256 THE OCEAN WORLD. 



species, seldom exceeding three inches and a half in length, and two 

 and a half in its larger transverse diameter ; is described by Browne, 

 in his " Jamaica," as " of an oval form, obtusely octangular, hollow, 

 open at the larger extremity, transparent, and of a firm gelatinous 

 consistence ; it contracts and widens with great facility, but is always 

 open and expanded when it swims or moves. The longitudinal radii 

 are strongest in the crown or smallest extremity where they rise from 

 a very beautiful oblong star, and diminish gradually from thence to 

 the margin, each being furnished with a single series of short, slender, 

 delicate appendages, or limbs (cilia), that move with great celerity in 

 all directions, as the creature pleases to direct its flexions, and in a 

 regular accelerated succession from the top to the margin. It is impos- 

 sible to express the liveliness of the motions of those delicate organs, or 

 the beautiful variety of colour which rise from them to play to and 

 fro in the rays of the sun ; nor is it easy to express the speed and 

 regularity with which the motions succeed each other from one end of 

 the rays to the other." "" The grace and beauty which the entire appa- 

 ratus presents in the living animal," says Gosse, " or the marvellous 

 ease and rapidity with which it can be alternately contracted, extended, 

 and bent at an infinite* variety of angles, no verbal description can 

 sufficiently treat. Fortunately the creature is so common in summer 

 and autumn on all our coasts, that few who use the surface can 

 possibly miss its capture. It is worthy of a poet's description, which 

 it has received : 



' When first extracted from her native brine, 

 Behold a round, small mass of gelatine, 

 Or frozen dewdrop, void of life and limb ; 

 But round the crystal goblet let her swim 

 'Midst her own elements ; and lo ! a sphere 

 Banded from pole to pole ; as diamond clear, 

 Shaped as bard's fancy shapes the small balloon, 

 To bear some sylph or fay beyond the moon. 

 From all her bands see lurid fringes play, 

 That glance and sparkle in the solar ray 

 With iridescent hues. Now round and round 

 She whirls and twirls ; now mounts, then sinks profound/ " 



DEUMMOND. 



Besides the Beroe, naturalists place the Cydippa, which is frequently 

 confounded with the former. The Cydippse are globulous or egg- 

 shaped, furnished with eight rows of cilia, corresponding with as many 



