3 02 



We Go A-Sponging [FOURTH WEEK 



with motionless perianths, but with living animals, the 

 most exquisite that God has allowed to develop in our 

 sweet waters." At the slightest jar every animal-flower 

 vanishes instantly. 



A wonderful history is behind these little creatures and 

 very different from that of most members of the animal 



kingdom. While 

 crabs, butterflies, 

 and birds have 

 evolved through 

 many and varied an- 

 cestral forms, the 

 tiny Bryozoans, or, 

 being interpreted, 

 moss-animals, seem 

 throughout all past 

 ages to have found 

 a niche for them- 

 selves where strenu- 

 ous and active com- 

 petition is absent. Year after year, century upon 

 century, age upon age, they have lived and died, almost 

 unchanged down to the present day. When you look at 

 the tiny animal, troubling the water and drawing its 

 inconceivably small bits of food toward it upon the cur- 

 rent made by its tentacles, think of the earth changes 

 which it has survived. 



To the best of our knowledge the Age of Man is but a 

 paltry fifty thousand years. Behind this the Age of 

 Mammals may have numbered three millions; then back 



HYDKA 



