NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



15 



abound in the shallow seas, and near the surface of deeper ones, have 

 in general, been well described : a few of their habits however may be 

 worth our attention. 



Within the Tropics in fine weather, a great number of small pink 

 bladders float upon the water, which contract themselves, when it is 

 cloudy and the surface ripply, and disappear ; yet when the sun shines 

 with his full splendour they seem either to lose this power of contracting 

 themselves suddenly, or are httle apprehensive of danger ; for they will 

 suffer themselves to be tossed amidst the foam which the bows of the 

 vessel creates, and even to be attacked by other fishes, without exhibiting 

 any change in their appearance. Warmth is essential to their health and 

 prosperity, if these be indicated by their size, brilliancy, and apparent 

 vigour. In cold weather they are small and perfectly white, and in this 

 state are found in winter, near to the Western Islands. Seamen 

 call them Portuguese Men-of-War, and frequently describe them as 

 Nautih, and the inhabitants of Santos, on the coast of Brazil, say that 

 the shells of the real Nautilus, which are found in their harbour, are 

 deposited there once a year, by these pink bladders of the ocean ; never- 

 theless I cannot accede to the opinion, because I never saw upon them, 

 even in the neighbourhood of Santos, the slightest appearance of a shell, 

 nor a tendency towards the formation of one, and the animal seems to 

 me disqualified, by its long tentacula, from being the inhabitant of 

 such an abode. These fibres, several yards in length, seem to be the 

 instruments by which it takes its prey, and would be useless for that 

 purpose if inclosed in a narrow shell ; nor can the shell reasonably be 

 supposed the production of such an animal in a single season. 



Approaching once toward the coast of Guinea, accompanied by a 

 number of Bonitos or Skip-Jacks, which delight to play about the bows of 

 the vessel, and are therefore frequently called pilot-fishes, they attacked 

 these bladders, the Holothuria Physalis, with great violence ; not as it 

 appeared as objects of prey, but from a natural and deep-rooted animosity. 

 To accomplish their purpose, they frequently turned out of the direct 

 course, darted at them with rapidity, and made a great flounder in the 



