304 We Go A-S ponging [FOURTH WEEK 



grandeur of their unchanged lineage as by the appearance 

 of the little animals from within. What heraldry can 

 commemorate the beginning of their race over twenty 

 millions of years in the past! 



The student of mythology will feel at home when 

 identifying some of the commonest objects of the pond. 

 And most are well named, too, as for instance the Hydra, 

 a small tube-shaped creature with a row of active tentacles 

 at one end. Death seems far-from this organism, which 

 is closely related to the sea-anemones and corals, for 

 though a very brief drying will serve to kill it, yet it can 

 be sliced and cut as finely as possible and each bit, true 

 to its name, will at once proceed to grow a new head and 

 tentacles complete, becoming a perfect animal. 



Then we shall often come across a queer creature with 

 two oar-like feelers near the head and a double tail tipped 

 with long hairs, while in the centre of the head is a large, 

 shining eye, Cyclops he is rightly called. Although so 

 small that we can make out little of his structure without 

 the aid of the lens, yet Cyclops is far from being related 

 to the other still smaller beings which swim about him, 

 many of which consist of but one cell and are popularly 

 known as animalculse, more correctly as Protozoans. 

 Cyclops has a jointed body and in many other ways shows 

 his relationship to crabs and lobsters, even though they 

 are many times larger and live in salt water. 



Another member of this group is Daphnia, although 

 the appropriateness of this name yet remains to be dis- 

 covered; Daphnia being a chunky-bodied little being, with 

 a double-branched pair of oar-like appendages, with which 



