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and club-room ^ s , telescopes and gossip , billiards and cigars , —ever to be connected , we believe , with the sea-side , —do not form our theme , but the wonders of the shore , — " stranger than ever opium-eater dreamed , and yet to be seen at no greater expense than a very little time and trouble /'
How may we ascertain the colour of the sea ? Is it blue , or green , or red , or yellow ? At times it seems to possess all these various tints . Pure water is blue , a fine blue as that roadway abounding in crevasses , which we have traversed , the mer de glace , the blue waters of Lake Leman , or the grottos of Capri . Then , according as the rays of the sun fall , the sea appears green ; while at times the waves ,
filled with millions of minute phosphorescent creatures , appear scarlet , and flash before the vessel as though the sea were set on fire by the swiftly-rolling wheels of Neptune ' s chariot . Many of these fiery mariners are in diameter no more than the one-thousandth part of an inch . This light is , like that of the glowworm , provided for some good purpose known to the Creator , —to us it is a wonderful phenomenon . In our seas the noctiluca miliaris is the most common ; it
appears , when magnified , like a globe with a tail proceeding from an oval nucleus , surrounded on all sides with branching vessels . " This creature , " says Mr . Grosse , " which produces the brightest light of all , is a kind of sea-worm { nereis cirrigera ) ; it lives in groups or large masses , among the branches of sea-weed ; and when portions of this are thrown on shore by the waves , the animals survive and continue to shine very brilliantlv for several days . " It is to medusov ,
a genus of marine animals in the class Acaleptra , which nearly all give a luminous appearance , that the Red Sea is supposed to owe the origin of its name . The medusa ? go generally by the name of jellyfish ; " they present to the eye , " says Maunder , " when floating in their native element , an umbrella-shaped disc , from beneath which a number of tentacula or filaments depend . In the central part of the concave side of this disc is the stomach , in the middle of which is the
mouth , opening downwards , and surrounded by four leaf-like tentacula .... they receive nutriment by means of innumerable minute pores ; and in their stomachs are found small Crustacea , mollusca , and even fishes . At certain seasons many of them sting and inflame the hand that touches them ; and their tentacula seem to possess trie nana unat touenes tnem ; ana xneir lenracuia seem to possess
considerable muscular power , capable of drawing towards the mouth almost anything that comes within their reach . They swim by muscular contraction of the margins of the disc . " Many persons do not know that cockles are given to tumbling , and may attend , as they doubtless do , the pleasure-fairs in the seaworld . May they not wish , like we do in our wild moments , to be mermen , and say , in the words of our Poet Laureate : —
I would be a merman bold ; I would sit and « ing tbe whole of the day ; I would fill the sea-halls with a voice of power ; But at night I would roam abroad , and play With the mermaidfl in and out of the rocks . 5 fl 5 |» " JfC "W ^ fr
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
and club-room ^ s , telescopes and gossip , billiards and cigars , —ever to be connected , we believe , with the sea-side , —do not form our theme , but the wonders of the shore , — " stranger than ever opium-eater dreamed , and yet to be seen at no greater expense than a very little time and trouble /'
How may we ascertain the colour of the sea ? Is it blue , or green , or red , or yellow ? At times it seems to possess all these various tints . Pure water is blue , a fine blue as that roadway abounding in crevasses , which we have traversed , the mer de glace , the blue waters of Lake Leman , or the grottos of Capri . Then , according as the rays of the sun fall , the sea appears green ; while at times the waves ,
filled with millions of minute phosphorescent creatures , appear scarlet , and flash before the vessel as though the sea were set on fire by the swiftly-rolling wheels of Neptune ' s chariot . Many of these fiery mariners are in diameter no more than the one-thousandth part of an inch . This light is , like that of the glowworm , provided for some good purpose known to the Creator , —to us it is a wonderful phenomenon . In our seas the noctiluca miliaris is the most common ; it
appears , when magnified , like a globe with a tail proceeding from an oval nucleus , surrounded on all sides with branching vessels . " This creature , " says Mr . Grosse , " which produces the brightest light of all , is a kind of sea-worm { nereis cirrigera ) ; it lives in groups or large masses , among the branches of sea-weed ; and when portions of this are thrown on shore by the waves , the animals survive and continue to shine very brilliantlv for several days . " It is to medusov ,
a genus of marine animals in the class Acaleptra , which nearly all give a luminous appearance , that the Red Sea is supposed to owe the origin of its name . The medusa ? go generally by the name of jellyfish ; " they present to the eye , " says Maunder , " when floating in their native element , an umbrella-shaped disc , from beneath which a number of tentacula or filaments depend . In the central part of the concave side of this disc is the stomach , in the middle of which is the
mouth , opening downwards , and surrounded by four leaf-like tentacula .... they receive nutriment by means of innumerable minute pores ; and in their stomachs are found small Crustacea , mollusca , and even fishes . At certain seasons many of them sting and inflame the hand that touches them ; and their tentacula seem to possess trie nana unat touenes tnem ; ana xneir lenracuia seem to possess
considerable muscular power , capable of drawing towards the mouth almost anything that comes within their reach . They swim by muscular contraction of the margins of the disc . " Many persons do not know that cockles are given to tumbling , and may attend , as they doubtless do , the pleasure-fairs in the seaworld . May they not wish , like we do in our wild moments , to be mermen , and say , in the words of our Poet Laureate : —
I would be a merman bold ; I would sit and « ing tbe whole of the day ; I would fill the sea-halls with a voice of power ; But at night I would roam abroad , and play With the mermaidfl in and out of the rocks . 5 fl 5 |» " JfC "W ^ fr