lO PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS : NARRATIVE. 



vals left over after the customary recreations aboard ship, while at night 

 many otherwise tedious hours were very pleasantly passed in watching the 

 phosphorescent light of the surface waters. This light is due to the 

 myriads of animalculae inhabiting the surface waters of this region to the 

 depth of a few feet or fathoms. So abundant are these organisms in 

 places, that with the least disturbance the waters become illuminated and 

 during the night the crest of each wave appears as a broken line of 

 beautiful white light. Over areas of more violent disturbance the illumi- 

 nation extends for some distance beneath the surface. About the prow 

 and in the wake of the ship this light was often of such brilliancy as to 

 illuminate the waters to a depth of several fathoms. 



From the first two days after leaving New York we were entirely 

 without the route of ocean-going steamers, and during the succeeding 

 ten days our course lay through a trackless waste of sea, where not a sail 

 appeared to bear us company. On the evening of the fifteenth day out a 

 little excitement was exhibited among the passengers due to the announce- 

 ment by Captain Braithwaite that at ten o'clock we should be abreast of 

 Pernambuco, and should probably pass close enough in to see the lights 

 of the town. As we had sighted no land since leaving New York, and 

 this was to be the only land we were to have an opportunity of seeing 

 until approaching Montevideo at the mouth of the River Plate, we were 

 all to be found in the early evening pleasantly seated on deck, carefully 

 scanning the horizon for the first indications of land. About nine o'clock 

 the officer on watch came aft and reported to the captain a revolving 

 light on our starboard bow. Not one of us had as yet detected it, 

 though all had been intently watching for it, nor was it quite distinguish- 

 able to us until some time afterwards. Finally there appeared in the 

 distance a dim light, which at first seemed to flash out at somewhat 

 uncertain intervals. As the vessel proceeded on her course, the intensity 

 of the light increased and the intervals between the flashes were seen to 

 be quite regular. Later in the evening we came abreast of Pernambuco, 

 although so far out at sea were we that it was impossible to distinguish 

 either the merits or demerits of this Brazilian city. With the following 

 morning we passed out of view of land, which we did not again sight 

 until about noon of the 24th of March, when we raised the coast of 

 Uruguay, and on the afternoon of the same day we passed between Lobos 

 Island and the mainland. Early on the morning of the 25th we were 



