118 



upon the hand, that instant almost, from its extreme delicacy, it was 

 destroyed : the digitations of the fins fell off, the least movement 

 destroyed the beauty of the animal; it speedily lost all the deep 

 purple and silvery enamelled tints, and became a loathsome mass. 

 Thus do we too often find animals beautiful in external adornments, 

 curious in their habits and organization, and calculated in every re- 

 spect to supply us with inexhaustible sources of intellectual gratifi- 

 cation, doomed speedily to perish ; brief is the period allotted to 

 them in the busy theatre of animated existence; but doubtless, with 

 the gift of existence, they have received from the bounteous hand of 

 their Creator, the means of enjoying their fleeting lives. 



" To place these little animals in the glass of water from the towing 

 net without injury to their delicate structure required care ; so that as 

 soon as they were captured in the net, attached to the meshes, they 

 were not handled, but carefully washed off, which was efi'ected by 

 dipping the meshes in the glass of water, when the animal soon 

 detached itself without sustaining any injury, and floated in the 

 water. 



" Although these animals are so fragile, so easily destroyed on 

 being taken out of their natural element, yet they fling themselves 

 about in the water without sustaining any injury, without even the 

 loss of any of the digitated processes of the fins ; yet when there is 

 much movement of the water in carrying the glass from one place 

 to another, they are evidently disturbed and restless, and the fins 

 are dropj^ed; if therefore, a slight motion of the water disturbs them, 

 what can become of these delicate moUusks during tempestuous 

 weather ; can they be similar to the delicate Ephemeris, doomed to 

 live merely for the space of a day and perish in myriads ? From the 

 immense number seen only from the ship — and how many myriads 

 more extended beyond our range of vision! — it conveyed to the mind 

 some idea of the profusion of living beings inhabiting the wide ex- 

 panse of ocean, and a feeling of astonishment at the inconceivable 

 variety of forms and constructions to which animation has been im- 

 parted by creative power. 



" The tail of this animal has been described as resembling that 

 of a Lizard: the comparison is good, not only with regard to form, 

 but also, with perhaps a little more flexibility of motion, when in 

 action. Sometimes the animal throws its tail up to the body, as if in- 

 tended to brush ofl" any annoying object, and at other times, it has 

 been observed to turn the head towards the side as if for a similar 

 purpose. It seems, in the action of eating, to resemble a Cater- 

 pillar. 



" No more of these animals were seen until the 15 th of May at 

 10 P.M., when in lat. 24" 18'-5, long. 31° '-01 W.. moderate 

 breezes and fine weather; a number of Glauci were captured as well 

 as Porpitee ; some of the latter had been partially devoured, and in 

 some only the horny disc remained; this, there was no doubt, from 

 the previous knowledge of the carnivorous propensities of the 

 Glaucus, was their work, more especially as we had positive proof 

 that tribes of them were wandering or prowling about the ocean to- 



