PHOSPHORESCENCE OF FISH.

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For if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, he is labouring under a tremendous curse, and exposed to future and remediless woe. How sad is it when any, without the least scrutiny into their state, suppose they may rejoice in the doctrine of Providence, when it is unhappily evident that they have no hope, and are without God in the world! To those who are reconciled to him through the death of his Son, and to those alone, it is said, "All things are yours; whether life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's," 1 Cor. iii. 21-23.

Passing now from these all-important considerations, it may be remarked, that larger creatures than those already referred to, yet residing in the waters, are sometimes luminous. Thus Pliny, a very celebrated Roman philosopher, was aware that certain fishes have the property of diffusing light around them, and imagined it to be occasioned by a fluid with which they are covered. His countrymen, who indulged their appetites to great excess, were accustomed to eat a shell-fish, called the pholas, in darkened apartments, that they might have the pleasure of seeing the scintillations emitted while they gratified their palates.

Other instances of the same kind might be easil

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THE GLOW-WORM.

specified. A traveller in distant lands, for example, says: "The river abounded with fish; it glowed with phosphorescent light; as we passed over, though it was as dark as pitch, the boat was actually illuminated with shoals of moving lights, that played around us in the most singular manner, every fish being encircled with a bright halo.

In our own country, we are not unacquainted with such appearances. The glow-worm, a little creature something like a caterpillar, is generally found to inhabit the borders of paths, and the outer margins of woods and coppices, especially in low situations, where it is observable after the heat of the day is over, and when the dew is falling. Still it is not a caterpillar, but the perfect female of a beetle; and is destitute of wings, with which the male is furnished. Its light, which is of a beautiful sulphur colour, proceeds from the last three segments of the body. So strong is it, that it is seen through several folds of paper, in which the glowworm may be wrapped; and by it a small print may be read without difficulty, or the time seen by a watch.

The glow-worm, however, is not the only insect capable of emitting a light; for this property is possessed in common by several species in different orders. But the light is displayed from various parts of their bodies.

Mr. Afzelius placed a rare insect from Africa in a box, and on opening it a phosphoric light issued from the globes of the antennæ, or horns, which, he says, appeared like two lanterns. Several times he observed it during the evening, but on the following morning the insect was dead, and the light had disappeared.

The fire-fly of South America is about an inch long, and one-third of an inch broad; when on the wing it appears adorned with four brilliant gems of the most beautiful golden-blue lustre; in fact, the whole body is said to be full of luminous matter, which shines forth between the rings of the abdomen when stretched.

The light, which proceeds from the two spots on the thorax, placed immediately behind the head, is said to be sufficient for a person to read the smallest print, by moving one of these insects, when placed between the fingers, with the light downwards along the line; and when several are put together in a glass or any other transparent tube, the light will be sufficiently great for writing by it.

A traveller says: "I could not but admire the thousands and tens of thousands of fire-flies that spangled the gulf below, a tiny galaxy; they did not twinkle promiscuously, but seemed to emit their small green light by signals, beginning at the head of the