328 COMMON OBJECTS OF THE SHOEE. 



tentacles. This part has no connexion with the 

 digestive tube, and is evidently designed solely 

 for the reception of these long arms, when the 

 animal chooses to withdraw them and to remain 

 a simple globe. After some time the tentacles 

 were again protruded, and the shrimp escaped, 

 evidently uninjured. Its mode of catching its prey 

 was by this gentleman, after much observation, 

 deemed to be wholly irrespective of these long 

 filaments, which the beroe appeared to use as 

 cables for keeping itself firm in its position, and 

 by which it held fast even to the smooth surface 

 of a glass vessel. 



Like all other jelly-fishes, the substance of the 

 beroe seems but a few filmy cells, filled up with 

 a material like sea-water, which soon dissolves, 

 leaving scarcely any trace of the animal behind. 

 The naturalist just alluded to, having confined one 

 of these animals in a cylindrical glass vessel, 

 observed, that after the lapse of about twelve 

 hours, it appeared to undergo a gradual dissolu- 

 tion of its substance, commencing at the upper 

 pole, around the tube extending from the mouth 

 to the stomach. In a few hours the whole of the 

 upper half of the body had dissolved, leaving the 

 digestive tube standing like an isolated pillar at 

 the centre. Notwithstanding this mutilation, the 

 animal appeared to be as lively as ever, gliding up 

 and down the glass with the same easy and rapid 

 motion. At length the stomach and mouth fell 

 off, and it underwent a gradual reduction of its 

 dimensions, retaining its activity to the last. 

 Finally, the tentacula fell away, and the last 

 trace of the crystal ball of the beroe, which was 



