THE STINGING JELLYFISH 117 



Jellyfishes can swim through the water by 

 spreading and contracting their umbrella-shaped 

 bodies, and you may sometimes see them travel- 

 ling about in such enormous numbers that the 

 water is perfectly thick with them. 



PLATE XL 

 THE STINGING JELLYFISH (i) 



Sometimes, after a strong south-westerly wind 

 has been blowing for a day or two in the early 

 part of the autumn, you may find a brownish 

 yellow jellyfish lying upon the shore. It has a 

 circular body about as big as a soup-plate, 

 fringed all the way round with great masses 

 of long yellow hairs. And if you find one of 

 these creatures you are almost sure to find 

 another before very long, and then another, and 

 then another; for they nearly always swim 

 about in shoals together. 



Now, if you do meet with one of these jelly- 

 fishes, be very careful not to touch it with your 

 bare hands. And if you should happen to be 

 bathing, and to see one floating in the water 

 near you, just get out of its way as fast as you 

 possibly can. For those long yellow threads 

 which hang down from the margin of its body 

 sting just like nettles, and the least touch from 



