colors of Nereis, who was now safely confined in a 

 pail — brought me to her side where she was exam- 

 ining with a hand-lens some object on the rock 

 which bore the serpulid's shell. "It moves! It is 

 living!" With this exclamation, she handed the 

 glass to me so that I could better scrutinize the 

 cause of her excitement. 



What I saw was a worm. But never by any twist 

 of the imagination would it pass as such to those 

 who hold the common conception of these crea- 

 tures. 



Its outline was roughly leaf-like, and its flat- 

 tened form was exceedingly thin and without seg- 

 ments or other divisions to mark the specialized 

 regions of its body. It was nearly an inch in length, 

 while it was about half as broad as it was long. 

 Although its coloration was not striking, it was not 

 without interest, being suggestive of, rather than 

 actually, a pale yellow tint which was veined with 

 deeper tones. But the animal was semi-transparent, 

 and this feature gave added emphasis to what was 

 an apparent and singular fact : it was a worm that 

 was little more than a living film. 



With the sharp edge of my sheath-knife, I 

 scraped it loose from the rock, to which it closely 



[171] 



