ſea appeared during the whole night much more luminous than uſual wherever it was agitated, particularly at the wake of the ſhip and the top of the waves.
The force of the gale had obliged us to ſtrike our top-ſails, and even to bear down, for fear of being taken a-back.
The heat had been very oppreſſive during the whole day. We were now ſailing off the immenſe gulph formed by the coaſts of upper Guinea, the ſhores of which extend almoſt 1,500,000 toiſes to the eaſtward.
The ſea is much more phoſphoric in the vicinity of the coaſts ſituated between the tropics, than any where elſe, becauſe thoſe animals, upon which its phoſphoreſcence depends, abound there much more than in any other part of the ocean: a fact which I have had opportunity of remarking in parts of the ocean very diſtant from each other. I ſhall enter into ſome inveſtigation of this phenomenon.
As we had this gulph under our lee, the currents had carried over to us many of the luminous ſubſtances with which it abounds; but it required the concurrence of another circumſtance in order to produce ſo vivid a light as we witneſſed. The clouds that hung over the quarter from whence the wind aroſe, had imparted to the
atmoſphere
