PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



January 10, 1837. 



W. B. Scott, Esq., in the Chair, 



A paper was read, entitled " Observations on the Phosphorescence 

 of the Ocean, made during a voyage from England to Sydney, 

 N.S. Wales." By George Bennett, Esq., F.L.S., Corresp. Member 

 of the Society. 



The author commences this paper v?ith adverting to the very slight 

 progress which naturalists have made in their attempts to elucidate 

 the history of the phsenomena connected with the phosphorescence 

 of the ocean, and notices some of the imaginary advantages which 

 former observers have attributed to its presence ; among others that 

 of its indicating to mariners the existence of shoals and soundings, 

 a circumstance which his own experience has not enabled him to 

 confirm. He then proceeds to remark, that the sea, when phospho- 

 rescent, exhibits two distinct kinds of luminosity, one in which its 

 surface appears studded with scintillations of the most vivid descrip- 

 tion, more particularly apparent as the waves are broken by the vio- 

 lence of the wind or by the passage of the ship through them, as 

 though they were electric sparks produced by the collision, and which 

 scintillations he considers are probably influenced, in some measure, 

 by an electric condition of the atmosphere, as at those particular 

 times they were observed to be much more vivid and incessant than 

 at others. The other kind of luminosity spoken of has more tlie 

 appearance of sheets or trains of whitish or greenish light, often suf- 

 ficiently brilliant to Uluminate the vessel as it passes through, being 

 produced by various species of Salpa, Beroe, and other Molluscs, 

 while in the former case the scintillations, which adhere in myriads 

 to the towing net when drawn out of the water, probably originate 

 in animalcules so minute that the only indication of their presence 

 is the light which they emit. 



The author remarks that " the luminosity of the ocean is often 

 seen with greater constancy and brilliancy of effect between the la- 

 titudes 3° and 4° north and 3° or 4° south of the equator, than at 

 any other part of the tropical regions. This circumstance, which I 

 have observed myself, if found to be borne out by repeated obser- 

 vations, may be occasioned by the eddies arising from currents, for 

 it is a curious fact worth noticing, that where currents are known to 

 exist, the luminosity of the ocean has been obsen'ed to assume a 

 higher degree of brilliancy. Now the westerly current is supposed 

 to run between those parallels of latitudes from 20° or 22° west Ion- 

 No. XLIX. — Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 



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