PLUMULAEIA. 149 



ing the wife of one of the Arran boatmen, in a succeeding 

 season, I asked her if her husband had been getting many 

 clams (i. e., Pectens) lately ; she said, '^ Ah no, he has been 

 getting hardly onything ava' (at all). Some vile ne^er- 

 do-weels set their lines on the Sabbath da}^, and fish and 

 clams ha' a' left the island ; — and nae wonder." " Nae won- 

 der," responded I, " nae wonder." " We have had very 

 boisterous weather this spring, Janet, are you not frightened 

 when Donald is out fishing, when the weather is so stormy?" 

 " Na, na ; its stormy aneugh whiles, but Donald's no the 

 gear that traiks^. He aye fins the road hame." ^^ But was 



would not think that that beautiful white feather had life; — but you see only 

 the habitations. The alarmed inhabitants have fled into their houses. But 

 place the polypidom, as it is called, in a tumbler of sea-water, and when the 

 alarm is over, the inhabitants will again appear. The polypes are hydraform, 

 and spread forth many tentacula in search of food, which they greedily grasp. 

 The feather is formed of calcareous matter mixed with gelatine to give it 

 flexibility, so that it may the better stand the buff'eting of the waves. Ob- 

 serve the stem or quill of the feather, and you will see that it is full of red 

 matter. That is the meduUaiy pulp. Every plumule of the feather is a 

 street. Even mth the naked eye you may observe on each plumule about a 

 dozen notches. Each of these is the house or cell of a polype ; so that in 

 a good specimen we see a kind of marine village, which, under the teaching 

 of God, has been beautifully constructed by the thousand inhabitants it 

 contains." — Extract from 'Excursions to the Island of Arran^ by B. L. 

 * Goes amissing. 



