THE ARCHIPELAGO OF CHAUSEY. 45 



pointed snouts, surmounted by a double crescent- 

 formed eye ; how they gather themselves together to 

 escape from the gleam of light which has fallen upon 

 them. Look at the tangled skein which they have 

 formed, it is a hundred times more inextricable than 

 the knot which Alexander cut. But here the coils 

 are living, and as they glide through and into one 

 another, they incessantly bind and loosen the glisten- 

 ing knots, amid the sparkling play of their luminous 

 reflections. During this time the animated threads, 

 as they detach themselves from the glowing mass, 

 catch up grains of sand and particles of slime, and in 

 a few minutes, before you can distinguish the me- 

 chanism by which all this is effected, the annelids 

 are sheltered under a flexible and plaited envelope, 

 formed of fragments, which, thickening more and more 

 as they cluster together, become at length converted 

 into a kind of case, which encloses the Cirrhatula as 

 the shell encloses the nut. 



Now let us take a lens of higher power, move the 

 lamp in such a manner as to let its rays fall upon 

 the reflector of our microscope, and let us examine 

 a few of the hairs taken from the animals which 

 we have been describing. Every annelid has two 

 bundles of hairs on the outer edge of its feet, and 

 these threads, which, notwithstanding their extreme 

 delicacy, are far stiffer than an ordinary hair, appear 

 to be placed on either side of the animal to protect it 

 against its enemies. A moment's consideration will 

 suffice to confirm this view, for there is scarcely 

 perhaps a single weapon invented by the murderous 

 genius of man whose counterpart and model could 



