There he sits, twiddling his feelers (a substitute, it seems, with crustacea for biting their nails when they are puzzled), and by no means lovely to look on in vulgar eyes; - about the bigness of a man's fist; a round-bodied, spindle-shanked, crusty, prickly, dirty fellow, with a villanous squint, too, in those little bony eyes, which never look for a moment both the same way. Never mind: many a man of genius is ungainly enough; and Nature, if you will observe, as if to make up to him for his uncomeliness, has arrayed him as Solomon in all his glory never was arrayed, and so fulfilled one of the proposals of old Fourier - that scavengers, chimney- sweeps, and other workers in disgusting employments, should be rewarded for their self-sacrifice in behalf of the public weal by some peculiar badge of honour, or laurel crown. Not that his crown, like those of the old Greek games, is a mere useless badge; on the contrary, his robe of state is composed of his fellow- servants. His whole back is covered with a little grey forest of branching hairs, fine as a spider's web, each branchlet carrying its little pearly ringed club, each club its rose-coloured polype, like (to quote Mr. Gosse's comparison) the unexpanded birds of the acacia. (28)

On that leg grows, amid another copse of the grey polypes, a delicate straw-coloured Sertularia, branch on branch of tiny double combs, each tooth of the comb being a tube containing a living flower; on another leg another Sertularia, coarser, but still beautiful; and round it again has trained itself, parasitic on the parasite, plant upon plant of glass ivy, bearing crystal bells, (29) each of which, too, protrudes its living flower; on another leg is a fresh species, like a little heather-bush of whitest ivory, (30) and every needle leaf a polype cell - let us stop before the imagination grows dizzy with the contemplation of those myriads of beautiful atomies. And what is their use? Each living flower, each polype mouth is feeding fast, sweeping into itself, by the perpetual currents caused by the delicate fringes upon its rays (so minute these last, that their motion only betrays their presence), each tiniest atom of decaying matter in the surrounding water, to convert it, by some wondrous alchemy, into fresh cells and buds, and either build up a fresh branch in their thousand- tenanted tree, or form an egg-cell, from whence when ripe may issue, not a fixed zoophyte, but a free swimming animal.

And in the meanwhile, among this animal forest grows a vegetable one of delicatest sea-weeds, green and brown and crimson, whose office is, by their everlasting breath, to reoxygenate the impure water, and render it fit once more to be breathed by the higher animals who swim or creep around.

Mystery of mysteries! Let us jest no more, - Heaven forgive us if we have jested too much on so simple a matter as that poor spider- crab, taken out of the lobster-pots, and left to die at the bottom of the boat, because his more aristocratic cousins of the blue and purple armour will not enter the trap while he is within.

I am not aware whether the surmise, that these tiny zoophytes help to purify the water by exhaling oxygen gas, has yet been verified. The infusorial animalcules do so, reversing the functions of animal life, and instead of evolving carbonic acid gas, as other animals do, evolve pure oxygen. So, at least, says Liebig, who states that he found a small piece of matchwood, just extinguished, burst out again into a flame on being immersed in the bubbles given out by these living atomies.

I myself should be inclined to doubt that this is the case with zoophytes, having found water in which they were growing (unless, of course, sea-weeds were present) to be peculiarly ready to become foul; but it is difficult to say whether this is owing to their deoxygenating the water while alive, like other animals, or to the fact that it is very rare to get a specimen of zoophyte in which a large number of the polypes have not been killed in the transit home, or at least so far knocked about, that (in the Anthozoa, which are far the most abundant) the polype - or rather living mouth, for it is little more - is thrown off to decay, pending the growth of a fresh one in the same cell.

But all the sea-weeds, in common with other vegetables, perform this function continually, and thus maintain the water in which they grow in a state fit to support animal life.

This fact - first advanced by Priestley and Ingenhousz, and though doubted by the great Ellis, satisfactorily ascertained by Professor Daubeny, Mr. Ward, Dr. Johnston, and Mr. Warrington - gives an answer to the question, which I hope has ere now arisen in the minds of some of my readers, -

How is it possible to see these wonders at home? Beautiful and instructive as they may be, can they be meant for any but dwellers by the sea-side? Nay more, even to them, must not the glories of the water-world be always more momentary than those of the rainbow, a mere Fata Morgana which breaks up and vanishes before the eyes? If there were but some method of making a miniature sea-world for a few days; much more of keeping one with us when far inland. -

This desideratum has at last been filled up; and science has shown, as usual, that by simply obeying Nature, we may conquer her, even so far as to have our miniature sea, of artificial salt-water, filled with living plants and sea-weeds, maintaining each other in perfect health, and each following, as far as is possible in a confined space, its natural habits.

To Dr. Johnston is due, as far as is known, the honour of the first accomplishment of this as of a hundred other zoological triumphs. As early as 1842, he proved to himself the vegetable nature of the common pink Coralline, which fringes every rock-pool, by keeping it for eight weeks in unchanged salt-water, without any putrefaction ensuing. The ground, of course, on which the proof rested in this case was, that if the coralline were, as had often been thought, a zoophyte, the water would become corrupt, and poisonous to the life of the small animals in the same jar; and that its remaining fresh argued that the coralline had re-oxygenated it from time to time, and was therefore a vegetable.

In 1850, Mr. Robert Warrington communicated to the Chemical Society the results of a year's experiments, "On the Adjustment of the Relations between the Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms, by which the Vital Functions of both are permanently maintained." The law which his experiments verified was the same as that on which Mr. Ward, in 1842, founded his invaluable proposal for increasing the purity of the air in large towns, by planting trees and cultivating flowers in rooms, THAT THE ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE RESPIRATIONS MIGHT COUNTERBALANCE EACH OTHER; the animal's blood being purified by the oxygen given off by the plants, the plants fed by the carbonic acid breathed out by the animals.

On the same principle, Mr. Warrington first kept, for many months, in a vase of unchanged water, two small gold fish and a plant of Vallisneria spiralis; and two years afterwards began a similar experiment with sea-water, weeds, and anemones, which were, at last, as successful as the former ones. Mr. Gosse had, in the meanwhile, with tolerable success begun a similar method, unaware of what Mr. Warrington had done; and now the beautiful and curious exhibition of fresh and salt water tanks in the Zoological Gardens in London, bids fair to be copied in every similar institution, and we hope in many private houses, throughout the kingdom.

To this subject Mr. Gosse's book, "The Aquarium," is principally devoted, though it contains, besides, sketches of coast scenery, in his usual charming style, and descriptions of rare sea-animals, with wise and goodly reflections thereon. One great object of interest in the book is the last chapter, which treats fully of the making and stocking these salt-water "Aquaria;" and the various beautifully coloured plates, which are, as it were, sketches from the interior of tanks, are well fitted to excite the desire of all readers to possess such gorgeous living pictures, if as nothing else, still as drawing-room ornaments, flower-gardens which never wither, fairy lakes of perpetual calm which no storm blackens, -

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Those who have never seen one of them can never imagine (and neither Mr. Gosse's pencil nor my clumsy words can ever describe to them) the gorgeous colouring and the grace and delicacy of form which these subaqueous landscapes exhibit.

As for colouring, - the only bit of colour which I can remember even faintly resembling them (for though Correggio's Magdalene may rival them in greens and blues, yet even he has no such crimsons and purples) is the Adoration of the Shepherds, by that "prince of colorists" - Palma Vecchio, which hangs on the left-hand side of Lord Ellesmere's great gallery. But as for the forms, - where shall we see their like? Where, amid miniature forests as fantastic as those of the tropics, animals whose shapes outvie the wildest dreams of the old German ghost painters which cover the walls of the galleries of Brussels or Antwerp? And yet the uncouthest has some quaint beauty of its own, while most - the star-fishes and anemones, for example - are nothing but beauty. The brilliant plates in Mr. Gosse's "Aquarium" give, after all, but a meagre picture of the reality, as it may be seen in the tank- house at the Zoological Gardens; and as it may be seen also, by anyone who will follow carefully the directions given at the end of his book, stock a glass vase with such common things as he may find in an hour's search at low tide, and so have an opportunity of seeing how truly Mr. Gosse says, in his valuable preface, that -

"The habits" (and he might well have added, the marvellous beauty) "of animals will never be thoroughly known till they are observed in detail. Nor is it sufficient to mark them with attention now and then; they must be closely watched, their various actions carefully noted, their behaviour under different circumstances, and especially those movements which seem to us mere vagaries, undirected by any suggestible motive or cause, well examined. A rich fruit of result, often new and curious and unexpected, will, I am sure, reward anyone who studies living animals in this way. The most interesting parts, by far, of published Natural History are those minute, but graphic particulars, which have been gathered up by an attentive watching of individual animals."

Mr. Gosse's own books, certainly, give proof enough of this. We need only direct the reader to his exquisitely humorous account of the ways and works of a captive soldier-crab, (31) to show them how much there is to be seen, and how full Nature is also of that ludicrous element of which we spoke above. And, indeed, it is in this form of Natural History: not in mere classification, and the finding out of means, and quarrellings as to the first discovery of that beetle or this buttercup, - too common, alas! among mere closet-collectors, - "endless genealogies," to apply St. Paul's words by no means irreverently or fancifully, "which do but gender strife;" - not in these pedantries is that moral training to be found, for which we have been lauding the study of Natural History: but in healthful walks and voyages out of doors, and in careful and patient watching of the living animals and plants at home, with an observation sharpened by practice, and a temper calmed by the continual practice of the naturalist's first virtues - patience and perseverance.

Practical directions for forming an "Aquarium" may be found in Mr. Gosse's book bearing that name, at pp. 101, 255, ET SEQ.; and those who wish to carry out the notion thoroughly, cannot do better than buy his book, and take their choice of the many different forms of vase, with rockwork, fountains, and other pretty devices which he describes.

But the many, even if they have Mr. Gosse's book, will be rather inclined to begin with a small attempt; especially as they are probably half sceptical of the possibility of keeping sea-animals inland without changing the water. A few simple directions, therefore, will not come amiss here. They shall be such as anyone can put into practice, who goes down to stay in a lodging-house at the most cockney of watering-places.

Buy at any glass-shop a cylindrical glass jar, some six inches in diameter and ten high, which will cost you from three to four shillings; wash it clean, and fill it with clean salt-water, dipped out of any pool among the rocks, only looking first to see that there is no dead fish or other evil matter in the said pool, and that no stream from the land runs into it. If you choose to take the trouble to dip up the water over a boat's side, so much the better.

So much for your vase; now to stock it.

Go down at low spring-tide to the nearest ledge of rocks, and with a hammer and chisel chip off a few pieces of stone covered with growing sea-weed. Avoid the common and coarser kinds (fuci) which cover the surface of the rocks; for they give out under water a slime which will foul your tank: but choose the more delicate species which fringe the edges of every pool at low-water mark; the pink coralline, the dark purple ragged dulse (Rhodymenia), the Carrageen moss (Chondrus), and above all, the commonest of all, the delicate green Ulva, which you will see growing everywhere in wrinkled fan-shaped sheets, as thin as the finest silver-paper. The smallest bits of stone are sufficient, provided the sea-weeds have hold of them; for they have no real roots, but adhere by a small disc, deriving no nourishment from the rock, but only from the water. Take care, meanwhile, that there be as little as possible on the stone, beside the weed itself. Especially scrape off any small sponges, and see that no worms have made their twining tubes of sand among the weed-stems; if they have, drag them out; for they will surely die, and as surely spoil all by sulphuretted hydrogen, blackness, and evil smells.

Put your weeds into your tank, and settle them at the bottom; which last, some say, should be covered with a layer of pebbles: but let the beginner leave it as bare as possible; for the pebbles only tempt cross-grained annelids to crawl under them, die, and spoil all by decaying: whereas if the bottom of the vase is bare, you can see a sickly or dead inhabitant at once, and take him out (which you must do) instantly. Let your weeds stand quietly in the vase a day or two before you put in any live animals; and even then, do not put any in if the water does not appear perfectly clear: but lift out the weeds, and renew the water ere you replace them.

This is Mr. Gosse's method. But Mr. Lloyd, in his "Handbook to the Crystal Palace Aquarium," advises that no weed should be put into the tank. "It is better," he says, "to depend only on those which gradually and naturally appear on the rocks of the aquarium by the action of light, and which answer every chemical purpose." I should advise anyone intending to set up an aquarium, however small, to study what Mr. Lloyd says on this matter in pp. 17-19, and also in page 30, of his pamphlet; and also to go to the Crystal Palace Aquarium, and there see for himself the many beautiful species of sea-weeds which have appeared spontaneously in the tanks from unsuspected spores floating in the sea-water. On the other hand, Mr. Lloyd lays much stress on the necessity of arating the water, by keeping it in perpetual motion; a process not easy to be carried out in small aquaria; at least to that perfection which has been attained at the Crystal Palace, where the water is kept in continual circulation by steam-power. For a jar-aquarium, it will be enough to drive fresh air through the water every day, by means of a syringe.

Now for the live stock. In the crannies of every rock you will find sea-anemones (Actiniae); and a dozen of these only will be enough to convert your little vase into the most brilliant of living flower-gardens. There they hang upon the under side of the ledges, apparently mere rounded lumps of jelly: one is of dark purple dotted with green; another of a rich chocolate; another of a delicate olive; another sienna-yellow; another all but white. Take them from their rock; you can do it easily by slipping under them your finger-nail, or the edge of a pewter spoon. Take care to tear the sucking base as little as possible (though a small rent they will darn for themselves in a few days, easily enough, and drop them into a basket of wet sea-weed; when you get home turn them into a dish full of water and leave them for the night, and go to look at them to-morrow. What a change! The dull lumps of jelly have taken root and flowered during the night, and your dish is filled from side to side with a bouquet of chrysanthemums; each has expanded into a hundred-petalled flower, crimson, pink, purple, or orange; touch one, and it shrinks together like a sensitive plant, displaying at the root of the petals a ring of brilliant turquoise beads. That is the commonest of all the Actiniae (Mesembryanthemum); you may have him when and where you will: but if you will search those rocks somewhat closer, you will find even more gorgeous species than him. See in that pool some dozen large ones, in full bloom, and quite six inches across, some of them. If their cousins whom we found just now were like Chrysanthemums, these are like quilled Dahlias. Their arms are stouter and shorter in proportion than those of the last species, but their colour is equally brilliant. One is a brilliant blood-red; another a delicate sea-blue striped with pink; but most have the disc and the innumerable arms striped and ringed with various shades of grey and brown. Shall we get them? By all means if we can. Touch one. Where is he now? Gone? Vanished into air, or into stone? Not quite. You see that knot of sand and broken shell lying on the rock, where your Dahlia was one moment ago. Touch it, and you will find it leathery and elastic. That is all which remains of the live Dahlia. Never mind; get your finger into the crack under him, work him gently but firmly out, and take him home, and he will be as happy and as gorgeous as ever to-morrow.

Let your Actiniae stand for a day or two in the dish, and then, picking out the liveliest and handsomest, detach them once more from their hold, drop them into your vase, right them with a bit of stick, so that the sucking base is downwards, and leave them to themselves thenceforth.

These two species (Mesembryanthemum and Crassicornis) are quite beautiful enough to give a beginner amusement: but there are two others which are not uncommon, and of such exceeding loveliness, that it is worth while to take a little trouble to get them. The one is Dianthus, which I have already mentioned; the other Bellis, the sea-daisy, of which there is an excellent description and plates in Mr. Gosse's "Rambles in Devon," pp. 24 to 32.

It is common at Ilfracombe, and at Torquay; and indeed everywhere where there are cracks and small holes in limestone or slate rock. In these holes it fixes its base, and expands its delicate brown- grey star-like flowers on the surface: but it must be chipped out with hammer and chisel, at the expense of much dirt and patience; for the moment it is touched it contracts deep into the rock, and all that is left of the daisy flower, some two or three inches across, is a blue knot of half the size of a marble. But it will expand again, after a day or two of captivity, and will repay all the trouble which it has cost. Troglodytes may be found, as I have said already, in hundreds at Hastings, in similar situations to that of Bellis; its only token, when the tide is down, being a round dimple in the muddy sand which firs the lower cracks of rocks.

But you will want more than these anemones, both for your own amusement, and for the health of your tank. Microscopic animals will breed, and will also die; and you need for them some such scavenger as our poor friend Squinado, to whom you were introduced a few pages back. Turn, then, a few stones which lie piled on each other at extreme low-water mark, and five minutes' search will give you the very animal you want, - a little crab, of a dingy russet above, and on the under side like smooth porcelain. His back is quite flat, and so are his large angular fringed claws, which, when he folds them up, lie in the same plane with his shell, and fit neatly into its edges. Compact little rogue that he is, made especially for sidling in and out of cracks and crannies, he carries with him such an apparatus of combs and brushes as Isidor or Floris never dreamed of; with which he sweeps out of the sea- water at every moment shoals of minute animalcules, and sucks them into his tiny mouth. Mr. Gosse will tell you more of this marvel, in his "Aquarium," p. 48.

Next, your sea-weeds, if they thrive as they ought to do, will sow their minute spores in millions around them; and these, as they vegetate, will form a green film on the inside of the glass, spoiling your prospect: you may rub it off for yourself, if you will, with a rag fastened to a stick; but if you wish at once to save yourself trouble, and to see how all emergencies in nature are provided for, you will set three or four live shells to do it for you, and to keep your sub-aqueous lawn close mown.

That last word is no figure of speech. Look among the beds of sea- weed for a few of the bright yellow or green sea-snails (Nerita), or Conical Tops (Trochus), especially that beautiful pink one spotted with brown (Ziziphinus), which you are sure to find about shaded rock-ledges at dead low tide, and put them into your aquarium. For the present, they will only nibble the green ulvae; but when the film of young weed begins to form, you will see it mown off every morning as fast as it grows, in little semicircular sweeps, just as if a fairy's scythe had been at work during the night.

And a scythe has been at work; none other than the tongue of the little shell-fish; a description of its extraordinary mechanism (too long to quote here, but which is well worth reading) may be found in Gosse's "Aquarium." (32)

A prawn or two, and a few minute star-fish, will make your aquarium complete; though you may add to it endlessly, as one glance at the salt-water tanks of the Zoological Gardens, and the strange and beautiful forms which they contain, will prove to you sufficiently.

You have two more enemies to guard against, dust, and heat. If the surface of the water becomes clogged with dust, the communication between it and the life-giving oxygen of the air is cut off; and then your animals are liable to die, for the very same reason that fish die in a pond which is long frozen over, unless a hole be broken in the ice to admit the air. You must guard against this by occasional stirring of the surface, or, as I have already said, by syringing and by keeping on a cover. A piece of muslin tied over will do; but a better defence is a plate of glass, raised on wire some half-inch above the edge, so as to admit the air. I am not sure that a sheet of brown paper laid over the vase is not the best of all, because that, by its shade, also guards against the next evil, which is heat. Against that you must guard by putting a curtain of muslin or oiled paper between the vase and the sun, if it be very fierce, or simply (for simple expedients are best) by laying a handkerchief over it till the heat is past. But if you leave your vase in a sunny window long enough to let the water get tepid, all is over with your pets. Half an hour's boiling may frustrate the care of weeks. And yet, on the other hand, light you must have, and you can hardly have too much. Some animals certainly prefer shade, and hide in the darkest crannies; and for them, if your aquarium is large enough, you must provide shade, by arranging the bits of stone into piles and caverns. But without light, your sea-weeds will neither thrive nor keep the water sweet. With plenty of light you will see, to quote Mr. Gosse once more, (33) "thousands of tiny globules forming on every plant, and even all over the stones, where the infant vegetation is beginning to grow; and these globules presently rise in rapid succession to the surface all over the vessel, and this process goes on uninterruptedly as long as the rays of the sun are uninterrupted.

"Now these globules consist of PURE OXYGEN, given out by the plants under the stimulus of light; and to this oxygen the animals in the tank owe their life. The difference between the profusion of oxygen-bubbles produced on a sunny day, and the paucity of those seen on a dark cloudy day, or in a northern aspect, is very marked." Choose, therefore, a south or east window, but draw down the blind, or throw a handkerchief over all if the heat become fierce. The water should always feel cold to your hand, let the temperature outside be what it may.

Next, you must make up for evaporation by FRESH water (a very little will suffice), as often as in summer you find the water in your vase sink below its original level, and prevent the water from getting too salt. For the salts, remember, do not evaporate with the water; and if you left the vase in the sun for a few weeks, it would become a mere brine-pan.

But how will you move your treasures up to town?

The simplest plan which I have found successful is an earthen jar. You may buy them with a cover which screws on with two iron clasps. If you do not find such, a piece of oilskin tied over the mouth is enough. But do not fill the jar full of water; leave about a quarter of the contents in empty air, which the water may absorb, and so keep itself fresh. And any pieces of stone, or oysters, which you send up, hang by a string from the mouth, that they may not hurt tender animals by rolling about the bottom. With these simple precautions, anything which you are likely to find will well endure forty-eight hours of travel.

What if the water fails, after all?

Then Mr. Gosse's artificial sea-water will form a perfect substitute. You may buy the requisite salts (for there are more salts than "salt" in sea-water) from any chemist to whom Mr. Gosse has entrusted his discovery, and, according to his directions, make sea-water for yourself

One more hint before we part. If, after all, you are not going down to the sea-side this year, and have no opportunities of testing "the wonders of the shore," you may still study Natural History in your own drawing-room, by looking a little into "the wonders of the pond."

I am not jesting; a fresh-water aquarium, though by no means as beautiful as a salt-water one, is even more easily established. A glass jar, floored with two or three inches of pond-mud (which should be covered with fine gravel to prevent the mud washing up); a specimen of each of two water-plants which you may buy now at any good shop in Covent Garden, Vallisneria spiralis (which is said to give to the Canvas-backed duck of America its peculiar richness of flavour), and Anacharis alsinastrum, that magical weed which, lately introduced from Canada among timber, has multiplied, self- sown, to so prodigious an extent, that it bid fair, a few years since, to choke the navigation not only of our canals and fen- rivers, but of the Thames itself: (34) or, in default of these, some of the more delicate pond-weeds; such as Callitriche, Potamogeton pusillum, and, best of all, perhaps, the beautiful Water-Milfoil (Myriophyllium), whose comb-like leaves are the haunts of numberless rare and curious animalcules:- these (in themselves, from the transparency of their circulation, interesting microscopic objects) for oxygen-breeding vegetables; and for animals, the pickings of any pond; a minnow or two, an eft; a few of the delicate pond-snails (unless they devour your plants too rapidly): water-beetles, of activity inconceivable, and that wondrous bug the Notonecta, who lies on his back all day, rowing about his boat-shaped body, with one long pair of oars, in search of animalcules, and the moment the lights are out, turns head over heels, rights himself, and opening a pair of handsome wings, starts to fly about the dark room in company with his friend the water- beetle, and (I suspect) catch flies; and then slips back demurely into the water with the first streak of dawn. But perhaps the most interesting of all the tribes of the Naiads, - (in default, of course, of those semi-human nymphs with which our Teutonic forefathers, like the Greeks, peopled each "sacred fountain,") - are the little "water-crickets," which may be found running under the pebbles, or burrowing in little galleries in the banks: and those "caddises," which crawl on the bottom in the stiller waters, enclosed, all save the head and legs, in a tube of sand or pebbles, shells or sticks, green or dead weeds, often arranged with quaint symmetry, or of very graceful shape. Their aspect in this state may be somewhat uninviting, but they compensate for their youthful ugliness by the strangeness of their transformations, and often by the delicate beauty of the perfect insects, as the "caddises," rising to the surface, become flying Phryganeae (caperers and sand- flies), generally of various shades of fawn-colour; and the water- crickets (though an unscientific eye may be able to discern but little difference in them in the "larva," or imperfect state) change into flies of the most various shapes; - one, perhaps, into the great sluggish olive "Stone-fly" (Perla bicaudata); another into the delicate lemon-coloured "Yellow Sally" (Chrysoperla viridis); another into the dark chocolate "Alder" (Sialis lutaria): and the majority into duns and drakes (Ephemerae); whose grace of form, and delicacy of colour, give them a right to rank among the most exquisite of God's creations, from the tiny "Spinners" (Batis or Chloron) of incandescent glass, with gorgeous rainbow-coloured eyes, to the great Green Drake (Ephemera vulgata), known to all fishermen as the prince of trout-flies. These animals, their habits, their miraculous transformations, might give many an hour's quiet amusement to an invalid, laid on a sofa, or imprisoned in a sick-room, and debarred from reading, unless by some such means, any page of that great green book outside, whose pen is the finger of God, whose covers are the fire kingdoms and the star kingdoms, and its leaves the heather-bells, and the polypes of the sea, and the gnats above the summer stream.

I said just now, that happy was the sportsman who was also a naturalist. And, having once mentioned these curious water-flies, I cannot help going a little farther, and saying, that lucky is the fisherman who is also a naturalist. A fair scientific knowledge of the flies which he imitates, and of their habits, would often ensure him sport, while other men are going home with empty creels. One would have fancied this a self-evident fact; yet I have never found any sound knowledge of the natural water-flies which haunt a given stream, except among cunning old fishermen of the lower class, who get their living by the gentle art, and bring to indoors baskets of trout killed on flies, which look as if they had been tied with a pair of tongs, so rough and ungainly are they; but which, nevertheless, kill, simply because they are (in COLOUR, which is all that fish really care for) exact likenesses of some obscure local species, which happen to be on the water at the time. Among gentlemen-fishermen, on the other hand, so deep is the ignorance of the natural fly, that I have known good sportsmen still under the delusion that the great green May-fly comes out of a caddis-bait; the gentlemen having never seen, much less fished with, that most deadly bait the "Water-cricket," or free creeping larva of the May-fly, which may be found in May under the river- banks. The consequence of this ignorance is that they depend for good patterns of flies on mere chance and experiment; and that the shop patterns, originally excellent, deteriorate continually, till little or no likeness to their living prototype remains, being tied by town girls, who have no more understanding of what the feathers and mohair in their hands represent than they have of what the National Debt represents. Hence follows many a failure at the stream-side; because the "Caperer," or "Dun," or "Yellow Sally," which is produced from the fly-book, though, possibly, like the brood which came out three years since on some stream a hundred miles away, is quite unlike the brood which is out to-day on one's own river. For not only do most of these flies vary in colour in different soils and climates, but many of them change their hue during life; the Ephemerae, especially, have a habit of throwing off the whole of their skins (even, marvellously enough, to the skin of the eyes and wings, and the delicate "whisks" at their tail), and appearing in an utterly new garb after ten minutes' rest, to the discomfiture of the astonished angler.

The natural history of these flies, I understand from Mr. Stainton (one of our most distinguished entomologists), has not yet been worked out, at least for England. The only attempt, I believe, in that direction is one made by a charming book, "The Fly-fisher's Entomology," which should be in every good angler's library; but why should not a few fishermen combine to work out the subject for themselves, and study for the interests both of science and their own sport, "The Wonders of the Bank?" The work, petty as it may seem, is much too great for one man, so prodigal is Nature of her forms, in the stream as in the ocean; but what if a correspondence were opened between a few fishermen - of whom one should live, say, by the Hampshire or Berkshire chalk streams; another on the slates and granites of Devon; another on the limestones of Yorkshire or Derbyshire; another among the yet earlier slates of Snowdonia, or some mountain part of Wales; and more than one among the hills of the Border and the lakes of the Highlands? Each would find (I suspect), on comparing his insects with those of the others, that he was exploring a little peculiar world of his own, and that with the exception of a certain number of typical forms, the flies of his county were unknown a hundred miles away, or, at least, appeared there under great differences of size and colour; and each, if he would take the trouble to collect the caddises and water-crickets, and breed them into the perfect fly in an aquarium, would see marvels in their transformations, their instincts, their anatomy, quite as great (though not, perhaps, as showy and startling) as I have been trying to point out on the sea-shore. Moreover, each and every one of the party, I will warrant, will find his fellow-correspondents (perhaps previously unknown to him) men worth knowing; not, it may be, of the meditative and half- saintly type of dear old Izaak Walton (who, after all, was no fly- fisher, but a sedentary "popjoy" guilty of float and worm), but rather, like his fly-fishing disciple Cotton, good fellows and men of the world, and, perhaps, something better over and above.

The suggestion has been made. Will it ever be taken up, and a "Naiad Club" formed, for the combination of sport and science?

And, now, how can this desultory little treatise end more usefully than in recommending a few books on Natural History, fit for the use of young people; and fit to serve as introductions to such deeper and larger works as Yarrell's "Birds and Fishes," Bell's "Quadrupeds" and "Crustacea," Forbes and Hanley's "Mollusca," Owen's "Fossil Mammals and Birds," and a host of other admirable works? Not that this list will contain all the best; but simply the best of which the writer knows; let, therefore, none feel aggrieved, if, as it may chance, opening these pages, they find their books omitted.

First and foremost, certainly, come Mr. Gosse's books. There is a playful and genial spirit in them, a brilliant power of word- painting combined with deep and earnest religious feeling, which makes them as morally valuable as they are intellectually interesting. Since White's "History of Selborne," few or no writers on Natural History, save Mr. Gosse, Mr. G. H. Lewes, and poor Mr. E. Forbes, have had the power of bringing out the human side of science, and giving to seemingly dry disquisitions and animals of the lowest type, by little touches of pathos and humour, that living and personal interest, to bestow which is generally the special function of the poet: not that Waterton and Jesse are not excellent in this respect, and authors who should be in every boy's library: but they are rather anecdotists than systematic or scientific inquirers; while Mr. Gosse, in his "Naturalist on the Shores of Devon," his "Tour in Jamaica," his "Tenby," and his "Canadian Naturalist," has done for those three places what White did for Selborne, with all the improved appliances of a science which has widened and deepened tenfold since White's time. Mr. Gosse's "Manual of the Marine Zoology of the British Isles" is, for classification, by far the completest handbook extant. He has contrived in it to compress more sound knowledge of vast classes of the animal kingdom than I ever saw before in so small a space. (35)

Miss Anne Pratt's "Things of the Sea-coast" is excellent; and still better is Professor Harvey's "Sea-side Book," of which it is impossible to speak too highly; and most pleasant it is to see a man of genius and learning thus gathering the bloom of his varied knowledge, to put it into a form equally suited to a child and a SAVANT. Seldom, perhaps, has there been a little book in which so vast a quantity of facts have been told so gracefully, simply, without a taint of pedantry or cumbrousness - an excellence which is the sure and only mark of a perfect mastery of the subject. Mr. G. H. Lewes's "Sea-shore Studies" are also very valuable; hardly perhaps a book for beginners, but from his admirable power of description, whether of animals or of scenes, is interesting for all classes of readers.

Two little "Popular" Histories - one of British Zoophytes, the other of British Sea-weeds, by Dr. Landsborough (since dead of cholera, at Saltcoats, the scene of his energetic and pious ministry) - are very excellent; and are furnished, too, with well- drawn and coloured plates, for the comfort of those to whom a scientific nomenclature (as liable as any other human thing to be faulty and obscure) conveys but a vague conception of the objects. These may serve well for the beginner, as introductions to Professor Harvey's large work on British Algae, and to the new edition of Professor Johnston's invaluable "British Zoophytes," Miss Gifford's "Marine Botanist," third edition, and Dr. Cocks's "Sea-weed Collector's Guide," have also been recommended by a high authority.

For general Zoology the best books for beginners are, perhaps, as a general introduction, the Rev. J. A. L. Wood's "Popular Zoology," full of excellent plates; and for systematic Zoology, Mr. Gosse's four little books, on Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, and Fishes, published with many plates, by the Christian Knowledge Society, at a marvellously cheap rate. For miscroscopic animalcules, Miss Agnes Catlow's "Drops of Water" will teach the young more than they will ever remember, and serve as a good introduction to those teeming abysses of the unseen world, which must be afterwards traversed under the guidance of Hassall and Ehrenberg.

For Ornithology, there is no book, after all, like dear old Bewick, PASSE though he may be in a scientific point of view. There is a good little British ornithology, too, published in Sir W. Jardine's "Naturalist's Library," and another by Mr. Gosse. And Mr. Knox's "Ornithological Rambles in Sussex," with Mr. St. John's "Highland Sports," and "Tour in Sutherlandshire," are the monographs of naturalists, gentlemen, and sportsmen, which remind one at every page (and what higher praise can one give?) of White's "History of Selborne." These last, with Mr. Gosse's "Canadian Naturalist," and his little book "The Ocean," not forgetting Darwin's delightful "Voyage of the Beagle and Adventure," ought to be in the hands of every lad who is likely to travel to our colonies.

For general Geology, Professor Ansted's Introduction is excellent; while, as a specimen of the way in which a single district may be thoroughly worked out, and the universal method of induction learnt from a narrow field of objects, what book can, or perhaps ever will, compare with Mr. Hugh Miller's "Old Red Sandstone"?

For this last reason, I especially recommend to the young the Rev. C. A. Johns's "Week at the Lizard," as teaching a young person how much there is to be seen and known within a few square miles of these British Isles. But, indeed, all Mr. Johns's books are good (as they are bound to be, considering his most accurate and varied knowledge), especially his "Flowers of the Field," the best cheap introduction to systematic botany which has yet appeared. Trained, and all but self-trained, like Mr. Hugh Miller, in a remote and narrow field of observation, Mr. Johns has developed himself into one of our most acute and persevering botanists, and has added many a new treasure to the Flora of these isles; and one person, at least, owes him a deep debt of gratitude for first lessons in scientific accuracy and patience, - lessons taught, not dully and dryly at the book and desk, but livingly and genially, in adventurous rambles over the bleak cliffs and ferny woods of the wild Atlantic shore, -

"Where the old fable of the guarded mount Looks toward Namancos and Bayona's hold."

Mr. Henfrey's "Rudiments of Botany" might accompany Mr. Johns's books. Mr. Babington's "Manual of British Botany" is also most compact and highly finished, and seems the best work which I know of from which a student somewhat advanced in English botany can verify species; while for ferns, Moore's "Handbook" is probably the best for beginners.

For Entomology, which, after all, is the study most fit for boys (as Botany is for girls) who have no opportunity for visiting the sea-shore, Catlow's "Popular British Entomology," having coloured plates (a delight to young people), and saying something of all the orders, is, probably, still a good work for beginners.

Mr. Stainton's "Entomologist's Annual for 1855" contains valuable hints of that gentleman's on taking and arranging moths and butterflies; as well as of Mr. Wollaston's on performing the same kind office for that far more numerous, and not less beautiful class, the beetles. There is also an admirable "Manual of British Butterflies and Moths," by Mr. Stainton, in course of publication; but, perhaps, the most interesting of all entomological books which I have seen (and for introducing me to which I must express my hearty thanks to Mr. Stainton), is "Practical Hints respecting Moths and Butterflies, forming a Calendar of Entomological Operations," (36) by Richard Shield, a simple London working-man.

I would gladly devote more space than I can here spare to a review of this little book, so perfectly does it corroborate every word which I have said already as to the moral and intellectual value of such studies. Richard Shield, making himself a first-rate "lepidopterist," while working with his hands for a pound a week, is the antitype of Mr. Peach, the coast-guardsman, among his Cornish tide-rocks. But more than this, there is about Shield's book a tone as of Izaak Walton himself, which is very delightful; tender, poetical, and religious, yet full of quiet quaintness and humour; showing in every page how the love for Natural History is in him only one expression of a love for all things beautiful, and pure, and right. If any readers of these pages fancy that I over- praise the book, let them buy it, and judge for themselves. They will thus help the good man toward pursuing his studies with larger and better appliances, and will be (as I expect) surprised to find how much there is to be seen and done, even by a working-man, within a day's walk of smoky Babylon itself; and how easily a man might, if he would, wash his soul clean for a while from all the turmoil and intrigue, the vanity and vexation of spirit of that "too-populous wilderness," by going out to be alone a while with God in heaven, and with that earth which He has given to the children of men, not merely for the material wants of their bodies, but as a witness and a sacrament that in Him they live and move, and have their being, "not by bread alone, but by EVERY word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

Thus I wrote some twenty years ago, when the study of Natural History was confined mainly to several scientific men, or mere collectors of shells, insects, and dried plants.

Since then, I am glad to say, it has become a popular and common pursuit, owing, I doubt not, to the impulse given to it by the many authors whose works I then recommended. I recommend them still; though a swarm of other manuals and popular works have appeared since, excellent in their way, and almost beyond counting. But all honour to those, and above all to Mr. Gosse and Mr. Johns, who first opened people's eyes to the wonders around them all day long. Now, we have, in addition to amusing books on special subjects, serials on Natural History more or less profound, and suited to every kind of student and every grade of knowledge. I mention the names of none. For first, they happily need no advertisement from me; and next, I fear to be unjust to any one of them by inadvertently omitting its name. Let me add, that in the advertising columns of those serials, will be found notices of all the new manuals, and of all apparatus, and other matters, needed by amateur naturalists, and of many who are more than amateurs. Microscopy, meanwhile, and the whole study of "The Wonders of the Little," have made vast strides in the last twenty years; and I was equally surprised and pleased, to find, three years ago, in each of two towns of a few thousand inhabitants, perhaps a dozen good microscopes, all but hidden away from the public, worked by men who knew how to handle them, and who knew what they were looking at; but who modestly refrained from telling anybody what they were doing so well. And it was this very discovery of unsuspected microscopists which made me more desirous than ever to see - as I see now in many places - scientific societies, by means of which the few, who otherwise would work apart, may communicate their knowledge to each other, and to the many. These "Microscopic," "Naturalist," "Geological," or other societies, and the "Field Clubs" for excursions into the country, which are usually connected with them, form a most pleasant and hopeful new feature in English Society; bringing together, as they do, almost all ranks, all shades of opinion; and it has given me deep pleasure to see, in the case at least of the Country Clubs with which I am acquainted, the clergy of the Church of England taking an active, and often a leading, interest in their practical work. The town clergy are, for the most part, too utterly overworked to follow the example of their country brethren. But I have reason to know that they regard such societies, and Natural History in general, with no unfriendly eyes; and that there is less fear than ever that the clergy of the Church of England should have to relinquish their ancient boast - that since the formation of the Royal Society in the seventeenth century, they have done more for sound physical science than any other priesthood or ministry in the world. Let me advise anyone who may do me the honour of reading these pages, to discover whether such a Club or Society exists in his neighbourhood, and to join it forthwith, certain that - if his experience be at all like mine - he will gain most pleasant information and most pleasant acquaintances, and pass most pleasant days and evenings, among people whom he will be glad to know, and whom he never would have known save for the new - and now, I hope, rapidly spreading - freemasonry of Natural History.

Meanwhile, I hope - though I dare not say I trust - to see the day when the boys of each of our large schools shall join - like those of Marlborough and Clifton - the same freemasonry; and have their own Naturalists' Clubs; nay more; when our public schools and universities shall awake to the real needs of the age, and - even to the curtailing of the time usually spent in not learning Latin and Greek - teach boys the rudiments at least of botany, zoology, geology, and so forth; and when the public opinion, at least of the refined and educated, shall consider it as ludicrous - to use no stronger word - to be ignorant of the commonest facts and laws of this living planet, as to be ignorant of the rudiments of two dead languages. All honour to the said two languages. Ignorance of them is a serious weakness; for it implies ignorance of many things else; and indeed, without some knowledge of them, the nomenclature of the physical sciences cannot be mastered. But I have got to discover that a boy's time is more usefully spent, and his intellect more methodically trained, by getting up Ovid's Fasti with an ulterior hope of being able to write a few Latin verses, than in getting up Professor Rolleston's "Forms of Animal Life," or any other of the excellent Scientific Manuals for beginners, which are now, as I said, happily so numerous.

May that day soon come; and an old dream of mine, and of my scientific friends, be fulfilled at last.

And so I end this little book, hoping, even praying, that it may encourage a few more labourers to go forth into a vineyard, which those who have toiled in it know to be full of ever-fresh health, and wonder and simple joy, and the presence and the glory of Him whose name is LOVE.



APPENDIX.



PLATE I.



ZOOPHYTA. POLYZOA.

THE forms of animal life which are now united in an independent class, under the name Polyzoa, so nearly resemble the Hydroid Zoophytes in general form and appearance that a casual observer may suppose them to be nearly identical. In all but the more recent works, they are treated as distinct indeed, but still included under the general term "ZOOPHYTES." The animals of both groups are minute, polypiform creatures, mostly living in transparent cells, springing from the sides of a stem which unites a number of individuals in one common life, and grows in a shrub-like form upon any submarine body, such as a shell, a rock, a weed, or even another polypidom to which it is parasitically attached. Each polype, in both classes, protrudes from and retreats within its cell by an independent action, and when protruded puts forth a circle of tentacles whose motion round the mouth is the means of securing nourishment. There are, however, peculiarities in the structure of the Polyzoa which seem to remove them from Zoophytology to a place in the system of nature more nearly connected with Molluscan types. Some of them come so near to the compound ascidians that they have been termed, as an order, "Zoophyta ascidioida."

The simplest form of polype is that of a fleshy bag open at one end, surmounted by a circle of contractile threads or fingers called tentacles. The plate shows, on a very minute scale, at figs. 1, 3, and 6, several of these little polypiform bodies protruding from their cells. But the Hydra or Fresh-water Polype has no cell, and is quite unconnected with any root thread, or with other individuals of the same species. It is perfectly free, and so simple in its structure, that when the sac which forms its body is turned inside out it will continue to perform the functions of life as before. The greater part, however, of these Hydraform Polypes, although equally simple as individuals, are connected in a compound life by means of their variously formed POLYPIDOM, as the branched system of cells is termed. The Hydroid Zoophytes are represented in the first plate by the following examples.

HYDROIDA.

SERTULARIA ROSEA. PL. I. FIG. 6.

A species which has the cells in pairs on opposite sides of the central tube, with the openings turned outwards. In the more enlarged figure is seen a septum across the inner part of each cell which forms the base upon which the polype rests. Fig. 6 B indicates the natural size of the piece of branch represented; but it must be remembered that this is only a small portion of the bushy shrub.

CAMPANULARIA SYRINGA. PL. I. FIG. 8.

This Zoophyte twines itself parasitically upon a species of Sertularia. The cells in this species are thrown out at irregular intervals upon flexible stems which are wrinkled in rings. They consist of lengthened, cylindrical, transparent vases.

CAMPANULARIA VOLUBILIS. PL. I. FIG. 9.

A still more beautiful species, with lengthened foot-stalks ringed at each end. The polype is remarkable for the protrusion and contractile power of its lips. It has about twenty knobbed tentacula.

POLYZOA.

Among Polyzoa the animal's body is coated with a membraneous covering, like that of the Tunicated Mollusca, but which is a continuation of the edge of the cell, which doubles back upon the body in such a manner that when the animal protrudes from its cell it pushes out the flexible membrane just as one would turn inside out the finger of a glove. This oneness of cell and polype is a distinctive character of the group. Another is the higher organization of the internal parts. The mouth, surrounded by tentacles, leads by gullet and gizzard through a channel into a digesting stomach, from which the rejectable matter passes upwards through an intestinal canal till it is discharged near the mouth. The tentacles also differ much from those of true Polypes. Instead of being fleshy and contractile, they are rather stiff, resembling spun glass, set on the sides with vibrating cilia, which by their motion up one side and down the other of each tentacle, produce a current which impels their living food into the mouth. When these tentacles are withdrawn, they are gathered up in a bundle, like the stays of an umbrella. Our Plate I. contains the following examples of Polyzoa.

VALKERIA CUSCUTA. PL. I. FIG. 3.

From a group in one of Mr. Lloyd's vases. Fig. 3 A is the natural size of the central group of cells, in a specimen coiled round a thread-like weed. Underneath this is the same portion enlarged. When magnified to this apparent size, the cells could be seen in different states, some closed, and others with their bodies protruded. When magnified to 3 D, we could pleasantly watch the gradual eversion of the membrane, then the points of the tentacles slowly appearing, and then, when fully protruded, suddenly expanding into a bell-shaped circle. This was their usual appearance, but sometimes they could be noticed bending inwards, as in fig. 3 C, as if to imprison some living atom of importance. Fig. B represents two tentacles, showing the direction in which the cilia vibrate.

CRISIA DENTICULATA. PL. I. FIG. 4.

I have only drawn the cells from a prepared specimen. The polypes are like those described above.

GEMELLARIA LORICATA. PL. I. FIG. 5.

Here the cells are placed in pairs, back to back. 5 A is a very small portion on the natural scale.

CELLULARIA CILIATA. Pl. I. FIG. 7

The cells are alternate on the stem, and are curiously armed with long whip-like cilia or spines. On the back of some of the cells is a very strange appendage, the use of which is not with certainty ascertained. It is a minute body, slightly resembling a vulture's head, with a movable lower beak. The whole head keeps up a nodding motion, and the movable beak occasionally opens widely, and then suddenly snaps to with a jerk. It has been seen to hold an animalcule between its jaws till the latter has died, but it has no power to communicate the prey to the polype in its cell or to swallow and digest it on its own account. It is certainly not an independent parasite, as has been supposed, and yet its purpose in the animal economy is a mystery. Mr. Gosse conjectures that its use may be, by holding animalcules till they die and decay, to attract by their putrescence crowds of other animalcules, which may thus be drawn within the influence of the polype's ciliated tentacles. Fig. 7 B shows the form of one of these "birds' heads," and fig. 7 C, its position on the cell.

FLUSTRA LINEATA. PL. I. FIG. 1.

In Flustrae, the cells are placed side by side on an expanded membrane. Fig. 1 represents the general appearance of a species which at least resembles F. lineata as figured in Johnston's work. It is spread upon a Fucus. Fig. A is an enlarged view of the cells.

FLUSTRA FOLIACEA. PL. I. FIG. 2.

We figure a frond or two of the common species, which has cells on both sides. It is rarely that the polypes can be seen in a state of expansion.

SERIALARIA LENDIGERA. PL. I. fig. 10.

NOTAMIA BURSARIA. PL. I. fig. 11.

The "tobacco-pipe"" appendages, fig. 11 B, are of unknown use: they are probably analogous to the birds' heads in the Cellularae.



PLATE V.



CORALS AND SEA ANEMONES.

CARYOPHYLLAEA SMITHII. PL. V. FIG. 2. PL. VI. FIG. 3.

THE connection between Brainstones, Mushroom Corals, and other Madrepores abounding on Polynesian reefs, and the "Sea Anemones," which have lately become so familiar to us all, can be seen by comparing our comparatively insignificant C. Smithii with our commonest species of Actinia and Sagartia. The former is a beautiful object when the fleshy part and tentacles are wholly or partially expanded. Like Actinia, it has a membranous covering, a simple sac-like stomach, a central mouth, a disk surrounded by contractile and adhesive tentacles. Unlike Actinia, it is fixed to submarine bodies, to which it is glued in very early life, and cannot change its place. Unlike Actinia, its body is supported by a stony skeleton of calcareous plates arranged edgewise so as to radiate from the centre. But as we find some Molluscs furnished with a shell, and others even of the same character and habits without one, so we find that in spite of this seemingly important difference, the animals are very similar in their nature. Since the introduction of glass tanks we have opportunities of seeing anemones crawling up the sides, so as to exhibit their entire basal disk, and then we may observe lightly coloured lines of a less transparent substance than the interstices, radiating from the margin to the centre, some short, others reaching the entire distance, and arranged in exactly the same manner as the plates of Caryophyllaea. These are doubtless flexible walls of compartments dividing the fleshy parts of the softer animals, and corresponding with the septa of the coral. Fig. 2 A represents a section of the latter, to be compared with the basal disk of Sagartia.

SAGARTIA ANGUICOMA. PL. V. FIG. 3, A, B.

This genus has been separated from Actinia on account of its habit of throwing out threads when irritated. Although my specimens often assumed the form represented in fig. 3, Mr. Lloyd informs me that it must have arisen from unhealthiness of condition, its usual habit being to contract into a more flattened form. When fully expanded, its transparent and lengthened tentacles present a beautiful appearance. Fig. 3 A, showing a basal disk, is given for the purpose already described.

BALANOPHYLLAEA REGIA. PL. V. FIG. 1.

Another species of British madrepore, found by Mr. Gosse at Ilfracombe, and by Mr. Kingsley at Lundy Island. It is smaller than O. Smithii, of a very bright colour, and always covers the upper part of its bony skeleton, in which the plates are differently arranged from those of the smaller species. Fig. 1 shows the tentacles expanded in an unusual degree; 1 A, animal contracted; 1 B, the coral; 1 C, a tentacle enlarged.



PLATE VI.



CORALS AND SEA ANEMONES.

ACTINIA MESEMBRYANTHEMUM. PL. VI. FIG. 1 A.

This common species is more frequently met with than many others, because it prefers shallow water, and often lives high up among rocks which are only covered by the sea at very high tide; so that the creature can, if it will, spend but a short portion of its time immersed. When uncovered by the tide, it gathers up its leathery tunic, and presents the appearance of fig. 1 A. When under water it may often be seen expanding its flower-like disk and moving its feelers in search of food. These feelers have a certain power of adhesion, and any not too vigorous animals which they touch are easily drawn towards the centre and swallowed. Around the margin of the tunic are seen peeping out between the tentacles certain bright blue globules looking very like eyes, but whose purpose is not exactly ascertained. Fig. 1 represents the disk only partially expanded.

BUNODES CRASSICORNIS. PL. VI. FIG. 2.

This genus of Actinioid zoophytes is distinguished from Actinia proper by the tubercles or warts which stud the outer covering of the animal. In B. gemmacea these warts are arranged symmetrically, so as to give a peculiarly jewelled appearance to the body. Being of a large size, the tentacles of B. crassicornis exhibit in great perfection the adhesive powers produced by the nettling threads which proceed from them.

CARYOPHYLLAEA SMITHII. PL. VI. FIG. 3.

This figure is to show a whiter variety, with the flesh and tentacles fully expanded



PLATE VIII.



MOLLUSCA.

NASSA RETICULATA. PL. VIII. fig. 2, A, B, C, D, E, F

A VERY active Mollusc, given here chiefly on account of the opportunity afforded by the birth of young fry in Mr. Lloyd's tanks. The NASSA feeds on small animalcules, for which, in aquaria, it may be seen routing among the sand and stones, sometimes burying itself among them so as only to show its caudal tube moving along between them. A pair of Nassae in Mr. Lloyd's collection, deposited, on the 5th of April, about fifty capsules or bags of eggs upon the stems of weeds (fig. 2 B); each capsule contained about a hundred eggs. The capsules opened on the 16th of May, permitting the escape of rotiferous fry (fig. 2, C, D, E), not in the slightest degree resembling the parent, but presenting minute nautilus-shaped transparent shells. These shells rather hang on than cover the bodies, which have a pair of lobes, around which vibrate minute cilia in such a manner as to give them an appearance of rotatory motion. Under a lens they may be seen moving about very actively in various positions, but always with the look of being moved by rapidly turning wheels. We should have been glad to witness the next step towards assuming their ultimate form, but were disappointed, as the embryos died. Fig. 2 F is the tongue of a Nassa, from a photograph by Dr. Kingsley.



Footnotes:

(1) SERTULARIA OPERCULATA and GEMELLARIA LOCICULATA; or any of the small SERTULARIAE, compared with CRISIAE and CELLULARIAE, are very good examples. For a fuller description of these, see Appendix explaining Plate I.

(2) If any inland reader wishes to see the action of this foot, in the bivalve Molluscs, let him look at the Common Pond-Mussel (Anodon Cygneus), which he will find in most stagnant waters, and see how he burrows with it in the mud, and how, when the water is drawn off, he walks solemnly into deeper water, leaving a furrow behind him.

(3) These shells are so common that I have not cared to figure them.

(4) Plate IX. Fig. 3, represents both parasites on the dead Turritella.

(5) A few words on him, and on sea-anemones in general, may be found in Appendix II. But full details, accompanied with beautiful plates, may be found in Mr. Gosse's work on British sea-anemones and madrepores, which ought to be in every seaside library.

(6) Handbook to the Marine Aquarium of the Crystal Palace.

(7) An admirable paper on this extraordinary family may be found in the Zoological Society's Proceedings for July 1858, by Messrs. S. P. Woodward and the late lamented Lucas Barrett. See also Quatrefages, I. 82, or Synapta Duvernaei.

(8) Thalassema Neptuni (Forbes' British Star-Fishes, p. 259),

(9) The Londoner may see specimens of them at the Zoological Gardens and at the Crystal Palace; as also of the rare and beautiful Sabella, figured in the same plate; and of the Balanophyllia, or a closely-allied species, from the Mediterranean, mentioned in p. 109.

(10) A Naturalist's Rambles on the Devonshire Coast, p. 110.

(11) Balanophyllia regia, Plate V. fig. 1.

(12) Amphidotus cordatus.

(13) Echinus miliaris, Plate VII.

(14) See Professor Sedgwick's last edition of the "Discourses on the Studies of Cambridge."

(15) Fissurella graeca, Plate X. fig. 5.

(16) Doris tuberculata and bilineata.

(17) Eolis papi losa. A Doris and an Eolis, though not of these species, are figured in Plate X.

(18) Plate III.

(19) Certain Parisian zoologists have done me the honour to hint that this description was a play of fancy. I can only answer, that I saw it with my own eyes in my own aquarium. I am not, I hope, in the habit of drawing on my fancy in the presence of infinitely more marvellous Nature. Truth is quite strange enough to be interesting without lies.

(20) Saxicava rugosa, Plate XI. fig. 2.

(21) Plate VIII. represents the common Nassa, with the still more common Littorina littorea, their teeth-studded palates, and the free swimming young of the Nassa. (VIDE Appendix.)

(22) Cyproea Europoea.

(23) Botrylli.

(24) Molluscs.

Doris tuberculata. - bilineata. Eolis papillosa. Pleurobranchus plumila. Neritina. Cypraea. Trochus, - 2 species. Mangelia. Triton. Trophon. Nassa, - 2 species. Cerithium. Sigaretus. Fissurella. Arca lactea. Pecten pusio. Tapes pullastra. Kellia suborbicularis. Shaenia Binghami. Saxicava rugosa. Gastrochoena pholadia. Pholas parva. Anomiae, -2 or 3 species Cynthia,-2 species. Botryllus, do.

ANNELIDS.

Phyllodoce, and other Nereid worms. Polynoe squamata.

CRUSTACEA.

4 or 5 species.

ECHINODERMS.

Echinus miliaris. Asterias gibbosa. Ophiocoma neglecla. Cucumaria Hyndmanni. - communis.

POLYPES.

Sertularia pumila. - rugosa. - fallax. - filicula. Plumularia falcata. - setacea. Laomedea geniculata. Campanularia volubilis. Actinia mesembryanthemum. Actinia clavata. - anguicoma. - crassicornis. Tubulipora patina. - hispida. - serpens. Crisia eburnea. Cellepora pumicosa. Lepraliae,- many species. Membranipora pilosa. Cellularia ciliata. - scruposa. - reptans. Flustra membranacea, &c.

(25) Plate XI. fig. 1.

(26) Plate X. fig. 1.

(27) There are very fine specimens in the Crystal Palace.

(28) Coryne ramosa.

(29) Campanularia integra.

(30) Crisidia Eburnea.

(31) Aquarium, p. 163.

(32) P. 34. Figures of it are given in Plate VIII.

(33) P. 259.

(34) But if any young lady, her aquarium having failed, shall (as dozens do) cast out the same Anacharis into the nearest ditch, she shall be followed to her grave by the maledictions of all millers and trout-fishers. Seriously, this is a wanton act of injury to the neighbouring streams, which must be carefully guarded against. As well turn loose queen-wasps to build in your neighbour's banks.

(35) Very highly also, in interest, ranks M. Quatrefages' "Rambles of a Naturalist" (about the Mediterranean and the French Coast), translated by M. Otte.

(36) Van Voorst & Co. price 3s.

THE END