Mr. H. J. Carter on the Freshwater Sponges of Bombay. 93 



re-appear, and as it is carried forward in the movements of the 

 cell with the portion to which it is attached, it gradually regains 

 its original size, and returning in due course to the point from 

 which it started, again contracts as formerly. 



In progression, some of the large proteans developed in the 

 way just mentioned appear to be conscious of the nature of cer- 

 tain objects which they encounter in their course, since they will 

 stop and surround them with their cell-wall. It is not uncom- 

 mon to see a portion of a spiculum in the latter position (PL IV. 

 fig. 3), the larger germs of the sponge itself, the body of a lori- 

 cated animalcule, the ^^q^^ P^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^ diameter (fig. 4), 

 on which the pressure exerted by the protean may be seen by 

 the irregular form assumed by the animalcule the moment it has 

 become surrounded. I once saw one of these proteans approach 

 a gelatinous body, something like a sluggish or dead one of its 

 own kind, and equal to itself in size, and having lengthened itself 

 out so as to encircle it, send processes over and under it from 

 both sides (fig. 6), which uniting with each other, at last ended 

 in a complete approximation of the two opposite folds of the cell- 

 wall, throughout their whole extent, and in the enclosure of the 

 object within the duplicature. Even while the protean was thus 

 spreading out its substance into a mere film, to surround so large 

 an object, a tubular prolongation was sent out by it in another 

 direction to seize and enclose in the same way a large germ which 

 was lying near it. After having secured both objects the protean 

 pursued its course rather more slowly than before, but still shoot- 

 ing out its dentiform processes with much activity. It took about 

 three-quarters of an hour to perform these two acts. 



Lastly, I have frequently seen it grapple with its own species ; 

 when, if the one it meets is near its own size, they merely twist 

 round each other for a short time and then separate ; but when 

 it does not exceed the sixth or eighth part of its size, then there 

 is much struggling between them, and the smaller one escapes, 

 or is secured by the aid of the digital prolongations of the larger 

 one, and enveloped as the object before mentioned in a fold of its 

 cell- wall. 



On one occasion I witnessed a contest between two proteans, 

 wherein the large one, after having seized the smaller one with 

 its finger-like processes, passed it under its body, so as to cause 

 it to lie between itself and the glass. For a moment the small 

 protean remained in this position, when the cell-wall raised itself 

 over it in the form of a dome, in which so-formed cavity the little 

 protean began to crawl round and round to seek for an exit ; 

 gradually however the cell-wall closed in beneath it in the man- 

 ner of a sphincter, and it was carried up as it were into the inte- 



