oni min in the vicinity of Dresden, too, which are said to be abundant are de bed by a visitor as vral berang" and he says, "The 1 by the spectacle I shal' never ! »re of tl e plants was so great, that walls, and the pillars, were erti ly ; t beautiful light y cast around ingek resen.bied ? • t moonshine, so each other e oad readily distin 298 གཡས་ས dies spectacle. sea presents a mest nes the vessel, while illows, appears to mar troke of an oar gives rise is trenquil and pearly, at Aling. These moveable lights, endless varieties; their thousands like little star, appearing to float . their matter foru ing one vast sheet ht waves have up, the PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE SEA. 7 seen at a great depth in the clear water, which in the night-time become jet black. Often through this dark, yet limpid medium, have voyagers amused themselves by tracking the routes of large fishes, such as porpoises or sharks, gleaming along in lines of light beneath the abyss, itself invisible with gloom. As Captain Tuckey passed in his voyage towards Prince's Island, the ship seemed to be sailing on a sea of milk. In order to discover the cause of such an appearance, a bag, having its mouth distended by a hoop, was kept overboard, and by means of it vast numbers of small animals were collected. Among them were a great many pellucid scalpæ, with innumerable little creatures attached to them, to which Captain Tuckey principally attributed the whitish colour of the water. Thirteen species of cancer were observed, not above one-fourth of an inch long; eight having the shape of crabs, and five that of shrimps. Among these, some luminous creatures were discernible. When one species was examined by the microscope, in candle-light, the luminous property was observed to reside in the brain, which, when the animal was at rest, resembled a most brilliant amethyst, about the size of a large pin's head; and from this there darted, when the animal moved, flashes of a brilliant and silvery light. Of the number of these little creatures, of some of which a magnified representation is here annexed, some interesting statements are furnished by Captain Scoresby. "During a run of fifty leagues," he says, "the sea was constantly of an olive green colour, remarkably tinted; but on the afternoon of the 17th of April, it changed to transparent blue. This green appearance of the sea in these latitudes was occasioned by myriads of small marine animals. A calculation of the number of these animals, in the space of two miles square, and 250 fathoms deep, gave an amount of 23,888,000,000,000. On September the 1st, the sea was observed coloured in veins or patches of a brown colour, or sometimes with a yellowish green; and this water, on being examined by the microscope, appeared swarming with minute marine animals. A drop of this water contained 26,500 animalcules. Hence, reckoning sixty drops to a drachm, there would be a number, in a gallon of water, exceeding by one half the amount of the population of the whole globe. It affords an interesting conception of the minuteness of some tribes. of animals when we think of more than 26,000 individuals living, obtaining subsistence, and moving perfectly at their ease, in a single drop of water." A sea is required for a whale to sport in; but a common |