Fig. 23.—A large jellyfish (Cyanea).
Fig. 24.—Flowerlike jellyfish (Lucernaria).
No conception of the beauties of the jellyfish can be formed from pictures, or from the stranded "sunfishes" found along the shore at low tide. In the water they move along or swim by the slow pumping or rising and falling of the umbrella or disk, and are of all the colors of the rainbow. Some, like the dark, lavender-splashed specimens, can be seen from a long distance, while others are almost invisible, in fact, are like glass or crystal, and interpose no obstacle to other forms beyond. The ocean is filled with them; their chaste shapes presenting one of the most beautiful spectacles to be observed in the ocean as they drift about. Some are merely great disks towing behind them enormous masses of pink fluted jelly, as in Figure 23; others are simple flowerlike forms (Fig. 24).
If these graceful forms are beautiful during the day, what shall we say of them at night, when they blaze and glow with marvelous phosphorescent lights of yellow, green, and gold. Gazing into the ocean these great jellies appear like comets moving through the clear atmosphere of the sea. The Cyanea is pale blue. One jelly, called Melicerta, emits a pale golden radiance, and Rhizostoma (Fig. 25) gives out a fixed steely blue light. It would be difficult to find one out of all this marvelous procession of living gems that does not emit a light more or less peculiarly its own.
Fig. 25.—Jellyfish (Rhizostoma).
If this phosphorescence is fascinating as we are drifting over the scene and the light givers are not alarmed, how much more dazzling is the display when the sea is beaten into foam. In a certain cave on the coast of Santa Catalina Island, California, the sea rushes in and, striking the rocks, rises like a wave of fire and bathes the entire interior with liquid light which slowly falls in gleaming rivulets to the sea.
But the most magnificent display is seen at Point Firmin Light during a storm. Here stands a lofty rock pillar which has breasted the sea for ages. At low tide, when a storm sea strikes the ledge, the spray rises to an altitude of three hundred feet, and spreading as it rises, fairly fills the air with a gigantic mass of silvery light, that on a dark night presents an appalling spectacle as it drops, changing its shape continually. On such nights the line of breakers changes into silvery flame, while the roar resembles a cannonade, fairly shaking the earth. In the breakers the jelly light givers are breaking up and adding fuel to the seeming flame. Some, as Pelagia, are luminous over their entire surface; in others, the light is confined to certain parts, which are either fixed or flashing lights. How vivid this light is may be imagined when it is said that a single jellyfish, Aurelia, when squeezed into a glass of milk, has produced a light by which a letter was read.