OUT OF THE DEPTHS 125 



calcareous stem or bone ; and my boatman, a 

 most accurate and intelligent observer, described 

 it to me minutely before I had ever read of 

 it or seen it in spirits. He said he had got 

 great numbers at a place near Ballachulish, 

 and that the schoolmaster, who was an ardent 

 fisherman, had told him, accurately as it turned 

 out, that wherever they were found, it was sure 

 to be a good mark for haddocks. He described 

 the creature as a sea-pen, about the length and 

 thickness of the handle of an umbrella, and added 

 that his friend the schoolmaster had ingeniously 

 made picture frames with the white ivory-like 

 "bones" arranged in diminishing sizes. 



With regard to the sea-pen (Pennatula phos- 

 phorea), I can speak from considerable personal 

 experience. There are at least two of my speci- 

 mens one dried, the other in spirits exhibited 

 at the British Museum, and I brought them 

 another alive last November, which lived some 

 days, and excited much interest before he suc- 

 cumbed to change of scene and diet, and the 

 fatigues of the journey. One point, at least, he 

 settled before his decease. Dr. Johnstone, in 

 his " History of British Zoophytes," says in oppo- 

 sition to the opinion of former observers, that 

 he does not move. "When placed in a basin 

 or plate of sea-water, the pennatulae are never 

 observed to change their position." Certainly 

 this one moved freely in the tank, as did others 



