BY HENRY TRYON. 21 
salinity* of the sea or its temperature—this pigment is dis- 
charged in a similar manner from the scum into the ocean where 
it floats, and hence the appearance of those seas of blood which 
voyagers have long remarked in the Indian Ocean and 
Red Sea.+ In fact Ehrenberg was the first to refer the red 
colour extending over large tracts of sea in the latter locality 
(the Bay of Tor) to the alga under consideration, and to which 
he assigned the name by which it is known at the present day, 
z.e., Trichodesmium erythreum, and numerous writers have 
found an origin for the title Red Sea in this remarkable appear- 
ance, due as he demonstrated to this particular plant. 
* Whatever may be their condition in other localities where the 
phenomenon of the blood-red sea occurs, and whether or not extra saline 
waters get the upper hand by means of the ocean currents which occur 
at these spots, it is well known that the waters of the Red Sea carry an 
immense amount of salt, far surpassing the average. On referring to 
the “Contemporary Review,” August, 1880, pg. 242,I find that it is 
stated, on the authority of Mr. Justus Roth, that “ Forchhammer 
estimates the saline constituents of this sea at 43.148 per mille, Robinet 
and Lefort at 41.814, the water being drawn at Suez prior the opening 
of the Canal, and that C. Schmidt found in October, 1875, 39.759 per 
thousand of saline constituents.’ The writer also refers to the 
Meteorological Papers of the Board of Trade, which corroborate the 
accuracy of these conclusions. 
+ The graphic descriptions of the appearances, as given by M.M. 
Evernor Dupont in Montagne’s Paper [Comptes Rendus, xix., p. 
171,] and a writer in the “Colombo Herald” [May 14th, 1844,] also 
allusions to the narratives of Hinds and Darwin are given by Lindley 
[Vegetable Kingdom, London, 1853, pg. 16-17.] These and other 
accounts of the phenomena of the blood-red sea are quoted by Mac- 
Donald { Roy. Soc. Proc., Feb. 26, 1857, | and other writers, and references 
to earlier notices still are given by Buckle [‘* Posthumous Works,” 
London, 1872; vol ili, pg. 150]. 
t The vexed question as to the origin of the term ’Epv6py OadAdooa 
red sea) appled by Herodotus [Herodoti Historia, Oxon., 1873, IT. 8, 
158, 159; iv., 39,] to the whole of the Indian Ocean, and by later Greek 
authors, including the Septuagint translators, to what we, in adopting 
their designation, have named the Red Sea, cannot be entered upon here; 
but it is not without interest, when the Homeric interpretation of colours 
has been called in question [Gladstone, Nineteenth Century, Oct., 1877, ] 
