VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY OF SOUTHERN LANDS.
95 2
of decOmpofition and diffolution which may render them capable of being abforbed bythe extremities of the veficular not defcribed.
Still more obfcure and difficult of comprehenfion than the mode of its nutrition is thefyftem of generation of this animal. As in certain polypi to which clafs this genusbelongs is regeneration effected by a fort of excrefcence ? Do thofe long tubercles ofthe animal after attaining a certain maturity become feparate and form other animals ?And,, in this cafe, are the fmaller and more depreffed tubercles which cover the re-mainder of the iurface defigned by nature to replace the greater in proportion as theyfall off themfelves in turn to become organized beings ? I confefs this opinion isconjectural, and altogether unfounded on exact obfervation, (till, when we reflect on theAmple organization of thefe animals, and on the prodigious number of them that weremarked, whi<$h neceffarily employs a rapid multiplication, one poffibly may not bewide of truth in admitting this opinion which at once agrees with the fimplicity of theorganization of the animal and its prodigious multiplicity and appears to be fanctionedby analogy.
I muff not here, however, omit to add that, notwithftanding our long and variousnavigation through fo many different feas, we never met with a fecond tribe of thisfpecies. The fpot where they were diftinguiffied by us was between the 19th and 20thdegree of weftem longitude, from the meridian of Paris , and the 3d and 4th degree ofnorth latitude. The temperature of the fea at the furface was then 22 0 of Reaumur *.
I carefully note thefe circumftances ; as it muff be obferved that the various fpecies ofzoophytes and fea mullufcse are not fcattered by chance over the ocean, but are eachlimited to certain latitudes and longitudes, and are conftantly found on the fame fpots,where probably the temperature more than any thing elfe determines their abode.
* 71, 6° of Fahr.
END OF THE ELEVENTH VOLUME.
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