128 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 



ever was given to man to admire. Every 

 point of the chief branches and twigs of the 

 coral I sis threw out brilliant jets of fire, now 

 paling, now reviving again, to pass from violet 

 to purple, from red to orange, from bluish to 

 different tones of green, and sometimes to the 

 white of over-heated iron. The pervading 

 colour, however, was greenish ; the others ap- 

 peared only in transient flashes, and melted into 

 the green again. Minute by minute the glory 

 lessened, as the animals died, and at the end 

 of a quarter of an hour they were all like dead 

 and withered branches." But while they were 

 at their best "one could read by their light the 

 finest print in a newspaper at a distance of 6 

 yards." 



In the case just described, the light was 

 apparently given off from the whole of the 

 living matter covering the limy skeleton, but 

 very often it comes from particular spots or 

 " light organs." One cuttlefish has about 

 twenty of these luminous spots, " like gleaming 

 jewels, ultra-marine, ruby-red, sky-blue, and 

 silvery," and another has minute light-giving 

 points dotted all over its body. 



Fishes often have these light-giving spots, 

 and we are told of one fish which has two large 



