Life in the Bahama Islands. 845 



ture necessitated a change to lighter garments. Sea captains 

 immerse a thermometer in the water from time to time in 

 order to ascertain when they strike the warm current. 



The interest was maintained throughout by dipping up 

 Gulf- weed, (Sargassum bacciferum), a fucoid in which numer- 

 ous creatures take refuge, such as small barnacles, minute 

 crabs and other crustaceans, nudibranch, tectibranch and 

 heteropod mollusks, hydroids, together with small and beau- 

 tiful fishes. The general resemblance of the creatures found 

 to the weed itself was striking, though there were exceptions 

 to this, a few forms being brightly colored, while Sargassum 

 is of a faded green color. The Portuguese man-of-war 

 (Physalia) was frequently to be seen floating by, his frail 

 bark being trusted to the by no means smooth if not actually 

 raging sea. 



A form of medusa of the genus 'Linerges was met for sev- 

 eral days while we were in the Gulf Stream, and it is sin- 

 gular that it should have appeared at about the same hour 

 (4 p.m.) on each successive day. But of all our captures, 

 none was more interesting than that of Argonauta, a female, 

 provided therefore with shell, and, as it turned out, with 

 eggs in the shell. When taken, it was alive, and having 

 placed it in water in a glass vessel, its mode of 'locomotion, 

 by jets of water forced through its siphon, could be observed 

 beautifully. The sight of this was effective in somewhat re- 

 ving some of the party sadly prostrated by sea-sickness. 

 The creature was, of course, pickled with miserly care by 

 the fortunate possessor. 



At last, after so many days, which with all the interest 

 we' could put into them, were, from the want of accommoda- 

 tion, etc., on so small a vessel, weary ones, we sighted the 

 Bahama " bank," took a pilot on board and began to revel 

 in experiences at once the newest, most impressive, and in 

 many respects the most delightful of our lives. A brief 

 reference to the geography of the Bahamas may here be in 

 place. This group of islands, keys and rocks lies between 

 21° and 27° N. latitude, and 72° and 79° W. longitude. One 

 finds all transitions between the large island of Abaco and 

 mere rocky projections ; all are, however, of coral formation, 



23 



