CHAPTER V. 

 JELLY FISHES. 



IT has been remarked that we get our best ideas of geog- 

 raphy from the newspaper-man's special correspondence in 

 war time. Certainly, at such times certain places that are not 

 even marked on ordinary maps are thrust into such promi- 

 nence that they become familiar to thousands who otherwise 

 would never have known of their existence. In a similar 

 fashion many scraps and fragments of useful knowledge that 

 will stick in the memory will be picked up by the newspaper 

 reader who is simply bent on following the moves in the 

 great political game. For instance, it is not many years since 

 a well-known Scots peer, in order to cast ridicule upon his 

 opponents, enlightened the world upbn the subject of Jelly- 

 fish organization. The party he held up to scorn resembled 

 Jelly-fishes in his estimation because they were invertebrate 

 they possessed no backbone, and could make no progress 

 against the tide, but were forced to float aimlessly with the 

 current. The political small-fry took up the parable from the 

 venerable duke, some reproducing it with variations that 

 appeared marvellous indeed to the mere naturalist ; but it was 

 soon quite generally known without recourse to text-books, 

 that the Jelly-fish was not a vertebrate animal, and that it had 

 no muscular power sufficient to enable it to move against the 

 tide. 



Now these facts in the natural history of the Medusa;, 

 elementary though they be, are such as in the ordinary way 

 might have taken generations to get fixed on the public mind. 

 Many persons who spend their autumnal holiday at the sea- 



