MR. WARINGTON'S OBSERVATIONS. 367 



perceive it is not uninhabited by fairy forms, scarcely 

 to be detected even by the eye of the keen naturalist,, 

 so pure and crystalline their texture is, so glass-like 

 and transparent, now gliding here and there like 

 delicate shadows, and anon darting away 



" Swift as an arrow from the bow of Love," 



to be lost within the shelter of their fastnesses. 



And are these beauteous-seeming visions Prawns 

 and Shrimps the things they drown in melted butter 

 and prepare with spice ? 'Tis even so ; yet, who 

 would think creatures so frail as these were not as 

 evanescent as the icicle ? 



Now let us watch them more attentively, and scan 

 awhile their exquisite construction, as they rove in 

 numerous companies around their lake, some basking 

 in the sun, disporting as at play amongst the coral- 

 lines and fuci that wave round them, while the rest, 

 retired from observation, seek the shade, 



. ..." or under rocks their food 

 In jointed armour wait." 



It is not, however, in their native haunts that we 

 can study them satisfactorily. Let us transfer a few 

 of them to the tank, and there endeavour, under the 

 guidance of Mr. Warington, to become more inti- 

 mately acquainted with the history of creatures so 

 remote in form from any we have yet encountered. 



Into one of Mr. Warington's aquaria, the contents 

 of which consisted of Ulva latissima and Enter o- 

 morpha, as the vegetable members of the circle ; and of 

 several varieties of Actinia, Madrepora, Annelida, &c., 

 to represent the animal section ; while the functions 



