86 Discolored Waters of the Gulf of California. [February, 
J. Ross Browne, at a recent date, and before him De Mofras, 
discredited the statements of the old Spanish sailors, and attribu- 
ted the red color to the reflection in the water of the brilliant, 
rosy-tinted clouds of sunset. 
We had ample opportunity to verify the truth of the Spanish — 
account during the extended survey of the gulf and its shores by 
the U. S. Steamer “ Narragansett,” in 1875. 
We first saw patches of the red water south of Ciralbo island. 
The steamer was stopped and a bucket was thrown overboard to _ 
secure some of it for examination. The water thus procured — 
revealed nothing when subjected to the test of the microscope; it | 
. 
wa a ne A a ath pa 
a ae C P 
was perfectly transparent. The failure to discover the cause in 
this instance was due to the fact that the coloring matter does 
not float upon the top of the water, but is suspended several feet 
below; and when this was ascertained, by putting a lead inthe — 
bucket and sinking it a half fathom or more below the surface, 
there was no difficulty in obtaining all that was desired. 
When first drawn up and viewed in a glass vessel by the un- _ 
aided eye the water had a faint reddish tinge. When allowed to 
stand for a half hour the coloring matter settled to the bottom of 
the vessel as a greenish-yellow precipitate; and when some of this 
was taken up by a pipette and examined under the microscope, it — 
was seen to be composed of minute roundish bodies. Further on 
these were proven to be the remains of ciliate infusoria. 
The latter fact was not discovered, however, until after much 
painstaking investigation. Some small objects had been seen — 
repeatedly to dart across the fiéld of vision when the water was — 
placed fresh upon the glass slide, but they disappeared as they — 
came, like a flash, and it was a long time before their disappeat- 
ance could be satisfactorily accounted for. The molecules were 
the only bodies that were permanent, and I was inclined to 
attribute to them the phenomenon of the water. Finally, one of 
the little bodies mentioned above stopped directly i in the centre of 
us search for, there was no difficulty in seeing the same process 
oS Sees again and again. 
