OF CORNWALL. 251 
The number of water-infects is probably fo much greater than that sect. 11, 
of land-infects, as there is more need of animal food (the chief end Sea and wa- 
perhaps of fuch beings) in fuch a turbulent medium as water, than^dS’m- 
upon the land, where plants and feeds, and other nourifhments of ani- finite num- 
mals, are not fo often deftroyed, as in the fea, rivers, and lakes, which be "’ 
are fubject to more violent motions. The multitude of thcfe little 
animals is beyond conception, of which I fhall produce but one 
illustration, which is, that the Shining of the agitated furface of 
waters is moft probably owing to a multitude of lucid animalcules, 
a phenomenon which, under this head of water-infects, muSt not 
pafs unnoted. It has been long obferved, that u if the fea -water 
be SlaShed with a Stick or oar (as Mr. Carew, page 27, Says) in 
the darkeSt night, it will caSt forth a bright Shining colour, and the 
drops refemble fparkles of Sire, as it the waves were turned into 
flames;” this furpriflng appearance the Cornifh Sailors term Briny, 
and think it prefages a Storm ; but it has no connexion either with 
a tempefl: or a calm ; it is indeed the ufual confequence of agitat- 
ing the furface of the fea, though in different degrees in different 
places, and different feafons of the year ra ; in the fummer ££ fo very 
luminous in Strong gales of wind near the ifles of Cape Verd, that 
paffengers have feen the very keel of their Ship by it, and fifhes 
playing underneath 
We Shall beSt be able to difcover the caufe of this Surprising phe- 
nomenon, by tracing the fame effect into different Subjects, and 
placing the Several circumftances relating to it under one view ; for 
the fame phenomenon has been obferved by the curious in waters 
of lakes and moiSt places on the land, as well as in the waves of 
the fea. Dr. Plot mentions this luminous appearance in a moift 
fpungy earth on a hill and in a ditch in Staffordshire, where the 
water, being disturbed. Shined like embers, and covered whatever 
they touched with a faint flame like that of burnt brandy, which 
continued Shining for a quarter of an hour f . 
Dr. Cotton, May 25, 1664, gave the following account to the 
Royal Society of the like appearance in this County of Cornwall : 
t£ Returning from Lancefton with Sir J. Cory ton, Baronet, to his 
feat Newton, in a mifty, dewy night, at Hinxen, almoft a mile 
beyond Callington in the Lancefton road, in a mooriSh place of 
Some forty feet in length, the imprefs of our horfes and our own 
feet upon the ground appeared fiery, much more fiery than glow- 
worms ; the grafs we gathered in thofe places where we or our 
horfes trod, referved the luftre in our hands, eer we came to the 
water within a quarter of a mile of Callington, where watering our 
m “ In the fummer months it is moft vifible when the wind is fouth-eaft, or in any point betwixt 
fouth and eaft,” fays Dr. Plot, Staffordfhire, page 117. * Ibidem. f Ibid, page 1 15. 
horfes 
