SUBMAltlNE ILLUMINATION. 128 



bouquets of lire formed of myriads of glittering 

 points ; or, again, they may be compared to festoons 

 of coloured lamps such as are used in public illumi- 

 nations — or, yet again, to burning meteors, elongated 

 or globular. Mingling and grouping, approaching and 

 separating, ascending and descending, these wonderful 

 wreaths of light describe a thousand capricious 

 curves ; and if they fade away or seem to be extiu- 

 gnishe!], it is only to be rekindled the next moment, 

 and to pursue again the same fantastic course. " 



It is in the waters of the wai-mer latitudes that 

 the stai-fishes display all their brilliance. The finest 

 illumination on the occasion of a public feie can 

 scarcely give an idea of this submarine spectacle. 

 Has the reader seen on a fine summer evening the 

 flashing splendour of the myriads of fireflies whicii 

 sport away tlieir brief existence in the valleys of Italy 

 or of Corsica, and which for their immense numbers 

 may be justly compared to the sparks issuing from a 

 conflagration ? Has he remarked in the blossoming 

 herbage how the pretty little glowworm spreads 

 around it a brilliant red or green light ? Imagine, 

 then, glowworms and fireflies mingled together in 

 all forms and colours, and in such immense numbers 

 as to extend over many hundreds of square leagues ; 

 add to this that every nook of the vast region which 

 they illuminate has its own proper light — that what 



