56 NATURAL HISTORY READER. 



men stand no chance. It is believed by scientific men 

 that many of the cases of the sudden drowning of expe- 

 rienced swimmers is owing in as large degree to the attack 

 of these beautiful and inoffensive-looking sea-creatures as to 

 cramp. 



4. Floating on the bosom of the waters, the medusa 

 resembles a bell, an umbrella, or, better still, a Moating 

 mushroom, the stalk of which has been separated into 

 lobes more or less divergent, sinuous, twisted, shriveled, 

 fringed, the edges of the cup being delicately cut, and 

 provided with long thread-like appendages, which descend 

 vertically into the water like the drooping branches of the 

 weeping willow. 



5. The gelatinous substance of which the body of the 

 medusa is formed is sometimes as clear as crystal, some- 

 times opaline, and sometimes bright blue or pale rose-color. 

 Indeed, almost every color of the solar spectrum is repre- 

 sented in these little creatures. The shining tissue, decked 

 out in the finest tints, is so fragile that, when washed up 

 on the beach, it disappears in the sun without leaving a 

 trace behind. Yet these living soap-bubbles of the sea 

 make long voyages, and in some parts of the ocean abound 

 in such enormous quantity that they make the principal 

 food of the greatest of sea-animals, the whale. 



6. They swim by their long tentacles and by contraction 

 and dilatation of their bodies ; and the ancients, from this 

 peculiar movement of the medusa;, named them sea-lungs. 

 Wandering over the seas in immense battalions, if an ob- 

 stacle arrests them or an enemy touches them, the umbrella 

 contracts, the tentacles are folded up, and the timid ani- 

 mals sink into the depths of the ocean. 



7. The medusas are furnished with a mouth, placed ha- 

 bitually in the middle of the umbrella-like head ; a mouth, 

 too, which is rarely empty, for the animal is voracious in 

 the extreme, devouring even shell-fish, and attacking sue- 



