No sieve having been
supplied, we were obliged to sift the contents of the dredge
through our hands--a tedious and superficial mode of examination.
Two days after, Mr. Huxley and I set to work in Botafogo Bay,
provided with a wire-gauze meat-cover and a curious machine for
cleaning rice; these answered capitally as substitutes for
sieves, and enabled us, by a thorough examination of the contents
of the dredge, to detect some forty-five species of Mollusca and
Radiata, some of which were new to science."
By "new to science" MacGillivray meant no more than that the
particular genera and species had not been captured before. Huxley, by
his anatomical work, showed many of the most familiar creatures in a
light "new to science," by revealing their true structure and
relationships.
"Among the acquisitions," MacGillivray goes on, "I may mention a
new species of Amphioxus, a genus of small fishes exhibiting more
anomalies than any other known to Ichthyologists, and the lowest
organisation found in the class. It somewhat resembles the
sand-eels of Britain in habits, like them moving with
extraordinary rapidity through the sand. By dint of bribery and
ridicule we had at length managed to get our boatmen to work
tolerably well, and when we were alike well-roasted by the sun
and repeatedly drenched, besides being tired out and hungry, they
had become quite submissive, and exchanged their grumbling for
merriment.
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