At Botofogo Bay.

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forest a universal silence appears to reign. To a person fond of natural history, such a day as this brings with it a deeper pleasure than he can ever hope to experience again."

Here Darwin divided his time equally with animate and inanimate forms. We find him to-day at Botofogo Bay among the treasures of undescribed species, not merely novelties, but forms which had never been seen by scientific eyes before. We can imagine his joy as he compared these discoveries at night with the authorities he had at hand, and realised that here was not one but hundreds of creatures actually undescribed. He compares his geological studies here to gambling in their excitement, and his reflections upon the structure of the rocks were farreaching and valuable.

It is difficult to determine which he enjoyed most, geology, botany, or marine zoölogy, but to the last he gave perhaps the most attention. Among the curious fishes he noticed here was the Diodon antennatus, which has a peculiar habit of inflating itself. Placing one in a boat, flabby and flat, it immediately began drawing in air, all the while assuming a more rotund appearance, until finally it rocked to and fro a veritable ball covered with spines, and upon being tossed over floated upon the surface like a balloon. The author has often tried the same experiment with the Diodon of the Gulf of Mexico, it invariably ridding itself of air in a few moments.

Darwin found that the expanding or blowing-up process was produced in two ways. This little fish when inflated could swim feebly, though drawing but

little water, and would use its tail like a propeller. Its short spines were like those of a hedgehog, and it would hardly be supposed to have enemies, yet our naturalist was told by a Dr. Allan, that sharks would swallow them alive, and that in one instance the Diodon, objecting to this Jonah-like programme, actually ate its way out through the side of the shark, killing it with its sharp, bony, ivory-like teeth. A peculiarity of this fish is that from the lower portion a rich crimson dye exudes which is almost indelible.

For two weeks the Beagle lingered at Bahia, during which time the young naturalist made some remarkable collections, which added materially to the existing knowledge of science, then she bore away to the south.

The Log-Book-Bahia-Singular Appearance of the Water-The Vampire Bat-Slavery-Trips into the Country-Rare Collections-In the Brazilian Forest-Shooting Monkeys-The Click of a Butterfly-Jumping Spiders-Electrical DisplaysThe Plata.

HE sea life of our young hero was a time of continued activity. Every moment when not completely incapacitated by sea-sickness was devoted to his studies, and to the natural history log-book which he was keeping. From the stern of the vessel he swung various kinds of nets to entrap the

smaller forms of floating or pelagic animal life, while fishing-lines were employed to capture rare and unknown members of the finny tribe. A few miles from Bahia, Darwin's attention was called to the strange