, cemented to the rock on which the spawn first chanced to fall. The Mussel, again, is fastened, but in a different manner, being moored by a cable of silken threads, which it spins from its own body. But the Cockle, which is eaten by the poor on many of our shores, is enabled to move with considerable rapidity by means of the organ to which I have just alluded. It is somewhat like a tongue, and can assume a great variety of shapes. The Cockle burrows in the mud : having lengthened and stiffened its tongue or foot, it pushes it as far as it can reach into the lyiud ; then bending the tip into a hook, it forcibly contracts it, and thus brings its body, shell and all, into the hole. The Razor-shell, a shell common on sanely beaches, of a long narrow form, has this power still more remarkably deve- loped. Many of the islands which stud the sea around the north and west coasts of Scotland are remarkable for the stern grandeur of their precipitous cliffs. One might almost imagine that the surges of the mighty lOG THE OCEAN. Atlantic, dashing against them for ages with iiu- brokeu fury, had undermined their solid foundations, and worn for themselves numerous passages, leaving only columnar rocks of vast height, detatched from one another, though of similar formation and con- struction. Such a rock is the Holm of Xoss, appa- rently severed from the Isle of Noss, from \vliich it is about a hundred feet distant; but t!io clilYs ai-e of stupendous height, and far below, in the narrow gorge, the raging sea boils and foams, so that the beholder can scarcely look downward Avithout horror. But stern necessity impels men to enterprises, from which the boldest would otherwise shrink : to obtain a scanty supply of coarse food for himself and fomily, the hardy inhabitant of the Orkneys dares even the terrors of the Holm of Noss. lu a small boat, with a companion or two, he seeks the base of the cliff; and leaving them below, he fearlessly climbs the pre- cipice, and gains the summit. A thin stratum of earth is found on the top, into which he drives some strong stakes ; and having descended and performed the same operation on the opposite cliiT, he stretches a rope from one to the other, and tightly fastens it. On this rope a sort of basket, called a cradle, is made to traverse, and the adventurous islander now commits himself to the frail car, and suspeniled between sea and sk)", hauls himself backward and forward by means of a line. And do you ask what prize can tempt man to incur such fearful hazard, lavish of his life? It is the esrcrs and vouns; of a sea- bird, the fishy taste and oily smell of whose flesh would present little gratification to any whose senses THE SHORES r.x^ BRITAIN. 10^ were not made obtuse by necessity. The Gannets and Gaillemots dwell in countless myriads on these naked rocks, laying their eggs and rearing their progeny wherever the suriEace presents a ledge suf- ficiently broad to hold them. Their immense numbers render them an object of importance to the inhabitants of these barren islands, who derive from them, either in a fresh state or salted and dried, a considerable portion of their sustenance. In some other situations the fowlers have recourse to a still more hazardous mode of procedure. The cliffs are sometimes twelve hundred feet in height, and fearfully overhanging. If it is determined to proceed from above, the adventurer prepares a rope, made either of straw or of hog's bristles, because these materials are less liable to be cut through by the sharp edge of the rock. Having fastened the end of the rope round his body, he is lowered down by a few comrades at the top to the depth of five or six hundred feet. He carries a large bag affixed to his waist, and^ pole in his hand, and wears on his head a thick cap, as a protection against the frag- ments of rock which the friction of the rope per- petually loosens ; large masses, however, occasionally fall and dash him to pieces. Having arrived at the region of birds, he pro- ceeds with the utmost coolness and address; plac- ing his feet against a ledge, he will occasionally dart many fathoms into the air, to obtain a better view of the crannies in which the birds are nest- ling, take in all the details at a glance, and again shoot into their haunts. He takes only the eggs lOS THE OCEAN. and young, the old birds being too tough to be eaten. Caverns often occur in the perpendicular face of the rock,. AvLich are fovourite resorts of the fowls; but the only access to such situations is by disengaging himself from the rope, and either hold- ing the end in his hand, while he collects his booty, or fastening it round some projecting corner. I FowLiXG IN Orkney. have heard of an individual, who, either from choice or necessity, was a'ceustomed to go alone on the^e expeditions: supplying the want of confederates above by firmly planting a stout iron bar in the THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 109 earth, from which he lowered himself. One day, having found such a cavern as I have mentioned, he imprudently disengaged the rope from his body, and entered the cave with the end of it in his hand. In the eagerness of collecting, however, he slipped his hold of the rope, which immediately swung out several yards beyond his reach. The poor man w^s struck with horror ; no soul was within hearing, nor was it possible to make his voice heard in such a position; the edge of the cliff so projected that he never could be seen from the top, even if any one were to look for him; death seemed inevitable, and he felt the hopelessness of his situation. lie remained many hours in a state bordering on stupe- faction; at length he resolved to make one effort, which, if unsuccessful, must hi fatal. Having com- mended himself to God, he rushel to the margin of the cave and sprang into the air, providentially succeeded in grasping the pendulous rope, and v;as saved. Sometimes it is thought preferable to make the attempt from below : in this case, several approach the base in a boat; and the most dexterous, bearing a line attached to his body, essays to climb, assisted by his comrades, who push him from below with a pole. When he has gained a place where he can stand firmly, he draws up another with his rope, and then another, until all are up, except one left to manage the boat. They then proceed in exactly the same manner to gain a higher stage, the first climbing and then drawing up the others : and thus the3^ ascend till they arrive at the level of the birds, 110 THE OCEAN. when they collect and throw down their booty to the boat. Sometimes the party remains several days on the expedition, sleeping in the crannies and caverns. This mode is attended with peculiar hazard ; for as a man often hangs suspended merely from the hands of a single comrade, it occasionally happens that the latter cannot sustain his weight, and thus lets him fall, or is himself drawn over the rock, and shares in his companion's miserable death. Guillemot and Gannet. The object of these daring adventures, which bring to mind the words of Shakspeare, ''Half wny down Hangs one that gathers samphire — dreadful trade V* is chiefly the Guillemot ( Uria TroUe\ a bird some- THE SHORES OF BllTTAIX. Ill •what like tlie Penguin, but with a pointed beak. The Gannet {Sula Bussana) is of the Pelican tribe, and is confined, at least in large congregations, to one or two localities: of Avhich the principal are the Bass Eock on the east coast of Scotland, and Sfc The Bass Rock. Kilda, the most western of the Hebrides. On these rocky isles they assemble in such countless hosts that they can only be compared to a swarm of bees, or to a shower of snow, the air being filled with them. The inhabitants of the latter isle are said 112 TTTE OCEAN. to consume twenty-two thousand of the 3'onng birds every year, besides eggs. They are powerful birds upon the wing, and pursue with much eagerness the shoals of herrings and pilchards, on which they pounce with the perpendicular descent of a stone. Buchanan conjectures that the Gannets destroy more than one hundred millions of herrings an- nually. In flying over Penzance some years since, a Gannet's attention was arrested by a fish lying ou a board. According to custom, down he swooped on the prey; but his imprudence cost him his life; and it was found that from the impetus of his de- scent, the bill had quite transfixed the board, though an inch and a quarter in thickness. The fishermen take advantage of this habit, to allure the bird to its destruction; for they fix a fresh herring to a board, and draw it after a sailing boat with some rapidity through the waves; by which many are killed in the manner just narrated. The apparatus by which this bird is furnished for its aerial powers, as well as for aiding its arrowy descent, is very beau- tiful and instructive. Professor Owen, by inserting a tube into the windpipe, was enabled to inflate the whole body with air, and found that air-cells com- municating with each other, pervaded every part, separating even the muscles from each other, and isolating the very vessels and nerves; and penetrat- ing the bones of the wing. A large air-cell was found to be placed in front of the forked-bone, or clavicles, which was furnished with muscles, whose action was instantaneously to expel tlie air, and thus in a moment to deprive the bird of that buoyancy, THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 113 SO necessary for its flight, but equally detrimental to its swoop. Ill some interesting observations, by Colonel Mon- tagu, on the habits of this bird in captivity, the same fact is noticed. When the bird was placed on the water of a pond, nothing could induce him to at- tempt to dive, and from the manner of his putting the bill, and sometimes the whole head, under water, as if searching for fish, it appears that the prey is frequently so taken. It is probable more fish are caught in their congregated migrations, when the shoals are near the surface, than by their descent upon wing; for the herrings, pilchards, mackerel, and other gregarious fishes, cannot at that time avoid their enemy, who is floating in the midst of profu- sion. In the act of respiration there appears to be always some air propelled between the skin and the body of this bird, as a visible expansion and contrac- tion is observed about the breast ; and this singular conformation makes the bird so buoyant that it floats high on the water, and does not sink beneath the surface, as observed in the cormorant and shag. The legs are not placed so far behind as in such of the feathered tribe as procure their subsistence by im- mersion; the Gannet, consequently, has the centre of gravity placed more forward ; and when standing, the body is nearly horizontal, like a goose, and not erect like a cormorant. The Gannet collects a sliglit heap of withered grass and dry sea- weeds, on which it lays and hatches its eggs. They perform this duty by turns, one foraging while the other sits. The roamor, after Q k2 114 THE OCEAN. a predatory excursion, returns to his partner, with five or six herrings in his gorge; these she very complacently pulls out one by one, with much ad- dress. Marten says that they frequently rob each other, and that one which had pillaged a nest, artfully flew out towards the sea with the spoil, and returned again, as if it had gathered the stuff from a different quarter. The owner, though at a distance from his nest, had observed the robbery, and waited the re- turn of the thief, which he attacked with the utmost fury. *'This bloody battle," adds the narrator, "was fought above our heads, and proved fatal to the thief, who fell dead so near our boat, that our men took him up, and presently dressed and ate him." THE AECTIC SEAS, Perhaps in few respects is the character of mo- dern times contrasted with that of antiquity in a higher degree, than in that enterprising spirit which prompts men to penetrate distant regions, submit- ting to unheard-of privations, and braving new diffi- culties and dangers, not only from the stimulus of expected gain, but often from the mere love of knowledge, a desire of gratifying that insatiable and laudable curiosity, in which all science has its origin. The ancient nations, bold and intelligent as they were, knew little of geographical research: pre- cluded from venturing to the north by the dread of frost, and to the south by the scorching heat of the sun, both of which their fears so magnified that they deemed it physically impossible for man to exist in either the one or the other; their expeditions, in peace and war, seem to have been well-nigh bounded by the temperate zone. Thus it happened, that up to the fifteenth century hardly a fourth of the habit- able globe was known to the polished nations of Europe. But then a new era commenced: the dis- covery of one important law, that the magnetized needle points always northward, gave a precision to navigation, and inspired a degree of confidence in the mariner, which soon led to highly interesting and unexpected results. The torrid zone was tra- (115) llg THE OCEAN. versed ; that terrible '' Cape of Storms/'^ the south- ern point of Africa, was doubled ; a new world was discovered in the western hemisphere ; and commer- cial enteprise led the hardy sons of western Europe to dare even the icy horrors of the Poles. Of these the Biscayans seem to have been the first, for we find them engaged in the northern whale fishery as early as the year 1575. Before the end of the six- teenth century, the English had engaged in the same enterprise, fishing first on the coast of North Ame- rica, and after a while in the vicinity of Spitzbergen. The Dutch soon' followed, and other nations were not slow in prosecuting the same lucrative employment. Nature in these regions wears an aspect of awful majesty and grandeur, unrelieved by the softer and gentler beauties which distinguish her in the south. In the islands of these seas no meadows smile in emerald verdure, no waving corn-fields gladden the heart of man with their golden undulations; no songs of jocund birds usher in the morning, nor is the evening soothed vdth the indefinable murmur of myriads of humming insects. All is dreary solitude ; and the death-like silence that pervades the scene, inspires a feeling of involun- tary awe, as if the hardy explorer had intruded into a region where he ought not to be. ' The most northern land known to exist is that of the islands of Spitzbergen, the extreme point of which approaches to within ten degrees of the Pole. The * This was the name given to the extreme point of Africa by its dis- coverer, Bartholomew Diaz : but, on his return to Portugal, King John II. considered the discovery so auspicious, that he changed the name to "The Cape of Good Hope," which it still retains. THE ARCTIC SEAS. II7 coast is generally lofty and precipitous, and is visible in clear weather at a great distance, presenting the peculiar features of Arctic scenery in great perfec- tion. The rocks rise in bold and naked grandeur, their summits shooting into innumerable peaks and ridges, and needles, of fantastic forms, reminding the beholder of the domes and spires of a vast city. Most of these are of dark colours, standing out in bold relief against the sky ; but their appearance is rendered highly picturesque by the vivid contrasts continually presented by the broad patches of un- sullied snow capping their summits, or resting on the ledges and terraces into which their surface is broken, as well as by the glistening accumulations of ice, which fill the valleys nearly to the level of the mountain tops. In approaching the coast in summer, the view is often concealed by the dense fogs so prevalent in that season : suddenly the mist disperses, and these broad contrasts, shown out in startling distinctness beneath a cloudless sun, seem like the sudden creation of a magician's wand. The well-defined outline, and sharp edge of the hues of the picturesque scenery, render it perfectly dis- tinct at a distance at which, in a more southern clime, land would present but a dim and shadowy haze. The objects described may often be clearly seen and well distinguished at the distance of forty miles ; and if, after sailing towards the land for four or five hours before a smart breeze, the atmosphere should become slightly charged with mist, the scene might be apparently even more distant than at first. Thus a phenomenon, reported by one of the earlier 118 THE OCEAN. Danisli navigators, which caused no little astonish- ment, may be readily accounted for. He had made the eastern coast of Greenland, and had been sailing towards it for many hours with a fair wind ; but see- ing that the land seemed to be no nearer, he became alarmed, and immediately shifted his course back to, Denmark, attributing the failure of his voyage to the influence of loadstone rocks, hidden beneath the sea, which arrested, the progress of his vessel. The peculiar stratification of the rocks in these regions often causes them to assume a walled or cas- tellated appearance, the angles being as sharp and clean as if cut with a mason's tool. Some of their forms resemble so strongly the works of art, that one can scarcely believe them to be freaks of nature. A magnificent instance of snch regularity occurs on the coast of Spitzbergen. Near the head of King's Bay, there are seen, far inland, three piles of rock of regular shape, well known to the whalers by the ap- pellation of the Three CroAvns. " They rest on the top of the ordinary mountains, each commencing with a square table, or horizontal stratum of rock, on the top of which is another, of similar form and height, but of a smaller area; this is continued by a third, and a fourth, and so on, each succeeding stratum being less than the next below it, until it forms a pyramid of steps, almost as regular to ap- pearance as if worked by art."'^ The most prominent object in these dreary seas is ice. Even on the land, a large portion of the ground is concealed by perpetually-accumulating ice, while the same substance covers to a great extent the sur- * Scoresby. THE ARCTIC SEAS. 119 face of the ocean. There is scarcely a more beauti- ful object than one of the towering icebergs that so abound in these regions, and that annually come down upon the southern current, into the temper- ate zone. I have seen numbers of these floating islands, of dazzling whiteness, on the coast of New- foundland, whither they are brought every spring out of Baffin's Bay. They do not long endure their transition, but soon melt away in the warm waters of the Atlantic, though they are sometimes seen on the coast of the United States, as far down as Phila- delphia. In watching some small ice-islands, which, having drifted into the ports of Newfoundland, have grounded in shoal water, I have been surprised to observe how very rapid is their dissolution, even in the month of April. Some large ones, however, are frequently seen in the bays of that country,*even in July. They are often of vast dimensions : one seen by RosS; in Baffin's Bay, was estimated to be nearly two miles and a half long, two miles wide, and fifty feet high. Of course this estimate respects only that part which is visible above the surface of the water ; but this is a very small portion of its actual bulk. The relative proportion of the part which is exposed to that which is submerged, varies according to the character of the ice: in Newfoundland the part under water is usually considered to be ten times greater than that exposed, but if the ice be porous, it is not more than eight times greater ; while, on the other hand, Phipps found that of dense ice, fourteen parts out of fifteen sunlc. These floating icebergs are various in form ; sometimes rising into pointed 120 THE OCEAN. spires, like steeples ; sometimes taking the form of a conical hill; sometimes that of an overhanging clift', of most threatening' brow. I have seen some resemble Iceberg seen in Baffin's Bay. the form of a couching lion ; but, perhaps, the most ordinary form is that of an irregular mass, higher at one end than at the other. In the Arctic seas they often present sharp edges and spiry points; but in their progress southward, the gradual influence of climate smooth's their unevenness, and gives their surface a rounded outline. The action of the waves on the portion beneath the surface, undermining the sides and wearing away the projections, continually alters the position of the centre of grnvity; and sometimes the effect of this is to cause the v/hole gigantic mass to roll over with a thundering crash, making the sea to boil into foam, and causing a swell THE ARCTIC SEAS. 121 that is perceptible for miles. When a boat or even a ship is in immediate proximity to an iceberg in such circumstances, the danger is imminent ; but if viewed Swell among Ice. from a secure distance, the sight is a very interesting one. The first iceberg I ever saw, and one of large size, thus rolled about one-third over while I beheld it, entirely altering its apparent form. Sometimes the effect of the wave's action is to cause a large fragment to fall off, or a crack will extend through the whole mass with a deafening report, or the entire iceberg will fall to pieces, and strew the ocean with the fragments, like the remnants of a wreck. Late in the summer they often become very brittle, and then a slight violence is sufficient to rupture them. Seamen avail themselves of the shelter afforded by. L 122 THE OCEAN. ice-islands to moor tlae ship to tliem in storms, carry- ing an anchor upon the ice, and inserting the fluke in a hole made for the purpose. In the state just alluded to, such is the brittleness of the substance, that one blow with an axe is sometimes sufficient to cause the immense mass to rend asunder with fearful noise, one part falling one way, and another in the opposite, often swallowing up the ill-fated mariner, and crushing the gallant bark. Ship beset in Ice. Contact with floating icebergs, when a ship is under sail, is highly dangerous. From the coolness THE ARCTIC SEAS. 123 of the air in their immediate neighbourhood, the moisture of the atmosphere is condensed around them; and hence they are often enveloped in fogs, so as to be invisible within the length of a few fathoms. A momentary relaxation of vigilance on the part of the mariner, may bring the ship's bows on the submerged part of an iceberg, whose sharp needle-like points, hard as rock, instantly pierce the planking, and perhaps open a fatal leak. Many lamentable shipwrecks have resulted from this cause. In the long heavy swell, so common in the open sea, the peril of floating ice is greatly increased, as the huge angular masses are rolled and ground against each other with a force that nothing can resist. These ice-islands are quite distinct in their natiire from the field-ice, which so largely overspreads the surface of the sea, and are believed to be entirely of land formation, consisting of fresh water frozen. The process of their formation is interesting: the glens and valleys in the islands of Spitzbergen are filled up with solid ice, which has been accumulating for uncounted ages; these are the sources from whence the floating icebergs are supplied. Perhaps as long ago as the creation of man, or at least as the deluge, these glaciers began in the snows of winter ; the summer sun melted the surface of this snow, and the water thus produced, sinking down into that which remained, saturated it and increased its density. The ensuing winter froze this into a mass of porous ice, and superadded a fresh surface of snow. The same process again going on in summer, of water percolating through the porous crystals, which in its 124 THE OCEAN. turn was refrozen, soon changed the lowest stratum into a ni.ass of dense and transparent ice. Centuries of alternate winters and summers have thus produced aggregations of enormous bulk. Scoresby mentions one of eleven miles in length, and four hundred feet in height at the seaward edge, whence it slopes up- ward and backward till it attains the height of six- teen hundred feet; an inclined plane of smooth • unsullied snow, the beauty and magnitude of which render it a very conspicuous landmark on that inhos- pitable shore. The upper surface of a land iceberg is usually somewhat hollow,, and during the summer the concavities are filled with pools or lakes of the purest water, which often wears channels for itself through the substance, or is precipitated in the form of a cataract over the edge. The water freezing in fissures thus produced, and expanding wdth irresistible force, tears off large fragments from the outer edge, which are precipitated into the ocean; and high spring tides, lashed by storms, undermine portions of the base, and produce the same effect. The masses thus dislodged float away, and form ice-islands. When newly broken, the fracture is said to present a glistening surface of a clear greenish blue, approach- ing an emerald green ; but of such as I have myself had an opportunity of examining in Newfoundland, the hollows were of the purest azure. ^' On an excursion to one of the Seven Icebergs,^' says Mr. Scoresby, "in Jul}^, 1818, I was particu- larly fortunate in witnessing one of the grandest effects which these polar glaciers ever present. A strong north-westerly swell having for some hours THE ARCTIC SEAS. 125 been beating on the shore, had loosened a number of fragments attached to the iceberg, and various heaps of broken ice denoted recent shoots of the seaward edge. As we rode towards it, with a view of proceeding close to its base, I observed a few little pieces fall from the top; and while my eye was fixed upon the place, an immense column, pro- bably fifty feet square, and one hundred and fifty feet high, began to leave the parent ice at the top, and leaning majestically forward, with an accelerated velocity fell with an awful crash into the sea. The water into which it plunged was converted into an appearance of vapour or smoke, like that from a furious cannonading. The noise was equal to that of thunder, which it nearly resembled. The column which fell was nearly square,* and in magnitude resembled a church. It broke into thousands of pieces. This circumstance was a happy caution, for we might inadvertently have gone to the very base of the icy cliff, from whence masses of considerable magnitude were continually breaking."* " *Tis sunset : to the firmament serene The Atlantic wave reflects a gorgeous scene ; Broad in the cloudless west, a belt of gold Girds the blue hemisphere; above unrolFd, The keen, clear air grows palpable to sight. Embodied in a flush of crimson light. Through which the evening star, with milder gleam, Descends to meet her image in the stream. Far in the east, what spectacle unknown Allures the eye to gaze on it alone ? — Amidst black rocks, that lift on either hand Their countless peaks, and mark receding land ; ♦ Arctic Regions, i. 104. L2 126 THE OCEAN. Amidst a tortuous labyrinth of seas That shine around the arctic Cyclades ; Amidst a coast of dreariest continent, In many a shapeless promontory rent; — 0*er rocks, seas, islands, promontories spread, The Ice-Blink rears its undulated head ; On which the sun, beyond th' horizon shrined. Hath left his richest garniture behind ; Piled on a hundred arches, ridge by ridge, O'er fixed and fluid strides the Alpine bridge, "Whose blocks of sapphire seem to mortal eye Hewn from cerulean quarries of the sky ; With glacier battlements, that crowd the spheres, The slow creation of six thousand years, Amidst immensity in towers sublime. Winter's eternal palace, built by Time. All human structures by his touch are borne Down to the dust; mountains themselves are worn With his light footstep ; here forever grows, Amid the region of unmelting snows, A monument; where every flake that falls Gives adamantine firmness to the walls. The sun beholds no mirror, in his race. That shows a brighter image of his face ; The stars, in their nocturnal vigils, rest Like signal fires on its illumined crest; The gliding moon around the ramparts wheels. And all its magic lights and shades reveals ; Beneath, the tide with idle fury raves To undermine it through a thousand caves. Rent from its roof though thundering fragments oft Plunge to the gulf, immovable aloft, From age to age, in air, o'er sea, on land, Its turrets heighten, and its piers expand."* By far the greatest portion of the ice met with in navigating these seas is of marine formation. During the greater part of the year, in high lati- * Montgomery's ^^ Greenland," p. 61. THE ARCTIC SEAS. 12^ tudes, the process of congelation is always going on at the surface of the sea. If the wind is high, the crystals cannot readily unite into a solid form, but form a spongy mass, called sludge: when this has become somewhat thick, however, the wind can no longer act upon the water, so as to raise little ripples upon it, and the sludge now begins "to catch ;" but the swell prevents one uniform surface being yet formed, and the consequence is, that small rounded plates of ice are produced, called "pan- cakes," the edges of which are raised slightly, by the constant pressure of one against another. The cakes in the centre of the freezing mass now begin to adhere to each other, and thus a solid surface is produced, which gradually extends both its dia- meter and its depth. The individual pieces of which such ice is composed are distinctly to be traced, even when perfectly consolidated, and pre- sent an appearance resembling pavement. But in calm weather, a thin pellicle of ice is simulta- neously produced over the whole surface of the sea, and the formation of the ice-field is much more direct and obvious. Single fields have been seen many leagues in length, and occupying an area of several hundred square miles; being at the same time from three to six feet high, and from ten to twenty deep. The waves produced by storms break up these fields into smaller pieces, called floes, and driving one against another with violence, the edge of one is often lifted upon the other by the force of the pressure, and hummocks or hills, of various shapes and sizes, are raised upon 128 THE OCEAN. them. Ice-fields often acquire a rotatory motion; and when Ave consider the immense weight of these ponderous masses, we shall have an idea of the irresistible impetus communicated by such a body in motion. Scoresby calculates one mentioned by him at ten thousand millions of tons : no wonder, that coming in contact with a vessel, her iron knees and oaken timbers should be crushed like a walnut, or that she should be lifted clean out of the water by the pressure, and placed high and dry upon the ice ! From this cause arise many of the accidents which give to the navigation of the Arctic sea its peculiarly- hazardous character. When the temperature of the atmosphere is about two or three degrees above the freezing-point, a surface of ice, if placed in a horizontal plane, will melt, not by a general dissolution of its substance, but so as to leave a multitude of perpendicular columns, or needles. In the late attempt to reach the North Pole by boats hauled over the ice. Cap- tain Parry found ice in this condition productive of no little inconvenience. At the very commencement of the journey we find it thus noticed: — "June 26. — A great deal of the ice over which we passed to-day presented a very curious appearance and structure, being composed, on its upper surface, of numberless irregular, needle-like crystals, placed vertically, and nearly close together; their length varying, in diiferent pieces of ice, from five to ten inches, and their breadth in the middle about half an inch, but pointed at both ends. The upper sur- face of ice having this structure, sometimes looks THE ARCTIC SEAS. 129 like greenish velvet ; a vertical section of it, which frequently occurs at the margin of floes, resembles, while it remains compact, the most beautiful satin spar ; and asbestos, when falling to pieces. At this early part of the season, this kind of ice afforded pretty firm footing ; but as the summer advanced the needles became more loose and movable, ren- dering it extremely fatiguing to walk over them, besides cutting our boots and feet — on which ac- count the men called them penknives."* The Cap- tain attributes this peculiar structure to the heavy drops of rain piercing their way downwards through the ice, and separating it into needles. There is no phenomenon that more forcibly brings before the mind of a stranger the novelty of his position, than the absence, on entering within the Arctic Circle, of that constant alternation of day and night, which we are accustomed to consider as inseparable from the constitution of our world. We have learned this fact in our elementary treatises on Geography, but yet it is difficult to realise to the mind a perpetual day, an unsetting sun. When the sun's disk is obscured by a fog, it is no uncom- mon thing for sailors to ask each other if it be night or day : and Phipps, on his return voyage, thought the sight of a star an occurrence of sufficient mo- ment to be inserted in his journal. " August 24th. — We saw Jupiter: the sight of a star was now become almost as extraordinary a phenomenon as the sun at midnight, when we first got within the Arctic Circle." Our voyagers usually seek the^ * Narrative of an Attempt, THE OCEAN. jexigency; tlie mouth has no teeth^ but from each •upper jaw proceed more than three liundred horny plates, set parallel to each other, and very close; they run perpendicularly downwards, are fringed ou the inner edge with hair, and diminish in size from the central plate to the first and last, the central one being about twelve feet long. The plates are com- monly called whalebone^ and their substance is well known to everybody; they form an important object of the fishery. The lower jaw is very deep, like a vast spoon, and receives these depending plates, the use of which is this: when the Whale feeds, he swims rapidly just under or at the surfoce, with his mouth wide open; the water with all its contents rushes into the immense cavity, and filters out at the sides between the plates of the whalebone, which are so close, and so finely fringed, that every particle of solid matter is retained. Though the Whale, like all other Mammalia,, is formed for .breathing air alone, and is therefore ne- cessitated to come to the surface of the sea at certain intervals, yet those intervals are occasionally of great length. We well know that we could not intermit the process of breathing for a single minute without great inconvenience, and the lapse of only a few mi- nutes would be followed by insensibility and perhaps death. The Whale, however, can remain an hour under water, or, in an emergency, even nearly two hours, though it ordinarily comes up to breathe at intervals of eight or ten minutes, except when feeding, when it is sometimes a quarter of an hour, or twenty minutes submerged. Now the object of breathing THE ARCTIC SEAS. 147 is to renew the vital qualities of the blood by l)resenting it to the air, the oxygen in which uniting with the blood renders it again Tit for sustaining life. But if more blood could be oxj^genized at once than is wanted for immediate use, and the overplus deposited in a reservoir until wanted, respiration could be dispensed with for a while. This is actually what the wisdom of God has contrived in the Whale. The exhausted blood, which is returned by the veins, having been renewed by its communication with the air in the lungs, is carried to the heart, whence only a part is carried away into the system, the remainder being received into a great irregular reservoir, con- sisting of a complicated series of arteries, which first lines a large portion of the interior of the chest, then insinuating itself between the ribs, forms a large cushion outside of them near the spine, and also within the spinal tube, and even within the skull. The blood thus reserved is poured into the system as it is needed, and thus prevents the necessity of frequent access to the surface. It is an object of importance that the act of breath- ing should be performed with as little effort as possible, and therefore the windpipe is made to terminate not in the mouth, nor in nostrils placed at the extremity of the muzzle. If this were the case it would require a large portion of the head and body to be projected from the water, or else that the animal should throw itself into a perpendicular position; either of which alternatives would be inconvenient when swimming rapidly, as, for example, endeavouring to escape when harpooned. The .windpipe, there- 148 THE OCEAN. fore, eommunicates with the air at the very top of the head, which, by a peculiar rising or hump at that part, is the very highest part of the animal when horizontal, so that it can breathe when none of its body is exposed except the very orifice itself. The Whale often begins to breathe when a little below the sur- face, and then the force with which the air is expired blows up the water lying above in a jet or stream, which with the condensed moisture of the breath itself constitutes what are called ''the spoutings," and which are attended with a rushing noise that may be heard upwards of a mile. Some naturalists have maintained that a stream of water is ejected from the blow-hole in the form of an united column, mounting high before it falls again in a shower. But from my own observation on many individuals (seen in the Atlantic), I incline to the former conclusion; as I have invariably seen the ejected matter, instead of forming a column, and falling in a shower, sail away upon the breeze like a little white cloud. These were, I suppose, Eorquals: but what is true of one species, is probably true of all. There are one or two other beautiful cuntrivances connected with the structure of this air-passage, that are well worth no- ticing. In the agony and terror caused by the blow of the harpoon, the Whale usually plunges directly downward into the depths of the sea, and that with such force that the mouth has been found on return- ing to the surface, covered with the mud of the bot- tom ; while in some instances the jaws, and in others the skull, have been fractured by the violence with which they have struck the ground. A Whale has THE ARCTIC SEAS. I49 been known to descend perpendicularly to the depth of a mile, as measured bj the length of line "run out;" where the pressure of the immense body of water above would be equal to a ton upon every square inch. And Mr. Scoresby mentions a case in which a boat that was accidentally entangled was carried down by the Whale, which was presently captured, and the boat recovered by being drawn up with the line; but from the intense pressure, the water had been forced into the pores of the solid oak, so that it was completely saturated, and sunk like lead : the paint came off in large sheets, and the wood thrown aside to be used as fuel, was found to be useless, for it would not burn. A piece of the lightest fir- wood, which was in the boat, came up in exactly the same soaked condition, having totally lost the power of floating. To resist such a pressure as this, the blow-holes of the Whale tribe are closed with a valve-like stopper of great density and elasti- city, somewhat resembling India-rubber, which, ac- curately fitting the orifice, excludes all water from the windpipe, becoming more tightly inserted in proportion to the pressure. But this precaution would be vain, if the structure of the interior of the mouth were the same as in other Mammalia. Usually the windpipe and gullet open into a hollow at the back of the mouth, and the passage to the nostrils proceeds from it likewise. The windpipe passes up in front of the gullet, and the food which passes over the former is prevented from entering it by a lid or valve, which shuts down during the act of swallowing, but at other times is n2 150 THE OCEAN. erect. But if sucli were the construction in the Whale, the force with which the water rushes into the mouth would inevitably carry a large portion of the fluid down upon the lungs, and the animal would be suffocated. The windpipe is therefore carried upward in a conical form, with the aperture upon the top, and this projecting cone is received into the lower end of the blowing-tube, which tightly grasps it ; and thus the communication between the lungs and the air is effected by a continuous tube, which crosses the orifice of the gullet, leaving a space on each side for the passage of the food. It is doubtless to give increased power of resist- ance to the eye of the Whale in the pressure of enormous depths, that there is a peculiar thickness in the sclerotic coat. This is the part which in man is usually called the ivhite of the eye. ^'When we make a section of the whole eye, cutting through the cornea^ the sclerotic coat, which is as dense as tanned leather, increases in thickness towards the back part, and is full five times the thickness behind that it is at the anterior part. The fore part of the eye sus- tains the pressure from without, and requires no ad- ditional support ; but were the back part to yield, the globe would then be distended in that direction, and the whole interior of the eye consequently suffer derangement. We see, then, the necessity of the coats being thus remarkably thickened behind."^ Another no less interesting deviation from ordinary structure is found in the skin; the object still being defence against external pressure. Every one is pro- * Paley's Nat. Theol., Bell and Brougham's edit. p. 40. THE ARCTIC SEAS. 151 bably aware that the body of the Whale is encased in a thick coat of fat, denominated blubber, varying in diameter from eight inches^ to nearly^ two feet in dif- ferent parts of the animal. It has, however, been only recently known that this fat lies not under the skin, but actually in its substance, I shall describe this in the words of Professor Jacob, who first made known this interesting peculiarity: — "That structure in which the oil is deposited, denominated blubber, is the true skin of the animal, modified certainly for the purpose of holding this fluid oil, but still being the true skin. Upon close examination it is found to consist of an interlacement of fibres, crossing each other in every direction, as in common skin, but more open in texture, to leave room for the oil. Taking the hog as an example of an animal covered with an external layer of fat, we find that we can raise the true skin without any difficulty, leaving a thick layer of cellular membrane, loaded with fat, of the same nature as that in the other parts of the body ; on the contrary, in the "Whale it is altogether impossible to raise any layer of skin distinct from the rest of the blubber, however thick it may be; and, in flensing a Whale, the operator removes this blubber or skin from the muscular parts beneath, merely dividing with his spade the connecting cellular membrane.""^ Such a structure as this, being firm and elastic in the highest degree, operates like so much India-rubber, possessing a density and power of resistance which in- creases* with the pressure. But this thick coating of fat subserves other important uses. An inhabitant * Dublin PhiloSc Journ. i. 356. 152 THE OCEAN. of seas where tlie cold is most intense, yet warm- blooded, and dependent for existence on keeping up the animal heat,Hhe Whale is furnished in this thick wrapper with a substance which resists the abstrac- tion of heat from the body as fast as it is generated, and thus is kept comfortably warm in the fiercest polar winters. Again, the oil contained in the cells of the skin being specifically lighter than water,' adds to the buoyancy of the animal, and thus saves much muscular exertion in swimming horizontally and in rising to the surface; the bones, being of a porous or spongy texture, have a similar influence. These few particulars in the physiology of these vast creatures may serve to carry our minds up in adoring wonder to the mercy as well as wisdom of the Lord God Almighty, and may give us a glimpse of the meaning of that glorious truth, "And God saw everything that He had made, and behold it was VERY GOOD." Many other instances of beau- tiful contrivance and design might easily be added, in the construction of the mouth, the eyes, the fins, the tail ; but all would lead us to the same result : and these which I have adduced may be taken as a sample of the rich feast which the study of nature affords to the Christian student. The capture of these immense animals, from their vast strength, the fickle element on which it is pur- sued, and the horrors peculiar to the Arctic regions, is an adventure of extraordinary hazard. The ships, built for the purpose, and strengthened with much oak and iron, leave the northern parts of this country *«xrlv in April, and by the end of the mo^^V. THE ARCTIC SEAS. 163 usually reach the scene of their enterprise. Arrived within the limits of constant day, an unceasing watch is kept for Whales, by an officer stationed in a snug sort of pulpit, called the crow^s-nest^ made of hoops and canvas, and well secured at the main-topmast head. The boats, which combine strength and light- ness, are always kept hanging over the sides and quarters of the ship, ready furnished for pursuit, so that on the appearance of a Whale being announced from aloft, one or more boats can be despatched iu less than a minute. Each boat carries a harpooner, whose station is in the bow, a steersman, and several rowers. In an open space in the bow of the boat is placed a line sometimes more than 4000 feet in length, coiled up with beautiful regularity and scru- pulous care. The end of this is fastened to the harpoon, a most important weapon, made of the toughest iron, somewhat in the form of an anchor, but brought to an edge and point. Instead of steel being employed, as is commonly supposed, the very softest iron is chosen for this important implement, so that it may be scraped to an edge with a knife. A long staff is affixed to the harpoon, by which it is wielded. The boat is swiftly, but silently, rowed up to the unconscious Whale, and when within a few yards, the harpooner darts his weapon into its body. Smarting and surprised, the animal darts away into the depth of the ocean, but carries the harpoon sticking fast by the barbs, while the coiled line runs out with amazing velocity. A sheeve or pulley is provided, over which it passes-; but if by accident it slips out of its place, the friction is so great that 154 _THE OCEAN. the bow of the boat is speedily enveloped in smoke, and instances are not unfrequent of the gunwale even bursting into a flame, or even of the head of the boat being actually sawn off" by the line. To prevent this, a bucket of water is always kept at hand, to allay the friction. Accidents even still more tragic sometimes occur from entanglements of the line. *'A sailor belonging to the John of Greenock, in 1818, happening to slip into a coil of running rope, had his foot entirely cut off, and was obliged to have the lower part of the leg amputated. A harpooner belonging to the Hamilton, when engaged in lancing a Whale, incautiously cast a little line under his foot. The pain of the lance induced the Whale to dart sud- denly downwards ; his line began, to run out from ■under his feet, and in an instant caught him by a turn round the body. He had just time to call out, * Clear away the line. — Oh dear!' when he was almost cut asunder^ dragged overboard, and never seen afterwards.'^ Many such-like anecdotes are on record. When a boat is " fast" to the Whale, a little flag is instantly hoisted in the stern as a signal to tlie ship, and other boats are at once despatched to its assistance. Sometimes, before their help can arrive, the united lines of the boats first sent are all run out, in which case the men are obliged to cut the line, and lose it with the Whale, or the boat would be dragged under water. But generally some of the free boats can approach sufficiently near the animal on his return to the surface, to dart another harpoon into his body; perhaps he again dives, but returns THE ARCTIC SEAS. X55 much exhausted. The men now thrust into his body- long and slender steel lances, and aiming at the vitals these wounds soon prove fatal: blood mixed with water is discharged from the blow-holes, and pre- sently streams of blood alone are ejected, which frequently drench the boats and men, and colour the sea far around. Sometimes the last agony of the victim is. marked by convulsive motions with the tail, attended with imminent danger; but at other times, it yields its life quietly, turning gently over on its side. The flags are now struck, ,three hearty cheers resound, and the unwieldy prey is towed in triumph to the ship. So huge a mass, of course, is slowly moved through the water, but there are few operations that are more joyously performed; it is like the harvest-home of the farmer. When arrived, it is secured alongside the ship, and somewhat stretched by tackles at the head and tail, and the process of flensing commences. The men having shoes armed with long iron spikes to maintain their footing, get down on the huge and slippery carcass, and with very long knives and sharp spades make parallel cuts through the blubber, from the head to the tail. A band of fat, however, is left around the neck, called the hent^ to which hooks and ropes are attached for the purpose of shifting round the carcass. The long parallel strips are divided across into portions weigh- ing about half a ton each, and being separated from the flesh beneath, are hoisted on board, chopped into pieces, and put into casks. When the whalebone is exposed, it is detached by spades, &c., made for the 156 THE OCEAK. purpose, and hoisted on deck in a mass ; it is then split into junks, containing eight or ten blades each. Sometimes the jaws are taken out, and being fixed in a perpendicular position on deck, with the extremi- ties in vessels, a considerable quantity of oil gradu- ally drains from them. The carcass is then cut away as valueless to man, though a valuable prize to bears, birds, and sharks. Sometimes the carcass sinks im- mediately. Mr. Scoresby mentions a case in which it had been cut adrift prematurely, one of the men being still upon it: it began to sink, but unfortu- nately a hook in his boot had a firm hold of the flesh ; he convulsively grasped the side of the boat in which his comrades were, and the whole immense weight was suspended, by his foot. The torture was extreme; it was expected every instant that his foot would be rent ofl^ or that his body would be torn asunder; but presently, by the merciful interposi- tion of God, one of his companions contrived to hook a grapnel into the carcass, and it was drawn suffi- ciently near the surface for him to be extricated. The Whale to which the preceding notices refer, is by no means the largest of the tribe, as the Great Eorqual {Baloenoptera hoops) sometimes attains nearly double the length of the former. Two spe- cimens have been measured of the length of one hundred and five feet, and Sir A. de Capell Brooke asserts, that it is occasionally seen of the enormous dimensions of a hundred and twenty feet The Rorqual inhabits the same seas as the " right" Whale, but is not usually seen in company vnih it; they seem rather to avoid each other. The THE ARCTIC SEAS. 157 thinness of its blubber, and the shortness of its whalebone, render it of far less value than the other species; besides which, its swiftness, strength, and determination, render it a hazardous enemy to en- counter. Hence it is usually avoided by the whalers, though the adventurous inhabitants of the Arctic shores of Europe do not hesitate to attack it. It is worthy of our notice, however, on account of its affording an instance of what has been called, in an examination of the care of Almighty God over his inferior creatures, the principle of compensation, AVhen any organ, or set of organs that answer pur- poses very important in the economy of an animal, are removed in a kindred species with similar habits, or are so modified as no longer to serve the same purpose, some new structure is bestowed upon it, to supply the lack of that which is removed. AYe have seen how the Whale feeds, by receiving into its mouth a large quantity of water, which is filtered through the whalebone. In order to this, the mouth is made very capacious by the bowing over of the upper jaws in the form of a high arch, the blades of whalebone filling up the bow. But in the Eorqual the two jaws are nearly straight, and the blades vary little in length, so that thus far the cavity of the mouth is inconsiderable. Here comes in the com- pensation : the lower part of the mouth (or, exter- nally, the chin and throat), instead of being stretched tightly across the branches of the lower jaw, are wrinkled' up into many longitudinal folds, v/hich, when the water rushes into the mouth, expand and make a capacious pouch or bag. On shutting the 158 THE OCEAN. moutli and contracting the muscles of the tliroat, the flesh is pursed up again into folds, and the water is driven, as in the former case, through the whalebone, which secures the food. The Whales, gigantic as they are, yet having little power of offence, find lo their cost, in common with nobler creatures, that harmlessness is often no resource against violence. Several species of the voracious Sharks make the Whale the object of their peculiar attacks; the Arctic Shark {Scymnus lorealis) is said, with its serrated teeth, to scoop out hemispherical pieces of flesh from the Whale's body as big as a man's head, and to proceed without mercy until its appetite is satiated. Another Shark, often called the Thresher {^Carcharias vulpes\ which is sometimes upwards of twelve feet long, is said to use its muscular tail, that is nearly half its whole length, to inflict terrible slaps on the Whale; though one would be apt to imagine that if this whipping were all, the huge creature Avould be more fright- ened than hurt. The Sword-fish {Xiphias gladius\ however, in the long and bony spear that projects from its snout, seems to be furnished with a weapon which may reasonably alarm even the leviathan of the deep, especially as the will to use his sword, if we may believe eye-witnesses, is in nowise deficient. The late Captain Crow records an incident of this kind with much circumstantiality : " One morning," he observes, "during a calm, when near the He- brides, all hands were called up at 3 am, to witness a battle between several of the fish, called Threshers, or Fox Sharks, and some Sword-fish, on one side, THE ARCTIC SEAS. Igl and an enormous Whale on the other. It was in the middle of summer, and the weather being clear, and the fish close to the vessel, we had a fine opportunity of witnessing the combat. As soon as the Whale's back appeared above the water, the Threshers, springing several yards into the air, descended with great violence upon the object of their rancour, and inflicted upon him the most severe slaps with their long tails, the sound of which resembled the reports of muskets fired at a distance. The Sword-fish, in their turn, attacked the distressed Whale, stabbing from below ; and thus beset on all sides and wounded, when the poor creature appeared, the water around him was dyed with blood. In this manner they continued tormenting and wounding him for many hours, until we lost sight of him; and I have no doubt they, in the end, completed his destruction."*^ Some discredit has been thrown on this and similar accounts, on the ground that the fishes could have no object in persecuting the Whale ; but the circum- stance is not more extraordinary than the well- known custom which little birds have of surround- ing and teasing, or " mobbing," as it is called, any large bird to which they are unaccustomed-. It has been objected, that the Captain describes the proceedings of the Sword-fish from below, when, from the reflecti^on of the surface, he could not pos- sibly see them. But, on the contrary, the incident is said to have occurred ** close to the vessel ;" and any one who has been at sea knows that in a calm, by going aloft, you can see to a great depth in the *" Memoirs of Capt. H. Crow, p. 11. 11 o2 162 THE OCEAN. water. The habit liere attributed to the Sword-fish is confirmed by the frequency with which ships are struck with great violence, most museums possessing fragments of the planking of ships in which the ''sword" of this finny tyrant is imbedded. It is with reason supposed that the dark and bulky hull is by the fish mistaken for - the body of a Whale. The only resource which this gigantic animal has for getting rid of his troublesome foes, is said to be by diving to unfathomable depths, where their structure could not for an instant sustain the enor- mous pressure. Another animal has been accused of joining in these assaults, I suppose from having been con- founded with the Sword-fish. It is the Narwhal, or Sea Unicorn {Monodon monoceros\ a very dif- ferent creature ; in fact, being a first-cousin of the Whale himself. This interesting animal, the beauty of the northern seas, must be acquitted of this charge, being as inoffensive as his great relative. It is a very singular creature, formed in many re- spects like the Whale, but much more graceful. The colour is grey above, and pure white beneath, the whole spotted or mottled with a blackish hue. From the head projects a long straight horn of solid ifsrory, in the same line as the body ; sometimes, but rarely, there are two. The structure and origin of this horn (which has given much celebrity to this handsome creature) are very peculiar. It is, in fact, the tooth, and the only one it possesses in general; the fellow-tooth, however, exists within the bone of the jaw, but undeveloped, lying shut up like the THE ARCTIC SEAS. 1C3 v.»r^._r -^s^-i; Spearing the Narwhal. kernel of a nut. It is usually the left tooth that projects. Considerable uncertainty exists about the use of this long and spiral tusk. Some have sup- posed that it is used to search for food, by raking in the mud at the bottom, or to pierce thin ice at the surface, to obtain access to the air; but Mr. Scoresby appears to have thrown considerable light upon it, by having met with an individual in whose stomach, among the remains of other fishes, was found a skate, almost entire, which was two feet three inches long, and one foot eight inches wide. "Now it appears remarkable," observes this gentle- 164 THE OCEAN. man, "that the Narwhal, an animal without teeth, a small mouth, and with stiff lips, should be able to catch and swallow so large a fish as a skate, the breadth of which is nearly three times as great as the width of its own mouth. It seems probable that the skates had been pierced with the horn, and killed before they were devoured; otherwise it is difficult to imagine hoAv the Narwhal could have swallowed them, or how a fish of any activity would have permitted itself to be taken, and sucked down the throat of a smooth-mouthed animal, without teeth to detain and compress it." We know but little of the true fishes that inhabit the Arctic Seas. It appears, however, that many of the more important of those which are common with us, are common also there; not the subjects of an annual migration, but widely distributed at all times. On the authority of a French naval officer, it would even seem that some species at least may undergo a sort of torpidity. " Admiral Tleville Lepley, who had had his home on the ocean for half a century, as- sured Mo Lacepede that in Greenland, in the smaller bays surrounded with rock, so common on this coast, where the water is always calm, and the bottom generally soft mud and juice, he had seen in the beginning of spring myriads of Mackerel, with their heads sunk some inches in the mud, their tails ele- vated vertically above its level ; and that the mass of fish was such, that at a distance it might be taken for a reef of rocks. The Admiral supposed that the Mackerel had passed the winter torpid, under the ice and snow, and added that, for fifteen or twenty days THE ARCTIC SEAS. 165 after their arrival, these fishes were affected with a kind of blindness, and that then many were taken with the net ; but as they recovered their sight the nets would not answer, and hooks and lines were used."^ In illustration of the great depth to which the eye can penetrate in these seas, from the trans- parency of the water, Captain Wood, who visited Spitzbergen in 1676, observed that, at the depth of four hundred and eighty feet, the shells on the bot- tom were distinctly visible. The minute animals which constitute the food of the Whales, form a very interesting subject of contemplation. If any of my young readers have ever been upon the sea, though only in a boat, a few miles from the shore, they cannot fail to have observed floating in the water some round masses of transparent substance, like clear jelly, which alter- nately contract and dilate their bodies, or sometimes turn themselves, as it were, partly inside out. They are of various sizes, from that of a large plate to a microscopical minuteness; and some are set with rings, within each other, like eyes, and some are curiously fringed at the edge. These Medusce^ or Sea-blubbers, as they are familiarly called, form a considerable portion of the Whale's food, many species of them being abundant in its haunts. An- other little animal occurs there in immense hosts, the Clio borealis, which bears some slight resemblance to a butterfly just emerged from the chrysalis, before the wings are expanded. Near the head there is on each side a large fin or wing, by the motions of * Edin. Juurual ul Science. 166 THE OCEAX. which it changes its place. These motions are amusing; and as the little creatures are so abundant, Food of the Whale: 1, Limacina helicina ; 2, 3, 4, Medusae ; 5, Clio borealia* they make the dreary sea quite alive with their gam- bols as they dance merrily along. In swimming, the Clio brings the tips of its fins almost into contact, first on one side, then on the other: in calm weather they rise to the surface in myriads, for the purpose of breathing, bat scarcely have they reached it before they again descend into the deep. Mr. Scoresby kept several of them alive in a glass of sea- water for about a month, when they gradually wasted away and diedo The head of one of these little creatares exhibits a most astonishing display of the wisdom of God in creation. Around the mouth are placed six tentacles, each of which is covered with aboat three thousand red specks, which are seen by the micro- scope to be transparent cylinders, each containing about twenty little suckers, capable of being thrust out, and adapted for seizing and holding their minute prey, "Thus, therefore, there will be three hundred THE ARCTIC SEAS. Igf and sixty thousand of these microscopic suckers upon the head of one Clio; an apparatus for pre- hension perhaps unequalled in the creation." Numerous as are the hosts of these frolicsome little beings, there are, however, others which vastly exceed them in number; which pass, indeed, beyond the possibility of human computation. Navigators had often noticed, in certain parts of the Arctic Sea, that the water, instead of retaining its usual trans- parency, was densely opaque, and that its hue was grass-green, or sometimes olive-green. It is com- monly known as the "green- water," and though liable to slight shiftings from the force of currents, is pretty constant in its position, occupying about one- fourth of the whole Greenland sea. Mr. Scoresby was the first who ascertained the cause of this pecu- liar hue: on examination he found that the water was densely filled with very minute Medusce^ for the most part undistinguishable without a microscope. He computes that within the compass of two square miles, supposing these animalcules to extend to the depth of two hundred and fifty fathoms, there would be congregated a number which eighty thousand persons, counting incessantly from the Creation un- til now, would not have enumerated, though they worked at the rate of a million per week! And when we consider that the area occupied by this green water in the Greenland seas is not less than twenty thousand square miles, what a vast idea does it give us of the profusion of animal life, and of the beneficence of Him who '^openeth His hand, and satisfieth the desire of every living thing !" Igg THE OCEAN. Several species of minute Crabs and Shrimps occur also in great numbers, and constitute no small portion of the food of the Whale. One little crea- ture, in particular {Carwer nugax\ was found to swarm even beneath the ice, in the temporary so- journ of the discovery expeditions in winter quar- ters. The men had often noticed the shrinking of their salt meat which had been put to soak; and a goose that had been frozen, on being immersed to thaw, was, in the lapse of forty-eight hours, reduced to a perfect skeleton. The officers afterwards availed themselves of the services of these industrious little anatomists, to obtain cleaned skeletons of such small animals as they procured, merely taking the pre- caution of tying the specimen in a loose bag of gauze or netting, for the preservation of any of the smaller bones that might be separated by the con- sumption of the ligamentjs. THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. The Atlantic is much better known to us than any other of the great divisions of the Ocean, be- cause, washing the shores of the principal commerical nations, it has been more traversed and explored. Its edges, on each side, are, in a greater degree than those of any other, hollowed into bays and harbours, and it is connected with the chief inland seas, such as the Baltic, Mediterranean, and Black Seas, on the one hand, and the Gulf of Mexico, and the Bays, or, rather Seas, of Hudson and Baffin, on the other. If, then, the importance of an Ocean is estimated by the length of the line of coast which borders it, the Atlantic takes precedency of all, exceeding even the Pacific in this respect, 'in the proportion of about four to three. It is remarkable, that it is the north- ern half which has so winding a coast, and to whicti, also, are confined the inland seas : and it is this part that is bordered with nations celebrated for naviga- tion and commerce, the maritime nations of Europe and the United States. Unlike the Pacific, whose vast solitudes are rarely broken by the presence of a ship, the Atlantic is continually ploughed by the keels, and spangled with the banners, of powerful empires, conveying from shore to shore those diver- sified commodities, the interchange of which so E (icy) 170 THE OCEAN. • greatly promotes peace and good- will, and is, there- fore, fraught with blessings to mankind. Leaving behind us the inhospitable waters of the north, let us take an imaginary voyage through this important and interesting portion of the great deep, still having an open eye to mark the footsteps of Him whose ^'way is in the sea, and His path in the great waters." The north breeze blows cheerily, though coldly, and the sun, daily attaining a more elevated position at noon, while the pole-star nightly approaches the horizon, tells us of our rapid progress southward. By and by, the shout of " Land ho !" directs our attention to the horizon, where, with straining eyes, we dimly discern w^hat appears to be a faint mass of cloud, of so evanescent a hue, that a landsman looks long in the direction of the sea- man's finger, and yet continues dubious whether anything is really visible or not. Now he says con- fidently, *' Ha ! I caught a glance of it then :'' but presently it turns out that his eye has been directed to a point quite wide of the indicated locality ; and again he slowly but vainly sweeps the horizon with his eye, in search of what the practised vision of the mariner detects and recognises at a glance. Mean- while, the ship rushes on before the cheerful breeze ; we go down to breakfast; and on again coming ou deck, there no longer remains any doubt ; there lies the land on the lee bow, high and blue, and pal- pable. It is one of the Azores ; and as we draw nearer, we discern and admire the picturesque beau- ties by which they are*^ distinguished. The lofty cliffe of varying hues rear their bold heads perpen- THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. l»yl dicularly from the foaming waves, cut and seamed into dark chasms and ravines, through which rocky- torrents find a noisy course, while here and there a little stream is poured over the very summit of the precipice, the cascade descending in a white narrow line, conspicuous against the dark rock behind, until the wind carries it away in feathery spray, long be- fore it reaches the bottom. The sunlight throws the prominences and cavities of the cliffs into broad masses of light and shadow, which, ever changing as the ship rapidly alters her position, give a magic character to the scene. Here and there, on the sides of the hills farther inland, the lawns and fields of lively green, speckled with white villas and ham- lets, and relieved by the rich verdure of the orange- groves, present a softer but not less pleasing pros- pect. Other islands of this interesting group gradu- ally rise from the horizon, all of similar character, but diverse in appearance from their various dis- tance; some showing out in palpable distinctness, and others seen only in shadowy outline. But there is one which, from the singularity of its shape, arrests the attention. A mountain, of a very regularly conical form, seems to rise abruptly from the sea, with remarkable steepness, verdant almost to the summit; it is almost like a sugar-loaf, with a rounded top, crowned by a nipple-like prominence, which is often veiled by clouds. It is the Peak of Pico, seven thousand feet in height, second in celebrity, as in elevation, only to the Peak of Teneriffe. A recent visitor has thus described the picturesque beauty of this oceanic mountain :— -^^ The hoary head n2 THE OCEAN. Pico. of Pico presents a great variety of beauty. One afternoon it was lightly powdered with snow, so as to give it a tint of sober olive ; with a larger quan- tity of frost or snow, and stronger and more direct sunshine, it has looked like dead silver ; at another time it was tipped with fire ; at another it was pavi- lioned in flame-coloured clouds ; — a few light mists wou]d shut it entirely out, or, where transparent, give to it a wan and visionary hue ; and in the even- ing, when the clouds put on a gayer livery, becoming rose-coloured, or purple, or bronzed, the changes and flushes would almost remind you of the variable colours on a pigeon's neck ; or, as a poet has said, 'Of hues thnt blush and glow Like angels* win^'^t-.' "••• Bullars Azores, i. 368. THE ATLANTIC OCKAN. l^^ Some curious traditions are found in the writings of the ancients respecting an island of very large size, believed to have once existed in the Atlantic. Plato, in the Timaeus, gives the fullest account of this island, which was called Atlantis. It is stated to have been nearly two hundred miles in length, situated opposite the Straits of Gibraltar. It was fertile and populous, and some of the warlike chiefs among whom it was divided, are said to have made irrup- tions upon the continent, and to have conquered a considerable part of Eui*ope and Northern Africa. Several other islands are described as situated in the vicinity of Atlantis, beyond which lay a continent superior in size to all Europe and Africa. At length, the whole island is reported to have been swallowed up by the sea; after which, for a long period, that part of the Ocean was of difficult and dangerous navi- gation, on account of the numerous rocks and shelves which lay beneath the surface. There are many cir- cumstances which render it improbable that this story, marvellous as it is, is entirely a fiction. It has been supposed that the great island Avas Cuba, the surrounding ones the other "West Indies, and the great continent America ; and that the cessation of intercourse with these regions, through the decay of naval enterprise, gave rise to the tradition that the island itself had disappeared. But this would not explain the matter-of-fact statement of the rocky shallows^ after the catastrophe ; nor would the dis- tance of Cuba from Europe permit martial invasions of this continent to be readily made from it. ' Others have concluded — and this does not seem to my own p2 1Y4 THE OCEAN. mind inconsistent with probability — that the state- ments of the ancients may be literally true ; that by the action of an earthquake, of which we have had instances in modern times, the island may have been submerged, and that the Azores are the sum- mits of the highest mountains. It seems somewhat to confirm this opinion, that these islands are evi- dently volcanic in their origin, and are very sub- ject to earthquakes, — nay, the very phenomenon of islands swallowed up by the sea has repeatedly oc- curred here within historical record. It is true, that in these instances the island itself was small, and had been but recently raised by volcanic action; but it does not seem necessary that in similar cases there should be an exact parallelism, either in size or duration. The last of these occurrences was so remarkable on other accounts as to be well worthy of a detailed description, which is given by an eye-wit- ness, Captain Tillard, an officer of the British navy : "Approaching the island of St. Michael's, on the 12th June, 1811, we occasionally observed, rising in the horizon, two or three columns of smoke, such as would have been occasioned by an action between two ships, to which cause we universally attributed its origin. This opinion was, however, in a very short time changed, from the smoke increasing and ascending in much larger bodies than could possibly have been produced by such an event; and having heard an account, prior to our sailing from Lisbon, that in the preceding January or February a volcano had burst out within the sea near St. Michael's, we immediately concluded that the smoke we saw pro- THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 175 ceeded from that cause, and on our anchoring the next morning in the road of Ponta del Gada, we found this conjecture correct as to the cause, but not as to the time; the eruption of January having totally subsided, and the present one having only burst forth two days prior to our approach, and about three miles distant from the one before al- luded to." The Captain having proceeded to a cliff on the island of St. MichaeFs, about three or four hundred feet high, from which the eruption was scarcely a mile distant, proceeds to describe its appearance: ^'Imagine an immense body of smoke rising from the sea, the surface of which was marked by the silvery rippling of the waves. In a quiescent state, it had tlie appearance of a circular cloud revolving on the water, lik^e a horizontal wheel, in various and irregular involutions, expanding itself gradually on the lee side; when suddenly, a column of the blackest cinders, ashes, and stones, would shoot up •in the form of a spire, at an angle of from ten to twenty degrees from a perpendicular line, the angle of inclination being universally to windward; this was rapidly succeeded by a second, third, and fourth shower, each acquiring greater velocity, and over- topping tlie other, till they had attained an altitude as much above the level of our eye as the sea was below it. ^'As the impetus with which the several columns were severally propelled diminished, and their as- cending motion had nearly ceased, they broke into various branches resembling a group of pines : these ne THE OCEAN. Submarine Volcano. again forming themselves into festoons of wKite fea- thery smoke, in the most fanciful manner imaginable, intermixed with the finest particles of falling ashes, which at one time assumed the appearance of innu- merable plumes of black and white ostrich feathers surmounting each other; at another, that of the Irght wavy branches of a weeping willow. "During these bursts, the most vivid flashes of lightning continually issued from the densest part of the volcano ; and the cloud of smoke now ascend- ing to an altitude much above the highest point to which the ashes were projected, rolled oif in large masses of fleecy clouds, gradually expanding them- selves before the wind in a direction nearly hori- THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. l^^*J zontal, and drawing up to them a quantity of water- spouts, which formed a most beautiful and striking addition to the general appearance of the scene." In the course of a few hours, a crater had been thrown up by these eruptions, to the height of twenty feet above the sea, and apparently three or four hundred feet in diameter. Eepeated shocks of an earthquake accompanied the explosion. The narrator was obliged to leave the neighbourhood on the succeeding day, at which time the volcanic eruption was seen from a distance to be still raging with undiminished fury. About three weeks after- wards he returned to the spot, and found all quiet, bat the newly -formed island had increased to a mile in circumference, and the highest part appeared to have an elevation of about two hundred and forty feet. On landing, he found the place still smoking, and the larger crater nearly full of water in a boiling state, which was being discharged into the Ocean by a stream about six yards across : this stream, close to the edge of the sea, was so hot, as barely to admit the momentary immersion of the finger.* On the 11th of October, in the same year, this island sank beneath the Ocean from which it had emerged, leaving a dangerous shoal in the neighbourhood, thus realizing the traditionary fate of the island of Atlantis. But let us pursue our voyage. As we follow the getting sun to his bed among the Indian islands of the west, the tedium of our way across the trackless * Trans. Roy. Soc. 1812. 12 1Y8 THE OCEAN. waste is enlivened by those cheerful little birds, the Petrels (Procellaria pelagica\ the constant com- panions of the sailor, by whom they are familiarly named Mother Carey's chickens. They are pecu- liarly Ocean-birds : rarely approaching the shore, except when they seek gloomy and inaccessible rocks for the purpose of breeding ; they are never seen but in association with the boundless waste of waters. Scarcely larger than the swallow that darts through our streets, one wonders that so frail a little bird should brave the fury of the tempest ; but when the masts are cracking, and the cordage shrieking fit- fully in the fierce blast, and when the sea is leaping up into mountainous waves, whose foaming crests are torn off in invisible mist before the violence of the gale, the little Petrel flits hither and thither, now treading the brow of the watery hill, now sweeping through the valley, piping its singular note with as much glee as if it were the very spirit of the storm, which the superstitious mariner, indeed, attri- butes to its evil agency. Flocks of these little birds^ more or less numerous, accompany ships, often for many days successively, not, as has been asserted, to seek a refuge from the storm in their shelter, but to feed on the greasy particles which the cook now and then throws overboard, or the floating sub- stances which the vessel's motion brings to the sur- face. It is a pleasing sight to see them crowd up close under the stern with confiding fearlessness, their sooty wings horizontally extended, and their tiny web-feet put down to feel the water, while they pick up with their beaks the minute atoms of food THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 1^9 of whicli they are in search. I have been surprised to notice how very quickly a flock will collect, though a few moments before scarcely one could be seen in any direction ; and again they disperse as speedily. They seem to have the power of dis- pensing with sleep, at least for very long intervals. "Wilson, one of the most accurate of observers, has recorded a fact illustrative of this : " In firing at these birds, a quill-feather was broken in each wing of an individual, and hung fluttering in the wind, which rendered it so conspicuous among the rest, as to be known to all on board. This bird, notwith- standing its inconvenience, continued with us for nearly a weeh^ during which we sailed a distance of more than four hundred miles to the north." Of course, if this individual had gone to sleep, the vessel would have sailed away, and we can hardly imagine that it would have again found her in her pathless course. I do not believe they have ever been known to alight on the rigging or deck of a ship. It is a pity that so interesting a little creature as this should become the object of a degrading and meaningless superstition. The persuasion that they are in some mysterious manner connected with the creation of storms, is so prevalent among sea- men, as to render them, innocent and confiding as they are, objects of general dislike^ and often even of hatred. I once made a voyage with a captain, who, though a man of much intelligence, was not proof against this absurd superstition, venting hearty execrations against these "devil's imps/' as he called IgO THE OCEAN; them, in every gale, as if tliey had been the mali- cious authors of it. If this unoffending little bird does afford any indication of a coming storm, dis- covered by its more acute perceptions, which, never- theless, I very much doubt, why should not those who navigate the Ocean, receive its warning with gratitude, and make preparations for security, instead of following it with profane and impotent curses ? *^ As well might they curse the midnight lighthouse that, star-like, guides them on their watery way, or the buoy that warns them of the sunken rocks below, as this harmless wanderer, whose manner informs them of the approach of the storm, and thereby enables them to prepare for it." A frequent relief to the tedium of a long voyage is found in the shoals of playful Dolphins {Del- phinus delphis^ has no need of being a botanist to recognize the torrid zone on the mere aspect of its vegetation ; and, without having acquired any notions of astronomy, he feels he is not in Europe, when he sees the immense con- stellation of the Ship, or the phosphorescent clouds of Magellan, arise on the horizon. The heaven and the earth, everything in the equinoctial regions, as- sume an exotic character."* But of all the constellations that stud the sky of the southern hemisphere, there is none that more strikes a stranger than the Southern Cross. Its beauty, as well as the singularity of its form, cannot fail to inspire interest; even though we be, through the grace of God, furnished with ideas of true and spiritual worship, that prevent our viewing it with the superstitious reverence with which it is regarded by the inhabitants of South America. It is not seen above the horizon until we are within the tropics, and scarcely appears to advantage until we approach the equator. As the two brilliant stars which form the top and bottom of the Cross, have * Personal Narrative, 1814. Vol. ii. p. 18. THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. I93 nearly the same, right ascension, they assume a per- pendicular positiou when upon the meridian; and hence afford an accurate mode of measurino; time: The Southern Cross. as the hour of southing at the different seasons, vary- ing four minutes every night, is well known to tlie inhabitants of the southern hemisphere. It is very common to hear the peasants observe one to another, *'It is after midnight'' (or some other hour); "the Cross begins to fall!" Alone, in the midst of the ocean, called to nightly watchings upon the deck, the mariner naturally becomes familiar with the glowing orbs which are revealed by the surrounding darkness; and if he be a Christian, his thoughts are led out, as he lifts 13 194 THE OCEAN. up his eyes on liigb, and beholds the stars marshal- led in order, or the moon "walking in brightness/' to Him that "created these things, that bringeth uut their host by number, and calleth them all by names.'' For ''the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth His handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech; and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor lan- guage, where their voice is not heard." Between, or in the neighbourhood of the tropics, the ship is rarely unaccompanied by fishes of many species, which, in the clear waters of these southern seas, are visible many fathoms beneath her keel. CoRYPHBNE (Corifphcena), One of the most common, and perhaps one of the most beautiful, is the Coryphene {Coryphcena\ mis- called by seamen, the Dolphin. One is never weary THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. I95 of admiring their beauty. Their forin is deep, but thin and somewhat flattened; and their sides are of brilliant pearly white, like polished silver. In small companies of live or six, they usually appear and play around and beneath the ship, sometimes close to tlie surface, and sometimes at such a depth that the eye can but dimly discern their shadowy out- line. When playing at an inconsiderable depth, in their turnings hither and thither, the rays of the sun, reflected from ther polished sides, as one or the other is exposed to the light, flash out in sudden gleams, or are interrupted, in a very striking man- nei'. Night and day these interesting creatures are sp(^rting about, apparently insusce])tib]e of weari- lu^ss. Their motion is very rapid, wlien tlieir powers arv' put forth, as in pursuit of the timid little Flying- fish. It is to these fishes that most of the accounts of Dolphins, which we read in voyages, must be referred, as, owing to some mistake of identity, not easily accounted for, the name of Dolphin has been universally misapplied by our seamen to the Coryphene, while they confound the true Dolphin with the Porpesse. From not adverting to this habitual misnomer, some confusion has arisen: thus the following interesting notice has been quoted in a late valuable work on the Cetacea,"^ as illustra- tive of the true Dolphins, although the fair nar- rator herself takes care to inform us that she means the Coryphcena hiiopuris: "The other morning, a large Dolphin, which had been following the ship for some distance, and was sparkling most gloriously ♦Jaxdine'a Naturalist's Library. 196 THE OCEAX. in the sun, suddenly detected a shoal of Flying-fish rising from the sea at some distance. AVith the rapidity of lightning he wheeled round, made one tremendous leap, and so timed his fall as to arrive fairly at the place where our little friends, the Fly- ing-fish, were forced to drop into the sea to refresh their weary wing. A flight of sea-gulls now joined in the pursuit; we gave up our proteges for lost, when, to our great joy, we beheld them rising again, for they had merely skimmed the wave, and, thus recruited, continued their flight. Their restless foe pursued them with giant strides, now cutting the wave, which flashed and sparkled with the reflection of his brilliant coat, and then giving one huge leap, which brought him up with his prey: they seemed conscious that escape was impossible; their flight became shorter and more flurried, whilst the Dolphin, animated by the certain prospect of success, grew more vigorous in his bounds; exhausted, they drop- ped their wings, and fell one by one into the jaws of the Dolphin, or were snapped up by the vigilant Gulls."^ Captain Basil Hall has described a very similar scene in nearly parallel terms; but, to prevent mis- understanding, he also informs his readers that "the Dolphin" of his narrative is the Coryplicena liippuris of naturalists, and a true fish. "Shortly after observing a cluster of Flying-fish rise out of the water, we discovered two or three Dolphins [Coryphenes] ranging past .the ship, in all tb^ir beauty; and watched with some anxiety to * Miss Lloyd's Sketches of Bermuda. THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. I99 see one of those aquatic chases, of which our friends the Indiainen had been telling us such wonderful stories. We had not long to wait; for the ship, in her progress through the water, soon put up another shoal of these little things, which, as the others had done, took their flight directly to wind- ward. A large Dolphin, which had been keeping company with us abreast of the weather gangway, at the depth of two or three fathoms, and, as usual, glistening most beautifully in the sun, no sooner detected our poor, dear little friends take wing, than he turned his head towards them, and, darting to the surface, leaped from the water with a velocity little short, as it seemed, of a cannon-ball. But, although the impetus with which he shot himself into the air gave him an initial velocity greatly exceeding that of the Flying-fish, the start which his fated prey had got, enabled them to keep ahead of him for a considerable time. "The length of the Dolphin's first spring could not be less than ten yards; and, after he fell, we could see him gliding like lightnings through the water for a moment, when he again rose and shot forwards with considerably greater velocity than at first, and, of course, to a still greater distance. In this manner the merciless pursuer seemed to stride along the sea with fearful rapidity, while his bril- liant coat sparkled and flashed in the sun quite splen- didly. As he fell headlong on the water, at the end of each huge leap, a series of circles were sent far over the still surface, which lay as smooth as a mirror. 200 THE OCEAN. "The group of wretched Flying-fish, thus hotly pursued, at length dropped into the sea; but we were rejoiced to observe that they merely touched the top of the swell, and scarcely sunk in it ; at least, they instantly set off again in a fresh and even more vigorous flight. It was particularly interest- ing to observe, that the direction they now took was quite different from the one in which they had set out, implying but too obviously that they had detected their fierce enemy, who was following them with giant steps along the waves, and now gaining rapidly upon them. His terrific pace, indeed, was two or three times as swift as theirs, poor little things ! "The greedy Dolphin, however, was fully as quick-sighted as the Flying-fish which were trying ' to elude him; for, whenever they varied their flight in the smallest degree, he lost not the tenth part of a second in shaping a new course, so as to cut off the chase; while they, in a manner really not un- like that of the hare, doubled more than once upon their pursuer. But it was soon too plainly to be seen that the strength and confidence of the Flying- fish were fast ebbing. Their flights became shorter and shorter, and their course more fluttering and uncertain, while the enormous leaps of the Dolphin appeared to grow only more vigorous at each bound. Eventually, indeed, we could see, or fancied that we could see, that this skilful sea-sportsman ar- ranged all his springs with such an assurance of suc- cess, that he contrived to fall, at the end of each, just under the very spot on which the exhausted Fly- THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 201 ing-fish were about to drop ! Sometimes this catas- trophe took place at too great a distance for us to see from the deck exactly what happened ; but on our mounting high into the rigging, we may be said to have been in at the death ; for then we could dis- cover .that the unfortunate little creatures, one after another, either popped right into the Dolphin's jaws as they lighted on the water, or were snapped up instantly afterwards. " It was impossible not to take an active part with our pretty little friends of the weaker side, and ac- cordingly we very speedily had our revenge. The middies and the sailors, delighted with the chance, rigged out a dozen or twenty lines from the jib- boom end and spritsail-yard-arms with hooks, baited merely with bits of tin, the glitter of which re- sembles so much that of the body and wings of the Flying-fish, that many a proud Dolphin, making sure of a delicious morsel, leaped in rapture at the deceitful prize.''* Though these and other recorded anecdotes indu- bitably refer to the bright pearly fishes just described, there cannot be a doubt that the same habits are found to mark the true Cetaceous Dolphins ; while at the same time I confess that I do not recollect any instance in which such pursuit has been witnessed, in my own experience, or recorded in books of voyages. Indeed I do not conceive that the chase of the Flying- fish by the Coryphene has been often witnessed, nor that it can be considered as any other than a rare occurrence. As the aerial boundings of the Flying- * Frag. Voy. and Trav. Second Series. Vol. i. p. 224. 202 THE OCEAN. fish, however, are of constant observation within the tropics, it seems but natural to conclude that they are but the frolicsouie putting forth of superabundant animal energy ; that they are, in fact, performed in sportive play, as the lamb skips and leaps upon the grass, or the dog pursues its own evasive tail. These flights, generally performed in shoals varying in number from a dozen to a hundred or more, are extremely pleasing, and sustain our interest even long after they have become familiar to us. One is apt, at first sight of a flock, especially if it be unexpected, to mistake them for white birds flying by, till they are seen to alight in the water. The length of the bound is enormous, if it be indeed effected. by a single impulse; but this point seems hardly to be satisfactorily settled even yet. I feel persuaded that I have more than once seen them deviate from the uniform curve which they usually describe, rising and sinking alternately so as to keep at the same distance from the undulations of the surface; and Humboldt, one of the most accu- rate of observers, speaks unhesitatingly of their flap- ping the air with their long fins. Indeed, it would else seem almost impossible to imagine that so small a fish, not so large as a herring, should be able to propel itself to the height of twenty feet, and to tlio distance of more than six hundred, through the air. Generally, one takes his leap first, then the whole flock follow at once, shooting in nearly a straight line, and skimming along a little above the surface; so little that they often strike the side of a rising wave, and go under water. THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 203 Another visitant, who very freely gives us much of his company, is the White Shark (Carcarias vul- garis)^ probably the most terrific monster that cleaves the waves; certainly the most hated, and at the same time feared, by the sailor. The catching of fish is at all times a pleasing amusement to the mariner ; but to catch the ''Shirk," as he is called, there is a peculiar avidity, in which the gratification of a deep-seated hatred of the species, and vengeance for his murder- ous propensities, form the leading features. When taken, whether entrapped by the concealed hook, or struck by the open violence of the harpoon, and brought on deck, he is subjected to every indignity which an insane fury can heap upon an object — beat, stabbed, and kicked, and even reviled as if capable of understanding language. In truth, I have never seen any animal, terrestrial or aquatic, which, so to speak, has "villain'' written on its countenance in as legible characters as the Shark. The shape of the head, and the form of the mouth, opening so far be- neath, are anything but prepossessing ; but there is a peculiar malignity in the expression of the eye, that seems almost satanic, and which one can never look upon without shuddering. The mouth is armed with teeth of very peculiar construction ; they are trian- gular in form, thin and flat, the central part, however, being thicker than (lie edges, which are as keen as a lancet, and cut into fine serratures, like a saw. In very large Sharks, the teeth have been found nearly two inches in breadth: they are placed in rows, sometimes to the number of six, one within another, lying nearly flat when not in use, but erected ia a 204 THE OCEAN. moment to seize prey : and as they are so planted in the jaw that each tooth is capable of independent motion, being furnished with its own muscles, and as the power of the jaws is enormous, they form one of the most terrific and formidable apparatus existing for the supply of carnivorous appetite. The fatal voracity of this animal is well known : instances are numerous of swimmers in tropical seas having been severed in twain at one snap, or deprived of limbs, while, on more than one occasion, the whole body of a man has been taken from this living sepulchre. Yet this sanguinary voracity is but the result of an unerring instinct implanted in the animal by Goi>, without the exercise of which its life could not be sustained: and therefore it seems not only foolish, but even sinful, to entertain feelings of personal revenge against it, as if it were endowed with human reason, *' knowing good and evil." I do not know that it is wrong to kill an animal so destructive and dan- gerous ; I reprobate only the imputation to it of human motives, and the staining a useful act with unnecessary cruelty. The mode by which the race of these formidable creatures is continued, differing as it does so greatly from that of most other fishes, is exceedingly curious. The Shark, instead of depositing some millions of eggs in a season, like the Cod or tlie Herring, pro- duces two eggs, of a square or oblong form, the coat of which is composed of a tough horny substance ; each corner is prolonged into a tendril, of which the two which are next the tail of the enclosed fish are stronger and more prehensile than the other pair. THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 205 The use of these tendrils appears to be their entan- glement among the stalks of sea- weeds, and the con- sequent mooring of the egg in a situation of pro- tection and comparative security. Near the head there is a slit in the egg-skin, through which the Avater enters for respiration, and another at the oppo- site extremity by which it is discharged. That part of the skin which is near the head, is weaker and more easily ruptured than any other part ; a provi- sion for the easy exclusion of the animal, which takes place before the entire absorption of the vilellus or yolk of the egg, the remainder being attached to the body of the young fish, enclosed in a capsule, which for awhile it carries about. The position of the ani- mal, while within the egg, is with the head doubled back towards the tail, one very unfavourable for the process of breathing by internal gills, and hence there is an interesting provision made to meet the emer- gency. On each side a filament of the substance of the gills projects from the gill-opening, containing vessels in which the blood is exposed to the action of the water. These processes are gradually absorbed after the fish is excluded, until which the internal gills are scarcely capable of respiration. How curious an analogy we here discover with the Frogs and Newts among the Reptiles ; and how impressively do we learn the Divine benevolence, when we find that the object of so much contrivance and care is the dreaded and hated Shark ! In these latitudes the Hammer-headed Shark {Zygcena malleus), a fish of singular construction, attains a large size. In most particulars it closely s 206 TJIE OCEAN. resembles the species just noticed, but the head is widened out on each side into an oblong projection, at each extremity of which is placed the eye. The whole of this part has the form of a double-headed* hammer or maul. Undoubtedly one result of this remarkable structure is a vast increase of the sphere of vision ; but why a fish so formidably armed, and endowed with such powers of motion, should be thus favoured, we are not sufficiently acquainted with its habits to determine. Another singular deviation from the general struc- ture is found in the Saw-fish {Prisiis antiquorum\ which is a shark with the head prolonged into a flat Hammer-Shark (Zyya:na malleus), and Saw-fish {Pristis antiqw^rum). THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 207 bony sword, each edge of which is armed with sharp bony, spines, resembling teeth, pointing backwards: there are about twenty of these in each row. The body also is covered on the upper surface with hard sharp tubercles, the points of which turn backwards. In this respect, it resembles some of the Eay or Skate tribe, as it does also in the flattened form of its body, and in other respects. Its colour is a dark grey on the upper parts, gradually softening into white beneath. This species was known to the ancients, being found in the Mediterranean Sea, as well as in the Ocean, but it is in the tropical seas that it acquires its most gigantic dimensions. It seems to be an animal of scarcely less ferocity, though far less frequently met with, than the Common Shark: to the Whales it is a formidable antagonist, and though the form of its saw-like sword does not seem most adapted for pene- trating a resisting body, such is the vigour of its attack, tliat it will bury its weapon to the root in the flesh of the Wliale; and instances are not infrequent in which it has been found firmly imbedded in the hull of a ship. The following interesting narrative, by Captain Wilson of the Halifax packet, gives us an idea of the powers of this monster: — *^ Being in the Gulf of Paria, in the ship's cutter, on the 15th of April, 1839, I fell in with a Spanish canoe, manned by two men, then in great distress, who requested me to save their lives and canoe, '^^th which request I immediately complied; and going alongside for that purpose, I discovered that they had got a large Saw-fish entangled in their turtle- net, which was towing them out to sea, and but for 208 TTTE OCEAN. iny assistance they must have lost either their canoe or their net, or perhaps both, which were their only means of subsistence. Having only two boys with me in the boat at the time, I desired them to cut the fish away, which they refused to do ; I then took the bight ©f the net from them, and with the joint en- deavours of themselves and my boat's crew, we suc- ceeded in hauling up the net, and to our astonish- ment, after great exertions, we raised the saw of the fish about eight feet above the surface of the sea. It was a fortunate circumstance that the fish came up with the belly towards the boat, or it would have cut the boat in two. ^'I had abandoned all idea of taking the fish, until, by great good luck, it made towards the land, when I made another attempt, and having about fifty fathoms of rope in the boat, we succeeded in making a running bowline-knot round the saw of the fish, and this we fortunately made fast on shore. When the fish found itself secured, it plunged so violently, that I could not prevail on any one to go near it: the ap- pearance it presented was truly awful. I immediately went alongside the Lima packet, Capt. Singleton, and got the assistance of all his ship's crew. By the time they arrived the fish was rather less violent; we hauled upon the net again, in which it was still entangled, and got another fifty fathoms of line made fast to the saw, and attempted to haul it towards the shore; but, although mustering thirty hands, we could not move it an inch. By this time the negroes be- longing to Mr. Danglad's estate came flocking to our assistance, making together with the Spaniards about THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 209 one hundred in number: we then hauled on both ropes for nearly the whole of the day, before the fish became exhausted. On endeavouring to raise the fish it became most desperate, sweeping with its saw from side to side, so that we were compelled to get strong guy-ropes to prevent it from cutting us to pieces. After that, one of the Spaniards got on its back, and at great risk cut through the joint of the tail, when animation was completely suspended: it was then measured, and found to be 22 feet long and 8 feet broad, and weighed nearly 5 tons."^ Other monstrous creatures, of unpleasing forms and formidable powers, rove at will through these waters. I shall mention only the Horned Eay (Cephahptera). Imagine a Thornback or Skate, of the length of twenty-five feet, with the side-fins greatly lengthened out, so as to make the total width upwards of thirty feet: these side-fins, instead of meeting in a point in front of the head, projecting on each side into a curved point, like a horn. Such is the Cephaloptera ; and it is powerful and voracious in proportion to its size. Col. Hamilton Smith, in the neighbourhood of Trinidad, had the pain of witness- ing a fellow-creature involved in the horrible embrace of one of these monsters. It was at early dawn that a soldier was endeavouring to desert from the ship by swimming on shore. A sailor from aloft, seeing the approach of one of these terrific fishes, alarmed the swimmer, who endeavoured to return; but, in sight of his comrades, was presently overtaken, the crea- ture throwing over him one of its huge fins, and thus * Mag. Nat. Hist. 1839, p. 619. 14 8 2 wjlO THE OCEAN. carrying him down. In the following record, which was inserted in a late Barbadoes paper, though the description is not drawn up exactly as a Naturalist w^ould have done it, one has no difliculty in recognis- ing an enormous Cephaloptera : — "On the 22nd of August [1843], the Brig Kowena was lying in La Guayra Koads, the weather perfectly calm : I disco- vered the vessel moving about among the shipping. I could not conceive wdiat could be the matter. I gave orders to heave in, and see if the anchor was gone, but it was not: but to my surprise, I found a tremendous monster entangled fast in the buoy-rope, and moving the anchor slowly along the bottom. I then had the fish towed on shore. It was of a flat- tish shape, something like a devil-fish^ but very curious shape, being wider than it was long, and having two tusks, one on each side of the mouth, and a very small tail in proportion to the fish, and exactly like a bat's tail. The tail can be seen on board the Brig Eowena. Dimensions of the fish were as follows : — length from end of tail to end of tusks, 18 feet; from wing to wing, 20 feet; the mouth, 4 feet wdde ; and its weight, 3502 lbs." Every one may imagine how much the tedium of a long voyage is relieved by the company of other vessels, or even by the speaking of a passing ship; but a few who have only seen vessels lying in tiers, side by side, at quays, or wharfs, are at all aware of, or can readily understand, the anxious care with which commanders guard against two ships on the high sea coming within even a considerable distance of each otlier. I have often been amused by hearing THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 211 the wishes expressed by passengers on their first voyage, when a vessel is speaking at what they think a most uncivil distance, that she would but come nearer, particularly if the wind is light, as "there can be no danger then." Little do they think that when in a perfect calm the danger of contact is even greatest, as, if there be wind enough to give the ves- sel ''steerage way," she is under control, and the evil may be avoided. On this subject, and on the motions of ships in calms, an unexceptionable autho- rity, Captain Basil Hall, thus speaks : — " How it happens I do not know, but on occasions of perfect calm, or such as appear to be perfect calm, the ships of a fleet generally drift away from one another, so that, at the end of a few hours, the whole circle bounded by the horizon is speckled over with these unmanageable hulks, as they may for the time be considered. It will occasionally happen, indeed, that two ships draw so near in a calm as to incur some risk of falling on board one another. I need scarcely mention that even in the smoothest water ever found in the open sea, two large ships coming into actual contact must prove a formidable encounter. As long as they are apart, their gentle and rather graceful movements are fit subjects of admiration; and I have often seen people gaze for an hour at a time at the ships of a becalmed fleet, slowly twisting round, changing their position, and rolling from side to side as silently as if they had been in harbour, or accompanied only by the faint rippling sound trip- ping along the water-line, as the copper below the bmds alternately sunk into the sea, or rose out of it, 212 THE OCEAN. dripping wet, and shining as bright and clean as a new coin, from the constant friction of the Ocean during the previous rapid passage across the Trade- winds. "But all this picturesque admiration changes to alarm when ships come so close as to risk a contact ; for these motions, which appear so slow and gentle to the eye, are irresistible in their force ; and as the chances are against the two vessels moving exactly in the same direction at the same moment, they must speedily grind or tear one another to pieces. Sup- posing them to come in contact side by side, the first roll would probably tear away the fore and main channels of both ships; the next roll, by interlacing the lower yards, and entangling the spars of one ship with the shrouds and backstays of the other, would, in all likelihood, bring down all three masts of both ships, not piecemeal, as the poet hath it, but in one furious crash. Beneath the ruins of the spars, the coils of rigging, and the enormous folds of canvas, might lie crushed many of the best hands, who, from being always the foremost to spring forward in such seasons of danger, are surest to be sacrificed. After this first catastrophe, the ships would probably drift away from one another for a little while, only to tumble together again and again, till they had ground one another to the water's edge, and one, or both of them, would fill, and go down. In such encounters it is impossible to stop the mischief; and oak and iron break and crumble in pieces like sealing-wax and pie-crust. Many instances of such accidents are on record, but I never witnessed one. THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 213 "To prevent these frightful rencontres, care is always taken to hoist out the boats in good time, if need be, to tow the ships apart, or, what is gene- rally sufficient, to tow the ships' heads in opposite directions. I scarcely know why this should have the eftect; but certainly it appears that, be the calm ever so complete, or dead^ as the term is, a vessel generally forges ohead^ or steals along imperceptibly in the direction she is looking to; possibly from the conformation of the hull."* But there are indications of our patience being at length rewarded by a breeze from the eastward; and now it comes, rippling the surface as it ap- proaches, turning that into a deep uniform blue which has so long borne a glassy brightness reflected from the sky. The seamen are joyous and alert, for they know that this is no "cat's-paw," but the *' regular trade." Now it strikes the ship; the sails, gracefully swelling, receive the unwonted im- pulse; and the lengthened wake, where the water coils and frets in the newly-cut furrow, tells that the vessel makes way once more. The breeze freshens; the little waves become larger, and, arch- ing over each other, break with patches of whiten- ing foam; every sail is speedily set that will draw; and we run gaily along towards the west, under an eight-knot breeze. We can scarcely stop to notice the amity that subsists between the Shark and the Pilot-fish {Naucrates ducior\ a beautiful little crea- ture, about the size of a herring, the back striped transversely with broad alternate bands of brown and * Frag. Voy. and Trav. 2nd Series, i. p. 226. 214 THE OCEAN. bright azure; nor tlie three or four pretty little Rudder-fishes {Perca saltatrix^ Lixx.), which have been following and accompanying us for several days past. These are amusing little creatures. They are about six inches long, yellowish brown, with pale spots: they keep close to the stern, in the angle formed by the rudder and the counter of the ship, the "dead water,'* as it is called by seamen. Hence they occasionally dart out after any little atom of floating or sinking substance which promises to be eatable, and then, having either seized or rejected it, scuttle back again to their corner, remaining there day and night without rest. Nor can wc do more than glance at the Sucking-fishes (Echeneis)^ that are swimming aroun 1, or have attaciicd themselves to the side of tlie rudder by means of tlie singular oval disk on tlie head. As this oro-an is of siuGfular construction, so its use in the economy of the animal is involved in entire obscurity. The theory of the fish being a very slow swimmer, and needing to be carried along by others, must have been formed by persons who never had an opportunity of seeing the Remora alive. I have seen many, and could detect no inferiority in their powers of swimming to a young Shark of the same size, which they much re- semble in general appearance and motion, when in the water. There seems to be a perfect vacuum formed by the adhesion of the disk, and the external pressure, when under water, is of course great. As the mouth opens upon the upper surface of the muz- zle, owing to the projection of the lower jaw, it is possible that this habit may be connected with THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 215 taking food: there are many little creatures, such as Onistacea^ Barnacles, &c., that are parasitical on the bodies of marine animals, or attach themselves to any submerged substance. If the Echeneis feeds on these, there is an obvious reason why the head should be affixed to the surface during the dislodg- ment of the adhering prey, in order to acquire greater steadiness, as well as a leverage by which to act more effectively. At all events, we know that it is not a useless habit; we trace enough of manifest design and contrivance in what w^e do know of the animal creation, to warrant our con- fident conclusion, when we find any instinct, the intention of which is not obvious, that it also is tbe production of infinite wisdom and goodness, and that it could not have been spared without injury to the animal. Borne on the wings of the welcome breeze, we rapidly approach that archipelago of lovely islands that gladdened the heart and rewarded the zeal of the chivalric World- FINDER, the first fruits of the vast continent which the genius and daring of one master-mind opened to astonished Europe. The joyful sound of "Land in sight!" resounds through the ship, and yonder, upon the bow, is discovered, rising out of the blue sea, the beautiful island of Antigua. As we draw near, we are struck with its loveliness ; the coast is low, but the land rises behind into rounded hills of moderate elevation, whose swelling eminences and gentle slopes assume some- what of the appearance of the chalk hills and downs of our own sweet England. But there are features 216 THE OCEAN. vrhich effectually distinguish this island from our owQ^ and iaii not to remind us that we are beholding the gorgeousness of the tropics. The summits of the hills are clothed with magnificent forest-trees of strange forms and foliage ; the graceful palms wave their feathery crowns against the deep-blue sky: leafless cacti, thick and cylindrical, project from the rocks, or take the shape of enormous candelabra: the great American aloe, with its thick and spiny leaves, shoots up it5 glorious head of yellow blossoms to the height of twentj feet : the clusters of golden fruit depend from the plantain and banana, whose gigantic fronds are cut by the winds into ragged segments ; Vy o je the .vhole array is bound and matted together by s.roiig rope like climbing plants, which, crossing each other in every direction, and twisting around the forest-trees, and around each other, like huge cables, present an immense net of vegetation, impenetrable except by the axe of the woodman. Tree-ferns, possessing all the grace and elegance of those with which we are fiimiliar, but growing to a giant size, shoot up from the clefts of the rocks, or from the branches of the loftier trees, their rich browm stalks contrasting with the vivid green of their fan-shaped fronds. The sides of the hills are clothed with lux- uriant plantations of Indian corn, or the still more rich and beautiful sugar-cane ; and here and there a walk of cocoa-trees is rendered conspicuous by the glowing scarlet blossoms of the coral trees, by whose shadow they are sheltered from the vertical sun. The coast is broken into numerous little bays and coves, some penetrating fer into the island, like THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 21 1 canals- among the plantations. A multitude of little islets are scattered around on the surface of the sea, on many of which the cattle are grazing on the rich and succulent pasture. Some of them, however, are little more than accumulations of sand, formed of pow^dered coral and sea-shells, and affording sup- port only to some coarse sedges, and to mangrove- trees. The latter, indeed, delights in such situa- tions, flourishing at the very edge of the sea, and even where the ^ ground is continually liable to inundation. The contorted roots of this tree grow to a considerable extent above the soil, so that the base of the trunk is elevated on a cone of matted roots, through w4iich the water w^ashes, w^hile from the branches young twigs are perpetually shooting downward, till, reaching the soil, they take root, and send forth other shoots : thus, in a few years, a single plant wall spread into a grove, and cover a large space of land. As we sail with tortuous course through these delightful groups of ever- verdant isles, fresh scenes of beauty are continually rising before us. Now a conical hill, of reofular form, arrests the attention, clothed with thick foliage from the wnter's edge to the summit, where the white clouds appear to rest : then we admire the irregular surface of another isle, w^iose dark ravines seem to acquire additional gloom from the glowing sun- light that plays upon the surrounding eminences: here a little islet of bright green looks in the blue sea like an emerald set in sapphire; there the bold cliffe and black precipices of a larger island an- nounce a very diflferent formation. Now and then 218 THE OCEAN. we open a small but deep and beautiful bay. "A pretty little village or plantation appears at the bottom of the cove: the sandy beach stretches like a line of silver round the blue water, and the cane- fields form a broad belt of vivid green in the back- ground. Behind this, the mountains rise in the most fantastic shapes, here cloven into deep chasms, there darting into arrowy points, and every where shrouded, and swathed, as it were, in wood, which the hand of man will probably never lay low. The clouds, which within the tropics are infallibly at- tracted by any woody eminences, contribute greatly to the wildness of the scene: sometimes they are so dense as to bury the mountains in darkness, at other times they float transparently like a silken veil; frequently the flaws from the gulleys perforate the vapours, and make windows in the smoky mass; and then, again, the Avind and the sun will cause the whole to be drawn upwards majestically, like the curtain of a gorgeous theatre." Around these islands the water is frequently shal- low, a fact made sufficiently obvious by its colour: instead of the deep-blue tint which marks the un- fathomed Ocean, the water on these shoals becomes of a bright pea-green, caused by the nearness of the yellow sands at the bottom; and the shallower the water, the paler is the tint. The light thrown upwards by reflection upon the under part of the swollen sails, transfers the same hue to them, giving them a singular aspect; but once I observed a still more curious appearance, arising from the same cause. Being becalmed off one of the little Keys THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 219 of the Florida Eeef, the crew had been amusing themselves, with fishing, in which they had been very successful. An Osprey {Hali