"THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE" - читать интересную книгу автора (Darwin Charles)

two feet above the rocky shore, I was more than once saluted
by a jet of water, accompanied by a slight grating noise. At
first I could not think what it was, but afterwards I found
out that it was this cuttle-fish, which, though concealed in a
hole, thus often led me to its discovery. That it possesses
the power of ejecting water there is no doubt, and it appeared
to me that it could certainly take good aim by directing the
tube or siphon on the under side of its body. From the
difficulty which these animals have in carrying their heads,
they cannot crawl with ease when placed on the ground. I
observed that one which I kept in the cabin was slightly
phosphorescent in the dark.

ST. PAUL'S ROCKS. -- In crossing the Atlantic we hove-to
during the morning of February 16th, close to the island of
St. Paul's. This cluster of rocks is situated in 0 degs. 58'
north latitude, and 29 degs. 15' west longitude. It is 540
miles distant from the coast of America, and 350 from the island
of Fernando Noronha. The highest point is only fifty feet above
the level of the sea, and the entire circumference is under
three-quarters of a mile. This small point rises abruptly out
of the depths of the ocean. Its mineralogical constitution
is not simple; in some parts the rock is of a cherty, in others
of a felspathic nature, including thin veins of serpentine. It
is a remarkable fact, that all the many small islands, lying
far from any continent, in the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic
Oceans, with the exception of the Seychelles and this little
point of rock, are, I believe, composed either of coral or of
erupted matter. The volcanic nature of these oceanic islands
is evidently an extension of that law, and the effect of those
same causes, whether chemical or mechanical, from which it
results that a vast majority of the volcanoes now in action
stand either near sea-coasts or as islands in the midst of the
sea.

The rocks of St. Paul appear from a distance of a brilliantly
white colour. This is partly owing to the dung of a
vast multitude of seafowl, and partly to a coating of a hard
glossy substance with a pearly lustre, which is intimately
united to the surface of the rocks. This, when examined
with a lens, is found to consist of numerous exceedingly
thin layers, its total thickness being about the tenth of an
inch. It contains much animal matter, and its origin, no
doubt, is due to the action of the rain or spray on the birds'
dung. Below some small masses of guano at Ascension, and
on the Abrolhos Islets, I found certain stalactitic branching
bodies, formed apparently in the same manner as the thin
white coating on these rocks. The branching bodies so closely
resembled in general appearance certain nulliporae (a family
of hard calcareous sea-plants), that in lately looking hastily