Ch. XXI.] SHO-AIiS OF JELLY-FISHES. 3C1 



Cape Santubon, through a ntiinber of magnificent Puhno- 

 grades. The upper part of the umbrella was pilose, or 

 hairy, with long papillae ; the circumference was fiinged 

 with slender tentacles, and the pedicels gave rise to magnifi- 

 cent grape-like masses, the whole being of a delicate white 

 colour, and ftdly 18 inches in diameter. In the following 

 month, in the strait which separates the island of Singapore 

 from the Malay peninsula, I observed a great number of the 

 same beautiful Pelagian, and accompanying it some speci- 

 mens of a small and elegant, brown, torquoise-studded 

 species, similar to one I had already obtained in Victoria 

 Harbour, Labuan, and in which it may be here mentioned 

 I found a small crab within the umbrella, beneath which it 

 appeared to reside. 



To show, however, the vast numbers of these animals 

 which swim freely in the ocean, I will mention that, in the 

 Atlantic, in lat. 3|° S. and long. 17° W., we encountered a 

 shoal of Acalephs, all of the same species, the individuals 

 of which were among the most beautiful in form and colour- 

 ing that I have ever met with. They were of a delicate ame- 

 thystine tint, speckled all over with a deeper colour ; the 

 umbrella was semitransparent, and the whole form wonder- 

 fully graceful. Just before sunset we passed through them 

 for a space of two hours, during which time we had tra- 

 versed ten miles. Supposing that this shoal were at least 

 as broad as long, it was easy to calculate roughly that there 

 could not be less than thirty millions of individuals con- 

 stituting it, an estimate probably far below the truth. Well 

 might Spenser exclaim ia the " Faery Queen," — 



" So fertile te the floods in generation ! " 



It occasionally happened that the observation of a shoal 



