ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 315 
whose illustrations appear of a superior character, although still 
defective. I have seen a part of a new collection of engravings, much 
more carefully executed. 
Page 14. Gelatinous and nourishing seas——Humboldt, in one 
of his early works (‘Scenes in the Tropics’’), was the first, I think, 
to authenticate this fact. He attributes it to the prodigious quantity 
of meduse, and other analogous creatures, in a decomposed state in 
these waters. If, however, such a cadaverous dissolution really pre- 
vailed there, would it not render the waters fatal to the fish, instead 
of nourishing them? Perhaps this phenomenon should be attributed 
rather to nascent life than to life extinct, to that first living fermen- 
tation in which the lowest microscopic organizations develop them- 
selves. 
It is especially in the Polar Seas, whose aspect is so wild and 
desolate, that this characteristic is observed. Life there abounds in 
such excess that the colour of the waters is completely changed by 
it. They are of an intense olive-green, thick with living matter and 
nutriment. 
Page 91. Our Musewm.—In speaking of its collections, I may 
not forget its valuable library, which now includes that of Cuvier, and 
has been enriched by donations from all the physicists of Europe. I 
have had occasion to acknowledge very warmly the courtesy of the 
conservator, M. Desnoyers, and of M. le Docteur Lemercier, who has 
