THE SURFACE-NET. 7 



about ten feet long, diminishing to a point. The 

 size of the meshes also diminished until the extreme 

 point was formed of gauze, and was not closed, but 

 simply tied with a tape. Three or four hoops, sewed 

 in transversely at intervals, kept the sides of the net 

 from collapsing when in use. When employed, it 

 was lowered over the quarter, gradually, so that the 

 extremity might be carried out by the ship's way 

 before the brass wire touched the water, to prevent 

 entanglement. The wire being on three sides only 

 of the mouth, would of course lie perpendicular, and 

 the rope-bridle kept it transverse : corks at each 

 upper angle of the mouth preserved it from sinking. 

 The line was then payed out for ten or twenty fa- 

 tlioms, so as to pass the net beyond the dead water 

 and eddy of the ship's wake. After awhile it was 

 hauled in and examined. A bowl of water being 

 ready, the gauze end was untied and turned inside 

 out into the bowl, when the contents became disen- 

 gaged by floating off, and after the net had been re- 

 tied and lowered, were subjected to examination. 



The booty taken by this apparatus, though for the 

 most part minute, was not devoid of interest. A 

 few of those delicate Pteropoda, the Hyalece, whose 

 shells look as if they had been blown out of the 

 thinnest glass, occurred ; as also many specimens, 

 more or less imperfect, of the Cephalopodous genus 

 Spirula, with pearly septa ; to some of these were 

 attached several very minute but perfectly developed 

 barnacles [Lepas), and m.any oblong and dark brown 

 eggs, apparently of the same cirriped. It was in- 

 teresting to see Barnacles no larger than rape-seed 



