586 Zooloorical Illustrations : — 



nifier, circular fibres become very visible, and numerous 

 minute dots are sprinkled among them. 



The surface of the body was at first partially covered with 

 fragments of shells and corallines, which were evidently re- 

 tained by the suctorial property of the papillae ; and the 

 animal, on being kept a day in sea water, threw them off. It 

 had a slow progressive motion, slower than the shadow on 

 the dial, which was effected by elongating the papillae of one 

 part, fixing them to the plate, and then drawing itself forward 

 by again contracting these elongated parts ; but the papillae 

 were much oftener used for the purpose of anchors than of 

 feet, the creature being of an indolent and immovable cha- 

 racter. When stationary, it was ever slowly changing its 

 outward form ; it was now shortened, and swollen in the 

 centre; then it would relax itself, and become cylindrical; 

 again, one part would be blown out and another drawn in, 

 with a deep stricture, as if a thread had been tied round ; or, 

 again, the contraction would begin near the head, which is 

 then made very narrow, and would spread backwards, the 

 anterior portion recovering its original diameter as the wane 

 of constriction passed away ; and sometimes the contraction 

 will spread in the opposite direction. It often raised the 

 posterior extremity a little from the surface of the plate, and 

 to one side, but I never saw any current to flow from this 

 aperture. To effect these varied motions, we must suppose 

 the existence of muscular bands or fibres in the coriaceous 

 skin, both in a longitudinal and circular direction; and, on 

 opening the body, we find such to be the case (e) : five strong 

 white raised bands run from one end to the other, radiating 

 from the circular apertures ; and numerous fibres pass be- 

 tween them transversely, among which minute pores open 

 everywhere, which are the inner orifices of the cuticular 

 papillae. 



The ovaries (y), which are of a flesh colour, lie towards 

 the centre of the body, attached to the sides in a large cluster, 

 or, at least, there was one cluster only left in the specimen be- 

 fore us, for it had ejected many ovaries before dissection. Each 

 ovary {J') is half an inch long, cylindrical, with a short 

 narrow pedicel at the end of attachment; and the ova are 

 very visible through the thin membranous coat. They lie 

 without any order, are somewhat globular, and enveloped in 

 a transparent pellicle of nutritive jelly ; and on one side there 

 was a drop of an amber-coloured and apparently oily 

 fluid. 



.' Towards the posterior end, and reaching from the anus 

 about one third up the body, there was a thin membrane laid 



