66 EDWARD A. WILSON. 



We had, one night, a very interesting experience in observing the phosphorescence 

 that was stirred up in the sea by the movement of these animals. Coming l)ack to the 

 ship by boat from Enderby Island an hour or two after sunset, and on a particularly 

 dark night, with neither stars nor moon, we watched the sinuous and graceful move- 

 ments of about six large Sea-lions that followed our boat apparently out of curiosity. 

 Diving and twisting aljout beneath us in the pitch-black water each animal was ablaze 

 with light. Every limb and every movement could be seen, though they moved so 

 rapidly that the eye could scarcely follow them ; they played with one another and 

 chased one another and the boat, now coming up to blow, as we could hear, a yard or 

 two astern, and now diving deep down under the boat to appear often close in under 

 the bulwarks ; every stroke of the long powerful fore flippers was accurately conveyed 

 to our eyes in the pitchy darkness by the brilliance of the phosphorescence coating them. 

 We w^atched long to see if they ever used the hind flippers as propellers, and 

 though this happened only on very rare occasions, we satisfied ourselves that they 

 were occasionally brought forward to assist the pace by a powerful stroke in unison. 



Throughout this long pull in the dark we saw not a single fish or other beast lit up 

 in the same way, and although we could hardly wonder at this, considering how ample 

 a warning they had of the approach of their enemies — the Sea-lions — we yet thought 

 that possibly the smooth and frictionless mucoid covering of the fish might be of some 

 use, not only in facilitating their speed through the water, but also in preventing a 

 similar declaration of their whereabouts whenever, as so often happened, the sea was 

 full of organisms prepared to phosphoresce. No doubt the striking l)rilliance of the 

 Sea-lions was due to the roughness of their hairy coats, and every organism that 

 came in contact therewith would phosphoresce at once and brilliantly. It must very 

 materially embarrass an animal's prospects of obtaining food if, on every warm night, 

 it is bound to declare its presence in this manner. 



The sight was a most beautiful one. The animals moved with feints, and twists, 

 and turns, now in curves, now in circles, but always with the sinuous motion of 

 the body like a fish, supplemented by powerful strokes of the long fore flippers, 

 and always with the most wonderful rapidity. All this we saw most clearly in the 

 blackest darkness, far more clearly, indeed, than such objects are wont to be seen 

 even under the most favourable conditions, in the daylight. 



