HYDRACTINIA. 115 



CHAPTER XII. 



HYDRACTINIA. 



THE naturalist who confines his attention to the 

 larger and more conspicuous forms of marine produc- 

 tions,, neglecting those which,, from their minuteness, 

 require the aid of a microscope for their examination, 

 would be but little able to appreciate the scene exhi- 

 bited upon the exterior of many ordinary shells, when, 

 freshly imported from their home beneath the waves, 

 they are perused attentively with a magnifying-glass. 

 The wonderful variety of animal life that crowds every 

 portion of the surface of some of them, affords a spec- 

 tacle well calculated to astonish any observer, who, for 

 the first time, contemplates such a scene ; and when, 

 upon closer inspection, we perceive how actively em- 

 ployed they all appear, how all find room for life and 

 for enjoyment on the little stage that forms their 

 world, unknowing all beyond, as if creation was con- 

 fined to them, a reflection by no means unnatural 

 will sometimes steal across the mind, that we our- 

 selves are imaged in their condition, and in their 

 ignorance of what is passing in surrounding nature 

 beyond the sphere of their immediate neighbourhood. 

 Six thousand years have passed since man was 

 placed upon this sublunary scene ages untold have 



