354 THE OCEAN. 



With 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." 



1 have reserved till the last of these gleamings 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 night descended over the 

 ocean, than the whole surface is seen to be, as it were, 

 composed of light, assuming, however, various forms 

 and aspects. The most usual appearances, as far as 

 they have fallen under my own observation in the 

 Atlantic, are as follow : On looking over the stern, 

 when the ship has steerage-way, her track is visible 

 by a line or belt of light, not a bright glare, but a 



