TUE WONDERS OF THE SHORE. 105 



Is it alive ? It hangs helpless and motionless, a 

 mere velvet string across the hand. Ask the 

 neighboring Annelids and the fry of the rock 

 fishes, or put it into a vase at home, and see. 

 It lies motionless, trailing itself among the 

 gravel ; you cannot tell where it begins or ends ; 

 it may be a dead strip of sea-weed, TlimanthaUa 

 lorea perhaps, or Chorda Jilum ; or even a tarred 

 string. So thinks the httle fish who plays over 

 and over it, till he touches at last what is too 

 surely a head. In an instant a bell-shaped 

 sucker mouth has fastened to his side. In an- 

 other instant, from one lip, a concave double 

 proboscis, just like a tapir's, (another instance of 

 the repetition of forms,) has clasped him like a 

 finger ; and now begins the struggle : but in 

 vain. He is being "played" with such a fi.shing- 

 line as the skill of a "NVil.son or a Stoddart never 

 could invent ; a living line, with elasticity beyond 

 that of the most delicate lly-rod, Avhich foUov.'s 

 every lunge, shortening and lengthening, slipping 

 an<l twining round every piece of gravel and 

 8tem of Bca-wccd, with a lirin" drajf such as no 

 Highland wri.^l or .step could ever bring to bear 

 on salmon or on trout. The victim is tired now ; 

 and slowly, and yet dexterously, Iiis blind as- 



