NATURE'S CALENDAR i8i 



to protect themselves by their stinging August 12 



powers against small foes; their young "~ " — 



are produced in the late spring. 



Not all the jellyfishes are umbrella- 

 shaped, however. One group, of which 

 our August waters contain many repre- 

 sentatives — the ctenophores, or comb- 

 bearers — are egg-shaped, transparent little 

 creatures, with eight lines of tiny paddles 

 running up and down their sides, that 

 flicker with mysterious light, as if they 

 formed the gossamer frame of some fairy 

 lantern. 



The movements of these medusae ex- 

 press the perfection of beauty in motion. 

 Nothing in nature exceeds the elegance 

 and sinuous grace of their swimming. 

 Unsubstantial shapes of, rather than in, 

 the water, palely drawn against the dark- 

 ness in ghostly outlines by their own phos- 

 phorescence, their trailing tentacles mere 

 ripples of light, they pulsate elegantly on- 

 ward without* visible efTort by the al- 

 ternate contraction and dilation of their 

 flexuous disks, reflecting here a prismatic 

 sunbeam, there altogether lost in shad- 

 ow, and so throb softly, silently, track- 

 lessly through the liquid — mere passing 

 thoughts in the brain of the Great Deep. 



The rambler along the sea-shore in mid- 

 summer searching for marine creatures 

 will be rewarded according to the charac- 

 ter of the locality. A low sandy beach or 

 otifiing, such as prevails along the coasts 



August 13 



