CEYLON. 263 



The letter proceeds : — " We sailed again in the afternoon, and 

 for an hour or two passed close along the shore, land at each 

 side, like lake and river scenery. Malacca looks very lovely at 

 this distance, but I am not tempted to make its acquaintance 

 more fully. This evenhig we passed through floating masses of 

 green scum, which filled the sea so much that it looked when 

 turned up by the paddles like so much green pea-soup — a per- 

 fect sap-green. I did not collect any, as my microscope was 

 stowed away in the hold, and so I could have made no use of 

 the green matter ; a poor excuse, for it ought to have been at 

 hand. It was probably a minute Oscillatoria, or perhaps only 

 the spores of some green seaweed. Whatever it may have been, 

 it was immensely abundant — enough so to entitle the place to 

 be called the Green Sea" 



