JELLY FISHES VARIETY AND BEAUTY. 113 



Putting aside the fact that no one can distinguish 

 them when in the sea, and that consequently bucketful 

 after bucketful of water must be hauled up on the chance 

 of finding a Diphyes in it, the extreme fragility of the 

 threads offers a considerable obstacle to the searcher. 

 They are even more easily broken than the spider's web, 

 to which they have been compared, and the slightest 

 touch will sever them from the double bell. 



There is, however, just one hope. The trailing threads, 

 although they can be shot out to a length of eighteen 

 inches or more, can be almost entirely retracted into the 

 body at the will of the animal. So, if the unaccustomed 

 movement of the water caused by the bucket should 

 induce the Diphyes to withdraw its threads, it may be 

 safely transferred to the glass vessel which is waiting 

 for it. 



So delicate are those threads, that none of the Calyco- 

 phores are found within many miles of land. Mid-Pacific 

 is their usual home, and there they are tolerably plenti- 

 ful. They can float unhurt in the long, rolling, smooth- 

 topped billows, but the short, chopping seas caused by 

 the beating of the waves against the shores, shatter to 

 pieces such delicate organisms as theirs. 



Although the double bells from which the Diphyes 

 derives its name are most remarkable and complicated 

 organisations, the chief interest of the creature lies in the 

 system of " fishing-threads," as these delicate fibres are 

 sometimes called. 



In fact, the Calycophores seem in that respect very 

 i 



