{THE WONDERS OF THE SHORE. 183 
Mystery of mysteries! Let us jest no more,— 
Heaven forgive us if we have jested too much on so 
simple a matter as that poor spider-crab, taken out 
of the lobster-pots, and left to die at the bottom of 
the boat, because his more aristocratic cousins of 
the blue and purple armour will not enter the trap 
while he is within. 
I am not aware whether the surmise, that these 
tiny zoophytes help to purify the water by exhaling 
oxygen gas, has yet been verified. The infusorial 
animalcules do so, reversing the functions of animal 
life, and instead of evolving carbonic acid gas, as 
other animals do, evolve pure oxygen. So, at least, 
says Liebig, who states that he found a small piece 
of matchwood, just extinguished, burst out again 
into a flame on being immersed in the bubbles given 
out by these living atomies. 
I myself should be inclined to doubt that this 
is the case with zoophytes, having found water in 
which they were growing (unless, of course, sea- 
weeds were present) to be peculiarly ready to become 
foul; but it is difficult to say whether this is owing 
