256 AN HOUR AMONG THE TORBAT SPONGES. 



the shape of flattened sacks, attached by a base to the 

 red leaves of depending sea-weeds. 



All these are Sponges. Diverse as they are in form, 

 and in texture, and in colour, and in manner of growth, 

 they have all the same essential structure. We can- 

 not learn much about them by looking at them here, 

 especially after they have been for an hour or more 

 forsaken by the receding tide ; but if we take one or 

 two specimens off very carefully, so as not in any wise 

 to bruise or break their delicate organization, separat- 

 ing, in short, by means of the chisel, a bit of the rock 

 itself on which they are growing, and, committing 

 them to a jar of sea-water, examine them at home, 

 we shall find much to admire in these, the lowest 

 works of God's hand, and see abundant occasion to 

 praise His infinite wisdom and inexhaustible resources, 

 and to render to Him, what the study of creation 

 ought ever to elicit, the glorification of His eternal 

 power and Godhead. 



Let me then intermit, for a few moments, the 

 description of our shore explorings, and tell my young 

 readers somewhat of the wonders which these Sponges 

 reveal when examined under favourable conditions 

 at home. We will assume, then, that the specimens 

 have been safely brought home ; that they have been 

 lifted one by one from the collecting jar, and, with a 

 soft camers-hair pencil, have been cleansed from extra- 

 neous matter, mud and other deposits, while under 

 water ; that each has then been rinsed and deposited 

 in a small glass cell with parallel sides, full of fresh 



