Diary: James P. Stabler, 1827 (Volume 1)

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drew some few outlines of a phiz which I send with this a few porpoises again this morning but not near eno to strike with a harpoon, throwing which thru a ring of rope yarn in the water, has been one of the exercises among some of our athletic men

_ To day while sitting in the boat writing the forgoing the Captn proposed letting it down and rowing round the ship _ which being carried Nem. Con. _ Himself Ogden Clark My Self & four Sailors were soon on the glassy bosom of the deep, whose long, heavy swells might almost induce one to believe was occasion'd by some agitation below, instead of on its surface. We went entirely round - and at the distance of an hundred yards I was surprised to see how small the Gallant looki'g Pacific appeared — The masts look'd tall its true, but altho She draws 15 1/2 ft water - it look'd as if the could only be a few feet two or three below the surface.

Last edit 3 months ago by PrenthgiLW
Page 42
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The rise and fall of the swell, while we were in the boat was excedigly pleasant - and the nearst I can come to describing the appearance of the uneven surface, would be like that of swinging over alternate hills and vallies — Sitting on the side of the boat I discoverd something on the surface of the water resembling a seam, and putting down my hand gathered up a number of somethings, which appeard to be the spawn or embryon of fish — there were several kinds some detached and separate from the rest and some strung together. _ Their appearance was uniformly the same as to shape, which was not unlike the diamonds found in Lake George in the St Lawrence* _ being composed of a transparent jelly with five or six perfect facets and enclosing a little violet colourd string-like pulp, which appeard in some of them like the seat of organic life — some of them moved but were generally quiescent. * {[shorthand]}

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upon noticing the brilliant water of these little diamond-like animalcules, (if that term could properly be applied to objects as large as bullets of 100 to the lbs. as they were turned in the hand, I was led to suspect their motion might be the occasion of the lumin[al] appearance of the sea sometimes seen at night indeed more or less always at night when it is agitated violently. _ Accordingly we let down a bucket and drew some of them up and put in a bottle to try the experiment of shaking them in the dark._ This was done but very little of that appeance to be observed._ It having now become so calm that the ship would not steer, the helm was put hard-up and tied with a string when she "turned about and about" ("[shorthand]") and for a while her head was to the west and we floated about with the swell, stern foremost._ This afforded an opportunity for the busy triflery to pass away the time by

Last edit 3 months ago by PrenthgiLW
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trying various experiments -- Bucket after bucket for several hours together, was sent down upon the Surface of the water which seemed cover'd with various substances, and something new was drawn up at every haul.

_ Sea Nettles _ Shrimps _ transparent animals of various shapes & forms being of divers nondescript kinds _ some of them of the most curious and beautiful forms & colours. _ Among the rest was found under cover of one of the [sketch of sea nettle - jelly fish] sea nettles, a most splendid little fish about one inch in length by 1/2 in in breadth and a quarter in thickness _ His gills and that part where the intestines were lodged being changeable in colour and possessing the beautiful [shorthand character?] of the rainbow .. The other parts with the fins were nearly transparent. The course of the back bone and those branching out from it were as perceptible as the traces of my pen on this paper _ the scales eyes mouth and in fact the

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whole fish presented as much beauty of colour and symetry of form and make, as I ever saw in a fish, particularly when examined with a microscope :- We intended taking it alive but being unfortunately placed in a tumbler with one of the nettles it soon died.

_ Another of the Curiosities was a little phosphorescent species of lice (called sea-lice) resembling the land melipides in form and motion, but exhibiting colours the most vivid, and incomparably the most brilliant of any think I ever beheld _ and according to the Shade of light in which they were viewd the most various and changeable _ even more so than that most resplendent of all terrestrial pictures _ a soap bubble _ They were about 1/8 wide an 5/16 ths long _ They seemed to possess the capacity of shewing this brilliancy of colour at pleasure _ but without doubt the reflection of light occasioned the deception. _ They were some times seen many feet below the surface irradiating the fluid that envelopd

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