IN FEATHERS AND FUR. 263 
A FUNNY FAMIL K 
You've heard a good deal about the families who live in the 
sea. There are the Polypi/era, the Mollusca, and — O dear! I can't 
tell you half the interesting families, with dreadful names, who live 
in that damp place. 
I wonder what they'd think, if they knew what names they are 
known by, up here! 
I want to tell you about one family. They have their honorable, 
scientific name as well as their neighbors, and it is Medusa, but 
people not very wise — like you and me — call them Jelly Fishes. 
It's a very good name for them, too, for they have no bones, 
and they look more like lumps of jelly than anything else. When 
they die, they just melt, or dissolve away into nothing. A Jelly 
Fish weighing thirty pounds, will, in a short time, fairly melt away, 
and leave hardly anything but a wet spot on the sand. 
In spite of this unpleasant habit, they are the most beautiful 
family in the ocean. To begin with, they are almost transparent, 
like soap bubbles, and of the most exquisite colors. They are so 
brilliant, that in pleasant weather, when they ride near the surface, 
they color the sea for miles and miles. And at night, they not only 
color it, but give it a most wonderful phosphorescence. 
The waves fairly sparkle ; and at any disturbance, the water seems 
to burst into red or blue flames. A boat going through, seems to sail 
in a lake of melted silver; and the spray looks all afire. It is a 
marvelous and beautiful sight, and all due to these little Jelly 
Fishes. 
These soft, transparent little fellows, are not very easily exam- 
ined. There really seems to be nothing of them but a lump of jelly, 
and naturalists couldn't make much out of them, till one of them 
happened to think of an experiment to try. 
He could easily find a mouth, — indeed, I suppose there's hardly 
a creature in the sea, or out of it, that hasn't that useful organ. 
Well, into this mouth he forced some milk. The funniest dose that 
Jelly Fish ever took. 
Of course the milk went to his stomach ; and as the naturalist 
could see through him, he could see just where it went. And thus 
