WORMS. 303 



foe and bring liini within reacli of the blade. Among 

 them are others of simihar shape, bnt with the edge cnt 

 into delicate slanting notches, which run along the 

 sides of the blade like those on the edge of our reaping- 

 hooks. These are chiefly the weapons of the lower 

 bundle ; those of the upper arc still more imposing. 

 The outmost are short curved clubs, armed with a 

 row of shark's teeth to make them more fatal ; these 

 surround a cluster of spears, the long heads of which 

 are furnished with a double row of the same appen- 

 dages, and lengthened scymitars, the curved edges of 

 which are cut into teeth like a saw. Though a stranger 

 might think I had drawn copiously on my fancy for 

 this description, I am sure, with your eye upon what is 

 on the stage of the microscope at this moment, you 

 will acknowledo-e that the resemblances are not at all 

 forced or unnatural. To add to the effect, imagine that 

 all these weapons are forged out of the clearest glass 

 instead of steel ; that the larger bundles may contain 

 about fifty, and the smaller half as many, each ; that 

 there are four bundles on every segment, and that the 

 body is composed of twenty-five such segments, and 

 you will have a tolerable idea of the garniture and arma- 

 ture of this little Worm, that grubs about in the mud 

 at low-water mark. 



Should it ever be yom' fortune to fall in with a 

 species of Sea-mouse {Aphrodite hystrix) which inhabits 

 our southern coast a little way from the shore, you 

 may be delighted and surprised with a modification 

 of these organs, which exhibits a more than ordinarily 

 obvious amount of creative forethought and skill. I 

 will describe them in the words of the learned his- 

 torians of these animals, MM. Audouin and Milne-Ed- 

 wards : — 



