CHAPTER VIII. 

 SEA-WORMS. 



A CHANCE reader picking up this volume by accident, 01 

 from curiosity, and opening it at this chapter, will in all prob- 

 ability put it down quickly with the remark, " Worms indeed ! 

 and who wishes to read about such disgusting creatures ? " 



Our prejudices trip us up at every other step we take, and 

 interfere with our seeing and learning much that would 

 interest and edify us. Our notions of worms are suggested 

 by our imperfect knowledge of the common earth-worm 

 (Lumbricus) which few persons have properly seen. It is a 

 nasty, slimy, wriggling creature, that spoils the look of the 

 lawn with its unsightly casts, and is a further nuisance in that 

 it disturbs the seedlings in our seed-beds. 



Well, as a naturalist I have no great sympathy with this 

 view, for a worm is a wonderful creature ; but there are worms 

 and worms, and probably the most sensitive soul who would 

 shrink from a near view of the loathly earth-worm would have 

 his or her interest awakened by a sight of the Rainbow Leaf- 

 worm, the golden-haired Sea-mouse, the cinnabar Cirratulus, 

 or the glowing plumy crown of the Tube-worm. So, too, their 

 imagination may be stirred at the marvellous power of elonga- 

 tion possessed by the Lineus, whose full length can only be 

 estimated with difficulty, but which has been ascertained to be 

 something over twenty feet. 



There are among them builders in porcelain, stone, sand, 

 mud and spinners of submarine webs like those of spiders. 

 Brilliant colours, elegant forms, wonderful structures and 

 mechanism, ease of motion, and symmetry, are among the 



