94 BAHIA BLANCA. [CHAP. v. 



"Well may one be allowed to ask, what is an individual? It is 

 always interesting to discover the foundation of the strange tales 

 of the old voyagers ; and I have no doubt but that the habits of 

 this Virgularia explain one such case. Captain Lancaster, in his 

 voyage * in 1601, narrates that on the sea-sands of the Island of 

 Sombrero, in the East Indies, he " found a small twig growing up 

 like a young tree, and on offering to pluck it up it shrinks down to 

 the ground, and sinks, unless held very hard. On being plucked 

 up, a great worm is found to be its root, and as the tree groweth 

 in greatness, so doth the worm diminish ; and as soon as the worm 

 is entirely turned into a tree it rooteth in the earth, and so becomes 

 great. This transformation is one of the strangest wonders that I 

 saw in all my travels : for if this tree is plucked up, while young, 

 and the leaves and bark stripped off, it becomes a hard stone when 

 dry, much like white coral : thus is this worm twice transformed 

 into different natures. Of these we gathered and brought home 

 many." 



During my stay at Bahia Blanca, "while waiting for the Beagle, 

 the place was in a constant state of excitement, from rumours of 

 wars and victories, between the troops of Rosas and the wild 

 Indians. One day an account came that a small party forming one 

 of the postas on the line to Buenos Ayres, had been found all 

 murdered. The next day three hundred men arrived from the 

 Colorado, under the command of Commandant Miranda. A large 

 portion of these men were Indians (mansos, or tame), belonging to 

 the tribe of the Cacique Bernantio. They passed the night here ; 

 and it was impossible to conceive anything more wild and savage 



scope, presented an extraordinary appearance. The mass consisted of 

 rounded, semi-transparent, irregular grains, aggregated together into par- 

 ticles of various sizes. All such particles, and the separate grains, 

 possessed the power of rapid movement; generally revolving around 

 different axes, but sometimes progressive. The movement was visible 

 with a very weak power, but even with the highest its cause could not be 

 perceived. It was very different from the circulation of the fluid in the 

 elastic bag, containing the thin extremity of the axis. On other occasions, 

 when dissecting small marine animals beneath the microscope, I have 

 seen particles of pulpy matter, some of large size, as soon as they were 

 disengaged, commence revolving. I have imagined, I know not with 

 how much truth, that this granulo-pulpy matter was in process of being 

 converted into ova. Certainly in this zoophyte such appeared to be the 

 case. 

 * Kerr's Collection of Voyages, vol. viii. p. 119. 





