234 
BRITISH ENTOMOSTRACA. 
Tristan d’Acunha, in the South Atlantic, without his ever 
having been able to observe what formed the food of the 
whales. Leaving that quarter, however, at the end of 
that time, and steering for Cape Horn, he one morning, 
in the month of February, observed the surface of the sea 
streaked with red lines, of several miles in extent, and 
giving the appearance of blood to the water. The ex- 
perienced sailors on board immediately announced that 
they had now reached the pasture of the whales. 
Accordingly, they very soon afterwards saw them sport- 
ing about in the midst of these ruddy banks. Upon 
examining the water thus coloured, Yauzeme found it 
caused by an immense number of small Crustaceans, 
which were of a red hue. They swarmed in myriads 
on the surface of the sea, and, when the wind was bois- 
terous, a w T hole bank of them would be taken up by a 
wave, and carried on board the vessel, covering the deck, 
and the clothes of the sailors. The wdiales swallowed 
them in myriads, and they served for food not only 
to them, but to the Cirrhopodes (the Coronulse and 
Tubicinellse), wjhich live as parasites upon their skin. 
The American fishers on that station informed him that 
these little creatures, in the fine weather of October and 
November, remain concealed deep under the water, but 
that after that time, they come to the surface to lay their 
eggs. In our own seas, this same kind of Crustacean has 
also been observed to be the food of cetaceous animals. 
In the Frith of Forth, Mr. Goodsir informs us,* that 
during the summer months, great masses of animal matter 
abound on the surface of the sea, and that this had long 
been noticed by the fishermen on the coast, and was called 
by them maidre. Upon examining this matter, in the 
neighbourhood of the Isle of May, he found it to consist 
of Cirrhopodes, Crustaceans, and Acalepha ; but that of 
all these, the Entomostracous Crustaceans abounded in 
the greatest quantity, “ or rather masses,” he observes, 
* Edin. New Phil. Journ., xxxv, S8. 
