HALF AN HOUR WITH SPONGES. 51 



IY. 



HALF AN HOUR WITH SPONGES. 



How very few people have any idea of what a sponge 

 really is ! Their total knowledge of it is, that it is 

 something to wash with. Of its being an animal or 

 rather a colony of animals they can form no con- 

 ception. A live sponge is as different from the 

 dried,, spongy thing commonly called a sponge, as 

 any two objects could be. It is only within the last 

 few years that the animal nature of this organism 

 has been thoroughly proved, and even yet there are 

 not wanting people who regard sponges as something 

 half-way between animals and plants. All true 

 naturalists, however, are now convinced as to the 

 exact position which these objects ought to hold in 

 the animal kingdom. 



Allow us to introduce you to a real, live sponge, 

 such a one as you may dredge up from tolerably deep 

 water off our own coasts. Unfortunately British 

 sponges are neither common nor striking objects, 

 and few collectors would care to trouble themselves 

 much about them. But if you have a microscope, 

 and want objects for it, you cannot do better than 

 study our native sponges, and obtain the variously- 

 shaped spicules from them. Supposing you can get 

 living sponge, such as Chalina oculata, Fig. 25, what 



