92 FISHES I HAVE KNOWN 



thickens hourly, and finally, if the ship's course be 

 through the centre of the sea, which it seldom is, 

 it becomes dense enough to impede navigation, and 

 the water looks like a meadow thick with grass. 

 We only touched the edge of it, but contrived with 

 a bucket to scoop up a fair quantity for examination. 



The weed is the home of all kinds of small 

 creatures — crabs, strange molluscs, delightful little 

 sea-horses, curious jelly-fish, and the spawn of 

 cuttle and flying-fish (the latter resembling white 

 currants), also heroes (nutmeg-shaped medusae), 

 from half an inch to an inch long, tentacled, and 

 provided with paddles. So fairy like and trans- 

 lucent are these, that they are invisible save when 

 their paddles send out iridescent hues on thewater> 

 and thus catch the eye. 



No doubt shoals of fish hover beneath the weed, 

 which must be a splendid feeding-ground, but they 

 rarely come to the surface. We saw none. 



Looking over the ship's side when a livel)- sea is 

 on, the water appears to be devoid of animal life; 

 but let a tropical calm set in, and it is at once 

 evident that the ocean's surface is studded with 

 minute organisms. To catch them, our doctor had 

 provided himself with a big meshed landing-net 

 mounted on a long rod, but I had to improvise 

 one out of some stout muslin and an iron cask 



