THE PELAGIC FAUNA AND FLORA. 197 
fishing soon learns to know what kind of harvest his night’s 
fishing will give him from the coloring of the phosphores. 
cence he sees passing into his 
net. 
As we lift our net from the 
water, heavy rills of molten metal 
seem to flow down its sides, and 
collect in a glowing mass at the 
bottom. The jelly-fishes, spark- 
ling and brilliant in the sunshine, 
have a still lovelier light of their 
own at night. They send out. а 
dao b grob ved cce 
greenish goldet light, as lustrous Fig. 125. — Noctiluca. Magnified. 
as that of the brig htest glow-worm, and on a calm summer night 
the water, if you but dip your hand into it, breaks into shining 
drops beneath your touch. Tt would seem that the term * rills of 
molten metal” could о apply to anything во impalpable as 
а jelly-fish (Figs. 126, 127), but their gelatinous dises give them 
SH NS 
Zz 
* 
ШШ, 
WN 
| TRIS 
Fig. 120. — Eucope diaphana. $- Fig. 12%, — Lizzia grata. Magnified. 
weight and substance, and when their transparency is not per- 
ойне and their whole mass is aglow with phosphorescent 
light, they have an appearance of solidity which is most strik- 
ing when they are lifted out of the water and flow down 
the sides of the net. The larger aealephs bring with them a 
dim spreading halo of light, and look like pale phantoms wan- 
dering about far below the surface; the smaller. etenophores 
become little shining spheres, while a thousand lesser ereatures 
add their tiny lamps to the illumination of the ocean. 
All this phosphorescence is seen to greatest t advantage on a 
