THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



"THE ALMOST NAKED SAVAGES." 



It was a camping party, I was sure, for behind the unfortunate little chap was a small canvass 

 screen, that certainly concealed a sleeping place, and before which he stood and dripped." 



slow, steady and relentless advance, it 

 approached the boys. I had no eyes 

 except for that terrible aquatic beast. 

 A pear-shaped mass of stones, the nar- 

 row end apparently applied to the earth, 

 it moved in a stately way, but by what 

 means, I then failed to see, and that 

 failure added to the horror of the situa- 

 tion. The pyriform mass was composed 

 of great rocks of varied size and form, 

 cemented together with a skill, a care 

 and a beauty of finish, that I had rarely 

 seen equalled by the work of any earthly 

 stone-mason. Each piece, big or little, 

 was fitted exactly in contact with its 

 fellows, so that not a crevice, not the 

 minutest space could be seen, yet there 

 was no cement, no mortar, no external 

 supports to hold them together. It was 

 the perfection of skillful work with 

 stone. But what had made it, and 

 what was within and moving it ? I for- 

 got the young savages ; I was deaf to 

 their horrible noises ; I saw only that 

 slowly advancing, pear-shaped building 

 of stones. As it reached a slight de- 

 clivity in the bed of the stream, it tilted 

 a little, so that I saw a round opening, 

 from which issued a mass of long, 

 squirming tentacles, colorless, semi- 

 fluid, in aspect like the white of an egg, 

 but ever extending and retreating, twist- 

 ing and writhing. Could it be that these 

 jelly-like arms were a part of an animal 



within that stone dwelling, and which 

 had built it of the rocks at the bottom 

 of the stream ? It could be no otherwise. 

 I thought that the monster was prepar- 

 ing to attack the youths, perhaps at- 

 tracted toward a good meal by the terri- 

 ble sounds that, not for a moment, ceased 

 to issue from their gaping mouths, and 

 I was on the point of crying a warning, 

 when I perceived that the stone dwelling 

 was advancing toward a matted mass of 

 what seemed to be a green scum on the 

 water's surface, but which another 

 glance, in that strange atmosphere, 

 showed me to be a cluster of thread- 

 like plants, composed of cylindrical cells 

 placed end to end, with transparent 

 walls, and with several bands of the 

 most beautiful green twisting spirally 

 around the inner surface of each. A 

 gyrating spiral, as truly as a spiral ever 

 twisted about a cell-wall. I could see the 

 contents of every thread flowing rapid- 

 ly up and down the sides, and could hear 

 the clashing of the solid particles as the 

 internal currents dashed them together, 

 a steady, delicate hum, mingled with 

 the tinkling; of the colliding: grains. The 

 monster, without a moment's hesitation, 

 mounted into the mass of these lovely 

 plants, and at once, with the tip of a 

 colorless tentacle, pierced the cell wall, 

 and in a slow, deliberate, relentless man- 

 ner, that increased the horror of the 



