THE COASTS OF SICILY. 31 



denomination of phosphorescence, and that this curious 

 question is by no means settled. 



After having passed the rest of the night at anchor 

 opposite to Stromboli, we set sail the next morning 

 for Messina. This passage of nearly sixty miles was 

 not entirely lost as far as our researches were con- 

 cerned ; for Milne Edwards and myself had become 

 such good sailors, that as long as the weather con- 

 tinued calm, we were under no apprehensions of sea- 

 sickness. Therefore, while M. Blanchard was ar- 

 ranging his cases, and fixing and labelling the insects 

 which he had found at Milazzo and on Stromboli, we 

 were busy in dropping our bags and nets to arrest in 

 its passage every living creature that chanced to 

 come within reach of our snares. In this manner 

 we procured various remarkable larvae belonging to 

 Annelids and Crustaceans, together with several 

 curious specimens of the Medusidae ; amongst others, 

 the Velella *, a lovely little zoophyte, which possesses 

 more than one claim to our notice. Its dark blue 

 umbrella, which is provided on its lower surface with 

 numerous suckers, is strengthened above by cartilagi- 

 nous plates, enclosing a certain quantity of air, whilst 

 a layer of the same nature, which is placed vertically 

 upon the others, crosses the back of the animal in an 

 oblique direction. Supported on the surface of the 

 water by means of the air with which they are 



* The Velellas, which were placed by Cuvier among the ordinary 

 Acalephse, have in recent times been classed with the hydrostatic 

 Acalephac or Siphonophora, of which we have already spoken in 

 the first volume. (See the Memoir of Yogt, entitled Siphunophorcs 

 dc la Mer de Nice.) 



