along its ocean-path were distinctly visible.  These paddles are nothing more or less than cilia of a peculiar kind, ranged in eight bands upon the surface of the body.  They are set in motion at the will of the animal, and their incessant strokes propel it swiftly through the water.  By stopping some of its paddles, and keeping others in play, the beroe can change its course at pleasure, and so wander ‘at its own sweet will,’ through the trackless waste.  Beauty waits upon the course of this little crystal globe.  The grace and sprightliness of its movements must strike the commonest observer.  As the sunlight falls upon its cilia, they are ‘tinted with the most lovely iridescent colours;’ and at night they flash forth phosphoric light, as though the little creature were giving a saucy challenge to the stars.

The beroe is a most active being, its habits conforming to the organisation with which it is endowed.  Such an array of paddles prophesies of a mercurial temperament and an energetic character.  It can, however, anchor itself and lie by when occasion offers.  It is provided with two long cables, prettily set with spiral filaments or tendrils, by means of which it can make fast to any point.  When not in use, it can retract them, and stow them away in two sacs or pouches within the body, where they may be seen coiled up, through the transparent walls.  The mouth is a simple opening at one pole of the globular body.  No arms are needed.  The beroe is spared the labour and uncertainty of the chase.  As it dances gaily along, streams of water, bearing nutritive particles, pass through the orifice into its stomach.

In this creature, as in many of the lower animals, there is a remarkable power of retaining vitality after the most serious injuries; nay, in portions actually severed from the body, it will continue for some time.  Mr Patterson, in his excellent Introduction to Zoology, mentions that on one occasion he divided a fragment of the body of a beroe, lately taken from the shore and shattered by a storm, ’into portions so minute that one piece of skin had but two cilia attached to it, yet the vibration of these organs continued for nearly a couple of days afterwards!’ But we must leave the beroe, charmer though it be.

Another member of this section—­the Ciliograde acalephae, as they are called—­is the Girdle of Venus, which resembles a ribbon in form, and is sometimes five or six feet in length, covered with cilia, and brilliantly phosphorescent.  This must be one of the most beautiful of the fireworks of the ocean.