DAVEY JONES' GOBLINS 351 



had been doing hand-stands and somersaults in his 

 cask. Here before me was an amphipod in a barrel, 

 — a transparent barrel to be sure, but one which 

 had been well hooped and staved by some cooper 

 of the underseas. As for the crustacean itself, it 

 was one of a group which Latreille, a century and 

 a quarter ago had named Plironima. A second in- 

 dividual in another barrel was wrapped in a veil 

 which the lens resolved into a host of pink, infant 

 Phronimas. So this was no casual or accidental 

 association, and if I could have watched one of 

 these youngsters, I would have seen it in the course 

 of time seize in its turn upon a barrel as it floated 

 past. This barrel, by the way, is the shell or test 

 of an ascidian, Doliolum by name, a creature who, 

 in common with its relatives the salpse has slipped 

 down the evolution ladder a few rungs, after ac- 

 tually coming within sight of the vertebrate goal 

 (p. 380). Phronima recked nothing of this and 

 proceeded literally to eat Doliolum out of house 

 and home, and to climb in the back door. Not only 

 did she thus acquire a glass house and a nursery 

 to order, but a motor boat as well. Clinging by her 

 largest pair of claws, she stretched her body far 

 out behind, and by a frantic fanning of the water 

 was able to get up astonishing speed, at the same 

 time forcing the water in at the front door, bringimg 

 with it oxygen and food for herself and her brood. 

 The head of Plironima was like nothing but the 

 head of another of its own kind. Its overbalanced 

 appearance reminded me faintly of a termite, but 

 its eyes were well worthy of the cranium in which 



