82 WILD LIFE OF SCOTLAND 



private enterprise, however enthusiastic and intelli- 

 gent, the information could only be fragmentary, 

 and the results could scarcely be expected to 

 command wide acceptance. But a new develop- 

 ment has taken place, and the work has fallen 

 to more competent, if not more disinterested 

 persons. The aquarium has increased into the tank, 

 the naturalist has crystallized into the scientist, 

 and delight we are afraid has solidified into duty. 



The centre of this new activity is the marine 

 laboratory, quite a modern institution, whose exist- 

 ence is not generally known, and whose value is 

 not yet sufficiently recognised. The instruments of 

 research are dredge, and net. It has been my privi- 

 lege, during several seasons, to share in the work of 

 such a place, and to watch the yield of the sea. 



Most of the marine invertebrates spawn early in 

 the spring. Although themselves fixed to the rock, 

 or crawling along the bottom, or burrowing in the 

 sand, the young forms young starfishes, urchins, 

 annelids, ascidians enjoy for a time a free ocean 

 life. Very beautiful all of them are, especially 

 those which move by rows of cilia, revolving like 

 minute wheels. These larvae, though by no means 

 the exclusive, are the characteristic forms secured 

 in the net between February and May. 



