The usual method adopted for the preservation of this curious and beautiful mollusca is by placing it in spirits; the form is thus well preserved; but its vivid tints, the subject of so much admiration, are totally lost. As it is with the beautiful but evanescent colour of flowers, no method has been discovered by which their natural brilliancy can be preserved, and it is impossible to retain that peculiar brightness given only by life and health. I have preserved the animal by detaching the tentacute from the bladder; (on account of their being too soft and perishable to enable them to be dried, _en masse_, with any chance of success; their form only being preserved well in spirits;) then permitting the air to escape from the bladder, dried, pressed, and afterwards gummed on paper, it produces a good lateral view of the form of this mollusca; the colours being afterwards artificially renewed by the pencil, and the tentaculæ underneath drawn and coloured, the _tout ensemble_ conveys an idea of the brilliant appearance of the animal, as far as can be produced by art. I have also kept the animal with the bladder inflated, dried it in that state, and, by afterwards colouring it, the appearance produced is very excellent; but, it is only by repeated trials that the best and most accurate methods of preserving objects of natural history can be discovered—the greatest difficulty existing, being that of preserving them accurately in their natural appearance. We had the N. E. trade in lat. 28° N. and long. 18° 11′ W. and at three P.M. of the 25th made the “Northern Saddle Hill,” (N. W. hill,) on the island of Sal, (Cape Verd group,) bearing S. E. about six leagues distant. The announcement of “land in sight,” and the delightful sensations produced by it, can only be appreciated by those who have for some length of time been tossed about on the “deep, deep sea,” for many a weary day, with nothing but sea and sky to gaze upon. All hasten on deck as soon as the land is stated to be visible; at first its rather indistinct form, as it rises from the horizon, does not excite so much interest; but, on a nearer approach, the variously tinted strata of the lofty mountains become visible, and plantations, trees, shrubs, and neat habitations cheer the eye; and, on landing, a profusion of the floral beauties of the vegetable kingdom, with butterflies vieing with them in splendour of tints, or several species of the coleoptera tribe decked in golden armour, meet the eye. But the approach to the Cape Verd islands does not possess these beauties in any profusion—barren volcanic mountains, contrasted occasionally only by a few others of a verdant character are seen instead; even these become an agreeable prospect, being a change from the monotony of a ship, but a departure from them, after a few days’ sojourn, is attended with but little if any regret.