MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION ON PUFFIN ISLAND. 35 



the Beacon rocks for the last of the ebb, and worked 

 downwards with the tide, trying hterally to leave not a 

 stone unturned, for in such a spot the biologist finds his 

 choicest specimens in the sheltered nooks and crevices 

 underneath the boulders and ledges of rock, which have 

 to be turned over — sometimes by the united strength of 

 the party — in order that the treasures beneath may be re- 

 vealed. 



Under one such stone as it rolled back I caught 

 sight of a large cuttlefish, Eledone cirrlwsa, closely related to 

 the octopus. There it sat in a shallow pool, something 

 like a large yellowish toad, blinking its brilliant eyes, 

 changing, chameleon-like, the colour of its skin, puffing 

 out its fat round body, and squirting water at me with its 

 funnel. I carried it home from Puffin Island next day in 

 a large jar of sea- water, and it was before me on my study 

 table as I wTote these lines, climbing about the jar by 

 means of its eight long tapering arms provided with 

 powerful sucking discs, stretching itself up to the surface 

 of the w^ater, and extending its arms out in all directions 

 like radii — suggesting the appearance of some monstrous 

 spider in which the web is part of the animal's body — and 

 then suddenly collapsing and dropping all in a heap to the 

 bottom. 



We found besides many Ascidians, and a few Nudi- 

 bianchs ; Sponges, Zoophytes, and Polyzoa, were in 

 profusion, and of the new Algae, which fell to Mr. Gibson's 

 share, there was almost no end. Altogether we were in 

 luck, and when w^e had followed the tide down to its 

 lowest, and a little beyond, and were driven up the shore 

 by the advancing waves and the approaching darkness, 

 saturated to our knees and elbows, and ordinarily wet over 

 most of the remainder of our bodies, but laden with spoil, 

 we tramped across the Island to our snug little station, 



