9 November 1775, Henry Larcom Abbot, The Beginning of Modern Submarine Warfare, under Captain-Lieutenant David Bushnell, Sappers and Miners, Army of the Revolution. Being a Historical Compilation Chapter Description of the American Turtle. Benjamin Gale to Silas Deane, Esq., Killingsworth, Nov. 9, 1775., On the inside is fixed a Barometer, by which he can tell the depth he is under water; a Compass, by which he knows the course he steers. In the barometer and on the needles of the compass is fixed fox-fire, i.e. wood that gives light in the dark.
1879, “B.†pseudonym, The Gift Book of Affection for the Young Chapter Groundless Fears, "It won't burn our fingers, though, if we take it up. It is nothing but fox-fire. Humph! an old rotten stump:" and groping round for a stick, he struck it and knocked it all about, and wherever it lay it looked like burning coals.
Twain Huckleberry Finn|chapter=XXXV|page=356|passage=... Tom said we got to have some light to see how to dig by, and a lantern makes too much, and might get us into trouble; what we must have was a lot of them rotten chunks that's called fox-fire and just makes a soft kind of a glow when you lay them in a dark place.
9 January 1894, William Hamilton Gibson, Foxfire, w:Nathaniel Hawthorne
