[9] Mr G.F. Concludes His Description Of This Well-Known Appearance In
The Following Very Just Remark:
"There was a singularity, and a
grandeur in the display of this phenomenon, which could not fail of
giving occupation to the mind, and striking it with a reverential awe,
due to Omnipotence.
The ocean covered to a great extent, with myriads
of animalcules; these little beings, organized, alive, endowed with
locomotive power, a quality of shining whenever they please, and
illuminating every body with which they come in contact, and of laying
aside their luminous appearance at pleasure; all these ideas crowded
upon us, and bade us admire the Creator, even in his minutest works."
However florid the language of this gentleman on the subject, his
account and opinions are strongly enforced by the recent discoveries
of the French naturalists related by Mr Peron, to which we shall
probably call the reader's attention hereafter. - E.
[10] Mr G.F. speaks with much more enthusiasm, as one might have
expected, of Dr Sparrman, extolling his talents and activity in the
course of science, but lamenting, at the same time, that this voyage,
on which he now set out, yielded much less matter for observation than
his ardent mind had anticipated. That gentleman's labours at the Cape,
it seems, however, especially in botany, were very successful; he and
Dr Thunberg having, it is said, gathered above a thousand species
entirely unknown before. - E.
SECTION II.
Departure from the Cape of Good Hope, in search of a Southern
Continent.
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