The ocean / By P. H. Gosse.

  • Gosse, Philip Henry, 1810-1888.
Date:
[pref. 1845]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The ocean / By P. H. Gosse. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    fins. On the approach of an enemy, they buried themselves in the mud with inconceivable rapidity, so that their sudden disappearance seemed to be the work of magic. One of the Malays was employed in catching them, as they are considered to be a great delicacy. He used for the purpose a thin plank, four feet long, and one foot broad; on one end of which were fixed several sharp-pointed nails, the points projecting beyond the end of the plank. He placed the plank flat upon the mud, and with the right knee resting on it, and kicking the mud with the left foot, he shot along the surface with great rapidity, the sharp-pointed nails transfixing the little creatures before they could succeed in burying themselves sufficiently deep to avoid it. This is a dangerous sport, and requires great skill in the fisherman to prevent accidents; for should he lose his plank, death would be almost inevit- able, the mud not having sufficient consistence to support him without the aid of this simple contri- vance.”* Numberless creatures of the inferior classes, some of which are of exquisite delicacy and beauty, float on the surface of the Indian Ocean ; often in such immense hosts as to cover the sea for miles around. The Violet-snail (Janthina fragilis) is one of these, whose shell much resembles that of our garden-snail in form and size, but is of a pearly white above, and beneath violet. When alive it is covered with a slippery membrane. A singular floating appa- ratus projects horizontally from the aperture of the * Eastern Seas, p. 213.