DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11789#0041
PHOSPHORESCENCE.
31
that at Malaga, on the coast of Spain, a number of
vessels had been greatly damaged, and several lives
lost. It was, therefore, in all probability, better
for us that we did not succeed in reaching the
harbor, and that we were forced, against our wishes,
into the broad Atlantic, where we were sure of
having plenty of sea-room.
The occurrence perhaps most worthy of mention,
during our passage from Gibraltar to Malta, was a
rather remarkable exhibition of the phosphorescence
of the sea. This took place on the evening of the
20th of March, when we were about sixty or seventy
miles east of Gibraltar. The day had been extremely
calm—scarcely any perceptible undulation disturb-
ing the surface of the waters—and the evening was
mild and most delightful. One of the hands threw
a coil of rope into the sea, and tossing it about
made a display of fireworks of a very curious kind.
Circling waves of flame were caused by every mo-
tion of the disturbing object, while each drop of
spray, from the agitation of the rope, produced a
separate flash, the combined effect of which was
beautiful in the extreme.
For many days after leaving Gibraltar, the white
tops of the mountains of Spain (the different peaks
of the Sierra Nevada, or "snow-clad mountains")
31
that at Malaga, on the coast of Spain, a number of
vessels had been greatly damaged, and several lives
lost. It was, therefore, in all probability, better
for us that we did not succeed in reaching the
harbor, and that we were forced, against our wishes,
into the broad Atlantic, where we were sure of
having plenty of sea-room.
The occurrence perhaps most worthy of mention,
during our passage from Gibraltar to Malta, was a
rather remarkable exhibition of the phosphorescence
of the sea. This took place on the evening of the
20th of March, when we were about sixty or seventy
miles east of Gibraltar. The day had been extremely
calm—scarcely any perceptible undulation disturb-
ing the surface of the waters—and the evening was
mild and most delightful. One of the hands threw
a coil of rope into the sea, and tossing it about
made a display of fireworks of a very curious kind.
Circling waves of flame were caused by every mo-
tion of the disturbing object, while each drop of
spray, from the agitation of the rope, produced a
separate flash, the combined effect of which was
beautiful in the extreme.
For many days after leaving Gibraltar, the white
tops of the mountains of Spain (the different peaks
of the Sierra Nevada, or "snow-clad mountains")