observers were wont to liken it. The umbrella is 

 at once the swimming appendage and the mantle 

 or covering for the so-called stomach and internal 

 organs. The comparison may even be extended: 

 for depending from the central region on the un- 

 der side, are four veil-like folds of tissue, the 

 length of which equals a little more than the radius 

 of the umbrella, and these are much in the position 

 of the handle and shaft of an umbrella. And some- 

 what in the manner of the alternate opening and 

 closing of an umbrella, does the jellyfish swim. 

 Perpetually pulsating (it is a systole and diastole 

 that does not cease until the animal's death), it 

 sustains itself at various depth-levels or travels 

 hither and yon at will. 



I soon discover that the sea-blubber and the 

 moon-jelly are not the only light-producing forms 

 within my tub: in fewer numbers, but with an 

 intensity of light seeming to surpass even that of 

 the large jellyfishes, is a smaller form that for 

 beauty of textural tints is positively without paral- 

 lel. This is the comb-jelly. No bubble blown is 

 more splendidly iridescent. Diaphanous — trans- 

 parent almost as the very water in which it swims 

 — and apparently with the merest trace of sub- 



[361] 



