SEA SAW-DUST—MATHERAN 
389 
P. & 0. ship “ Delta,” the most commodious and by far the cleanest 
vessel in which I have sailed. Commander Daniell (an old ship¬ 
mate in the “ Malta ”) is a fine example of the merchant seaman, 
moreover a jovial fellow, and a good performer in the music-room. 
When in lat. 14° 20' K, Long. 73° 50' E., off the coast of Goa, 
the ship passed through a sort of scum; it was in patches from a 
dozen yards to a furlong or more across. It was evidently very 
light, floating on the surface, varying in colour from sulphur- 
yellow, through greenish, to a dirty brown. There was much dis¬ 
cussion on board as to its nature. When some of the surface water 
was fished up, the unknown substance was seen to rise to the surface 
very quickly. The strongest pocket lens available showed it to 
consist of particles all nearly the same size and somewhat resembling 
saw-dust. A very confident opinion was that it was chopped up, 
or pulped bamboo. My own view inclined to a lowly vegetable 
organism, some kind of Alga, and I suggested that the sulphur 
yellow was alive and growing, the brown dead or dying. This scum 
must have extended, with intervals of clear blue water, for several 
miles. 
A specimen was ultimately submitted to Prof. Sydney H. Vines, 
E.R.S., who reported: “ It is one of the blue-green Algae {Gyanophyceae, 
or PhycocJtromdceae , or Myxophyceae ), belonging to the family of the 
Oscillariae, though I have not been able to determine it specifically.” 
He added that it was allied to the organism which sometimes covers 
small lakes in England and Ireland with a dense scum: this after 
a time breaks up and disappears—a phenomenon known as the 
“ breaking of the meres.” 
Darwin observed a similar appearance, but reddish brown in 
colour, off the coast of Brazil, and a different species off Cape Leeuwin, 
W. Australia. 1 An organism of this family gave its name to the Eed 
Sea. Captain Cook’s sailors called this scum “ sea saw-dust.” 
INDIA. 
Matheran, Western Ghats, 2250 ft. above sea-level. 
March 23rd—April 1st, 1908. 
Matheran, a spur, or rather an outlier of the Sahyadri Range, lying 
28 miles due east of Bombay, is unlike any place that I have visited. 
Approximately flat upon the top, the ground falls sheer on three sides 
to the dusty plain below. The steep sides are surmounted by cliffs 
1 “ Journal of Researches, etc.,” pp. 14-18. 
