208 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



us, though its smallness is such that a split pea 

 would overtop it ; yet small though it be, it has 

 shape, colour, and substance, so disposed that as 

 yet no explorer of the sea has met with another 

 like it. It is gorgeous enough to be the diadem 

 of sea fairies, and sufficiently graceful to be the 

 nightcap of the tiniest and prettiest of mer- 

 maidens." 



These singular and interesting creatures are to 

 be found in immense multitudes floating in all 

 our seas. Some of them, as already stated, have 

 the power of stinging when handled. This pro- 

 perty, however, belongs only to a few of those 

 that inhabit our coasts. The medusa most re- 

 markable for the possession of this power, this 

 weapon of defence, is the Cyanea capillata, or 

 hairy cyanea. Contact with it produces a burning 

 sensation, similar to that caused by the sting of 

 the common nettle. And the swimmer knows 

 this to his cost when he chances to come in con- 

 tact with the long tentacula of this creature, as it 

 marks his body with long red lines, like the cut 

 of a thin whip, causing considerable pain and 

 feverishness. 



The cyanea is a very common species, and must 

 have been seen by all frequenters of the coast, 

 either lying helpless on the beach, or floating at 

 sea. Its disk is of a brown colour, with the edge 

 festooned with an immense number of tentacula 

 of various lengths, that extend behind it as it 

 flaps along beneath the surface. The name 

 Crineta, perhaps, might be appropriately applied 



