flash and die like gas-jets on a festive gala night." The phenomenon is most frequently witnessed when the surface of the sea is ruffled by some gentle breeze, dead calms and very rough weather being alike unfavourable to its production.

It is well described, as seen around our own shores, by Sir Walter Scott in his "Lord of the Isles:"

"Awaked before the rushing prow,
The mimic fires of ocean glow,

Those lightnings of the wave;
Wild sparkles crest the broken tides,
And, flashing round the vessel's sides,
With elfish lustre lave,

While far behind, their livid light
To the dark billows of the night
A gloomy splendour gave.”

Over all parts of the ocean alike the waves are lit up at times with these animated fires; but in the warmer latitudes the spectacle assumes an aspect of extraordinary sublimity and splendour. "Between the tropics," says Humboldt," the ocean simultaneously develops light over a space of many thousand square miles. Here the magical effect of light is owing to the forces of organic nature. Foaming with light, the eddying waves flash in phosphorescent sparks over the wide expanse of waters, where every scintillation is the vital manifestation of an invisible animal world." According to the enthusiastic accounts of voyagers, the appearance of the ocean on these occasions is grand and beautiful as it is possible to conceive. Far as the eye can reach, the crest of every wave, which during the day is white with foam, becomes transformed by darkness into a swelling ridge of light, while here and there, where the billows dash with greater violence, the spray flies up, sparkling and glittering like a shower of stars, and falling again, is lost in a sea of effulgence. Occasionally, too, while the more minute forms of the Acalepha produce this diffused luminosity at the surface of the ocean, the larger kinds are seen below, illuminating its mystic depthssome gleaming through the water with a pale and steady light, like submerged moons, others glowing with dazzling brightness, like balls of molten metal, or shooting by like the fiery meteors of the heavens above.

CHAPTER III.

INSECTS, AND THEIR HUNTERS.

"Is not the earth

With various living creatures, and the air

Replenished, and all these at thy command

To come and play before thee?

Know'st thou net

Their language and their ways? They also know
And reason not contemptibly; with these

Find pastime."

THE readers of the "Tatler" will remember that in one of the famous lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq., the study of the insect tribes is held up to ridicule in the person of a certain virtuoso, one Nicholas Gimcrack, who having spent a large fortune in making a collection of insects and other "natural rarities and curiosities," at his death bequeaths the accumulated treasures to his family and friends. In his lifetime the "whimsical philosopher" is made out to have set a greater value on a collection of spiders than on a flock of sheep, and to have sold his coat off his back to purchase a tarantula; while in the details of the will, which is given entire, the satire is carried to its height by the absurd gravity with which the poor enthusiast is represented as distributing his trifles in the immediate prospect of death.

It was thus that the wits, in days gone by, made merry with the poor savants who gave their attention to the insect world; and though many and marvellous changes have taken place since the time when the "Tatler" and the "Guardian" made their appearance, damp from the printing-office, on the breakfasttables of our forefathers, there has been but little change in the popular estimate of the dignity or advantage of entomological pursuits. The opinion of most men is still pretty much what Addison gives us as his judgment on the subject, that "observations of this kind are apt to alienate us too much from the knowledge of the world, and to make us serious upon trifles ;" a

48

PENALTIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

result, he goes on to say, which " exposes philosophy to the ridicule of the witty, and the contempt of the ignorant."

In one respect the entomologist is no doubt a much more tolerated character now than formerly. He may hoard up the treasures in his cork-lined cabinets with never so much care, and may even make away with a "considerable estate" in getting them together, and yet incur no risk of being exposed to public ridicule as another Nicholas Gimcrack. But this immunity is granted him only so long as he keeps his predilections to himself, without exposing them openly to the eye of the world. The man who would venture abroad, net in hand, in pursuit of his favourites, must still expect to be looked upon by the majority of mankind as a sort of lunatic at large, who is allowed to have his own way only because his whim is an innocent one, that does no harm to his neighbours.

It is given to but few amongst us to bear with equanimity the pity or contempt of our fellow-creatures; and it is not surprising that many persons have been deterred from the study of entomology by a fear of incurring the penalty attached to it. But, in spite of this drawback, the science has long had a devoted band of adherents, and within the last five or sive years their number has considerably increased. It would appear indeed that the study of the insect tribes is at length becoming extremely popular; for the entomologists are fast growing to be an important body, and now have not only an Annual of their own, but a small weekly newspaper, the "Entomologists' Intelligencer," which is conducted with much spirit, and regularly chronicles all the noteworthy observations and doings of the body.

This result is in great part, no doubt, attributable to the republication, in a cheap and compact form, of the famous "Introduction to Entomology," by Kirby and Spence, a book which, for now nearly half a century, has been a standard authority on the subject. It is almost impossible to read this engaging volume without becoming enamoured of the study of the little creatures whose habits and instincts it details; and the rapidity with which the new edition has been sown broadcast over the land may reasonably be expected to produce before long an abundant crop of incipient entomologists. But it is not young people merely who are taken captive by the book; we have lately met with two instances in which it has exerted a similar

INTEREST OF THE SCIENCE.

49

influence over persons in advanced life, and devoted to pursuits which it would be supposed were little calculated to leave room for any enthusiasm on behalf of insects. In one case an erudite black-letter friend of ours, who has recently been exploring, and with good results, among the Syriac MSS. of the British Museum, was so delighted with the book, on dipping into a copy which accidentally fell in his way, that he straightway purchased one for himself, read it with avidity, and has since become a most attentive student of insect life. The other instance was that of one of our most popular metropolitan clergymen, who, having had occasion to refer to the book for the elucidation of some passage of Scripture relating to insects, was so deeply interested in what he read, that he publicly recommended the work from the pulpit, with a warmth of commendation which somewhat surprised his hearers. The truth is, that, to a person who has never before given attention to the subject, the reading of Kirby and Spence opens the eyes to a new world of interest and beauty, which appears to be only the more wonderful from the circumstance that it has been so long unheeded.

There can be no doubt that one of the great attractions of entomology lies in the fact, that it thus invests with an attribute of wonder the most common and familiar objects. The little creatures that have crossed our path a hundred times, and which we have before regarded merely as so many sources of injury or annoyance, all at once become transformed into objects of great interest, astonishing us by the variety and beauty of their structure, and, at the same time, exciting our admiration by the wonderful instincts with which they are endowed. It is a great advantage, moreover, in the study of this science, that the objects of investigation are everywhere accessible. No one

need lack the opportunity of observing and studying the habits and history of some members of the insect tribes. Much may be done without stepping beyond one's own threshold; and the possession of a garden, even though it be no bigger than the extraordinary six-feet-square enclosures so designated, which one sometimes sees attached to suburban Cockney cottages, opens up to investigation more wonders than most men would be able to explore in half a lifetime. Nor is it merely in verifying the observations of others that the beginner in the study may employ himself. There is no branch of natural history in

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