28 STELLER'S JOURNAL 



marina); the Alga dentata Raji, which grows on rocks in two or 

 three feet of water; the Fuci membranacei calyciformes already 

 opened, which was a certain indication that they had been lying 

 for some time on the beach and had again been carried off by 

 the tide; the Fucus clavae effigie* which grows in two fathoms 

 of water but nowhere around Kamchatka; the Fucus lapathi 

 sanguinei foliis Tournef., which, if it had been drifting long at 

 sea, would on account of its tenderness have been quickly torn 

 to pieces by the waves or eaten by the sea animals which were 

 constantly seen in large numbers and are very fond of it. We 

 observed also red and white sea nettles (Priapi Lin.),^'^ which 

 cling to the rocks at low tide in at least five or six feet of water 

 and, according to my experience in the Sea of Penzhina,^^ 

 are never met with until one has approached the coast to within 

 fifteen to twenty miles. — One time^* it even happened that 

 there came drifting by the ship a large mass of the large reed 



lapathum sanguineum (L.) Stackh. Dr. Howe suggests that the species 

 seen by Steller may have been Delesseria crassifolia Rupr., which is 

 recorded from the Pribilof Islands and is the only species "in that region 

 that suggests Hydrolapathum sanguineum." (S) 



* Gmel. hist. Fucorum. — P. [For identification see preceding foot- 

 note, second paragraph.] 



52 Steller in the MS has " Urlicas mannas ruhras und albas," by which 

 I take it he means the stinging jelly fishes, the North Pacific varieties or 

 subspecies of Cyanea capillata (Linn.) (ferruginea and postelsii if distinct) 

 and Aurelia aiirita (Linn.). Linnaeus in first describing the former 

 (Fauna suecica, Stockholm, ist edit., 1746, No. 1287) expressly says 

 "vulgo Urtica marina." It is true that Pallas in the published text adds 

 in parenthesis "{Priapi Lin.)," but these are sessile actinians. Thus 

 Gmelin's Actinia crassicornis (Carolus Linnaeus: Systema naturae, 13th 

 edit., edited by J. F. Gmelin, 2 vols, in nine, Leipzig, 1788-93; reference 

 in Vol. I, Part VI, p. 3132) has among its synonyms Priapus senilis 

 Linn, and P. rziber Forskal as well as Urtica rubra Aldrovandi, and it is 

 probably these quotations which misled Pallas, for surely Steller refers 

 to floating organisms and not to those attached to the bottom. (S) 



63 This name was at that time applied to the whole of the Sea of 

 Okhotsk (Krasheninnikov, Histoire et description du Kamtchatka, 

 Amsterdam, 1770, Vol. i, p. 236). 



54 The MS has "often." 



