122 ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE PHOSPHORI. 



them as the cause of all that light and scintillation that appear on 

 the surface of the ocean : they think that some substance of the 

 phosphorus kind, arising from putrefaction, must be admitted as 

 one of the causes of this phenomenon. M. Godhou has published 

 curious observations on a kind of fish called, in French, bonife, 

 already mentioned ; and though he has observed, and accurately 

 described, several of the luminous insects that are found in sea. 

 water, he is, nevertheless, of opinion, that the scintillation and 

 flaming light of the sea proceed from the oily and greasy sub. 

 stances with which it impregnated. 



The abbe Nollet was long of opinion, that the light of the sea 

 proceeded from electricity, though he afterwards seemed inclined 

 to think, that this phenomenon was caused by small animals, either 

 by their luminous aspect) or at least by some liquor or effluvia 

 which they emitted. He did not, however, exclude other causes ; 

 among these, the spawn or fry of ti.-h deserves to be noticed. 

 M. Dagelet, sailing into the bay of Anto^il, in the island of Ma. 

 dagascar, observed a prodigious quantity of fry, which covered 

 the surface of the sea above a mile in length, and which he at first 

 took for banks of sand, on account of their colour; they exhaled 

 a disagreeable odour, and the s a had appeared with uncommon 

 splendor some days before. The same accurate observer, per. 

 ceiving the sea remarkably luminous, in the road to the Cape of 

 Good Hope, during a perfect calm, remarked, that the oars of 

 the canoes product d a whitish and pearly kind of lustre; when 

 he took in his hand the water which contained this phosphorus, he 

 discerned in it, for some minutes, globules of light as large as the 

 heads of pins. When he pressed these globules, th< y appeared to 

 his touch like a soft and thin pulp ; and some days after the sea 

 was covered, near the coasts, with whole banks of these little 

 fish, in innuiii ruble multitudes. 



To putrefaction, also, some are willing to attribute that lumi. 

 nous appearance which goes by the name of Ignis Fatuus. It is 

 most frequently observed in boggy places, and near rivers, though 

 sometimes also in dry places. By its appearance, benighted tra. 

 Tellers are said to have been sometimes misled into marshy places, 

 taking the light which they saw before them for a candle at a dis- 

 tance ; from which seemingly mischievous property it hns been 

 thought, by the vulgar, to be a spirit of a malignant nature, and 

 been named accordingly Will. with-a. wisp, or Jack-with-a-lan. 



