RADIATES. 



343 



met with in summer on most 

 parts of the coast, swimming 

 near the surface, and may 

 readily be taken in a gauze 

 drag-net. It has a melon- 

 shaped body, from half an 

 inch to nearly an inch in 

 length, clear as crystal, and 

 divided, as it were, into 

 gores by eight longitudinal 

 equidistant bands or ribs. 

 These ribs, when minutely 

 examined, are found clothed 

 with innumerable flat plates 

 resembling the paddles of 

 a water-wheel placed one 

 above another, and acting 

 under the control of the will 

 of the animal. When the 

 Beroe wishes to move, these 

 paddles are set in motion, 

 and by their united action 

 on the water propel the liv- 

 ing globe of crystal, with a 

 swift and easy motion, for- 

 ward or backward, as it 

 wills; and when it wishes 

 to turn, it merely stops the 

 movement of the paddles on 

 one side. The cilia, in sunlight, reflect brilliant prismatic 

 colors, and in darkness flash with a beautiful blue light. 

 Delicate as are its organs of motion, the fishing appara- 

 tus of the Beroe is not less elegant. This consists of two 

 long and exceedingly slender tentacula, five or six inches 

 in length when fully extended, but capable of being whol- 

 ly drawn within the body of the creature, where they are 

 lodged in tubular sheaths. To the long filament is at- 



Fig. 269. Beroe. 



