TIDE-RIPS AND SE.\. DRIFT. 399 



in " great heaps ;" there multitudes of living things, conntless in 

 numbers and infinite in variety, are hourly conceived. With 

 space enough to hold the four continents and to spare, the tepid 

 waters of this part of the ocean teem with nascent organisms.* 

 Thev sometimes swarm so thickly there that they change the 

 colour of the sea, making it crimson, bro^m, black, or white, 

 according to their own hues. These patches of coloured water 

 sometimes extend, especially in the Indian Ocean, as far as the 

 eye can reach. The question, " What produces them ?" is one 

 that has elicited much discussion in seafaring circles. The 

 Brussels Conference deemed them an object worthy of attention, 

 and recommended special observations with regard to them. 



746. Coloured patches. — Capl. W. E. Kingman, of the American 

 clipper ship the " Shooting' Star," reports in his abstract log a 

 remarkable white patch, which he encountered in lat. 8° 4G' S., 

 long. 105° 30' E., and which, in a letter to me, he thus describes: 

 " Tlmrsday, July 27, 1854. At 7h. 45m. p.m., my attention was 

 called to notice the colour of the water, which was rapidly grow- 

 ing white. Knowing that we were in a much frequented part of 

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

 obsel'^'ed 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 

 thermometer, and found it to be 78|-°, the same as at 8 a.m. We 

 filled a tub, containing some sixty gallons, with the water, and 

 found that it was filled with small luminous particles, which, 

 when stirred, presented a most remarkable appearance. The 

 whole tub seemed to be active with worms 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 



* " It is the realm 'of reef-building corals, and of the wondrously-beautifiil 

 assemblage of animals, vertebrate and invertebrate, that live among them or 

 prey upon them. The brightest and most definite arrangements of colour are 

 here displayed. It is the seat of maximum development of the majority of 

 marine genera. It has but few relations of identity with other provinces. The 

 Eed Sea and Persian Gulf are its offsets."— From Professor Forbos's Paper 

 on the " Distribution of Marine Life." Plate 31st, Johnston' Physical Atlas, 

 2ad ed. ; Wm. Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1854. 



