I had wished to visit the reef, 360 leagues long, against which the sea,
always rough, broke with great violence, with a noise like thunder.
But just then the inclined planes drew the Nautilus down to a great depth,
and I could see nothing of the high coral walls. I had to content
myself with the different specimens of fish brought up by the nets.
I remarked, among others, some germons, a species of mackerel as large
as a tunny, with bluish sides, and striped with transverse bands,
that disappear with the animal's life.
These fish followed us in shoals, and furnished us with very delicate
food. We took also a large number of gilt-heads, about one and a half
inches long, tasting like dorys; and flying pyrapeds like submarine
swallows, which, in dark nights, light alternately the air and water
with their phosphorescent light. Among the molluscs and zoophytes, I
found in the meshes of the net several species of alcyonarians, echini,
hammers, spurs, dials, cerites, and hyalleae. The flora was represented
by beautiful floating seaweeds, laminariae, and macrocystes, impregnated
with the mucilage that transudes through their pores; and among which I
gathered an admirable Nemastoma Geliniarois, that was classed among the
natural curiosities of the museum.
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