TO THK SOUTH SEA ISLANDS. 89 



the products of many months of labor and scientific toil performed by 

 our energetic and indefatigable countrymen. 



We were, as may be supposed, heartily glad to leave this frightful 

 place, and in a few minutes were booming along over a beautiful placid 

 sea, at the rate of eight knots an hour. 



It is scarcely necessary to say, that, to me, interested as I always 

 have been, in the beautiful and marvellous works of Providence, every 

 thing in the shape of animated nature inhabiting the sea, possessed ex- 

 traordinary attractions. We had not been long afloat before my atten- 

 tion was turned to scores of a beautiful marine animal lying supinely 

 on the unruiHed surface. These are a sort of soft niolusk, called Me- 

 dusa. They have a cartilaginous body, and vary from the size of a 

 man's hand to that of the head of a barrel. The upper part, or that 

 seen on the surface of the water, is slightly convex, and two whitish 

 spots appear upon it resembling eyes ; the lower portion, or that sunk 

 below the surface, has usually a tube projecting from it, expanded or 

 placed out like the end of a clarinet. Within the body, near the pos- 

 terior part, is a large ovate ball, of a bright oiange color, resembling the 

 yolk of an egg. I secured, by means of a bucket having a line attached 

 to it, a number of these curious animals, some of which I put in spirits 

 for the purpose of preserving them, but found it to be impossible. A 

 few hours immersion sufficed either entirely to dissolve them, or to de- 

 prive them of their elegant form and splendid colors; and I therefore 

 abandoned the idea of collecting them. The only mode by which these 

 magnificent creatures can be represented to those wlio stay at home, is 

 by making accurate colored drawings of the animal immediately after it 

 is taken from the water. Whether this has been done by the gentlemen 

 attached to our late exploring expedition I am not aware, but you will 

 find many species of them exquisitely figured and colored in the splen- 

 did work recently published by the Government of France, entitled 

 " Voyage de I'Astrolabe. " The same difficulty exists in regard to the 

 preservation of the gorgeous fishes of the intertropical regions. I have 

 frequently skinned these, and taken every precaution, by the use of 

 transparent varnishes, &c., to prevent the colors from fading, but with- 

 out success, or at least, only a small measure of success. The colors 

 were still so splendid, after having been dry for years, as to excite uni- 

 versal admiration, and yet they had not retained a tithe of their bril- 

 liancy. 



Off Cape Disappointment, and for many hundred miles out at sea, we 

 observed great numbers of Sea Birds of various kinds, several of which 

 T have myself described and published as new species. The little (Juil- 

 12 



