72 INDESCRIBABLE ANIMALS. 



transversal leaves, extremely thin, and of astonish- 

 ing mobility. These constitute the essential organs 

 of motion of the animal. By the aid of these myriads 

 of little paddles it directs its course and executes 

 its manoeuvres. What is still more admirable in 

 this species, light being decomposed by its various 

 and rapid movements, its longitudinal ribs become 

 so many living prisms, and envelop the animal 

 like eight or ten rainbows, so brilliant and so undu- 

 lating that it is vain to attempt to describe its 

 beauty. What shall I say, too, of another kind, 

 which, resembling a beautiful wreath of crystal of 

 an azure hue, swims on the surface of the waves, 

 and lifts above them in succession its diaphanous 

 leaflets, in figure resembling those of ivy, while it 

 stretches around its exquisite rosy feelers ? This, 

 more than the majority of animals of this class, 

 possesses the phosphorescent quality in an unusually 

 lively and splendid degree, and which, in the midst 

 of the darkness, gives it the similitude of a garland 

 of fire and light. Shall I attempt to describe those 

 Tanthines, of a purple colour, which make their 

 way over the surface of the waves suspended by a 

 white bunch of airy bladders ? or those numerous 

 legions of Salpse, of a rosy, azure, or an opal colour, 

 which form floats of thirty or forty leagues in 

 extent, and shine with splendour in the dark ? or 

 those Medusae, equally phosphorescent, which pre- 



