A PAINTED SEA. 
with the conduct and failure of the African slave of my 
own land when similarly released. 
There was another subject— one of nature’s numerous 
phenomena — that excited both our surprise and admira- 
tion while anchored oft Simon’s Town. 
The whole surface of the harbour would at times he 
covered b}’ a greasy, frothy, variously-coloui’ed substance, 
that gave the water a most uncleanly appearance during 
the day, but which at night caused it to resemble a lake 
of molten gold. How deep it extended we could not toll, 
possibly the whole depth of the harbour. 
We had observed the same phenomenon while ap- 
proaching the coast, and had at first been at a loss what 
to attribute it to. The whole sea was sprinkled with 
the variously-hued patches, and as we sailed through 
them we left a w^ake of fire that was apparent even under 
the glare of the mid-day sun. It was like sailing over a 
painted sea in the daytime; and at night, when the seas 
lifted up their lambent crests in all directions, the effect 
was truly grand. We subsequently attributed their 
existence to the presence of vast masses of a migrating 
infusoria, the minute and phosphorescent forms of the 
largest of which we could readily detect in a drop of the 
water by placing it under an ordinary magnifier. 
And now when we again “launched out upon the sea” — 
we, and the Vincennes, and the poor doomed Porpoise — avo 
looked around in vain for those living fields — those green 
and golden and purple plains — Avhich had extended for 
miles around us and been composed of an infinite number 
of Iking animals , — animals which exist only in the micro- 
scopic world, and which are of such infinitesimal dimen- 
