A VOYAGE TO INDIA. 147 



The night was dark and damp, and the breeze too 

 light to steady the vessel. She rolled heavily over the 

 waves, making it difficult for a landsman to walk the 

 deck. A fog bank, which hung around the northern 

 horizon at sunset, now swept slowly down towards us. 

 The captain ordered the light sails furled in expectation 

 of a squall, and we stood leaning together over the rail, 

 watching the mist, which approached more and more 

 rapidly, till it resembled, in the increasing darkness, an 

 immense wall extending from the water to the clouds, 

 and seemed threatening to crush us beneath it. Just at 

 this moment, a flash, like a broad sheet of lightning, 

 spread itself over the surface of the ocean as far as the 

 eye could reach five or six times, at intervals of a few 

 seconds, the flash was repeated, and then the vessel was 

 enveloped in the fog. The breeze quickened the bustle 

 of preparation attracted the attention of every one, and 

 in a few moments we were bounding along at the rate 

 of ten miles arfhour, over waves sparkling in the clear 

 moonshine, but the " lightning of the waters" had 

 ceased. I have always regretted that I did not ascer- 

 tain by what animal this most singular phenomenon 

 was produced, but the wild interest of the scene ban- 

 ished every thought of the kind. In the course of the 

 night we passed through several beds of the salpa, and 

 it is very probable that the flashes were produced by 

 these little creatures, induced, by a wonderful instinct, 

 to act in concert for some inscrutable purpose. 



