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indicative of the exquisite regularity and coinplexity of 

 the interweaving of its component threads, resembling the 

 most delicate spun glass, and of a silvery lustre. The speci- 

 mens brought to Sydney, New South Wales, varied in size 

 from eight to fifteen inches in length, and of a proportionate 

 diameter. An account was published in the annals of Natural 

 History (vol. 3, 4tli series, 1869) of the method adopted to 

 capture tlie J^itplcctella. It was as follows : — " The only place 

 where the Regaderas are to be found is about three miles from 

 the shore, in front of the small village of Palisay, which is 

 about five or six miles south of the town of Zebu, Island of 

 Zebu, Philippine Island?. The mode of catching them is very 

 ingenious, and is as follows : — When the tide is about its full, 

 the natives go out in vei'y small canoes to the bed in which 

 they are found, which is about a mile in circumference, and 

 from loO to 135 fathoms deep. The native, when he considers 

 he has come to about the extremity of the bed, then lets drop 

 his fishing tackle, composed of a piece of iron of the shape of a 

 T,to the two extremities of which are attached two flexible pieces 

 of bamboo, armed with hooks. This sinks to the bottom, and 

 the native sits perfectly still in his tiny canoe, which is then 

 gradually drifted by the tide or cvirrent over the ground on 

 which the Regaderas are found ; so soon as he feels that his 

 trawling apparatus has caught something, he begins to haul 

 his line gently in, and generally finds two or three impaled on 

 the hooks. When taken out of the water the Regaderas are 

 dirty and yellow, but after being put into fresh water, or ex- 

 posed to the rain, and dried in the sun, tliey become perfectly 

 white. The bottom of the sea where the Regaderas are found, 

 is composed of soft mud and sand. The extended fibres or 

 root of the Regadera is embedded in this, and the top or broad 

 part always looks, as the natives say, to the setting sun. In 

 the Regadera, when fished up, are generally found from one to 

 three small animals of the crab species, of about the size of 

 very small shrimps. The hooks, of course, often catch 

 Regaderas without bringing them up, and many that have 

 been recovered show signs of having a new piece of netting 

 put over the part torn by the hook. It is said that the fii'st 

 Regadera discovered in Zebu was sold for fifty dollars, and 

 that a Dr. Caloo, who took it to Manilla, was then offered 

 two hundred dollars for it ; for some time after that they con- 

 tinued to be worth sixteen dollars each. It was only in 1865 

 they became abundant, through the present bed of them being 

 discovered." The Regaderas' usual form is that of a cornu- 

 copia, although some have been occasionally seen nearly 

 straight, but those are comparatively rare. The inclination of 

 the growth is outward. When first caught they are covered 



