SEPTEMBER 245 



much reason, have been treated as foes of the human 

 race ; but they have increased in numbers in the Highlands 

 during the last few years, owing to the protection extended 

 to them in the deer forests. Nobody wishes to have them 

 back in quantity, but the presence of a pair or two of this 

 type of empire and freedom imparts dignity to a landscape, 

 and agreeably stirs the imagination. 



LVIII 



A few days ago (1904), when one brought me a fine 

 specimen, about four inches long, of that The sea- 

 strange creature, the sea-mouse, dredged from Mouse 

 the sandy bottom of Loch Ryan, I began to speculate 

 darkly upon the significance of the generic name Aphro- 

 dita bestowed by Lamarck upon this lowly invertebrate. 

 For it is no mouse, but a mere worm, of the class 

 Annelida; an animal which, being still in a primitive 

 stage of development, enjoys the enviable privilege of 

 being able to replace any organ, even a head, of which 

 it may be bereft by accident or assault. At first sight, 

 no living creature is less suggestive of the Goddess of 

 Love ; its general outline being that of a gigantic wood- 

 louse, and its structure but an oblong mass of integument 

 and viscera. Yet is there a kind of grotesque fitness, after 

 all, in the name Aphrodita, born of the sea-foam d<f>po<; 

 and if beauty of form be denied to this worm, there is 

 compensation in its extraordinary loveliness of colour. 

 The breathing apparatus, consisting of external branchice 

 like silky bristles, arranged all along the sides of the 

 animal, shine with a lustre as delicate as, and more 

 brilliant than, a pigeon's neck. 



