132 PLEASANT SURPRISES. 



permanent tide-pools or from deep water are very hardy in con- 

 finement, and give no trouble whatever. One may often obtain 

 good specimens on oyster-shells ; and we have now in our pos- 

 session a solitary individual which was procured in that way, and 

 which has now been nearly twelve months at the bottom of a 

 tank, where it still puts forth its beautiful feathery cirrhi with 

 great animation and vigour. 



Not the least of the many pleasures which the Aquarium 

 affords are the agreeable surprises which continually arise from 

 the discovery of some member or other of the aquatic community 

 which has previously escaped observation. It not unfrequently 

 happens that discoveries of this sort are made by the naked eye, as 

 it ranges casually over the interior of the tank ; juvenile Anemones, 

 Annelids, and Crustaceans often turning up in out-of-the-way 

 crevices and corners, where and when they are least expected. 

 But more commonly it is when carefully searching over the en- 

 closure with a lens, that these unsuspected treasures are brought 

 to light ; and great indeed, sometimes, is the joy with which they 

 are greeted. 



It was during one of these investigations, lens in hand, that 

 we made our first acquaintance with living forms of the Bryozoa 

 or Moss Corals, and our delight at the beauty of the spectacle 

 which they presented, combined, of course, with the thought that 

 they formed part of our own live stock, was perhaps a little extra- 

 vagant. Our attention was first arrested by a small patch on an 

 old overgrown shell of what looked like white mucor, but which, 

 on being brought nearer and after a while examined more atten- 

 tively, resolved itself into a crowd of minute creatures standing 

 erect, from little nipple-like prominences, each surmounted by 

 a funnel-shaped coronet of tentacles of pearly whiteness and 

 exquisite beauty. Within a smaller space than would be covered 

 by a split pea, some thirty or forty of these elegant polyp-like 

 creatures were crowded together. And their movements were as 

 curious as their appearance was beautiful. Every moment one 

 or more of the number were twitching and starting, now disap- 

 pearing within their cells, and now again protruding, the stiff 

 bristle-like tentacles being closely appressed, until fully pushed 

 out, and then springing apart into the open-funnel form with a 

 sudden start. It was some time before we could make out what 

 our new-found treasures were ; but before long the beauties were 



