CYANEA. 39 



disk, with its flexible lobed margin, glittering in the sun, and his 

 tentacles floating to a distance of many yards behind him. En- 

 countering one of those huge Jelly-fishes, when out in a row- 

 boat one day, we attempted to make a rough measurement of his 

 dimensions upon the spot. He was lying quietly near the sur- 

 face, and did not seem in the least disturbed by the proceeding, 

 but allowed the oar, eight feet in length, to be laid across the 

 disk, which proved to be about seven feet in diameter. Backing 

 the boat slowly along the line of the tentacles, which were float- 

 ing at their utmost extension behind him, we then measured 

 these in the same manner, and found them to be rather more 

 than fourteen times the length of the oar, thus covering a space 

 of some hundred and twelve feet. This sounds so marvellous 

 that it may be taken as an exaggeration ; but though such an 

 estimate could not of course be absolutely accurate, yet the facts 

 are rather understated than overstated in the dimensions here 

 given. And, indeed, the observation was more careful and pre- 

 cise than the circumstances would lead one to suppose, for the 

 creature lay as quietly, while his measure was taken, as if he had 

 intended to give every facility for the operation. This specimen 

 was, however, of unusual size ; they more commonly measure 

 from three to five feet across the disk, while the tentacles may 

 be thirty or forty feet long. The tentacles are exceedingly 

 numerous (see Fig. 44), arising in eight distinct bunches, from 

 the margin of the disk, and hanging down in a complete laby- 

 rinth. 



These animals are not so harmless as it would seem, from 

 their soft, gelatinous consistency ; it is no pleasant thing when 

 swimming or bathing to become entangled in this forest of fine 

 feelers, for they have a stinging property like nettles, and may 

 render a person almost insensible, partly from pain, and partly 

 from a numbness produced by their contact, before he is able to 

 free himself from the network in which he is caught. The 

 weapons by which they produce these results seem so insignifi- 

 cant, that one cannot but wonder at their power. The tentacles 

 are covered by minute cells, lasso-cells as they are called, (simi- 

 lar to those of Astrangia, Fig. 19,) each one of which contains 

 a whip finer than the finest thread, coiled in a spiral within it. 



