Middletown transcript., 1881-11-18


husband to Julia Greyling. The young
couple took up their abode in the Bell
enden villa, prefering its luxuries and
comforts to the chance of advertising
for lodgings TO BE LET-FURNISHED.
Curious Creatures in Chesapeake
Bay.
The waters of the Lower Chesapeake
and its tributaries are filled with living
things, among which are many strange
creatures. Not the least curious of
these are the jelly fish, or, as they are
termed by the natives, g singing net
ties. . which may be seen in countless
numbers floating with the tide or draw
ing themselves slowly through the wa
ter, apparently by suction. have spent
hours watching these strange little
monsters of the sea, and yet to one who
has never seen them 1 fear shall not
be able to describe them so as to give
him an adequate idea Of their real ap-
pearance. In the water, they have the
appearance of an open, shallow bag, or
pouch of delicately and beautifully
wrought white lace the larger ones are
about twelve inches across the mouth
of the pouch and six inches deep, fully
expanded. In the center of the bottom
of the web is star with four points
measuring about two inches across
The edges of this pouch are beautifully
scalloped. and surrounding it, an inch
from the edge, is narrow, closely wo
ven belt OF cord, which acts exactly like
puckering string to this bag. The
animal has the power of contracting
and expanding this cord with regular
motion like the rapid breathing of a
child, and in this manner it moves itself
in the water. This is all there is of the
creature, and it looks, as I say, exactly
like shallow bag of beautiful design,
which the water keeps expanded to its
full size. Where the exact seat of life
is I don't know, unless it be.in the
beautiful star which forms the center
of the bottom. The animals vary in
size from one to twelve inches across,
and the water is full of them. Fished
from the water in a scoop-net, they
come out a shapeless mass of Shiny jelly
without life or motion. If, while bath
ing, they come in contact with your
flesh, they burn you like fire, and leave
the skin red, as from an ordinary scald.
Another species, known as ''blood-suck-
ers, are more like q ball. They are
the size of ones fist, with cup-shaped
mouth like a straw, which contracts
like the other variety, and they have
three long flexible spindles of reddish
color pendant from their bodies. AT
night, the larger of the kind first des-
cribed throw off phosphorescent light,
especially if disturbed, which gives
them a still more peculiar appearance
in the water. Another interesting fea
ture of these waters is the number and
extent of the schools of ale-wives which
can be seen at any time in calm wea-
ther. Often a school of them cover an
acre, containing tens of thousands Of
fish swimming rapidly along so near the
surface that their backs are half the
time out of water as they closely follow
the cratic and ever-changing course Of
their leaders. These fish do not grow
very large, those that l have seen being
only from five to eight inches long but
the water literally swarms with them.
They are caught in the spring in vast
quantities in the seines and used to fer
tilize the land. Another peculiar fish
is the gar, small specimens Of which can
be seen at any time from the wharves
swimming along the surface of the wa
ter after food. Those thus seen are
not often more than a foot long, and
one of them Of this length will not be
larger around than your finger but as
round as a pipe stem. The head ter
inmates in slim, sharp bill, which con-
stitutes just one third of the length.
That is, a gar one foot long has a bill
four inches long, exactly the shape of a
snipe's BILL 1t attains a weight of ten
pounds. The sea turtle is another
strange bird, as an Irishman would say,
and great delicacy for the table. They
are quite plentiful about Hampton and
Old Point. I saw one brought into
Old Point in a fishing boat that mea-
sured little over three feet in length
and two and a half in width. You
could hear him hiss half a block away
They have only an upper shell.-Er.
HERE is the Scieneifc Anerican'S
remedy for lockjaw. 1t is certainly