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 B 



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. 



