AMPHITRITE. 213 



When originally withdrawn from the sea, the orifice of the higher 

 extremity is closed by compression of the sides, and if the lower part be 

 not ruptured, it tapers down to the point of adhesion. All the interme- 

 diate space is quite smooth, when free of corrugations, very elastic to the 

 touch, with the peculiar softness of moistened leather. And, on the 

 whole, when clear and perfect, this submarine product bears the narrowest 

 resemblance to a tube of caoutchouc, manufactured by human art. 



We now behold it in its simplest state ; but, on plunging this dark, 

 artificial-looking tube amidst a quantity of recent sea- water, the compres- 

 sion above relaxes, and a few air-bubbles escape ; the tip of a variegated 

 pencil is gradually protruding, which suddenly unfolds as a splendid 

 plume, composed of many feathers. Thus it remains stationary and mo- 

 tionless, or perhaps it commences a slow, regular horizontal revolution, 

 as if of the spokes of an unbound wheel with their vertical axle only. 

 An admirable spectacle is offered to the view. We see a living creature, 

 of infinite beauty, in motion for some purpose, or discharging some func- 

 tion unintelligible. Let the slightest shock be communicated, and the 

 whole instantaneously collapses and disappears within the tube, almost 

 before its image has faded from the eye. 



On dislodging the tenant of the tube from its dwelling, the body, 

 hitherto concealed below, proves to be of vermicular form, twelve to fif- 

 teen inches long, composed of about 350 segments, and crowned by a 

 head of eighty or ninety feathers, resembling a shuttlecock. The lower 

 extremity terminates in a double gland, fig. 2. 



This head, or anterior portion of the animal, which I shall, for brevity, 

 denominate the plume, though truly the branchiae, is disposed in two ver- 

 tical fans, in such a position and arrangement as to form a perfect funnel, 

 which will be seen on simple inspection. In larger specimens it exceeds 

 thirty lines in depth when the plume is displayed, and forty lines in 

 diameter, variegated in brown, red, green, and yellow colour, figs. 1, 2. 



Two triangular pointed brown and green antennulre rise about three 

 lines high from the bottom of the funnel, fig. 3 ; and towards one side, 

 also below, are two external fleshy lobes or trowels, with an organ like a 



