The most interesting part of the work for the naturalist is still to
come. On our return to the Laboratory, the contents of the buckets are
poured into separate glass bowls and jars; holding them up against the
light, we can see which are our best and rarest specimens; these we
dip out in glass cups and place by themselves. If any small specimens
are swimming about at the bottom of the jar, and refuse to come within
our reach, there is a very simple mode of catching them. Dip a glass
tube into the water, keeping the upper end closed with your finger,
and sink it till the lower end is just above the animal you want to
entrap; then lift your finger, and as the air rushes out the water
rushes in, bringing with it the little creature you are trying to
catch. When the specimens are well assorted, the microscope is taken
out, and the rest of the day is spent in studying the new
Jelly-fishes, recording the results, making notes, drawings, &c.
Still more attractive than the rows by day are the night expeditions
in search of Jelly-fishes. For this object we must choose a quiet
night, for they will not come to the surface if the water is troubled.
Nature has her culminating hours, and she brings us now and then a day
or night on which she seems to have lavished all her treasures. It was
on such a rare evening, at the close of the summer of 1862, that we
rowed over the same course by Saunders's Ledge and East Point
described above. The August moon was at her full, the sky was without
a cloud, and we floated on a silver sea; pale streamers of the aurora
quivered in the north, and notwithstanding the brilliancy of the moon,
they too cast their faint reflection in the ocean. We rowed quietly
along past the Ledge, past Castle Rock, the still surface of the water
unbroken, except by the dip of the oars and the ripple of the boat,
till we reached the line off East Point, where the Jelly-fishes are
always most abundant, if they are to be found at all. Now dip the net
into the water. What genie under the sea has wrought this wonderful
change? Our dirty, torn old net is suddenly turned to a web of gold,
and as we lift it from the water heavy rills of molten metal seem to
flow down its sides and collect in a glowing mass at the bottom. The
truth is, the Jelly-fishes, so sparkling and brilliant in the
sunshine, have a still lovelier light of their own at night; they give
out a greenish golden light as brilliant as that of the brightest
glow-worm, and on a calm summer night, at the spawning season, when
they come to the surface in swarms, if you do but dip your hand into
the water it breaks into sparkling drops beneath your touch. There are
no more beautiful phosphorescent animals in the sea than the Medusæ;
it would seem that the expression, "rills of molten metal" could
hardly apply to anything so impalpable as a Jelly-fish, but, although
so delicate in structure, their gelatinous disks give them a weight
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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