78 ARTICULATED ANIMALS. 



as my firm opinion, that I speak within bounds when I say the 

 animal, when alive, might have been extended to four times the length 

 it presented when dead. It is, therefore, by no means improbable that 

 this most astonishing creature may have been susceptible of being 

 drawn out to the length of twelve fathoms, or, according to the 

 accounts of the fishermen, to thirty yards, or fifteen fathoms.'* 



" The ignorant spectator," says Sir John Dalyell, " might almost 

 suppose this animal to be only designed to be an inconvenience to 

 itself. Who can affirm that he has ever seen the long sea-worm 

 entire ? that he had before him this giant of the race, or who can 

 presume that those, apparently of the largest size, shall grow no 

 more? 



" Unwieldy and unmanageable as this creature seems, it attacks 

 and devours other worms of all sorts. Portions of mussel are always 

 acceptable, and are greedily swallowed by its capacious mouth. If 

 the valves of a mussel be sundered, the animal fastens upon one of 

 them, drags it away, and consumes the contents at leisure. When he 

 desires to shift his quarters, he stretches out his body like an 

 enormous snake ; the eye sees no contraction of muscles, no apparent 

 means of locomotion, but the microscope teaches us that the Nemertes 

 glides along by the help of the minute vibratory cilia, with which his 

 whole body is covered ; he hesitates, he tries, and at last finds a 

 stone to his taste, whereupon he slowly unrolls his length to convey 

 himself to his new resting-place ; and while his entangled folds are 

 unravelling themselves at one end, they are forming a new Gordian 

 knot at the other." 



CHAPTER IX. 



SECOND GRAND DIVISION OF THE ANIMAL 

 KINGDOM. 



ARTICULATED* ANIMALS. 



WE have now arrived at the second great division of 

 the animal creation, which includes a vast assemblage 

 of creatures adapted to exist under a far greater 

 diversity of circumstances than those we have as yet 

 had an opportunity of examining. The most obvious 

 character by which they are distinguished is met 

 with in their exterior conformation. They are com- 

 posed of a succession of rings, formed by the skin or 

 outward integument, which, from its hardness, con- 



* Articulatus, jointed. 



