194 



HIGHWATER MARK. 



closeted octogenarian ! The shell is of unimpeach- 

 able symmetry, polish, and delicacy ; it is of a trans- 

 lucent horn-colour, and its summit is marked with 

 three fine lines of the most brilliantly-gemmeous 

 azure. 



But we have not quite exhausted this mass of tor- 

 tuous roots ; for here, peeping from their narrow 

 interstices, we discern two or three tiny knobs of 

 brown flesh, which, shrinking from the touch, mani- 

 fest their animal nature and their vitality. We can 

 make little of them in then* present condition ; but, 

 breaking or cutting off the rootlets which hold them, 

 let us drop these into a phial of sea-water, and we 

 shall see what we shall see. 



The minute knobs of flesh are beginning to swell and 

 protrude from their crevices, as they feel the geneal 

 stimulus of the water, and now they form little cylin- 

 drical columns with rounded summits. Now those 

 summits are opening ; from a central point issue tiny 

 filaments, at first as a little crowded pencil or fastis; 

 but, as the opening expands, these also recede until 

 at length they stand, a crown of sensitive tentacles, 

 around the margin of the short pillar. 



And the apex of the pillar, the tiny area sur- 

 rounded and walled-in by these environing guards, 

 how beautifully is this decorated ! Like some gay 

 pattern which a child has caught in twirling a kaleido- 

 scope, and calls on his mother to see and admire, 

 we behold here a shaUow saucer painted in a many- 

 rayed star of yellow, and orange, and pink, of purple, 



