BENEATH TROPIC SEAS 



noticed that the leg of the gang-way was brilliantly 

 illuminated, — ^the tide clashing into vision the 

 latent phosphorescent cymbals of the great world 

 of water life. Into the jet blackness of the water 

 I threw a piece of coral, — which, bomb-like, burst 

 into a starry radiance of sparks, outside of which 

 was a wide black area, then a broad bright ring 

 of flame, which gradually grew larger and fainter. 

 The lump of dead coral could be seen slowly sink- 

 ing, clad in a renewed glory of its youth as it 

 slipped down towards its old home. 



The gorgeousness of the phosphorescence drew 

 and held my attention and I began to experiment. 

 I sent for a shotgun and fired into the water, and 

 in so doing I started, on downward orbit, an 

 incandescent comet whose head was a mass of 

 glowing shot, which drew behind a sweeping train 

 of trembling paleness. I then threw out a bit of 

 bent wire and reproduced for an instant the glow- 

 ing filaments within an electric bulb. Finally I 

 dropped a pin, head-first, and from my post, fifteen 

 feet above the surface, I distinctly saw the impact 

 — a momentary flash — a single brilliant spark 

 which died in the very moment of birth. So 

 abundant and omnipresent were the hosts of 

 tiny light-giving creatures, that the blow of a 

 pin's head was sufficient to kindle an instant's 

 blaze. 



One of those supreme five minutes followed, 

 which at rare intervals are granted me, and leave 

 me gasping. My eye was drawn from the tiny 



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