330 
PELAGIAN FAUNULA. 
headman to sing out from aloft, “Something like 
breakers on the starboard bow.” The whole surface 
of tlie water was alive with those fragile lesser 
forms of being Avhich constitute of themselves a 
peculiai’ Pelagian faunula. Among these might be 
observed the blue vesicles of Physalia and the indigo 
disks of Porpita, the pellucid bells and globes and 
mushroom bodies of the Acalcpha, or Sea-nettles, 
and the glassy shrimps, Erichthus and Alima. 
When, by means of a towing net, these were 
assembled together in a vessel of sea-water, the 
interest Avas doubled, for noAv we beiian to dis- 
cern the erratic evolutions of the Entomostraca, 
the steady progress of the small cerulean Pontia, 
and the skeleton-form of long-eyed Leucifer. These 
moved fihnost iimsible among the equally pellucid 
Sagittee, true arroAVS, darting, as their name im- 
plies, Avith rigid bodies through the AA^ater. Then 
uprose Avith flapping AAungs the globose Cavolina, 
and Styliola in her tube-like shell. Amid these 
varied examples of oceanic life, AAdiat is that tiny 
floating bubble ? It is nautiloid, and yet no 
