Worcester daily spy., 1872-01-08


tbe Tni4 ~ .,enjamin Peirce, superintendent of
let Led States coast survey, has received
.er from Professor Agassiz, director OF the
| HaSsler expedition, detailing the important dis.
covery which he has made while steamingin the
Gulf stream. The letter is dated S Thomas
Dec. 10, 1871 1t appears that after leaving Bos-
ton the professor was greatly troubled by a
sense OF general weakness, so much 50 that he
thought he bad undertaken more than he had
strength for. After getting into warmer lati.
tudeS, however, he became better, and at the
time of writing his condition was better than at
the start. On reaching the Gulf stream he be-
gan work. He made extensive collections of sea-
weed. He writes;
"Our observations favor the view of those who
believe that the floating weed is derived from
plants torn from the rocks upon which sargaS-
sum naturally grows. made avery simple eX-
pertinent which seems to me to settle The matter
Every branch of the Seaweed which is deprived
of its floats at once sinks TO the bottom of the
water, and these floats are not likely 10 be the
first parts developed from the spores. Moreover,
after examining a very large quantity of the
weed, can say that have not seen branch,
however small, which did not EXHIBIT distinct
marks Of having been torn from a solid attach
ment"
His first important discovery was made in this
seaweed, He saws:
"Ihe most interesting discovery of the voyage
thus far is the finding of nest built by fish,
floating on the broad ocean with its live freight
On the 18Th of the month Mr.. Mansfield, one of
the officers of the Hessler brought me ball of
guli-wetd which he had just picked up, and
which excited my curiosity TO the utmost, II
was round mass of SargaSsum, about the size
of TWO fists, rolled up together The whole con-
sisted, to all appearance, of nothing but gulf
| weed, the branches and leaves of which were,
| however, evidently knit together, and not only
baled into roundish mass, for though some of
| tile leaves and branches hung loose from the rest,
| 1t became at once visible that the bulk of the
| ball was held together threads trenning inevery
| direction among the seaweeds, as if a couple of
| handluls of branches of sargassumhad been
rolled up together with elastic threads trending in
| every direction. Put back into a large bowl of
water il became apparent that this mass Of sej-
! weeds was nest, the central part Of which was
more closely bound up together in the form of a
ball with several loose branches extending in
various directions, by which the whole was kept
floating.
more careful examination very soon reveal
ed the fact that the elastic threads which held
the gull-weed together were beaded at intervals,
sometimes two or three beads being close to-
gethCr, or a bunch of them hanging from the
same cluster of threads, or they were more rarely
scattered at a greater distance one from the
other. Nowhere was there much regularity OBJ
| servable in the distribution Of The beads, and
they were found scattered throughout the whole
| ball of seaweeds pretty uniformly. The beads
themselves were about the size of an ordinary
| pins head. We had, no doubt, ne before us
of the most curious kind, full Of eggs, too, and
! the eggs scattered throughout the mass of the
nest and not placed together in a cavity of the
| whole structure. 4 A number of these
eggs with live embryos were cut out of the nest
aud placed in separate glass jars TO multiply the
| chances of preserving them"
| The next day he found two embryos, and on
| the third day he had n dozen of these young
| fishes in his jars. He ascertained beyond a
| doubt that they were fishes, but as to the kind
| he was longer in doubt, hls presumption being
that they were of the pelaeic species of the At
| lantic, and after a comparison with several Of
| this species which fortunately he had alive in bis
collection, he became satisfied they were identi-
cal. He says:
ut thus stands as well authenticated fact
that the common peagic chiiOnectes Of the At
| lantic (named chironectes pictus by Cuvier)
| builds Il nest for its eggs in which the progeny
is wrapped up with the materials Of which the
nest itself is composed and as these materials
are living gulf weed the fish cradle rocking
upon the deep ocean, is carried alongsas an un-
dying arbOr, affording at the same time pro-
lection and afterwdrd food forits living freight"
| The professor dwells upon this discovery
| with the ardOr of young enthusiast lie
| hopes that "some naturalist becalmed among
the gulf weed may have the good fortune of
| witnessing the process by which the nest is
built and closes his letter in these words:
All the officers Of the Hassler are indeiat'
igable in their efforts to help our investiga.
tions, and even the meu.sLow useful interest
| IN our proceedings. We have Just reached st.
Thomas, SO that ] have nothing 10 add as to
observations made here. "-Boston Journal
Quimbo Arpo, the Chinese rufi1au, who gain
| ed a disagreeable uotoriety some years ago. as