The ocean / By P. H. Gosse.

  • Gosse, Philip Henry, 1810-1888.
Date:
[pref. 1845]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The ocean / By P. H. Gosse. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    emitting a bright speck of light. Sometimes this was like a sudden flash, at others appearing like an oblong or round luminous point, which continued bright for a short time, like a lamp lit beneath the water, and moving through it, still possessing its defi- nite shape, and then suddenly disappearing. When the bucket was sharply struck on the outside, there would appear at once a great number of these lumi- nous bodies, which retained their brilliant appearance for a few seconds, and then all was dark again. They evidently appeared to have it under their own will, giving out their light frequently at various depths in the water, without any agitation being given to the bucket. At times might be seen minute but pretty bright specks of light, darting across a piece of water, and then vanishing; the motion of the light being exactly that of the Cyclops through the water. Upon removing a tumbler-full from the bucket, and taking it to the light, a number of Cyclopes were accordingly found swimming and darting about in it.”* Dr. Baird concludes from these facts, that the bright globes were large Sea-blubbers (.Medusa), and that the sparks were minute Entomostraca, somewhat similar in form to those figured in the former part of this volume. In some highly interesting observations made during a series of years by M, Ehrenberg, chiefly in the Red Sea, we find many minute animals mentioned as luminous; but it is remarkable that after many trials he could not detect the slightest light from any species of the Entomostraca. The water was found to be very full of small slimy particles without any * Zoologist, 1843, p. 55.