152 Secrets of the Ocean [FOURTH WEEK 



riums, and transplant as many animal-flowers as we wish. 

 Wherever we place them their fleshy, snail-like foot spreads 

 out, takes tight hold, and the creature lives content, patiently 

 waiting for the Providence of the sea to send food to its 

 many wide-spread fingers. 



Carpeted with pink algae and dainty sponges, draped 

 with sea-lettuce like green tissue paper, decorated with 

 strange corallines, these natural aquariums far surpass any 

 of artificial make. Although the tide drives us from them 

 sooner or later, we may return with the sure prospect of 

 finding them refreshed and perhaps replenished with many 

 new forms. For often some of the deep-water creatures 

 are held prisoners in the lower tide-pools, as the water 

 settles, somewhat as when the glaciers receded northward 

 after the Ice Age there were left on isolated mountain 

 peaks traces of the boreal fauna and flora. 



If we are interested enough to watch our anemones 

 we will find much entertainment. Let us return to our 

 shrimp colonies and bring a handful to our pool. Drop 

 one in the centre of an anemone and see how quickly it 

 contracts. The tentacles bend over it, exactly as the 

 sticky hairs of the sun-dew plant close over a fly. The 

 shrimp struggles for a moment and is then drawn down- 

 ward out of sight. The birth of an anemone is well worth 

 patient watching, and this may take place in several 

 different ways. We may see a large individual with a 

 number of tiny bunches on the sides of the body, and if 

 we keep this one in a tumbler, before long these pro- 

 tuberances will be seen to develop a few tentacles and at 

 last break off as perfect miniature anemones. Or again, 



