WHEN NIGHT COMES TO WATER 



learned, knew all about it and considered it as 

 unpleasant as we found it exciting. 



This growth below the water line was much less 

 dense on the port side beneath the gangway, than 

 on the starboard. The Captain explained this as 

 due to the fact that when lying at dock in New 

 York City the ice jammed and scraped against the 

 port side, removing much of the protecting copper 

 paint. Two additional reasons, it seemed to me, 

 were that the starboard was usually the lee side, 

 and also got more sunlight. 



At any rate, near the gangway there were sev- 

 eral inches of sea-weed, and forests of hydroids, 

 with here and there flattish, deep-red organisms, 

 colonies of Botryllus-like ascidians, each individual 

 delicately outlined with bluish-white. 



On the other side of the schooner there was much 

 red, hairy algae and scattered through it, like 

 partridges in tall grass, a diversity of creatures; 

 jet black tunicates, Phallinia nigra, and others 

 deeply tinged with rose, some of them three inches 

 in height; occasional goose barnacles with deep 

 red stems, white shells picked out with pale yellow 

 and deep purple appendages. Here I found ger- 

 anium-red tunicate colonies, sessile barnacles, and 

 a host of winged, pec ten -like bivalves. Walking 

 about were numerous sponge crabs, mostly covered 

 with hairy, red algae, and clinging very tightly to 

 whatever they walked upon. 



Whenever we felt the need of a humorous touch 

 in science, it sufficed to pry loose several of these 



95 



