ON ZOEA, cy. 3 



perceptible even when on, or near to, its surfiice : that it 

 should possess its share of the organized beings which we 

 see spread over every other part of the surface of our 

 globe, is a conclusion we might arrive at indirectly, from 

 the consideration of Oceanic fishes and birds being observed 

 in those parts of the ocenn most distant from the land, and 

 the provident care of the Deity Avhich wc invariably 

 witness throughout the domain of nature, to furnish food 

 for all the meanest of his creatures ; the more minute and 

 invisible inmates of the sea then, must constitute the food 

 of Oceanic fishes and birds. Few of these marine animals, 

 except sojne of the larger and more conspicuous, have as 

 yet been observed, so that the investigation of them holds 

 out the promise of a rich harvest to the Naturalist and a 

 vast field of exploration replete with novelty and inte- 

 rest ; * to accomplish this object however, he must use 

 the greatest diligence, seizing every opportunity when the 

 way of the ship does not exceed three or four miles per 

 hour, to throw out a-stern a small towing net of gause, 

 bunting, or other tolerably close material, occasionally 

 drawing it up, and turning it inside out into a glass vessel 

 of sea water, to ascertain what captures have been made ; 

 Avhen a ship goes at a greater rate, and in stormy weather, 

 a net of this kind might be appended to the spout of one 

 of the sea-water pumps, and examined three or four times 

 a day, or oftener, according to circumstances. 



The luminosity or sparkling of the sea by night, is a 

 phenomenon which never fails to attract the attention of 

 voyagers the most incurious, and having been found in the 

 greater number of instances, to be produced bymarine ani- 

 mals, first led the author into the use of the towing net, and 

 discovered to him the variety and profusion in which they 

 occur, both luminous and otherwise, and amongst others, 

 the animals which form the subject of the present memoir. 



• To speak the truth, our own seas have been almost as little exiilored, 

 although they teem v.ith curious ami unkuown auinials. 



