208 ATLANTIC OCEAN. 



ter, at the distance of a few miles from the coast, 

 very many kinds of Crustacea and some other an- 

 imals are numerous, but only during the night. 

 Between latitudes 56° and 57° south of Cape Horn, 

 the net was put astern several times ; it never, 

 however, brought up anything besides a few of 

 two extremely minute species of Entomostraca. 

 Yet whales and seals, petrels and albatross, are 

 exceedingly abundant throughout this part of the 

 ocean. It has always been a mystery to me on what 

 the albatross, which lives far from the shore, can 

 subsist ; I presume that, like the condor, it is able to 

 fast long ; and that one good feast on the carcass of a 

 puti-id whale lasts for a long time. The central and 

 intertropical parts of the Atlantic swarm with Pte- 

 ropoda, Crustacea, and Radiata, and with their de- 

 vourers the flying-fish, and again with their devoui'- 

 ers the bonitos and albicores ; I presume that the 

 numerous lower pelagic animals feed on the Infu- 

 soria, which are now known, from the researches 

 of Ehrenberg, to abound in the open ocean : but 

 on what, in the clear blue water, do these Infusoria 

 subsist 1 



While sailing a little south of the Plata on one 

 very dark night, the sea presented a wonderful 

 and most beautiful spectacle. There was a fresh 

 breeze, and every part of the surface, which during 

 the day is seen as foam, now glowed with a pale 

 light. The vessel drove before her bows two bil- 

 lows of liquid phosphorus, and in her wake she 

 was followed by a milky train. As far as the eye 

 reached, the crest of every wave was bright, and 

 the sky above the horizon, from the reflected glare 

 of these livid flames, was not so utterly obscure as 

 over the vault of the heavens. 



As we proceed further southward the sea is sel- 

 dom phosphorescent ; and off Cape Horn I do not 



