THE NOCTILUCA MILIARIS. 420 



spread over the face of ocean? How comes it that at cer- 

 tain times flames issue from the bosom of an element gene- 

 rally so hostile to their appearance ? 



Without troubling the reader with the groundless surmises 

 of ancient naturalists, or repeating the useless tales of the past, 

 I shall at once place myself with him on the stage of our 

 actual knowledge of this interesting and mysterious subject. 

 It is now no longer a matter of doubt that many of the inferior 

 marine animals possess the faculty of secreting a luminous 

 matter, and thus adding their mite to the grand phenomenon. 

 When we consider their countless multitudes, we shall no longer 

 wonder at such magnificent effects being produced by creatures 

 individually so insignificant. 



In our seas it is chiefly a minute gelatinous animal, the 

 Noctiluca miliaria, most probably an aberrant member of the 

 infusorial group, which, as it were, 

 repeats the splendid spectacle of the 

 starry heavens on the surface of the 

 ocean. In form it is nearly globular, 

 presenting on one side a groove, from 

 the anterior extremity of which issues 

 a peculiar curved stalk or appendage, 

 marked by transverse lines, which 

 might seem to be made use of as an Noetiiuca miliaria. 



organ of locomotion. Near the base of (Hi s w * "•«s"i«« d 



this tentacle is placed the mouth, which passes into a dilatable 

 digestive cavity, leading, according to Mr. Huxley, to a dis- 

 tinct anal orifice. From the rather firm external coat proceed 

 thread-like prolongations through the softer mass of the body, so 

 as to divide it into irregular chambers. This little creature, 

 which is just large enough to be discerned by the naked eye 

 when the water in which it may be swimming is contained in a 

 glass jar exposed to the light, seems to feed on diatoms, as their 

 lorica3 may frequently be detected in its interior. It multiplies 

 by spontaneous fission, and the rapidity of this process may be 

 inferred from the immensity of its numbers. A single bucket 

 of luminous sea-water will often contain thousands, while for 

 miles and miles every wave breaking on the shore expands in a 

 sheet of living flame. It was first described by Forster in the 

 Pacific Ocean ; it occurs on all the shores of the Atlantic, and the 



