56 GORDIUS MARINUS. 



We accordingly did so, and found a worm of prodi- 

 gious length, perhaps more than twenty feet long, and 

 not thicker than a crow-quill. The fisheimen said 

 they had seen some of the same species as many yards 

 in length ; but we scarcely gave them credit for their 

 assertion. Rachel knew, at the first glimpse, that it 

 was 2i gordius marinus*; and said that its power of 

 contraction and extension was so great, that it could 

 not be measured : for that Mr. Palmer had put one of 

 eight feet, alive, into spirits, and it instantly shrunk 

 to one foot, but increased twice its former size in bulk. 

 Whilst we were looking at it, it twisted itself into an 

 indescribable variety of convolutions, and in its mo- 

 tions frequently described the most graceful swells 

 imaginable. I wanted to give the men a trifle to 

 carry it home ; but Rachel said it was scarcely possi- 

 ble to preserve it in its natural state, for, if suffered 

 to die in sea-water, one part will decay, whilst the 

 other is alive ; and so sensible is this creature to any- 

 thing contrary to its natm'e, that even fresh water 

 occasions an immediate contraction. 

 , Upon our return home, we gave an account of the 

 objects that had excited our attention ; when Mrs. 

 Saville, who often contrives to draw moral instruc- 

 tion from trifling circumstances, remarked, that the 

 pleasure of this huge wonn seems to consist in its 

 * Transactions of the Linnean Society. 



