MEDUS^-HUNTIXG. 343 



Or, it may be, we step into a boat, and glide softly 

 over the water, skimming its surface with the Medusa- 

 net, to gain fresh material for study. The muslin net, 

 after skimming the surface for two or three minutes, 

 is examined. To the unlearned eye it contains nothing 

 beyond foam -bubbles and stray bits of weed ; but 

 we know better. Those bubbles are not all of foam ; 

 some of them are exquisite creatures of living crystal ; 

 and on reversing the net into the glass jar of sea- 

 water, behold ! they swim before our delighted eyes as 

 Cydippes, Noctiluc«3, and Naked-eyed Medusa. The 

 Cydippe (Plate I., fig. 2) is melon-shaped, with longi- 

 tudinal bands, on which are transverse rows of very 

 active cilia, not unlike tiny treadmills, and with two 

 long streamers, which follow like the tail of a comet. 

 As we capture these beauties, our boatmen are lost in 

 astonishment. They never " see'd such things afore — 

 that they never did— never in all their lives, long as 

 they've been at sea." Nor can they understand how 

 we distinguish them from the foam-bubbles. Indeed, 

 I cannot myself precisely indicate the characters by 

 which they are recognised ; and yet no sooner was 

 there one in the net than it was detected. If the reader 

 desire to learn a simple plan by which he will infal- 

 libly detect them, when they escape his rapid eye, let 

 him place his hand underneath the net, where the 

 bubbles are, and the greater opacity of the animals 

 will at once betray them. Then, without loss of time, 

 let him reverse the net into a jar or bucket, and the 

 creatures will float off. 



