178 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



in pairs, four pairs, or sixteen pairs alternately, com- 

 posing one of the nebula. The body of the me- 

 dusa was transparent. When the water contain- 

 ing these animals was heated, it emitted a very 

 strong odour, in some respects resembling the smell 

 of oysters, when thrown on hot coals, but much more 

 offensive. The fibrous or hair-like substances, were 

 more easily examined, being of a darker colour. 

 They varied in lengtli from a point to one-tenth of 

 an inch ; and when highly magnified, were found 

 to be beautifully moniliform. In the longest spe- 

 cimens, the number of bead-like articulations was 

 about thirty ; hence their diameter appeared to be 

 about the l~300thpart of an inch. Some of these sub- 

 stances seemed to vary their appearance; but whether 

 they were living animals, and possessed of locomotion, 

 I could not ascertain. From one of the larger speci- 

 mens I observed some fine collateral fibres. They 

 possessed the property of decomposing light ; and, in 

 some cases, showed all the colours of the spectrum 

 very distinctly. The size of the articulations seemed 

 equal in all, the difference in length being occasioned 

 by a difference in the number of articulations. The 

 whole substance had an appearance very similar to 

 tlie horns or antenna? of shrimps, fragments of which 

 they miglit possibly be, as the squillaj are very abun- 

 dant in the Greenland Sea. 



I afterwards examined the different qualities of 

 sea-water, and found these substances vpry abun- 



