72, INDESCRIBABLE ANIMALS.

transversal leaves, extremely thin, and of astonish-
ing mobility. These constitute the essential organs
of motion of the animal. By the aid of these myriads
of little paddles it directs its course and executes
its manoeuvres. What is still more admirable in
this species, light being decomposed by its various
and rapid movements, its longitudinal ribs become
so many living prisms, and envelop the animal
like eight or ten rainbows, so brilliant and so undu-
lating that it is vain to attempt to describe its
beauty. What shall I say, too, of another kind,
which, resembling a beautiful wreath of crystal of
an azure hue, swims on the surface of the waves,
and lifts above them in succession its diaphanous
leaflets, in figure resembling those of ivy, while it
stretches around its exquisite rosy feelers? This,
more than the majority of animals of this class,
possesses the phosphorescent quality in an unusually
lively and splendid degree, and which, in the midst
of the darkness, gives it the similitude of a garland
of fireandlight. Shall I attempt to describe those
Tanthines, of a purple colour, which make their
way over the surface of the waves suspended by a
white bunch of airy bladders? or those numerous
legions of Salpa, of a rosy, azure, or an opal colour,
which form floats of thirty or forty leagues in
extent, and shine with splendour in the dark? oy
those Medusx, equally phosphorescent, which pre: