SEA-BLUBBERS. 



79 



tooned, and scalloped disk, often a full foot or even more 

 across, it flaps its way through the yielding waters, and 

 drags after it a long train of riband-like arms and seem- 

 ingly interminable tails, marking its course when the body 

 is far away from us. Once tangled in its trailing ' hair,' the 

 unfortunate who has recklessly ventured across the grace- 

 ful monster's path, too soon writhes in prickly torture. 

 Every struggle but binds the poisonous threads more 

 firmly round his body, and then there is no escape ; for 

 when the winder of the fatal net finds his course impeded 

 by the terrified human wrestling in its coils, he, seeking 

 no combat with the mightier biped, casts loose his en- 

 venomed arms and swims away. The amputated weapons, 

 severed from their parent body, vent vengeance on the 

 cause of their destruction, and sting as fiercely as if their 

 original proprietor itself gave the word of attack." * 



This remarkable property, there can be no doubt, resides 

 in the barbed threads, which are projected with amazing 

 force from elastic capsules, and which are, in all proba- 

 bility, connected with a reservoir of the most subtile 

 poison. They are accumulated in vast numbers in the 

 tentacles, in the fimbriated furbelows, and in the edges of 

 the lips, and probably in other parts. It is an astonishing 

 sight to witness the propulsion of myriads of these jave- 

 lins, crossing and recrossing their mutual courses, and 

 rapidly turning themselves inside out, for, as we have 

 before stated, the projection of each thread is an actual 

 evolution oj its ivhole length. 



Another property common to the Sea-blubbers, though 

 not constant in all the species, is that of emitting phos- 



* Brit. Naked-eyed Medusse, p. 10, 



