254 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
Tlio habits of the Physttlia are still imperfectly known, but among 
the many .strange forms of brilliant colour and elegant contour, which 
swarm in the warmer parts of the ocean, “ none,” says Gosse, “ take » 
stronger hold on the fancy of the beholder, certainly none is m<m 
familiar than the little thing he daily marks floating in the sun-lk 
waves, as the ship glides swiftly by, which the sailors tell him is the 
Portuguese man-of-war. Perhaps a dead calm has settled over the 
sea, and he leans over the bulwarks of the ship scrutinizing the ocean' 
rover at leisure, as it hastily rises and falls on the long, slugg l& 
hearings of the glassy surface. Then he sees that the comparison 0 
the stranger to a ship is a felicitous one, for at a little (Fig. I® - / 
distance it might well be mistaken for a child’s mimic boat, shiniHo 
in all the gaudy painting in which it left the toy-shop. 
“ Not unfrequent ly, one of these tiny vessels comes so close alongside 
that, by means of the ship’s bucket, with the assistance of a sm® 1 * 
fellow, who has jumped into the ‘ chains’ with a boat-hook, it is cap 
tured, and brought on deck for examination. A dozen voices bX 6 ’ 
however, lifted, warning you by no means to touch it, for well the 
experienced sailor knows its terrible powers of defence. It does »° 
now appear so like a ship as when it was at a distance. It is an oblo% 
bladder of tough membrane, varying considerably in shape, for no t^° 
agree in this respect ; varying also in size, from less than an inch t° 
the size of a man’s hat. Once, on a voyage to Mobile, when roundiDe 
the Florida reef, I was nearly a whole day passing through a fleet 0 
these little Portuguese men-of-war, which studded the smooth sea & 
far as the eye could reach, and must have extended for many mil eS ' 
They were of all sizes within the limits I have mentioned.” 
Generally, there is a conspicuous difference between the two exti' e ' 
mities of the bladder, one end being rounded, the other more pointed 
or terminating in a small knob-like swelling or beak-shaped excre® 
cence, where there is a minute orifice ; sometimes, however, no sR 
excrescence is visible, and the orifice cannot be detected. 
“That wonderful river,” continues Mr. Gosse, in his nervous, eloque. 
style, “ with a well-defined course through the midst of the Atlantic-^ 
that Gulf stream — brings on its warm waters many of the denizens 
tropical seas, and wafts them to the shores on which its waves impmg ' 
Hence it is that so many of the proper pelagic creatures are from ti int 
to time observed on the coasts of Cornwall and Devon. The P° rtU 
ck 
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