There
was a fresh breeze, and every part of the surface, which during the
day is seen as foam, now glowed with a pale light. The vessel drove
before her bows two billows of liquid phosphorus, and in her wake
she was followed by a milky train. As far as the eye reached, the
crest of every wave was bright, and the sky above the horizon, from
the reflected glare of these livid flames, was not so utterly
obscure as over the vault of the heavens.
As we proceed farther southward the sea is seldom phosphorescent;
and off Cape Horn I do not recollect more than once having seen it
so, and then it was far from being brilliant. This circumstance
probably has a close connection with the scarcity of organic beings
in that part of the ocean. After the elaborate paper by Ehrenberg,
on the phosphorescence of the sea, it is almost superfluous on my
part to make any observations on the subject. (8/8. An abstract is
given in No. 4 of the "Magazine of Zoology and Botany.") I may
however add, that the same torn and irregular particles of
gelatinous matter, described by Ehrenberg, seem in the southern as
well as in the northern hemisphere to be the common cause of this
phenomenon.
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