116 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



an inch in diameter. Like the minute tufts already spoken of, it 

 was met with in countless myriads, during calms, in the Bay of 

 Bengal ; its size and the brilliant tiut of the endochrome enabling 

 the frustules to be readily observed at a height of several feet 

 above the surface. Two frustules were generally found still ad- 

 hering together after division had taken place. 



Dr. Wallich finally mentioned having, in 1859, seen Cosci- 

 nodiscus present in great profusion, and under similar circum- 

 stances as to weather, around the Channel Islands. 



_Mr. Hogg thought it a remarkable circumstance that those 

 with large opportunities for making investigations of the curious 

 bodies which give colour to the waters should have seen nothing 

 of "the blood-red colour" spoken of by some authors. Neither 

 was it so certain that Cohn's more recent investigations served 

 to clear up "the mystery" which surrounds similar freshwater 

 colorations, such as Mr. Sheppard's " monad colouring matter." 

 To any one who had the opportunity of making an examination 

 of this peculiar fluid it certainly did not appear quite possible to be- 

 lieve it to be "identical with that which Cohn calls ' ph/cocyan.'' " 



The Rev. J. B. Reade, in proposing a vote of thanks to Dr. 

 Collingwood, alluded to the value of the paper as a record of the 

 personal and accurate observations of the author. Some who 

 have written largely on the subject are indebted entirely to the 

 observations of others, and these being cemented with a certain 

 amount of imagination paste, yield a report of no substantial 

 value. Of such inaccuracies the author justly complains. Mr. 

 Eeade referred to a paper in the 'Phil. Trans.' for 1772, by 

 Captain Newbold, of the " Kelsall," who described the appearance 

 of the sea near Bombay as milky white, owing to an innumerable 

 quantity of animalcules, perceptible to the naked eye. He also 

 observed, with reference to the Eed Sea, that Dean Stanley states, 

 in his work on Palestine, and as a result of personal observation, 

 that forests of submarine vegetation and red coral reefs gave the 

 whole sea its Hebrew appellation of the " sea of weeds," and that 

 these coralline forests form the true weeds of this fantastic sea.* 

 He referred also to the testimony of the late Captain Newbold, 

 who describes the waters as marked with annular, crescent-shaped, 

 and irregular blotches, of a purplish red, extending as far as the 



* In II Book of Kings, cliap. iii, an account is given of the rebellion of the 

 Moabites against the reigning kings of Judah, Israel, and Edom. Elisha 

 had received a Divine intimation that though they should not see wind, 

 neither rain, yet that the valley should be filled with water. " And it came 

 lo pass in the morning, that, behold, there came water by the way of Edom, 

 and the country was filled with water. And the Moabites gathered all that 

 were able to put on armour, and stood in the border. And they rose up 

 early in the morning, and the sun shone upon the water, and the Moabites 

 saw tlie water on the other side as red as blood. And they said, This is 

 blood : the kings are surely slain, and they have smitten one another : now, 

 therefore, Moab, to the spoil." The Moabites were thus deceived by this 

 appearance and their, perhaps, not -unnatural conclusion. Tiiey came ac- 

 cordingly to the camp of Israel, and the Israelities rose up and smote them. 



