THE SAKGASSO SEA. 34L 



nacles, " From lat. 25^ to 28"^ in this sea we met with fucus in parallel 

 lines, S.S.B. and N.N.W. ; it flowers like fern and other cryptogamia. In 

 calms, the fuci float near the surface, some of the leaves appearing above 

 water; the patches seen in the Florida Stream, and the bunches examined, 

 were old, brown, and covered with young barnacles." 



In the year 1825, the brig Erin, from the Pacific Ocean to Liverpool, 

 when to the Westward of the Azores, passed compact parallels of fucus 

 nata?is, in lat. 39° 59', long. 33^ 46'. The weed was less broken than any 

 they had before seen ; the nodules large and of a deep yellow-brown colour, 

 and the lines extending, as far as the eye could reach, in a direction about 

 S. by E., being nearly at right angles with the vessel's line, which was 

 E. by N. The wind was S.E. by S., strong gales and a heavy sea. 



(300.) The fucus natans is found in localities to the Eastward of the 

 Sargasso Sea. For the following communication we are indebted to the 

 late Captain Thomas Midgley, and it is a great acquisition to our know- 

 ledge of the wide range that this plant has : — 



" On my outward passage to Africa, in a perfect calm, at daylight on the 

 morning of the 18th of January, 1841, in lat. 6^ 46' N., long, li"" 56' W., 

 I found the ship amongst a number of small bunches of weed, and many 

 cuttle-fish shells. 



" On carefully examining some of the bunches of weed, I was surprised 

 to find it the tvne fucus natans, or Sargasso or gulf-weed, being in every 

 respect precisely the same as that found in the N.E. Trades, but apparently 

 much fresher, having exactly the same kind of oblong, narrow, serrated 

 leaf, same stem, same nodules, and just the same pale yellow colour. The 

 pods were also surrounded with a very fine kind of network (ftustra), and 

 there were a very few minute barnacles attached to the stem, which 

 scarcely showed any marks of decay ; indeed, the two bunches brought 

 on board (which were each about 4 inches in diameter) appeared to have 

 been but very recently separated from the parent stem, and they each 

 contained a small but very lively crab. 



" The lively fresh appearance of the weed, and the two crabs, induced 

 ne to try for soundings, and, as the weather was perfectly calm and the 

 vvater smooth, I was enabled to get a perpendicular cast of 112 fathoms, 

 with a well-armed heavy lead, but found no bottom. 



" The weed was in detached and small bunches, and could only have 

 tended over a comparative limited space ; for when a breeze of wind sprang 

 up, and the vessel had sailed 20 miles to the Eastward, there was not a 

 single sprig or bunch to be seen. 



" This weed appears to be unknown upon the Kroo coast, for I had two 

 intelligent natives of Sangwin and Grand Sestros on board at the time I 

 picked the weed up, and they severally declared they had never seen it 

 upon any part of the coast. 



" The vessel had been perfectly becalmed for fourteen hours previous 

 and two hours subsequent to the time of picking up the weed, so that she 

 gradually drifted amongst it by a current, which I found, by good observa- 

 tions and carefully-kept reckoning, to set E. by S. by compass, very nearly 

 three-quarters of a mile per hour. Temperature of water, when weed was 

 picked up at daylight, 79°, and at noon, 81' F 



