88 
THE NAUTILUS. 
Continuing our travels in the dim water-world, we passed through 
a field of sponges. Not the brown, round masses of the bath-room, 
but radiant growths of scarlet ( Raphyrus hixoni and Ilalicondria 
rubra ) and purple, here and there great open oscula, tempting one 
to poke in a mischievous finger. Some grew in tufts like moss, some 
expanded like a dainty vase ( Phyllosiphonia caliciformis ), some 
forked like branches of trees and some spread like a lady’s fan. 
One abundant species, about the size and shape of an orange, was 
pure ice-white, studded with golden dots that almost glittered ( Leu - 
condra sp.). Of all these we gathered what we could, pricking our 
hands sore with sponge spicules as we worked. When, on the mor¬ 
row, our ravished beauties lay dead on a table in the museum, they 
had faded sadly from their pristine splendor. Among the sponges 
grew purple Boltenia pachydermatina, a pear-shaped head upon a 
slender stalk, like tulips in an earthly garden. 
For a surprise, the diver held up before my face and pressed an 
Aplysia. From it flowed a violet stream which stained the water 
for two feet around, hiding hand and mollusk in the cloud. One of 
my last captures was an exquisite nudibranch, which swarmed on 
the broad fucus blades. In hue it was the blue of a summer sky, 
flecked with blood-red dots and stripes. I had now grown weary ; 
not of searching for wonders, but of supporting the heavy diving 
armor, and was content to be drawn up again to the world of air 
and sunshine, which I had quitted three-quarters of an hour before. 
On reflection, I found the reward of my under-water foray to be, 
not a hoard of specimens, but a better appreciation of the circum¬ 
stances under which marine life exists. Our party of four had only 
observed, dead or alive, Chamostrea albida , Vola fumata, Trigonia 
lamarcki, Struthiolaria scutulata, Drillia oweni, Cassis pyrum,Cyprcea 
xanthodon, Astralium tentoriforme, Ranella leucostoma,Aplysia kera.u- 
dreni, Chromodoris bennetti, and two undetermined Doris. Mol- 
luscan life seemed, on the spot I explored, to be less plentiful than 
at low-tide mark. Perhaps, however, the difficulties under which I 
labored as a beginner in the art of diving, impeded me from finding 
what was really there. After seeing the rough sea floor, one won¬ 
ders that a dredge should capture as much as it does. A rich harvest 
probably awaits a conchologist who should seriously practice diving 
as a means of collecting. 
