154 FOOTNOTES FROM 



as described by Ehrenberg. The particles of which it is 

 composed have an active molecular motion, and hence 

 Ehrenberg's mistake in supposing it to be an animalcule. 

 Its resemblance to the gelatinous specks which occur on 

 mouldy paste, or raw meat in an incipient state of de- 

 composition, would seem to indicate that it is a fungus 

 allied to the moulds, and not an alga. Its vitality is 

 not impaired by desiccation, even at a high temperature/ 

 A portion of paste containing this Palmella was 'dried in 

 an oven for forty-eight hours, until nearly baked into 

 biscuit, yet fragments of it readily grew when scattered 

 on fresh-made dough. 



A red colour, closely resembling blood, not unfre- 

 quently astonishes the sailor in some parts of the ocean. 

 Captain Tuckey mentions that the water of the Gulf of 

 California is reddish, whence it is sometimes called the 

 Vermilion Sea. Captain Colnett, in his interesting voy- 

 ages, states that " the set of the currents on the coast of 

 Chili, may at all times be known by noticing the direction 

 of the beds of small blubber (gelatinous algae) with which 

 the coast abounds, and from which the water derives a 

 colour like that of blood. I have often been engaged," he 

 adds, " for a whole day in passing through various sets 

 of them." D'Orbigny also remarks that there are immense 

 tracts off the coast of Brazil filled with small animals so 

 numerous as to impart a red colour to the sea ; large por- 

 tions are thus highly coloured, and receive from the sailors 

 the name of the Brazil bank, which extends over a 

 great part of the coast of the country, keeping at nearly 

 the same distance from the shore. Another bank of the 

 same kind occurs near Cape Horn in latitude 57, and 



