CHAPTER XXI. 



THE SURFACE POPULATIOK OP THE OCEAN. 



Floating Animals — Capricionsness of their Appearance— Calms — The Towing 

 Net — Medusae — Nocturnal Animals — Formosa Channel — Hydrozoa-^ 

 Yellow Fly — Blue Animals in Deep Sea — Abundance of Animals in Bad 

 "Weather — Lucernarian Jelly-fishes — ^Their Vast Numbers — Peculiarities 

 — Portuguese Man-of-"War — Stinging Powers — Fish Sheltering in their 

 Threads — Sargasso Sea — Its Inhabitants — Atlantic Calms — Compound 

 Salpse — Three Forms — Chains of Salpae. 



DuEiNG a long voyage, when the attention has been 

 daily directed to the animate objects floating upon the 

 surface of the sea, it must necessarily happen that much 

 ■will be observed, and many interesting animals be met with. 

 And when, moreover, that daily observation has been car- 

 ried on for more than a year, and in seas of different 

 latitudes, one can hardly fail to have noticed the greater 

 number of the Pelagic creatures which habitually inhabit 

 the surface of the ocean, as well as most of the phases of 

 their appearance. 



The numbers and variety of such floating creatures are 

 very great, and by no means confined to one 'class of 

 marine animals. There are certain fishes which habitually 

 reside in the upper stratum of water, and are constantly 

 taken by skimming the surface. Among these are glass- 

 eels (Leptocephalus), Malthe, &c. Cephalopods (cuttles) of 



