The central and intertropical parts of the Atlantic swarm with Pteropoda, Crustacea, and Radiata, and with their devourers the flying-fish, and again with their devourers the bonitos and albicores; I presume that the numerous lower pelagic animals feed on the Infusoria, which are now known, from the researches of Ehrenberg, to abound in the open ocean: but on what, in the clear blue water, do these Infusoria subsist?
While sailing a little south of the Plata on one very dark night, the sea presented a wonderful and most beautiful spectacle.

There was a fresh breeze, and every part of the surface, which during the day is seen as foam, now glowed with a pale light.

The vessel drove before her bows two billows of liquid phosphorus, and in her wake she was followed by a milky train.

As far as the eye reached, the crest of every wave was bright, and the sky above the horizon, from the reflected glare of these livid flames, was not so utterly obscure as over the vault of the heavens.
As we proceed farther southward the sea is seldom phosphorescent; and off Cape Horn I do not recollect more than once having seen it so, and then it was far from being brilliant.

This circumstance probably has a close connection with the scarcity of organic beings in that part of the ocean.