WONDERFUL TENTACULAR APPARATUS. 93 



little Cydippe moves in its element as those larger 

 bodies revolve in space ; but unlike them, and to our 

 admiration, it moves freely in all directions, and no- 

 thing can be more attractive than to watch such a little 

 living comet as it darts with its tail in undetermined 

 ways and revolves upon itself unfolding and bending 

 its appendages with equal ease and elegance ; at times 

 allowing them to float for their whole length, at times 

 shortening them in quick contractions, and causing 

 them to disappear suddenly then dropping them, as 

 it were, from its surface, so that they seem to fall 

 entirely away, till, lengthened to the utmost, they 

 again follow the direction of the body to which they 

 are attached, and with which the connexion that re- 

 gulates their movements seems as mysterious as the 

 changes are sudden and unexpected. 



"At one moment the threads, when contracted, 

 seem nodose; next, the spiral, elongating, assumes 

 the appearance of a straight or waving line. But it 

 is especially in the successive appearances of the 

 lateral fringes arising from the main thread that the 

 most extraordinary diversity is displayed. Not only 

 are they stretched under all possible angles from the 

 main stem, at times seeming perpendicular to it, or 

 bent more or less in the same direction, and again, 

 as if combed into one mass; but a moment after- 

 wards every thread seems to be curled or waving 

 the main thread being straight or undulating ; then 

 the shorter threads will be stretched straight for some 

 distance, and then suddenly bent at various angles 

 upon themselves, perhaps repeating such zigzags se- 

 veral times ; then they will become coiled up from 



