LIVING PADDLE-WHEELS. 211 



The Beroe is from half an inch to about an inch 

 in length ; its body is pellucid ; in shape it is 

 like a nutmeg. Its body is subdivided by eight 

 equidistant bands or ridges, much in the same way 

 that a terrestrial globe is subdivided by the lines 

 from south to north marking the longitude. De- 

 pending from the body are two tentacula, five 

 or six inches in length, and furnished with a 

 number of slender fibres like tendrils, all of which 

 this fairy-like creature can at will draw up within 

 its body. With these long tentacula it either 

 secures its prey, or attaches itself to some point 

 of support. 



The locomotive machinery of this little medusa 

 is even still more worthy of admiration than its 

 singular beauty. A minute examination of the 

 bands or ridges already mentioned exhibits the 

 extraordinary fact, that on the surface of each of 

 them are a multitude of flat plates, formed by 

 hairs or cilia, with their edges placed together 

 like the plume of a feather. These paddles the 

 Beroe puts in motion, and the power is sufficient 

 to propel its orbicular body through the yielding 

 water. But what is still more noteworthy, not 

 only can the Beroe thus move forward, but by 

 reversing the motion of these living paddles, it 

 can move backwards, and by using those on one 

 side only, it can turn round. " Man justly boasts 

 his steamboat," says Professor Jones, " and with 

 pride points to those paddle-wheels with which he 

 walks upon the waves. The paddle-wheels are here 

 more perfect far than ever were contrived by 

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