32 EAMBLES OF A NATUEALIST. [Ch. II. 



barked in the gig we were soon scudding along under saU. 

 Meantime the full moon rose grandly over the sea, and in 

 half-an-hour we had measured the way back to the ship 

 which it had taken two hours' hard pull to do in the 

 morning. 



The towing-net hanging out from the ship when lying off 

 the island was, the first evening, fiUed with a dense brown 

 deposit, which on examination proved to be composed solely 

 of Zoese, or crab-larvse, all of the same species. The next 

 morning on raising it again in the same spot, not a Zoea 

 made its appearance, but instead of them were numbers of 

 Leucifer, Entomostraca, and other minute Crustacea, also 

 little Atlantse, fronds of reticulated Ulva, and decaying 

 leaves of Zostera, upon which were Orbitolites, Spirorbis, 

 and minute Polyzoa. 



A strong north-east wind prevented us the following day 

 from paying another visit to the island ; while, lying under 

 its lee, we remained at anchor for the sake of the shelter it 

 afforded us. But on the second day, towards sunset, our 

 attention was attracted by the curious phenomenon of long 

 rolling waves coming in from the south-west, which increased 

 as the evening advanced, causing considerable motion in the 

 ship. Towards midnight these south-west roUers increased 

 to such an extent, the wind still blowing strong from the 

 north-east, that it was deemed desirable to slip cable and 

 put to sea, since the proximity, of the reef was very un- 

 desirable if bad weather set in, while the rolling swell 

 endangered our bumping upon the reef in a spot where 

 our fair-weather anchorage left but little room to spare. We 

 kept outside the edge of the reef therefore during the night, 

 and next day approached its north-west comer. Here we 

 saw the terrible sight of the long line of breakers on our lee 



