CHAP? XXI- 
THE PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE SEA. 
[ts Causes. — Noctiluca miliaris. — Phosphoresecent Annelides and Heroes. — 
Intense Phosphorescence of the Pyrosoma atlantica.—Luminonus Pholades.— 
The luminous Shark.—Phosphorescent Alge.—Citations from Byrou, Coleridge, 
and Crabbe. 
He who still lingers on the shore after the shades of evening 
have descended, not seldom enjoys a most magnificent spectacle ; 
for lucid flashes burst from the bosom of the waters, as if the 
sea were anxious to restore to the darkened heavens the light it 
had received from them during the day. On approaching the 
margin of the rising flood to examine more closely the sparkling 
of the breaking wave, the spreading waters seem to cover the 
beach with a sheet of fire. Each footstep over the moist sands 
elicits luminous star-like points, and a splash in the water re- 
sembles the awakening of slumbering flames. 
The same wonderful and beauteous aspect frequently gladdens 
the eye of the navigator who ploughs his way through the wide 
deserts of ocean, particularly it his course leads him through the 
tropical seas. 
* When a vessel,” says Humboldt, “ driven along by a fresh 
wind, divides the foaming waters, one never wearies of the lovely 
spectacle their agitation affords; for, whenever a wave makes 
the ship incline sideways, bluish or reddish flames seem to shoot 
upwards from the keel. Beautiful beyond description is the 
sight of a troop of dolphins gambolling in the phosphorescent sea. 
Every furrow they draw through the waters is marked by streaks 
of intense light. In the Gulf of Cariaco, between Cumana 
and the peninsula of Maniquarez, this scene has often delighted 
me for hours.” 
But even in the colder oceanic regions the brilliant pheno- 
menon appears from time to time in its full glory. During a 
dark and stormy September night, on the way from the Sea- 
