293 NIMROD OP THE SEA; OS, 



While the seas and skies have their frowns and portents, 

 they have also their smiles. One of the most beautiful phe- 

 nomenon attending a passage in these latitudes is the phos- 

 phorescence of the water. To attempt a description of this 

 must be more or less futile, for many words of brightest 

 meaning fall still short of the sparkle of a star. Many 

 times the wake of the ship is a broad belt of pale yellow 

 light, far as the eye can follow it. The whirling eddies are 

 almost aflame, and they fade in the darkening distance into 

 a nebulous light. The infinite sea surrounding is a fit set- 

 ting to the brilliant coruscations. The combing break of 

 the waves flashes like sheet-lightning on a summer's night ; 

 and as the cresting flame of the head-sea is scattered by the 

 bows, its spray falls in drops of fire on the watch, and the 

 scuppers gleam with stars run wild. Deck, sea, and sky are 

 illumined with myriad points of light, of rivaling brilliancy. 



On one occasion, after hauling out a weather eax'-ring for 

 a close reef in the foretop-sail, I paused as long as other du- 

 ties would permit, to drink in the ravishing sight which, with 

 torrent speed, was rushing beneath me. The whole sea was 

 wild with broad sheets of light under the tossing of the 

 gale ; the spray from the wave-caps was as a shower of fire- 

 works, and the bows and head-gear of the ship were illumined 

 from the watery light under the forefoot. Two hundred 

 feet to windward, and holding a course parallel with ours, 

 was a magnificent finback whale, the minutest outlines of 

 its great form defined in light, as though it was of burnished 

 gold. His spout, given in a tumultuous sea, sent a stream 

 of fire half-mainyard high. And I saw how grand and re- 

 splendent whales may be in each other's eyes as they disport 

 in the phosphorescent seas of the tropics. At last I felt 

 compensated for the innumerable heart-sinkings and cold 

 sweats of apprehension I had endured, and I drank into my 

 inmost memory the lesson of the power and grandeur of a 



