THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 137 



angles) from which depend numerous deep blue tentacles. From 

 the upper surface, which is covered with dark blue spots, is a thin 

 plate rising vertically along the back, used as a sail, so say the old- 

 est naturalists. But I think I have read something like this about 

 the nautilus : — 



"Spreading their sail-lilte arms to catch the breeze." 

 The idea may be poetical, but it is very erroneous. 



The Physalice. — Of a higher order as regards size, pre-eminent in 

 beauty, and surpassing all other medusae of the Tropics, is the phy- 

 salia caravella, or Portuguese man-of-war, so called by the ancient 

 mariners from a supposed resemblance to the caravels of this 

 once great maritime kingdom. The transparent body about a 

 foot in length and four inches wide displays every shade from purple 

 to violet, while the comb-like sail at the upper extremity is brilliant 

 crimson, the tentacles hanging from the lower portion of the body 

 itself trail behind in rear. They are also coloured, the shades 

 slightly differing from the body tints. It can extend the arms to a 

 distance of twenty feet ; they can contract themselves so as almost 

 to disappear altogether ; they possess the means of paralyzing the 

 prey they embrace. 



On my passage to Jamaica in a troop ship, I induced the cook 

 to rig up for me a rough sort of landing net out of some spare ones 

 he boiled the vegetables in for the midshipmen's mess. I felt quite 

 pleased at the great interest the young gentlemen themselves took in 

 the proceeding, more especially when one of them volunteered to 

 take up a position in the bow (from whence the sailors harpoon the 

 dolphins) to angle for me. "I have him this time," cried the young 

 reefer (or rascal), and as he lifted the net I eagerly pressed forward 

 to the front, and fearing my beauty might succeed in slipping back in- 

 to its native element, I seized it firmly. Had I grasped a red hot 

 iron bar I could not have dropped it more suddenly. Whether the 

 shock proceeded from the body itself or the tentacles I am unable to 

 say, but I never felt anything so painful. Indeed, nothing can be 

 more truthful than the remarks of Dutertre, in his history of the 

 Antilles, where he alludes to the corrosive qualities of this extraor- 

 dinary creature : — " Even man, when he comes in contact with its 

 tentacles, needlessly or through ignorance, suffers excruciating pain. 

 One day when sailing in a small boat I saw a physalia, and being 

 anxious to examine it more closely, I tried to get hold of it. 



