S87 



no effect whatever* The people then returned to see the 

 wonderful sight ; but, as soon as the lava had got sufficiently 

 cooled down, an explosion did take place, and such a mass of 

 hot water was thrown out, that sixty persons lost their lives 



on the occasion. — 



The Doctor then proceeded to give extemporaneously his 

 paper, " Observations on the Currents and Phosphorescence 

 of the Atlantic." He gave at considerable length the result 

 of his observations when sailins- at various times across the 

 Atlantic, and in the Northern Seas. He said it was not 

 true that the under- currents were stationary ; for the water 

 might be moving at the surface in one direction, and the 

 lower part in another, as the same rule governed the 

 currents of the ocean as of the air. Hence they saw 

 the clouds going one way while the wind was blowing 

 another. On the subject of the phosphorescence of the 

 waters, there was a difference of opinion as to the cause ; 

 but he had no doubt that the main cause was the existence 

 of small animal bodies, many of which had the property of 

 being luminous when agitated and disturbed in the dark. 

 On one occasion, when going across the Atlantic, he had 

 observed that when the water was a rich blue colour, there 

 were very few living things in the water ; and the ultra- 

 marine colour was the purest water. But when the sea 

 became a sort of bottle-green colour — he procured some, 

 and found there were in it a quantity of animalcula, among 

 which were some very remarkable creatures, and also a vast 

 number of molluscous animals of a spheroidal form, which 

 attached themselves to each other in rays of regular order ; 

 subjecting themselves to one motion, so that if one only moved, 

 the others must also move in the same way.* On some occa- 

 sions, when these animals were in action at the surface of the 

 waters, the sea presented the most beautiful appearance that 



* Probably of the genus Salpa ? 



