Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1906-02-23
ARE FREAKS
OF NATURE
REMARKABLE PhOsPHoREscENT
MARINE ANIMALS FOUND ON
PACIFIC COAST.

fOrnia, has always been famous for
it's displays of phosphorescence-th
strange phenomenon over which many
men have spent years of study, and
which, to large extent, is still mys-
terious and unexplainable, though it
should be said there are not theories
and pseudo-explanations lacking
The islands of southern California
from the COronados to the Santa Cat
alma group of four opposite Los An
geles county. to the Santa Barbara
group of four in the channel of that
name, are the points most available
for observation, due to the peculiari-
ties OF the coast. The Coronados.
Santa Catalina. San Clemente, Ana
capa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and
San Miguel all lie more or less paral-
lei to the coast, affording that neces-
sary feature for extended investiga-
tlons-a perfect lee; the water often
being SO smooth that it is difficult
to believe ones self at sea.
AS these islands all rise out of the
blue depths of the ocean, and are
washed by offshore currents, they at
ford remarkable field for the ZOO
logist, and it can be said that there
is hardly an animal obtainable from
the Naples aquarium that cannot be
found, or its prototype, along these
shores from Point Conception above
Santa Barbara to San Diego. The
observer is particularly impressed with
the richness of the invertebrates
found here. ranging from giant jelly
fishes twenty feet in length, which in
oil CT nft tO ~
to the graceful Porpita. Velella and
Physalia. and during the late winter
months the delicate paper nautilus is
sometimes found, and has been kept
alive and watched.
Students of animal phOsphorescence
have read of the PyrOsoma, one of the
Ascidians whose wonders of light have
made it famous. One of these beau
tiful animals was caught off Avalon
Bay some time ago. 1t was first seen
as blaze of light as large as buck
ct, ten or more feet below the sur
face, and supposed to be large jelly
fish; but as it was watched through
the window of glass bottom boat
it was seen to rise and to be long and
cylindrical. The finder called it a
fire barrel not an exaggeration. as
when the strange object reached the
surface it was seen to be barrel shap
ed, about foot in length open at one
end and emitting faint light; but the
moment it was touched as the finder
placed his hands beneath it, it blazed
out in a vivid glare of green silvery
light. The discoveries were not
naturalists. but they saw that the an
imal was alive, and that stream OF
water nOy1rino from, bo
forcing the strange object along. II
was caught in pail and successful
ly placed in a tank, and doubtless the
first large Pyrosoma seen alive in
America was closely observed. II
would be difficult to exaggerate the
beauties of this animal In a speci
men the writer kept in dark room in
the Gulf of Mexico, by stirring it with
stick. light was produced sufficient
to read medium size print, and the
sight was a ghostly one, the large
type standing out with marvellous dis
tinctnesS.
At certain times the Pyrosoma is
fairly common in the San Clemente
channel, but specimens larger than a
foot or so have never been seen. II
is in the tropics that the animal is at
it's best. Moseley describes one as
follows: "The most beautiful kind OF
phosphorescence is, however, that OF
the Ascidian colony of Pyrosoma
This. when stimulated by touch, a
shake, or a swirl of the water, gives
out bright globe of blush light
which lasts for several seconds and
then goes out suddenly. A giant Ply
rosoma was caught by us in the deep
sea trawl. 1t was like a great sac
with it's walls of jelly about an inch
in thickness. 1t was four feet long
and ten inches in diameter. When a
PyrOmOsa is stimulated by having its
surface touched, the phosphorescent
light breaks out just at the spot slim.
ulated and then spreads over the sur
face of the colony to the surrounding
animals. | wrote my name with my
finger on the surface of the giant Py-
rosoma as it lay on deck, and my
name came out in a few seconds in
letters of fire.
the Pyrosoma. as soft, jellylike, and
insignificant as it appears. stands high
among the great branches of animal
life, being tunicate in the order
Chordata, leading up the fishes, the
larvae of some forms showing a noto
cord believed to be a primitive verte
bra or backbone.
Humboldt has described the radiant
beauties of these fire bodies as he saw
them like stars in the bed of the
ocean; and so brilliant was their light
that he could distinguish fishes by theil
radiance. The Pyrosoma or fire body
has on many occasions astonished OBJ
servers by it's splendid light that var
les in tint and color. Thus those OBJ
served by Bennett, the English natur
alist. gave out a splendid pale green
ish light. while NJ. Peron, tine French
zOOlOgist, met school of them neal
the Isles of France and describes then
as resembling "red-hot balls of iron. >
In all probability, Bibra, the Brazilian
naturalist, was the first to utilize their
light when he placed six small speci
mems in swinging glass in his cabin
and used their brilliant light as a lamI
by which he wrote a description OF
the animals and their beauties. Sir
Wyville Thompson, referring to the
blaze of phosphorescence and train
of intense brightness that followed the
ship, while he did not us them ir
his cabin as lamps, says: at was ar
easy matter to read the smallest print
sitting at the afterport in my cabin
and the bows shed on either side rap
idly widening spaces of radiance sc
vivid as to throw the sails and higgins
into lights and shadows" The ANNA
resembles faceted jelly. and is really