HUMBOLDT. PLINY. HOMER. 431 



greater depth, until the elementary strife has ceased, when it 

 again loves to sport in the warmer or more cheerful superficial 

 waters. 



In the tropical zone, Humboldt saw the sea most brilliantly 

 luminous before a storm, when the air was sultry, and the sky 

 covered with clouds. In the North Sea we observe the pheno- 

 menon most commonly during fine tranquil autumnal nights y 

 but it may be seen at every season of the year, even when the 

 cold is most intense. Its appearance is, however, extremely 

 capricious; for, under seemingly unaltered circumstances, the 

 sea may one night be very luminous, and the next quite dark. 

 Often months, or even years, pass by without witnessing it in 

 full perfection. Does this result from a peculiar state of the 

 atmosphere, or do the little animals love to migrate from one 

 part of the coast to another ? 



It is remarkable that the ancients should have taken so little 

 notice of oceanic phosphorescence. The " Periplus " of Hanno 

 contains perhaps the only passage in which the phenomenon is 

 described. To the south of Cerne the Carthaginian navigator 

 saw the sea burn, as it were, with streams of fire. Pliny,. 

 in whom the miracle (miraculum, as he calls it) of the date- 

 shell excited so lively an admiration, and who must often 

 have seen the sea gleam with phosphoric light, as the pas- 

 sage proves where he mentions in a few dry words the luminous 

 gurnard (lucerna) stretching out a fiery tongue, has no exclama- 

 tion of delight for one of the most beautiful sights in nature. 

 Homer also, who has given us so many charming descriptions of 

 the sea in its ever-changing aspects, and who so often leads us 

 with long-suffering Ulysses through the nocturnal floods, never 

 once makes them blaze or sparkle in his immortal hexameters. 



Even modern poets mention the phenomenon but rarely. 

 Carnoens himself, whom Humboldt, on account of his beautiful 

 oceanic descriptions, calls, above ail others, the "poet of the 

 sea," forgets to sing it in his Lusiad. Byron in his * Corsair " 

 has a few lines on the subject : 



" Flash' d the dipt oars, and, sparkling with the stroke, 

 Around the waves phosphoric brightness broke ; " 



but contents himself, as we see, with coldly mentioning a phe- 

 nomenon so worthy of all a poet's enthusiasm. In Coleridge's- 



