( *34 ) 
the Wake of the Ship was brighteft, the Water was 
more fat and glutinous ^ [and Linnen moiften’d with it 
produced a great deal of Light, if it were ftir’d or mov’d 
briskly. 
XIII. Befides, in failing over fome Places of the Sea, 
we find a Matter or Subftance of different Colours, fome- 
times red, fometimes yellow. In looking at it, one would 
think it was Saw-duft : Our Sailors fay it is the Spawn 
or Seed of Whales. What 1 it is, is not certain 3 but when 
we draw up Water in palling over thefe Places, it is 
always vifcous and glutinous. Our Mariners alfo fay, 
that there are a great many heaps or Banks of this 
Spawn in the North 3 and that fometimes in the Night 
they appear all over of a bright Light, without being 
put in Motion by any Veffel or Fifh palling by them. 
XIV. But to confirm farther what I fay, viz. That 
the Water, the more glutinous it is, the more it is dif- 
pofed to become luminous, I fhall add one particular 
which I faw myfelf. One Day we took in our Ship 
a Fifh which fome thought was a Boneta. The infide 
of the Mouth of the Fifh appeared in the Night like a 
burning Coal 5 fo that without any other Light, I could 
read by it the fame Characters that I read by the Light 
in the Wake of the Ship. It’s Mouth being full of a 
vifcous Humour, we rubbed a piece of Wood with it, 
which immediately became all over luminous $ but as 
foon as the moifture was dried up, the Light was ex- 
tinguifh’d. 
Thefe are the Principal Observations that I made up* 
on this Fhanomenon : And I leave you to examine if all 
thefe Particulars can be explained by the Syftem of fuch 
as aifert, that the Principle of this Light confifts in the 
Motion of a fubtle Matter, or Globules, caufed by a 
violent agitation of different kinds of Salts. 
I 
