88 MARINE ANIMALS OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 



still to come. On our return to the Laboratory, the contents of 

 the buckets are poured into separate glass bowls and jars ; hold- 

 ing them up against the light, we can see which are our best 

 and rarest specimens ; these we dip out in glass cups and place 

 by themselves. If any small specimens are swimming about at 

 the bottom of the jar, and refuse to come within our reach, there 

 is a very simple mode of catching them. Dip a glass tube into the 

 water, keeping the upper end closed with your finger, and sink it 

 till the lower end is just above the animal you want to entrap ; 

 then lift your finger, and as the air rushes out the water rushes 

 in, bringing with it the little creature you are trying to catch. 

 When the specimens are well assorted, the microscope is taken 

 out, and the rest of the day is spent in studying the new Jelly- 

 fishes, recording the results, making notes, drawings, &c. 



Still more attractive than the rows by day are the night ex- 

 peditions in search of Jelly-fishes. For this object we must 

 choose a quiet night, for they will not come to the surface if the 

 water is troubled ; Nature has her culminating hours, and she 

 brings us now and then a day or night on which she seems to have 

 lavished all her treasures. It was on such a rare evening, at the 

 close of the summer of 1862, that we rowed over the same course 

 by Saunders's Ledge and East Point described above. The 

 Aiigust moon was at her full, the sky was without a cloud, and 

 we floated on a silver sea ; pale streamers of the aurora quivered 

 in the north, and notwithstanding the brilliancy of the moon, they 

 too cast their faint reflection in the ocean. We rowed quietly 

 along past the Ledge, past Castle Rock, the still surface of the 

 water unbroken, except by the dip of the oars and the ripple of 

 the boat, till we reached the line off East Point, where the Jelly- 

 fishes are always most abundant, if they are to be found at all. 

 Now dip the net into the water. What genie under the sea has 

 wrought this wonderful change ? Our dirty, torn old net is sud- 

 denly turned to a web of gold, and as we lift it from the water 

 heavy rills of molten metal seem to flow down its sides and col- 

 lect in a glowing mass at the bottom. The truth is, the Jelly- 

 fishes, so sparkling and brilliant in the sunshine, have a still love- 

 lier light of their own at night ; they give out a greenish golden 

 light as brilliant as that of the brightest glow-worm, and on a 



