AUGUST 179 



severe nervous shock that the boldest man should come 

 suddenly upon one, say, as big as a sheep. For instance, 

 take Oalanua hyperhoreus, one of the commonest of 

 marine copepods, represented on page 56 of the volume 

 before me, — one can hardly imagine a more terrifying 

 apparition than this creature would present if, instead 

 of measuring an eighth of an inch from snout (or where 

 the snout should be) to tail-tip, it were six feet long. 



Microscopic in scale though these creatures be, they 

 make up for diminutive proportions by their incalculable 

 numbers. Sometimes they appear in such swarms as 

 to alter the appearance of the ocean. The aforesaid 

 Calanus often makes the sea appear blood-red for 

 miles — a welcome spectacle for herrings and other 

 pelagic fishes which consume enormous quantities of 

 them. Then the familiar phenomenon of phosphor- 

 escence (or, as Mr. David Sharp has pointed out, what 

 should more correctly be termed luminescence, seeing 

 that phosphorus is not the illuminating agent) in the 

 sea has been traced to various species of copepod, but 

 no ingenuity or patience of research has served hitherto 

 to furnish so much as a suggestion of purpose in the 

 display. The female glow-worm, being wingless, pro- 

 bably lights her lamp to guide her strong-flying lover 

 to her embrace, as Hero did for Leander. On the other 

 hand, although — 



' Some think fireflies pretty when they mix in the corn and mingle, 

 Or thrid the stinking hemp till the stalks of it seem a-tingle' — 



these fireflies are almost without exception males. It 

 has been suggested that their nocturnal evolutions are 

 intended to captivate the sense of their lady friends. 



