402 Scientijic Inielligmce. 
ruinous, but that the handkerchief was covered with many bril- 
Kant points. Some of these I raised on the end of my finger, 
and found that they had a certain consistence as animal bodies ; 
being thus exposed, they gradually lost their brightness, and as 
they resembled the eggs or spawn of fishes, in form and dimen- 
sions, I at first yielded to the belief, which was pressed upon me, 
that they actually were so. 
Being anxious to examine one in a clear light, and placed un- 
der a strong magnifying glass, I was surprised to observe a sen- 
sible movement in its interior. Being doubtful of what I saw, 
I turned it in many directions, placing it on my nail in the 
centre of a drop of water. But what was my surprise, when I 
perceived it became surrounded by a brilliant fluid, perceptible 
to all those who were in the cabin, as well as to myself. On this I 
did not fail to pursue my observations, and having drawn up a 
greater quantity of water, I caused it to be filtered as before, 
and immersed the handkerchief, which had served for that pur^ 
pose, into a basin of the pure sea-water. I then instantly per- 
ceived a considerable number of small insects swimming about 
with celerity, which, at first sight, bore a resemblance to those 
commonly called in France Puces d'eau^ or Water-fleas. In 
spite of their agility, I succeeded in arresting one, by entangling 
it in a hair pencil, fixed against the sides of the goblet : this 
pressure, though slight, seemed too strong for so delicate a 
being, it suffered from it, and, notwithstanding the light of two 
candles, by which we were pursuing our examination, we could 
perceive issuing from its body a luminous and bluish coloured 
liquid, of which the traces extended in the water to the distance 
of two or three lines. This accident did not induce me to leave 
my hold; I raised it up on the point of the pencil, and scarcely 
was it placed under the microscope, than it again shed forth a 
quantity of that cerulean liquid. 
I expected that so great an exertion would have weakened it 
extremely, but I had again the satisfaction to see it apparently 
full of life, and stirring about with vivacity. 
It was not in consequence of the examination of a single spe- 
cimen that I ventured here to give its figure under a variety of 
aspects. The abundance with which I was then surrounded, 
enabled me to sacrifice many, that I might be assured of all the 
