CANARY ISLANDS. 11 



planation of luminous phenomena in the sea, and it seems 

 to be the only one that can be admitted as general. It 

 appears that this emission of phosphorus arises from the 

 excited state of the vital spirits in these animals, and that 

 it is chiefly at the moment of amorous enjoyment that they 

 cast forth so brilliant a light. 



Fougeroux, Canton, Forster and other accurate ob- 

 servers, while they agree with respect to the existence of 

 glow-worms, think that the light of the sea, when it is 

 tranquil, and as it were united with the water, originates 

 from the decomposition of vegetable and animal substan- 

 ces collected together into it, and which, in putrifying, 

 emit their phosphorus. Light, of this description, is chiefly 

 observed in long calms, and after great heat. The spawn 

 of fish, also, possesses the power of emitting a certain 

 light. This marine phosphoric light has been observed to 

 be the most powerful during a storm, which has given rise 

 to the belief that the phenomenon was produced by the 

 friction of the marine currents. Upon this topic I will 

 conclude in quoting a reflection from Newton. " Do not 

 all solids," says this philosopher, " when they are heated 

 beyond a certain degree, emit a portion of light, and is not 

 this emission produced by the vibratory motion of their parti- 

 cles ? And do not all the bodies which abound in earthy and 

 particularly sulphureous particles, throw forth light as often 

 as these particles are sufficiently agitated ? May not this 

 agitation proceed from heat, friction, putrefaction, from 

 vital motion, or from some other cause ? It is thus that 

 the sea-water in a stormy tempest becomes luminous." 



At sea, on board of the Panope, ) 

 Thursday, July 11, 1833. \ 



