stance to its body, it fairly flashes with the luster 

 of a hundred haunting hues. 



The more colorful areas of its body are re- 

 stricted to the eight rows of cilia, or minute hairs 

 along its longitudinal axis. It is with the aid of its 

 cilia that it swims — a performance achieved in a 

 very different fashion from that of the large jelly- 

 fishes. The hairs are veritable oars, lashing in uni- 

 son and vibrating so rapidly that the eye cannot 

 catch their motion; as a consequence the cilia seem 

 to be held stationary at various angles to the body, 

 thus forming a sort of resemblance to a comb. It is, 

 in fact, because of this fancied resemblance that 

 there has been given to creatures of this kind the 

 scientific name Ctenophora, meaning "comb- 

 bearer." 



To the color-trained eye, the sight of the mani- 

 fold rainbow tints which play over the soft surface 

 of the comb-jelly's body is really ravishing. Never- 

 theless, it needs no expert vision, no understand- 

 ing of color-harmonies to become bewitched by 

 such blending of hues. Like the finest in music, 

 like the loveliest of lyric prose, like "feeling" in 

 the painter's technique, it is of an order appealing 

 to all; it is of that order, in fine, the appreciation 



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