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NATURAL SCIENCE NEWS. 



have a trifle more solid structure, 

 but all are exceedingly soft and 

 frail. 



Very many of the more delicate 

 species are so transparent that the 

 casual observer often fails to see 

 ever}' portion of a specimen, even 

 in the still water of the aquarium, 

 until a movement of the animal 

 presents its parts in a different 

 light. 



A great variety exists in the 

 shape of these animals, and they 

 vary no less in size, some being so 

 small as to be entirely overlooked 

 by the casual observer, while Agas- 

 siz mentions one a cyanea arctia, a 

 sea blubber, whose umbrella-shap- 

 ed disk measured seven feet across, 

 while the tentacles which streamed 

 behind him measured roughly 

 about one hundred and twelve feet. 

 The parent of this monster is one 

 of many from a single egg, trans- 

 formed first into a stalk not unlike 

 a cabbage stump in shape, but 

 which subsequently changes into a 

 tolerable representation of a pile 

 of saucers, open side up. Each 

 saucer, when cast off, turns over 

 and is then a perfect cyanea. Yet 

 the stalk which produces all these, 

 when full grown, is but an inch or 

 so in hight. Were it not for their 

 delicate structure these creatures 

 would be as dangerous as sharks, 

 for each of these long tentacles is 

 capable of producing a severe 

 smarting sensation by mere con- 

 tact, while their nearly perfect 

 transparency renders their noise- 

 less approach almost imperceptible. 

 Bathers along the coast of the At- 

 lantic often encounter these un- 

 awares, and lose no time in ex- 

 tricating themselves from the dil- 

 emma, while large, red swellings, 

 not unlike those produced by net- 

 tles, attest the truth of the contact. 

 It sometimes happens that the 

 jelly fishes which are possessed of 

 these stinging threads — for many 

 of the species are without them — 

 find themselves entangled with a 

 too formidable antagonist. In 

 such an event they drop or shed 

 the tentacles, and escape with all 

 possible haste; but 'notwithstand- 

 ing their separation from the body 

 of the jelly fish, contact with the 

 dead tentacles is equally painful as 

 when living. 



The stinging property is used by 

 the jelly fish not only for defence 

 but also for the purpose of paral- 

 yzing and retaining its prey, which 

 consists of small Crustacea, fish 

 and other jelly fish, or polyps. 

 Captured individuals often show 

 the remnants of a meal, their trans- 

 parency affording the most perfect 



study of their internal organisms. 

 These tentacles are covered by 

 minute cells, lasso cells as they 

 are called, each one of which con- 

 tains a whip finer than the finest 

 thread, coiled in a spiral within it. 

 These are thrown out at the will 

 of the animal, and their move- 

 ments are so instantaneous that 

 their irritating power is very great. 



The Portuguese man of war is 

 also an acaleph, belonging to a 

 prominent genus. This individual, 

 physalia areihusa, is one of the 

 most remarkable of the group. 

 The pear-shaped sack, ornamented 

 with a sort of shirt ruffle fringe or 

 crest, and filled with air, grace- 

 fully floats upon the surface of a 

 calm sea, while beneath it trail 

 numerous appendages of various 

 functions. These may be com- 

 pared to the members of a military 

 or communist organization. Each 

 pendant has its own peculiar duty. 

 Some are the providers, commis- 

 saries; others are the locomotive 

 organs, while still others are 

 charged with the duty of growing 

 new medusa^ buds for the perpetu- 

 ation of the race. Those tentacles 

 which belong to the transporta- 

 tion department often extend to a 

 distance of thirty feet from the 

 main body of the animal, which is 

 usually but five or six inches in 

 length. This hydroid is properly 

 an inhabitant of the tropical seas, 

 but occasionally, having drifted 

 into the Gulf Stream, it is borne 

 along the shores of the Atlantic far 

 away from its native home. 



The hydroids are not all free to 

 move about at will. Agassiz and 

 Vogt have thrown the two togeth- 

 er, this simple difference not war- 

 ranting distinctive groups in which 

 earlier naturalists had placed them. 

 Many of the hydroids bear a close 

 resemblance to some species of 

 vegetation growing on the bottom, 

 where at low tide they are taken 

 by the casual observer for marine 

 plants. Some of these are exceed- 

 ingly minute; and the little bell; or 

 buds, in which the diminutive em- 

 bryo creatures are imprisoned, are, 

 to all casual observers, flower buds 

 or seed vessels. This is also true 

 of the polyps, which, in structure 

 and colors, resemble nearly every 

 form of vegetable life. 



The colors of the jelly fishes are 

 as varied as are their forms and 

 dimensions. In the bolina for in- 

 stance, there is a marked resem- 

 blance to a beautiful white flower. 

 The cyanea is a dark, brownish red 

 with a milk-white margin, and ten- 

 tacles of purple, yellow, and pink. 

 Idyia is mostly of a bright pink, 



while red, yellow, orange, green, 

 and purple chase each other rapid- 

 ly along its undulating fringes. 

 Other varieties appear in no lessj 

 beautiful and different shades of 

 beauty; while at night, if the sky 

 be overcast or the moon is not a 

 disturbing witness, the slightest 

 movement, of the depths where 

 these delicate beauties are, brings 

 out the most resplendent flashes ofi 

 green and gold and liquid phos- 

 phorescent flames that seem almost 

 to kindle the entire waters. My- 

 riads of the lesser varieties, scarce- 

 ly noticeable in the bright light of 

 day, thus disturbed, become globes 

 of brilliant gold, and the oars of 

 the boat, as they rise from the 

 water, drip with liquid flame given 

 out by these and other minute in- 

 habitants of the deep, while the 

 glistening particles extend far in 

 the diverging wake of the passing 

 craft. — Home and School. 



Meteorites. 



In the present article we propose 

 to consider the so-called detonating 

 meteors, or bolides, which from 

 time to time fall upon the earth as 

 masses of stone or metal. It may 

 indeed be a question whether these 

 bodies really differ[jfrom the ordi- 

 nary meteors in anything but size; 

 many of the highest authorities 

 think they do not. Still the fact 

 that even during the most remark- 

 able meteoric showers no sound 

 has been heard, and not a single 

 fragment has been known to reach 

 the ground, seems to warrant us 

 in classing the bodies by them- 

 selves, at least provisionally. They 

 appear to bear much the same re- 

 lation to the shooting stars which 

 planets do towards comets. 



As late as 1800 men of science 

 in general were disposed to be 

 very skeptical as to accounts of 

 stones and iron falling from the 

 sky, and those who admitted the] 

 fact had recourse to most curious 

 and absurd hypotheses to account 

 for it: some, for instance, thought 

 the stones were formed in the air 

 by lightning, while others main- 

 tained that they came from volca- 

 noes on the earth or moon. Chald- 

 ni, however, in 1794 published a 

 paper upon the origin of a remark- 

 able mass of native iron found by 

 Pallas, the Russian explorer in Si- 

 beria, maintaining it to be meteor- 

 ic, as is now universally admitted; 

 and to strengthen his position, he 

 went into a careful criticism of . vari- 

 ous accounts of the fall of such bod- 

 ies, compiling a catalogue of some 



