or never does it pass beyond the year in which it is 

 freed from its larval form. Indeed, great numbers 

 of them seem not to endure beyond the autumnal 

 storms. On these occasions, after a brief but gor- 

 geous existence at the surface of sunny seas or 

 coursing in the perpetual peace and calm which 

 reign in the cool and shadowy depths, they are de- 

 stroyed by millions, their soft gelatinous bodies 

 being torn asunder or dashed upon the shores to 

 perish. 



Still in their death there is a compensation. For 

 in dying they disintegrate; thus releasing number- 

 less unborn young to grace again the grottoes of 

 the deep and later by their luminescence to dec- 

 orate the darkness of the summer night. 



[382] 



