Transactions, 1836, p. 65) a singular "artificial substance resembling
shell." It is deposited in fine, transparent, highly polished,
brown-coloured laminae, possessing peculiar optical properties, on the
inside of a vessel, in which cloth, first prepared with glue and then
with lime, is made to revolve rapidly in water. It is much softer,
more transparent, and contains more animal matter, than the natural
incrustation at Ascension; but we here again see the strong tendency
which carbonate of lime and animal matter evince to form a solid
substance allied to shell.
[7] Pers. Narr., vol. v., pt. 1., p. 18.
[8] M. Montagne, in Comptes Rendus, etc., Juillet, 1844; and Annal. des
Scienc. Nat., Dec. 1844
[9] M. Lesson (Voyage de la Coquille, tom. i., p. 255) mentions red
water off Lima, apparently produced by the same cause. Peron, the
distinguished naturalist, in the Voyage aux Terres Australes, gives no
less than twelve references to voyagers who have alluded to the
discoloured waters of the sea (vol. ii. p. 239). To the references
given by Peron may be added, Humboldt's Pers. Narr., vol. vi. p. 804;
Flinder's Voyage, vol. i. p. 92; Labillardiere, vol. i. p. 287; Ulloa's
Voyage; Voyage of the Astrolabe and of the Coquille; Captain King's
Survey of Australia, etc.
CHAPTER II
RIO DE JANEIRO
Rio de Janeiro--Excursion north of Cape Frio--Great
Evaporation--Slavery--Botofogo Bay--Terrestrial Planariae--Clouds on
the Corcovado--Heavy Rain--Musical Frogs--Phosphorescent
Insects--Elater, springing powers of--Blue Haze--Noise made by a
Butterfly--Entomology--Ants--Wasp killing a Spider--Parasitical
Spider--Artifices of an Epeira--Gregarious Spider--Spider with an
unsymmetrical Web.
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