OUT OF THE DEPTHS 127 



in Gray's catalogue of 1870 as Osteocella Cliftoni. 

 It is labelled as follows : " The backbone taken 

 out of the marine animal in bottle marked No. I. 

 I caught him swimming with great rapidity in 

 shallow water. G. Clifton." The catalogue pro- 

 ceeds (the bottle never reached the Museum) : 

 " It has much the appearance of being the 

 bone or axis of a pennatula, but they hardly swim 

 with great rapidity" I am glad to say that 

 the words in the Museum catalogue are marked 

 with an imperative d, which I suppose means 

 dele. Probably the corrector agrees with me 

 that it is better to accept the testimony of an 

 eye-witness in the first instance, making all 

 due allowance for inaccuracy or exaggeration, 

 having regard to the character, temperament, and 

 previous record of the observer himself. It is 

 hardly necessary to remind my readers of the 

 many instances in which travellers' tales, dis- 

 believed and discredited at home, have turned 

 out to be true, thus turning the tables upon 

 the uncivil and incredulous. I cannot, from 

 personal observation, throw any light upon 

 the question whether the sea-pen swims or 

 not ; but I think I can help to disprove its 

 alleged erect position in the mud. In the first 

 place, all the specimens I have yet obtained 

 have come, not from a soft muddy bottom, but 

 from a bank of hard sand, where they have 

 come up entangled in the long line set for 



