104 GLAUCUS ; OR, 



seems to have his antipathic animal ; and I know 

 one bred from his childhood to zoology by land 

 and sea, and bold in asserting, and honest in 

 feeling, that all without exception is beautiful, 

 who yet cannot, after handling and petting 

 and admiring all day long every uncouth and 

 venomous beast, avoid a paroxysm of horror at 

 the sight of the common house-spider. At all 

 events, whether we were intruding or not, in 

 turning this stone, we must pay a fine for having 

 done so; for there lies an animal as foul and 

 monstrous to the eye as " hydra, gorgon, or 

 chimtcra dire," and yet so wondrously fitted to 

 its work, that we must needs endure for our own 

 instruction to handle and to look at it. Its 

 name I know not, (though it lurks here under 

 every stone,) and should be glad to know. It 

 seems some very " low " Ascarid or Planarian 

 worm. You see it ? That black, shiny, knotted 

 lump among the gravel, small enough to be taken 

 up in a dessert-spoon. Look now, as it is raised 

 and its coils drawn out. Three feet — six — nine, 

 at least : with a capability of seemingly endless 

 expansion ; a slimy tape of living caoutchouc, 

 some eighth of an inch in diameter, a dark 

 chocolate-black, with paler longitudinal lines. 



