48 SALPID.'E. 



united together in long chains, composed of numerous indi- 

 viduals of similar form, each an independent being, though 

 constantly associated, and linearly aggregated, with its 

 companions. These long chains swim through the tranquil 

 water with regular serpentine movements, for the creatures 

 of which they are composed contract and expand simul- 

 taneously, keeping time, as it were, like a regiment of sol- 

 diers upon parade. Each chain seems consequently to be 

 a single being, acting through the influence of an unique 

 will, and hence sailors often look upon it as a reptile, and 

 in many seas the salpa-chains are called sea-serpents. But 

 when taken out of the water, the links of the chain fall 

 asunder, the several distinct animals of which it is com- 

 posed suddenly losing their power of adhesion. In con- 

 sequence of accidents, broken-up chains and separated 

 members of such communities are not unfrequently met in 

 seas where Salpee are numerous. But other Salpee are also 

 met with very dissimilar in form, and never united together 

 in chains. Now, the discovery of Chamisso was, that such 

 constantly solitary Salpee did not belong to species distinct 

 from those united in chains, however dissimilar, (and they 

 are so dissimilar usually as to appear even generically dis- 

 tinct,) but were either the parents or the progeny, as the 

 case might be, of the aggregate forms; that chained Salvia 

 did not produce chained Salpa, but solitary Salp^^ which, 

 in their turn, did not produce solitary beings, but chained. 

 Consequently, as Chamisso graphically observed, " A Salpa 

 mother is not like its daughter or its own mother, but re- 

 sembles its sister, its granddaughter, and its grandmother." 

 So surprising, so paradoxical an assertion, a statement so 

 contrary to what naturalists fancied to be the laws of nature, 

 could scarcely expect to be received with credulity. Nor 

 was it. There was a general outcry against it ; it was 

 treated as a wild assertion resulting from the incorrect 

 observations of a man with more imagination than judg- 

 ment. In vain Chamisso offered the most careful researches 

 and minute details of his observations. The heavy-headed 

 in science stigmatised him as a poet and romancer, who 



