220 HIGH WATER MARK. 



which the little creature can peep out of its fortress 

 or retire into its shelter, or execute various movements 

 within its ample cavity. 



If you had had an opportunity of examining the 

 Oarweed at that juncture, you would have discerned, 

 at the very spot where now you see the root of this 

 little shrub, the cell with its active inhabitant. You 

 would have seen an oval, or rather pear-shaped, 

 translucent shell, appearing as if a broad slice had 

 been cut away from one side, leaving a great aperture, 

 with a thickened edge all round. But this aperture 

 you would have seen to be closed by a delicate skin or 

 membrane stretched across it, connected with the rim 

 on all sides. Then, in the middle of this tense mem- 

 brane, or rather towards the upper extremity, you 

 would have noticed a kind of slit, forming two curved 

 lips, which closed of themselves when left alone, but 

 which constituted a door, capable of being pushed open 

 from within, and allowing the inhabitant a pretty free 

 egress. Beneath this membraneous coverlid, you 

 would have seen, in the interior of the cell, which, 

 from the perfect transparency of all the integuments, 

 would have been perfectly patent to your eye, the 

 little animal inhabitant, lying on its side, and bent on 

 itself with a double angle. You might have seen a 

 slight alteration in the position of the body, and then 

 you would have discerned the lips of the crescentic slit 

 in the membrane separating, as if pushed apart, and 

 a number of filaments, like a bundle of straight rods, 

 or like one of the fasces of a Koman lictor, slowly pro- 



