EDITOR'S TABLE.

PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE OCEAN. - We are indebted to a friend who sailed from this country not long since for England - and from whom, on behalf of our readers, we hope frequently to hear during his residence in the British capital - for the following facts in relation to the causes which produce the phosphorescent light of the ocean. Numerous theories have been advanced, to account for this wonderful and beautiful phenomena; but it has been left, if we mistake not, for our correspondent, by patient and persevering experiment, to 'pluck out the heart of the mystery,' beyond all gainsaying.

On the third or fourth day from Sandy-Hook, we found ourselves tossing about in the uncertain navigation of the Gulf Stream. Fearing to encounter the dreadful accumulations of ice and snow on the Banks of Newfoundland, the Captain had pushed on at once in a due east course, which I believe is not the usual route, and thus we were brought more speedily within the baffling influence of squalls, sunshine, calms, gales, and storms, always attendant upon the course of the stream. In one of these calms, hanging listlessly over the bulwarks of the ship, looking vacantly into the deep blue waters beneath, my attention was arrested by a number of fantastical forms, which seemed to have the power of motion like that of snakes, only slower. I inquired their name, and what they were, but in vain. At length, urged by curiosity, I seized one of the ship's buckets, fastened the end of a rope to the handle, plunged it overboard, and pulled it up full of water. I looked into it, but seeing nothing save water, I immediately threw it back. I again and again essayed, without discovering the object which I sought. I now looked over the side of the vessel, and still saw objects floating in great quantities, and every now and then sending forth a lingering flash of prismatic light, resembling an opal. By this time the water in the pail had become quiet; and on looking more intently into its very midst, I discovered the object of my search; and gently putting the hollow of my hand under one of them, I brought it out of its element; and wonderful to behold, found its lengthened form was composed of some scores of perfect living animals, each distinct in a living individuality, transparent and colorless, of the fashion and form of crystals, possessing two horns, projecting above its mouth, by which they were enabled to string themselves together, and become, to the common observer, one animal. A slight touch separated them, and a violent dashing of the water would also break the continuity. No one on board had ever observed them before. Elevating one upon the end of my finger, and placing it in relief against the bright sky, I found it to possess violent muscular motion, like the breathing of an animal after great exertion, but which I believe to be only muscular power. The annexed sketch will convey some idea of the animal in its isolated and connected state.

The first one is of the longest size I saw. It was angular, like cut glass, and consisted of a thin jelly-like substance, which soon dissolved and ran down my finger like water, leaving behind the membraneous covering, scarcely discernible. In the centre of each was an assemblage of very thin blue veins, two or three of which radiated until lost to the eye in their minuteness.

'I now found myself animated by the spirit of a naturalist. The languor and ennui of an idle voyager left me : I was ever after looking out for new objects of interest. A few days after, when we had made some ten or twelve degrees more of east longitude, I noticed, as we swept through the water, a round jellylike substance, of a sponge-color, floating at various depths. For one of these I fished a long time in vain; at last I induced the mate to try his luck, promising him a bottle of wine if he obtained me one. It was not long before he caught one in a pail, and emptying it with the water into a white wash-basin, I kept it for three days in my state-room, changing the water twice every day. During this time I watched and noted down its habits. As it was a very curious animal, I made two colored drawings of it, in two positions, in my sketch-book. It resembles in form a mushroom before it has reached its full growth. It is perfectly transparent, and the body part colorless; but the great number of brown specks which are sprinkled over it give it the sponge-like color, when seen at a short distance. On the under part of the rim are thirty-two points, or to express myself more properly, the periphery separates into thirty-two points, half an inch long, which contract and expand together. Inside of these are eight round pipe-like feelers, about the thickness of a fine straw, but of a bright pink color. These last have the most astonishing power of extension, reaching even to ten inches or more, and of suddenly drawing themselves within the compass of half an inch in length. They are thrown out in fine lines in every direction, in search of food; and when they seize hold of their prey, it is hurried to their common mouth, situated in the same position as the stem of the mushroom, and of about the same size. At an inch in length, it divides into four speckled brown tapering tubes, opening in their entire length, but kept closed by a membrane of the same brown color, and which is very similar to a shirt-frill. Into and within these folds the food is huddled. These four tubes and their frills serve also as a tail to steer the animal by, and are indued with great sensitiveness in every part. We here see the anomalous union of mouth and tail.

It seems to have but two senses - feeling and taste. During the time I kept it, I fed it upon small pieces of beef and pork. In six hours a piece of beef three fourths of an inch long and one fourth of an inch thick was digested. The animal being perfectly transparent, I could plainly watch the wasting process of digestion. The pork it first swallowed, but in the course of the night it had ejected it into the membraneous folds of its tail. In the night, my state-room being perfectly dark, I touched it with my finger, when instantly every one of the thirty-two points flashed forth a luminous phosphorescent light! I waited a short time, when placing my hand under it, I lifted it up, and the whole mass became luminous. Letting it drop, I found that it had transmitted some to my fingers, which shone brightly for a few seconds after. I have hence inferred that the animal is endowed with this VOL. XVIII.

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wonderful property, to terrify the larger fry' that would otherwise prey upon it. In this case, the light is not attended with a shock like that of the electric eel. I now regret that I did not examine the first species by night, for it is my firm belief that they have equally the power of emitting phosphorescent light. If this be true, it will account for the opal-like irradiance noticed in the day-time. I have thus satisfied myself as to the cause of the luminous appearance of the sea. It does not proceed from putrescent matter held in solution, as formerly thought, but is unquestionably derived from these and other kinds of living jelly-fish, which are found of every size, from mere animalcuæ to a foot or more in length. In fact they are a creation as multitudinous in variety as quadrupeds, birds, etc. warm calms and other periods, they rise near the surface, when the agitation of the water causes them to flash forth their light; and when this is done in the midst of foam, every globe of air (foam being composed of air-bubbles) becomes a lens to reflect light, varying in strength according to its proximity; and thus are the millions of lenses scattering and multiplying light, until the whole whitened mass appears a sheet of fire.

In

One morning, upon the striking of eight bells, or four o'clock, I got up, knowing that the crew at that hour pumped up water to wash the decks. Under the flow of water from this pump, I stretched out a cambric handkerchief, to intercept the animalculæ; and by this means I gathered in the small compass of a tumbler thousands upon thousands! One kind resembled a flea, (and was as nimble,) save that it was white and transparent, and not quite so large: it jumped, however, to as great a distance in the liquid, and with as much velocity, as do the red vermin so well known in the thinner medium of air in which they dwell.'

THE PUNSTER-KING. - Of all bores in the infinite regions of boredom, defend us from the infatuated individual who holds himself bound to nose you out a pun like a pointer-dog, in every conversation into which he may hope to obtrude his farfetched abortions! Not that we dislike a natural pun, which springs fresh from the mind and the occasion, and is produced without effort and precisely of this class are the puns of THOMAS HOOD, by acclamation punster-king over all realms. There is a quaintness, an oddity of humor, pervading his efforts in this kind, which have never been excelled, and seldom approached. He is equally successful in weaving these playful characteristics into prose or verse. Who can ever forget, having once read it, his brave Bow-Ben, who 'sailed with old BENBOW,' and who fought until

'a cannon-ball took off his legs,

When he laid down his arms?'

But the valiant sailor left a name behind him, and honors were paid to his manes:

His death, which happened in his berth,

At forty odd befel;
They went and told the sexton, and
The sexton toll'd the bell!'

Among Hood's recent productions is a Tale of a Trumpet, which is replete with sly puns and felicitous turns of expression. It is a story of dame Eleanor Spearing, who had two flaps on her head for a pair of gold ear-rings to go through:

But for any purpose of ears, in a parley,
They heard no more than ears of barley."

As 'extempore racks for an idle pen,' or ears to stick a blister behind, they were well enough; but as for hearing, they might as well have been buttered, done

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brown, and laid in a dish.' Dame Eleanor didn't know the pur of her own sleek tabby from the sound of a boatswain's 'cat;' and although she had a clock, she could only give it credit for ticking,' for she could not hear it. She had employed all the approved nostrums for her infirmity:

'Almond oil she had faithfully tried,
And fifty infallible things beside;
Hot and cold, and thick and thin,
Dabbed and dribbled, and squirted in;'

but all to no purpose. At length a pedler comes to her door with a patent trumpet, for affording the deaf, at a trifling cost, 'the sense of hearing, and the hearing of sense.' Dame Eleanor, however, is startled at the price, which she deems ruinously dear; but the pedler makes answer:

Dear! O dear, to call it dear!

Why it isn't a horn you buy, but an ear:
Only think, and you'll find, on reflection,

You 're bargaining, Ma'am, for the voice of affection;
For the language of wisdom, and virtue, and truth,
And the sweet little innocent prattle of youth:
Not to mention the striking of clocks,

Cackle of hens, and crowing of cocks:

And zounds! to call such a concert dear!

But I must n't swear, with my horn in your ear.'

The dame listens eagerly to the faithful picture which the pedler draws of her want of such an instrument, but still higgles about the price. It was 'rather more than she had expected to pay. But the vender is inexorable:

Eighteen shillings! it 's worth the price:
Supposing you 're delicate-minded, and rather nice
To have the medical man of your choice,
Instead of the one with the strongest voice;
Who comes and asks you how 's your liver,
And where you ache, and where you shiver,
And as to your nerves, so apt to quiver,
As if he was hailing a boat on the river!
And then with a shout, like Pat in a riot,
Tells you to keep yourself perfectly quiet!

Or a tradesman comes, as tradesmen will,
Short and crusty about his bill,

Of patience, indeed, a perfect scorner;
And because you are deaf, and unable to pay,
Shouts whatever he has to say,
In a vulgar voice that goes over the way,,
Down the street, and round the corner!,

'I warrant you often wake up in the night,
Ready to shake to a jelly with fright,
And up you must get to strike a light,
And down you go, in you know not what,
Whether the weather is chilly or not,
(That's the way a cold is got,)
To see if you heard a noise or not!"

A hint from the dame that other trumpets of equal excellence had been afforded at a more reasonable rate, is without avail; for the pedler replies :

'It's not the thing for me, I know it,

To crack my own trumpet up, and blow it;

But it is the best, and time will show it.

There was Mrs. F.,
So very deaf,

That she might have worn a percussion cap,

And been knock'd on the head without hearing it snap:
Well, I sold her a horn, and the very next day
She heard from her husband at Botany Bay!

Hood requires no sharpening of the perceptive faculties,' on the part of his readers, by means of frequently-recurring Italic characters. His equivoques are sufficiently apparent without his saying in so many words, with his inferior imitators, 'Here is the place to laugh; here we intend to be funny.'

REMEMBRANCES OF THE DEAD.-There are departed beings,' says an eloquent native writer, 'whom I have loved as I never again shall love in this world; that have loved me as I never again shall be loved. If such beings ever retain in their blessed spheres the attachment which they felt in this; if they take an interest in the poor concerns of transient mortality, and are permitted to hold communion with those whom they have loved on earth, I feel as if now, at this deep hour of the night, in this silence and solitude, I could receive their visitation with the most solemn but unalloyed delight.' To arrive at sensations of such 'sweet sorrow' as this, the Afflicted must be made familiar with his bereavement. He must first realize that the loss of the Departed is no dream; like the visions of the event, perchance, from which he has often awakened in the troubled watches of sleep, rejoicing with exceeding joy that they were but vapors of the night. He must walk the peopled streets, and yet alone, while each echo of his footstep sounds hollow from below, as from the narrow house' of the loved and lost. He must have associated all changes of Nature and of the Seasons with that last resting-place. There alone the pale moonbeams repose, like a shroud of spirit-light; there falls the soft summer rain; there will the painted leaf tremble in the autumnal wind, and rustle on the faded sward; and there, over the stark walls, in the creaking trees, and curled around the cold monumental stones, the howling storm will carve the frolic architecture of the snow.' The voices of the dead will ever call to him; and

When the clear stars are burning high in heaven,
When the low night-winds kiss the flowering tree,
And thoughts are deepening in the hush of even,
How soft those voices on the heart will be!'

But hear him whom we mourn, in another pasage of his dying thoughts, penned but a short time before he went hence, to be here no more :

THE LOVE OF THE Ꭰ Ꭼ Ꭺ Ꭰ .