I 
DISCOLOURED SEA 
1 7 
fined. The weather for some days previously had been calm, and 
the ocean abounded, to an unusual degree, with living creatures. 1 
In the sea around Tierra del Fuego, and at no great distance 
from the land, I have seen narrow lines of water of a bright red 
colour, from the number of Crustacea, which somewhat resemble 
in form large prawns. The sealers call them whale-food. 
Whether whales feed on them I do not know ; but terns, 
cormorants, and immense herds of great unwieldy seals derive, 
on some parts of the coast, their chief sustenance from these 
swimming crabs. Seamen invariably attribute the discolor¬ 
ation of the water to spawn ; but I found this to be the case 
only on one occasion. At the distance of several leagues from 
the Archipelago of the Galapagos, the ship sailed through three 
strips of a dark yellowish, or mud-like water ; these strips were 
some miles long, but only a few yards wide, and they were 
separated from the surrounding water by a sinuous yet distinct 
margin. The colour was caused by little gelatinous balls, 
about the fifth of an inch in diameter, in which numerous minute 
spherical ovules were embedded : they were of two distinct 
kinds, one being of a reddish colour and of a different shape 
from the other. I cannot form a conjecture as to what two kinds 
of animals these belonged. Captain Colnett remarks that this 
appearance is very common among the Galapagos Islands, 
and that the direction of the bands indicates that of the 
currents ; in the described case, however, the line was caused 
by the wind. The only other appearance which I have to 
notice, is a thin oily coat on the water which displays iridescent 
colours. I saw a considerable tract of the ocean thus covered 
on the coast of Brazil ; the seamen attributed it to the putrefy¬ 
ing carcass of some whale, which probably was floating at no 
great distance. I do not here mention the minute gelatinous 
particles, hereafter to be referred to, which are frequently dis¬ 
persed throughout the water, for they are not sufficiently 
abundant to create any change of colour. 
• 
1 M. Lesson ( Voyage de la Coquille, tom. i. p. 255) mentions red water off 
Lima, apparently produced by the same cause. Peron, the distinguished naturalist, 
in the Voyage aux Terres Australes , gives no less than twelve references to voyagers 
who have alluded to the discoloured waters of the sea (vol. ii. p. 239). To the 
references given by Peron may be added, Humboldt’s Pers. Narr. vol. vi. p. 804 ; 
Flinders’s Voyage , vol. i. p. 92 ; Labillardiere, vol. i. p. 287 ; Ulloa’s Voyage ■ 
Voyage of the Astrolabe and of the Coquille ; Captain King’s Survey of Australia 
etc. f , y 
C 
