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Page 8
FOOTNOTES:
[1] 1. _Friends in Council: a Series of Headings and Discourse
thereon_. New Edition. Two vols. 2. _Companions of my Solitude_.
Pickering. London: 1851.
JELLY-FISHES.
We inscribe at the head of this paper the popular name of a class of
beings, which, though simple in their organisation, are full of
interest to the zoologist, and attractive to the common observer from
the singularity or beauty of their forms, and, in many cases, the
brilliancy of their colouring. The ocean, throughout its wide extent,
swarms with myriads of gelatinous creatures--some microscopic, some of
large dimensions--which deck it with the gayest colours by day, and at
night light up its dreary waste with 'mimic fires,' and make it glow
and sparkle as if, like the heavens, it had its galaxies and
constellations. These are the jelly-fishes, or sea-nettles
(_Acaleph�_), as they are often called, from the stinging properties
with which some of them are endowed. The commoner forms are well
known, for the beach is often strewn with the carcasses of the larger
species. On fine days in summer and autumn, whole fleets of these
strange voyagers appear off our coasts. Their umbrella-shaped,
transparent disks float gracefully through the calm water, and their
long fishing-lines trail after them as they move onward. At times,
multitudes, almost invisible to the naked eye, tenant every wave, and
give it by night a crest of flame; while other kinds measure as much
as a yard in diameter. The _Acaleph�_ present the greatest variety of
form and colour, as well as of size, but they are all of the most
delicate structure, frail, gelatinous, transparent. Some are so
perfectly colourless, that their presence can with difficulty be
detected in the water.
The following description, by Professor E. Forbes, applies to a large
proportion of the species:--'They are active in their habits, graceful
in their motions, gay in their colouring, delicate as the finest
membrane, transparent as the purest crystal.' The poet Crabbe has
characterised them well in the following passage:--
'Those living jellies which the flesh inflame,
Fierce as a nettle, and from that the name;
Some in huge masses, some that you might 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 to them;
Soft, brilliant, tender, through the wave they glow,
And make the moonbeam brighter where they flow.'
The first thing that arrests our attention in these creatures is the
extreme delicacy and tenuity of their substance. The jelly-fish is
chiefly made up of fluid. A quantity of water and a thin membranaceous
film, these are its chief component parts. Professor Owen has
ascertained that a large individual, weighing two pounds, when removed
from the sea, will be represented, when the fluid which it contains is
drained off, 'by a thin film of membrane not exceeding thirty grams in
weight.' Naturalists have commonly described the jelly-fish as being
little more than 'coagulated water' and the description is correct.
And yet these masses of film and fluid, floating at the mercy of wind
and wave, possess powers which we should hardly associate with so
simple a structure, and can accomplish works of which we should little
suspect them. Delicate and defenceless as they appear, they can
capture fishes of large size, and digest them with ease and rapidity.
Some of them are in truth formidable monsters. Professor E. Forbes
gives the following humorous description of the destructive
propensities of some medus� which he had captured in the Zetland
seas:--'Being kept,' he says, 'in a jar of salt-water with small
crustacea, they devoured these animals, so much more highly organised
than themselves, voraciously; apparently enjoying the destruction of
the unfortunate members of the upper classes with a truly democratic
relish. One of them even attacked and commenced the swallowing of a
_Lizzia octopunctata_, quite as good a medusa as itself. An animal
which can pout out its mouth twice the length of its body, and stretch
its stomach to corresponding dimensions, must indeed be "a triton
among the minnows;" and a very terrific one too. Yet is this ferocious
creature one of the most delicate and graceful of the inhabitants of
the ocean--a very model of tenderness and elegance.'
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