32 A BATHING COMPANION. 



is, which possess the power of stinging that we meet \vith 

 the most formidable animals the class includes. Only a com- 

 paratively small number of the Jelly-fish apparently are en- 

 dowed with this property, although there is good reason to be- 

 lieve that these much-dreaded species are widely spread. The 

 poisonous fluid with which they are armed is so powerful in its 

 effects, as speedily to deprive the prey of every means of escape, 

 torpifying all its faculties, and causing it to lie paralyzed and 

 motionless, completely at the mercy of its destroyer. The long 

 trailing tentacles of some species are endowed with this veno- 

 mous property equally with the body itself, and form a most 

 efficient set of organs for the capture of prey. No, sooner, 

 indeed, does some luckless fish but come in contact with one 

 of these delicate appendages, than it is immediately arrested in 

 its movements, and made to writhe with agony ; the other tenta- 

 cles meanwhile coil and twist around it, emitting.the pungent 

 fluid at each fresh point of contact, and speedily reducing the 

 victim to a state of perfect quiescence, when the tentacles slowly 

 contract, and bring the prize within reach of the mouth. 



It must be obvious that animals of this sort are best known 

 by man himself at a respectful distance. The reader may judge 

 what kind of companions they make at close quarters from 

 the following notice of one of them by Professor Forbes : " The 

 Cyancea capUlata of our seas is a most formidable creature, and 

 the terror of tender-skinned bathers. With its broad, tawny, fes- 

 tooned, and scolloped disc, often a full foot and more across, 

 it flaps its way through the yielding waters, and drags after it 

 a long train of ribbon-like arms, and seemingly interminable tails, 

 marking its course when its body is far away from us. Once 

 tangled in its trailing ' hair,' the unfortunate who has recklessly 

 ventured across the graceful monster's path too soon writhes in 

 prickly torture. Every struggle binds the poisonous threads 

 more closely around his body, and then there is no escape ; for 

 when the winder of the fatal net finds his course impeded by the 

 terrified human wrestling in its coils, he, seeking no contest with 

 the mightier biped, casts loose his envenomed arms, and swims 

 away. The amputated weapons, severed from their parent body, 

 vent vengeance on the cause of their destruction, and sting as 

 fiercely as if their original proprietor itself gave the word of 

 attack." 



