44 



ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



small part in producing this phenomenon, especially 

 where the tint of the water may be inclined to 

 red. The minute globular animalcule, with a dark- 

 coloured tail, advancing by a curious zigzag motion, 

 figured in Plate 16, No. 19, of the work referred to, 

 seems to me to be this anomalous creature. I once 

 examined a track of reddish water off' the Zetlands, 

 and found the Appendicularia to be the cause of 

 the colour. Its true position in the animal king- 

 dom has just been made out, and Mr. Huxley has 

 established its claims to a higher rank than that held 

 by the jelly-fishes with which it keeps company. 



The members of the medusa tribe, which appear 

 to abound most in the Arctic seas, are ciliograda, 

 creatures which are, for the most part, more or less 

 spherical in shape, or else simulate strips of rib- 

 band, always as transparent as the purest crystal, 

 and moving through the water by means of vari- 

 ously arranged bands of thread-like hyaline fins, 

 which, as they flap, all in each long row keeping 

 exact time, decompose the rays of light, and glitter 

 with the hues of the rainbow. More exquisitely 

 beautiful creatures than these - Beroidae (for so the 

 tribe is called) do not exist among all the won- 

 drous beings that people the sea. The elegance of 

 their shapes is equalled by the grace of their 

 movements; and when the prismatic lustre of their 

 bands of cilia marks the course of their crystal 

 bodies, as they swim with gentle motion through 

 the water, they seem as if they were diamonds 



