52 BY THE DEEP SEA. 



With such a character it is little wonder that the unscien- 

 tific public should decline an intimate acquaintance with the 

 family. And yet the story they have to tell is as marvellous 

 as any that will be found in the whole range of Mr. Lang's 

 Blue, Red, and Green Fairy Books. It is the story of the 

 insignificant and despised dwarf, who one day bursts through 

 his squalid exterior and stands revealed as the handsome 

 prince magnificently attired, whom all the princesses desire to 

 marry. It begins in the orthodox way with, Once upon a time 

 there was a simple and very tiny creature, with soft white flesh 

 and no bones, who dwelt on a rock on the sea-shore. He was 

 just a little tube of jelly, and though he had a mouth he had 

 no head. His many arms were arranged in a circle round his 

 mouth, and from his body sprouted out several creatures like 

 himself, but much smaller. Learned men had examined him 

 and declared that his proper name was Hydra tnba. He 

 remained fixed to this rock from the autumn right through the 

 winter's storms, and in the spring it was noticed that he was 

 getting old, for a large number of wrinkles appeared on his 

 tubular body. Weeks went by and the wrinkles became 

 deeper and the edges of them turned up, so that the upper 

 part of the creature's body looked like a dozen saucers piled 

 up one in the other. Then these saucers each grew a series 

 of eight arms from its edge, and the uppermost of the pile 

 broke away from the others and began to float off through the 

 water. The next, and the next, and every one of the remain- 

 ing saucers floated off in the same fashion, and those who 

 watched them do so, say that they gradually grew into glori- 

 ous Marigolds or Sea-jellies, with umbrella-like bodies of clear 

 jelly, marked on the top with rings and streaks of red, and all 

 around its edge each had a delicate fringe looking like the 

 finest of silk. And so they floated off to see the world and 

 seek their fortunes. 



The Jelly-fish produces ova, which develop cilia eye-lash- 

 like processes, by means of which they swim through the water. 



