CHAPTER VII.

WANDERERS IN THE WORLD OF WATERS.

Hairy Creatures Roaming in the Deep-Immense Variety of Jelly-Fishes-The Shining Sea-"Myriads of Living Points"-Bathers Entangled in Hair-Portu guese Man-of-War-The "Jelly" Curiously Born-Hunger never SatisfiedThe Trunk Fish-Mailed Rovers of the Sea-A Fish with Spurs-Famous Narwhal-Extraordinary Weapon-Finest Ivory in the World-Old Superstitious Notions-The Race of Sticklebacks-A Spiny Covering-Strong Defence against Foes-Sticklebacks in a Tub-Trying to Swallow an Eel-Fishes Building Nests-Desperate Fighters-Nest Builder Discovered by Agassiz-Great Travellers-Unlimited Greediness-The Fan Fish-Native of Indian Waters-Lump Sucker-Strange-Looking Creature-The Sea-Snail-Sucker Fish-A Fish that Sticks-Towed Free by other Fishes-Riding Hundreds of Miles without Moving a Fin-Harness Fish-Toothless Swimmer-Delicious Eating-Hard Armor- -Marvelous Turbot-Turbot Fishing-The Sly Silurus-Urchin FishBalloon of the Ocean-Air Out and Fish Under Water-Arrow Pike-A Dart in the Sea-Hearty Eater-Vast Size-Real "Old Salt"-Sharks and their Eggs.

IF the growth of the jelly-fish an interesting story may be told. A little oval body, covered with very fine hairs, swam about in the sea for some days, and then fixed itself by its smaller lower end. The opposite end now became depressed, the four corners became lengthened, and these were soon changed into tentacles, which so multiplied as to cover the upper end. Then transverse wrinkles might be observed on the body at regular distances, appearing first above and very slight, afterwards extending downwards, but all growing deeper and deeper, the edge of each one becoming serrated, or saw-like, so that the creature presents the appearance of a pine cone, surmounted by a tuft of tentacles. A separation is meanwhile going on, until the divisions resemble a pile of cups placed within each other. The upper ring is first detached, the others successively follow, and each one continues its development by itself, until it becomes a complete medusa, or jelly-fish. Thus what was at first a single individual becomes, by minute division, a number of en tirely distinct animals. Moreover, the upper segment is not developed like the rest: it is intended merely to favor their growth by securing and preparing the substances they need; and its office appears to be performed as soon as the other segments begin to be dependent.

Of the jelly-fishes there is an immense variety:

Some in huge masses, some that you may bring

In the small compass of a lady's ring;

Figured by hand divine, there's not a gem,

Wrought by man's art, to be compared with them,

They consist generally, when full grown, of a large, circular, gelatinous disk, convex above, and somewhat concave on the under surface, from which the feeding organs hang pendent. Strange to say, little fishes, alarmed by the sight of an enemy, rush under this mushroom or umbrella-like form, to remain until the danger is past, and then emerge again to sport and play about their sheltering friend. Fresh light is being continually thrown on the structure, varieties, and habits of the jelly-fish; and the more we know of them, the greater is our astonishment and admiration.

Astounding, indeed, is the story of a medusa's growth; yet, if possible, still more so is the fact that this creature has eyes, each of which is a gelatinous spherule of a deep red tint, protected on each side by two pairs of long, pendant lobes. When crushed beneath the compressorum, it discharged a multitude of prisms of highly refractile substance, set close together.

Unrivalled Brilliancy of the Ocean.

Night often presents to the voyager a phosphorescent scene of unrivalled splendor and beauty. It is as if the sea were an immense plane of glass studded with diamonds of the first magnitude; or as if the luminous points with which its whole surface is literally bestrewed were sparks of fire. If they are regarded, as they have been, as efflorescences of flame, they pass the sides of the vessel every moment, and form in her wake a train of brilliancy such as no comet "e'er drew o'er half the heavens." Sir Walter Scott thus pictures it in vivid words :

Awaked before the rushing prow,
The mimic fires of ocean glow,
Those lightnings of the wave;

Wild sparkles crest the broken tides,
And flashing round, the vessel's sides
With elfish lustre lave;

While far behind, their livid light
To the dark billows of the night
A gloomy splendor gave.

Poppig in his "Voyage to Chili," says: From the top-mast the sea appeared, as far as the eye could reach, of a dark red color, and this in at streak the breadth of which was estimated at six miles. As we sailed slowly along, we found that the color changed into a brilliant purple, so

that even the foam which is seen at the stern of a ship under sail, was of a rose color. The sight was very striking, because this purple streak was marked by a very distinct line from the blue waters of the sea, a circumstance which we the more easily observed, because our course lay directly through the midst of this streak, which extended from south-east to northwest. The water taken up in a basket appeared, indeed, quite transparent; but a faint purple tinge was perceptible when a few drops were placed upon • a piece of white china, and moved rapidly backwards and forwards in the sunshine.

Infinite Numbers of Animalcules.

A moderate magnifying glass showed these little red dots, which only with great attention could be discovered with the naked eye, to consist of animalcules, which were of a spherical form, entirely destitute of all external organs of motion. We sailed for four hours, at a mean rate of six miles an hour, through this streak, which was seven miles broad, before we reached the end of it; and its superficies must, therefore, have been about a hundred and sixty-eight square miles. If we add that these animals may have been equally distributed in the upper stratum of water to the depth of six feet, we must confess that their numbers infinitely surpassed the conception of the human understanding.

Hence Crabbe says to the sea-side visitor

While thus, with pleasing wonder, you inspect
Treasures the vulgar in their scorn reject,
See as they float along the entangled weeds,
Slowly approach, upborne by bladdery reeds;
Wait till they land, and you shall then behold
The fiery sparks those tangled fronds enfold;
Myriads of living points: the unaided eye

Can but the fire, and not the form, descry.

Spallanzani affirms that this phosphorescence is owing, in the medusæ, to a glutinous substance issuing from certain parts of the body. Expressed into different liquids, as into salt water, but especially into fresh water, warm, or milk, it gives to them a phosphoric light. A single jellyfish, he says, thus expressed into twenty-seven ounces of cow's milk, rendered it so resplendent that we might have read the character of a letter by it at the distance of three feet. The dead medusa possessed for a considerable time its phosphorescence, and it was renewed by pouring water upon it, even some time after it had ceased to shine.

Two jelly-fishes, out of an immense variety, are, according to Forbes, the only true nettles of our seas. One of these-the hairy cyanea has a dingy, dark-brown disk, about a foot across, and it drags after a great

number of filaments, like coarse hair. Woe to the bather who comes into contact with one, for to get out of its entangling meshes seems impossible, until the creature, finding its course impeded, uncoils its hair, and leaves him to himself. We have known more than one instance of great suffering from such an accident. There appears a considerable redness in the parts which have been touched, and swellings of the same color. Dicquemare says: After the end of some days, when the pain is gone by, the heat of the bed will cause the blisters of the skin to re-appear.

Sudden Collapse.

Another singular fact should not be omitted. If a common jelly-fish be taken from the sea or the shore in some vessel and carried home, and if it be looked for a few hours after, it will be gone. All that remains will be water, not distinguishable by the chemest from sea-water, except a small piece of membrane: yet these, with life, formed a medusa-a creature with many powers.

Jelly-fishes would hardly be seen in the water, were it not for their beautiful colors. The common varieties move by the alternate contracions and dilations of the gelatinous disk; others, like the Portugese man-of-war, have a large vesicle, which supports the whole community at the surface of the ocean, motion being effected by the contractile tentacles and the contraction of the air bladder

This class presents the curious phenomena of alternate generations. The "tubularia," common in pools left by the tide, hangs like a flower from a slender tube, with the mouth surrounded by tentacles, each animal connected with the rest of the community and each mouth receiving nutriment for the whole. The young of this hydroid do not resemble the parent, but are little, delicate, translucent jelly-fishes, like little cups, from which hang down long threads and a proboscis at the end, which is the mouth. By the side of the buds branching out from the parent hang bunches of little spheres, from which the jelly-fishes are produced. Along the proboscis of the floating cups are other spheres of eggs from which are produced little pear-shaped bodies, which grow into the first mentioned branching hydroid. The grandparent therefore resembles the grandchild and the hydroid is reproduced through a generation of jelly, fishes.

A Hungry Race of Creatures.

Some very handsome jelly-fishes do not originate from any hydroid, but reproduce themselves by eggs. They are very voracious, feeding upon minute crustaceans, almost any small marine creatures, decaying animal or vegetable matter, and even their own species.