64 THE AQUARIAN NATURALIST. 



a few flocculent particles at the bottom of the vessel. 

 The other lived more than two months longer, and 

 even bore a voyage to Bath in a closed phial of sea- 

 water, where it remained active and vigorous during 

 the space of three weeks, when it likewise died, and 

 disappeared like the former, but without the previous 



eversion/ 



The Stomobrachium octocostatum, another elegant 

 form of these lovely animals, affords, when in con- 

 finement, a spectacle which is truly admirable, and 

 has elicited a graphic notice from the pen of the 

 Rev. David Landsborough, in his delightful volume 

 on the Island of Arran. The Stomobrachium (PL I. 

 figs. 8 & 9) presents in the water the appearance of 

 a hazel-nut of a yellowish-brown colour ; when caught 

 however, and transferred to a glass filled with clear 

 sea-water, it will be found that the brown-coloured 

 melon-shaped mass by no means presents the true 

 outline of the animal, but forms merely the centre 

 of a . gelatinous disc, which, though scarcely visible, 

 constitutes a most efficient instrument of locomotion. 

 Such, indeed, are the contractile powers of this trans- 

 parent disc, that its sides nearly close at every stroke 

 behind the opaque centre, like the legs of a vigorous 

 swimmer, causing it at each effort to shoot briskly 

 along as it rolls about backward, forward, or athwart. 

 Even when placed in a tumbler of the purest water 

 and examined with a magnifying glass, it is not easy 

 to make out the true form of the animal, so exqui- 

 sitely transparent is the bell-like disc of its pellucid 

 body, which rises to a considerable height above the 

 buff-coloured central portion, and is in shape as ele- 



