92 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. ^ 



You may see a picture of it in Mr Gosse's Rambles 

 on the Devonshire Coast very well delineated. "The 

 tentacular filaments," he says, " are numerous, each 

 forming a little tree with pinnate branches, bearing no 

 small resemblance to the flower of feathery branchiae 

 that expands round the mouth of a Holothuria. These 

 branched tentacles are ordinarily bent down across the 

 mouth of the tube, the longest of them just meeting in 

 the centre ; alternating with these are placed others 

 of similar structure but inferior size ; and the inter- 

 spaces are occupied by others smaller still, and simply 

 pinnate ; so that when the whole occupy theii^ ordin- 

 ary transverse position, the smaller ones fill up the 

 angles of the larger, and the branches of all form a 

 network of exquisite tracery, spread across the orifice, 

 throuoh the interstices or meshes of which the current 

 of entering water freely percolates, while they exclude 

 all except the most minute floating atoms of extraneous 

 matter." 



The boatman has just called to say the boat is ready, 

 and the Dredge at our service. In the jDrevious chap- 

 ters I described our hunting on the rocks, and picking 

 up what gales might have thrown upon the shore ; 

 and the amateur generally contents himself with these 

 resources, unless his desires, enlarging with his know- 

 ledge, urge him, as they did me, to follow more ambi- 

 tious naturalists, and try dredging. He knows that 

 in depths never laid bare by retiring tides there are 

 animals of price. He knows that the oyster-beds are 

 hunting-grounds where a single venture will bring 



