SEA SQUIRTS 277 



the recent storm. Not only are these little sacs common 

 on the shore after storms, but they are taken in the oyster- 

 dredge (or naturalist's dredge) by hundreds. When you 

 handle one of these apparently lifeless sacs, you are sur- 

 prised to feel it give a slight movement of its own, and to 

 see a fine jet of water issue from it. North-Sea fisher- 

 men, who come across these and many such creatures, 

 have no name for them, but class them all with supreme 

 disgust as " trash." What they want is fish, and (with 

 characteristic Anglo-Saxon short-sightedness) they ignore 

 everything else. They know next to nothing even about 



A 



FIG. 31. Two kinds of Ascidians or "sea squirts" of half the natural 

 size. A is the kind known as Ascidia mammillata, B is a red- 

 coloured species of the genus Cynthia allied to Ascidia. It shows 

 on distinct prominences the mouth at the top of the sac-like body 

 and the opening of the peri-branchial chamber on the right. Root- 

 like processes of the sac are given off from its lower end and 

 serve to fix it to a rock or stone. 



the fish and bait, which are so important, to them ; the 

 more sapient among them declare the eggs of the lump- 

 sucker to be those of the herring, and the acorn-barnacles 

 on the tidal rocks to be the young of the limpet. Hence 

 they have no name for the little translucent sacs just 

 mentioned ; but boys call them " sea-squirts," and that 

 name has been adopted. Naturalists call them Ascidians. 



