1832.] QUEER ANIMALCULE. 29 



only one, and a quantity of coarse, brownish, granular 

 matter was ejected. The animal an instant before bursting 

 expanded to half again its natural size ; and the explosion 

 took place about fifteen seconds after the rapid progressive 

 motion had ceased: in a few cases it was preceded for a 

 short interval by a rotatory movement on the longer axis. 

 About two minutes after any number were isolated in a drop 

 •of water, they thus perished. The animals move with the 

 narrow apex forwards, by the aid of their vibratory ciliae, 

 and generally by rapid starts. They are exceedingly minute, 

 and quite invisible to the naked eye, only covering a space 

 equal to the square of the thousandth of an inch. Their 

 numbers were infinite ; for the smallest drop of water which 

 I could remove contained very many. In one day we passed 

 through two spaces of water thus stained, one of which 

 alone must have extended over several square miles. What 

 incalculable numbers of these microscopical animals ! The 

 colour of the water, as seen at some distance, was like that 

 of a river which has flowed through a red clay district ; but 

 under the shade of the vessel's side it was quite as dark as 

 chocolate. The line where the red and blue water joined 

 was distinctly defined. The weather for some days 

 previously had been calm, and the ocean abounded, to an 

 unusual degree, with living creatures.* 



In the sea around Tierra del Fuego, and at no great 

 distance from the land, I have seen narrow lines of water 

 of a bright red colour, from the number of Crustacea, which 

 somewhat resemble in form large prawns. The sealers call 

 them whale-food. Whether whales feed on them I do not 

 know ; but terns, cormorants, and immense herds of great 

 unwieldy seals derive, on some part pf the coast, their chief 

 sustenance from these swimming crabs. Seamen invariably 

 attribute the discoloration of the water to spawn ; but I 

 found this to be the case only on one occasion. At the 

 distance of several leagues from the Archipelago of the 

 Galapagos» the ship sailed through three strips of a dark 

 yellowish, or mud-like water ; these strips were some miles 

 long, but only a few yards wide, and they were separated 



* M. Lesson ('* Voyage de la CoquilU," torn, i., p. 2155) mentions red water 

 off Lima, apparently produced by the same cause Pcron, the distinguished 

 naturalist, in the "Voyage aux Terres Australes," gives no less than twelve 

 references to voyagers who have alluded to the discoloured waters of the sea 

 fvol, ii., p. ait)). To the references given hy Peron may be added, Humboldt's 



Personal Narrative," vol. vi., p. 804; Flinders' "Voyage," vol. i., p. 92; 

 Labillardiire, vol. i., p. 287 ; Ulloa's "Voyage " ; " Voyaire of the Astrolabt and 

 of the CoquilU " ; Captain Kin^;'* " Survey of Austialia, etc 



