The Zoologist — March, 1874. 3891 



oars glittering in the sun. The Governor looked with the critical eye of a 

 sailor at the two boats — he still spoke lovingly of the ' Maid of Faeroe,' hut 

 1 suppose he saw that, as Tennyson says, ' we were all of us Danes,' and 

 the question of a trial of strength lapsed by mutual consent." — P. 106. 



The Faeroes have become familiar to zoologists through the 

 admirable papers of Captain Feilden in this journal : still there are 

 objects of interest for every voyager who knows how to observe. 

 Dr. Thomson expressly mentions Myling Head as one of these ; it 

 is a magnificent cliff at the north-western point of Stromoe, which 

 falls perpendicularly into the sea from a height of more than two 

 thousand feet. He adds that the tide runs among and round these 

 islands like a mill-race, and Governor Holten told the voyagers that 

 if they started with the morning flood, and the steamer kept pace 

 with the tide, she might make the circuit of the island, passing 

 under Myling Head, and returning to Thorshavn in six hours. 

 Such an exploit was projected, but the weather proving boisterous, 

 the experiment was not made, although everything had been 

 arranged for it, and the ' Porcupine' left Thorshavn on the 24lh of 

 August, steaming east by south : the next soundings were off the 

 Shetland plateau, and here — 



" Among echinoderms Ophiacantha spinulosa was one of the prevailing 

 forms, and we were greatly struck with the brilliancy of its phosphorescence. 

 Some .of these hauls were taken late in the evening, and the tangles were 

 sprinkled over with stars of the most brilliant uranium green — little stars, 

 for the phosphorescent light was much more vivid in the younger and 

 smaller individuals. The light was not constant, nor continuous all over 

 the star, but sometimes it struck out a line of fire all round the disk, 

 flashing, or one might rather say glowing, up to the centre ; then that 

 would fade, and a defined patch, a centimetre or so in length, would break 

 out in the middle of an arm, and travel slowly out to the point ; or again 

 the whole five rays would light up at the extremities and spread the fire 

 inwards. Very young Ophiacauthse, only latelj^ rid of their 2)lutci, shone 

 very brightly. It is difficult to doubt that in a sea swarming with pre- 

 daceous crustaceans, such as the active species of Doryuchus and Munida, 

 with great bright eyes, phosphorescence must be a fatal gift. We had 

 another gorgeous display of luminosity during this cruise. Coming down 

 the Sound of Skye from Loch Torridon, on our return, we dredged in about 

 a hundi-ed fathoms, and the dredges came up tangled with the long pink 

 stems of the singular sea-pen [Pavonia quadrangular is). Every one of 

 these was embraced and strangled by the twining arms of Asteronyx Loveni, 



