AN INDIAN NATURALIST'S TRIP TO AUSTRALIA. 221 



glittering bodies present a spectacle which, is charming to the eye, 

 and affords occupation to an idle mind on board a steamer. 



Th.3 porpoise is another denizen of the Indian and Southern 

 Ocean which attracts our attention. The graceful rise and fall 

 of these mai'ine creatures, as they run a race with the advancing 

 steamer, has the appearance of child-like mirth and frolic, which 

 create an interest for their movements in their spectators and 

 make up for their squalid and utterly uninviting appearance. For 

 miles together in pairs, or singly by the dozen or by the score, these 

 heavy-looking cetaceans rise and sink with an ease which is 

 surprising. Now alongside of the vessel, now under the keel, 

 rushing from one side to the other, they cross the path of the ship 

 with a rapidity which is marvellous in the extreme, evidently 

 conscious of the gazer's eye and bent upon eluding it while frolick- 

 ing about the ship. 



As we enter the " Heads" and anchor at Port Melbourne in the 

 vicinity of the P. & O. Co.'s pier jutting right into deep water, we 

 see innumerable Medusas, the living seaweeds as a French writer 

 calls them — 



" With the freedom and the motion 

 With the roll and roar of the ocean." 

 These magnificent opal globes, or bell-shaped discs of soft jelly 

 are beyond description. They have to be seen to be admired. They 

 are better seen and watched when the vessel is at a stand-still, and 

 when they come in search of prey close to the sides of the vessel 

 working their way up and down with the alternate contraction and 

 expansion of their globular bodies, and rendering their manoeuvres 

 graceful by a similar movement of their numerous frills and pre- 

 hensile tentacles, which at once mark them out as some of the most 

 charming and elegant objects of oceanic creation. 



There are besides innumerable sparkling animalcules visible at 

 night, especially at the side of our vessel, causing the phosphorescent 

 appearance which has for many years been the puzzle, not only of 

 ordinary spectators, but even of accomplished natural historians. 

 It was at one time considered that oceanic phosphorescence was due to 

 the putrefaction of dead and decaying fish. But we know that the 

 conditions of death and decay are not essential to the production of 

 phosphorescence. We know that the common glowworm or fire-fly of 

 our rainy season is a living entity emitting light on a dark night, when 

 living and in a state of perfect health. That phosphorescence is due 



