CHAPTER XV 



PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE SEA 



Sea Light as a Spectacle 



IT IS rather surprising that classic poets of the sea have not extolled 

 the magnificent luminous effects to be seen on so many occasions. 

 There is no certain mention of sea light in Homer's Iliad or Odyssey, 

 in Virgil's Aeneid, or in that Portuguese epic of the sea, the Lusiad 

 {Os Luciadas) of Camoens (Luiz de Camoes, 1524 P-1580) , written 

 in 1572. Just as surprising is lack of reference to phosphorescence 

 of the sea in Greek and Roman prose, and by the great navigators. 

 The casual statements of Aristotle and of Livy have already been 

 mentioned, as well as the sea flames and sparklings of the sea ob- 

 served by a few sea captains before the seventeenth century. 



It is only in relatively recent times that poets and travelers became 

 ecstatic in their description of the light of the ocean. 



Lord Byron (1788-1824) , speaking of Conrad in The Corsair 

 (Canto I, 1814) , wrote: 



Then to his boat with haughty gesture sprung 

 Flashed the dipt oars, and sparkling with the stroke. 

 Around the waves phosphoric brightness broke. 



Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) in Lord of the Isles (i. 21, 1815), 

 expressed the same idea: 



Awak'd before the rushing prow. 

 The mimic fires of ocean glow, 



Those lightnings of the wave; 

 Wild sparkles crest the broken tides. 

 And flashing round, the vessel's sides 



With elfish lustre lave; 

 While far behind, their livid light 

 To the dark billows of the night 



A blooming splendour gave. 



James Montgomery's ^ waves at night are: 



Spangled with phosphoric fire 



As though the lightnings there had spent their shafts, 



And left the fragments glittering in the field. 



1 James Montgomery (1771-1854), Pelican Island (1827), Canto I. 



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