LIVING LAMPS 23 1 



white light so bright that it showed quite distinctly the hour 

 on a watch; while the light from one of the brittle-stars was of 

 a brilliant green, coruscating from the center of the disk, now 

 along one arm, now along another, and sometimes vividly il- 

 luminating the whole outline of the star-fish. Of this same 

 brittle-star, as brought up between the Shetlands and Storn- 

 oway from 2064 and 3360 feet of water where it lived in a 

 temperature considerably lower than the freezing point of fresh 

 water, he says that he was greatly struck with the brilliancy of 

 its phosphorescence. Some of the hauls were taken late in the 

 evening, and the tangles were sprinkled over with stars of the 

 most brilliant uranium green; httle stars, for the phosphores- 

 cent light was much more vivid in the younger and smaller 

 individuals. The light was not constant, nor continuous all 

 over the star, but sometimes it struck out a line of fire all 

 round the disk, flashing, or one might rather say glowing, up 

 to the center; then that would fade, and a defined patch, a 

 centimeter or so long, break out in the middle of an arm and 

 travel slowly out to the point, or the whole five rays would 

 light up at the ends and spread the fire inwards. Very young 

 ones just transformed from the larval stage shone very brightly. 



Coming down the Sound of Skye from Loch Torridon the 

 "Porcupine" dredged in about 600 feet, and the dredge came 

 up tangled with the long pink stems of the singular sea-pen 

 Pavonaria quadrangularis. Every one of these was embraced 

 and strangled by the twining arms of a long-armed brittle-star. 

 The Pavonarias were resplendent with a pale lilac phosphor- 

 escence Hke the flame of cyanogen gas; not scintillating Hke the 

 green Hght of the brittle-star, but almost constant, sometimes 

 flashing out at one point more brightly and then dying gradually 

 into comparative dimness, but always sufficiently bright to 

 make every portion of a stem caught in the tangles or sticking 

 to the ropes distinctly visible. 



Let us review briefly the types of animals that are respon- 

 sible for this remarkable display of luminescence. 



No creatures anywhere are more remarkable than the various 



