GORGONIADjfi : PRIMKOA. 173 



found on the coasts of Norway, Lapland, and the White Sea, though 

 it is considered rare by the inhabitants of these parts, who, when they 

 accidentally meet with it, hang it up as a curiosity ;" or rather, as he 

 informs us afterwards, because the fishermen suppose them to be 

 a kind of charm, or protection against storms. Fishing for the 

 uer, or red-fish, (Perca marina), which is found in the greatest 

 plenty where the Sea-trees grow, the fisherman's line is often wound 

 round their branches by the captured fish ; and the branch round 

 which the line is fast, is often torn away and drawn to the surface. 

 These Sea-trees " arrive at a very extraordinary size, if we may believe 

 the accounts of the fishermen who have the most frequent oppor- 

 tunities of seeing them, attaining dimensions even equal to those of 

 our largest forest trees. This they conclude to be the case from their 

 nets being sometimes entangled on the trunk or stem of the Gorgon, 

 when the united strength of several men is unable to free the nets. 

 At other times, a large portion of the animal has been pulled up 

 with the net by main force, which they have represented as being 

 of very considerable size ; and, from their description, without doubt 

 a Gorgon.* 



" They have even assured me that they grow to the height of fifty 

 and sixty feet, as they judge from the following circumstance, which 

 seems clear and simple. The lines for the red-fish are set, as I have 

 said, in very deep water, at the distance of about six feet from the 

 bottom, and in the parts where it is flat and level, which they can 

 tell from their soundings. On drawing up the lines at the distance 

 of forty, fifty, or sixty feet, and sometimes even more from the bot- 

 tom, they get entangled with some of the upper parts or branches of 

 the Gorgon, which are thus torn off; and hence they reasonably con- 

 clude that the animal rises to this height. 



" In a particular part of the fiord near Carlsoe, Mr. Steer informed 

 me, one of the Gorgons was growing, which he believed to equal in 

 size many trees. The fishermen, he said, had repeatedly lost their 

 nets and lines from their becoming entangled around the stem of it ; 

 yet they were still induced to fish there, from the abundance of the 

 red-fish they invariably found. Parts of the upper branches of this 

 animal which had been brought to him by the fishermen, he pre- 

 sented me with, resembling in every respect the one here depicted." 

 (Primnoa lepadifera.) 



* Perhaps these large trees may be rather referable to Alcyonium arboreum. 

 0.3. 



