224 AN EXTEMPORE AQUARIUM. 



THE TEREBELLA. 



A rich fund of entertainment is very accessible to 

 any one who can procure a few bits of weed-covered 

 rock from the level of low- water. They need scarcely 

 be selected ; with a hammer knock off a few points of 

 the stones, of the size of a crown-piece ; the rougher, 

 more leprous, more discoloured, in short, more dirty^ 

 the better. Put them into a globe of sea-water^ an 

 uncut decanter, or a wide-mouthed bottle, or, best of 

 all, a confectioner's show glass, and let them remain, 

 for a few hom's. At night examine the sides of the 

 bottle carefully with a pocket-lens, placing a candle 

 on the opposite side. The multitude of curious little 

 creatures that will have crawled out, and will be found 

 mounting the w^lls of their prison, is quite surprising. 

 Minute MoUiisca, both bivalve and univalve, uncouth- 

 formed Crustacea, tiny Starfishes, and especially 

 Annelida, will pretty certainly reward the investigator. 

 The last-named Class occurs in remarkable abundance 

 and variety ; while if, after you have gone round the 

 glass, noticing particularly the very edge of the 

 surface- line, you pass your eye, assisted by the lens, 

 carefully over the surfaces of the bits of stone, you 

 will probably find many more creatures, such as tube- 

 dwelling Annelides, the smaller Zoo])liytes^ and several 

 species of the delicate Polyzoa. 



In a lot of sea- weeds sent up to me from the coast, 

 enclosed in refuse-weed, and tightly packed in a piece 

 of canvas, I found, among many such little things as 

 I have described, a small Terehella, which interested 



