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Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 1 by George Grey
page 62 of 388 (15%)
little gut marked (4) which communicated with the point (L) by a small
canal: (1) was its swimming apparatus, and by alternate contractions and
expansions of this, it took in and expelled water, and thus acquired a
rapid motion, the pointed end (L) moving forwards.

Its length was 1.7 inches.
Breadth, 0.7 inches.
Thickness, 0.35 inches.
Temperature the same as the water, 65 degrees Fahrenheit.

The sketch Illustration 4 Diphya, Sp. gives a faint idea of the most
beautiful animal of this kind which I have ever seen. It was so delicate
that, with the slightest touch, portions of it came off, hence the
specimen we obtained is I fear useless. The body consisted only of a
central canal, to which were attached a number of gelatinous bags, with
large lateral openings, so large that other zoophytes were caught in
them, and apparently annoyed the animal; who continued throwing water out
until it expelled them. The whole was surmounted by a number of the most
beautiful rose-coloured tentacula: I counted eleven on it, and found four
more that were torn off, but there may have been more. Its top, when
looked into closely, resembled some of the sea anemones; and inside of
the large bright orange-coloured tentacula were placed circular rows of
smaller ones. Its body was quite transparent, with the exception of the
central canal, which was of a milk-white colour, and terminated in a
small sac of the same hue.

It moved in a direction opposite to the tentacula, by taking in water at
the lateral openings of the bags, in the position in which it is
represented; then bending these towards the tentacula, and expelling it
with great violence.
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