• — 88 — 
“Wednesday was showery but I tried my net again and 1 
fished up some of those singular Pterepodous Mollusces, the 
Hyalea ylobulosa (Kang). They were in great numbers but 
darted away with such swiftness that it was with difficulty I 
succeeded in capturing them, This rapidity, with the quick 
flap of the butterfly shaped lius (if one can so call them) gives 
them a peculiar motion in the water, and is a distinguishing 
mark of the Hyalea. As soon as caught they draw in tho 
flappers, and they require most delicate handling not to crush 
the fragile bluish brown shells. Some of tho genora of these 
Pteropoda form the principal food of the Right Whale of tho 
northern seas, where they are in such myriads as to colour 
the water, and wherever they appear the whalemen look out 
sharply for their monster cetacean prey. 
“On Thursday our last day on board, the men were'drilled 
with the Schneider rifle, and exercised in fencing, and working 
the heavy guns. The general physique of the men was fine as 
any I ever saw, and they handled their guns admirably. I 
coukl not help thinking as I watched them, that if all Her 
Majesty’s Men of War are conducted as this is, and all her 
Officers and men of such moral and physical calibre as those 
of the Forte, she has little indeed to fear from a foreign foe. I 
can only believe that tho writer of the “ Hattie of Dorking ” 
can know little of the real character of England’s hearts of 
oak, or such a myth would never have originated in his brains- 
“Towards noon we sighted Mahe and could see most of the 
group of the Seychelles. Towards 8 p.m. we neared the Is- 
land aud it appeared like a single mountain, wooded from shore 
to summit. On a nearer approach, after passiug St-Anu’s and 
lie aux Cerfs, the grand outlines of the precipitous Mt. Peaks 
began to stand out in bold relief from the forests. As we 
neared the roadstead a pilot put off to us, bub we hailed him 
and declined his services. The above Islands are very pic- 
turesque as seen from the ship. Covered with dense foliage 
the vivid greens of those near tho water’s edge, contrasted 
with the sombre olive of the background and presented a 
brillant picture, grateful to our eyes even after so short a 
voyage. 
