Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1881-11-17

The waters Of the Lower Chesapeake
and its tributaries are filed 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 native, s'stinging net
tles," which may be seen in countless
numbers floating with the tide or draw
ing themselves slowly through the
water, apparently by suction. / have
spent hours watching these strange lit
tie monsters Of the sea. and yet to one
who has never seen them fear I shall
not be able to describe them SO as to
give him an adequate idea of their real
appearance. 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
scaIloped, and surrounding it, an inch
from the edge, is narrow, closely
woven belt OF cord. which acts exactly
like puckering string to this bag.
The animal has the power Of contract
ing 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 don't know, unless it be in
the beautiful star which forms the cen
ter 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 scoop net, they
come out shapeless mass of Shiny jelly
without life or motion. II, 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 fblood-
suckers" are more like a ball. They
are the size Of ones fist, with cup
shaped mouth like straw, which con
tracts like the other variety, and they
have three long flexible spindles of q
reddish color pendant from their bodies,
at night, the larger Of the kind first
described throw off phosphorescent
light, especially if disturbed, which
gives them still more peculiar appear
ance in the water. Another interesting
feature tf these waters is the number
and extent of the schools of alewives
which can be seen at any time in calm
weather. 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 erratic and ever-changirg g course Of
their leaders. These fish do not grow
very large, those that / 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 tie
water 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
constitutes just one third Of the length.
That is. d gar foot long has bill four
inches long, exactly the shape Of a
snipe's bill. IT attains 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. saw one brought into
Old Point IN q fishing boat that meas
ured a little over three feet in length
and two and a-haVf feet in width. You
could hear him hiss half a block away.
They have only an upper shell.