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animals swam at equal distances ; when, in 

 turning on their backs, they struck the surface 

 of the water with their broad tails, they diffus- 

 ed a brilliant light, that seemed like flames 

 issuing from the depth of the ocean. Each 

 band, in ploughing the surface of the waters, 

 left behind it a track of light, the more striking 

 as the rest of the sea was not phosphorescent. 

 As the motion of an oar, and the track of the 

 bark, produced on that night but feeble sparks, 

 it is natural to suppose, that the vivid phospho- 

 rescence caused by the porpoises was owing 

 not only to the stroke of their tails, but also 

 to the gelatinous matter, that envelopes their 

 bodies, and is detached by the shock of the 

 waves. 



We found ourselves at midnight between some 

 barren and rocky islands, which rise like bas- 

 tions in the middle of the sea, and form the 

 group of the Caraccas and Chimanas*. The 

 Moon was above the horizon, and lighted up 

 those cleft rocks, bare of vegetation, and of a 

 fantastic aspect. The sea here forms a sort 

 of bay, a slight scooping out of the land be- 

 tween Cumana and Cape Codera. The islets 

 of Picua, Picuita, Caraccas, and Boracha, ap- 

 pear like fragments of the ancient coast, which 



* There are three of the Caraccas islands and eight of the 

 Chimanas, 



