324 COMMON OBJECTS OF THE SHORE. 



tubercle. These are four in number, and shaped 

 like horse-shoes or half-moons. They are of bright 

 purple colour, and are very conspicuous when we 

 see the jelly-fish swimming in the water. These 

 Medusae are extremely abundant ; sometimes, by 

 their numbers, impeding the course of vessels, and 

 occurring all round our coast. We need not fear 

 to touch them, for they are stingless. 



Far different in this respect is the jelly-fish 

 termed the Hairy Cyanea (Cyanea capittata), a 

 common animal of our seas, and one which has 

 sent many a bather away with smarting sensations 

 not easily forgotten. It has a dingy brown disc, 

 about a foot across, festooned at the edges, while 

 as it flaps along in the water it drags after it an 

 immense number of filaments, like tails, which 

 constitute the " hair," from which it derives its 

 name. Woe to the bather who, regardless of the 

 approach of this beautiful but terrific creature, 

 becomes entangled in this trailing " hair." To get 

 out of the tangling mass seems impossible, and 

 wound among its meshes, he experiences a prickly 

 torture, until the jelly-fish finding its own course 

 hindered by the contact, uncoils its arms and leaves 

 the bather free to swim from its embrace. Even 

 when the filaments are cut away, they retain their 

 power of stinging as fiercely as when around the 

 beautiful crystal monster which they once adorned. 

 The Lamarckian Cyanea (Cyanea Lamarckii), a 

 less common species, possesses a like power of 

 stinging; and another species is mentioned by 

 Professor Forbes as stinging faintly ; but these are 

 all the Medusas which that scientific naturalist 

 has ascertained as the true nettles of our British 

 seas. 



