Our sketch represents the "fishing-rod" of the lophius. anatomy of the It is one of the most remarkable structures, exactly resembling the links of a chain. Such organs are usually articulated like an ordinary joint, but this is a very unusual deviation. The little flag of flesh that serves as bait or decoy is, of course, a part of the inclosing membrane. The surgeon-fish (Acanthurus phlebotomus) is another remarkable indigene of these waters. On each side, near the base of the tail, is a triangular blade, much like the fleam of a horse lancet, This is entirely concealed in a sheath, but is instantly thrown out and used with rapid strokes when an enemy approaches. The fish seems conscious of his power, and shows fight as long as we continue to tease him. A cut from this lancet is quite as effective as one from steel, as it has a keen edge. Another curious form we see passing along the roots of this coral grove, near the bottom. It is the hammer-head shark. They are not large-this one about two feet in length-but have the most unaccountable head upon their shoulders, albeit the body is comely as any other shark. The iron part, or head, of a sledge-hammer well represents this creature's anterior extremity. An eye on each front corner of the protuberances, and a mouth in the centre of the under face. This is a most extraordinary form, or deviation from the normal. To our limited comprehension it seems wholly unaccountable, though its habits may call for some such development. Several varieties of lumpfish, toad-fish, and porcupine-fish are common here. Diodons, tetraodons, balistes, and a host of such forms we met in these searches after the curious. The porcupine-fish is an odd fish, most certainly, blowing himself to a perfect ball, beset with long, sharp spines. File-fish, with their serrated weapon erect on the back, ply in and out among the branches. The cow-fish, with his armor of mail, sallies forth, conscious of most perfect protection. But of all the beautiful forms the angel-fish exceeds them. Gorgeous, indeed, is this winged color-bearer; broad bands of velvet-black and golden-yellow contrast richly with the azure-blue; sailing majestically in and out of the brown thickets of coral, the clear sea-water showing every hue to advantage. Almost always within our sight, too, are several little azure-blue fishes that glow with the lustre of bright metal. Drifting with the tide, we have passed from the deep water to the shallow flats of Bush Key Lagoon. Here we meet great numbers of the "Portuguese men-o'-war," or physalia-one of THE LOPHIUS, OR BELLOWS-FISH. THE PHYSALIA. the first and most attractive marine objects that engage the attention of the visitor. The physalia during the warmer months is an ever-present object on the waters of the Gulf; myriads of these gorgeously colored creatures float in and out with the tide. The jelly-fishes are usually inconspicuous, being nearly colorless, and confined beneath the surface. The physalia, one of the class, is an exception, being confined to the surface, and never descending beneath the wave; in shape like a Chinese shoe with upturned toe, or like an ancient galley, with silken sails and canopy, its low-banked oars trailing from its hull. Its color is indigo-blue, merging into a lighter azure on the upper ridge, where stands a silvery-white ruffle, lustrous as satin, and fringed with rose-tinted folds. Underneath, the bladder is a trifle thicker, of a darker hue, and is sufficiently fleshy to contain the little more of organic structure that is required for the support of this mere thread of jelly-fish existence. Here are mouths and suckers, and around these openings are long fleshy streamers, or tentacles, so called, charged with venomous weapons that lasso and paralyze their prey at the same instant. Surely here is a gal ley fit for a naiad or fairy. Imagine "Culprit Fay" "Spring to this craft with a lightsome leap, And launch afar on the calm blue deep; The imps of the sea. may yell and rave, And summon all forces beneath the wave;" but they shall keep a respectful distance from this fairy monitor. We have noticed a very remarkable association of this creature with a small species of fish, which has never been recorded-a fact which seems hitherto to have escaped the observation of naturalists. When the physalia is dipped up in the usual manner, nothing uncommon is found with it; but let us look carefully through our glass box, in the direction of the tentacles, and we see one, two, or three small fishes that are exactly of the same color as the physalia. Indeed, so close is the resemblance in color, they appear at first like portions of one and the same animal. The larger fish is not longer than the little finger of your hand; and if you have seen "sticklebacks" you will say, How alike they are!-barring the color. It is most unaccountable that so highly organized forms as fishes should live within the dread portals of this virulent form, which has not the faculty of distinguishing between friend and foe, so low is it in the animal scale. The physalia floats like a huge monitor, its powerful works below the water-line. As it floats over a shoal of fishes, the least touch draws fire, and the victim is killed and drawn up in an instant, while the little blue-jacks manoeuvre within, among the tentacles, as if manning the armament. The sailors, who are fond of calling this the Portuguese man-o'-war, hardly realize how much closer the comparison is than most others of their invention. The fraternity of the trepang and its attendant fish is remarkable; but much more so is this example; for here the fishes are constantly within reach of deadly weapons, but are never touched by them, or injured, rather. If we remove physalia from the water, which can be safely done by seizing the crest of the bladder, we shall see the fishes dart about in great trepidation, as if in search of protection. Drop phy TENTACLE OF THE PHYSALIA. salia back again, and the fishes return at once, though they had disappeared from sight. A large glass jar, made for such purposes, we have dipped under them, and thus brought the objects in close view for observation. Having casually viewed this potent little war vessel, its works and armament, and seen its capacity for mischief, let us examine more closely, and inspect its batteries. We have seen that. this is a jelly-fish, having the additional appendage of a showy float, which keeps it wholly on the surface. near a fish, or any living object, throws down one or more of its long tentacles, sometimes several yards in extent. It should be remembered here that this creature is far below even the shell-fish, and, of course, has no eyes. The least touch serves to paralyze the prey; then a loop is formed in the tentacle, which, with others, draws the victim up to the numerous mouths, or suckers, that depend from its base. When the tentacle comes in contact with the prey it contracts and throws out from numerous pores on its surface fine thread-like coils. These are white, and just perceptible to the naked eye. As they strike the prey numerous missiles, like so many loaded shells, are projected into the flesh; these missiles then explode, and discharge barbed wire-like arrows, which are charged with the poisonous fluid that proves so irritating, and even deadly to the smaller animals. This structure, for offensive warfare, is much more complicated than those of the defensive character. The missiles thrown out from the ejected threads are oblong bodies, not unlike cylindrical projectiles (to continue our comparison with modern ordnance), and contain not a modern style of charge, but an ancient one, in the form of barbed javelins. Instead of bursting, like the shell, its coiled weapon is projected out from the opening at one end, the missile being thereby unfolded, or "turned wrong side out." How much like a battery, and the movements in firing it! The long threads are like so many guns run "in battery," thrust out from the portholes, and, like the mitrailleuse, discharging from numerous bores the loaded shells. Within the case which holds the barbed weapon is the poisonous fluid, which is either thrown out through the barbs, as in the serpent's fang, or lies in contact with them, and is conveyed into the wounds on their surface. These organs are so very minute that they were not until lately observed, or, rather, their uses were not until lately rightly interpreted. It was supposed that they were reproductive organs. The poisonous effect was supposed to be due to the slimy se This creature is properly a compound animal, the slimy mass that depends from the under surface being made up of organs that serve various purposes in its economy. It will serve our purpose better, however, to omit the more complex parts, or those not of interest to the general reader. It seems, too, that the free use of common names is likely to be of service in rendering natural objects more familiar and attractive. In speaking of the caryophillia we call it the cuplet, after the excellent plan of Mr. Gosse, as it is known in some localities as the cup coral. The only species of manicina on the reef is so much like a kidney in shape and size, we have adopted the trivial term kidney coral. The Meandrina cerebriformis is easily rec-cretion of the tentacles. In view of this powognized as brain coral. The labyrinth and leaf corals would also seem well named. Probably no one branch of marine zoology is so difficult to comprehend by the casual or occasional observer as that which includes the corals. Even at this day some books persist in calling the polyps insects; and some scientific authors carelessly speak of the polyps "coming out" and going in" to their "holes," as if they were not in the same relation to the white coral branch, so familiar to most, as the bony part of our bodies are to our flesh. But to resume. We are desirous of seeing the wonderful armament of the physalia. Mr. Gosse, the English naturalist, intimates that the same organs, or similar, that in the seaanemone furnish such virulent weapons, are seen in the physalia: He was the first to show the uses and unfold the anatomy of them. The physalia, when VOL. XLIII-No. 253.-3 er, it is a matter of great wonder that the little blue fishes escape the fatal touch; but nature seems to have intended them as companions. The blue fishes are to the physalia, as the naturalist would say, parasitic. They are never seen elsewhere, but always under the tentacles of the physalia. It is an interesting fact, too, that the sea-anemone which makes its home on the back of the crab is never found alone. The lip of a perch that had imprudently put his nose within reach of a tentacle was examined under the microscope, and seen to be completely studded with the darts, whose poisonous points had carried death with them. The younger Charley of our boat-party once inadvertently swam over one. The ugly tenta cles clung to his chest and abdomen, affecting him most gravely. It is impossible to convey in words the appearance of his face, its horrorstricken expression. He was rendered helpless This form is like a little monitor, with works all below, and no "top-hamper.' The beaches are often strewed with the skeleton frames of these creatures after a storm. in a moment; but several soldiers were at hand, | vellela, and the color the same indigo-blue. who conveyed him to the shore and disentangled the fearful mass of tentacles. Large welts remained upon the skin, of a dark color, and millions of the minute barbs were plunged under the flesh. The most serious symptom was During one of the bright, clear days, when the difficult breathing-dyspnœa. Great nerv- the sea is like glass, not a ripple upon its surous irritation, and occasional sinking or pros-face, the aspect of the Gulf Stream is charmtration of the powers of life occurred, requiring free use of powerful stimulants. The vast extent of the poisonous influence here was probably the cause of such serious symptoms. A little more would cause death.. A thorough bathing with soap-suds proved the best remedy, though the suffering lasted several hours. There are two other forms allied to this jellyfish that are seldom seen in perfection except at sea, away from the shore. Voyagers in the Gulf region see them from the deck, and are told that they are the young, or a portion of the physalia, simply because they look like the larger in color, and because they have no common name. Porpita and vellela are pretty names enough, without more common ones-the latter meaning little boat. They have the same dark blue membranous covering, though strikingly different in form. If you ask the ship captain, he tells you it is a man-o'-war with its upper gear carried away. These two forms are so pretty and interesting, and so surely met with on a voyage through the Gulf Stream, that I venture to surmise our readers will be glad to know something more of them. As the ship glides into the Gulf Stream the alert virtuoso has ample material for his amusement. At times when the physalia are abundant on the sea there will be seen equally numerous the two other members of this family or order -siphonophora, of the class of acalephs. An English writer asserts that the vellela is normally a parasite of physalia; but such is not the case. Vellelæ are seen often in great numbers when no physaliæ are in sight. The writer in question judges from the fact of the two being found stranded on the shores of England, where they are strangers. I sailed through an immense fleet of vellele between Key Largo and Cape Florida, and not one physalia was in sight. The vellela is composed of an oval plate, of the appearance of isinglass, very thin. An equally thin plate of the same material, which is twisted in the graceful form of the "line of beauty," stands vertically along the upper surface. This structure is covered with the blue membrane, and has depending from its float, which rests lightly on the water, a row of short tentacles arranged along its edge. In the centre is the fleshy stomach and its mouths. The whole object looks like a little flat-boat with one fore-and-aft sail close hauled on the wind. The porpita is a perfectly circular form, of the same isinglass-like character, about an inch and a half in diameter, thin, and having no upright sail. Its under parts are similar to the ing beyond description. The three objects just noticed are seen on all sides, their glowing colors and bright, lustrous reflections a source of constant admiration. The dolphin, with his gorgeous, iridescent flanks, is quite constantly in sight, just under the surface, darting back and forth, vaulting, and frequently turning on his side, like some gaudily dressed pantomimist. We have, in imagination, drifted around a lagoon of the reef, looking down among the deep-sea corals, and scanning the surface for the curious there. Meantime, lest we tire in looking upon this the lowest form of animal life, we will sail back to that locality on the reef where a higher animal finds shelter, though low he may be of his class-the military prison. Many were the strange characters confined here during the war; and many were the devices for earning a little money for the purchase of tobacco, that indispensable morceau of the soldier and sailor. Among the rather questionable methods was one instituted by a young man of good education, and skilled in the usc of water-colors. He furnished "to order or otherwise pressed mosses in wreaths or on cartes de visite." Great quantities of the real moss, or alga, were pressed and sold there, but the prisoners could not always procure it. Our young man was impressed with the belief that a wreath could be painted in water-colors, adding, perhaps, here and there, sparingly, a twig of the real article, whereby much extraordinary care and vexation would be saved, and a steady business insured. He, therefore, lost no time in putting into practice this highly ingenious if not praiseworthy method; and much gold-or its equivalent-did the young man put into his pocket thereby. If any reader has a "souvenir from the Dry Tortugas" in the shape of a wreath or bouquet of "ocean flowers," let him not hold it the less valuable, for a microscope can hardly detect the difference. If our young man did deceive, he "did his level best." The strangest of all characters here was Harry Blank, sentenced to "hard labor for three years, or during the war :" charges, "larceny and desertion." Blank was about nineteen years of age. He was slight in figure, lithe, and supple to an extraordinary extent. His forehead was very low and narrow; face small; and altogether he was perfectly monkey-like in appearance. Of course he was very soon in the guard-house for some infraction of discipline. After a little it became necessary to handcuff him. hands were so remarkably small that "bracelets" could not be kept on him; but he played several dodges before this was discovered. His HARRY BLANK. where the old woman was quietly at work, and then decamped, getting back without any one observing him. This theft was a mystery for several weeks, the daguerreotypes proving a serious loss, when the scamp told it circumstantially to the surgeon as a good joke. He had broken the articles, and thrown them into the ditch. After this an iron collar was made and fastened on his neck, beset with long spikes. This was, of course, too much for comfort; and, with the ball and chain on his ankles, he soon began to fail. Any thing like a thorough surveillance of him involved measures that were manifestly cruel. He was not vicious, was perfectly good-natured, but seemed constantly impelled to mischief. On one occasion only he showed a disposition to retaliate. An official of the work department, who had brutally treated him, passed in and out frequently, and Harry managed to secrete a musket from the adjoining guard-room, and cover his enemy, but was arrested before any harm was done. The same official was frightfully cut in the throat a few days after by another prisoner who had been maltreated by him. laid upon, him agrees with him that the result of our experiment, though not perfect, was a source of great gratification. It had come to this pass. Harry Blank had so often been the subject of complaint, and every device been used for restraining him, he was again made fast to the floor of the dungeon, the comman Harry, as a character, is introduced herethough a curious creature for observation-to show how potent is kind treatment as compared with the opposite. We are not disposed to inHis hand was a marvel of suppleness, as was sist that this is the most feasible method of also his whole frame. Harry was constantly treating thieves, or one likely to be profitable evading the sentry, and in mischief. He seemed to the state, unless we allow our institutions to care for nothing except as a means for making the luxury of benevolent, painstaking “men of fun or mischief. On one occasion he seized a the cloth." Suffice it to say the kind lady who broom, and whistled himself by the sentinel, say-assisted the surgeon in his endeavors to shield ing he had been sent to sweep the store-house, this godless creature from the heavy penalties where he contrived to secrete and convey articles of clothing, and sell them before being detected. Once he crept into the engineer's store-house, and set the molasses running from a hogshead, as a monkey would, from pure mischief, telling it next day as a joke. His was a most perfect example of what the phrenologist would call a full development in the region of "secretive-dant being wholly out of patience with him. He ness" and "destructiveness," with very small "frontal organs.' So completely troublesome was the scape-grace, the commanding officer ordered him chained to the dungeon floor; but here he soon became sick, and was allowed the freedom of the room. Eventually he was given the range of the corridor for air during the day. In this apartment an embrasure opened out over the ditch, or moat. The sentinel being concealed from this window in his beat, Harry deemed it favorable for a new enterprise. He let himself down just as the work people went to dinner, at an hour when the garrison was in the enjoyment of the noonday siesta. It was an easy matter to swim across the moat, run along the moat wall to the bakery, swim again, and climb in an embrasure by aid of the waterpipes. The coast clear, he helped himself in the bakery, and stepped into the dining-room of an old woman, wife of a boss workman. Here he pocketed a lot of daguerreotypes and mantel ornaments, peeped into the next room, was here kept until the scurvy rendered him almost helpless. The surgeon then assumed the responsibility, and determined to hold him for a trial. He was put in hospital, and restored to his usual health after a few weeks of treatment. During his stay in the hospital he was under promise of good behavior. He gave his word to the surgeon that he would not leave without liberty. He was trusted on that promise; was allowed the freedom of the garrison, as well as the hospital, precisely in the same manner as other patients-that is, liberty to go and come, always reporting the fact to the ward-master. He was, for good behavior, installed as a nurse, and no one of the nurses was more attentive and useful. Books of interest, with illustrations, were freely given him, as well as to other prisoners. Not tracts, if you please; religious tracts are not always the most useful in such cases; the dose is too strong. They are sometimes administered "ad nauseam." A |