APPENDIX. 283 



in lat. 8^ 46^ S., long. 105° 30^ E., and which, in a letter to me, 

 he thus describes : 



''Thursday, July 27, 1854. At 7h. 45m. P.M., my attention 

 was called to notice the color of the water, which was rapidly 

 growing white. Knowing that we were in a much frequented 

 part of the ocean, and having never heard of such an appearance 

 being observed before in this vicinity, I could not account for it. 

 I immediately hove the ship to and cast the lead ; had no bottom 

 at 60 fathoms. I then kept on our course, tried the water by ther- 

 mometer, and found it to be 78^°, the same as at 8 A.M. We 

 filled a tub, containing some 60 gallons, with the water, and found 

 that it was filled with small luminous particles, which, when stir- 

 red, presented a most remarkable appearance. The whole tub 

 seemed to be alive with w^orms and insects, and looked like a 

 grand display of rockets and serpents, seen at a great distance in 

 a dark night ; some of the serpents appeared to be six inches in 

 length, and very luminous. We caught, and could feel them in 

 our hands, and they would emit light until brought within a few 

 feet of a lamp, when, upon looking to see what we had, behold, 

 nothing was visible ; but, by the aid of a sextant's magnifier, we 

 could plainly see a jelly-hke substance w^ithout color. At last, a 

 specimen was obtained of about two inches in length, and plainly 

 visible to the naked eye ; it was about the size of a large hair, and 

 tapered at the ends. By bringing one end within about one fourth 

 of an inch of a lighted lamp, the flame was attracted toward it, 

 and burned with a red light ; the substance crisped in burning 

 something like a hair, or appeared of a red heat before being con- 

 sumed. In a glass of the water there were several small, round 

 substances (say yVth of an inch in diameter), which had the power 

 of expanding to more than twice their ordinary size, and then con- 

 tracting again ; when expanded, the outer rim appeared like a 

 circular saw, only that the teeth pointed toward the centre. 



"This patch of white water was about 23 miles in length, north 

 and south, divided near its centre by an irregular strip of dark wa- 

 ter half a mile wide ; its east and west extent I can say nothing 

 about. 



" I have seen what is called white water in about all the known 

 oceans and seas in the world, but nothing that would compare 

 with this in extent or whiteness. Although we were going at the 

 rate of nine knots, the ship made no noise either at the bow or 

 stern. The whole appearance of the ocean was like a plain cov- 

 ered with snow. There was scarce a cloud in the heavens, yet 

 the sky, for about ten degrees above the horizon, appeared as black 

 as if a storm was raging ; the stars of the first magnitude shone 

 with a feeble light, and the ' milky way' of the heavens was al- 

 most entirely eclipsed by that through which we were sailing. 



