180 



HARDV.'ICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



But, if stones are being occasionally formed now 

 by the singular method above described, why may 

 they not have also sometimes been formed in a 

 similar manner in the remote ages of the Past ? It 

 crabs, as is likely, inhabited primeval seashores and 

 disported themselves upon them as they do now (1 

 am, unfortunately, not geologist enough to know it 

 there be any evidence to this point), then the same 

 agency may have been at work in the formation of 

 similar stones now found imbedded in existing 

 strata, and pronounced to be waterworu pebbles of 

 an older rock; and then also, some stones, so pro- 

 nounced upon, may possibhj iiave had a different 

 origin from that which has been assigned to them. 

 In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred probably, the 

 commonly assigned cause would be the true one ; 

 but the little fact which I have related points to 

 the possibility of rounded stones imbedded in 

 ancient strata having sometimes had a different 

 origin. I think it is also possible to conceive an 

 instance in which the position of such stones rela- 

 tively to contiguous beds, not easily explained on 

 the usual supposition of their being waterworu 

 fragments, might be accounted for by assigning to 

 tliem an origin similar to that of the stones which 

 I saw in the course of formation on the coast of 

 Tenasserim. 



Possibly, however, I have only been describing 

 what has frequently been noticed before; though, 

 if not — if what I have related should chance to be 

 new — this trifling record may prove of interest, as 

 indicating a plan of operation in Nature's great and 

 n.iultifarious workshop, which, I venture to think, 

 would hardly be guessed at even by the most in- 

 genious theorist. C. S. P. Pauisii. 



THE EUPLECTELLA. 



"VTOUR article on the Glass-rope Sponge {llyalo- 

 -^ nema mirahills of Gray), and the figure on 

 p. 3G, in the February number for 1872, called to 

 my remembrance the account given me many years 

 since by Mr. John Reeves, of Clapham, of the 

 specimen of Glass-rope then in the East-India 

 Company's museum. He stated that the specimen 

 was the remnant of a stem of a Gorgonia, after 

 maceration in acid by the natives of some island 

 or coast in the Indian Ocean. When I fu'st saw 

 Evpledella speciosa, and observed the beard at its 

 base, I was led to the conclusion that this was also 

 a preparation from a spongoid animal, bleached 

 probably by immersion in water, during which pro- 

 cess the ova of crabs had passed through the 

 meshes, and became slowly the mature animals 

 that one sees inside Eupleetella. Lately, in looking 

 through Esper's work on corals, to find a figure of 

 that cural-like Gorgonia of which Mr. Reeves had 

 spoken, I was arrested by the plate in] vol. iv., 



No. XVI., of which I enclose a copy. There I 

 found a Eupleetella attached to a shell, and having 

 its spongy coat on ; while below was an enlarged 

 figure of the natural appearance of the coat. Being 

 in London lately, I visited the British Museum for 

 the purpose of examining the specimen from Mr. 

 Broderip's collection, which has the gelatinous coat 



Fig. 117. Tululiria clatliruta. 



still adhering to its cap ; but the Museum was 

 shut, the day being a holidaj^ and I failed in ob- 

 taining a private view, as in good old times it was 

 the custom to allow. The figure given by Esper, 

 however, is sufliciently marked to prove the original 

 state of Eupleetella ; and his description, which I 

 will quote, proves that his figure is no exaggeration. 

 The translation from the German is as correct as I 

 can make it. 



Fig. 118. Portion of ditto, magnified. . . 



"Net-shaped Tubularia. — In this sea-product, 

 the organic construction of the animal is not suffi- 

 cient to decide the way of growth and vessels of 

 nourishment. The net-formed cavities come nearer 

 the sponges ; but it has a shining substance, and 

 softens in water, and the web of this is of quite 

 different construction. It consists partly of strong 

 threads, partly of leafy gills. It cannot be the 

 dwelling of some foreign animal, for it is locked at 

 the largest end. 



