At Botofogo Bay. 29 



forest a universal silence appears to reign. To a per- 

 son fond of natural history, such a day as this brings 

 with it a deeper pleasure than he can ever hope to 

 experience again." 



Here .Darwin divided his time equally with ani- 

 mate and inanimate forms. We find him to-day at 

 Botofogo Bay among the treasures of undescribed 

 species, not merely novelties, but forms which had 

 never been seen by scientific eyes before. We can 

 imagine his joy as he compared these discoveries at 

 night with the authorities he had at hand, and real- 

 ised that here was not one but hundreds of creatures 

 actually undescribed. He compares his geological 

 studies here to gambling in their excitement, and his 

 reflections upon the structure of the rocks were far- 

 reaching and valuable. 



It is difficult to determine which he enjoyed most, 

 geology, botany, or marine zoology, but to the last 

 he gave perhaps the most attention. Among the 

 curious fishes he noticed here was the Diodon anten- 

 natus, which has a peculiar habit of inflating itself. 

 Placing one in a boat, flabby and flat, it immediately 

 began drawing in air, all the while assuming a more 

 rotund appearance, until finally it rocked to and fro 

 a veritable ball covered with spines, and upon being 

 tossed over floated upon the surface like a balloon. 

 The author has often tried the same experiment 

 with the Diodon of the Gulf of Mexico, it invariably 

 ridding itself of air in a few moments. 



Darwin found that the expanding or blowing-up 

 process was produced in two ways. This little fish 

 when inflated could swim feebly, though drawing but 



