48 



TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



by its motion. Whether this phenomenon therefore 

 be explained as chemical, physical, or organical, 

 this kind of shining appears as an effect of elec- • 

 tricity, and of the process of oxydation in the sea, 

 an effect which is increased and rendered visible 

 by the peculiar beating of the waves. We leave 

 it to other travellers more accurately to investigate 

 and to correct the phenomena which we have * 

 stated, of the various kinds of phosphorescence and 

 their causes. 



The fresh breeze had carried our ship rapidly 

 past the dangerous Gulf of Lyons, so that on the 

 4th of May we were off the island of Minorca : 

 on the following day we passed Majorca and Ivica, 

 and on the 6th at noon were off Cape Palos, 

 which was eight leagues distant W. by N. The 

 air was misty and did not permit us to have a 

 distinct view of the land. Many large turtles 

 swam past us, sleeping on the surface, as also 

 several of the abovementioned large masses of 

 zoophytes, which formed yellowish stripes on the 

 sea. On the following day the island of Alboran 

 appeared to the S.E. It is a sterile inhospitable 

 limestone rock, inhabited only by sea birds, and 

 with no other vegetation than the dyers' lichen 

 (^Rocella tincioria, Ach.). It is said that the Moors 

 sometimes land on it to dry fish, or to gather that 

 valuable plant for dying. The mountains of 

 Barbary were but seldom visible, but on the other 

 hand we had almost always the picturesque chain 



