50 BY THE DEEP SEA. 



side, become fairly familiar with the more or less broken and 

 lifeless forms of one or two common species, as they get drifted 

 upon the beach and are unable to get off again ; but they have 

 probably little idea of the beauty and elegance of these frail 

 creatures when fully expanded and pulsating with life a short 

 distance from the shore. 



There are two things which stand in the way of a more 

 familiar knowledge of these Jelly-fish, on the part of the 

 public. First, they are almost entirely composed of water, 

 and, having no muscular tissue, are soft and flabby to the 

 touch a characteristic which inspires feelings of abhorrence 

 in the average man or woman. A man may courageously face 

 a dangerous wild beast, and yet shrink with loathing and dis- 

 gust from contact with a slug or a Jelly-fish though, with 

 strange inconsistency, he may swallow a living oyster with 

 gusto! Having found a stranded Jelly-fish on the beach, he 

 will probably turn it over with his stick, call to mind the 

 Duke of Argyll's political simile, and pass on. 



The second reason is that certain common forms have an 

 unpleasant trick of stinging slightly. This is a power given 

 to them for the purpose of paralysing small creatures they 

 secure as food, but they have sometimes mistakenly exerted it 

 upon a timorous thin-skinned bather, against whom they have 

 drifted. 



There are, however, only two or three of our native species 

 that have that power, and though they have been known from 

 ancient days as Sea-nettles, Stingers, and Stangers, there is 

 no doubt that their virulence has been greatly exaggerated. 

 This exaggeration probably owes something to the graphic 

 word-picture of the late Professor Forbes, in which he des- 

 cribed the Hairy Stinger (Cyanea capillata). In picturesque 

 language he depicted it as "a most formidable creature, and 

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

 festooned and scalloped disk, often a full foot or more across, 

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



