SEA-MOUSE. 245 



aculeata. Although belonging to the family of 

 worms, this creature altogether differs from its rela- 

 tives in its shape. Instead of being thread-shaped 

 or elongated, its body is oval, and about three or 

 four inches in length, and from an inch and a 

 half to two inches broad. Its back is clothed with 

 silky hairs of a rich metallic lustre, and exhibiting 

 several of the colours of the rainbow. Along its 

 sides are bundles of bristles attached to muscular 

 points which the creature can move at will, and 

 which serve as organs of motion, either in swim- 

 ming or crawling along the bottom. The splen- 

 dour of the colours which adorn this creature is 

 not inferior to that of the feathers of the humming 

 bird, although its habitation is the mud at the 

 bottom of the sea. The structure of the humblest 

 organised being is sufficient to excite the senti- 

 ment of beauty in any intelligent observer, even 

 in the total absence of mere brilliancy of external 

 colouring. All the marine worms afford marvel- 

 lous evidences of the same divine skill in which 

 the most complicated organisms have originated. 



B 3 



