rst three appeared, from the phosphoric light of the
water, as if bursting into flames of a pale green colour. Here and
there a herring glittered bright in the meshes, or went darting
away through the pitchy darkness, visible for a moment by its own
light. The fourth net was brighter than any of the others, and
glittered through the waves while it was yet several fathoms away:
the pale green seemed as if mingled with broken sheets of snow,
that--flickering amid the mass of light--appeared, with every tug
given by the fishermen, to shift, dissipate, and again form; and
there streamed from it into the surrounding gloom myriads of green
rays, an instant seen and then lost--the retreating fish that had
avoided the meshes, but had lingered, until disturbed, beside their
entangled companions. It contained a considerable body of herrings.
As we raised them over the gunwale, they felt warm to the hand, for
in the middle of a large shoal even the temperature of the water is
raised--a fact well known to every herring fisherman; and in
shaking them out of the meshes, the ear became sensible of a
shrill, chirping sound, like that of the mouse, but much fainter--a
ceaseless cheep, cheep, cheep, occasioned apparently--for no true
fish is furnished with organs of sound--by a sudden escape from the
air-bladder. The shoal, a small one, had spread over only three of
the nets--the three whose buoys had so suddenly disappeared; and
most of the others had but their mere sprinkling of fish, some
dozen or two in a net; but so thickly had they lain in the
fortunate three, that the entire haul consisted of rather more than
twelve barrels.

* * * * *

We started up about midnight, and saw an open sea, as before; but
the scene had considerably changed since we had lain down. The
breeze had died into a calm; the heavens, no longer dark and grey,
were glowing with stars; and the sea, from the smoothness of the
surface, appeared a second sky, as bright and starry as the other;
with this difference, however, that all its stars seemed to be
comets! the slightly tremulous motion of the surface elongated the
reflected images, and gave to each its tail. There was no visible
line of division at the horizon. Where the hills rose high along