JELLY FISHES. 233 



been termed the " living jellies of the deep ", and are 

 endowed, in many cases, with an acrid secretion, which, 

 irritating the skin, has also caused them to be called 

 " Sea-nettles." There is one large species common in the 

 Straits of Singapore, dreaded by the Malays, on account 

 of the violence of this power. Dr. Oxley informed me 

 that he was obliged to amputate the thumb on account 

 of the violent inflammation, induced by this poison, in 

 the person of a Malay fisherman.* In colour, perhaps, 

 the most delicate is the lovely Velella, with its pellucid 

 crest, its green transparent body, and fringe of purple 

 tentacles. Specific distinctions have been taken from 

 the form of the crest, as in V. pyramidalis, but I have 

 noticed this part rounded, more or less pointed, and, 

 in some cases, even lobed, in what I have considered the 

 same species. 



The Velella has been seen as far north as 40, covering 

 a large surface of the Pacific Ocean, and tinging the 

 water for many miles. I have seen them covering the 

 coasts of some of the Islands of the Meia-co-shima 

 Group by myriads, strewing the beach for miles with 

 their delicate, pellucid skeletons.! Sir Edward Belcher 



* I have seen Rhizostomata off the Peninsula of Malacca swimming 

 by in large troops, comprising many thousands of individuals, many 

 of which measure as much as three feet in diameter. They have been 

 found to weigh, according to Peron and Lesueur, as much as from fifty 

 to sixty pounds. The same naturalist, speaking of these animals, ob- 

 serves, that " they seem extremely feeble, but fishes of large size are 

 daily their prey." 



f Professor Owen, in his nineth Hunterian Lecture, for 1843, ob- 

 serves that occasionally some of the singular forms of AcalephcR of the 

 tropical seas are stranded on the south-western shores of England. " I 

 have picked up on the coast of Cornwall the little Vddla, which had 



