STRANGE PHENOMENON.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1943, 17 May 1880, Page 3

STRANGE PHENOMENON.

The following account has been furnished by Commander R. B. Harris, of the A.S.N. Company’s steamer Shah Jehan, dated Calcutta, January 21st“ The most remarkable phenomenon that I have ever witnessed at sea was seen by myself and officers on the sth instant, between Oyster Reef and Pigeon Island (Malabar coast). At 10 p.m., we were steaming along very comfortably; there was a perfect calm, the water was without a ripple upon it, the sky was cloudless, and, there being no moon, the stars shone brightly. The atmosphere was beautifully clear, and the night was one of great quietude. At the above-named hour I went on deck, and at once observed a streak of white matter on the horizon bearing S.S.W. I then went on to the bridge and drew the third officer’s attention to it. In a few minutes it had assumed the shape of a segment of a circle measuring about 45 degrees in length, and several degrees in altitude about its centre. At this time it shone with a peculiar but beautiful milky whiteness, and resembled (only in a huge mass and greater luminous intensity) the nebulas sometimes seen in the heavens. We were steaming to the southward, and as the bank of light extended one of its arms crossed our path. The whole thing appeared so foreign to anything I had ever seen, and so wonderful that I stopped the ship ;just on its outskirts, so that I might try to form a true and just conception of what it really was. By this time all the officers and engineers had assembled on deck to witness the scene, and were all equally astonished and interested. Some little time before the first body of light reached the ship I was enabled, with my night-glasses, to resolve in a measure what appeared, to the unassisted eye, a huge mass of nebulous matter. I distinctly saw spaces between, what appeared to be, waves of light of great lustre. Those came rolling on with ever-increasing rapidity till they reached the ship, and in a short time the ship was completely surrounded with one great body of undulating light, which soon extended to the horizon on all sides. On looking into the water it was seen to be studded with patches of faint, luminous, inanimate matter, measuring about two feet in diameter. Although these emitted a certain amount of light, it was most insignificant when compared with the great waves of light that were floating on the surface of the water, and which were at this time converging upon the ship. The waves stood many degrees above the water, like a highly luminous mist, and obscured by their intensity the distant horizon ; and as wave succeeded wave in rapid succession, one of the most grand and brilliant, yet solemn spectacles that one could ever think of was here witnessed. In speaking of waves of light, I do not wish to convey the idea that they were ripplings, which are sometimes caused by fish passing through a phosphorescent sea, but waves of great length and breadth, or, in other words, great bodies of light. If the sea could be converted into a huge mirror, and thousands of powerful electric lights were made to throw their rays across it, it would convey no adequate idea of this strange yet grand phenomenon. As the waves of light converged upon the ship from all sides they appeared higher than her hull, and looked as if they were about to envelop her, and as they impinged upon her, her sides seemed to collapse and expand. Whilst this was going on the ship was perfectly at rest, and tho water was like a millpond. During tho last eighteen years I have navigated nearly every little corner of the Asiatic shores from Suez to the north of China and Japan, but never have I witnessed anything at all resembling what I have tried, but fear have-not beenjable, to pourtray. I have seen many seas beautifully illumined with phosphorus, but in this case there was a total absence of it. No indication of it appeared as the ship divided the water with her stem, nor did any appear in her wake. This point was carefully gone into and discussed at the time, and special observations made at different parts of the ship. After about half an hour had elapsed the brilliancy of the light somewhat abated, and there was a great paucity of the faint lustrous patches which I have before referred to ; but still the body of light was great, and, if emanating from those patches, was out of all proportion to their number. Such a rare phenomenon, I think, deserves some little attention. It was no ordinary sight, nor chimerical dream, but there it was, about and above tho water, a truly great terrestrial galaxy (if I may be allowed the expression), of unequalled splendour. This light, I do not think, could have been produced without the the agency of electro-magnetic currents, exex--e.sing their exciting influence upon som organic animal or vegetable substance : and one thing I wish to point out is, that whilst the ship was stopped and the light yet some distance away, nothing was discernible in tho water, but as soon os the light reached tho ship a number of luminous patches presented themselves, and as these were equally as motionless as the ship at the time, it is only natural to assume that they existed, and were actually in our vicinity before tho light

reached us, only they were not made visible till they became the transmitting media for the electro-magnetic currents. This hypothesis is borne out by the fact that each wave of light in its pa:sage was distinctly seen to pass over them in succession, and as the light gradually became leas brilliant, they also became less distinct, and had actually disappeared so soon as the waves of light ceased to exist,