THE RELIGION OF NATUEE 



astonished by the impartiality with which each of 

 them swallowed any objects edible or inedible 

 which were placed within the ring of tentacles 

 surrounding the mouth. One day I gave a half- 

 penny to one large anemone, " to see what it 

 would do with it " ; and the creature's mouth 

 stretched and stretched, until the coin was slowly 

 engulfed. But the diameter of the halfpenny was 

 considerably larger than that of the anemone's 

 trunk, and, as this did not appear to have the 

 same stretching power as the mouth, I was rather 

 concerned to see that the tension caused the edge 

 of the coin to cut through the tissues, until the 

 anemone was divided in half the upper half still 

 spread out like a flower, and the lower half sand- 

 wiched between the halfpenny and the stone on 

 which the " sea flower " had been standing. The 

 creature was, however, fully prepared for acci- 

 dents like this, for it quietly began to disengage 

 itself from the stone, and, to my astonishment, 

 the end which had been the base of the stalk threw 

 out tentacles similar to those at' the other end, 

 until the halfpenny was decorated with a flour- 

 ishing sea-anemone on each side of it ! 



Now, although this was an animal which was 

 extremely sensitive to a touch, how can we credit 

 it with any sense of individuality in suffering, 

 when it quietly allows itself to be cut in half 



[40] 



