MEDUSA AND HER LOCKS. 139 



through the water, rotating, revolving, rising and sink- 

 ing with slow and easy undulations, and its surface 

 radiant with rich and changeful hues, like fragments 

 of submarine rainbows. It is often possible, when 

 the water is particularly clear, to stand at the ex- 

 tremity of a pier or jetty and watch the medusae as 

 they float past in long processions, carried along by 

 the prevailing currents, but withal maintaining their 

 position by the exertion of their will. 



The reader is doubtlessly aware that the title of 

 Medusa is given to these creatures on account of the 

 trailing fibres that surround the disc, just as the snaky 

 locks of the mythological heroine surrounded her 

 dreadful visage. Many species deserve the name by 

 reason of the exceeding venom of their tresses, which 

 are every whit as terrible to a human being as if they 

 were the veritable vipers of the ancient allegory. 



Fortunately for ourselves, the generality of those 

 medusae which visit our shores are almost, if not wholly, 

 harmless ; but there are some species which are to be 

 avoided as carefully as if each animal were a mass of 

 angry wasps, and cannot safely be approached within a 

 considerable distance. The most common of these 

 venomous beings is the stinger or stanger, and it is 

 to put sea-bathers on their guard that this article is 

 written, with a sincere hope that none of its readers 

 may meet with the ill fate of its author. 



If the bather or shore wanderer should happen to 

 see, either tossing upon the waves or thrown upon the 



