apkil — sept. 1859.] Sea round the Shores of Bombay. 157 



I do not of course allude here to the color of what is termed 

 " whale-water," or to the accumulation of any molluscous animals 

 that can be seen with the naked eye, but exclusively to the color 

 of water produced by animalcules which also must again be distin- 

 guished from those that are feeding on them, for where the former 

 abounds the latter are also sure to be present. — Here I have to 

 express my regret that I allowed the red water under considera- 

 tion to pass away before I thought of ascertaining if the Peridi- 

 nium which colored it was also phosphorescent. 



Again, the yellow color may be produced by the chlorophyll 

 passing into golden tint, when the oily appearance, so often 

 noticed on the surface of the sea, might be produced ; so also 

 the green color may precede the change in to brown and red as 

 stated in parts of the " Memoire" under reference, extracted from 

 Parry and Scoresby's journals. Scoresby, too, notices that the 

 animalcule was " paraboloidal," and he gives measurements 

 equally small with those of a Peridinium. 



Of the brown color a word also is necessary. This, which pro- 

 bably depends on the presence of a Peridinium in the sea certainly 

 does so on land, for I have had occular demonstration of it in a 

 freshwater tank at Bombay, where, in the beginning of February 

 1857, it not only turned the water quite brown, but imparted a 

 smell and insipid taste to it, which almost rendered it undrinka- 

 ble. Professor Allman has described the same phcenomenon, from 

 equal evidence, in the ponds of the " Phoenix Park," Dublin 

 (Trans. Microscope. Soc. London, v. iii. 1855) : but the figure he 

 gives of that Peridinium, though very like, is not the same as that 

 of the species of Bombay. 



Nor should I omit to notice here the aeruginous green color, 

 which frequently occurs in our tanks from the presence chiefly of 

 a little Algae called Flos- quce, with which the acicular, fusiform 

 Aphanizomenon Flos-quo3,(JJmri.) and curled up bead-like Monormia 

 intricata (Berk.) are plentifully mingled. This occurs so gene- 

 rally and so abundant, as frequently to render the water not only 

 undrinkable, but to produce an intolerable stench through its pu- 

 trefaction ; facts which we cannot help associating with the blood- 

 red water of Egypt ; and \rhen we add to this the following pas- 



