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process (one is tempted almost to call it a kind of respiration) the ocean becomes purified.' Although now 

 about a hundred miles from the African coast, a quantity of impalpable red dust was deposited to-day on the 

 ship, all the rigging being more or less tinted with it. It is no doubt composed of minute Infusoria, instances 

 of the kind being not uncommon. I collected a small packet of this red dust on the captain's bridge, and will 

 hand it over to Sir James Hector for microscopical examination.* 



10th and 11th February. — No birds, but calm and hot days, with Flying-fish in large shoals. The nights 

 are clear and beautiful, the unusual brilliance of the starlight being no doubt due to the great rarity of the 

 atmosphere. Orion's Belt, to my mind the most beautiful of the constellations, was especially brilliant; and on 

 the evening of the 10th we had our first view of the Southern Cross. 



12th February. — The wind strengthened during the night, and now we are experiencing the steady N.E. 

 trades, which will probably go through to the Cape with us. The entire absence of birds is very remarkable, 

 for we have had all kinds of weather : first of all the warm Guinea current, of mysterious origin, running with 

 us ; later on the Equatorial current running against us, and then the still waters of the Tropics ; at first light 

 S.W. winds in our favour, and now these trade- winds right in our teeth, with a broken sea ; and yet no birds of 

 any kind whatever ! We have now travelled three thousand miles over this vast solitude without seeing any 

 birds, and Captain Kempson tells me that it is always so. Well may the Arabs term it the 'desert of water.' 

 In the afternoon a dark grey Petrel (of the size and appearance of Puffinus griseus) appeared in sight, but did 

 not remain very long. At night the water was phosphorescent again ; but we seemed now to have some 

 different kind of animal producing this effect, for they kept as near as possible to the sides of the ship, and 

 the sparks of light emitted presented a green tinge. 



25th February. — This morning we were about twenty miles to the eastward of Kerguelen's Land. 

 For the first time on our voyage out the Giant Petrel {Ossifraga gigantea) put in an appearance, there 

 being several of them coursing about the ship ; also another species of Petrel, a large black bird with 

 whitish bill (? Majaqueus parkinsoni), and a number of the true Mollymawk {Diomedea melanophrys), their 

 yellow bills glancing in the sunshine as they sailed around the ship. Priofinus and Prion rather nume- 

 rous ; a single example of my Diomedea regia, a few Diomedea exidans and D. melanophrys, one of the 

 latter having a single white primary in the right wing. As the day advanced the Prions increased to 

 hundreds ; but in the afternoon, as we got farther away from the land, they diminished in number and 

 finally disappeared altogether, whilst Priofinus cinereus became more numerous. At 8 p.m., there being 

 no moon, but a fair amount of starlight, an Aurora australis illumined the western heavens. The phe- 

 nomenon commenced with the appearance of two comet-like expansions of light, and then changed to a 

 series of huge luminous rays of irregular size, arranged somewhat in fan-fashion, and resting on a bank of 

 clouds. The rays were not persistent, but seemed to change their position and their intensity every few 

 minutes, and there was an entire absence of tint or colour. At the end of half an hour the appearance 

 gradually faded away, and soon afterwards the moon rose. 



I may mention that there are several examples of this species, adult and young, in the 

 beautiful Natural History Museum at New York. One, however, labelled Diomedea melanophrys 

 — as " out of the Maximilian collection " and as having come from the South Pacific — is undoubt- 

 edly a young Diomedea bulleri. 



Mr. Eothschild has kindly allowed my artist to draw the heads of Diomedea bulleri and 

 D. salvini (Plate V.) from the actual types in the Tring Museum. It is hoped that this will 

 prevent any further confusion of the species. 



* Keport on specimen submitted :— Eed Dust from the rigging of s.s. 'Doric,' 100 miles off the African coast, in 

 lat. 19° 53' N. and long. 18° 30' W. Consists of about 90 per cent, of sea salt, in rough grain = ^ in., which readily 

 develop characteristic crystals. The coloring matter (reddish-brown) is organic; and about 1 per cent, of the organic 

 matter has distinctive form as follows : (1.) Frustules of a marine diatom (Synedra fulgens). (2.) Spiculae of sponges. 

 (3.) Elongated and jointed cells, probably fucoidal. (4). Calcareous spines with a deep groove, probably echinodermid. 

 I think the deposit must be tropical sea-scum that has been picked up by a tornado and distributed in an upper air- 

 current. It is certainly not material swept from a land-surface. — James Hector. 



