7^ DISCREPANCIES. 



salt-works at Lymington, in Hampshire, the reservoirs of 

 concentrated brine are always peopled by immense num- 

 bers of an elegant little animal, quite peculiar to such 

 situations, which sport about in all the enjoyment of 

 existence. The little creature is a sort of shrimp, and is 

 commonly known as the brine shrimp.* It is nearly 

 half an inch in length, and is furnished with eleven pairs 

 of leaf-shaped limbs. " There is nothing," says M. Joly, 

 " more elegant than the form of this little crustacean ; 

 nothing more graceful than its movements. It swims 

 almost always on its back, and moves rapidly through 

 the element. The feet are in constant motion, and their 

 undulations have a softness difficult to describe." Besides 

 these animals, the brine is inhabited by incalculable mul- 

 titudes of a microsco23ic animalcule of a crimson hue, on 

 which the brine-shrimp feeds, and which impart to its 

 translucent body their own roseate colour. 



A similar creature, but of another species, -f* distin- 

 guished by a broad crescent-shaped shield over the head, 

 inhabits lakes, highly charged with nitre and common 

 salt, in North Africa. The animals are so numerous that 

 they are caught with muslin nets, and dried in the sun in 

 the form of a red paste or cake, which is highly esteemed 

 as an article of food, having the flavour of red herring. 



Mr Darwin found, near Buenos Ayres, a shallow lake 

 of brine, which in summer is converted into a field of 

 snow-white salt. The border of the lake is a fetid, black 



* Artemia salina. 



f A. Oiidneyi. See Excelsior, i., 229, for figures of both species. 



