stormy weather in the Indian Ocean, we had no opportunities of observing
marine animals. In the vicinity of the Cape, we caught some Salpæ,
Physaliæ, and Velellæ; but in the Northern Atlantic, after reaching the
region of the _Sargassum natans_, daily opportunities for interesting
observations presented themselves. From the point at which the floating
sea-weed was first noticed, (eighteen degrees north latitude, and about
thirty degrees of longitude west of Greenwich,) to the coast of England,
forty-three kinds of animals were observed, not noticed on our outward
voyage. We were able to make a very exact examination of the whole
system of the _Beroe punctata_. Three new varieties of Medusa were
discovered, and an animal (_Rataria N._) between _Velella_ and
_Porpita_: it has the flat form of the latter, but is provided with a
sail, which it can draw in at will. We also caught the animal which Le
Sueur has called _Stephanomia uvæformis_. Lastly, we had the good
fortune to procure a specimen of an animal which appears to form a link
between the _Salpa_ and _Pyrosoma_. This species (called _Anchinia_)
consists of a number of animalculæ of the Salpa form, which, by means of
a stalk, are attached to a common body, all of them being turned to the
same side.
In the course of less than three years, 2400 kinds of animals were
either examined, or only collected, consisting of the following
classes:--
Species.
Mammalia 28
Birds 165
Amphibia 33
Fishes 90
Annulides 40
Crustacea 127
Insects 1400
Arachnides 28
Cephalopodes 20
Gasteropodes 162
Acephali 45
Tunicati 28
Cirrhipedes 21
Echinodermates 60
Acalephi 63
Zoophytes 90
FR. ESCHSCHOLTZ.
Dorpat, 7th January, 1828.
THE END.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,
Dorset Street, Fleet Street.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] A kind of urn in use throughout all Russia, called a Samowar, or
self-boiler. It generally stands in the middle of the tea-table, and is
furnished with a large kettle for water, and a space filled with fire to
keep it boiling.
[2] The baidars, or canoes of the Aleutians, are generally twelve feet
long and twenty inches deep, the same breadth in the middle, and pointed
at each end. The smaller are suited only for one man, the larger for two
or three. The skeleton and the keel are made of very thin deal planks,
fastened together with the sinews of the whale, and covered with the
skin of the sea-horse cleared of the hair. It has a kind of deck made of
this skin, but leaving an aperture for each person the canoe is intended
to carry. These sit in the bottom with their legs stretched out, and
their bodies rising through the apertures, which are but just large
enough to allow them to move and row conveniently. The space between
their bodies and the deck being so well fitted with bladders, that no
drop of water can enter.
These baidars are moved very rapidly by oars, and the Aleutians put to
sea with them in all weathers.
[3] This applies only to the lower classes; the Yeris are nearly all as
large as at Tahaiti.
[4] This kind was known to Fabricius, for _Copris Midas_ is a variety of
the male, and _Gigas_ is the female. The former has erroneously been
deemed a native of America.