ii6 NATURAL SCIENCE. Feb, 1S94. 



It is difficult to convey even a faint indication of the wealth of 

 Hfe that settles in these gutters relying upon the current bringing 

 plentiful food-particles within the reach of ciliary lashing. A com- 

 plete list would be impossible, for it would be the cataloguing of 

 three-fourths of the littoral fauna. Sponges and compound Ascidians 

 are strikingly conspicuous ; in species multitudinous, in colouring of 

 every imaginable tint and combination — snowy-white, grey, pale 

 yellow, orange, pink, scarlet, lavender, purple, black with white 

 marblings, black with gold stars. These in a thousand grades of 

 tinting occur in mingled patches, of size and form as erratic as the 

 colouring, and give to the overhanging surfaces of the boulders 

 chequered mantles of richness such as even Orient looms never 

 expressed, though governed by minds most subtly appreciative of 

 Nature's brighter aspects. Less striking are the pendant festoons of 

 Polyzoa, hanging half-concealing before and between the crusting 

 Sponges and Ascidians. Among all, wander, and often, too, demand 

 lodging, great hosts of worms and tiny crustaceans not conspicuous 

 as the others, but ever present, ever greatly numerous. Zoophytes 

 and anemones are comparatively few, though Coryne at times may 

 occur somewhat plentifully. 



These drainage gutters are thus most conspicuously peopled by 

 Sponges, Ascidians, and Polyzoa— animals in all cases living upon 

 very minute food-particles, captured, or rather directed within the 

 body, by the incessant lashing of cilia. Why they are so wonderfully 

 common is due to the fact that the water that rushes past them as the 

 fucus-covered reefs uncover, is laden richly with tiny animals and 

 debris just suitable to the lowly mode of feeding practised by these 

 animals. Once established, these colonies attract swarms of the free- 

 moving worms and crustaceans — tiny freebooters, ever on the watch 

 for loot. 



Frequently the gutters drain large pools or chains of pools. 

 These nearly always have similar dyke origin, sometimes marking the 

 widening of the dyke fissure, sometimes denoting the point of 

 intersection with another dyke of different direction. Such pools are 

 commonly rich in life of the same species generally as in the gutters, 

 but in lesser profusion. More Zostera grows in the pools, and 

 zoophytes grow in greater numbers. Fishes, too, are more numerous, 

 for the Pipefishes {Syngnathus), Sticklebacks (Gastercstens spinachia), 

 and the smaller genera of the Wrasses (Labridse), and Prawns 

 innumerable find in the dense plant-growth of these quiet, and often 

 deep pools, just the safe hiding places and food preserves best suited 

 to theii needs. 



James Hornell. 



