58 THE SOUTH AND ITS SCIENTIFIC SCOPE 



finding sufficient cause without electricity, phosphoric 



water, dead animal matter, or anything further than living ] 



animals (generally Entomostraca Crustacea if anybody ■ 



asks you). These little shrimps are particularly numerous, « 



especially two species of them, thousands of one kind being I 



caught in one night. The library of Natural History that I 



you fitted me out with is to me worth any money. Blainville's j 



Actinologie and Edwardes' Crustaceae are particularly useful, i 



as by them I can name many old species and detect the | 



wonderful new forms I me.et with. My collection amounts * 



to about 200 drawings done from nature under the micro- ^ 



scope. ... As I am learning to use my left eye to the ■ 



microscope, I do not find my eyesight affected even by '; 



candlelight. >; 



His discovery of the Antarctic infusoria is recorded step J 



by step in his Journal. To begin with, he writes on February ] 



15, 1841, in lat. 76° S. : 5 



Much young ice was seen to-day of a hght brown colour ; \ 



when dissolved in water it deposited a very fine sediment, ^ 



composed of exceedingly minute, transparent, flat quad- j 



rangular flakes, each formed of numerous parallel prisms of | 



a perfectly regular form, giving each flake a fluted appear- ] 



ance ; numerous circular discs, also transparent, were { 



scattered among them ; they were very minutely reticu- j 



lated, and had often opaque centres. All the young ice was i 



very full of it ; when lifted out of the water it did not appear j 



discoloured ; many acres were covered with it. I suppose • 



it to be some insoluble salt, whose appearance is probably - 



connected with the volcano. \ 



This facile conclusion impressed itself on the other officers ; , 



Boss himself forgot to correct it by Hooker's fuUer examination, ( 



and (Voyage, I. 243, II. 146; cp. II. 332) records the general \ 



belief that the colouring matter consisted of fine ashes from I 



Mount Erebus, eighty miles away, while ascribing the deter- ]. 



mination of its real nature to Ehrenberg, who examined speci- ; 



mens after their return. But against this note in Hooker's ' 



own copy are penned the words : * I recognised them as | 



diatoms, &c., at the time. J. D. Hooker.' 4; 



