CUERENTS AND TYPHOONS. 77 



ever picked up in this manner was a very strange 

 species of vitreous sponge {Hyalonema Lusitanicum is, 

 I believe, its proper name). It must be very plentifully 

 distributed towards the head of the Uraga Gulf, and it 

 was on the sand at the extreme head of this gulf I 

 found it. I afterwards got from the natives some beau- 

 tiful specimens, which had been obtained by trawling 

 in the bay, but at what depth I could not ascertain. It 

 looks like a small cup-shaped ordinary sponge pierced 

 through the centre by a number of clear glass fibres 

 twisted together into a column eight or twelve inches 

 long. It seemed to me as if the sponge, with the cup 

 uppermost, rested on the sand, the glass-like spiral 

 column being imbedded in the sand or mud, similarly 

 to the roots of a plant, a small portion of the glassy- 

 looking column being above the cup, and to this part 

 bits of seaweed and tiny shells were often attached. 



A typhoon passed along the south coast, in September 

 1862 (I think), and on reaching the south-east extreme 

 of Nipon went away to the eastward into the broad 

 Pacific. The Camilla, a man-of-war brig, had left 

 Hakodadi for Yokohama, and must have encountered 

 this storm as it left the coast of Nipon. She was 

 never heard of again. There are more ways than one 

 by which a vessel may get into very serious difficulties 



