96 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 



several successive strokes, and then stops for 

 a little. " During the period of rest the body 

 sinks slowly, sometimes imperceptibly, but 

 never so much that it cannot recover its 

 position in the water after the first few 

 strokes." 



THE STORY OF THE FLOATING BARNACLE 



Barnacles are strange crustaceans which 

 give up free-swimming when they are very 

 young and attach themselves to drifting logs 

 or the keels of ships. Even a sea-snake has 

 been seen with a big bunch on its tail, and 

 some of the unstalked acorn-shells, which are 

 second cousins of the stalked barnacles, are 

 found attached to the skin of whales. 



The newly hatched barnacle is like the 

 newly hatched larva of many of the lower 

 crustaceans. It has a body a little like half a 

 pear cut lengthwise and about the size of a 

 small pinhead. It has a median eye on the 

 top of its head and three pairs of swimming 

 appendages. It is called a Nauplius, but that 

 is neither here nor there. It feeds and grows 

 and moults, changing its form into what is 

 called a Cyprid larva. This seems to become 



