MODE OF CATCHING JELLY-FISHES. 89 



calm summer night, at the spawning season, when they come to 

 the surface in swarms, if you do but dip your hand into the 

 water it breaks into sparkling drops beneath your touch. There 

 are no more beautiful phosphorescent animals in the sea than 

 the Medusae ; it would seem that the expression, " rills of molten 

 metal " could hardly apply to anything so impalpable as a Jelly- 

 fish, but, although so delicate in structure, their gelatinous disks 

 give them a weight and substance ; and at night, when their 

 transparency is not perceived, and their whole mass is aglow with 

 phosphorescent light, they truly have an appearance of solidity 

 which is most striking, when they are lifted out of the water and 

 flow down the sides of the net. 



The various kinds present very different aspects ; wherever 

 the larger Aureliae and Zygodactylae float to the surface, they 

 bring with them a dim spreading halo of light, the smaller 

 Ctenophorae become little shining spheres, while a thousand 

 lesser creatures add their tiny lamps to the illumination of 

 the ocean ; for this so-called phosphorescence of the sea is by 

 no means due to the Jelly-fishes alone, but is also produced 

 by many other animals, differing in the color as well as the in- 

 tensity of their light, and it is a curious fact that they seem 

 to take possession of the field by turns. You may row over the 

 same course, which a few nights since glowed with a greenish 

 golden light wherever the surface of the water was disturbed, and 

 though equally brilliant, the phosphorescence has now a pure 

 white light. On such an evening, be quite sure that when you 

 empty your buckets on your return and examine their contents 

 you will find that the larger part of your treasures are small 

 Crustacea (little shrimps). Of course there will be other phos- 

 phorescent creatures, Jelly-fishes, &c., among them, but the pre- 

 dominant color is given by these little Crustacea. On another 

 evening the light will have a bluish tint, and then the phosphores- 

 cence is principally due to the Dysmorphosa (Fig. 105). 



Notwithstanding the beauty of a moonlight row, if you would 

 see the phosphorescence to greatest advantage you must choose a 

 dark night, when the motion of your boat sets the sea on fire 

 around you, and a long undulating wave of light rolls off from 

 your oar as you lift it from the water. On a brilliant evening 

 12 



