138 MAY. 



another instant, from one lip. a concave double proboscis, 

 just like a tapir's (another instance of the repetition of 

 forms), has clasped him like a ringer, and now begins 

 the struggle ; but in vain. He is being ' played/ with 

 such a fishing-rod as the skill of a Wilson or a Stoddart 

 never could invent ; a living line, with elasticity beyond 

 that of the most delicate fly-rod, which follows every 

 lunge, shortening and lengthening, slipping and twining 

 round every piece of gravel and stem of sea- weed, with 

 a tiring drag such as no Highland wrist or step could 

 ever bring to bear on salmon or trout. The victim is 

 tired now ; and slowly, yet dexterously, his blind assail- 

 ent is feeling and shifting along his side, till he reaches 

 one end of him ; and then the black lips expand, and 

 slowly and surely the curved finger begins packing him 

 end foremost down into the gullet, where he sinks, inch 

 by inch, till the swelling which marks his place is lost 

 among the coils, and he is probably macerated into a 

 pulp long before he has reached the opposite extremity 

 of his cave of doom. Once safe down, the black mur- 

 derer contracts again into a knotted heap, and lies like 

 a boa with a stag inside him, motionless and blest." 1 



1 Glaucus, p. 103. 



