2354 The Zoologist — November, 1870. 



visit the stranger ship. We chose a sheltered bay, and commenced 

 paying out the seine. Koreans, seated in groups bare headed, or wearing 

 their broad-brimmed hats, were smoking their pipes in silence, as they 

 inquisitively observed our proceedings. The rooks in the tall and 

 glorious trees that fringed the bay cawed loudly with indignant 

 remonstrance at the unwonted intrusion upon their quiet haunts; 

 while the sailors, to the tune of their popular songs, hauled in the 

 great net, in which upwards of one hundred and seventy pounds of 

 bream and other fish were taken. I, of course, took the opportunity 

 while here of pursuing, with my usual zeal, my natural-history 

 inquiries. Among the denizens of the sea I noticed toad-fishes, 

 devil-fishes, sea-horses and swimming crabs. I also noticed a great 

 many individuals of a singular viviparous fish, most of which had 

 three or four living young ones in their bellies. I believe the fish 

 belongs to a genus described by Temrainck under the name of Ditrema. 

 1 also found, as I strolled away from the seining party, a singular 

 species of Arum, with long curling horns extending from its lurid 

 spathes. The natives were just as friendly as when I visited the 

 group in 1845. An old man wilh a basket of sea-weed on his back 

 stopped me, and would fain persuade me to taste of his Laminarian 

 dainty. A little further on, a young lad made a friendly advance by 

 biting off a portion of lily root and offering me the remainder, while a 

 small boy brought me wild raspberries strung upon a straw. 



" On one occasion, while out with my friend Buckley in search of 

 adventures, we observed a sandy mud-flat in the distance, on the 

 other side of which was a breakwater formed of heaped-up boulders. 

 On approaching nearer, we were struck with a peculiar blue appearance 

 of the sand-flat, which, strange to say, on our arrival suddenly dis- 

 appeared, but not before the cause of the peculiar phenomenon 

 revealed itself in the form of thousands of struggling, round-bodied, 

 blue crabs, which were frantically endeavouring to hide themselves in 

 the yielding sand, for such is the remarkable habit of Scopimera 

 globosa. The wave-worn stones of the breakwater were partly con- 

 cealed by tangled vines and the creeping stems of Convolvulus 

 maritiraa. On this occasion we had to do battle with a snake. 

 While Buckley was proceeding in advance, I observed that he sud- 

 denly became excited, stopped, and beckoned, pointing emphatically 

 right before him. Sure that something must be wrong, I hurriedly 

 rushed to his assistance, just in time to cut off the retreat of a large 

 mottled snake as he was trying to escape among the tangled vines 



