1 1 6 Poachers and Poaching. 



them are the male cricket and " daddy-long- 

 legs," both of which are reported to have been 

 seen in a phosphorescent condition. But if there 

 is a dearth of phosphorescent land creatures 

 which are native, this has no application to the 

 numerous luminous creatures living in our 

 Southern British seas. Among marine animals 

 the phenomenon is more general and much more 

 splendid than anything which can be seen on 

 land, as witness the following picture by Pro- 

 fessor Martin Duncan : " Great domes of pale 

 gold, with long streamers, move slowly along in 

 endless procession ; small silvery discs swim r 

 now enlarging and now contracting ; and here 

 and there a green or bluish gleam marks the 

 course of a tiny but rapidly rising and sinking 

 globe. Hour after hour the procession passes 

 by, and the fishermen hauling in their nets, from 

 the midst drag out liquid light, and the soft sea 

 jellies, crushed and torn piecemeal, shine in every 

 clinging particle. The night grows dark, the 

 wind rises and is cold, and the tide changes r 

 so does the luminosity of the sea. The pale 

 spectres sink deeper and are lost to sight, but 

 the increasing waves are tinged here and there 

 with green and white, and often along a line, 

 where the fresh water is mixing with the salt in 

 an estuary, there is brightness so intense that 

 boats and shores are visible. But if such sights 

 are to be seen on the surface, what must not be 



