1 DISCOLOURED SEA i7 



fined. The weather for some days previously had been calm, and 

 the ocean abounded, to an unusual degree, with living creatures.^ 

 In the sea around Tierra del Fuego, and at no great distance 

 from the land, I have seen narrow lines of water of a bright red 

 colour, from the number of Crustacea, which somewhat resemble 

 in form large prawns. The sealers call them whale -food. 

 Whether whales feed on them I do not know ; but terns, 

 cormorants, and immense herds of great unwieldy seals derive, 

 on some parts of the coast, their chief sustenance from these 

 swimming crabs. Seamen invariably attribute the discolor- 

 ation of the water to spawn ; but I found this to be the case 

 ■only on one occasion. At the distance of several leagues from 

 the Archipelago of the Galapagos, the ship sailed through three 

 strips of a dark yellowish, or mud-like water ; these strips were 

 some miles long, but only a few yards wide, and they were 

 separated from the surrounding water by a sinuous yet distinct 

 margin. The colour was caused by little gelatinous balls, 

 about the fifth of an inch in diameter, in which numerous minute 

 spherical ovules were embedded : they were of two distinct 

 kinds, one being of a reddish colour and of a different shape 

 from the other. I cannot form a conjecture as to what two kinds 

 of animals these belonged. Captain Colnett remarks that this 

 appearance is very common among the Galapagos Islands, 

 and that the direction of the bands indicates that of the 

 currents ; in the described case, however, the line was caused 

 by the wind. The only other appearance which I have to 

 notice, is a thin oily coat on the water which displays iridescent 

 colours. I saw a considerable tract of the ocean thus covered 

 on the coast of Brazil ; the seamen attributed it to the putrefy- 

 ing carcass of some whale, which probably was floating at no 

 great distance. I do not here mention the minute gelatinous 

 particles, hereafter to be referred to, which are frequently dis- 

 persed throughout the water, for they are not sufficiently 

 abundant to create any change of colour. 



1 M. Lesson {Voyage de la Coquille, torn. i. p. 255) mentions red water oft 

 Lima, apparently produced by the same cause. Peron, the distinguished naturalist, 

 in the Voyage aitx Terres AusiraleSj gives no less than twelve references to voyagers 

 who have alluded to the discoloured waters of the sea (vol. ii. p. 239). To the 

 references given by Peron may be added, Humboldt's Pers. Narr. vol. vi. p. 804 ) 

 Flinders's Voyage, vol. i. p. 92; Labillardiere, vol. i. p. 287; Ulloa's Voyage; 

 Voynge oj the Astiolabe and 0/ i/ie Coquille ; Captain King's Sui-vey of Atislralia) 

 etc, 



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