THE WONDERS OF THE SHORE. 87 
sponges, which root themselves in the mud of the 
ocean floor by a twisted wisp of strong flexible 
flint needles, somewhat on the principle of a screw- 
pile. So strange and complicated is their structure, 
that naturalists for a long while could literally make 
neither head nor tail of them, as long as they had only 
Japanese specimens to study, some of which the 
Japanese dealers had, of malice prepense, stuck 
upside down into Pholas-borings in stones. Which 
was top and which bottom; which the thing itself, 
and which special parasites growing on it; whether 
it was a sponge, or a zoophyte, or something else; 
at one time even whether it was natural, or artificial 
and a make-up,—could not be settled, even till a 
year or two since. But the discovery of the same, 
or a similar, species in abundance from the Butt of 
the Lews down to Setubal on the Portuguese coast, 
where the deep-water shark fishers call it “sea- 
whip,” has given our savants specimens enough to 
make up their minds—that they really know little 
or nothing about it, and probably will never know. 
And do not forget, lastly, to ask, whether at 
