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Caught two or three small insects, somewhat resembling a bug, of a dirty brick colour and several minute species of Diphyes and small jellyfish. August 19. Caught a small Janthina nearly resembling those we had formerly seen, also a small crab, two new species of gelatinous animals, and a Velella. August 20.
Several kinds of very large Actinia inhabit the rocks: all that we examined belonged to the species which is externally provided with rows of teats. A Velella also was caught in the open bay: this is the first which has been observed in so high a latitude.
We caught this day a number of Velella, which are furnished with crests; some of them were dead, and nearly always when such was the case we found a species of barnacle attached in great numbers to them.
This one had a much larger sac, or float, than the others, and the float was furnished with a crest. July 15. South latitude 20 degrees 20 minutes; west longitude 2 degrees 17 minutes. The same animals mentioned in the last paragraph of July 14th were again caught this day. A great number of the Velella were also taken. Caught a small fish: Length 1.2 inches.
It is easy, too, to obtain direct proof of this absorption of a great part of the evolved oxygen by the animal tissues through which it has to pass. Velella 24 per cent., white Gorgonia 24 per cent., Ceriactis 21 per cent., while Anthea, which contains most algae, gave from 32 to 38 per cent. This difference is naturally to be accounted for by the avidity for oxygen of the animal cells.
There were scarcely any gelatinous animals in the sea this day; but many Janthina shells and Velella were round the ship, to which were attached barnacles of different species; amongst this group of islands numerous crabs were swimming about and running over them. Animals resembling a wood-louse were also in the sea, swimming and running about the floating shells and barnacles.
Or it may be that the whelk has chosen this quiet nook to deposit her leathery eggs; or young barnacles, periwinkles, and limpets are growing up among the green and brown tangles, while the far-sailing velella and the stay-at-home sea-squirts, together with a variety of other sea-animals, find a nursery and shelter in their youth in this quiet harbor of rest.
The exposure of a shoal of the beautiful blue pelagic Siphonophore, Velella, for a few hours, enabled me to collect a large quantity of gas, which yielded from 24 to 25 per cent. of oxygen, that subsequently squeezed out from the interior of the chambered cartilaginous float, giving only 5 per cent.
So, too, in Velella, in sea-anemones, and in medusae; in all cases the protoplasm and nucleus, the cellulose, starch, and chlorophyl, can be made out in the most perfectly distinct way. The failure of former observers with these reactions, in which I at first also shared, has been simply due to neglect of the ordinary botanical precautions.
Several of the animals which I supposed to be the Velella of Lamarck, and some of which had been caught on the 11th of November 1837 were also found today.
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