CHAPTER TEN 



Aurelia: A Monograph of the Moon-Jelly 



I 



HS530IEERE are some who shudder at 



8 the mere mention of the word jelly- 

 fish. . . 



To the true lover of Nature, no 

 living creature can long appear 

 ugly: eventually it acquires a certain aesthetic 

 charm. He will best understand this statement who 

 knows Aurelia [A. aurita) not as does the casual 

 bather to whom it is nothing more than a soft and 

 slimy shape, not as does the inland dweller on 

 some rare visit to the shore where he sees a being 

 from an unknown realm, which he regards with 

 that peculiar dread which is created in the mind of 

 the unknowing by every queer and unfamiliar 

 form, but who knows it as a vital throbbing entity, 

 gracile and classic of outline, beauteous and re- 

 splendent as the sparkle of silk as it disports itself 

 at the surface of a sunlit sea, or as a lovely living 



r.354] 



