20 EYE SPY 
the aid of a big brand of the tree which he used 
as a flambeau. 
Almost any damp wood, especially after a rain, 
is likely to disclose its fox-fire, but it occasionally 
appears under circumstances where we little ex- 
pect it. A few weeks since, having occasion to 
go to my refrigerator after dark, I noticed a brill- 
iant glowing object upon the floor beneath it, 
which I found upon inspection to be merely a 
piece of damp bread. Can it be that the yeast 
fungus too may give off effulgence with its car- 
bonic acid at its whim ? or was the light traceable 
to the perceptible odor of lobster with which it 
had evidently been previously in contact ? 
Dead fish are frequently thus luminous, and 
brilliant phosphorescence is often an accompani- 
ment of decomposition of both animal and vege- 
table matter. A few decaying potatoes will often 
light up a corner of a cellar which is dim by day- 
light, and an instance is on record of a certain 
cellar full of these vegetables giving off such a 
flood of light as to lead observers to suppose that 
the premises were on fire. 
Many animals, and especially fishes and insects, 
possess luminous properties. The familiar exam- 
ples of the glowworm and fire-fly hardly need be 
mentioned. Then there are the big lantern-flies, 
with their luminous heads; and brilliant snapping 
beetles of the South, with their two glowing head- 
