356 -THE ATLANTIC. [CHAP. Vv. 
cipally echinoderms. The most remarkable of these was Ante- 
don escrichtii, the great northern feather-star, which adhered 
in great numbers by its dorsal cirri; and many of them were 
infested with their peculiar parasite M/yzostoma. There were 
many examples of a large form of Ophiopholis aculeata, which 
seems to be the principal food of the cod on the Nova Scotia 
and Newfoundland Banks, taking the place of Ophiothrix fra- 
gilis off Farée, the North of Scotland, and the Dogger Bank. 
In the afternoon lines were out all round the ship, and upward 
of a hundred cod were taken, the largest about thirty pounds 
weight. The stomachs of all of them were full of the Ophio- 
pholis. We reached Halifax on the morning of the 9th. The 
weather was very fine and perfectly still, with a light mist, and 
as we steamed up the bay there was a most extraordinary and 
bewildering display of mirage. The sea and the land and the 
sky were hopelessly confused; all the objects along the shore 
drawn up out of all proportion, the white cottages standing out 
like pillars and light-houses, and all the low rocky islands look- 
ing as if they were crowned with battlements and towers. Low, 
hazy islands which had no place on the chart bounded the hori- 
zon, and faded away while one was looking at them. The little 
coasting vessels with their hulls drawn up looked as if they were 
standing on pedestals, while, above them, their inverted images 
on the soft gray mist were more real and definite than they 
were themselves. None of us had ever seen such an extreme 
effect before, nor have we seen any thing like it since. 
Coming directly from the rich vegetation and the lovely 
subtropical spring weather of Bermudas, the first view of the 
country about Halifax was certainly by no means attractive. 
The low rolling hills of granite and metamorphic rocks, covered 
with somewhat stunted pine-woods, remind one of some of the 
tamer parts of Scandinavia. When we arrived, the weather 
was still chilly; on the Saturday before there had been a fall 
of snow, and the frost was still in the ground. The deciduous 
