JELL Y-FISHES. 3 3 



threads, apparently of a muscular nature, by the contractions of which the sail can be 

 lowered or elevated at the pleasure of the little manner. 



Perhaps there are few animals more beautiful than 



The Globe Beroe (Cydippe* Pilens} (Fig. 27). If placed in a glass of clear sea- 

 water, it looks like a sphere of the purest ice, from which can be protruded two long 

 tentacles, each of which is furnished along one side with a series of spirally-twisting 

 filaments. Stretching from pole to pole of this translucent little orb, like lines of longi- 

 tude upon a globe, and placed at equal distances, are eight broad bands of more con- 

 sistence than the other portion of the body. On each of these bands are placed thirty 

 or forty paddles, exactly comparable in their shape to the floats upon the paddle-wheels 



of a steamboat ; and in like manner by means of these the little creature rows itself 

 along. Man to move his wheels must have much cumbersome machinery the furnace, 

 and the boiler, and the herculean arm, that makes the enginery revolve. Nature wants 

 none of these encumbrances : her paddles are themselves alive, and move at will with 

 such degree of force as may be needed, either at once or singly, or in groups, working 

 with mutual consent m any way required. Thus, do they all row equally, the little 

 beroe shoots meteor-like along, or if a few relax their energy, wheels round in broad 

 gyrations, or revolves upon its axis with inimitable ease and grace. 



Neither are Nature's steamboats left without the means of 

 anchoring. Whoever has been on board one of our sea-going 

 leviathans must have been surprised to see the massive anchors 

 and the tons of rope or iron cable coiled up in the hold, the 

 labouring capstan and the mighty gear required to run them out 

 or heave them up. With all this cumbrous load Nature dispenses. 

 The beroe, when it chooses, can put forth from one end of its 

 body what appear like filaments of molten glass, which, as we 

 watch them, lengthen, as it were by magic, and from their sides 



* Cydippe, the name cf a goddess. 



