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 clown 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 lioht of their 

 own at night. They send out a 

 greenish golden light, as lustrous ^^^- ^'^^- " ^octiiuca. Magnified, 



as that of the brightest 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. It would seem that the term " rills of 

 molten metal " could hardly apply to anything so impalpable as 

 a jelly-fish (Figs. 126, 127), but their gelatinous discs give them 



Fig. 126. — Eucope diaphana. ^■ 



Fig-. 127. — Lizzia grata. Magnified. 



weight and substance, and when their transparency is not per- 

 ceived, 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 acalephs bring with them a 

 dim spreading halo of light, and look like pale phantoms wan- 

 dering about far below the surface ; the smaller ctenophores 

 become little shining spheres, while a thousand lesser creatures 

 add their tiny lamps to the illumination of the ocean. 



Al] this phosphorescence is seen to greatest advantage on a 



