OUT OF THE DEPTHS 119 



age it is perfectly evident that the last word of 

 its history has not yet been written. There is 

 not even any really good picture of it in any 

 work upon natural history, whether technical or 

 popular ; even the drawings in Professor Mar- 

 shall's interesting and able work on the Oban 

 Pennatulida? cannot be considered satisfactory by 

 those who have had the opportunity of watching 

 the living creature for weeks together. As it 

 comes up in the dredge, an ordinary specimen 

 resembles a knitting-needle, stocking-making size 

 if I was a lady, or it was a fish-hook, no doubt 

 I might identify it by a number made of a white, 

 hard, brittle, chalky material, and covered with 

 small fleshy pink appendages to within a short 

 distance of both extremities. Each of these ends 

 has been flat, as if broken off short, in every speci- 

 men except one that I have seen. That one 

 was the small one my boy has just picked out of 

 the net, which terminates at one end in a small 

 bulb, a circumstance which quite justifies his 

 exultation, and his request that when it goes 

 to the Museum it may be described as being of 

 his discovery. No collection in the world pos- 

 sesses a perfect specimen. There is only one 

 known example at Glasgow which is feathered 

 with polyps to the top ; while even that one is 

 without the bulb, which is the glory of my speci- 

 men, and which is unquestionably of very rare 

 occurrence, although not so absolutely unique as 



