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The blubber fish comes to a bad end:
| June 27th, evening
The great blubber fish that ws left in a large tub of water on deck
last night was not to be seen as a fish this morning, but as atoms
of one, floating about in the water. Several of these species of
fish possess this wonderful power of falling to pieces in the water,
or violently exploding themselves, & each separate atom has
life & motion, & I believe eventually developes into a perfect
fish again. |
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The creature in the tub is identified in the "Scientific's"
reports as the fire salp, Pyrosoma spinosum, a bioluminescent
planktonic organism formed of a sock-shaped colony up to 60 feet long
and made up of millions of individuals.
Their Atlantic crossing continues until, on the 28th of
June, the Azores are sighted:
| On the 28th we sounded
at 1250 fms, & had no dredging. Yesterday, Sunday, we went to
Church in the morning & kept under sail all day. The wind being
nearly ahead & taking us 30 miles out of our course so that
at 4 this morning the island of Flores hove in sight, which is some
distance to the north of Fayal. We have kept away from this island
all day & never went nearer than 8 miles, at present the island
is nearly hull down although the land was very high, as high as
Madeira. We sounded this morning at 1000 fathoms, & are now
under steam, half speed. |
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