332 • 
ASCENSION. 
head. In this attitude of attention it remains 
eagerly on the Avatch, and whhe staring with its 
great eyes, separating its jaws, and keeping ready 
its mandibles, the false feet of the abdomen are 
incessantly at work producing a current towards 
the mouth. • 'No sooner is some minute organic 
particle drawn within the influence of the vortex 
than the head and tail of the Phronima are brouo'ht 
together, and the object is immediately seized, and, 
if large enough, conveyed by the thumb and finger 
of the freckled hands to the mouth and greedily 
devoured. When placed in spirits the skin be- 
comes opaque, the colour of the legs is changed into 
a pale yellow, and the red-brown spots disa2:>pear. 
When we compare the delicate oceanic organisms, 
seen fresh from the deep sea, with the specimens in 
our bottles, well may we mournfully exclaim with 
St. Pierre, '^Our books are but the romance of 
nature, and our museums her tombs.” 
At Ascension, while the ship^s com2>any were 
fishing from the maindeck ports, some excitement 
was occasioned by one of their hooks being seized 
i 
