PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR. 249 



dead calm has settled over the sea ; and the observer, 

 as he leans over the bulwarks of the ship, has oppor- 

 tunities of scrutinizing the ocean-rover at leisure, as it 

 lazily rises and falls on the long sluggish heavings of 

 the glassy surface. Then he sees that the comparison 

 of the stranger to a ship is a felicitous one ; for, at a 

 little distance it might well be mistaken for a child's 

 mimic ship, shining in all the gaudy painting in which 

 it came out of the toy-shop ; and he is ready to pity 

 the forlorn urchin in tunic and knickerbockers, whose 

 cherished boat has broken her moorings of thread, and 

 drifted with winds and tides far, far out of reach of land. 

 Not unfrequently does one of the tiny vessels come 

 so close alongside that, by means of the ship's bucket, 

 with a little assistance from a smart fellow, who has 

 jumped into the " chains" with a boat-hook, it is cap- 

 tured, and brought on deck to be subjected to scientific 

 examination. A dozen voices are however lifted, warn- 

 ing you by no means to touch it, for well the experi- 

 enced seaman knows its terrific powers of defence. It 

 does not now appear so like a ship as when it> was at a 

 distance. It is an oblong bladder of tough membrane, 

 varying considerably in shape (and hence no two original 

 figures agree in this respect), and also in size, from less 

 than an inch in length to the size of a man's hat. Once 

 in a voyage to Mobile, when rounding the Florida Reef, 



