The tip of the dart is barbed like a
fishhook. Now the cells are so made that they fly open when touched. The
dart then leaps out and buries itself in the skin of the animal which
touched the thread. Not only that, but the darts are poisoned, and soon
kill the small creatures which they pierce.
You see now how this innocent-looking Jelly-fish gets its food. As it
swims along, the threads touch the tiny living things in the sea, the
darts pierce them and poison them. Of course these stinging darts are
very, very small, much too small for our eyes to see.
Sometimes there are numbers of large brownish Jelly-fish in the sea, or
washed up on the shore. If you are paddling or swimming, keep well away
from them. Their poison darts are able to pierce through thin skin, and
may cause you illness and great pain. Remember that the threads are very
long; after you have passed the main body of the animal, you may still
be in danger from the trailing threads.
We noticed these same poison darts when we were dealing with the
flower-like animals, the Anemones. Only, in that case, they were so
fine, so small, that they had no power to harm us, even though they
entered our skin.
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