208 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 



" The floor is of sand like the mountain drift, 



And the pearl shells spangle the flinty snow ; 

 From coral rocks the sea-plants lift 



Their boughs, where the tides and billows flow : 

 The water is calm and still below, 



For the winds and waves are absent there ; 

 And the sands are bright as the stars that glow 



In the motionless fields of the upper air. 

 There with its waving blade of green, 



The sea-flag streams through the silent water ; 

 And the crimson leaf of the dulse is seen 



To blush like a banner bathed in slaughter. 

 There, with a light and easy motion, 



The fan-coral sweeps through the clear deep sea, 

 And the yellow and scarlet tufts of ocean 



Are bending like corn on the upland lea. 

 And life, in rare and beautiful forms, 



Is sporting amidst those bowers of stone, 

 And is safe, when the wrathful spirit of storms 



Has made the top of the waves his own. 

 And when the ship from his fury flies, 



Where the myriad voices of ocean roar, 

 When the wind-god frowns in the murky skies, 



And demons are waiting the wreck on shore ; 

 Then far below, in the peaceful sea, 



The purple mullet and goldfish rove, 

 Where the waters murmur tranquilly 



Through the bending twigs of the coral grove." 



F. I had almost forgotten to mention a very singular 

 luminous appearance that I observed in Newfoundland about 

 ten years ago. It was summer time : a few young men of 

 us had been on an excursion from Carbonear to Brigus, in a 

 pleasure-boat, and were now returning. The wind had 

 died away before we had reached so far as Harbour Grace, 

 and it had become a perfect calm ; night was falling, and 

 we had taken to the oars for some time, when a thick fog 

 closed us in, and we lost sight of the land, just as we neared 

 the southern point of Musquito : we were now bewildered, 



