JELLY-FISHES. 



35 



sible, it would have required that eighty thousand persons should 

 have started at the creation of the world to complete the enume- 

 ration at the present time." 



The Medusae in question w r ere heroes, called "Fountain-fishes" 

 by the earlier voyagers to Spitzbergen, who, mistaking the cause 

 of the eight bands of iridescence gleaming along the sides of their 

 bodies, fancied they were so many rivulets of lustrous water. 



In a third form of these beautiful creatures, hence denominated 



Hydrostatic Acalephse, the animal is supported in the water by a very 

 peculiar organ, or set of organs, consisting ot one or more bladders filled with 

 air, which are appended to the body in various positions, so as to act as floats 

 of sufficient buoyancy to sustain the creature upon the surface of the sea. 



The Physalia* (Fig. 29), known to sailors by the name of the Portuguese man-of- 

 war, has this swimming apparatus single and of great proportionate size, so that when 

 full of air it is exceedingly buoyant, and floats conspicuously upon the waves. It closely 

 resembles, when seen from the deck of a vessel, a child's mimic ship with its sails set; 

 and excites the wonder of those who behold it, to see so delicate and frail a bark 

 breasting the billows, as it seems that the first breaking sea must inevitably overwhelm 

 and dash it to pieces. Yet there it floats, and dances 

 now on the curling crest, now in the deep hollow, in 

 spite of wind and wave. Often while passing just 

 under the lee of the vessel, the sudden lull made by the 

 interposition ot so great a body between it and the 

 wind will cause it for a moment to lie flat on the water; 

 but it instantly resumes its upright position. When 

 examined closely, the animal is seen to consist of an 

 oblong transparent bladder, surmounted by a kind of 

 crumpled crest of a delicate pink colour. From one 

 end of the bottom of this bladder proceeds a large 

 bunch of appendages of various shapes, which trail in 

 the surrounding water. These hanging tentacles are 

 of a very beautiful colour and possess the power of 

 stinging in a formidable degree." MR. GOSSE. 



The long cables, or tentacula, can be thrown out to 

 a great distance to twelve or even eighteen feet, and 

 by the aid of these the Physahre are able to catch any 

 small fishes that may come in their reach ; and which, 

 by the wonderful retractile power of these appendages, 

 are speedily conveyed to the short suckers or mouths, 

 whereby the prey is devoured. On placing the physaha 

 in a tub of water with some little fishes, they were im- 

 mediately entangled in its grasp, and the tubes were 

 soon seen to be filled with portions of the fish sucked 

 into their interior. It is a very interesting sight to 

 watch one of these animals thus placed in a large tub 

 of water, sometimes coiling up its tentacles to within 

 half an inch of their bladder-like support, and then 

 darting them out with surprising velocity to the dis- 

 tance of several feet, entwining and benumbing their prey, and then dragging it towards 

 their polype-like mouths. DR. BENNETT. 



FIG. 29. PHYSALIA. 



<pvaa\ls, phusalis, a bladder. 



3 2 



