The Forrest City times., 1888-02-04
Phenomenon of the s..
"On dock therei''

The hail came from the foretcp os full-rigged ship of the old fasL;os New Bedford type that was plo,.,s along through the waters of the soaS Atlantic. hurling the bright phosphor'' cent waves ahead of the broad bo~ loud and boisterous manner.
 Aye. aye,' was the answer. tollo- ed by gruf, What's tho ma,,ss,s from the sleepy mate.
 Light on the weather bowrr o.u from the lookout.
 "We're a good 2,000 miles from I.., in that direction" muttered the ms. as he swung himself into the ,;. ging,
 But when he wiped away the sn,.. that lashed his face there was ,t' light. and one so strange md n. familiar that he stood there for sevar., seconds. buffeted by the waves v. peering at the strange visitor. Tha. swinging around and dropping trom the shrouds to tho quarter deck \. put up his big hands to form trumps, and roared Ready aboutr'
 A moment later the sh D was tremh. ling in the wind. the blocks hammsr. ing the yards viciously, the coriay. grooming. the sails snapping like fire. arms, while the lunging and D ichiay covered the decks with cleamjr, golden spray.
 The roar and confusion brought tb, skipper on deck. and in explanation of his order the mate pointed to th. strange light that was now astera. The men. too were looking at it. haviuy made everything snug. and of all ths crew not one had ever seen anythlp, like it before.
 When frs. seen 1t looked ike luminous buoy floating upon the sur. face but it had gradually lengthensa out, grown attenuated, IS it were. Hu. til now it seemed taller than the main. mast of the ship. of ayellowsh tint most striking object against the let black sky.
 Some of the men looked at th strange form with grave apprehension To them it boded no good, perhaps harm; others were not so easily dis. turbed. but everyone on board was at least astonshed at the curious sp. partition that every moment seemed to grow larger and taller.
 keep her away point" said the captain 10 the helmsman and ths vessel fell away and slightly increased her speed. "Whatever it k. he con tinued, tits coming after us IL looks to me like waterspoIt. bgtsIl. never saw one that was on h.. snT that one is if anything ever was"
 The curious object was rapidly gain ing on them. and presented an appall ing appearances huge column of ghastly light hundreds of feet high, oi a dark. golden yellowish hue-standlag out in strange contrast against the sky. or the intense darkness of the night
 It came on so quickly. evidently be- fore the breeze. that the vessel was hauled on the wind, just H tme. per. haps. for the strange column went hissing and roaring by, not l000 yards aslern, is base Nhere it joined the water surrounded by 2 seemingly mas of fire while the upper portion bent gracefully and was lost in tho eloads In a short time it had entirely disap peared from view.
 When the ship came home afler \ long cruise and the wonderful story was told by the captain and crew. nos a few listeners laughed slightly and put the yarn down as belong ng to inc sea serpent class
 Fortunately for the ycracity of the crew of the little ship the same curious observation has been made several times since. and by scientiiis men. and while the phenomenon is robbed of none of it's terrors and is really danger ous. it has lost the supernatural ele- mcnt that the fears of the sailors threw about Il. and has taken it's place among the many other remarkable but well understood phenomena of the ocean
 The column was not as Inc skipper had suspected, a waterspout--a mid night visitor coursing over the ocean like some weird phantom.
 Since then several have been seen Al at ono time, veritable pillars of fro, moving rapidly over the surface.
 It finally occurred to a scientist io OK anime the water in which these fiery columns were seen and he found It completely filled with the forms ot two minute plants, known to science as pyrocislis-pseudO-noctiluea and P-pis'' formis. whose nucleus, tho little spot seen in the center was yiy dly luminous. Here. then. was tho secret of tho column of lire-a waterspout had heen formed and enormous masses of the lit- He light giyers borne aloft. giving tue entire spout fiery appearance.
 These spouts differ in color, depeud- ing on the intensity of the light ot the various animals; some are dnil vel low: others. on the mooul ght nights quite pale. whilo others again. on the extreme dark nights. when the sea $ high, present truly frightful appear auce, resembling a pillar of fire tho base resting in caldron of seelhIhs flame. - Golden Dags.