124 THE SEA. 



which had somehow contrived to swallow a valve of Pecten maximus of the size of an 

 ordinary saucer. The shell, fixed within the stomach, was so placed as to divide it com- 

 pletely into two halves, so that the body, stretched tensely over, had become thin and 

 flattened like a pancake. Ah 1 communication between the inferior portion of the stomach and 

 the mouth was, of course, prevented ; yet, instead of emaciating and dying of atrophy, the 

 animal had availed itself of what undoubtedly had been a very untoward accident to increase 

 its enjoyment and its chance of double fare. A new mouth, furnished with two rows of 

 numerous tentacula, was opened up on what had been the base, and led to the under stomach; 

 the individual had, indeed, become a sort of Siamese Twin, but with greater intimacy and 



MADREPORES. 



extent in its unions." The Actinia are at once gluttonous and voracious. They seize even 

 mussels and crabs, and when they want to eject the hardest parts of the latter can turn 

 their stomachs inside out, as one might turn out one's pocket ! Their tentacles can act on 

 the offensive ; the hand of the man who has touched them becomes inflamed, and small fish 

 are literally killed by contact with them. 



In Provence, Italy, and Greece, some varieties are used for food, the Green Actinia 

 being in special repute. 



The Gorgons are interesting curiosities of the coral type ; some are scarcely the twelfth 

 of an inch in height, while others attain a height of several feet. The beautiful Fan Gorgon, 

 which is often eighteen or more inches high, is so called on account of its form, and there 

 are other very beautiful examples of arborescent gorgons. Their organism is double ; the 

 one external, sometimes gelatinous; sometimes, on the contrary, fleshy and cretaceous. It is 

 animated with life. 



A vast natural group is that of the Echinodermata, which includes five orders, or 



