IX THE SEA 351 



denly appear globes of soft and lambent light, 

 given out perhaps from the surface of some 

 large Medusa. 



"A beautiful white cloud of foam," says 

 Coleridge, "at momently intervals coursed by 

 the side of the vessel with a roar, and little 

 stars of flame danced and sparkled and went 

 out in it ; and every now and then light de- 

 tachments of this white cloud-like foam darted 

 off from the vessel's side, each with its own 

 small constellation, over the sea, and scoured 

 out of sight like a Tartar troop over a wilder- 

 ness." 



Fish also are sometimes luminous. The 

 Sun-fish has been seen to glow like a white- 

 hot cannon-ball, and in one species of Shark 

 (Squalus fulgens) the whole surface sometimes 

 gives out a greenish lurid ligbt which makes 

 it a most ghastly object, like some great 

 ravenous spectre. 



THE OCEAN DEPTHS 



The Land bears a rich harvest of life, but 

 only at the surface. The Ocean, on the con- 



