SECRETS OF THE OCEAN 147 



beautiful creatures, some so evanescent that they 

 are only discoverable 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 tentacles streaming behind, drifting 

 at full length or contracting 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 

 secured, which shows very distinctly all the de- 

 tails 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 does not fear to pit its 



