JELLY FISHES. 



57 



There seems no doubt of the stinging powers of this species, 

 for Dr. Bermett, a naturalist, has given us his account of the 

 unpleasant effects following npon his handling of this "Man 

 o' War." He took hold of the bladder, and the creature 

 raised its long appendages, twining them round his hands and 

 stinging with great severity, and clinging so tightly that he had 

 difficulty in removing them. He says the pain was^ like that 

 caused by severe rheumatism, and extended up his arm to the 

 muscles of his chest. Symptoms of fever followed, with rapid 



TUBE-MOUTHED SARSIA. 



pulse and difficult breathing. This continued for three- 

 quarters of an hour ; but even then he was not free, for his 

 skin was marked with raised white wheals for several hours. 

 The tentacles, he says, can be thrown out to a distance even 

 of eighteen feet for the purpose of stinging its prey. This 

 species is often met by mariners in extensive fleets, so to 

 speak, and sometimes great numbers of them are wrecked 

 upon the coasts of Devon and Cornwall; occasionally they 

 have been found on the eastern shores of England, but they 

 really belong to the Mediterranean and the open ocean. 



A common form on the south coasts is the Tube-mouthed 

 Sarsia (Sarsia tubulosd), of which we give a portrait. It is 



