United States or Malaysia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
In the part of the Arafura that I came to first, where it was shallow, sea-snakes writhed about on the surface and tumbled over and over in the waves. As the sloop sailed farther on, where the sea became deep, they disappeared. In the ocean, where the water is blue, not one was ever seen.
At high water no land is visible for many miles to the north or south of Venice, except in the form of small islands crowned with towers or gleaming with villages; there is a channel, some three miles wide, between the city and the mainland, and some mile and a half wide between it and the sandy breakwater called the Lido, which divides the Lagoon from the Adriatic, but which is so low as hardly to disturb the impression of the city's having been built in the midst of the ocean, although the secret of its true position is partly, yet not painfully, betrayed by the clusters of piles set to mark the deep-water channels, which undulate far away in spotty chains like the studded backs of huge sea-snakes, and by the quick glittering of the crisped and crowded waves that flicker and dance before the strong winds upon the unlifted level of the shallow sea.
Some of these cavities also contained sea-snakes from four to five feet long, which were described as having the head "hooded like the cobra de capello, and of a light grey colour, slightly speckled. They coiled themselves like serpents on land, and darted at poles thrust in among them.
To add to the horror of the scene large sea-snakes were seen swimming wildly about, as if seeking to escape from the novel dangers that surrounded them. The sailors looked on in awe-stricken silence for some time. "P'raps some of 'em may be alive yet!" whispered one. "Couldn't we lower a boat?" "Impossible in such a sea," said the captain, who overheard the remark.
The 21st day also we had small land breezes in the night, and sea breezes in the day, and as we saw some sea-snakes every day, so this day we saw a great many, of two different sorts or shapes. One sort was yellow, and about the bigness of a man's wrist, about four feet long, having a flat tail about four fingers broad.
In reply to this it has been suggested that a mere flattening of the end of the body has been useful, such, e.g., as we see in sea-snakes, which may be the rudiment of a tail formed strictly to aid in swimming.
We are bound for the regions of ghosts and fays, mermaids and kelpies, of great sea-snakes, and a hundred other marvels and miracles. To accomplish all this, we have nothing more to do than step on board the steam-packet that lies at the Broomielaw, or great quay at Glasgow.
Now as to the question: How were Cirripedia converted by natural selection into Rhizocephala? A considerable number of existing Cirripedia settle exclusively or chiefly upon living animals; on Sponges, Corals, Mollusks, Cetaceans, Turtles, Sea-Snakes, Sharks, Crustaceans, Sea Urchins, and even on Acalephs.
In the deep water below, sea-snakes, red and purple and green, were playing about; the bluefish, who are not in the least afraid of the snakes, rolled lazily round and round the rock; in the recesses lurked unseen the great conger-eel, which dreads nothing but the thing of long and horny tentacles, the ourite or squid: round and round the rock darted the humourous tazaar, which bites the bathers in shallow waters all for fun and mischief, and with no desire at all to eat their flesh; and besides these a thousand curious creatures, which this man, who had trained his eyes by days and days of watching, came here every day to look at.
The 13th we saw a great many sea-snakes. One of these, of which I saw great numbers and variety in this voyage, was large, and all black: I never saw such another for his colour. We had now for some days small gales from the south-south-west to the north-north-west, and the sky still more cloudy especially in the mornings and evenings.
Word Of The Day