PUZZLING HISTORY OF MEDUS.E. 77 



universal, indeed, is this metamorphosis that, we might 

 almost be tempted to hold doctrine with Pythagoras, 

 and think all creatures in a state of transmigration : 

 from Man himself, Creation's lord, down to the hum- 

 blest zoophyte in yonder tank, changes as wonderful 

 as those we meet with in the insect world are wit- 

 nessed by the naturalist at every step ; and perhaps 

 few more interesting subjects of study can offer them- 

 selves than the phenomena connected with these al- 

 most miraculous transmutations. 



Among all the puzzles in this puzzling world, none 

 have presented greater difficulties than the natural 

 history of the MEDUSA. At certain seasons they pre- 

 sent themselves upon our coasts in countless multi- 

 tudes, only to disappear again in a manner equally 

 mysterious and incomprehensible. In the year 1846, 

 for example, the fishermen were embarrassed in casting 

 their nets and sinking their lines from the multitudes 

 of these jelly-fishes absolutely thickening the sea, and 

 yet in a short time they all vanished, without any one 

 being able to say either from whence they came or 

 whither they went : in short, it may well be said of 

 these lovely creatures, they are 



" Indeed a beauty and a mystery." 



Equally unintelligible and inexplicable was their 

 mode of propagation : that they are amazingly pro- 

 lific there could be no reasonable doubt, seeing the 

 immense numbers of eggs with which they seem at 

 times to be loaded, and which, tinted with various 

 brilliant hues purple and red, yellow and brown, 

 are seen arranged in broad festoons appended to their 



