78 BY THE DEEP SEA. 



than the Gem, its pimples less prominent, and each one with 

 a tiny crimson speck at its centre ; the interspaces between 

 the pimples being freckled with crimson. In the aquarium it 

 will be found to select an obscure angle between the floor of 

 the tank and a stone. It is very sluggish, and readily settles 

 down to aquarium life. 



In strong contrast to the quiet loveliness of the little Pimplet, 

 is the massive and showy beauty of the Dahlia Wartlet (Urti- 

 cinafelind). The Pimplet reaches up to the light and adds 

 grace to its beauty ; but the Dahlia Wartlet spreads itself out 

 as widely as possible, so that its diameter exceeds its height 

 about three times. In spite of its size and its magnificence, 

 one has got to learn how to see it before it appears at all 

 plentiful ; then, if we are on the rocks near low-water, we shall 

 find it in abundance. It is fond of crevices and places where 

 gravel and broken shell accumulate. Beneath these it buries 

 its broad base and attaches bits of shell and stone to the many 

 whitish suckers with which the upper part of its dark crimson 

 column is thickly studded, and when the tide recedes and 

 leaves it, the collector has to look, not for an expanse of 

 brilliant tentacles, but for a little rounded heap of gravel. In 

 permanent pools, however, where it has crimson weeds and 

 white corallines around to harmonise with its bright hues, the 

 Wartlet seldom closes, except for the purpose of securing its 

 food ; there its sucker- warts are little used, and consequently 

 they dwindle in size. The tentacles are thick, transparent 

 cones, marked with transverse bands of dark crimson and white. 

 The disk is of a transparent olive hue at the circumference, 

 merging into full crimson nearer the centre, where the disk 

 swells into a low elevation with the mouth in a depression at 

 its summit. It is a very voracious creature, and its large 

 mouth and capacious stomach enable it to swallow half-sized 

 specimens of the Shore-crab (Carcinus manas], sea-urchins, 

 dog-whelks, and small fishes. On this account it is not so 

 suitable as an inmate of the aquarium as the others we have 



