380 



EAMBLES OF A NATUEALIST. [Ch. XXII. 



great quantities of flying-fish of a large size (about 18 inches 

 long), which had been dried and packed in barrels, and 

 were probably intended for exportation to Amoy. 



I have hitherto purposely avoided speaking of a floating 

 object which naturally attracted considerable attention on 

 various occasions — not on account of its novelty, for it has 

 been written about over and over again, and referred to by 

 many travellers — ^but on account of- its abundance and fre- 

 quency in the seas in which my voyages were chiefly made. 

 This substance is what is known to mariners under the 

 various names of spawn, whales'-food, sea-sawdust, and 

 other terms which are equally incorrect, for the substance 

 is reaUy a confervoid growth, to which the generic name of 

 Trichodesmium has been applied by Ehrenberg. It has 

 long been believed that the Red Sea derived its name, which 

 signifies the same both in Latin, Greek, and also in modern 

 Arabic, from an occasional red discoloration of its waters 

 — a discoloration which was first observed by Ehrenberg in 

 1823, when spending some time on the coast of the upper 

 part, and carefully examined by him, as well as by Montague, 

 by means of specimens suppHed to him by an observant 

 traveller. Both these savans agree that the substance dis- 

 coloring the waters of the Red Sea is of a vegetable natmre, 

 being in fact a filamentous Alga, which has received the 

 name of Trichodesmium erythrseum — of a blood-red colour 

 — which often covers large areas, and appeal's and disap- 

 pears somewhat capriciously. Observers in other parts of 

 the world have met with a copious deposit from time to 

 time which appears to be of the same nature ; and although 

 it does not appear that this deposit is always of a red 

 colour, it has been referred by competent botanists to the 

 same species, which has since been renamed T. Ehrenbergii 



