248 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
the air, in part, for the centre of gravity in the animal is displaced, 
according as the air is in the vesicle or in the crest. When the last 
is distended it rises out of the water, and becomes nearly vertical ; in 
short, it then becomes a sort of sail. The floating appendages beneath 
the body are of divers kinds. Some of these are reproductive indivi- 
duals ; some are nurses ; some are tentacles ; finally, there are organs 
designated under the name of Rondes by French naturalists ; probes or 
suckers, we may call them, forming offensive and defensive arms truly 
formidable; for these elegant creatures are terrible antagonists. 
J) uter t re, the veracious historian of the Antilles, relates the following : 
“ This ‘ galley ’ (our Physalia), however agreeable to the sight, is most 
dangerous to the body, for I can assert that it is freighted with the 
worst merchandise which floats on the sea. I speak as a naturalist, 
and as having made experiments at my own personal cost. One day, 
when sailing at sea in a small boat, I perceived one of these little 
‘ galleys,’ and was curious to see the form of the animal ; but I had 
scarcely seized it, when all its fibres seemed to clasp my hand, covering 
it as with birdlime, and scarcely had I felt it in all its freshness (for 
it is very cold to the touch) when it seemed as if I had plunged my 
arm up to the shoulder in a cauldron of boiling water. This was 
accompanied with a pain so strange that it was only with a violent 
effort I could restrain myself from crying aloud.” 
Another voyager, Leblond, in his “Voyage aux Antilles,” relates as 
follows : “ One day I was bathing with some friends in a bay in front 
of the house where I dwelt. While my friends fished for sardines for 
breakfast, I amused myself by diving, in the manner of the native 
Carribeans, under the wave about to break ; having reached the other 
side of one great wave, I had gained the open sea, and was returning 
on the top of the next wave towards the shore. My rashness nearly 
cost me my life : a Physalia, many of which were stranded upon the 
beach, fixed itself upon my left shoulder at the moment tho wave 
landed me on the beach. I promptly detached it, but many of its 
filaments remained glued to my skin, and the pain I experienced 
immediately was so intense that I nearly fainted. I seized an oil 
flask which was at hand, and swallowed one half, while I rubbed my 
arm with the other : this restored me to myself, and I returned to the 
house, where two hours of repose relieved the pain, which disappeared 
altogether during the night.” 
