1839] 



Phenomenon in the Indian Seas. 



149 



rise to transitory feelings of apprehension as to the vessel's contignity 

 to danger. Sailing under double-reefed top-sails and foresail, at the rate 

 of nine and a half niiles per hour, before a strong south-west monsoon 

 wind, and a high sea, without any indication of a change in the elements, 

 the ship v\as surrounded insfanler by water as white as milk or snow; it 

 seemed to have no termination until it reached an altitude of seventy- 

 five or eighty degrees, vfhere it suhsided in a strongly marked ecliptic, 

 above which the heavens presented a beautiful and bright blueish cast, 

 not dissimilar to polished steel. No line of horizon was visible ; the 

 dead white colour of the water close to the ship, as it ir.creased in dis- 

 tance from her very gradually brightened, until, where I supposed the 

 horizon to be, it assumed a silvery aspect, which, ii:creRsing as it apcend- 

 ed, became hriiiiant and dazzling towards the zenith, obscuring the stars 

 and clouds which had before this visitation been distinctly visible. The 

 sea in a moment became smooth : the ship, from rol-ing and labouring 

 considerably, quite steady; no diminution in the wind occurred, but a 

 sensation ihat it had ftJlen, even to a calm, was general, but momentary. 

 This delusion was occasioned by the in.^tantaneous steadiness of the ves- 

 sel, as well as the cessation of the previous noise from the lashing of a 

 mountainous and confused sea against the vessel's sides, and on her 

 decks; her progress through the sea, however closely scrutinised, could 

 not be observed ; the disturbed water alongside and in her wake, as well 

 as the foam around her bows, did not contrast with the adjoining unagi- 

 tated fluid, notwithstanding, from the velocity of the ship through the 

 water, these must have been considerable. Not a particle of phosphoric 

 matter was once observable, either in the surrounding ocean, or in the 

 water immediately displaced hj the ship's passage through it; but when 

 taken up in a bucket, and agitated with the hand, such was visible, but 

 not in a greater proportion then is usual, nor did the water vary in ap- 

 pearance from common sea- water : nothing could be perceived to attri- 

 bute this strange phenomenon to. 



Animalcules of a minute kind w-ere perceptible, as likewise a few 

 pieces of a glutinous substance of a purple colour, but neither in any 

 considerable quantity, nor diiTering from what is usually found in the 

 seas of the Indian Ocean. 



We sailed the distance of fifteen miles without the slightest change in 

 the appearance of the sea or sky, when in a moment this extraordinary 

 phenomenon vanished, the ship at the same instant encountering the like 

 high and tuihulent sea as previous to her envelopement. 



The ship was not within one hundred miles of the eastern coast of 

 Arabia, or of soundings, but sailing in what is termed deep ocean water. 



