upon Luminous Animals . 2% 
Captain Horsburgh, in the notes he gave to Sir Joseph 
Banks, says, there is a peculiar phenomenon sometimes seen 
within a few degrees distance of the coast of Malabar, during 
the rainy monsoon, which he had an opportunity of observing. 
At midnight the weather was cloudy, and the sea was par- 
ticularly dark, when suddenly it changed to a white flaming 
colour all around. This bore no resemblance to the sparkling 
or glowing appearance he had observed on other occasions 
in seas near the equator, but was a regular white colour, like 
milk, and did not continue more than ten minutes. A similar 
phenomenon, he says, is frequently seen in the Banda sea, 
and is very alarming to those who have never perceived or 
heard of such an appearance before. 
This singular phenomenon appears to be explained by 
some observations communicated to me by Mr. Langstaff, 
a surgeon in the city, who formerly made several voyages. 
In going from New Holland to China, about half an hour after 
sunset, every person on board was astonished by a milky 
appearance of the sea : the ship seemed to be surrounded by- 
ice covered with snow. Some of the company supposed they 
were in soundings, and that coral bottom gave this curious 
reflection, but on sounding with 70 fathoms of line no bottom 
was met with. A bucket of water being hauled up, Mr. 
Langstaff examined it in the dark, and discovered a great 
number of globular bodies, each about the size of a pins head, 
linked together. The chains thus formed did not exceed 
three inches in length, and emitted a pale phosphoric light. 
By introducing his hand into the water, Mr. Langstaff 
raised upon it several chains of the luminous globules, which 
were separated by opening the fingers, but readily re-united 
MDCCCX. N U 
