The Fish, Having Remained In This Distended State For A
Short Time, Generally Expelled The Air And Water With
Considerable Force From The Branchial Apertures And Mouth.
It
could emit, at will, a certain portion of the water, and it
appears, therefore, probable that this fluid is taken in partly
for the sake of regulating its specific gravity.
This Diodon
possessed several means of defence. It could give a severe
bite, and could eject water from its mouth to some distance,
at the same time making a curious noise by the movement
of its jaws. By the inflation of its body, the papillae, with
which the skin is covered, become erect and pointed. But
the most curious circumstance is, that it secretes from the
skin of its belly, when handled, a most beautiful carmine-red
fibrous matter, which stains ivory and paper in so permanent
a manner that the tint is retained with all its brightness
to the present day: I am quite ignorant of the nature
and use of this secretion. I have heard from Dr. Allan of
Forres, that he has frequently found a Diodon, floating alive
and distended, in the stomach of the shark, and that on
several occasions he has known it eat its way, not only
through the coats of the stomach, but through the sides of
the monster, which has thus been killed. Who would ever
have imagined that a little soft fish could have destroyed
the great and savage shark?
March 18th. - We sailed from Bahia. A few days afterwards,
when not far distant from the Abrolhos Islets, my;
attention was called to a reddish-brown appearance in the
sea. The whole surface of the water, as it appeared under a
weak lens, seemed as if covered by chopped bits of hay, with
their ends jagged. These are minute cylindrical confervae,
in bundles or rafts of from twenty to sixty in each. Mr.
Berkeley informs me that they are the same species
(Trichodesmium erythraeum) with that found over large spaces
in the Red Sea, and whence its name of Red Sea is derived. [8]
Their numbers must be infinite: the ship passed through
several bands of them, one of which was about ten yards
wide, and, judging from the mud-like colour of the water,
at least two and a half miles long. In almost every long
voyage some account is given of these confervae. They appear
especially common in the sea near Australia; and off
Cape Leeuwin I found an allied but smaller and apparently
different species. Captain Cook, in his third voyage, remarks,
that the sailors gave to this appearance the name of
sea-sawdust.
Near Keeling Atoll, in the Indian Ocean, I observed
many little masses of confervae a few inches square, consisting
of long cylindrical threads of excessive thinness, so as
to be barely visible to the naked eye, mingled with other
rather larger bodies, finely conical at both ends. Two of
these are shown in the woodcut united together.
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