lo6 On the Luminous Appearance of the Sea. 



luable obfervations on this fabjeft bv profeffor Forfter, of 



HaHe. This celebrated navigator and naturalift obferved this 



pbsenomenon on the night of the 29th of October 1772* 



daring a (reft) gale, a few miles from the Cape of Good 



Hope. He law alfo a ntity of fmall luminous bodies 



ing on the fea, fome 1 near and others at a coft- 



fiderable diftance from the fhip. He caufed fome of the fca 



water to be hauled up in a bucket, in which he found an 



irom rife nui ber o! h moved with great 



rapid. 1 ,-. When the water was fuffered to ft and fome time 



;fe luminou les became lefs numerous ; but, 



ated,'they refumed their luminous property. Mr. 



1 he examined fome of thefe globules, 



that they had life and organifatjon, but they died before he 



could toafti them from his fingers. 



Profeffor Forfter diftinguifhes three kinds of light in the 

 fea, which feems to agree pretty well with the beforemen- 

 tioned obfervations. The firft kind, he fays, nmft be afcribed 

 to electricity, becaufe the quick motion of fhips through 

 the water, efpecially when the wind is ftrong, occafions a 

 violent friction ; and becaufe the agitation of the waves pro- 

 duced, bv the wind heats the waves more than the atmo- 

 fphere above them. The refin, pitch, and tar, with which 

 the on! fide of (hips is covered, and the conducting property 

 of water, render the probability of this phenomenon being 

 connected with electricity iiill ftronger. 



The fecond kind of light appears, in a proper fenfe, to be 

 phofphoric. A great many animal bodies, by putrefying iu 

 the lea, become decompofed, and confequently their conif 

 ponent parts, and particularly the phofphoric acid, are dif- 

 engaged. An addition of inflammable matter forms with 

 this acid that mixture which is commonly known bv the 

 name of pbofphofus ' . Thus, fifh which a retried in the air 

 become lometimes phofphoric; and this is the cafe with the 

 ocean itfelf, when, alter a long calm, it has been filled with 



* Profeffor Foifter's reaforcng, !.<_re quoted, is agreeable to the < Id 

 theory. We have no right to alter his word d it will be Hen by our 



chemical readers th^r the facts might as . \ ^jmmodated to the 



modenj theory. 



putridity 



