THE KOMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



which suggests the thought of the larvae of some 

 Annelid. They were exceedingly minute, so as to 

 be quite invisible to the naked eye, being not more 

 than one thousandth of an inch in length. Their 

 numbers were infinite, for the smallest drop of 

 water which could be removed contained very 

 many. Yet in one day, they passed through two 

 spaces of water thus stained, one of which alone 

 must have extended over several square miles. 

 How utterly inconceivable, then, must have been 

 the multitude of these minute creatures 1 



Other navigators have noticed broad expanses 

 of the ocean tinged with colour, well defined ; as 

 the red water seen by M. Lesson off Lima, and 

 that which in the vicinity of California has been 

 called the ''Vermilion Sea;" to which Sir E. Ten- 

 nent has recently added the sea around Ceylon, 

 which is of a similar hue, and which he has ascer- 

 tained to be owing to the presence of infusorial 

 animalcules.* 



Off the coast of Brazil, Kotzebue observed on 

 the surface of the sea, a dark brown streak, about 

 twelve feet wide, and extending in length as far as 

 the eye could reach. It was found to consist of 

 an innumerable multitude of minute crabs, and 

 the seeds [or air-vessels?] of a submarine alga. 



In certain parts of the Arctic Ocean the water, 

 instead of being colourless and transparent, is 

 opaque, and of a deep green hue. Scoresby found 

 that this was owing to the presence of excessively 

 numerous microscopic Medusas. He computes 

 that within the compass of two square miles, 

 supposing these creatures to extend to the depth 

 of two hundred and fifty fathoms, (which, how- 

 ever, is scarcely probable,) there would be congre- 

 gated together a number which eighty thousand 

 * " Ceylon," i. p. 53. 

 102 



