4oa Oil a Red Suhjtance ohfer'Oed 



its body. But what difllnguiflied it moft was^ that, with 

 the briCtles or hair at the fore part, it often put the water in 

 2. fort of vortical motion, which made the fmall hfelefs 

 globular animals move quickly round in a circle, as if they 

 liad been alive (7). Such was the nature of this fubftance 

 fcr a few days in July, till it increafed more and more ; and 

 I foimd, when I filled a glafs with it, a covering on the furface, 

 of the thicknefs of the finger, befides the matter depofited 

 at the bottom ; but no living beings were now obferved 

 ill it, and not many of the dead globular animals : they 

 feemed all to be converted into the above red flimy matter, 

 the colour of which was perfeftly fimilar to that of the 

 bright yellow ochre ufed for painting houfes. 



What I have above faid will fufficicntly fliew that the red 

 colour of water, which has fo often been a matter of terror 

 to the fuperftltious, may arife from, the innocent infufion 

 animals ; and that anlmalculae, like thofe which I faw in 

 frelh or flagnant w-ater, may be found in fait water or the 

 fea, will be doubted by no one who knows that the latter 

 Las its infufion animals alfo. We often read in books of 

 voyages, that the fea has fometimes had the appearance of 

 blood, fometimes of fnow or milk; and that it has even 

 fometimes had an appearance as if on fire. All thofe phe- 

 nomena can be afcribed to nothing elfe than the foreign mat- 

 ters, and particularly fmall animals, which multiply there in 

 knmenfe quantities, and are fometimes red, fometimes white, 

 and fometimes of a flame colour, like Miiller's Trichoda ig- 

 itita*, without including the Nereis notUluca, and feveral 

 others. It feems to me highly probable that, in regard to 

 colour, tliey may be fubjeft to different variations ; as is the cafe 

 here, from black to red, and even from red to green; as appears 

 firom this circumftance, that the red (kin or pellicle, after 

 landing a few days in the glafs, was in fome parts greeii. 

 It is alfo probable that fuch fmall animals may arife from 



• Ar.im. irtfuJoriOf No. iaj, p. 1S6. 



the 



