372 THE OCEAN. 



As though they watch'd the shell-fish slowly gliding 



O'er sunken rocks, or climbing trees of coral. 



On indefatigable wing upheld, 



Breath, pulse, existence, seem'd suspended in them: 



They were as pictures painted on the sky ; 



Till, suddenly, aslant, away they shot, 



Like meteors changed from stars to gleams of lightning, 



And struck upon the deep; where, in wild play, 



Their quarry flounder'd, unsuspecting harm ; 



AVith terrible voracity, they plunged 



Their heads among th' affrighted shoals, and beat 



A tempest on the surges, with their wings, 



Till flashing clouds of foam and spray conceal'd them. 



Nimbly they seized and secreted their prey, 



Alive and wriggling in the elastic net, 



Which Nature hung beneath their grasping beaks ; 



Till swoll'n with captures, the unwieldy burthen 



Clogg'd their slow flight, as heavily to land 



These mighty hunters of the deep return'd.' 



There on the cragged cliffs they perch'd at ease, 



Gorging their hapless victims one by one; 



Then, full and weary, side by side they slept, 



Till evening roused them to the chase again." 



I have reserved till the last of these gleanings from 

 the Ocean, one of the most curious of its phenomena, 

 and one that, while it vividly strikes the fancy of the 

 voyager when he beholds it for the first time, fails 

 not to maintain its power to interest after years of 

 observation have made it familiar. I have reserved it 

 until the last, because it is peculiar to no sea, but 

 common to all, being observable in the frozen ocean 

 of either pole, and under the burning line ; in the 

 Atlantic and in the Pacific. Still there seem to be 

 greater intensity and brilliance in the display of the 

 phenomenon in the tropical seas than in colder 

 climates. No sooner has niffht descended over the 



