246 THE OCEAN WOBLD. 



the air, in part, for the centre of gravity in the animal is displaced 

 according as the air is in the vesicle or in the crest. When the last 

 is distended it rises out of the water, and hecomes nearly vertical ; in 

 short, it then becomes a sort of sail. The floating appendages heneath 

 the body are of divers kinds. Some of these are reproductive indivi- 

 duals ; some are nurses ; some are tentacles ; finally, there are organs 

 designated under the name of Sondes by French naturalists ; probes or 

 suckers, we may call them, forming offensive and defensive arms truly 

 formidable; for these elegant creatures are terrible antagonists. 

 Dutertre, the veracious historian of the Antilles, relates the following : 

 " This * galley ' (our Physalia), however agreeable to the sight, is most 

 dangerous to the body, for I can assert that it is freighted with the 

 worst merchandise which floats on the sea. I speak as a naturalist, 

 and as having made experiments at my own personal cost. One day, 

 when sailing at sea in a small boat, I perceived one of these little 

 * galleys,' and was curious to see the form of the animal ; but I had 

 scarcely seized it, when all its fibres seemed to clasp my hand, covering 

 it as with birdlime, and scarcely had I felt it in all its freshness (for 

 it is very cold to the touch) when it seemed as if I had plunged my 

 arm up to the shoulder in a caldron of boiling water. This was 

 accompanied with a pain so strange that it was only with a violent 

 effort I could restrain myself from crying aloud." 



Another voyager, Leblond, in his " Voyage aux Antilles," relates as 

 follows : " One day I was bathing with some friends in a bay in front 

 of the house where I dwelt. While my friends fished for sardines for 

 breakfast, I amused myself by diving, in the manner of the native 

 Carribeans, under the wave about to break ; having reached the other 

 side of one great wave, I had gained the open sea, and was returning 

 on the top of the next wave towards the shore. My rashness nearly 

 cost me my life : a Physalia, many of which were stranded upon the 

 beach, fixed itself upon my left shoulder at the moment the wave 

 landed me on the beach. I promptly detached it, but many of its 

 filaments remained glued to my skin, and the pain I experienced 

 immediately was so intense that I nearly fainted, I seized an oil 

 flask which was at hand, and swallowed one half, while I rubbed my 

 arm with the other : this restored me to myself, and I returned to the 

 house, where two hours of repose relieved the pain, which disappeared 

 altogether during the night." 



