I I 11 1 Ml i l l 1 ill »772- February. o f thefe animals, and on examining it, concluded it to be a ipecies o f R a y . On the a i ft day o f February at fix in the evening, 3 deg. 24. min. N. of the equator, we obferved a beautiful meteor. It was like a red hot cannon-ball, which waved to and fro with a gentle whizzing noife, diredlly over our vefiel, and between the maft-tops; but notwithftanding what the failors prognofticated from it, it did not feem to bring with it any change o f weather. On the 4th day o f March we pafled the line, when a number of idle ceremonies were performed according to cuftom. On the 5th, at about 37 deg. S. lat. and 21 deg. weft o f Paris, befide the ufual lights that frequently appear fparkling, as it were, on the furface of the fea, there was feen in the night a ftrong gleam o f light, called by the failors maarjken, or fea-ihine. It appeared chiefly in a round form of three feet diameter, and was like a glowing light throughout its whole extent. As the ihape of it was fometimes changed to an oblong, it was con- jeftured, from this circumftance, to be occafioned by the daihing of the fea. With luminous bodies o f this kind the whole extent of the ocean was now adorned, fometimes at the diftance o f feveral times the length o f the ihip from each other, and fometimes only a few feet afunder. We were not fortunate enough to examine them nearer. The wind at times blew freih, being fometimes accompanied with heavy Ihowers o f rain. The next day there was nothing uncommon to be obferved on the furface of the the fea, that might be confidered as the caufe of this ^ luminous appearance. A night or two before this, we had already begun to perceive fome of thefe lights. The weather at that time was only overcaft. Some o f the moft experienced among the failors informed me, that thefe lights were met with particularly in the north feas, as well as in the creeks on the coaft o f Mexico; and that from thefe appearances they ufed to prognofticate a Ipeedy change in the weather. The lights that are ufually feen in the fea are fuppofed to proceed partly from the confti- tuent parts of the fea itfelf, and partly from the fiih and other kinds of infinitely final! animal s which have their abode there. But with refpeit to the maarjken, I have not found any navigators fpeak o f them. Are they not occafioned by fome flimy or gelatinous animals (fuch as the mollufca), which only of nights, at certain places, and in confequence of certain changes o f the atmofphere, rife to the furface of the fea ? The fame rifing and finking motion, which I now obferved in thefe animals, I remember to have perceived in the Medufa, particularly in the year 1 7 7 5 » ^ the bays about the Cape of Good Hope, after my return from my voyage round the world. At that time it had been ftormy the whole preceding night, with a great part of the following morning; when, to my great amazement, after fo long a voyage, I now, for the firft time, few thefe fea- animals in fuch quantities, as to form a thick mais of feveral fathoms depth, as i f they had been prefled down together. Where they were colleited into a thinner mafs, one might difcern that one part of them was blue, another of a flame-colour, and another again of a lighter hue.
27f 72-1
To see the actual publication please follow the link above