LIFE OF JAMES DWIGHT DANA 



quarter of the heavens open to view, I could not obtain 

 any satisfactory estimate of the number during the hour, 

 in any one position. I was struck with the fewness of 

 them, scarcely equalling an ordinary night. It was, 

 however, a bad time, the moon having passed the full 

 but a day or two before." 



TO HIS SISTER HARRIET 



Discovery of Bowditch Island : Alarm of the King 

 "AT SEA, LAT. 30 N., LONG. 178 W., May 27, 1841. 



" As you see above, we are not far from the Sandwich 

 Islands ; a few days more, we trust, will terminate a long 

 cruise of six and a half months, affording us a sight of 

 civilized faces again, and intercourse with many friends 

 endeared to us at our former visit to these islands. We 

 are sailing along with a gentle breeze on a sea of almost 

 mill-pond smoothness. All around is so serene and quiet, 

 the air so pure and refreshingly cool to us who for a long 

 while have been under a torrid sun, that an involuntary 

 smile of delight seems to pervade the whole ship. For a 

 few days past the sea has at times been covered with a 

 light and fragile shell of bluish-purple color, called by the 

 learned lanthina. Each one floats along under a little 

 mass of imitation foam, made by inflating with air a thin 

 cellular sac, attached to the animal near its head. It is 

 one of the most beautiful provisions of the Creator. It 

 seems not only to float the animal and its house, but is 

 also a protection from the sea-birds, which must often 

 mistake this imitation foam for the real spots of froth, and 

 thus let their victims escape. Along with the lanthinas, 

 we find a little blue crab, which takes to the shell and 

 cruises around with it. The crab sometimes uses its 

 hinder legs, or those on one side, as oars, while he holds 

 on by the others, and thus paddles away his little skiff with 

 an air of authority, as if he were the rightful owner. Now 

 and then he swings off in search of food and returns again 

 or makes for some other shell near by, which he occupies 

 as before, without disturbing the lawful occupant, till 

 ready for another predatory excursion. Such are some of 

 the trifles that occasionally divert us at sea. Albatrosses, 



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