o c e a n . o f certainty which philofophers would require. I will therefore
confine myfelf to fome probable hints concerning their real caufes.
T h e firft Ipecies o f luminous appearance feems to be produced by
a caufe altogether different from the reft, and i f I may venture to
declare my opinion on the fubjeCt, I Ihould think, that this light
is owing to electricity. W e know very well, that the motion o f a
Jhip through the water in a gale, is extremely fwift, and the friction
caufed by this motion very great i for we find that the fea agitated
by a gale o f wind is remarkably warmer, than the air * .
The bituminous fubftances, which cover the fides o f {hip's,’ the
nails flicking in the bottom, and the conducing power o f water
will equally ferve to explain the poflibility o f fuch an electricity.
T h e fecond Ipecies o f luminous appearance in fea water feems to
be a real phofphoreal light. I t is very well known, that many
animal bodies putrify . and are dilfolved in the fea, and that almoft
every part o f animal and many mineral bodies, and the air itfelf,
contains the acid o f phofphorus as an integrant part -(-. The addition
o f any inflammable principle to this acid, w ill produce the fub-
ftance we call phofphorus. Every one who has Teen falted fifh drying,
mull know that many o f them become phofphoreal. It is
likewife a well eftablilhed fad, that the ocean, itfelf after a long
S continued
* See a ’Voyage towards the North Pole, ly Capt. Phipps. Appendix, p. 147.
t See Elemens de Mineralogie docimalUque par M, Sage, Paris 1777, 8vo, Preface p. xi.
*ol. IX. p, 376, 377., 378.
continued calm, ’becomes {linking and highly putrid f , arifing probably
from the putrefaction of a great many animal fubftances, that
die in the ocean, float in it, and in hot calm days frequently and
fuddenly putrefy. That fifties and mollufca contain oily and inflammable
particles is equally well known. T h e acid of phofpho-
rus difengaged by putrefaction from'its original mixture In animal
bodies’, may eafily combine with fome o f the ju f t mentioned inflammables,'
and thus produce a phofphorus floating on the top Of*
the ocean, and .caufing that luminous-appearance, which we fo’
much admire.
Laltly the third kind of phofphoreal light no doubt arifes from
liie animals floating in the fea and is owing to their peculiar
ftruClure or rather the nature o f their integrant parts, which perhaps
might be inveftigated, by analyzing chemically fome o f thé
mollufca, which have a luminous appearance.
O n the Q u e s t i o n concerning the E x i s t e n c e o f a
S o u t h e r n L a n d , o
A S u s p i c i o n was long fince entertained by the author o f the
Univerfal Hiftory, and by the learned and ingenious Prefident d e s
K 2 ‘ B r o s s e s ,
+ See Boyle, T . I I I . p. 22a, lie relates that tome navigators, in a calm which lafied
tShir.teen.dayg, found the fea becoming putrid.
O-CEAN,