312 ZOOLOGY. 



contrary, these molluscs, when floating on the surface 

 of the sea, may be approached, captured by hand, 

 or permitted to die on shore, without any change 

 in their inflated state ;* and although it is true that a 

 placid sea is best calculated to display the beauty of the 

 animal, and cause it to attract the attention of naviga- 

 tors, yet we have often seen them riding easily over the 

 most turbulent waves, without any probability that their 

 buoyant and elastic structure would suffer from the 

 exercise. 



Equally common and questionable is the assertion, 

 that the long tentacula of this mollusc are literally 

 cables, and serve to moor the animal to rocks, &c., 

 during violent agitations of the sea. Were not this 

 opinion advanced by some very high authorities, it 

 would be unnecessary to say, that unerring Nature has 

 not left the Physalis so bad a navigator, as willingly to 

 place itself in a condition which would require that it 

 should oppose such a feeble hold to a raging surf: not 

 to mention that the true habitat of the creature being 

 the deep and clear ocean, but little necessity can 

 exist, under natural circumstances, for any provision of 

 this kind. 



THE S A L L Y-M A N. 

 (Velella Mutica.) 



This is also an hydrostatic acalepha of a very 

 beautiful and interesting structure. 



A large portion of the animal is formed by its in- 



* At Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope, I have seen a great extent of 

 rock and beach literally covered with a small species of Physalis, which, 

 carried towards the land by a current and cast on shore by the surf, 

 had all been dried in the sun with their vesicles inflated. 



