THE OCEAN SHORE 



tentacles. These convey the prey which has been paralysed by the 

 stinging-organs to the mouth, which passes them on to the stomach. 

 The Medusae, like the Garavella, are transparent as glass, and often 

 display the most delicate colours. I once saw whole shoals of them 

 lying on the beach of the Praia Grande at Santos, the milky discs 

 glittering like jellies in the sun. 



The profusely-peopled world of the fishes of the sea is commonly 

 invisible to the human eye. But when the traveller, voyaging from 



^^ 



Fig. 2. — On the left, the Garavella or Portuguese man-of- 

 war (Physalia). Above the surface is the swimming- 

 bladder or pneumatophore. S, siphons ; T, tentacles 

 and palpacles ; G, genital organ or gonostyle. — On 

 the right, a jelly-fish (Pelagia). Beneath it a Goffer- 

 fish (reduced) 



Europe, approaches the Equator, he will see fish springing out of 

 the water on either side of the ship, flashing silver in the sun, flying 

 over the ocean with fins that have been transformed into wings, 

 and disappearing, with a little splash, into a distant wave. These 

 are flying-fish, about the size of a herring, which leap out of the 

 water to escape the predatory fish that are pursuing them, and are 

 now frightened by the ship. How often I have watched their swallow- 

 like flight on the Indian and Atlantic Oceans ! But the flying-fish 

 are creatures of the high seas ; one does not see them from the beach. 

 If the landsman wishes to see fish he must go down to meet the 

 fishing-boats and inspect their catch. In addition to the fish, great 

 and small, which one may meet again on the table in the form 



45 



