WATERS OF WESTERN INDIA. 87 



Of course, the moment that any hole reduced the thickness of 

 the pipe so far that it could not longer bear the tremendous pressure 

 of the water within, the remaining diaphragm of metal was burst 

 out, and the miner driven out of his own burrow like a shot from 

 a gun, so that, although we have the "corpus delicti" plain enough, 

 the corpus delinquentis is not likely ever to come to hand (in the 

 case of a finished, hole). But an oyster shell in the Society's. 

 Museum shows a small Pholad dried in his burrow, who is probablv 

 near of kin to the miner of Hog Island. The story is perhaps oue 

 of the most remarkable in the modern history of Molluscs ; and with 

 it I close my remarks on those of the Konkan. 



Having, so far as in me lies, treated of the true Molluscs, I have 

 to deal with the other Invertebrates, under especial difficulties. 

 Very few men, not being professional naturalists, really understand 

 the multitudinous and multiform canaille of the waters ; and as for 

 books, I am now in a remote jungle, dependent ou one Nicholson's 

 "Manual of Zoology." I write, therefore, very much subject to 

 correction, and shall have done all I can hope to do, if I happen to 

 help any one who knows less than myself. So far as possible, I 

 shall follow the classification of the standard work noted above; and 

 shall draw on it for some of my facts ; as, in respect of the Mollusca, 

 1 have depended mostly on Woodward. 



Of the higher tunicaries, the Ascidians seem to be rare here; 

 at least I have got very few, and those not remarkable. These are 

 the creatures about whom it passed for a joke, some years ago, 

 to say that "the Darwinians believed themselves to be descended 

 from a marine Ascidian." 



The truth of the story is, that a Mr. Kowalefski considered 

 himself to have discovered, in the larvse of certain Ascidians, 

 structures analogous to those characteristic of vertebrate animals. 

 In this he was supported by other naturalists, and, amongst them, 

 by the late Mr. Darwin, who,, moreover, stated that he had, long 

 before Kowalefski's publications, made similar observations on 

 certain Ascidians at the Falkland Islands (where, it may well 

 be supposed, he had not the best laboratory in the world). 



The whole matter, as regards the Ascidians, comes fairly within 

 the scope of this paper ; but it need hardly be said that I do not 

 propose here to take up such a subject as the doctrine of Evolution. 

 It may fairly be said that many competent naturalists consider the 

 supposed vertebrate affinities of the Ascidian larvse to be merely su- 



