" COMPOSANTES " 275 



Had the brig been overtaken with all her 

 sail spread, or any considerable portion of it, 

 she would have been turned bottom up and all 

 of us drowned. About nine o'clock the captain 

 called our attention to the peculiar appearance 

 of the ends of the yards and the tops of the 

 mast, which looked as if ablaze with a bluish 

 light Some of the crew had noticed this 

 before, and, as sailors generally are supersti- 

 tious, dared not speak of it even to their 

 comrades. So the calling of our attention 

 to this relieved their fears and helped to 

 explain the mystery to the others. In nautical 

 language this blue light phosphorescent in 

 its composition is called " composantes ; " 

 and shows a state of the atmosphere which 

 experience and observation explain as reached 

 when the storm is nearing its height. It is 

 really an electric "glow," caused by a rapid 

 upward discharge to a highly charged atmo- 

 sphere. These lights at this state begin to 

 form on the most prominent projections, which 

 on the brig were the ends of the yards. They 

 were first seen on the lower yard, then the 

 topsails, next the top-gallant, then the royal, 

 finishing with the truck of each mast. 



