somehow make one forget the nightmare which the 

 details of its horned head recall. The several or 

 more segments that it deigns to extend for my 

 appraisal are really bewitching: a row of abutting 

 soap bubbles, each bubble graced at the sides with 

 a pair of great butterfly wings would be a passable 

 picture of the general shape; but I doubt if that 

 bubble has ever been blown which could diffract 

 incident light in such variety and with such ampli- 

 tude as are exhibited in these sheeny segments; 

 surely, no butterfly wing offers such pleasing tints 

 as these tenuous, translucent gill structures which 

 in their constant wafting are alternately tinctured 

 with a soft, incarnadine radiance and the purest 

 azure . . . Nor are these all of its colorful at- 

 tributes. Its beautiful body being quite transpar- 

 ent, one can see within it the beating of its very 

 heart. With every systole and diastole there fol- 

 lows a delicate flush of crimson which spreads 

 throughout the segments and finally dies away in 

 the gauzy network of capillaries fringing the wing- 

 like gills. 



With a sort of sensuous delight, I make an ocu- 

 lar feast upon this prepossessing monster while 

 awaiting with rapturous anticipation until it 



[135] 



