124 Prof. J. V. Barboza du Bocage on Hyalonema lusitanicum. 
which informs me that the specimen of Hyalonema sent to M. 
Ehrenberg has already returned into your possession. 
At the same time with your letter, I have received another 
from Professor Ehrenberg. He persists in believing me the 
victim of a mystification, and in regarding the Hyalonemas as 
artificial products manufactured by the Japanese. I will here 
transcribe for you a portion of his letter, in order that you may 
judge of the arguments upon which he supports his opinion. It 
is Professor Ehrenberg who speaks :— 
“T am convinced that the officer of customs who procured you 
these specimens has been deceived by some dealer in objects 
of natural history, or by travellers coming from Japan, and who 
have invented the fishery of these bodies near Setubal. It has 
been possible to place beyond doubt the presence of cotton threads 
for the attachment of the different pieces; there are also on the 
surface fibres of wool coloured red and green, certainly belonging 
to some old sailor’s garment. The resemblance of this specimen 
to one of Brandt’s figures is so striking, that it is impossible for 
me to believe that bodies so alike in all their parts can occur 
both in the Sea of Japan and in that of Portugal, or that these 
forms could be constructed in a manner so identical in the midst 
of circumstances so widely separated.” 
Such are the arguments which lead Professor Ehrenberg to 
maintain:—l. That the Hyalonemas are artificial products. 
2. That the specimens that I possess have been manufactured in 
and brought from Japan. 3. That they have been sold to my 
correspondents by natural-history dealers (who do not exist in 
Portugal), or by sailors returning from Japan to Setubal, which 
has never, in the memory of man, seen a ship from China or 
Japan enter its little port! * 
I have just replied to M. Ehrenberg:—1. That the seven 
specimens which I possess have been sent to me from Setubal by 
three persons, all belonging to the well-to-do classes of society, 
and all well known as perfectly honourable. 2. That these per- 
sons have received the Hyalonemas at different periods (1863, 
1864, and 1865) from well-known fishermen, who brought them 
precisely in the season of the shark-fishery. 3. That these 
fishermen had no interest in deceiving, as they could not know 
the scientific interest of these captures. 4. That these fisher- 
men were always contented with a very modest gratuity (two or 
three francs) as a remuneration for having brought them. 5. That 
if the fishermen had the intention of demanding a higher price, 
instead of announcing them as derived from our coasts, they 
would not have failed to say that they had bought them from 
strangers, that this had cost them very dear, &c. Here, as 
everywhere, exotic products generally pay much better. 
