MEMBRANIPORA. Sak 
white polypes were popping out of their cells, and anon 
with the quickness of lightning darting back into them 
again. But I observed, what was quite a new sight to me, 
one of the polypes which had broken loose from its cell, 
and was voyaging through what must have seemed to it a 
vast field of waters. To the naked eye it was almost invi- 
sible, but when magnified by the lens it was like a beautiful 
little hand-bell, the bell, which was bowl-shaped, being 
formed by about twenty tentacula, and the body, or part of 
the body, constituting the handle. Beautiful as it was, I 
could not help regarding it with pity. I fear it was not a 
voyage of pleasure. It was bounding about, but its efforts 
seemed convulsive. It closed its little arms, as if it had 
been clasping them in anguish, and then by a sudden jerk 
threw them out again. Perhaps it had been torn by vio- 
lence from its home, and knew not the way back to it, so 
that its wanderings may have been its misfortune and not 
its fault. I soon lost sight of it, and it may have perished. 
Less to be pitied, however, than many thoughtless youths, 
who intentionally go astray, and who, being launched on a 
dangerous sea without helm or compass or chart, are driven 
about and tossed, and terminate their guilty career amidst 
blackness, and darkness, and tempest. 
