PROCEEDINGS 



OF TUK 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



January 10. 1837. 

 W. B. Scott, Esq., in the Chair. 



A paper was read, entitled " Observations on the Phosphorescence 

 of the Ocean, mada during a voyage from England to Sydney, 

 N.S. "VVales." By George Bennett, Esq., F.L.S., Corresp. Member 

 of the Society. 



The author commences this paper ■with adverting to the very slight 

 progress which naturalists have made in their attempts to elucidate 

 the history of the phsenomena connected with the phosphorescence 

 of the ocean, and notices some of the imaginary advantages -vvhich 

 former observers have attributed to its presence ; among others that 

 of its indicating to mariners the existence of shoals and soundings, 

 a circumstance which his own experience has not enabled him to 

 confinu. He then proceeds to remark, that the sea, -vvhen phospho- 

 rescent, exhibits two distinct kinds of luminosity, one in which its 

 surface appears studded with scintillations of the most vivid descrip- 

 tion, more particularly apparent as the waves are broken by the vio- 

 lence of the wind or by the passage of the ship through them, as 

 though they were electric sparks produced by the collision, and which 

 scintillations he considers are probably influenced, in some measure, 

 by an electric condition of the atmosphere, as at those particular 

 times they were observed to be much more vivid and incessant than 

 at others. The other kind of luminosity spoken of has more tlie 

 appearance of sheets or trains of \vhitish or greenish light, often suf- 

 ficiently brilliant to illuminate the vessel as it passes through, being 

 produced by various species of Šalpa, Bero'ė, and other Molluscs, 

 ■while in the former case the scintillations, which adhere in myriads 

 to the towing net when drawn out of the \vater, probably originale 

 in animalcules so minute that the only indication of their presence 

 is the light which they emit. 



The author remarks that " the luminosity of the ocean is often 

 seen w'ith greater constancy and briUiancy of eflPect between the la- 

 titudes 3° and 4° north and 3° or 4° south of the eąuator, than at 

 any other part of the tropical regions. This circumstance, which I 

 have observed myself, if found to be bome out by repeated obser- 

 vations, may be occasioned by the eddies arising from currents, for 

 it is a curious fact worth noticing.that where currents are known to 

 exist, the luminosity of the ocean has been obser^'ed to assume a 

 higher degree of brilliancy. Now the westerly current is supposed 

 to run betvveen those parallels of latitudes from 20° or 22° veest lon- 



No. XLIX. — Procebdings of the Zoological Society. 



