Ii6 THE SEA-SHORE 



it two or three hours later, you will not find it. 

 All that you will find will be a ring-shaped mark 

 in the sand, showing where the jellyfish had 

 been lying, with just a few threads of animal 

 matter in the middle. All the rest will have 

 evaporated, because it was nothing else but 

 water. 



All the same, jellyfishes are very wonderfully 

 made; and perhaps the most wonderful thing 

 of all about them is the fringe of long, slender 

 threads which hangs down from the edges of 

 their bodies. For these are the fishing-lines by 

 means of which they catch their prey. Jellyfishes 

 feed on all sorts of tiny creatures the fry of 

 fishes, and the zoeas of shrimps and prawns, 

 for instance and if you were to see one of these 

 swim up against those terrible threads, you 

 would notice that it at once became paralysed, 

 and that in a very few moments it would be 

 dead. The fact is that all the way along these 

 threads are set with hundreds and hundreds of 

 tiny oval cells, each of which has a very slender 

 dart, with a barbed tip, coiled up like a watch- 

 spring inside it. And the cells are made in such 

 a way that as soon as they are touched they fly 

 open, and the little darts leap out. So, you see, 

 if any small creature swims up against the 

 threads numbers of darts at once bury themselves 

 in its body. And, as these darts are poisoned, 

 it dies in a very short time. 



