178 BY THE DEEP SEA. 



Before we attempt to tell this story briefly, let us look at one 

 of the specimens before us. The long and evidently muscular 

 neck ends in a composite shell, which is seen to be composed 

 of four portions, or valves hinged together, opening in front, 

 and strengthened at the back by a fifth valve, a long, narrow, 

 and curved piece. At short intervals the two halves into 

 which this "shell" is obviously divided part in front, and out 

 comes a mass of coiled up, slender, and hairy processes which 

 separate and uncoil as though attempting to catch some invis- 

 ible body, then coil up again and withdraw as though they had 

 really caught it and meant to keep it. Now this is the princi- 

 pal, one might almost say the sole occupation of their adult 

 lives, but writhing is another to which they pay some atten- 

 tion. Probably it may strike you as a monotonous, perhaps 

 senseless way of spending one's days ; but it is quite evident, 

 from the great numbers of Barnacles crowded within a few 

 square feet, and all looking prosperous, that it is a paying 

 game. 



It must be remembered that however clear and crystalline 

 the sea-water appears, there is really great truth in the remark 

 of the scientific luminary, who said that the sea was a kind of 

 thin soup or broth, holding enormous quantities of animal and 

 vegetable matter in solution, most of it invisible to the unas- 

 sisted vision. Whoever possesses a retentive hand like that 

 of the Barnacle, has only to spread the palms and fingers 

 wide, then close them tightly, to have something enclosed 

 therein. Such is the Barnacle's experience ; and it is by the 

 mere opening and shutting of his hand that he gets a good 

 living. Strictly speaking, this hand is not his hand, but a 

 number of feet and hands w r hich correspond with the limbs of 

 the crabs, lobsters, and shrimps. 



Strange as the assertion may sound, unlike as the creatures 

 appear, the Barnacles belong to the same great class (Crus- 

 tacea) as the animals described in the last two chapters, 

 though they are partly separated from them and put into an 



