208 SIR WALTER SCOTT. 



mensity of creation, and of the bounty of Divine 

 Providence, in furnishing such a profusion of life in 

 a region so remote from the habitations of man. 

 But if the number of animals be so great in a space of 

 two miles square, what must be the amount requisite 

 for the discolouration of the sea through an extent 

 of perhaps 20,000, or 30,000 square miles/ 



These creatures may be appropriately termed the 

 glow-worms of the ocean, for it is to them that the 

 phosphorescence of the sea is mainly attributable. 



Sir Walter Scott, in his poem of the ' Lord of the 

 Isles/ thus alludes to this phenomenon : 



* Awaked before the rushing prow, 

 The mimic fires of ocean glow, 



Those lightnings of the wave. 

 Wild sparkles crest the broken tides, 

 nd, flashing round the vessel's sides, 



With elfish lustre lave; 

 While far behind their livid light 

 To the dark billows of the night 

 A gloomy splendour gave.' 



Hugh Miller also gives a beautiful prose descrip- 

 tion of the luminosity of our own seas, but we must 

 resist the temptation to introduce it here. 



The appearance of the Greenland Seas is princi- 

 pally owing to the presence of the minute species 

 of Acalephse, but there are many others that grow 

 to an immense size. Specimens of these may be 

 frequently seen cast on the sea-beach by the force 

 of the waves. When in their native element they 

 form the swimmer's dread, owing to a peculiar sting- 

 ing power which they possess. 



