154 Secrets of the Ocean [FOURTH WEEK 



Fishes, little and big, are abundant in the pools, darting 

 here and there among the leathery fronds of "devils' 

 aprons," cavernous-mouthed angler fish, roly-poly young 

 lump-suckers, lithe butter-fish, and many others. 



Moving slowly through the pools are many beautiful 

 creatures, some so evanescent that they are only discov- 

 erable by the faint shadows which they cast on the bottom, 

 others suggest animated spheres of prismatic sunlight. 

 These latter are tiny jelly-fish, circular hyaline masses of 

 jelly with eight longitudinal bands, composed of many 

 comb-like plates, along which iridescent waves of light 

 continually play. The graceful appearance of these 

 exquisite creatures is increased by two long, fringed ten- 

 tacles streaming behind, drifting at full length or con- 

 tracting into numerous coils. The fringe on these streamers 

 is a series of living hairs an aquatic cobweb, each active 

 with life, and doing its share in ensnaring minute atoms of 

 food for its owner. When dozens of these ctenophores (or 

 comb-bearers) as they are called, glide slowly to and 

 fro through a pool, the sight is not soon forgotten. To 

 try to photograph them is like attempting to portray the 

 substance of a sunbeam, but patience works wonders, and 

 even a slightly magnified image of a living jelly is se- 

 cured, which shows very distinctly all the details of its 

 wonderfully simple structure: the pouch, suspended in the 

 centre of the sphere, which does duty as a stomach; the 

 sheaths into which the long tentacles may be so magically 

 packed, and the tiny organ at the top of this living ball of 

 spun glass, serving, with its minute weights and springs, 

 as compass, rudder, and pilot to this little creature, which 



