so THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. 



phosphorescence of the sea is sometimes due. M. 

 de Tessan has observed a phenomenon of this kind 

 at Simon's Town, Cape of Good Hope : — 



" On the 10th of April, in the evening, the sea, 

 in the roadstead of Simon's Town, presented an ex- 

 traordinary phosphorescence of the most vivid 

 character. At whatever points the phosphorescence 

 was greatest, the water was coloured on the surface 

 as red as blood, and it contained such an immense 

 quantity of little globules that it had the consistency 

 of a syrup. A bucket of water taken up at one of these 

 points, and filtered through a piece of linen, left on 

 the filter a mass of globules greater in volume than 

 the water that had passed through : in other words, 

 the globules constituted more than half of the whole 

 quantity of sea-water taken up in the bucket. 

 View^ed through a magnifying-glass, these globules 

 presented the appearance of little transparent and 

 inflated bladders, having on their surface a black 

 point, surrounded with equally black radiating striae. 

 They had a very perceptible odour of the sea, and 

 most probably they were the spawn of fish. Thus 

 isolated from the water, they were highly phos- 

 phorescent; the least agitation, the least contact 

 made them throw out a vivid greenish light, whilst 

 the water that had been filtered away from them 

 had completely lost the property of becoming phos- 



