FIXED LUMINARIES OF THE SEA. 25 



while pale, dim lights told of rare medusce, — the phantoms of 

 this world beneath the sea. 



The gorgonias emit, as a rule, a light of a beautiful lilac 

 hue I and in some localities the bottom of the ocean is 

 covered with similar forms, all gleaming with this vivid 

 phosphorescence. Imagine a cornfield covering hundreds of 

 acres, the ripe ears emitting a fitful, vivid lilac light, through 

 which dart various animals, — the birds of this subniarine 

 region, — their passage creating a blaze of another hue ; and 

 some idea can be formed of this scene that conjecture only 

 can picture. 



Sir Wyville Thompson states, that, when dredging in water 

 nearly a mile deep off St. Vincent, they must have passed 

 over an immense field of light-emitting gorgonias, as the 

 travrls came up filled with a delicate form, " with a thin wire- 

 like axis slightly twisted spirally, a small tuft of irregular 

 rootlets at the base, and long exsert polyps. The stems, 

 which were from eighteen inches to two feet in length, were 

 coiled in great hanks round the trawl-beam, and entangled 

 in masses in the net ; and, as they showed a most vivid phos- 

 phorescence of a pale lilac color, their immense numbers 

 suggested a wonderful state of things beneath." 



Off our Eastern coast the little brush-like gorgonia, Aca- 

 nella,^^ has been observed by Professor Verrill to emit a pale 

 light when brought to the surface. The Gorgonias are all 

 important light-givers. Primnoa,^^ a brush coral, and Para- 

 gorgia ^'' have become well known in late years by specimens 

 brought up by the Gloucester fishermen on the Georges 

 Banks. Even when dry and dead, they are extremely attrac- 

 tive ; the Primnoa being richly tinted with pink, while the 

 latter has a reddish hue. 



