HALF AN HOUR WITH SEA-MATS AND SQUIRTS. 155 



mother, but her sister, her granddaughter, and her 

 grandmother !" The young of these animals form 

 long chains, many feet in length, which swim with 

 a rhythmical serpentine motion, and at night may 

 be traced by the phosphorescent light they give out. 

 The adult individuals seem to prefer a separate and 

 more or less solitary existence. Formerly, one stage 

 in the life-history of the salpa was believed to be a 

 distinct animal, just such a mistake as we have 

 seen to be caused by a similar alternation in the 

 corallines. Truly, the more we investigate the 

 natural history economy of the animal world, the 

 more profoundly ignorant do we feel ; and his must 

 be a strangely constituted mind that, in the presence 

 of such numerous and wondrous facts, does not feel 

 awe-inspired, as if in the very presence-chamber of 

 the Deity. 



