THE CEILING OF THE BAY 



square foot of surface I counted seventy -four, and 

 lying with my face close to the water I could see 

 them, as abundant as ever, far, far down. I dipped 

 up a hundred in a single scoop of the net, and when 

 I watched them in an aquarium I saw, under a 

 hand lens, differences, tears in the jelly, slight 

 disproportions of size and parts, which made of 

 each an individual, — a, jelly separate and apart, 

 with its own endurance and weariness, its prefer- 

 ences, achievements and failures. All this too, 

 without in any way embarrassing it with anthro- 

 pomorphic characteristics or abilities. 



Although classified as plankton, and, as such, at 

 the mercy of wind and wave, yet in a small aquar- 

 ium, they were very definite as regards food and 

 adaptation to the strange environment of confine- 

 ment. Not only did they paralyze and engulf 

 some of the small fishes which I had been at pains 

 to capture and unwisely placed in the same 

 compartment, but they somehow chose only the 

 more succulent portions, rejecting the heads and 

 tails. 



A century ago Johann Friedrich Eschscholtz 

 gave them the name of finger-nail jellies — Linuche 

 unguiculata, but thimble jellies wall serve our 

 present purpose. 



Their submarine history before they came to my 

 notice is far from ordinary. In fact, man's un- 

 trammelled imagination has been able to equal 

 but not exceed its bare facts. The barnacle goose 

 is so-called because mankind, in its pleasantly 



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