LIVING LAMPS 227 



flashed brightly as they broke, while above the horizon hung 

 a faint but visible white light. Astern of the ship, deep down 

 where the keel cut the water, glowed a broad band of blue, 

 emerald-green light, from which came streaming up, or floated 

 to the surface, myriads of yellow sparks, which ghttered and 

 sparkled against the brilliant cloud-light below, until both 

 mingled and died out astern far away in our wake. Ahead of 

 the ship, where the old bluff bows of the "Challenger" went 

 ploughing and churning through the sea, there was light enough 

 to read the smallest print with ease. It was as if the 'Milky 

 Way,' as seen through a telescope, 'scattered in millions like 

 glittering dust,' had dropped down on the ocean, and we were 

 sailing through it." 



Of this same night Professor Moseley wrote that the ocean as 

 far as the eye could see was lighted up with sheets of a curious 

 weird-looking light, and whenever the water broke a little on 

 the surface before the breeze the white foam was brilliantly 

 illuminated. So bright was the light, indeed, that the lower 

 sails of the ship were seen to be distinctly lighted up by the 

 radiance given off from the broken water thrown up by the 

 hull of the vessel. 



Such a wonderful scene as this is very rare. In this case it 

 was caused by millions upon millions of a minute organism 

 called Pyrocyslis, then for the first time discovered. 



After a calm day at sea there rise up to the surface with the 

 gathering darkness all sorts of living things which sink down 

 again at dawn. If the sea is rough they do not rise. But on 

 this occasion after a calm day the breeze rose with the coming 

 darkness surprising all these creatures at the surface, and 

 hence the magnificent display. 



Most commonly the ocean when the water is disturbed is 

 seen to be full of scintillating specks with now and then a 

 brighter flash and occasionally a bright and slowly fading glow. 



Mr. Alexander Agassiz remarked that the greater number of 

 the pelagic animals are phosphorescent; and when the sea is 

 calm and the other circumstances favorable these animals are 



