110 SOME WONDERS OF THE SEA. 



and interesting girl who become the wife of Stedman, 

 the celebrated traveller, died at the age of eighteen from 

 Obi poison administered by a jealous rival. 



For a long time it was thought that some of these 

 poisons were procured from the Physalia, the sinuous 

 tendrils being dried in the sun and reduced to powder. 

 However, as the poison-sacs require their natural elasticity 

 before they can act, it is evident that when they were 

 dried they would lose all their potency. Accordingly, 

 experiments were tried with the powder, and, as might 

 have been anticipated, it was found to be perfectly 

 harmless. 



What may be the actual nature of the poison which 

 produces such terrible effects is not, I believe, yet ascer- 

 tained ; and all Ave know is that it must be injected into 

 the system before it can injure. 



If it were possible to use a transparent surface and 

 view the colours by transmitted light, as is done with the 

 magic lantern, the artist might produce some approach 

 to the singular beauty of the next group of Jelly Fishes, 

 and the reader might partly appreciate it. As it is, the 

 artist can only deal with black and white, and give a 

 slight idea of the form, without attempting to render the 

 colour, or even the graduating of light and shade. 



So transparent are these beings, and so slightly different 

 is their refractive power from that of the water in which 

 they float, that even when enclosed in a glass vessel 

 nothing is at first visible except water. 



On examining the water more carefully, a little streak 



