Noctiluca Banksii magnified.
The line above shows the natural length.
The light of this creature, which is very brilliant, appears to issue from every part of the body; but in another crustaceous animal, found by Captain Tuckey, in the Gulf of Guinea, the luminous property resided in the brain, which, when the animal was at rest, resembled a most brilliant amethyst, about the size of a large pinhead; from this there started, when it moved, flashes of a brilliant silvery light.
The author we have lately quoted, says,—
“Meditating upon this subject, I think it not improbable, that the Deity, who has done nothing in vain, and whose omniscience extends to every epoch, foreseeing that man would invent the means of tempting the trackless ocean, and explore the most distant regions of our planet, has given it as one means of rendering his nights less gloomy, and of diminishing the number of his dangers; especially, if we consider that this luminosity is seen only in the night-season,—is vivid in proportion to the darkness, disappearing even before the feeble light of the moon,—and also that it increases with the agitation of the sea, so that, during the prevalence of storms, it greatly diminishes the dense gloom which at such times is often impenetrable to the moon, and the stars, throws such a light upon the ship and rigging as to enable sailors to execute their allotted tasks with certainty, and at all times points out to the cautious mariner the lurking danger of sunken rocks, shoals, and unknown coasts, by the phosphorescent, or snowy appearance which it gives to the breakers, so as to render them visible at a considerable distance.”
The Opossum Shrimp, ([Mysis chamæleon].)
This small species of Shrimp, although it has much the same outward appearance as the common shrimp, except that it is considerably smaller, is, when duly examined, one of the most singularly-formed creatures of the class to which it belongs. It is found in tolerable abundance along the British coasts, but the northern seas literally swarm with them; there, in spite of their small size, they are destined to become the food of the stupendous whale, whose enormous mouth encloses myriads at a time.