w the sea-birds to sit on it, and peck
away at the affected part. The habit of the fish is to swim during calms
with one of the hind fins out of water, and it is then harpooned from a
boat. I have myself seen petrels perched upon them; and directly one of
these fish was hoisted on board the sailors looked for the parasites and
found them. Their dimensions were:

Total length 1.0 inch.
Length of tails 0.57 inches.
Ditto of fore part of body 0.25 inches.
Ditto of hind part of body 0.15 inches.
Breadth across body 0.25 inches.

They were covered with a transparent shell, marked with grey spots and
lines; the hind part of the body, near the tail, being darker than the
fore part, as though the intestines were seated there. These little
creatures adhered strongly to any substance that they were laid on, and
caused an irritating feeling to the skin if placed on it; they swam with
great rapidity when put into seawater, and in their movements in swimming
much resembled a tadpole; their tails were merely long transparent
fibres.

We caught also several transparent bodies, shaped like a balloon (Beroe
?) These consisted merely of a sac. At the flat end of the spheroid was a
small ring of a pink colour, from which ran lines forming the ribs, which
supported the sides of the animal. There were eight of these: they
possessed great irritability, and if the animal was at all injured, a
rapid and continued motion was propagated all along them. Some of these
animals were between two and three inches in length, but they were so
delicate that it was impossible to examine them, for they fell to pieces
directly they were touched. Only one of these ribs was, at times,
affected at the same moment, so that they appeared each to be capable of
an independent movement.

We caught also many small insects, and some shrimp-like animals.

The sea was full of some things resembling hairs, but which broke the
moment they were touched.

On this evening we placed a large number of acalepha in a bucket, and on
agitating the water it became a mass of phosphorescent light. It is
strange that these animals should never emit this light without being
irritated.

July 1. South latitude 35 degrees 51 minutes; east longitude 18 degrees
56 minutes; average temperature of water, 65 degrees.

This day many specimens of different kinds were taken; and amongst them a
shellfish (Hyalea) the same as that caught on the 13th November 1837, in
south latitude 30