124 MARVELS OF TOND-LTFE. 



the teeth are brought together, one could fancy a 

 sound of mill-work was heard, and the observer is 

 fully impressed with m sense of mechanical power. 



When the creature is obliging enough to present 

 a full front view, her domestic economy is excellently 

 displayed. The prey that is caught in her whirl- 

 pool is carried down by a strong ciliary current 

 to the gizzard, which may be often seen grappling 

 with objects that appear much too big for its grasp; 

 and ^Ir. Gosse was lucky in witnessing an attempt 

 to chew up a morsel that did actually prove too 

 large and too tough, and which, after many inef- 

 fectual efforts, was suddenly cast out. As soon as 

 food has passed the gizzard, it is assisted in its 

 journey by more ciliary currents, Avhich are noticeable 

 in the capacious stomach, in the neighbourhood of 

 which the secreting and other vessels are readily 

 observed. Just over the gizzard blazes a great red 

 eye, of a square or oblong form, and it reposes 

 upon a large mass of soft granular-looking brain, 

 which well justifies Mr. Gosse's epithet ''enormous." 

 Whether this brain is highly organized enough to 

 be a thinking apparatus, we do not know, but it is 

 evidently the cause of a very vigorous and consen- 

 taneous action of the various organs the Brachion 

 possesses. 



A description of the Brachion would be very 

 incomplete if it omitted that important organ the 



