100 BAUIA BLANCA. (cHap. v. 
allowed to ask, what is an individual? It is always interesting to 
discover the foundation of the strange tales of the old voyagers ; 
and I have no doubt but that the habits of this Virgularia explain 
one such case. Captain Lancaster, in his voyage* in 1601, nar- 
rates that on the sea-sands of the Island of Sombrero, in the 
East Indies, he “‘ found a small twig growing up like a young 
tree, and on offering to pluck it up it shrinks down to the ground, 
and sinks, unless held very hard. On being plucked up, a great 
worm is found to be its root, and as the tree groweth in great- 
ness, sod doth the worm diminish; and as soon as the worm is 
entirely turned into a tree it rooteth in the earth, and so becomes 
great. This transformation is one of the strangest wonders 
that I saw in all my travels: for if this tree is plucked up, while 
young, and the leaves and bark stripped off, it becomes a hard 
stone when dry, much like white coral: thus is this worm twice 
transformed into different natures. Of these we gathered and 
brought home many.” 
During my stay at Bahia Blanca, while waiting for the Beagle, 
the place was in a constant state of excitement, from rumours of 
wars and victories, between the troops of Rosas andthe wild 
Indians. One day an account came that a small party forming 
one of the postas on the line to Buenos Ayres, had been found 
all murdered. The next day three hundred men arrived fron 
the Colorado, under the command of Commandant Miranda. A 
large portion of these men were Indians (mansos, or tame), 
belonging to the tribe of the Cacique Bernantio. They passed 
were filled with a yellow pulpy matter, which, examined under a micro- 
scope, presented an extraordinary appearance. The mass consisted of 
rounded, semi-transparent, irregular grains, aggregated together into par- 
ticles of various sizes, All such particles, and the separate grains, possessed 
the power of rapid movement; generally revolving around different axes, 
but sometimes progressive. The movement was visible with a very weak 
power, but even with the highest its cause could not be perceived. "It was 
very different from the circulation of the fluid in the elastic bag, containing 
the thin extremity of the axis. On other occasions, when dissecting small 
marine animals beneath the microscope, I have seen particles of pulpy mat- 
ter, some of large size, as soon as they were disengaged, commence revolv- 
ing. I have imagined, I know not with how much truth, that this granulo- 
pulpy matter was in process of being converted into ova, Certainly in this 
zoophyte such appeared to be the case. ; 
* Kerr's Collection of Voyages, vol. viii. p. 119. 
