10 NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BELL ROCK. 



running, as it were, from its North to its South Pole. Two 

 long filamentous tentacles streamed from the lower portion 

 of the animal, and were constantly being shot forth and 

 withdrawn into its body, probably concerned in some way 

 in the animal's nutrition. Along one side of each tentacle 

 were ranged delicate filaments, scarcely perceptible to the 

 naked eye, and were probably of service in entangling the 

 minute food forms contained in the water. Each of the eight 

 vertical bands was seen to be furnished with minute plates 

 overlapping each other like the plume of a feather. These 

 plates, being continually in motion, were the means by which 

 the animal was propelled through the water; by revers- 

 ing the action it moved backwards, and by moving those on 

 one side only, a rotary motion was obtained, the action cf the 

 plates producing the most brilliant prismatic effects. Call 

 these plates paddles, and their different movements a-head, 

 a-stern, port and starboard, and man's wonderful invention 

 the paddle-wheel does not appear so very " new under the sun." 

 The various motions man obtains by means of ponderous 

 machinery are here vested in this simple, almost structureless 

 animal, which has aptly been likened to a drop of animated 

 sea water, and the facility with which it rises to the surface or 

 descends to any depth might furnish hints towards the solution 

 of the submarine vessel, which is at present so engrossing the 

 attention of naval authorities the world over. Dwellers by 

 the sea at this season of the year should have little trouble in 

 procuring specimens of this most beautiful and interesting 

 animal, which would certainly prove to them "a thing of 

 beauty and a joy for " well, several days, if the water is 

 renewed. 



