T24 BY THE DEEP SEA. 



about an inch and a half in length, with a roundish body, no 

 eyes, and the mouth near the front end. 



The Four-eyed Worm (Tetrastcmma quarfrioculatuni) is 

 similar in form, but larger, thicker in the middle, and with 

 four eye-spots arranged in a semicircle parallel with the front 

 margin. 



The Many-eyed Red -worm (Polystemma roseum} has a dis- 

 tinct snake-like head and neck, with many eye-spots in groups 

 around the margin of the head and towards the neck, and in 

 the latter there are two red spots which appear to be hearts. 

 Just below these is the mouth. Viewed laterally the head is 

 wedge-shaped. It is to be found in rock-crevices, and among 

 the rubbish at the roots of seaweeds on the rocks. 



The most marvellous, in certain respects, of all these worms 

 is the Long Worm (Linens marinus-t), so long, indeed, that it 

 is all but impossible to give its measurement. It is extremely 

 soft like the others of its tribe, very narrow and quite linear, 

 that is, slender with parallel sides. You will probably find it 

 for it is fairly common beneath some deserted jhell, resting 

 for the day, away from the light ; and it will no doubt be twisted 

 and tangled and coiled upon itself in such a manner as would 

 lead you to say if you have no experience of its ways that it 

 were impossible for it or any other creature to disentangle it 

 without many breakages. How any creature can carry on the 

 ordinary functions of life so tightly coiled and twisted and 

 knotted is a marvel. And yet, hopeless as the task of disen- 

 tanglement appears, Linens accomplishes it without any of 

 those strainings that the juggler puts on when he has been tied 

 up by the sailor, until the confining rope is all knots. Whilst 

 it is day the Lineus has no particular desire to uncoil ; he is 

 happier as he is, his enormous length more under control and, 

 like an army that is concentrated in one mass, is less open to 

 the assaults of an enemy. But when the fitting occasion has 

 arrived, and Lineus wishes to be elsewhere, he solves your 



* Better known by its former name, Netnertes borlasii. 



