300 On the Luminous Appearand of the Sea. 



parts from thof<? that were not fo in the (hip's wake. The 

 former exhibited in part luminous points and in part fmall 

 luminous globules, Come of which were from one to two 

 lines in diameter, and others as large as a man's head. 

 Sometimes they formed ftreaks from three to four lines in 

 length, and one or two lines in breadth : fometimes they re- 

 fembled luminous vortices, which, according to the author's 

 expreflion, appeared and difappeared fuddenly at certain pe-r 

 riods, like flames of lightning. 



Father Bourzes obierved alfo, that the paffage of fifh 

 through the water was marked by a ftream of light, fo that 

 it was often poffible to dift.ir.guifh their fhape and fize. Hf 

 remarked alfo a number of luminous particles in the water 

 drawn up from the fea, when he ftirred it round with his 

 hand in a dark place. Thcfe luminous particles he obferved 

 alfo on a piece of linen which he had dipped in fea-water, 

 when it was wrung in the dark, and even when it was half 

 dry. 



This attentive obferver confiders the principal caufe of 

 thefe phaenomena to be a kind of greafy vifcous matter in 

 the water of the fea, which arifes perhaps from putrefac- 

 tion, becaufe he thought that the water, the fatter it feemed, 

 and the more covered with fcum, always emitted the more 

 light. In confirmation of this opinion he ftates, that having 

 caught a bonetta, its month appeared fo luminous in the in-, 

 fide that he could fee to read a book by it. On examina- 

 tion, the mouth of the fifh was found to be full of a vifcous 

 matter, which being rubbed over a piece of wood, the latter 

 became alfo luminous jn the dark, but the light it emitted 

 ceafed as foon as the matter became dry. 



The experiments of Canton, mentioned in the Philofo^ 

 phical Tranfaftions *, feem to coincide perfectly with the 

 above defcription of father Bourzes. I mall therefore give 

 a fhort account of them, as they are the moft accurate we 

 have on the fubjecl. On the evening of the 14th of June 

 1768, Mr. Canton pul fome frefh whitings into fea-water, 

 and found that they emitted light for twenty-four hours. In 

 the cellar where he depofited the veffel which contained 



* Vol. LIX. p. 446. 



them, 



