t the true outline of the animal; it formed merely the
centre of a transparent gelatinous bell, which, though scarce visible in
even the bowl, proved a most efficient instrument of motion. Such were
its contractile powers, that its sides nearly closed at every stroke,
behind the opaque orbicular centre, like the legs of a vigorous swimmer;
and the animal, unlike its more bulky congeners,--that, despite their
slow but persevering flappings, seemed greatly at the mercy of the tide,
and progressed all one way,--shot, as it willed, backwards, forwards, or
athwart. As the evening closed, and the depths beneath presented a
dingier and yet dingier green, until at length all had become black, the
distinctive colors of the acelpha,--the purple, the orange, and the
brown,--faded and disappeared, and the creatures hung out, instead,
their pale phosphoric lights, like the lanterns of a fleet hoisted high
to prevent collision in the darkness. Now they gleamed dim and
indistinct as they drifted undisturbed through the upper depths, and now
they flamed out bright and green, like beaten torches, as the tide
dashed them against the vessel's sides. I bethought me of the gorgeous
description of Coleridge, and felt all its beauty:--

"They moved in tracks of shining white,
And when they reared, the elfish light
Fell off in hoary flakes.
Within the shadow of the ship
I watched their rich attire,--
Blue, glassy green, and velvet black:
They curled, and swam, and every track
Was a flash of golden fire."

A crew of three, when there are watches to set, divides wofully ill. As
there was, however, nothing to do in the calm, we decided that our first
watch should consist of our single seaman, and the second of the
minister and his friend. The clouds, which had been thickening for
hours, now broke in torrents of rain, and old Alister got into his
water-proof oil-skin and souwester, and we into our beds. The seams of
the Betsey's deck had opened so sadly during the past winter, as to be
no longer water-tight, and the little cabin resounded drearily in the
darkness, like some dropping cave, to the ceaseless patter of the
leakage. We continued to sleep, however, somewhat longer than we
ought,--for Alister had been unwilling to waken the minister; but we at
length got up, and, relieving watch the first from the tedium of being
rained upon and doing nothing, watch the second was set to do nothing
and be rained upon in turn. We had dri