WHEN NIGHT COMES TO WATER 



ness, and repeated this a third time. Meanwhile 

 two worms of a Hghter pink had shot in their 

 erratic orbits across the first area. A shock of 

 electricity could have been no more instantaneous, 

 and if we estimated the egg-laying speed and 

 energy of the female at Five, we must rate the 

 gyrations and whirlings of the male dervish worms 

 at Twenty. The cloud they scattered was less 

 noticeable, but they went from one to the other 

 of the spawn zones in a fine frenzy of fertilization, 

 the female being still busy with a fourth area, 

 but moving with diminished speed. She soon 

 passed out of sight forever. 



With empty mason jar I dipped up as much as 

 possible of the first cloud, together with one of the 

 males, and cached it safely beside me. The other 

 male had just discovered the third ovarian cloud, 

 and showed no slackening of his activity, when 

 there came a swift finale. A small Quad jelly 

 swam directly through the mist of worm eggs and 

 the male in a blind rush collided fairly with a 

 coiling tentacle. As abruptly as the presence of 

 the eggs had affected him to frenzy of movement, 

 so this casual touch brought complete paralysis. 

 A third male who had just sensed the eggs swam 

 in his very first circling against another tentacle, 

 and off went the unconscious Quad dragging with 

 infinite difficulty the heavy, dangling bodies of the 

 pmk worms. So much of a burden were they that 

 for several minutes the jelly could make no head- 

 way and only jerked about in irregular circles. 



89 



