The Mighty Deep 



all of the free-swimming medusae or jelly-fishes, 

 carry with them their own little lanterns, where- 

 with at night to make bright the surface of the 

 sea — wherewith also to bear glimmers of light 

 downward into those black depths where sun- 

 light cannot reach. 



That Jelly-fish which " swam in a tropical sea," 

 and said, '' This world it consists of me ! " must 

 have been an unusually intelligent specimen of 

 its kind. Jelly-fishes in general are not credited 

 with even much bodily sensation, far less with 

 mental originality. 



Coral -polyps have had their meed of attention 

 in an earlier chapter. There is a near relation- 

 ship between the reef-builders of equatorial seas 

 and the anemones of British sea-beaches. But 

 the anemone is a creature of distinctly higher 

 development than the co-operative coral-polyp. 

 It has at least the great gift of individuality, 

 which its reef-cousins have not. 



Sea-anemones have been compared to garden 

 asters, and indeed the resemblance is not slight. 

 The living tentacles of the one might almost be 

 taken for a rough copy of the thick petals of the 

 other. 



In general form sea-anemones are round soft 

 disc-like bodies, surrounded or trimmed by a 



198 



