82 LIVING LIGHTS. 



minoid substance that may become diffused by handling, and 

 retain its luminosity for some time. Curiously enough, 

 fresh water increases the intensity of the light, and causes it 

 to continue for a longer period. The intensity of the light 

 may be realized, when we learn from Figuier that Bibra, a 

 Brazilian navigator, employed six Pyrosomce to illuminate his 

 cabin, which was thus rendered so bright that he could read 

 to a friend the description he had written of these living 

 lanterns. 



Mr. Bennett, the naturalist, thus describes his experience 

 with these beautiful creatures : " On the 8th of June, being 

 then in latitude 30° south, and 27° 5' west longitude, having 

 fine weather and a fresh south-easterly trade-wind, and the 

 thermometer ranging from 78° to 84°, late at night the mate 

 of the watch called me to witness a very unusual appearance 

 in the water. This was a broad and expansive sheet of phos- 

 phorescence, extending from east to west as far as the eye 

 could reach. I immediately cast the towing-net over the 

 stern of the ship, which soon cleaved through the brilliant 

 mass, the disturbance causing strong flashes of light to be 

 emitted; and the shoal, judging from the time the vessel 

 took in passing through the mass, may have been a mile in 

 length. On taking in the towing-net, it was found half filled 

 with Pyrosoma atlanticum, which shone with a beautiful pale- 

 greenish light. After the mass had been passed through 

 by the ship, the light was still seen astern, until it became 

 invisible in the distance, and the ocean became hidden in 

 the darkness as before this took place. 



" The second occasion of my meeting these creatures was 

 in a high latitude, and during the winter season ; the 

 weather dark and gloomy, with light breezes from north- 



