LOW LIFE. 25 



This light is the " briming " of the fishermen. It is due to the 

 movement of the fish exciting the light-producer, just as in a 

 marine aquarium in a dark room you can produce a similar 

 effect by blowing the surface of the water into ripples. The 

 six long oars of the big sean-boat every time they dip into the 

 water send a spray of light into the air, and as they again 

 leave it a shower of glowing pearls drops from each. The 

 prow of the boat sends up a fountain of pale heatless fire on 

 either side, and an ever-widening track of the same mysterious 

 light marks the way the boat has come. 



All these brilliant effects are produced by millions of a tiny 

 Infusorian, individually so small that twenty of the finest 

 specimens, placed closely together in Indian file, would only 

 produce a procession one inch in length, whilst of mediocre 

 examples it would require from fifty to eighty to cover the 

 same space. Its size may be insignificant, but it has a name 

 which will at least inspire respect with some persons Nocti- 

 luca mi liar is which may be Englished as the Sea Night- 

 light. If now we go together to your lodgings and examine 

 that bottle of sea- water with a lens we shall be able to make 

 out a large number of these creatures swimming about, and by 

 means of a pipette or dipping tube we can isolate a specimen 

 and place it under the microscope. There it is revealed to us 

 as a peach-shaped individual, the spherical mass being partly 

 mapped into two lobes by the slight groove that, as in the 

 peach, runs down from the depression in which the stalk is 

 attached. The stalk in this microscopic night-light is repre- 

 sented by a long flexible tentacle, or flagellwn, by means of 

 which Noctiluca moves through the waters, much as a fisher- 

 man will propel his boat by the skilful use of a single paddle 

 at the stern. There is a shell-like envelope of transparent 

 material through which may be seen a meshwork of granular 

 material, denser than the body-mass. A funnel, opening near 

 the flagellum, becomes lost in this granular matter ; this is 

 the creature's mouth and gullet, within which lies a smaller 



