38 A SHIPWRECKED FLEET. 



the animals belonging to it are distinguished by the possession of 

 a delicate cartilaginous plate, which forms a sort of skeleton or 

 sxipport to the soft gelatinous body. In the majority of this 

 order the body is an oval or circular disc, and has depending 

 from its under surface numerous appendages, termed cirri, by 

 which the animals move through the water, whence the entire 

 order has received the name of Cirrigrades. A far more inte- 

 resting and effective apparatus for locomotion is found, however, 

 in some of these Jelly-fish, in the shape of a thin membrane or 

 sail, which rising from the upper surface of the body, and sup- 

 ported by a sort of mast, is acted on by the wind, and drives the 

 little voyager along, a very "ocean Mab " and " fairy of the sea." 

 Large fleets of these elegant creatures are sometimes met with in 

 the wanner latitudes, gaily scudding before the gentle breeze, in 

 compact order, and presenting a spectacle of singular interest and 

 beauty. 



One of the commonest of these sail-bearing Jelly-fish, and one 

 which, during the prevalence of high winds, is occasionally thrown 

 upon our own shores, is the Velella lata, in which the disc is of 

 a fine blue colour, and has the cartilaginous plate in the form of 

 a dorsal shield, with the delicate sail-membrane rising obliquely 

 from its centre. The sail is set to the dorsal shield, much in the 

 same fashion as the lateen sail of the Malay boat to the deck, 

 and hence the Velella commonly passes amongst sailors as the 

 " Sallee-man." A drawing of this attractive little creature has 

 been made by Professor Allman from the living Jelly-fish, 

 "which sat, or rather floated, for his likeness," says the worthy 

 Professor, and " was one of a fleet of countless multitudes 

 which, in the autumn of 1836, was driven upon the coast of 

 the county of Cork. On the subsidence of the gale, which 

 had been blowing strongly from the south-west, the coast for 

 miles roun\ was strewn with the remains of the shipwrecked 

 fleet." In another division of the Jelly-fish, the crest dr sail is 

 furnished with muscular bands by means of which it can be raised 

 or lowered at pleasure a circumstance which has procured for 

 the entire group the very appropriate designation of " bargemen." 

 One of the number is a curious little fellow, which, by the lofty 

 rounded form of its body, has earned for itself the appellation 

 tnitrata (mitred), although, if it have any ecclesiastical leanings 

 at all in the matter of shape, it approaches most nearly, perhaps, 



