OF CEPHALOPODOUS OTA. 9JL 



long. 28° W., and the sea was swarming with beautiful objects, 

 which I was watching from the chains, and making attempts to 

 capture therefrom, when I saw an object which at once withdrew 

 my attention from all the rest (the most familiar illustration I 

 can give of its appearance would be to liken it to one of those 

 cylindrical knitted comforters worn by ladies)— about 2 feet long 

 and about 4 or 5 inches in diameter, closed at both ends, and 

 floating expanded upon the surface of the water. The folds of 

 the web were of a dark colour ; and the web itself looked ex- 

 tremely delicate, so much so that, except at these apparent 

 folds, it could scarcely be distinguished at all. At the same 

 tune I thought I should be able to hook it up entire, and 

 fetched a grapnel for that purpose. I should have ill succeeded 

 in the attempt, however, as it turned out ; but the ship being at 

 this juncture getting up steam and nearly ready to move, the 

 first Lieutenant, Mr. Stewart, kindly lowered a boat for me as it 

 drifted past. From the boat it could scarcely be perceived ; and 

 when, by directions from the deck, it was ultimately found, some 

 difficulty was experienced in getting it into the boat ; for, 

 although it had appeared very solid and distinct in the water, it 

 proved impossible to drag it up, and at the first attempt the mass 

 slid away from the bucket placed under it, and, being so evenly 

 balanced, disappeared, and could not be found again immediately. 

 I was sadly afraid it would be lost ; for our vessel was only waiting 

 for the boat's return to steam away. Presently, however, it was 

 found again ; but in attempting to push it into the bucket, it 

 broke in halves. Ultimately one of the halves was secured ; 

 and this was quite sufficient, for the purpose. On close exami- 

 nation I was suprised to find that it consisted of a large mass of 

 semisolid, perfectly transparent jelly ; and what appeared to be 

 the dark folds of the web were rows or clusters of round black 

 spots, each of the size of a large pin's head, arranged in single 

 rows along the outer part of the cylindrical mass of jelly, the 

 rows not being regularly distributed, but running partially 

 round its circumference, some for a longer distance than others. 

 In some cases, two or three rows were placed close together side 

 by side, and were separated by an interval from the next series, 

 which might contain two or three rows or only one row of 

 spots. 



The spots appeared to be most thickly clustered about the 

 edges of the body as it lay in the bucket, and least numerous 



7* 



